Hunter of Mysterious Creature-Chapter 378 - 33: Mysterious Armor Brave Cavalry

Ye Jiu's heart skipped a beat.

Of course, he knew how the previous owners of "Shafa" had died.

The reason the enigmatic equipment "Shafa" got its name was that the gear harbored an incredibly strong desire for bloodshed. Every time he donned the armor and gripped the weapons, Ye Jiu would involuntarily feel the urge to kill every living thing in sight.

Especially the moment he put on the mask, he would even experience a brief sensation of "forgetting himself."

In that state, he was no longer Ye Jiu, the qualified owner of the enigmatic equipment "Shafa," but a member of the Mysterious Armor Brave Cavalry from over a thousand years ago, who fought fiercely in battle.

However, Ye Jiu's distinction as the best performer among all the qualified candidates for "Shafa" wasn't due to his high synchronization with "Shafa," but because he could consistently maintain his true self, not succumbing to its murderous intent.

All previous candidates without exception were gradually consumed by the desire for carnage through repeated battles. The thrill of slicing through flesh and crunching bones was as addictive as a banned drug... Moreover, the golden ghost mask on their faces amplified this sense of euphoria, causing the candidates to lose themselves.

When a candidate fully becomes a puppet of Shafa, that's when Shafa can unleash its greatest power.

Technically speaking, candidates cannot really be considered manipulators of Shafa, nor can they be called its "living CPU"... they are more a kind of "restrictor."

Using human will to counteract the "intrinsic nature" of the enigmatic equipment.

And the process of using this enigmatic equipment is about gradually unlocking this restrictor, trading decreasing constraints for the tremendous power of the enigmatic equipment.

Experienced candidates can grasp the balance of unlocking the restrictor—they release the full potential of the enigmatic equipment without losing control.

But even the most seasoned candidates can have a slip-up someday.

With each release of the enigmatic equipment's power, that threshold balancing control and loss of control slowly slides to one side... and candidates themselves, each time they use that power, which isn't inherently theirs, become a little more assimilated by the enigmatic equipment.

Ye Jiu had heard a saying— for most enigmatic equipment, candidates are essentially just "consumables."

But Ye Jiu was an anomaly.

After summarizing the experiences and lessons of his predecessors and combining them with his own experiences, he devised a method to suppress this erosion.

Instead of continually suggesting to himself notions like justice, responsibility, or patriotism, Ye Jiu found that a silly and abstract attitude towards life could perfectly restrain that enticing desire for slaughter.

Ye Jiu was rarely affected by Shafa, even when he recently hacked away those two infected special agents as easily as chopping vegetables, he felt nothing unusual.

Ye Jiu had diligently read the files on previous candidates of "Shafa." According to their self-reports and psychological assessments, before they turned into puppets of "Shafa" or had to relinquish their candidate status for various reasons, they all showed significant changes in thought patterns and psychological states... Ye Jiu not only underwent similar evaluations weekly but also before and after each mission, yet they never detected anything unusual.

"If that's the case, why did this happen... Is it an illusion or something else?"

Ye Jiu clutched the reins tightly, unable to figure it out.

Just then, the front line of the charging Mysterious Armor Brave Cavalry suddenly dispersed, expanding the gap between each cavalryman from less than a meter to about five meters, and the front width of the formation instantly stretched four or five times.

"Spread out? Why spread out?" Ye Jiu was puzzled.

Although the combat records of the Mysterious Armor Brave Cavalry were almost zero, there was no doubt that they were a standard heavy cavalry unit.

As a seasoned gamer who had played at least 80 to 100 games on cold weapon warfare, Ye Jiu had also read numerous documents and military books on cavalry combat. Regarding cold weapon era cavalry tactics, while not an expert, he at least knew them like the back of his hand.

And the simplest and most effective heavy cavalry tactic was massed charges, leveraging their weight and momentum to tear through enemy formations.

Yet the tactics of the Mysterious Armor Brave Cavalry in front of him seemed more akin to light cavalry, spreading out and encircling from the sides before weaving in... But such a tactic not only gave up the heavy cavalry's advantage of strong armor and sharp lances but also exposed their weaknesses like poor endurance, awkward turning, and dropped combat ability after deceleration to the enemy.

Could it be... the general commanding the Mysterious Armor Brave Cavalry is incompetent?

What a joke! Would Emperor Zhen Guan let an incompetent person command the Mysterious Armor Brave Cavalry?

But soon, Ye Jiu understood why the front row of Mysterious Armor Brave Cavalry dispersed.

He saw the rear row of the Mysterious Armor Brave Cavalry raise the crossbows hanging from their saddles, countless bolts shooting through the gaps of the front row, pinning the eerie creatures advancing close to the ground... and the further back Mysterious Armor Brave Cavalry were equipped with bows taller than a person. They shot not in a straight trajectory but in an arc, with the bowstring thundering like a bolt of lightning, wave after wave of arrows rained down on the most densely packed eerie creatures.