Chapter 1306: Misdirection and Breakthrough!

low world.

「Crack！！」

Accompanied by a bone‑cracking sound that made one's teeth ache, Lin An, who had charged into the "crowd" like a machine, instantly twisted his own arms and broke free of the intelligent bodies surrounding him.

He stepped on the head of a deformed woman, using it like a springboard; with a bang, he blinked and soared like a bird, instantly bursting out of the encirclement.

As if ignoring attacks and his own injuries, Lin An simply kept his head down and sprinted toward Zhang Tie.

No longer fleeing, no longer dodging.

Although at this level of physical strength he actually couldn't withstand too many attacks, Lin An at this moment seemed not to care at all.

When rule‑based attacks were ineffective, the intelligent bodies surrounding him were like a physically powerful monster—able to keep injuring him but unable to kill him instantly.

In the Thought Space, the Second Will silently watched him, brows slightly furrowed.

The time Lin An found a way to leave the instance was far faster than he had imagined.

The scene was eerie; at that moment, whether it was him or Lin An, both merely calmly looked at each other, as if they didn't care that their true bodies were already shattered.

(「Do you know how to get out now? 」)

He asked casually, the Second Will chuckled lightly, and couldn't be bothered to give Lin An any more trouble.

That's right; he still controls the body, immune to rule attacks. Theoretically, if he relinquished control, Lin An wouldn't be able to meet up with Zhang Tie even if he wanted to.

But..

It's meaningless.

Pressed to the edge, Lin An didn't move either, letting the monster's attacks kill him.

An eerie yet delicate balance.

Given that he never wanted to die, it was as if he could disgust Lin An by threatening the lives of AnXia and the others, while Lin An could disgust him in return by adopting a "break the pot, break the bowl" attitude.

After all, Lin An fears death less than he does.

「Is it the Causal Sequence? 」

「Actually, I should thank you. If you hadn't popped up suddenly, I might not have thought of it this quickly. 」

In tit‑for‑tat fashion, Lin An gave a light laugh, completely free of his earlier irritation.

Upon realizing the correct breakthrough idea, he knew he could exit the instance immediately and then advance to the Fourth Stage!

Long An should be fine for now—at least, on the team members' panel, nobody has died...

The idea was too simple—so simple that the moment he figured it out, he realized what the Second Will had actually done.

(「Heh.. 」)

(「No need to deliberately provoke me; I was just trying it out. 」)

(「Whether I come out or not, it doesn't affect your reaching this point. 」)

He spread his hands; the Second Will didn't care about Lin An's verbal "thanks," merely conjuring a chair for himself and lounging lazily upon it.

One failure meant nothing to him—after all, he had plenty of opportunities.

The only thing that made him uneasy was...

For some reason, he always felt that behind Chu An arranging Lin An's entry into this instance, things weren't that simple.

At least, he had noticed that Lin An was beginning to show new changes.

(「Another way of thinking? Do you want to teach him that? 」)

(「But is it meaningful? 」)

He murmured inwardly; a flicker of strange color flashed in the Second Will's eyes, and after a moment he simply hid himself, disappearing from sight.

Unlike his outward indifference, he actually felt a strong sense of crisis at this moment!

He could sense that Chu An had already started moving against him, like a silkworm gnawing away—bit by bit uncovering the trap, yet he could only fall into it passively!

If one said that before this instance, any of Lin An's thoughts and ways of thinking were as transparent to him as glass, but after this, perhaps everything would be different...

The two were like twins, doing the same thing and sharing the same experiences; at least, having undergone all of Lin An's experiences, he could fully simulate Lin An's thoughts and occupy an absolute advantage.

But if Lin An no longer thought the way he used to, his greatest advantage would vanish completely...

「Captain Lin! Don't come over! It's dangerous! 」

Piled upon by seven or eight intelligent bodies, Zhang Tie was so on the verge of collapse he couldn't move a muscle; on his body, these intelligences, holding various strange poses, resembled soft‑bodied creatures—some pressed his head down onto himself, others twisted his thighs trying to snap his legs and hoist them over his head.

Before him, moreover, a beautiful woman frenetically whipped him with a lash, from time to time trying to shove a sphere hard into his mouth.

At this very moment, he felt as if he were suffering the Ten Great Tortures of the Qing dynasty, beyond endurance.

However, the prolonged exposure to attacks has let him feel his physique constantly strengthening; having been beaten to the brink of death at the start—no, having already died once—he can now barely guarantee that his head won't be twisted onto his buttocks.

Perhaps with a little more time, he could stubbornly endure these monsters' perverse attacks and run wild across the world.

Without answering Zhang Tie's anxious dissuasion, Lin An simply kept his head down and sprinted, trying to reach Zhang Tie's side.

He cannot appear now; if he did, he would instantly be hit by a barrage of rule‑based attacks.

He has only one chance left!

Just looking at Zhang Tie's current state made his resolve firmer.

Sure enough, after dying once, Zhang Tie is no longer affected by the intelligent bodies' rules! Although we don't know why they still attack him, it must be instinctual.

The breakthrough idea is simple: it's the Causal Sequence!

As long as the Causal Sequence is used to reverse the brain's structure and restore it to the state before entering the instance, both will be kicked out instantly! The system's reward of extended time is essentially the severity of the rule's influence.

The reward is also a trap!

From the moment they entered the instance, the system has been attacking them!

「This eerie method of control is essentially a linguistic rule attack! In a sense, it's extremely similar to a meme! 」

「Just as knowing something makes it unforgettable, just as in some meme events, once a concept is known it immediately suffers a conceptual attack! This is a mental suggestion, an attack on the thought level! 」

「It's like training a dog: say 'sit' and the dog sits! Not because the dog wants to sit, but because its brain has been implanted with the relevant command! As long as the command is given, the dog will instinctively obey! 」

"So, the reason the Second Will is not under control is that he never had any command implanted; he didn't issue any command in this instance, so naturally this instance cannot inversely imprint the command into his brain!"

"His eyes flickered as he watched the distance between him and Zhang Tie grow closer; Lin An had already prepared himself to reverse their brains at the fastest speed!"

"From a normal logical standpoint, forgetting what one has said is outright impossible! Especially for powerful Awakened Ones, they usually can achieve total recall."

"But when issuing a command to the mission target, the first one actually affected is not the target, but oneself! Just like a person before speaking, they must first run it through their mind! Even if the speech is spoken without thinking, it still involves brain activity!"

"Thus, the spoken command will naturally be deeply etched in the brain, just like a virus implanted, and can be detonated by this rule at any time!"

"He felt a sigh."

"Lin An asked himself that he had also seen many Memes and mastered the rules. But after truly realizing how this rule works, he still felt somewhat shocked by the rule's strangeness."

"Who would have thought that this seemingly harmless instance could have an essence difficulty that reaches unsolvable!"

"If he didn't have the Causal Sequence, then he could only wait for death!"

"Want to survive in this instance, there are actually only two ways to live! First, after entering, get kicked out before the intelligent entity goes berserk; unexpectedly, one can control the intelligent entity via command! Direct mission failure!"

"Second.... be a 'good person'!"

"This instance is like a mirror; all horror comes from oneself!"

"In this instance, all of humanity's sins and desires will turn into evil fruits and be swallowed."

"For some reason, when Lin An realized this, he actually had a strange hint of enlightenment."

"If humanity treats itself as a deity to toy with the weak, then conversely, when humanity faces a true deity, how could they not be weak?"

"Or perhaps..."

"When a lifeform possesses power over other lives, when it arbitrarily toys with other lives, could it at some moment suddenly awaken and thus feel deep fear?"

"Then, what would it do?"

"Vaguely, Lin An always felt that behind this instance, a deeper secret is hidden."