Online Game: My 10,000x Intelligence Buff Awakens

After hearing Ethan's words, Jake clearly froze for a moment. The twisted face on his left chest kept talking, trying to trick him:

"He's lying to you! He's the same as the people who took away Molly. They all want to kill Molly!"

"Don't believe him! Kill him!"

"Kill him!"

Jake shook his head, and his eyes started to look unsure. His mind was being affected.

Then Molly cried out: "Dad!"

Hearing his daughter's voice, the hesitation on Jake's face disappeared instantly. He nodded at Ethan and, without any doubt, rushed toward the guards.

The guards probably didn't have any supernatural power. Their reaction speed was just a little faster than a human's.

Against the monster-like Jake, they had no chance to fight back at all.

One by one, the guards were bitten and their necks were broken by Jake. One man panicked and pulled out a black syringe, trying to stick it into his own neck—but then he stopped.

But soon, a voice rang out and made the man stop hesitating.

[Iron Controller] shouted to the remaining guards: "Give everything for the great cause. It is your honor!"

"Death is not the end. We will surely receive the favor of the gods!"

The guard repeated automatically: "Death is not the end. We will surely receive the favor of the gods!"

Ethan noticed what he was doing and shouted: "Stop him!"

But it was too late. The guard quickly stuck the black syringe into his neck.

In an instant, black liquid started pouring out of his body through his pores.

Jake clenched his fists and hit the man hard, sending him flying through the air.

But soon, the guard stood up again, moving awkwardly. His muscles twisted strangely, and his eyes turned black. He crawled on the ground like some kind of strange monster, moving quickly.

The other guards saw this and no longer hesitated. They all pulled out the same black syringe.

In just a few breaths, Jake was surrounded by five or six guards.

And that wasn't all. [Space Wolf] even told [Iron Controller] to stop helping him, and instead flew straight toward Ethan's group.

It looked like they were going all in, trying to kill Molly and push the experiment, Jake, to his limit.

Dozens of thick steel bars were pulled out from the concrete pillars and shot toward Ethan, Molly, Lucas, and Emma at high speed.

[Iron Controller] was trying to kill them all at once!

Ethan knew he had no time to run. The flying steel bars were too many, covering the whole area.

He had no choice but to fight back with everything he had.

Ethan let go of Molly and held his knife tightly in both hands. He stared straight at the steel bars, which were like arrows flying toward him.

At that moment, he wasn't scared, and he wasn't nervous. There was only one thought in his mind:

" If I survive this time, I really, really need to find all kinds of ways to improve my strength in real life!"

Just as the steel bars were about to reach Ethan, a clear and sharp sound suddenly rang out.

"Ding!" "Ding!" ...

An ordinary-looking business card suddenly stopped all the attacks perfectly!

[Grinning Ghost] Skyler appeared a little behind Ethan, smiling happily and saying: "Hey, man, I feel like I've seen you somewhere before. Have we met before?"

Ethan glanced at [Grinning Ghost]. He wasn't sure if [Grinning Ghost] had recognized him with his scary sixth sense.

[Grinning Ghost] was about to say more, but before he could even open his mouth, he suddenly bent down instinctively.

Behind him, a steel bar floated up and flew past his head by just a few centimeters.

[Grinning Ghost]'s smile got even bigger. He turned his attention from Ethan to [Iron Controller], and said with a grin:

"Wow, you're really sneaky. You actually tried to attack me!"

"You're done for!"

At that moment, Skyler was exactly like [Grinning Ghost] from Dawnfall Online. His smile never left his face.

But Ethan could still see through the smile and notice the calm and sharp eyes behind it.

Suddenly, [Grinning Ghost] left the ground and moved extremely fast toward [Iron Controller].

Ethan and the others were safe for now. Under Ethan's lead, they started running in another direction.

But just a few steps after they started running, Ethan heard something strange behind him.

Without thinking, he quickly put the back of his long knife behind him.

"Boom!"

A huge force hit Ethan's body and sent him flying backward.

It was a guard who had been injected with the black medicine. He was lying on the ground with his limbs twisted, making a growling sound like an animal.

Ethan had heard the sound of it crawling just a moment ago, and he had managed to defend himself in time. Otherwise, he would have been seriously hurt right now.

Meanwhile, the experiment, Jake, was being held back by other guards. After taking the black medicine, those guys had become much stronger. They were no longer human.

Wait... not human?

Ethan's eyes lit up.

If these guards had turned into monsters, then after Ethan killed one of them, would it trigger the [Ten-Thousandfold Intelligence Reward]?

Ethan took a deep breath. He knew that if he didn't deal with this guard chasing him, there was no way he could leave safely.

Behind him, Lucas was breathing heavily, his face full of fear as he watched the guard. He looked at his sister Emma, then at Ethan, and said with gritted teeth:

"Bro, take my sister and go. I'll stay and hold this monster back!"

Emma's face instantly changed. She was about to say something, but then she heard Ethan's voice slowly speaking.

Ethan used his long knife to pierce his left hand, then gently twisted it. He said slowly:

"You staying here won't stop this monster."

Lucas didn't understand why Ethan was hurting himself, but when he saw Ethan preparing to fight, he quickly said:

"Bro, you can't beat this thing. You... "

He didn't finish his sentence. Before he could, Ethan suddenly pushed off with both legs and ran straight toward the monster.

If he missed this chance to kill the monster, he didn't know how long it would take to find another one like this.

He had to take the risk.

If he just ran away, the monster would still catch up. The end result would be the same.

It's better to take the initiative while my body is still in good shape!

The ability [Pain Resistance] kicked in. Ethan felt his strength become even stronger, and his speed increased.

Ethan's long knife swung straight toward the monster's head with perfect accuracy!

The monster guard instinctively raised one arm to block the attack.

But Ethan had already prepared for this. He knew that if he hit the monster's arm with his blade, he wouldn't be able to kill it, and he would probably get hit by its counterattack.

When there's a big difference in power, you have to find every way possible to use your strongest attack on the enemy's weakness.

What's the monster's weakness?

They were humans just a short while ago. Even though they had taken some black medicine and their looks had changed, their body structure should still be similar to humans.

Ethan suddenly twisted his hands, and the back of the knife hit the monster's raised arm.

He leaned forward, pushed off the ground with his legs, and in a flash, he was in the air, upside down above the monster.

Without hesitation, Ethan used all his strength to drive the long knife straight into the monster's chest.

The monster immediately started struggling wildly. It tried to fight back, but with its heart pierced, it was pinned to the ground.

Soon, the monster stopped moving and stopped breathing.

Ethan let out a soft breath. He had used the blade's back to hit the monster's arm on purpose, to avoid the blade getting stuck in its flesh and bones.

His real target from the start was the monster's heart!

At the exact moment the monster died, a strange feeling suddenly filled Ethan's heart. It felt like some unknown energy had appeared inside him, moving around slowly.

At the same time, Ethan's vision started to get blurry, and everything around him began to flicker.

It was like an old TV with a bad signal—everything on the screen started to shake and wave.

Ethan suddenly remembered when he first entered Dawnfall Online. He had checked his wrist device to look at his character stats, and something similar had happened back then.

At that time, his ability [Ten-Thousandfold Intelligence Reward] had appeared after some kind of fluctuation.

Could it be that this time is also because [Ten-Thousandfold Intelligence Reward] is about to appear?

Ethan instinctively held his breath and started waiting.

But the next second, all the strange things in his vision suddenly disappeared.

He felt a strange force appear, like a barrier that completely separated him from everything around.

Was it because the monster he just killed wasn't strong enough? Or maybe these guards, even after taking the black medicine, weren't real monsters?

Ethan frowned. He had almost felt [Ten-Thousandfold Intelligence Reward] awakening just now!

This feeling of almost getting it, only to lose it again, was really uncomfortable.

He took a deep breath and looked at the remaining monster guards around Jake.