Playing chess is undoubtedly fascinating.

However, it is not everything in life.

 

It’s past 9 PM.

As usual, Zoe was conducting her "killing intent" experiment on the plants on her balcony.

And, as usual, there were no results.

The two groups, the experimental group and the control group, showed no discernible differences. The few differences that did appear were caused by non-killing intent factors and could be considered normal individual variances in plant growth.

As for whether the group exposed to killing intent was affected by the lack of insects, there was no need to worry about that.

Zoe regularly maintains a killing intent barrier around the surrounding space to ward off any insects trying to enter.

If she happens to return after being out for a while, she uses a low-power killing intent sweep to clear the area of insects.

The plants in the control group, which aren’t constantly exposed to killing intent, don’t have any insects either.

After completing the series of experiments, Zoe, unsurprised by the results, silently recorded all the data on the plants.

Then, after a quick disguise, she left the house and headed for the nightclub.

According to her new short-term plan, version 6.0, her nightly routine was now entirely different from before.

The killing intent experiments on the plants were trivial matters.

The most significant change was that Zoe now went out nearly every evening. She would visit the nightclub to stimulate her emotions through interactions with others, then head to the old factory to work out with tungsten steel spheres.

Only after doing all this would she return home to write.

Tonight marked the first day of implementing short-term plan 6.0, and Zoe arrived at the nightclub’s entrance right on time, around 10 PM.

The newly hired security staff recognised her immediately, clearly having received a heads-up from Rohmund Miguerro. They respectfully led her to the VIP lift.

She bypassed the bustling dance floor and headed straight for the familiar VIP room.

Since she hadn’t given prior notice, Rohmund wasn’t there yet.

After all, Rohmund was now the head of Rameses Real Estate, not the boss of the nightclub.

However, the new club boss, Romingo—Rohmund’s younger sister—was there. He was the same person who had been slapped unconscious by Zoe during their last meeting.

When he heard the news, Romingo hurriedly arrived with his girlfriend, Shiela, who had been involved in the previous incident where Zoe had instructed her to tie up the men.

"Brother! Sister will be here soon," Romingo said warmly.

Zoe had never told them her name, so they had simply assumed it was fine to call her "sister." However, Romingo’s first use of "sister" sounded much more affectionate than his later use of "real sister."

"This is my girlfriend, Shiela. You met her last time," Romingo added.

He signalled to Shiela to step forward and offer Zoe a massage.

Zoe waved her hand in refusal, then sat on the sofa and gave Romingo a sharp look. "There’s no need to call me 'sister'. You two staying here is enough."

As she spoke, Zoe’s gaze held a certain depth, the kind of look one might give an experimental subject.

Of course, she wouldn’t be as harsh as she had been with the two scoundrels last time. She wasn’t going to ruin the two in front of her immediately.

She had conducted a thorough experiment on emotional stimulation with the two scoundrels and had also performed a simple trial on Rohmund.

However, this didn’t mean her experiments on emotional stimulation were coming to an end.

The effect of this ability varied slightly with each individual, possibly due to the different emotional entities present in each person.

So, Zoe wanted to conduct more experiments.

By observing more people, she could refine her control over the ability.

Having already experimented on the two scoundrels, she was confident that she could now use emotional stimulation without causing harm.

She could ensure that everyone involved in the experiments would remain intact as subjects, rather than becoming collateral damage.

In addition, conducting the experiments here would subtly strengthen the sense of submission among Rohmund’s subordinates.

This added a layer of safety and security to her plans.

Tonight, however, she would begin with just the two individuals in front of her. There was no immediate need to call in additional subjects.

Yet, her expression and words seemed to suggest otherwise.

And since this was in Sun City…

Romingo and Shiela inevitably misinterpreted her intentions.

Shiela immediately began to undress.

She was far quicker than when she had been tasked with binding the unconscious men last time, swiftly removing her outer garments.

Clearly, the last intense beating from Zoe left a deep impression on her.

Romingo also seemed to freeze for a moment, his eyes wide, flashing with countless complicated emotions.

Then, a flicker of hesitation appeared, followed by a look of struggle.

However, this hesitation and struggle lasted only for an instant.

When he saw Shiela beside him decisively start removing her clothes, Romingo recalled the earnest advice his older brother, Rohmund, had given him earlier, urging him to be sure to please this formidable person.

So, Romingo gritted his teeth and resolutely lifted the edge of his clothes.

Zoe only realised what was happening when both of them had already stripped halfway.

It wasn’t because they were particularly quick.

It was simply that their sudden actions had left her stunned, momentarily unsure of what was going on.

Fortunately, she wasn’t a fool, and quickly regained her composure.

She immediately raised her hand to stop them. “Stop, stop, stop!”

“You two, please behave yourselves. Don’t misunderstand me.”

Helplessly shaking her head, Zoe shot an irritated look at the two people in front of her.

She understood that they were scared and trying to play the role of the sycophant, but surely it wasn’t necessary to go to such extremes.

What kind of bizarre scenario was this?

Did she really seem like someone who swung both ways? She wasn’t some pervert with strange tastes.

And now, they were both acting as if they were a couple, coming together like this?

That was pushing it a bit far.

What kind of person would actually enjoy this kind of behaviour? What kind of connection would lead to this type of interaction?

Shaking her head, Zoe dismissed the strange thoughts that had crossed her mind.

She then turned her full attention to the two people in front of her, who were now awkwardly putting their clothes back on.

She didn’t say anything more.

Instead, she activated her emotion-stimulation ability, causing Romingo and Shiela’s actions to abruptly freeze.

Sensing their different emotional energies, Zoe could feel the subtle differences between them.

The emotional energy of each person varied in size, and their sensitivity to mental power also differed.

After lightly stimulating their submissive emotions, Zoe realised that in order to evoke the same intensity of emotion, individuals with larger emotional energy required more mental power to trigger the same effect.

By comparing the different amounts of mental power needed to evoke the same level of submissive emotion in both of them, Zoe gained a deeper understanding of her emotion-stimulation ability.

A vague standard began to form in her mind.

For emotional energies of different sizes, she began to grasp how much mental power was required to stimulate a certain intensity of emotion.

This would prove to be useful for her future mastery of emotion-stimulation abilities.

Without this understanding, it would be easy to either overdo it or not trigger the desired intensity of emotion in others.

From this experiment, she had already gained a rough standard for the amount of mental power needed to stimulate emotional energy of various sizes.

Of course, further refinement would require more practice and experimentation in the future.

Reflecting on this, Zoe realised she would need to come here often to continue developing her emotion-stimulation ability.