Surviving In This Filthy World As A Novel Villain

All four skills he had now were more for defense. The lack of variety made him feel a little unsafe, especially since he wanted to be a fighter who was good at everything.

After looking for a while, Alex sighed, frustrated.

Really powerful skills or items cost points in the millions. His 130,000 points felt like dropping a pebble in the ocean – barely making a splash.

But the cheaper skills were either too simple, too weak, or had really obvious problems.

This put Alex in a tough spot.

He kept browsing for another ten minutes or so. Then, seeing the description of the first skill on a new row, his mental finger stopped scrolling down.

"Huh, this skill looks interesting."

Alex clicked to read the details.

[Mental Hypnosis]: Uses a special item to hypnotize the target. Can change the hypnotized person's thoughts and awareness, making them accept ideas, feelings, or judgments the user implants. Price: 110,000 Critical Points.

Hiss!

If used the right way, this skill could be incredibly strong.

The only downside was needing the special item to actually hypnotize someone. But this wasn't like the hypnosis you read about in psychology books; this seemed to be direct mind control, not just simple suggestion.

"Bought."

Alex didn't hesitate for a second. Instantly, a huge amount of knowledge about psychology and hypnosis flooded into his mind, quickly mixing together and making sense.

It felt like a buy-one-get-one-free deal.

After taking in all this new knowledge, Alex felt like he could probably get a master's degree in psychology now.

Besides the knowledge, he also got the special item – an old silver coin.

The coin wasn't very big, about the size of one of those old silver dollars from way back. Alex couldn't tell if it was real silver. It had complicated symbols and patterns carved into it that were hard to make out.

This was an active skill, and using it was surprisingly simple. The target just needed to look at the coin for three seconds, and the coin's unique power would hypnotize them.

Very simple, and very sneaky.

After all, who would suspect a plain old coin? Especially if the person holding it knew how to casually flip it between their fingers with one hand.

Thinking about this, Alex felt a sudden urge to try it out.

Reading the description was one thing, but trying it for real was the only way to know exactly how it worked. Getting some practice now would mean he'd know what he was doing when he needed to use it later.

With that thought, his eyes drifted over the four young women carefully attending to him. Each was gorgeous, with a great figure, and each had her own unique style.

As his gaze swept across them, a plan instantly formed in Alex's mind, and the corners of his mouth lifted slightly.

"Hey, let me show you girls a magic trick. Watch carefully," Alex said. His words immediately grabbed the attention of all four women.

They stopped what they were doing, their focus shifting entirely to Alex's hands.

Just as their attention was fully captured, Alex flipped his right hand over. A shiny silver coin appeared between his thumb and index finger. Then, he relaxed his thumb and pressed with his middle finger. The coin instantly flipped over his knuckles, moving from the gap between his thumb and index finger to the gap between his index and middle fingers.

Then it moved to the next gap, back and forth, like a dancer performing on his fingertips.

His movements were smooth and fast, yet they could clearly follow the coin's path.

Without realizing it, the only thing the four women could see was the gleaming coin dancing between his fingers.

In the next instant, the coin seemed to grow huge, filling their entire vision.

The four women froze on the spot, suddenly looking dazed and confused, like they didn't know where they were or what they were supposed to be doing...

Seeing the four women under the mental hypnosis, Alex's eyes lit up with excitement – not for the women themselves, but for the coin's power.

"Okay, now do the 'Subject Three' dance... nah, never mind, that's too cringe."

He thought for a moment, tapping his chin. "Alright, you four, line up and do that broadcast calisthenics routine. You know, the 'Morning Stretch' one. Just do that set."

Receiving the command, the four women moved like puppets. But unlike puppets, their movements weren't stiff; they moved just like they normally would.

The four women walked to an open space near the door, lined up neatly, and began performing the calisthenics routine... Stretching... Leg kicks... Chest expansions...

Their form wasn't perfect; you could tell they were slacking off on several moves.

This was because, deep down in their hypnotized minds, they actually believed they were back on a school playground doing morning exercises. And what good student doesn't slack off during those routines?

Under hypnosis, they could only do things they already knew how to do. You couldn't hypnotize a first-grader and make them suddenly ace a graduate school entrance exam. That just wasn't possible.

Mental hypnosis could only influence their perception and thoughts; it couldn't magically give them skills they never had.

"Tsk tsk, such an awesome skill. Good thing I didn't end up in some kind of dirty novel or adult game, or I'd definitely be going wild," Alex mused.

Things like groping on the subway, or the classic 'home tutor' scenarios...

This skill was practically made for guys who like stealing other people's girls!

Just thinking about the possibilities was kind of scary.

"Too bad... I'm not exactly a perfect gentleman," Alex grinned.

Just then, his phone vibrated in his pocket.

He pulled it out and saw it was a call from Ashley.

"Didn't she go back to the big city?"

Muttering to himself, Alex answered the call. "What's up?"

"Eric Vaughn's doctor master is heading to the City to find you..." Ashley's voice came through the phone, sounding rushed and worried.

She quickly explained how the master, Otis, had shown up at the Dawson Family home.

'Oh! So the real miracle doctor is coming down the mountain…' Alex rubbed his chin with one hand, a slight smile playing on his lips.

Things were getting more and more interesting.