Chapter 1593: Dead End 3

His brows furrowed tightly.

Lin An looked at Kèláiēn solemnly, his doubts growing deeper.

He actually didn't much like Kèláiēn's way of speaking.

Kèláiēn and Chu An are alike; both like to state conclusions first, while the reasons remain vague and unclear.

Just that.

If it were Chu An, it would be better not to speak.

That perverse layout schemes everyone's reactions, pursuing perfection.

Then Kèláiēn carries a faint arrogance, as if too lazy to explain.

Lin An knows.

Kèláiēn perhaps considers himself from a super civilization, harboring a sense of pride in his heart.

He had noticed this as early as their first contact.

"Is it because after the fifth stage the apocalypse progresses faster? The system won't let us rest?"

"A new disaster? A new trial?"

Lin An frowned and asked, showing no intention of giving up.

Questions were never meant for escape.

Fearing death is what truly leads to death.

After losing his power this time, he deeply felt it.

If one hides like a turtle to avoid danger, that often leads to the worst death.

When encountering the strong, become stronger—endlessly.

Even if the difficulty reaches a point where Lin An cannot resist it, he will still face the apocalypse head-on, fighting to the last moment rather than fleeing!

Hearing Lin An's tone, which neither affirmed nor denied his own warning, and even his terrifyingly firm conviction, Kèláiēn blinked slightly, then sighed again.

He looked at Lin An with a complex gaze, hesitating with his mouth open.

Having courage is good; he also understands that Chu An would choose Lin An, essentially valuing this very point.

But...

It's really useless.

Perhaps Lin An's current achievements could be called heaven-defying; even he has never heard of anyone reaching the fourth stage so quickly, already beginning to assault the fifth stage!

Lin An's life-and-death battles in less than two years are nothing short of one miracle after another.

But so what?

"Lin An..."

"It seems you've roughly guessed something."

"Exactly. After the fifth stage, the apocalypse will reach a new height of terror—I think you cannot bear it."

"Don't refute me first; hear me out."

Raising his hand, Kèláiēn lifted it to press down Zhang Tie's dissatisfaction, shaking his head and sighing.

"If we say the difficulty of the apocalypse you now face is 1,"

"then starting at the fifth stage, the apocalypse's difficulty will become 1000!!"

"To be precise, you are now in the newbie village, hardly counting as the apocalypse! The true terrifying disaster is something you dare not even imagine!"

"Newbie village!? 1000!?"

"Kèláiēn!? Don't scare me and Lin Dui, you bastard!"

As soon as his words fell, Zhang Tie jumped up like a cat whose fur had been blown.

His pair of bear eyes widened into ovals, utterly disbelieving Kèláiēn's words.

This difficulty being a newbie village!?

What a joke!

They've died so many times! Lin Dui and he have risked their lives countless times! They've killed countless enemies, resolved countless crises! Even Lin Dui has slain the Alien Species Emperor!

With such an impressive record, you, Kèláiēn, call it a newbie village!?

Gently pressing down on Zhang Tie's shoulder, Lin An stared fixedly at Kèláiēn without speaking.

To be honest, he also thought Kèláiēn's words were too exaggerated.

If the fifth-stage difficulty were truly that high, how would other civilizations possessing the fifth stage survive?

Would leveling up mean everyone dies together? Then what gives the Alien Species Emperor the right to still want to become fifth stage? What gives the Overseer the right to still sell him a favor?

"I believe the difficulty will increase, but, Kèláiēn."

"I need to explain."

Being smart people, Lin An spoke in a low voice, directly pointing out the crux of the problem.

After a long silence, Kèláiēn gave a bitter laugh, seeing Lin An's unwillingness to give up.

All he did was not answer the question directly, but instead, as if selling a secret, he spoke softly:

"Lin An, you should know that the apocalypse comes in many types, right?"

"Natural disasters, catastrophes, mutations, celestial crises, supernatural, special, memes... and everything else."

"Among all apocalypses, the lowest difficulty is the zombie crisis, namely virus plus infection meme."

Infection meme?

His brow twitched, and Lin An instantly caught Kèláiēn's definition of this apocalypse.

He had long suspected that zombies are essentially a special meme structure.

Kèláiēn said all this, which he already knew, but he didn't wait to ask for clarification. In the next second, Kèláiēn seemed to wave his hand, and a semi-transparent light curtain appeared.

Don't rush to ask questions, Lin An.

I know, I'm saying these things; you definitely won't agree, and you definitely want to refute me, saying there's more than just zombies on Earth. The difficulty and type you've encountered aren't that low.

You've also dealt with plenty of memes and supernatural incidents.

But I want to tell you that, aside from zombies and mutants, every meme and supernatural incident you've encountered is essentially simple and weakened!

You think... you can survive in the face of real monsters and twisted rules?

A low laugh filled with too much emotion.

Klein gazed at Lin An with a deep look, and the image in his hand instantly changed, turning into a bronze tree standing in the darkness.

Special Event, Primordial Tree.

Any creature within a thousand-kilometer range will gain supernatural fantasy ability the instant it sees it.

Sounds great, doesn't it?

As long as you can imagine it, the product of your fantasy can appear immediately.

Those who come into contact die in two ways: one is a blissful death, the other is being killed by the various horrors they themselves imagine.

Don't think your rationality can control your mind to avoid fantasizing; before it, even hyper-effective thought and absolute rationality will 'fantasize' into reality, turning your brain into whatever you want it to become...

Lin An paused upon hearing it, and after a brief thought he understood the terror Klein described.

Just Zhang Tie beside him, hearing it, was unconvinced; he rubbed his own head and countered Klein.

What the hell!? Even if fantasies become real and a bunch of monsters appear, I don't need a brain, right!?

I empty my brain, have nothing—can this thing still force me to think of stuff!? Primordial Tree? Tch... I've run into similar things with Captain Lin too!

Xiong Hanzi crossed his arms, the more he looked at Klein the more displeased he became.

This prick, really underestimates him and Captain Lin too much!

He and Captain Lin have dealt with who knows how many of these messy events! If he remembers correctly, under Captain Lin's hyper-effective thought, one could even turn oneself into a machine without blinking an eye!

However, unlike Zhang Tie who didn't understand Klein's words, Lin An's gaze narrowed as he looked at the image Klein displayed.

Fantasy inevitably becomes real... so even if it's hyper-effective thought, or even turning oneself into a thoughtless state... one would still die?

Simulating a machine means the brain truly becomes a cold machine; emptying thought means having no brain?

Exactly.

Klein let out a low chuckle, also too lazy to bother with Xiong Hanzi's rebuttal.

As soon as a thought arises, the tree's special ability takes effect immediately.

It traces back to the logical source; what you want to do will necessarily produce the corresponding product! Thinking that not thinking about things is fine? That will only turn you into an eternally thoughtless living corpse!

Unlike the meme trifles you've encountered before, those things are just children's toys...

As far as I know, only one Fifth Stage has survived contact with this event!

His method was simply not to think, relying solely on survival instinct to maintain his life!

That guy, stiff as a sculpture, forever stays before that tree, unable to move at all!

Just as his words fell, Lin An's face changed, and he instinctively blurted out a question.

The sole surviving Fifth Stage?

However, before he could speak, Klein seemed to guess what he was going to ask, snorted coldly, and directly answered:

Lin An, are you trying to say that this kind of special event or supernatural incident shouldn't essentially be some kind of rule?

Fifth Stages have mastered rules; how could they possibly be unable to counter?

Then let me tell you, the horror of the three major events faced after the Fifth Stage is itself the rule!

They're not like the 'newbie monsters' you've encountered before! You could still drain their rules and oppose them!

These horrors are themselves the embodiment of rules! Their power is infinite, making it impossible to confront them head-on!

If you want to survive, there's only one way! Find the conditions to evade them, or else have your rules just happen to counter theirs, using that to escape!

As he spoke, Klein seemed to recall an unpleasant memory.

All we saw was him wearily waving his hand, then simulating once more an endless dark starry sky.

Lin An, the three major events you've encountered at your current stage are essentially just trifles in the Doomsday Game used for practice and familiarization.

They only instinctively trigger rules, and can't be used many times. Their impact is extremely low, basically not counting as real major events!

What is a meme!? A meme is another form of life that lives in thought, in cognition, in logic, and cannot be killed!

What is a supernatural incident!? It is the ability to activate without logic, to twist rules without limit!

What is a special event!? Special means you can't possibly understand how it arises! What is its principle! It can even simultaneously possess dozens or hundreds of utterly unrelated bizarre abilities!

In the continually magnified image, all we saw was Klein, as if extremely bitter, stretching out his hand, indicating for Lin An to look at a long bar of light in the picture.

Do you see it?

This is the Primordial Tree floating in the universe.

To be precise, it's the upgraded version I just mentioned!

Its ability is simple: it makes all organic life's fantasies become real.

Under its influence, all living beings within a nearby light-year die completely... not a single one left.

Turning his head, Klein gave a self-mocking laugh.

Lin An, can you understand what this means?

Before it, even your body's cells, mitochondria, those most basic biological structures... will 'fantasize' into reality.

Yes, each cell in the human body actually possesses the most basic 'consciousness'.

Having consciousness means you can fantasize, or in other words, 'think'!

You will, the moment you step into that forbidden zone, every cell in your body! Your brain cells! Your hematopoietic cells! Your skin tissue! Will, like cancer, directly expand infinitely until it drains your life, turning into a lump of rotting flesh and dying!

Tell me, how are you supposed to counter something like this!?

The light curtain shifted again.

Clair's words sounded feeble as he again pointed to a black‑hole‑like image.

"Oh, above this kind of monster, there are rumors of an ultimate disaster of the same type."

"Before that thing, not only living things die, but even dead, pure material structures will undergo heat death under its influence."

"Even a planet would instantly turn into the most basic particle structure, then the structure would escape, disintegrate, and ultimately become cold energy."

In the endless darkness, Clair let out a bitter sigh.

"That thing... is like a black hole."

"We don't know what it looks like."

"Because before it, even light will die...."