His self-satisfaction was absolute; his supreme ambition was crystal clear. However, ordinary mortals were completely incapable of comprehending just how remarkably magnificent Li Ke truly was at this very moment!
Instead of bowing down and chanting, "Oh, supreme Harem King! We revere and love you!", they would only project their own biases, actively attempting to obstruct the Harem King's path to absolute dominion!
"Will you stop being a complete psycho?! Personality Correction Flying Kick!!!"
Utterly unable to stomach this display a second longer, Roche leaped straight into the air. She drove her small leather boot directly toward Li Ke's head. Her crimson twin-tails whipped wildly in the wind, her face twisted in an expression of pure, unadulterated fury from a person who had officially reached her absolute limit.
She was fully convinced that Li Ke had lost his mind.
Yet Li Ke simply reached out and effortlessly caught her ankle mid-air, rendering her flying kick completely useless. Roche executed a nimble, graceful mid-air flip, landing firmly back onto the carriage platform while instantly drawing her staff.
"Get a grip on yourself, Li Ke! Don't let yourself be controlled by that power! Otherwise, I'll have no choice but to beat some damn sense into you!"
Roche locked her eyes onto him, her voice deadly serious.
She had witnessed far too many individuals undergo a drastic personality shift after inheriting some inexplicable power, only to meet a miserable, horrific demise. She had absolutely no desire to see her long-term meal ticket ruin himself like this!
Therefore, the expression she gave him was exceptionally grave.
Li Ke could clearly read the sheer gravity in her eyes. However, he casually brought the hand that had caught her foot up to his nose and took a sniff. Realizing Roche definitely hadn't cleaned her shoes recently, a look of profound disgust washed over his face.
"Tch! Is a peaceful resolution completely off the table? For the record, I flatly refuse to lay a hand on flat boards."
If Roche had actually taken the time to polish her little leather boots properly, he wouldn't mind engaging in a little combat with her! But right now, completely devoid of any aesthetic temptation from her feet, he, Li Ke, was naturally going to prioritize looking at a proper rack!
However!
Roche didn't have one!
Li Ke's gaze openly and continuously scanned Roche's chest. Realizing exactly what he was doing, Roche froze. She stared down at her own completely flat chest in sheer disbelief, then looked back up at Li Ke's eyes, which were filled with a mix of pity and utter disdain. While she didn't know the modern slang for a flat runway, she could easily connect the dots based on what he had just shouted at Ruohua and his current attitude toward her. Involuntarily, her eyes darted over to Ruohua.
Ruohua was entirely bewildered by the sudden attention, glancing back and forth between Roche and Li Ke. However, the bumpy jostling of the horse carriage caused her exceptionally large chest to sway heavily. This movement immediately caused Li Ke's head to whip right around, his eyes locking instantly onto Ruohua's front.
"So, if at all possible, I'd really prefer to settle this peacefully. Trading blows with a literal child yields absolutely zero rewards. Besides, you're way too short—you can't beat me anyway."
Li Ke's voice drifted over again, but this time, Roche saw it with absolute clarity—he wasn't even bothering to look in her direction anymore.
Her face instantly turned pitch black. Short, flat, child—every single one of her massive triggers had just been pulled back-to-back.
"AAAAAHHH!!! You absolute chest-obsessed degenerate scum!"
A swarm of violent magical particles detonated into existence around Roche's silhouette. Staring at Li Ke with a dark, thunderous expression, she snarled, "Are you ready to die?!"
Roche was completely, utterly consumed by rage!
The counter-fires of fury were burning bright! Rage! Rage! Pure, unadulterated rage!
At this point, Roche simply could not tolerate this insolence a single second longer!
"Ah, it looks like words are entirely useless here... It seems the only way to make you understand is to show you the absolute brilliance of my staff technique. Only then will you realize you shouldn't be this disrespectful to your Harem King..."
Li Ke dropped smoothly into a combat stance, leaving Ruohua, who was currently holding the reins of the carriage, with no choice but to let out a long, exhausted sigh.
Roche wasted no time responding to Li Ke's invitation. A massive array of magic circles erupted around her, manifesting a swarm of roaring fireballs.
Concealed within each blaze was a bizarre object resembling a Halloween jack-o'-lantern. They possessed a strange, semi-living quality. Without a shred of hesitation, she swung her staff, launching an assault directly at him.
Sky Assault!
Roche lunged forward, thrusting her staff in a sharp piercing motion. Yet due to her short stature, even though she aimed upward, the tip of her weapon shot straight toward Li Ke's lower defenses!
"How dare you attack there!"
Li Ke's eyes bulged with outrage. With a fierce sweep of his hand, a burst of flames manifested right in his palm, directly catching Roche's oncoming fire, while the jack-o'-lantern projectiles surrounding her surged forward.
The resulting explosion formed a barrier of fire, blasting both figures clean out of the horse carriage.
Roche was sent flying due to her small frame being easily caught by the concussive heatwave. Li Ke, on the other hand, had deliberately leaped away to ensure the blast wouldn't harm Seria.
In truth, even if he hadn't moved, they would have been fine. Roche had precisely calculated the spell's path beforehand to guarantee it wouldn't graze Seria. It was the sole reason Ruohua was content to just sit back and watch.
The current Li Ke was undeniably influenced by this strange power, yet he clearly retained his core intellect and reasoning. A solid brawl was likely all it would take to snap him out of it and make him realize something was wrong with his behavior.
Except...
"Can this guy put some clothes on already?"
Staring at Li Ke's exposed physique, an involuntary blush crept onto Ruohua's face. Watching him move around completely unbothered by his lack of attire, she couldn't help but press a hand against her forehead.
She felt deeply conflicted. As an experienced adventurer, she had witnessed plenty of bizarre things on her travels.
But it was still highly unusual to see someone display such complete disregard for basic decency.
Is he really completely comfortable walking around like that?
Looking at Li Ke's completely relaxed demeanor, Ruohua couldn't help but wonder about his strange state of mind.
What she didn't know was that his current lack of restraint was entirely driven by his internal impulses. If he were facing Seria or Kiri—people he was actively trying to impress—his dramatic bravado would be turned up to eleven.
Instead, because both Roche and Ruohua were actively showing intense resistance, his aggressive romantic impulses remained dormant.
"Li Ke! Stop fighting!"
The bewildered Seria finally snapped out of her daze. She scrambled to her feet, staring anxiously at the two combatants who were at each other's throats.
"Don't worry, Seria! I'll take care of this and be right back with you!"
Li Ke glanced back, his sudden enthusiasm causing his posture to straighten proudly, leaving both Ruohua and Roche staring at his shameless display in utter disbelief.
"This guy..."
Ruohua stared blankly at his sudden shift in energy, finally realizing just how unpredictable his current state really was.
"At... At least put some clothes on first!!" Seria wailed, completely at a loss for words.
Li Ke merely threw his arms wide open, welcoming the brilliant sunshine.
"This king's body has absolutely nothing to hide!" he declared with absolute, unyielding pride!
At that exact moment, the sunlight reflecting off him seemed to burn with an even more intense brilliance!
"AAAAAH... You absolute lunatic! Your brain is completely fried!"
Roche stared at him, steam practically erupting from her ears. Her speech pattern turned frantic and hurried out of sheer embarrassment. Right now, she desperately wanted to deliver a concussive blow to his skull just to clear his head!
Her feelings for Li Ke certainly hadn't reached the point where she could tolerate this kind of shamelessness!
"Ha! This king is simply indulging in his true nature. Rest assured, my intellect remains completely flawless... In fact, I have never felt better!"
This absolute lack of restraint felt completely intoxicating. Saying whatever he wanted, doing whatever he pleased, entirely unburdened by a single shred of human shame—the sensation was utterly addictive.
There was no anxiety, no doubt, and no hesitation. It felt as though as long as he placed his complete trust in this power, he would remain perfectly secure...
Wait... Isn't this the exact definition of being corrupted by power?
Li Ke instinctively brought a hand up to stroke his chin as the sudden realization hit him.
Yet the profound wave of peace radiating from the energy instantly washed away that fleeting doubt. Compared to the staggering magnitude of this power, Li Ke's current willpower was entirely negligible.
"Forget it, I'll think about that later. Right now, the most important thing is dealing with you, Roche!"
Li Ke looked back at Roche, but his focus instantly shifted, leaving both Ruohua and Roche completely dumbfounded.
Roche seemed to realize something. With a dark expression, she pointed her staff toward Seria, summoning a sudden gust of wind.
"Look over there!"
Li Ke instinctively turned his head, watching the wind sweep through the area and cause Seria to adjust her stance to brace against the gale.
The sudden shift in the wind's intensity caught everyone by surprise.
"Look at me!" Roche shouted again, trying her best to put on an endearing front.
Li Ke turned his head back, but the moment he looked at Roche, his enthusiasm completely vanished, leaving him looking utterly drained of energy.
The clearing fell into a profound silence.
"Just go down in defeat already!!!"
Roche violently raised her hand, and a massive fireball manifested above her head. Just like before, a large jack-o'-lantern face appeared within the flames, but this time it bore a fierce and commanding expression.
This was her full power.
Her magical aptitude was generally average among her sisters, as she was typically much better with spear and staff martial arts. However, engaging Li Ke in close combat seemed reckless, so she chose to unleash her ultimate spell without hesitation.
The flames roared with intense heat, scorching the grass and plants beneath them before the fireball even landed. Yet Li Ke showed no intention of backing down. He extended his hand, using his forbidden power to instantly summon the greatsword from the carriage.
An invisible force enveloped him, enhancing all his physical capabilities.
In the next instant—
"Cut!"
Li Ke swung the greatsword, and a powerful gale instantly swept through the surroundings. The massive fireball unleashed by Roche, measuring at least three meters in diameter, was instantly blown apart by the wind, scattering into countless embers that ignited the surrounding brush.
Roche was knocked to the ground by the force of the wind, unable to even open her eyes as her small leather boots flew off.
"Ha... A minor opponent, truly amusing."
Li Ke smiled dismissively and strode toward Roche, with a backdrop of deep red flames burning behind him.
"You don't understand the first thing about true power!"
Standing in front of Roche, looking at her defiant yet fearful expression, Li Ke's smile grew wider. Roche was undeniably small, and despite her legal age, her height made her look quite diminutive.
Seeing her mixture of stubbornness and fear, Li Ke felt compelled to tease her. With a wave of his hand, an equally massive fireball appeared above his head, casting a long shadow over Roche as she sat on the ground.
"You know what happens next, right?"
Li Ke's smile looked decidedly villainous. But just as Roche fearfully tried to back away, Li Ke flicked his wrist, and a lollipop appeared in his hand.
"You get a lollipop!"
With a laugh, he placed the candy into Roche's mouth. Though she initially resisted in panic, the moment she tasted it, a warm sensation washed over her. Not only did it make her feel comfortable, but the sweet flavor was completely irresistible.
"Mmm! This tastes great!"
Roche happily enjoyed the lollipop, while Li Ke stood up with a grin, noticing that the forest behind them had somehow caught fire.
"What's going on?"
Li Ke was bewildered. He had blown out Roche's fireball, so how could there be such a massive fire? Even if he had started it accidentally, it shouldn't have spread this quickly.
Right at that moment, a massive silhouette with dark skin and red hair emerged from the burning trees. Li Ke turned around and saw a minotaur, roughly five to six meters tall, stepping out into the clearing.
"Uh, excuse me, did any of you happen to see who started the fire...?"
However, the monster's words cut short. From the minotaur's perspective, Roche was currently sitting right in front of Li Ke, her mouth full as her head bobbed up and down enjoying the candy. The minotaur's eyes snapped wide open. To make matters worse, his gaze locked onto the massive, crackling fireball floating directly above Li Ke's head.
The culprit had been found!
And he was a completely shameless, degenerate criminal at that!
The minotaur's eyes instantly flushed blood-red with rage.
As for Li Ke, it was his first time discovering that minotaurs could actually speak human tongue. After pondering it for a brief second, he replied.
"Nope. Didn't see a thing."
He spoke with an expression of absolute, deadpan sincerity. He didn't feel there was a single thing wrong with claiming total ignorance while literally holding a massive sphere of blazing destruction in his hand.
Ruohua was so completely speechless that she slapped her hand over her face once again. She knew full well that Li Ke hadn't actually started the fire, but logically speaking, shouldn't he at least dispel the damn fireball before making a statement like that?!
"You bastard!! You despicable, shameless human scum!!"
The colossal minotaur lowered his head, charging his massive horns straight toward Li Ke. He didn't care about Roche at all; his entire being was hyper-focused on obliterating Li Ke.
Anyone who dared to set fire to the sacred forest deserved a brutal death!!
Staring at Li Ke's face and the flames dancing around him, the massive beast couldn't help but remember how his own father had perished at the hands of human arsonists. The catastrophic fire from over a decade ago had not only driven the resident Elves away from these woods but had also inflicted devastating casualties upon his tribe, cementing their absolute distrust of humanity.
Initially, because managing the spreading wildfire was his top priority, he had intended to just let these humans flee so he could focus on containing the blaze. But as expected, every last human deserved to rot!!
The Minotaur King harbored zero mercy in his heart. He had fully condemned Li Ke as the arsonist.
Sensing the sudden, suffocating surge of killing intent and the faint, echoing wails radiating from the beast's aura, Li Ke's expression finally hardened into seriousness.
The taboo energy was siphoned out of the void at an accelerating rate. The roaring ocean of player resentment relentlessly battered his already fragile mental willpower. The blood-qi surging within his veins exploded with a cataclysmic output that far exceeded his actual mastery—a direct manifestation of the sheer buff granted by the forbidden power.
It was an all-encompassing, absolute amplification!
Although Li Ke hadn't actively studied its mechanics yet, this taboo power manifested within his body as an almost omnipotent, reality-bending force. In fact, if he had taken a moment to carefully retrace his steps, it wouldn't be hard to deduce exactly how that lollipop had appeared in his hand earlier.
He had completely bypassed physics and unconsciously materialized it into existence using pure taboo energy!
"It looks like you have absolutely no intention of believing my words."
Li Ke waved his hand, dispelling the floating fireball as he gripped the handle of his greatsword.
"In that case, I'll just have to ask you to die!"
The greatsword swung. A violent, razor-sharp crescent of sword-qi violently erupted forward. The minotaur's eyes widened in sheer panic—the exact millisecond his instincts registered the lethal danger, the attack had already arrived!
The sword-qi tore seamlessly right through the middle of the minotaur's torso. Before the beast could even utter a single agonizing shriek, its colossal frame was cleanly cleaved in two, sending a torrential downpour of blood spraying directly toward Li Ke.
Yet the crimson rain froze completely mid-air, causing Roche to stare up at the floating droplets in absolute bewilderment.
However, in the very next breath, a wave of primal, spine-chilling terror washed over her. Snapping her head around, she saw that Li Ke's eyes had gradually begun to emit a faint, menacing crimson glow.
"Slaughter... who knew it could feel this incredibly intoxicating?"
Li Ke stared at his own hands, then down at the severed corpse collapsed on the dirt road, experiencing a sudden rush of profound euphoria.
"Screw you for never dropping any Epics!"
"So annoying, can you just drop dead faster?"
"The axe! I want your weapon drop!"
"That was my last Resurrection Coin! AAAAAHHH!!"
An endless avalanche of player rage slammed violently into Li Ke's consciousness, continually triggering waves of agonizingly pleasurable stimulation throughout his psyche. It ignited a manic impulse to slaughter more living things—he wanted to butcher Goblins, shred Cat-fae, massacre humans, and completely lose himself in the raw ecstasy of taking lives!
He wanted to maximize this feeling of complete, uninhibited release as much as humanly possible!
Roche watched in sheer horror as Li Ke's energy surged into an ecstatic frenzy once again. His smile twisted into a completely unhinged, psychopathic grin, the crimson light burning within his eyes growing brighter by the second.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!"
Li Ke continuously forced the circulation of the Blood-Qi Secret Technique. His skin and a vast majority of his capillaries began to rupture under the strain, soaking his torso in a layer of blood. Yet he couldn't care less. Under the violent onslaught of raw desire fueled by the taboo power, maintaining the hyper-circulation of the Blood-Qi Secret Technique yielded an agonizingly addictive euphoria—a wave of sheer, intoxicating bliss that scrambled his senses!
"Derange level up!"
"Frenzy! Frenzy!"
"BLOOD!!"
His bloodshot gaze involuntarily drifted down toward Roche pinned beneath him. Staring at her delicate features and sensing the warm pulse of blood flowing beneath her pale skin, a terrifying curiosity suddenly gripped his mind.
What color is Roche's blood?
If I defeat her right here... will it feel incredible?
"Kill her!"
"Battle Mages must die!"
"Why the hell do these little mages hit so damn hard?!"
"Phase Shift! Fuck!"
The moment his eyes locked onto her, a tidal wave of foreign impulses and bitter resentment flooded his brain, relentlessly demanding that he attack her on the spot.
But the exact millisecond he raised his greatsword, his own words from earlier suddenly echoed like a gunshot in his mind:
Wait... Isn't this the exact definition of being corrupted?
The killing intent vanished instantly. Li Ke's knees buckled, and his body nearly collapsed onto the dirt road. He violently flushed the taboo energy out of his system, completely severing the link. In a flash, he snapped out of that manic, uninhibited frenzy, stripped entirely of the reckless armor that had shielded him from shame, morality, and rules.
The agonizing backlash from forcing his blood-qi, coupled with the profound exhaustion of his sudden physical outburst, left his voice weak and entirely out of breath. However, what truly sapped the strength from his lungs was the crushing weight of what he had just done—and the freezing reality that he was currently standing there completely disheveled and without his gear.
"Uh... hey..."
He frantically tried to cover himself, twisting awkwardly in a desperate bid to hide his state. He flashed a profoundly strained, excruciatingly awkward smile at the utterly shell-shocked Roche.
"...Seria, could you... maybe bring my clothes over? Fast?"
An overwhelming, suffocating wave of pure humiliation washed over him. Every single word that had just left his mouth and every single stunt he had just pulled made him feel like his life was officially over. At this point, the best-case scenario would be to pack his bags, leave the Arad continent entirely, and find an alternate universe where these three women would never set eyes on him again.
It was the only way he could logically survive the social death.
Roche stared blankly at the suddenly normal Li Ke. A wave of confusion washed over her face before twisting into a thoroughly mischievous, wicked smirk.
"Heh... hehehe... Well, look who finally came back to his senses."
Li Ke offered a deeply pained, awkward nod. While those unhinged proclamations technically stemmed from his actual buried desires, he would never, under normal circumstances, act like such a completely unbridled degenerate. The sensation was exactly like regressing back to peak middle school chuunibyou—having the unearned audacity to say anything, do anything, and feeling absolutely phenomenal about yourself while doing it.
Yet the exact millisecond that taboo power dissipated, the crushing weight of that embarrassment—the violent urge to build a time machine just to undo the last ten minutes—slammed directly into his chest.
Roche's grin grew increasingly unhinged and mocking.
"Oh? What happened to that massive attitude from earlier? Mr. Harem King?"
Roche tightened her grip on her staff, aggressively crunching down on the lollipop in her mouth until it shattered. Stepping forward, she delivered a sharp shove to Li Ke's shoulder while he was frantically trying to adjust his stance, forcing him a step back.
"Come on, don't do this..."
Li Ke was currently trapped in a state of absolute, peak psychological mortification. He couldn't even bring himself to make direct eye contact with her.
"Hehehe! Weren't you bragging about being a supreme Harem King? Keep that same energy! Come on, show me that attitude again!"
Roche used the tip of her staff to aggressively gesture at him, simultaneously using her foot to petulantly kick at his shins. The look of sheer, smug triumph written all over her face instantly reminded Li Ke of a thoroughly bratty opponent.
Operating purely on self-defense, he instinctively flicked his wrist to swat Roche's staff away so she would stop messing with him. However, that sudden movement threw Roche completely off balance—and Li Ke failed to manage his own posture in time.
The off-balance Roche toppled straight toward him, and in the very next breath...
Roche collided directly against Li Ke's raised defense, knocking her flat right back onto the dirt road.