Chapter 229: Reality Itself Is Much More Terrifying Than Any Monster

Just as they were halfway through touring the first artillery position, a barbarian suddenly came over and whispered a few words in Korik's ear, and immediately, Korik became much more enthusiastic.

Looking at Rogers with a grin, Korik was very happy inside. The approximate quantity of supplies had been pointed out: one hundred thousand bottles of high-proof liquor—that was quite a lot. A big banquet could be held tonight, which would just happen to ease the mood of the soldiers who had been away from home for so long.

That evening, when the banquet was drawing to a close, Rogers wiped his face. His constitution was quite special; he had a very strong resistance to alcohol and a large portion of other harmful substances.

After all, at the end of the day, the adverse reactions after drinking were mainly due to the influence of acetaldehyde produced after alcohol digestion on the body. This substance would be rapidly metabolized by the liver, and Rogers's liver was top-notch.

Walking outside the banquet hall, blowing the artificial cool breeze, Rogers stretched and looked up at the sky.

Looking at the sky from here felt completely different from Earth.

The sky here was filled with huge spheres that were difficult to observe. These celestial bodies that couldn't emit light themselves appeared exceptionally dark under the cover of the surrounding lights.

In addition, there was no such thing as day and night here, because as long as you left the station, it would immediately become dark.

The sunlight, after traveling a vast distance and crossing the relatively dense Oort Cloud, fell to the vicinity, and its brightness had already dropped to a negligible level.

"Still brought too little liquor," Yifan Vanko walked to Rogers's side, stood side-by-side with him, placed his hands on the railing, and said slowly.

Rogers looked at Yifan Vanko in surprise. If he remembered correctly, Yifan Vanko had completely transformed himself into a robot; could he drink too?

"You drank too?"

"No, I didn't add that function," Yifan Vanko said, handing Rogers a stack of data. "This is the various data collected after those people took us away from the main gathering point after the supplies were counted."

Rogers flipped through it. *Hmm, I don't understand most of the data standards. * Although Rogers had kept learning since being dug out of the ice, these things still exceeded his knowledge scope.

"Dr. Banner even followed them to their battleship once. I feel that if the quantity of liquor were multiplied by several times, maybe we could spend the night on the battleship, and looking at the relevant operating platforms and design manuals might not be a problem," Yifan Vanko's electronic eyes flickered continuously.

Yifan Vanko really wanted to visit the battleship, but the barbarians were slightly more guarded against him; after all, super-intelligence or robots had caused too many things in the universe.

"Hmm..." Rogers closed the data he couldn't understand at all. "Is there anything I can help with?"

"Formal testing work starts tomorrow. They are doing some preliminary preparation work. We hope you can find a way to invite Korik as a test subject," Yifan Vanko turned his head and looked at Rogers.

"..." Hearing "test subject," what flashed through Rogers's mind were all extremely inhumane scientific rumors. Making Korik a lab rat—it was amazing that these people could think of it.

"Stop watching useless things normally," Yifan Vanko seemed to know what Rogers was thinking. "We have already persuaded ordinary barbarians, barbarian squad leaders, and warehouse keepers to participate in this test, but we are still missing a test subject with enough weight. Korik is quite suitable."

"What is tomorrow's test project?" Rogers asked.

"Ethan's terror emotion test. Currently, the equipment brought over is only suitable for doing this," Yifan Vanko said.

"I'll try," Rogers scratched his hair and replied.

The next Earth day, Korik brought the other barbarians participating in the test and followed Rogers to the test field.

It was brightly lit here, without any horror atmosphere at all.

"To be honest, you guys are probably going to be disappointed this time. My boys are all bold, and it's absolutely impossible for them to be scared," Korik walked to Rogers's side alone and said.

"Did you tell them about this test project?" Rogers asked in return. If they were prepared, the test effect might not be very good.

"Rest assured, I will cooperate with you fully. I haven't said anything, not a single word has been revealed."

As Korik spoke, he saw Rock-Head turning his head around, and his super-strong perception crossed the single-person test field prepared by Yifan Vanko and the others. "Rock-Head! What are you looking at blindly?! Retract your perception for me and abide by that so-called test regulation."

"Alright, Boss," Rock-Head replied with a grin.

Korik also followed along, enjoying himself. He didn't think Ethan's test could cause any influence at all.

First to start was the test for the new recruits. Although they were called new recruits, this barbarian soldier had also trained for over ten years. He had accepted various training when he was still a minor and had passed through screening step-by-step before finally entering the assault team, so he was just a new recruit of the assault team.

Yifan Vanko pressed the button in his hand, and a screen in front of the soldier began to play a video.

"Please remember the species of all the animals that appear in the video, as well as their quantity."

The soldier raised his hand with a *swish*.

"Is there any problem?"

"There are many animals in here that I have never seen," the soldier said very seriously.

"...... Then remember their characteristics and try to describe them as comprehensively as possible later."

"Alright."

While the soldier's attention was focused on the screen, Ethan manipulated Diping to appear behind the soldier. Diping brought the Skull Death Bell to the soldier's ear.

*Bang! *

The bell sound containing terrifying power rang in the soldier's ear. The soldier's attention was still maintained on the screen in front of him, but his body moved, and his clenched fist directly smashed toward the Diping that had appeared.

"Stop!"

Yifan Vanko immediately called a stop. The soldier's reaction was a bit unexpected.

The soldier paused. "It's over, I've forgotten all the animals I just watched..."

Yifan Vanko drew an X in his notebook. They weren't here to test the soldier's memory; this kind of sudden fright method obviously had problems.

"May I ask, did you have any special feelings just now?"

"Uh... no, I hadn't reacted yet before I heard you call stop," the soldier replied.

Korik tried hard to hold back his laughter and waved at Yifan Vanko. "Sorry, we've already done training in this area long ago. My soldiers' first reaction when encountering this situation is to counterattack. Otherwise, shall we try again?"

"No need."

Yifan Vanko silently flipped the test report page. Currently, Asgard versus Earth: 1:0.

The subject of the second test was a squad leader who was over one hundred and fifty years old this year, had been in the army for one hundred and twenty years, and possessed extremely rich combat experience.

The test area the squad leader entered was filled with complex graphics, layered one on top of another, large circles enclosing small circles; it was easy to get dizzy just looking at them.

In front of the squad leader, there was also a television, but it was a very old-fashioned television that Ethan had specifically brought when he came.

"Test personnel, please note that the walls around you will emit rubber bullets. While paying attention to dodging, remember the plot on the screen."

The squad leader nodded. While focusing his main attention on the screen, his other attention, under the influence of the environment, dispersed toward the entire room, entering a somewhat dazed state.

Korik's expression turned a bit unkind. *Attention is so easily dispersed? Don't know how to use physical perception to sense the arrival of attacks and then dodge in a non-observational state? Extra training! Must have extra training when we go back! *

While Korik was muttering in his heart, the images on the television gradually reached their end. Sadako, hidden in the images, relied on the environmental bonus to successfully bring the squad leader into an illusion.

This illusion would change according to the things the squad leader feared in his heart.

In the illusion, the squad leader ordinarily completed the test and completed the rotation, leaving this asteroid with the main force. But as soon as he returned to Asgard, the squad leader found that everyone was looking at them with strange eyes.

It was only then that the squad leader knew that a force had bypassed their defense zone and completely destroyed Earth, and the honor accumulated by the barbarians over so many years had been completely destroyed.

The heavy-hearted squad leader returned to his home, and as soon as he opened the door, he was kicked out by someone. It was his wife who had done it.

"Get out! You useless waste, I have already remarried and taken the children; this is no longer your home!"

The illusion continued. Next, the squad leader would be pointed at and blamed forever, couldn't find a job, couldn't integrate into this society even if he changed his appearance, and could only rely on relief food to barely survive until death arrived.

Korik frowned. He couldn't see the illusion, but he could see the squad leader's state.

When he first entered the illusion, the squad leader's emotions were extremely angry, then gradually became sad, decadent, and even began to show a desire for death.

"Stop, stop, stop!" Korik hurriedly called a stop.

Sadako also ended the illusion. The squad leader sat on the ground with a *pa*, as if he had really aged dozens of years, without a hint of a warrior's flavor all over his body.

"Joel! What are you doing for me!" Korik's roar woke the squad leader from his emotions.

"Tribal Chief?!" The squad leader raised his head in surprise, looked around, and gradually reacted that what he had just experienced was only a test.

"Get back! From today on, your training volume is doubled!" Korik pointed at the squad leader and scolded him.

Asgard versus Earth: 1:1.

Yifan Vanko and Ethan looked at each other, seeing the same conclusion in each other's eyes.

Reality that has lost hope is indeed much more terrifying than monsters and the like! It can better mobilize the target's negative emotions and make them lose their combat effectiveness.

This path should be the right one.

"May I ask, for this illusion, can I see what was performed?" Korik asked Rogers after scolding the squad leader away.

Rogers looked at Ethan, and Ethan nodded. "Of course, but we won't tell you how to quickly distinguish the illusion. Can you accept that?"

"No problem, I'm not afraid of any illusions, you can bring them all on," Korik patted his chest and said.

And so, with Korik's full cooperation, Ethan activated the Fear Ripple they had invented themselves, pulling both Korik and Rock-Head into it.

The main target of the ripple was first Rock-Head. In Rock-Head's illusion, one day after waking up, Rock-Head found that all his teammates around him were gone; he was the only one on the entire asteroid, and the battleships outside the asteroid were also nowhere to be found.

In extreme confusion, Rock-Head walked through the entire asteroid and finally found that not only were the people gone, but the supplies were also gone.

Judging from the traces left behind, the teammates had evacuated this asteroid overnight, and now he was the only one left here.

A sense of loneliness struck rapidly, and Rock-Head began to feel very uncomfortable.

However, something unexpected to Ethan happened. Rock-Head wrote a letter, pressed it in the base control center, and then walked into the shelter on his own. His aura gradually subsided. *He started hibernating?! *

"Hahaha, the script you guys wrote is not bad, it's just that you found the wrong person. Changing to someone else would probably be scared, but Rock-Head definitely won't," Korik said with a laugh in the dream.

Asgard versus Earth: 2:1.

Yifan Vanko silently recorded one item: the current method of testing has great individual differences. After collecting targeted information, find a script and image object group with high universality.

"Let's stop here for today. We'll go organize the data and test again next time," Yifan Vanko said to Korik. At the same time, the first layer of the illusion shattered, and the second layer of the illusion was established.

In reality, Ethan's little face was pale. Even with Korik's cooperation, the difficulty of maintaining the illusion was still too high, and Ethan had to try hard to control it so as not to cause Korik's stress reaction; otherwise, the illusion would be broken with one punch.

In the deep illusion, Korik patted Rock-Head on the shoulder, gave him a thumbs-up, and then returned to the gathering point with Rock-Head.

The Chitauri still didn't dare to show their heads. After a pleasant cooperation with Rogers and the others, Korik returned to Asgard with the Barbarian Assault Team.

Who would have expected that when they reached Asgard, Korik found that the situation had completely changed. Odin had already abdicated to Loki due to old age, and Thor had failed to participate in the struggle for the throne due to his exile.

Immediately after, Korik found that Loki had disbanded the army on a large scale, began to build theaters, arranged all important positions with his own people, and started some kind of Asgardian Drama Gala.

Everyone who violated Loki's orders was expelled from the Immortal Palace, and Korik was forced to compromise.

Finally, when Loki ordered Korik to put on women's clothing and accompany the so-called theatrical artists in dance, Korik exploded. The vibrating air directly broke the illusion Ethan had created, and even Sadako was almost directly crushed to death.

Korik, returning to reality, closed his eyes and adjusted his emotions. "Sorry, I was still excited."

"It's fine. Did you discover that it wasn't real?" Ethan asked, pressing his constantly throbbing temples.

"I discovered it. At the very beginning, I just felt something was a bit wrong, but the longer it lasted, the more flaws there were. The sense of disharmony in many places was too heavy, especially when it reached the fields I was proficient in; it was basically full of holes."

Korik gave a suggestion. "I suggest you guys can influence it in stages—nine truths and one lie. Don't make it all an illusion; that's too easy to be seen through."

"We have received your opinion," Yifan Vanko recorded rapidly. "What do you think of that scene just now?"

"How did you guys do it?" Korik looked at Yifan Vanko. "I didn't feel anything reading my consciousness. How did you know I was worried about that kind of..."

"No need to read it. This kind of fear ripple will collect information fragments scattered in personal thinking activities, and then adjust the trend of the illusion according to the frequency and bias of the information in the fragments. The concealment is extremely strong," Ethan explained. This was the final product of their project.

"Okay, very good. If there are any other test tasks, you can communicate with me at any time."

Korik patted Ethan on the shoulder and gave a thumbs-up. "Although I discovered it was an illusion, it still made me feel very uncomfortable. If the enemy's entire army ate this move, the morale and organizational recovery ability during engagement would definitely stack to the bottom."

"That is exactly what we thought," Ethan replied with a smile.

"Hmm, by the way, you guys should test if the space environment will have any influence. I'll have them open a few spaceships to cooperate with you," Korik continued.

"That would be truly appreciated," Rogers said, holding Korik's hand. He also found that Korik's palms were full of sweat.

Asgard versus Earth: 1:2. ===== CHAPTER 230 =====