Chapter 81: Eye of Truth

The moment the flashlight beam hit that woman, Rover jolted, immediately springing off the bed and stumbling back two steps.

Within the circle of light, her body turned into countless writhing tentacles, as if her entire form was a mass made of endless tendrils. Along those tendrils were gaping mouths, exposing rows of tiny teeth like an octopus’s suckered maw.

At the edge of the beam, the real and the false overlapped, forming a hazy, double-image effect, as if two pictures were stacked on top of each other. Outside the flashlight’s glow, her body still looked exactly like the woman Rover had seen before.

He sucked in a deep breath, his vision overwhelmed by how violently unsettling it was. At this point, even if he didn’t want to leave the room, he had to, because he sure as hell didn’t want to share a room with something that horrifying.

Now all his superpowers were gone. Only [Intuition] and his Class still worked. So he had no intention of gambling his life in a fight.

Rover gripped the flashlight and stepped out into the hallway, his eyes still locked on the woman. The instant he crossed the threshold, the room door suddenly slammed shut.

BANG!!!

The screech of metal colliding rang out painfully sharp. With the door between them, he could no longer see inside.

The corridor was silent. Dark. So dark that if he turned off the flashlight, even if he held his hand right in front of his face, he wouldn’t be able to see it.

Rover took a deep breath and hurried to the other three rooms. Leng Yan, Nanoe, and Morie might be in danger, and he wanted to find them first.

But when he swept the flashlight around, he discovered the other three doors were completely sealed by countless black vines.

Rover frowned and touched them. They felt like hardened lava. He yanked hard, but couldn’t pull them free, as if they had fused into the doors themselves.

He tried searching for some gap to peek inside, but the doors were nearly flawless, with no cracks at all.

“What the hell is this? Don’t tell me… I’ve been dragged into a different dimension?” Rover muttered.

Something like this wasn’t unheard of, especially back when he faced the Thousand-Faced Wraith. He’d been dragged into an illusion then, and only managed to break out thanks to multiple factors.

But this didn’t feel like an illusion. And besides, his [Intuition] and Class were still working normally.

Rover suddenly remembered something and pulled out two keys from his pocket. One was his room key, and the other was the key he’d taken from the metal box beneath the map.

But now, a mark shaped like a pair of wings had appeared on his room key, while the other key had a circular symbol on it.

“That’s weird… did their functions change?” Rover muttered.

He moved the flashlight around again, and suddenly realized that even his own room door had been wrapped up in those stone-like roots at some point without him noticing.

Rover let out a long sigh and murmured, “Looks like… I can’t go back. I can only find a way to clear this mission.”

He forced himself to recall the hints from the [Survival Guide], then walked to the iron door that led back toward the main hall.

The iron door in front of him was rusted. The lock was damaged. A strand of barbed wire was coiled around the frame, smeared with dried blood.

Rover frowned. Even without his superpowers, his attribute stats were still there, meaning he could kick this door open with brute strength.

But if he did that, he’d cause trouble. If the noise was too loud, it could draw in some freakish existence like that woman. Wouldn’t that just be asking to die?

But if he didn’t open it, where else could he go?

“Hm?!” While Rover was thinking, he suddenly noticed an info panel floating beside the door.

[Damaged Iron Door]

[Description: The iron door has been heavily damaged and cannot be opened. Repair it first before it can be used normally.]

[Requirement: 5 Omni Points]

Rover frowned at the panel. Right now he had 700 Omni Points. If he wasn’t mistaken, then…

Even though he had a suspicion, he still wasn’t fully sure. He needed to test it.

“System! Repair the door!”

[Ding! You have successfully paid 5 Omni Points. Remaining: 695.]

At that moment, the barbed wire on the door turned to ash and vanished. The door lock also rapidly returned to its original shape. Of course, the System only repaired the lock and cleared the barbed wire, nothing more, but that was already more than enough.

He tried the key with the wing symbol, but it wouldn’t fit the lock. Then he switched to the key with the circular symbol.

Crack!

The sound of the bolt releasing rang out. But Rover didn’t push the door open right away. Instead, he glanced at the flashlight in his hand, and a thought surfaced in his mind, one that felt like it might let him clear this mission the easy way.

“System, upgrade the flashlight!”

[Ding! Do you want to pay 200 Omni Points to upgrade the flashlight?]

“Accept!”

[Ding! You have 500 Omni Points remaining.]

[Truth Flashlight]

[Type: Item]

[Grade: Mid-grade]

[Description: A flashlight used for illumination, with a maximum range of 10 meters. It can repel abnormal entities and deal damage to them. The higher your [Spirit] attribute, the stronger the damage.]

[Upgrade requirement: 500 Omni Points]

Seeing the description, Rover’s confidence surged. Even though he truly only had 500 Omni Points left, he felt that spending all of it to upgrade this flashlight was not the wrong choice.

“System! Continue upgrading the flashlight.”

[Ding! Successfully paid 500 Omni Points. Your current Omni Points: 0.]

At that moment, the flashlight in Rover’s hand transformed into an eye carved from a red diamond, about the size of a tennis ball, floating beside him.

[Eye of Truth]

[Type: Item]

[Grade: High-grade]

[Description: Can create a light zone around the user with a radius of about 10 meters, up to a maximum of 25 meters. The Eye of Truth can make bizarre entities fear you and not dare approach.

In addition, it has an auto-targeting function that can eliminate targets. The higher your [Spirit] attribute, the stronger the damage.]

[Upgrade requirement: 2,500 Omni Points]

Rover glanced at the eye floating beside his head, then at the info panel still displayed.

Even though he had burned through every last Omni Point, he didn’t feel worried at all. The prerequisite here was safety, and with the [Eye of Truth], he felt that problem was basically solved.

Rover pushed the door open…

KRIT!!!

The shriek of scraping iron tore through the silence, as if ripping the quiet space apart.

The main hall was pitch-black. Fortunately, with the [Eye of Truth], the area around Rover was lit clearly.

A 10-meter diameter wasn’t small at all. It covered a fairly wide area. With his reflexes, as long as anything strange appeared near the edge of the lit zone, he could react in time.

A maximum range of 25 meters would be even better, but Rover realized that at that distance, the light became very dim, only about one-third as bright as it was now.

So he felt that a 10-meter diameter was more than enough.

Rover moved through the hall step by step, slow and cautious. When he first came here, he had seen a computer at the reception desk in the middle of the lobby. If he could Repair it, maybe he would gain something.

“Kekekeke…”

Suddenly, that eerie laughter he had heard before rang out again.

The sound echoed throughout the hall, so Rover couldn’t tell where it was coming from.

He stopped, frowning as he scanned the area, his [Intuition] constantly active.

At that moment, on the edge of the zone illuminated by the [Eye of Truth], a gaunt figure over two meters tall appeared, its body wrapped in countless blood-veins like tree roots.

That humanoid horror had only one arm, but the arm was abnormally long and thick. Its “hand” was a circular saw spinning at a terrifying speed, producing a shrill, tearing whistle.

But that saw blade wasn’t made of metal. It looked more like it was carved from the bones of some bizarre creature.

“Keke… Kekeke…” The strange laughter sounded again.

The terrifying creature took lurching steps toward Rover. Rover didn’t stand still; he backed away. It advanced, and he retreated.

’What the hell? Didn’t the description say the [Eye of Truth] could repel and eliminate bizarre entities?’ Rover thought. ’Tch. If it won’t auto-trigger, then I’ll control it myself.’

He tried to command it with his mind, but right then, a system notification appeared in front of him.

[Ding! No bizarre entity detected within the illuminated area.]

Rover glanced at the horrifying creature. It really was standing right at the edge of the light zone, not stepping into the area lit by the [Eye of Truth].

He frowned, and immediately expanded the illuminated area to 12 meters.

WHOONG!!!

“Agh!” Before Rover could even get a clear look at what that creature truly was, a powerful beam of light shot from the [Eye of Truth], instantly burning the bizarre entity to ash in a single second.

[Ding! Congratulations, you have successfully eliminated an ’Elite’ bizarre entity and obtained 100 Omni Points.]

Rover: “…”

“This…” He stared, mouth agape, at the bizarre entity reduced to ash in one second. Then he looked back at the [Eye of Truth] and muttered, “Can I… can I take this with me after the mission is over?”

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