The Dog Is Toxic (Three Updates)

The situation reversed in an instant.

Xiao Xiao had been driven nearly mad by the other party's ability to lie in ambush. Now that he had finally solved the problem of their sneak attacks, he had never expected that forcing the other person to reveal himself would instead put him at a disadvantage.

As he was driven into peril by that bizarre power, he had also realized where the problem lay.

During the early stages of enhancement along each route, the elements were not completely fixed.

Take himself, for example. He currently possessed both Violence Factor and Extreme Sensitivity enhancements. The person before him was the same.

Not only had he undergone the complete second enhancement along the Hunter route, he had also used one unit of second-stage Violence Factor enhancement on himself.

Normally, three units of advanced Violence Factor were required to complete the Veteran-stage Strong Soul route.

Clearly, he did not have that much. He had used only one unit, giving him just one-third the strength of a true Strong Soul.

Even so, he was still far stronger than himself at the initial stage...

He was still only a rookie.

Xiao Xiao had no idea what kind of power a complete Strong Soul possessed.

But the man before him had clearly taken a knife to the stomach, yet his berserk state seemed completely unaffected.

His strength had surged, and he charged at Xiao Xiao like a maddened beast.

"If I'd known I could just beat you to death like this, why would I have gone to all that trouble?"

Red Eyes' eyes grew increasingly blood-red, as though blood were about to seep from them. His enhanced body had even torn his clothes apart.

His voice hoarse, he roared furiously and charged toward Xiao Xiao with heavy strides.

His footsteps were so heavy that each stomp cracked the floor in a web of fractures.

Compared to him, the slender Xiao Xiao was now practically a trembling lamb.

At some point, the song playing through the speaker on the office computer had switched.

A sultry male voice sang with obvious gloating:

"Oh, I say, fate..."

"..."

"Whose side are you on, anyway..."

Xiao Xiao cursed furiously, but his expression remained taut.

Watching Red Eyes charge at him like a humanoid monster, he sprang off with both feet. Using the force of stepping on the cabinet, he barely dodged the punch Red Eyes casually swung at him.

"Bang!"

The cabinet beside him was smashed to pieces by the punch.

Countless documents, coins, and even something like a black thong flew out of it...

In Xiao Xiao's vision, these things danced through the air like fireworks in slow motion, somehow beautiful.

His eyes even followed them involuntarily as he wondered, Why would there be something like that in the cabinet?

But immediately afterward, he came to his senses. Why am I thinking about this?

I'm about to be beaten to death...

"..."

Red Eyes had gone mad.

He had completely abandoned the Hunter route's abilities and was attacking Xiao Xiao with the power of a mid-stage Violence Factor enhanced to one-third strength.

Yet this unreasonable, overpowering assault was precisely what Xiao Xiao could not withstand right now.

No matter how explosive his thoughts became, they could not let him solve a math problem he did not know how to do.

No matter how sharp his senses were, they could not let him withstand a train charging straight at him.

If he let Red Eyes continue charging at him like this, the result would certainly be his body being beaten into a pool of flesh.

Thus, as Xiao Xiao rapidly thought, he saw the mad Red Eyes smash the cabinet, leap high into the air, spin around, and come crashing down at him. His thick, twisted arms looked as if they had been made from tangled steel bars...

...The power was terrifying.

...But at this moment, Red Eyes also seemed to have gotten carried away. His eyes were fixed solely on Xiao Xiao, and he had completely lost his earlier vigilance?

Xiao Xiao suddenly realized that the moment had arrived.

He took a deep breath and shouted impatiently in his heart, "Summon—Pain Hound!"

The time had come.

Xiao Xiao now possessed initial-stage enhancements of Violence Factor and Extreme Sensitivity, along with the help of Old Gramophone.

But the most powerful thing he had was still Pain Hound.

From the moment he encountered his coworkers' mutations at the docks, he had already felt the urge to summon Pain Hound into battle.

But he had held back.

Because by then, he had realized that all the worsening incidents he had encountered were being influenced by someone in the shadows.

Finding that person and dealing with them was the key to solving everything.

But he was a rookie, with far too few trump cards. Even if he found the other party, he still had to consider whether he was actually their match.

Preserving some trump cards in advance was the most important thing.

He was not sure whether the other party knew that he had three Pain Hounds to help him, but most likely they did not. Faced with that strange ability, summoning three Pain Hounds might simply get them shot dead by the other person. It was better to save them for a crucial moment.

Either he would strike in one blow, or he would endure patiently.

"Woof, woof..."

Red Eyes, who had swung his fist and was fiercely smashing it down at Xiao Xiao, seemed to be enjoying the rare pleasure of a head-on confrontation and bullying the weak.

For someone on the Hunter route, this was an exceptionally rare experience.

At last, he no longer had to skulk in the shadows and search for an opportunity. He had leaped out and could now beat his opponent to death face-to-face.

He was so excited that his entire body trembled. Even if Yang Jia found out afterward that he had done it, it would still be worth it.

How many chances like this could he get?

After all, venting his brutality by beating up the natives had long since lost its appeal.

Only slaughter between otherworlders could give him that intense, genuine stimulation.

"Whoosh..."

As he smashed his fist toward Xiao Xiao, who seemed to have forgotten to dodge, an immense sense of happiness welled up inside him.

But suddenly, a vicious bark sounded from behind him.

His heart jolted. He shifted his body slightly and saw that a tall, vicious hound had appeared beside him at some point. Completely naked, its entire body covered in twisted, bulging veins, the terrifying beast pounced onto him like lightning, its fangs snapping together.

He hastily raised an arm to block, but the vicious hound immediately bit down on it. The pain made his body tremble slightly.

But the pain was not limited to his body.

The instant he was bitten, some unpleasant memories inexplicably surfaced in his mind, throwing his thoughts into confusion.

There was the pathetic sight of him collapsing in fear when he first awoke and encountered an Aberrant Creature. There was the sleepless night after he first learned that the city he lived in was actually a living creature. And there was the embarrassment of being rejected the 132nd time he confessed to the girl he liked...

"Whine..."

The chaotic memories made his will and bodily movements freeze slightly.

Before he could react, another pain struck his right leg.

Another hound-shaped monster with dark-red eyes had bitten down viciously.

This monster was clearly different from the first. It was especially devious; before he even noticed it, it had already sunk its teeth into him.

"Awooo..."

The two sudden attacks made it difficult for Red Eyes' thoughts to take shape.

He almost forgot what kind of environment he was in, and even forgot his purpose. Only his body continued to struggle wildly on instinct.

Then, unexpectedly, he heard another shrill wolf howl.

He struggled to break free from the influence of the painful memories and opened his eyes, only to see a goofy-looking head charging straight toward him.

It was heading for his crotch...

"Ahhhhhhh..."

The agonized scream was so painful that even Xiao Xiao could not help covering his ears.

A thousand-point Veteran was truly terrifying. Even his screams were this loud...

He forcefully shook his arms, which had nearly been broken by that punch, then leaped up and gripped the fruit knife in his hand.

Red Eyes was still struggling violently, his body flinging the three dogs around like sacks.

But the three Pain Hounds were exceptionally ferocious as well. Once they bit down, they refused to let go.

Most importantly: the dogs were toxic.

They had bitten Red Eyes, and Pain Substance had already seeped into his body.

At this moment, Red Eyes' thoughts were in extreme chaos, his brain shredded apart by painful memories.

Just as Xiao Xiao had nearly crouched down when he was affected, powerless to resist, Red Eyes' struggles were also growing weaker and weaker.

In the end, his body seemed to lose all its strength. A feeling of helplessness filled him, while an intangible sense of frustration enveloped his entire body.

No matter how powerful the physique, when thought could no longer take shape, it was no more than a puppet.

"Shhk..."

Xiao Xiao did not waste even a second. He gripped the dagger tightly and walked toward Red Eyes.

This time, his movements slowed instead, because he needed to observe.

What if this thousand-point Veteran still had some trump card and was waiting for Xiao Xiao to approach before suddenly launching a counterattack?

That made his advance slow, even graceful.

As he walked toward Red Eyes, he noticed a scattering of thumbtacks on the floor. He twisted his body slightly and went around them.

Seeing that Red Eyes really seemed to have been subdued by the three Pain Hounds, Xiao Xiao could not help feeling pleasantly surprised.

The music from the speaker beside them suddenly grew louder. "Beng, shakaraka..."

"Don't, don't kill me..."

When Xiao Xiao reached Red Eyes, Red Eyes struggled to raise his head. He saw the expressionless man before him, the blood-covered fruit knife in his hand, and the half of his body soaked in blood...

...There was even an excited smile on Xiao Xiao's face, the delighted look of someone who had found his prey!

Invisible fear instantly enveloped Red Eyes' entire body. Even the faint resistance his instincts had gathered was crushed in an instant...

Although his thoughts were repeatedly sliced apart by sharp blades, making it difficult to concentrate, he still shouted with all his strength:

"We're the same! We're all otherworlders trapped in this world..."

"You... let me go..."

"..."

"Otherworlders..."

Xiao Xiao, now standing before him, fell silent for a moment before saying quietly, "But you wanted to kill me just now, didn't you?"

"I..."

Red Eyes still wanted to speak, but Xiao Xiao had already tightened his grip on the fruit knife and plunged it viciously into his chest.

Killing an otherworlder like himself did require a great deal of psychological burden.

But Xiao Xiao had already prepared himself mentally... Was one second not enough?

The stab was ruthless and deep enough, but when he pulled out the fruit knife, he unexpectedly found that very little blood flowed from Red Eyes' wound. The separated flesh even wriggled slowly, as if trying to heal.

"Is this the advantage brought by second-stage Violence Factor enhancement?"

Xiao Xiao thought in shock. "Even the wound heals faster than an ordinary person's?"

Realizing that Red Eyes possessed terrifying regenerative abilities, Xiao Xiao no longer dared to hold back.

He immediately stabbed him again and again.

Every stab was deliberate.

"Little Four, are you there yet? Answer me!"

But Xiao Xiao was focused entirely on killing Red Eyes and failed to notice that outside the window, Little Four was hanging upside down from it, his face pale as if he had seen a ghost.

Yang Jia and Ruan Ruan kept urging him through the earpiece. Only after a long while did he swallow and say, "I'm here. I arrived half a minute ago..."

Yang Jia's voice was clearly anxious. "How is he? How is he now?"

"He..."

The moment Xiao Xiao was mentioned, Little Four grew even more nervous. His voice dry, he said, "He's doing pretty well..."

"When I got here, I saw him listening to dance music and dancing, while stabbing Red Eyes Club's Ghost Man again and again..."

"He's flaying him alive!"

We've got an extra update today, so I'm shamelessly asking for votes!