"Ah, unfortunate."

In the dark alley, there was a little girl who had passed out in a coma and was bleeding from the seven orifices, Merlin closed his eyes and looked at his SAN value that had become 84 points, feeling very tired.

In the running group, the san value, that is, the sanity value is a very important attribute, simply put, it is a character's spiritual blood bar, when the san value reaches zero, the character completely loses his mind, and in layman's terms, he is permanently crazy.

Therefore, when running a group, players must not only protect their body health bar, that is, the HP value, as in other games, but also protect their mental blood bar, referred to as SAN value.

The maximum amount of SAN is usually equivalent to the character's will attribute, for example, Merlin's will is 90, so his maximum SAN value is 90.

When a character has violent mental fluctuations during the running process, such as suddenly falling out of love, hearing the news of the death of a relative or friend, or when you are playing with your mobile phone in the classroom with a face looking at you with a faceless expression, etc., it may cause the SAN value to drop.

In addition to these tragic situations, some special encounters will also cause your SAN value to drop, and generally this special encounter will cause you to lose more SAN value, such as witnessing the scene of a murder, seeing a terrible corpse, etc.

However, special encounters are also hierarchical, and although it is rare to encounter a homicide or see a corpse or something, at least you can understand it, but what if you encounter something that you can't understand?

It's like hitting a ghost, coming back to life when you meet a dead person, opening the door and sticking a dragon's face in front of you, coming home to find that your lovely girlfriend's real body is a wriggling lump of flesh, and so on.

Once you encounter this kind of three views that ruin you cleanly, your SAN value will often be greatly reduced.

Merlin had just listened to the whispers of the abyss, which belonged to the more serious special encounter.

The Abyss, the home of demons, the final gathering place of all sins, the most terrible and ferocious hell in the world.

However, the so-called abyss is actually just a legend for ordinary people, even if you run over and tell others that the abyss is real, others will probably only look at you with an expression like a fool.

Although Merlin knew through the memory of the original owner that there was really a god in this world, the original owner was a prince no matter how he came, and as the highest class of this feudal imperialist society, he could naturally know some secrets that ordinary people did not know.

In fact, for ordinary people on this continent, the so-called gods, mythical creatures, wizard magic and the like are still fantastical and deceptive things, and few people believe in them at all.

As for why this happened, the original owner is not very clear, after all, he is only a prince and not a king, and this kind of thing, which may be the highest level secret in this world, is not something that a prince who has not yet succeeded to the throne should know.

He only vaguely found some clues from the castle's collection, it seems that since the god of steam and progress ascended to the void three hundred years ago, the church and the empire suddenly joined forces to block all news about the mysterious, they began to promote the science of steam, set up schools everywhere to encourage the people to be enlightened, and the so-called magic and witchcraft and other mysterious powers were all swept into the dustbin of history.

In short, you don't ask, asking is fake, it is virtual for the sake of scary, even the largest mysterious force church has a unified confession, saying that what gods are just beliefs, it doesn't matter whether they exist or not, if you believe it, you don't believe it, human beings have to rely on themselves after all, faith can only guide you on the right path of life.

Well, to sum up, that is, if you have time to think about these things, it is better to read more, come, I have a 12-year compulsory church school here, you go and sign up, work hard to learn knowledge, and strive to be a useful person to society.

If you get to the bottom of it, the priests will throw you in the face with a set of "three years of steam, five years of machinery".

Kid, have you finished your homework?

Three hundred years, in this era when the people generally do not live very long, I don't know how many generations have passed, and over time, naturally no one believes in the so-called myths and legends, and the truth of the matter is only circulated in the church and some big nobles standing at the top of the world.

And occasionally if there are mythical creatures that make trouble, they will also be suppressed by the church and the empire, for example, when the evil dragon ravaged the empire more than 20 years ago and kidnapped the princess, the church had a big boss who distorted everyone's memory, and the evil dragon was distorted into a powerful thief group with the evil dragon as the banner, and the old king's so-called crusade against the dragon was naturally a crusade against the thief group.

As for those ordinary people who really took over the mission after dying, do you think it is still possible for ordinary people to come back alive when they go to crusade against the evil dragons? Even if there are a few fish that occasionally slip through the net, their SAN value basically drops sharply because they face the dragon, and they go crazy on the spot.

No one will believe the words of the madmen, and people will only think that these losers are excusing themselves, which is why they will describe the thieves as real dragons to cover up their incompetence.

Similarly, when Merlin's cheap dad turned into a dragon and flew away more than ten years ago, the memories of the melon-eating crowd present seemed to be blocked.

In their memories, the king was assassinated by the assassins who had infiltrated the prince's birthday celebration, and the little prince was killed on the spot, and the queen could not bear the blow of losing her husband and son, and went crazy, so she was sent to the monastery.

Except for a few nobles of high status, no one would know the truth at that time.

However, you can expect the nobles who have now completed the division of power in the empire to tell the truth.

So, Merlin became a dead non-existent person.

Ahem...... It seems to be far away, so let's continue to san value.

According to the standard, if an ordinary person directly listens to the call of the abyss, the consequences are definitely no less than facing an evil god once, and he will definitely face a 1d100 SAN value judgment.

However, Merlin is not an ordinary person after all, he is a false demon king.

For a real demon king, the whisper of the abyss is simply a mother's whisper, and it will not have a negative impact at all, but will feel that it has been buffed.

It's a pity that Merlin is just a fake, his human soul can't withstand the nagging of this abyss, even if the personality of the Demon King helps him offset most of the effects, he still has to face a san check, that is, a rational judgment.

So, he received a 1d10 SAN penalty.

As for the so-called 1d10, to put it bluntly, it is to roll a dice with a denomination of 10 once, and if it is 1d100, it is a roll of a dice with a denomination of 100.

Merlin was unfortunate enough to hit a 5, and in the rules of the running group, if a human loses 5 or more SAN at one time, it can be judged as a mental injury.

If a human being is physically traumatized, they will become sick or disabled, but what will happen if they are mentally traumatized?

Obviously, you are welcome in the psychiatric hospital.

[The host loses 5 points of SAN value at one time, please pass an intelligence judgment, vote 1d100, if you succeed, you will be temporarily crazy, and if you fail, it will have no effect.] 】

In the dark sight, the system's prompt made the corners of Merlin's mouth twitch a little, and for the first time, he felt that the original owner's high and terrifying intelligence was a drag.

Well, the so-called intelligence is actually the inspiration attribute on his character card, and the two share the same value, after all, the smarter you are, the easier it is to get inspiration.

However, the intelligence judgment after the san check is very tricky, because smart people often end up being clever and mistaken.

When you encounter something that you can't understand or even shatter your three views, if you are a muscular idiot, you may be so nervous that you will ignore it directly, and you won't waste brain cells if you can't figure it out.

However, smart people, how can there be something in this world that I don't understand, even if I don't understand it now, I will always understand it when I study it.

Geniuses have more or less such thoughts.

So, some people go crazy while researching.

"Hey, KP, I don't think I'm a smart person, I'm not interested in the abyss just now, I just want to go home now and sleep well, and recover my lost SAN value."

Merlin explained to the golden finger in a serious manner, but his broken golden finger has no wisdom, and of course there is no negotiation, everything must be in accordance with the rules.

A dice appeared in Merlin's hand, and he had no choice but to throw it.

[rd=60, host intelligence 90, judgment successful.] 】

[You are a genius who chases knowledge, any unknown existence attracts you, this time you get the forbidden knowledge in the abyss, you naturally will not let go, you are hungry for research. 】

[Host gains temporary madness, forbidden fanaticism]

In the dark vision, the system's prompts were constantly refreshing, but at this moment, Merlin didn't bother to pay attention to this.

"Ah, since I've been mentally ill, I've been more energetic."

The temperament of the salted fish of the original dead fat house dissipated all of a sudden, and the originally lazy eyes flashed all of a sudden, and Merlin's whole body exuded a positive energy of studying hard and making progress every day.

"Ah, why was I so stupid before, such a good opportunity to cross would only think about touching fish, ah, no, my brain is trembling, how can I be so lazy."

The tall demon covered his head, frustrated, and he couldn't wait to go back and study the whispers of the abyss.

However, out of the corner of his eye, he glanced at the little girl lying on the ground, and the steps he had just taken stopped again.

Merlin looked around, and easily found those greedy figures hidden in the darkness, these were the miscellaneous fish evil things nourished by the huge amount of negative energy in the Dongcheng City before, and they could be regarded as the most inferior demons.

These miscellaneous fish were probably attracted by the huge movement caused by Merlin's absorption of negative energy, and now they were tempted by the pure soul of the little girl on the ground.

Now that the negative energy in the entire Dongcheng District has been absorbed by Merlin, this miscellaneous fish demon is like a fish that has lost water, and if they don't find a way to evolve quickly, they will soon die.

And the soul of this little girl on the ground is their best way out, as long as they get her, even if it is only a small piece, they will reap great benefits and be able to evolve.

However, the terrifying figure stood in front of the little girl, and just by looking up at the figure, hundreds of miscellaneous fish exploded with a wail.

Even the wreckage scattered everywhere after the explosion was not spared, and the earth seemed to become a swamp in an instant, and countless terrifying phantoms penetrated the minions from it, and the residue after the explosion was instantly looted.

Even though most of the Miscellaneous Fish Cults have no wisdom to speak of, and only follow their instincts to crave flesh, they have learned to fear and humility at this moment.

No matter how much he longed for that little girl's flesh and soul, no demon dared to step forward and offend that being.

"Well, it's time to test my abilities, stupid human cub, and it's an honor for you to be the king's test subject."

Merlin circled the little girl on the ground, the flaming hoof prints encircling the little girl in it.

Looking at the little girl who was sleeping peacefully in the circle of hellfire, as if she was not in the cold, the Demon King nodded with satisfaction.

"Human cubs are really fragile, and even the beauty of this king is not blessed to be appreciated, forget it, just use it as waste, just as a bait to test whether there is a fool who dares to offend the majesty of this king."

With an arrogant turn, the mentally ill Demon King began to walk in the direction of the castle outside the city.