Cheat Awakening-Chapter 657. A Poor Soul

"Damn, this smell is unbearable! Are those two incarnations of pigs, or what? How can they survive this stench?" Myne complained, tears welling up in his eyes. He'd always thought he'd seen and smelled enough disgusting things, nothing could surprise him anymore. Now, he realized how naive he'd been.

Holding his nose, Myne walked into the dark basement. A black liquid, mixed with something red, was spread across the staircase, making it very slippery. He carefully climbed down, only to find that the basement was so large it covered the entire house. A long, narrow passage, with small prison cell-like rooms on both sides and a special room sealed with iron chains, gives a creepy vibe at the end of the passage.

Myne casually opened the nearest cell. The cell was extremely small, with four iron shackles attached to the walls, and an unknown, dried-up liquid flaked onto the ground. Sadly, there was no one inside.

The same went for the other cells. It wasn't until he reached the second-to-last cell that he saw a poor man with a pale, lifeless face, dishevelled grey hair, so thin that his skin almost touched his bones, and both legs severed. He was hanging on the wall, iron shackles wrapped around his arms, and had a multitude of scars on his body, especially on his legs, where blood was continuously gushing out and falling into a wooden bucket beneath him.

The man's condition was dire; he was barely breathing, and it would have been surprising if, after receiving this level of "premium treatment," he were still fine.

"Hey? Can you hear me?" Myne walked into the cell and called out to the man.

"Seems unconscious... Should I...? But he looks in such bad condition, what if I make things worse?... Forget it, how much worse can it get?"

Slap! Slap!

"What!?"

As soon as Myne's hard slaps landed on the man's cheeks, he immediately opened his bloodshot eyes with a jolt and gave him a murderous glare, about to curse his entire family. But seeing that this time it wasn't the thin man who used him to slowly milk his blood, a look of confusion appeared on his face, which quickly turned into joy.

"Help me! Brother, please help me!" The man cried out in excitement.

"Oh, yes, for sure, but at least tell me what's going on here?" Myne wasn't surprised at the man's reaction. If someone used him to draw his blood continuously, with no sign of ending, he would also go crazy as well.

"There are two madmen living in this house. They capture people like us who have sanity and draw their blood for unknown purposes. When we lose our usefulness, they conduct all kinds of weird experiments on us... while keeping us conscious so we can feel the pain. They enjoy seeing others suffer."

"Please, brother, help me. I've been in this wretched place for nearly a month... My family is waiting for me. I went out to find food for them when those two bastards fooled me with their innocent looks and captured me..."

"You can imagine what will happen to them without someone protecting them... Please have mercy," The man started crying, trying to play the emotional card against Myne. But because he was focused on squeezing out fake tears, he failed to see Myne's murderous gaze, who was staring at the top of his head.

{ He wants to touch you by any means so he can gain control over your body through his ability. }

{ He thinks you look like a naive brat, easy to fool. He can tell you're an idiot who hasn't taken a social beating, just by looking at your face. }

{ You looked very tasty to him. He can't wait to eat you to satisfy his spiritual hunger and, of course, to recover his legs. }

"Another bastard who's looking down on me," He didn't mind if the other party wanted to eat him, as everyone seemed to want that, but the man, who was fooled and captured by two perverts, actually thought he was a fool just because he was more handsome than him. Myne couldn't accept that. While gritting his teeth in anger, he took out the wooden box from behind him.

He was contemplating where to find someone who could help him conduct tests on the cursed knife. He wanted to determine the extent of its harmful curse, and what the ultimate consequences would be. Now that he had found a perfect scapegoat, he wouldn't let the opportunity slip away.

"Hey, brother, what are you doing? Please, can you free me? You can do this after releasing me. What if those two bastards come down and find you? Things might get complicated then. Those two aren't easy to deal with, you shouldn't underestimate them."

The man, seeing Myne deviate from the script, grew nervous. He spoke in a pitiful and anxious tone, trying his best to control the anger that threatened to erupt at any moment. After all, though he appeared normal, he was as corrupted as the other people in this world, and his temper was far from pleasant. Seeing Myne, a mere brat, disobey his commands, naturally, he was not happy.

However, the next second, his fake anxious expression turned into genuine fear, and his body trembled as he looked at the bloody knife in the wooden box.

"F*ck! Bastard, why do you have a cursed object? Damn it, idiot, quickly throw it away!" The man stopped pretending, seeing his impending doom. He began cursing Myne, his words now genuinely panicked.

"Hehehe, brother, come on, you're making a mountain out of a molehill..." Myne mimicked the man's tone and let out a playful chuckle as he picked up the cursed knife with the help of two kitchen knives, ensuring he wouldn't be affected. He brought it before the man with a playful grin.

"Just grab it for one second, and I'll let you go, I swear. I found this on the road and wanted to test its effect... I'm very curious about the famous cursed object; I've never seen one before."

"Brother, oh my dear brother, you won't refuse my small request, right? Otherwise, I might be sad... You still want to reunite with your family, don't you?" Myne asked with a smile that looked no different than a devil's grin to the man.

Damn, another psychopath. Why do I always get stuck between these madmen? The man cursed his luck, but in the end, he accepted his fate and gave in.

After all, what other option did he have? It wasn't as if he could kick Myne out, saying he didn't need his help, and lose his only chance to escape from this hell, right? He knew his condition very well; if nothing unexpected happened, he had at most a week before he would be lying on the laboratory table like the other prisoners, watching those two bastards dissect him bit by bit.

"Don't you dare break the promise, I warn you, otherwise my spirit will hunt you to your death." The man gritted his teeth and opened his fist, gesturing for Myne to bring the knife closer.

Of course, the reason he decided to touch the cursed knife wasn't entirely because he believed Myne's nonsense. Actually, he himself had only heard legends about cursed objects and had never seen one. So, he didn't truly know how dangerous they were and always thought those stories were fake.

Otherwise, if they were as dangerous as people said, why were those people still alive? Many stories also mentioned that once someone was recognized by a cursed object, they would gain unpredictable power. So, there was a sliver of hope in his heart that he could control this weapon at the last moment of his life, just like a protagonist, and change his destiny in one fell swoop.

"AHHHH!!!"

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However, just like Myne, as soon as he held the handle of the bloody knife, he started screaming in pain, which lasted only a second before his eyes turned dark, like bottomless holes, and he became completely silent.

"Was I also in such a weird state when I was under the illusion? It's quite creepy," Myne muttered and observed the man closely, only to find that the other party's already pale face was growing even paler, and his body was shaking weirdly. The right hand, which was holding the knife, suddenly developed purple veins that began popping out and soon spread across his entire arm and neck, like crawling worms.

As time passed, Myne saw that the man, unlike him, who had broken out of the illusion in a few seconds, showed no sign of emerging.

Just as Myne was wondering if he should give the man some stimulation, like a light slap, to try to wake him up, he saw the man suddenly turn his head towards him, eyes wide open.