Leveling Up by Executing Monsters

Chapter 74: Chapter 74: Once It’s On, It’s On

DONG~ DONG~ DONG~ DONG~ DONG~

A series of notification sounds echoed through the air, as if he had just activated a cheat.

The ferocious, savage black dragon seemed to realize something, feeling a primal sense of fear.

The dragon immediately spewed a torrent of turquoise breath. It cascaded down like an endless waterfall, completely engulfing Lloyd. The very ground beneath him cracked open, spewing a geyser of lava.

The intense heat and flames from above and below instantly submerged Lloyd, enough to leave not even ash behind.

Yet, in the next second, Lloyd’s figure slowly emerged from within the turquoise dragon’s breath. Not only was he completely unscathed, but not even the corner of his clothing was singed.

The smile on his face grew even wider. Seizing the initiative, he closed in on the black dragon step by step and spoke in a cheerful tone:

"This is indeed a move I’m terrified of in my subconscious, but what’s the use? Don’t you know what it means to ’turn on the cheats’?"

"Hmm... you really don’t know, because you can’t read my primary consciousness and memories."

Lloyd continued, having already reached the black dragon’s feet. Facing its body, which was like a high wall, he slowly extended his right hand and, with a motion like knocking on a door, gently tapped one of the dragon’s scales.

This attack, which could hardly even be called a caress, made the dragon let out a final, deathly wail. Its massive body collapsed, instantly scattering into a large pile of materials like scales, wings, and carapaces. There were even a few eyeballs.

"Ugh... Did I set the drop rate a bit too high? Whatever, what’s done is done."

Lloyd snarked at himself, and then a series of strange, muffled sounds reached his ears.

BEEP~ BEEP~ BEEP~

A series of meaningless notification boxes then popped up before him, prompting him to click ’Confirm’.

"Why am I getting error messages? Does my subconscious think that cheating causes errors?"

Lloyd said, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, and waved his hand.

All the miscellaneous dragon materials, the meaningless notification boxes, and even the classic status panel from before all vanished without a trace.

In truth, none of these things were real. They were all conjured from his imagination based on past memories. Their appearance and disappearance were entirely dependent on his will.

This was his Thought Realm, an absolute domain where he controlled everything.

That was why even a High-ranking Powerhouse on the Butler’s level wouldn’t dare to rashly invade another’s mind.

But this kind of Demon dared to...

The emaciated man with the knife and gun from before, and that enormous black dragon, were both bosses Lloyd had encountered in video games on Earth. They had left a deep impression of being ’invincible’ in his subconscious.

The Thought Demon had peeked into his subconscious and transformed into those game bosses, wanting to ramp up the difficulty for Lloyd.

On his own, Lloyd truly couldn’t defeat such terrifying, unforgettable bosses.

But it didn’t matter if he couldn’t win on his own. As long as the cheat engine could.

It was a single-player game, anyway. If you turn on cheats, you turn on cheats!

In the end, the Thought Demon was just a Demon, and its intelligence probably wasn’t high. It couldn’t comprehend human deviousness, let alone understand the meaning of ’games’ and ’cheating’. And yet, it still tried to attack Lloyd.

The outcome, naturally, was that it was killed in a single blow and turned into a huge pile of materials from Lloyd’s memory.

’Phew~ Even though the win seemed easy, it was actually really dangerous before. This Thought Demon really deserves its danger rating of 7. If I hadn’t learned a lesson in the Butler’s "Story" a while back and activated the panel in time, I would have been in deep trouble this time...’

Lloyd let out a long sigh of relief and wiped away the non-existent cold sweat from his forehead.

This Demon had behaved like a clown in front of him, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t powerful. On the contrary, for a normal Extraordinary Being, this thing was an absolutely dangerous and terrifying existence, almost impossible to defeat.

While invading someone’s Thought Realm, it would release potent Spiritual Contamination, rapidly tainting the human subconscious at an absurd rate of +100 per second.

This was equivalent to releasing Spiritual Contamination in the deepest part of a person’s brain, making it nearly impossible to dispel or resist.

Humans can control their conscious thoughts at will, but without specialized training, it’s difficult to control one’s subconscious. It’s hard to resist such an invasion. Before long, one would descend into madness, their body possessed and completely controlled by this Demon.

Even if someone’s Rationality was high enough, their willpower sufficiently firm, and they had received specialized training to control their subconscious, they could only barely resist. It would only be a matter of holding on a little longer. In the end, they still couldn’t escape the fate of being completely contaminated.

What’s more, this Demon could also spy on the objects of fear within a person’s subconscious, transforming into the terrifying enemies from their memories to further weaken the target’s will and resistance, accelerating the contamination process.

This meant that once invaded, one had to resist the Spiritual Contamination and the ensuing madness while also fighting their own Heart Demon. It was a nearly impossible task.

However, the most dangerous aspect of the Thought Demon wasn’t any of the above, but its insidious and unavoidable method of invasion.

It could directly invade by following the inspiration a human used when casting their Extraordinary Abilities. That was exactly how Lloyd got caught.

It could also keenly sense human curiosity and fear towards it, silently approaching these people through some unknowable means.

This was why textbooks only had a few words to say about this type of Demon, and also gave a special warning:

"Never imagine its form. Never seek its secrets."

The Thought Demon was less a Demon and more like a plague or a Curse specifically targeting humans, so dangerous it defied all reason.

’It just so happened to run into me this time, someone who treats Madness Value as experience points... But even I had to rely on my own courage, perseverance, determination, tenacity, and imagination, plus a little help from the panel, to defeat it.’

’I really don’t know how anyone else is supposed to deal with something so broken.’

Lloyd muttered, making his final summary.

It was all thanks to the practical combat experience he had gained from the Butler’s "Story" before. It allowed him to quickly call for the panel in his mind the moment he realized something was wrong.

Once the panel was successfully activated, the Spiritual Contamination released by the Thought Demon was no longer a threat, but instead became experience points.

At the same time, it allowed him to snap out of it, realize that the Thought Realm was his own absolute home turf where he was omnipotent, and complete the counter-kill.

In Lloyd’s eyes, that was more or less the long and short of the encounter.

Of course, there were still many suspicious points that he hadn’t figured out.

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