Jealousy Distorts One's Features. Look, Even Your Countenance Has Changed

Zhang Anzai and the players from the Official Division on the live link had been in a state of high tension due to the unusual situation.

In reality, however, less than a minute had passed since Mr. Li limped into the room and donned his Wolf-Head Mask to confront him.

This guy was truly composed; it was mostly because he had been severely injured earlier and needed time to recover. During this brief standoff, the flesh of his wounds, stimulated by his activation ability, had already largely healed.

Even the bruising around his leg wound had dissipated significantly due to the activation.

"I really underestimated you. It seems you must have a high-level talent for mental reinforcement," Mr. Li finally realized, speaking while gasping for air.

All of Zhang Anzai's abnormal maneuvers and abilities to date were secondary; his primary advantage was his steady mindset.

Although this was only his third time on the front lines, his experience in instances far exceeded that of an average newcomer. His first two instances had been overly inhumane, so even facing one of the Ten Evils, he could remain calm.

"It's because of this that you must have a decent Administrator..." Mr. Li said, gripping the machete and pointed knife in his hands tightly.

"I fucking hate people like you!"

Zhang Anzai took a deep breath and held it. Simultaneously, from his main body, shout after shout came through: "Left shoulder! Right leg!..."

Zhang Anzai turned decisively, putting force into his legs, and slammed his back against the heavy iron anatomy table.

"Ga..." The neural connection of the Wolf-Head Mask seemed to have slightly altered his physical attributes, much like how the Burn Mask changed Mr. Li's posture; his own physical stats seemed to have been enhanced as well.

Because of this, even though the anatomy table was incredibly heavy, he managed to push it aside along with the corpse on top, clearing space for himself.

Behind him, on a shelf without a glass partition:

A white-skinned Freak Mask with yellow, deformed teeth, an Old Man Mask covered in matted hair and blood, and a Stitched Mask sewn together from the skin of several different people.

All of them, still attached to the plastic mannequin heads they covered, lunged off the shelf, opening their wide mouths to bite at him.

"Ah!!"

Because they still retained much of their internal structure, these masks were even capable of emitting screams.

Zhang Anzai had anticipated such a move, but his heart still skipped a beat. He scanned them quickly; each one was a very fresh mask. Presumably, it was because their vitality was still high that they could be remotely controlled to launch an attack.

Fortunately, the prompts from his main body continued to reach his ears.

"Upper right! Left leg forward..." Listening to these prompts, Zhang Anzai decisively swung his Bronze Sword and Meat-Sawing Blade.

"Bang! Pfft!" The bald mask with the freakish teeth was struck head-on by the Bronze Sword, sent flying back to smash against the wall before rolling onto the floor.

The Stitched Mask near his leg was in worse shape; it was struck squarely by the Meat-Sawing Blade, which carved a large gash through the skin and the mannequin head beneath, becoming embedded in the blade.

It sounded troublesome, but three heads had rolled off the shelf at once. Although he could use the prompts from the Official Division to strike down the first two, there was still one left behind him.

To his surprise, before he could even retract his hands, his own head moved on its own.

"Roar..." A low growl emanated from his throat.

This last head was the blood-stained Old Man Mask with messy hair, looking as if it had been severed from the neck of some vicious serial killer.

Yet, facing this terrifying mask, Zhang Anzai found himself growling back involuntarily, his wolf-like jaws snapping open.

"Fuck!" Zhang Anzai cursed under his breath, realizing his primary instinct.

Under the influence of the mask, he actually wanted to bite down on the top of that head and rip the skull right off.

"Click!" His long, wolf-like mask jaws snapped shut. But, influenced by his own consciousness, he ultimately refrained from biting into the flesh, instead clamping onto the hair and violently flinging the head away.

"Hoo..." Zhang Anzai let out a long breath and shook his hands.

"Clatter..." The Stitched Mask head, still stuck to the Meat-Sawing Blade, rolled onto the ground.

At this juncture, Zhang Anzai turned his head, looking with those chilling wolf eyes at Mr. Li, who had taken the opportunity to close the distance.

"Snap!" Mr. Li caught the Old Man Mask that Zhang Anzai had flung. Clearly, even though the impact left his hands numb, he would never shy away from his own creations.

Instead, he held the mask in his hands, using the hand that gripped his tools, and lowered his head to admire it for a moment.

"A magnificent performance..." Standing beside the displaced anatomy table, he scrutinized his masterpiece before grabbing the mask by its messy hair and turning the face back toward Zhang Anzai.

"Do you know the origin of this mask?" On his face, the large, shriveled mouth of the Burn Mask stretched into a wide grin.

"This old man was a former senior researcher—meticulous, naturally gifted. Content that would take an ordinary person like me endless drilling to master, he could grasp with a single glance...

Although he had no particular pursuits in life, he was always surrounded by people fawning over him, never wanting for anything... Just like you people, he was a genius, the kind I hate the most!"

Zhang Anzai stood in place, gasping for air, watching Mr. Li's performance. The expression on the man's face shifted from a proud, sinister grin to one of jealous rage.

To be honest, it didn't hold much intimidation for him.

Instead, it pulled Zhang Anzai, who had entered a somewhat irrational emotional state due to the intense combat, right back to reality.

"Am I a genius? I think I'm just average..." Zhang Anzai's main body, which he hadn't been paying much attention to, couldn't help but twitch at the corner of its mouth.

This guy doesn't have it easy either. Jealousy makes people unrecognizable; look at him, he's so angry his features have distorted...

Zhang Anzai understood, and the Official Division members watching from the sidelines understood as well.

Listening to every word, it wasn't hard to tell that this Bi Gan likely had no special talents and was the type of person who entered the game without any high-level abilities.

Presumably, he couldn't meet the game's harsh requirements, and in reality, he was quite mediocre, never having received much recognition.

Because of this, his self-esteem was fragile. Yet, lacking the ability to back it up, he was likely ignored or even disregarded by his Administrator.

Judging by his words, he had probably been subjected to "PUA" by Administrators who compared him to other players with higher talents.

With all that back and forth, a bad mindset would inevitably lead to a twisted personality.

His motivation was truly similar to the original instance boss; the former was insecure about his appearance, while this one was insecure about his abilities. He simply loved the feeling of having those who looked down on him groveling under his blade.