Chapter 2006

Boom!!!

Endless spiritual attacks, like a dragon of malice, devoured Andre.

If Andre's method of attacking the mental defense were like a silent, nourishing stream, slowly eroding thought.

Then the spiritual 'pollution' unleashed by the Second Will is like forcing feces into his mouth with a manure spreader!!

Innumerable despairing, even shattering memory fragments surged wildly into his brain. Faced with such violent assault, even though Andre's will was however strong, at this moment he only felt his mind about to explode, unable to stop himself from roaring in pain repeatedly.

"Who are you...!? Who exactly are you!!?"

The roar echoed, and the whole world seemed to tremble violently as if out of control.

He could not understand what was going on.

To Andre, it was clear that Lin An had lost the ability to resist one second, yet the next second another Lin An inexplicably appeared, claiming that was his true self.

Not only did he break his settings right away, but he also beat him up, mocking him as an idiot!

Ignoring Andre's anger, the Second Will unhesitatingly intensified the spiritual assault, glanced at the impending closure of the void above, and planned to quickly shatter Andre's inner defenses.

"Andre, don't you think a person's eyes are how the player sees the world?"

"What about the blind? The game's blind character option, raising the difficulty?"

"So to reduce the chance of a player's descent, just dig out the eyes?"

The Second Will snorted, not waiting for Andre's huge face to twist, then spoke again:

"Not saying self-awakening is that simple."

"You die once and you know: after a strong person dies, their soul is sucked into the Nether Realm. You think consciousness merely explains bodily behavior; if only the soul remains, what are we explaining? Explaining that we are ghosts?"

"Furthermore, the system calls us players purely based on our generated cognition, like the system's translation—just for ease of understanding. One can think that some civilizations lack the concept of games."

"How? Do you think human civilization is advanced? The only one in the universe aware of games?"

"Soul? Nether Realm..!?"

Andre stared blankly, not waiting for him to judge whether these words were true or false, the Second Will, like throwing trash, directly 'smashed' the Nether Realm's information into his brain.

"Bang!!"

Seeing Andre stunned in an instant, the Second Will shook his head, too lazy to point out every logical flaw in Andre, only intending to end it quickly.

"Haven't you realized? Your so-called truth is entirely based on your cognition."

"All theories and logic come from Earth's system; if just this information could deduce the ultimate, then the civilization Qing Kai spoke of would already be invincible."

"Writing a god's name can summon the supreme; all that's needed is a language that creates a single character."

"Truth is unknowable; what is knowable is certainly not the truth."

No! If what I know isn't the ultimate, then by what authority does the system trap me here, by what authority does it prevent me from leaving?

After regaining his senses, the ghost skull that Andre had transformed into twisted violently and let out an angry roar.

He was certain he was right! His logic was self-consistent! Moreover, if all of this were wrong, then by what authority could he alter the system mission?

However, facing Andre's roar, the Second Will seemed to have anticipated his words long ago; his eyes full of mockery, he gave a light chuckle and then spoke again.

"Andre, do you know why I say you're an idiot?"

"Because you still haven't realized where the danger of the ghost skull lies. Everything we see here is like blind men feeling an elephant; if you take it at face value, you're doomed."

"Let me guess—you're still under Fiona's influence; otherwise you'd be far calmer than you are now."

"When you first entered the mission, you misjudged some things; to survive, you could only desperately seek a breakthrough line of thought..."

"If nothing unexpected happens, you're stuck at the Research Institute. The second segment of information on the TV is the key to the mission..."

The Second Will casually raised his right hand, moving it toward his nose:

"Touching the nose makes us feel two heads? So the ghost skull is on our necks?"

"Heh... this seemingly eerie sensation is merely our brains being lazy. When faced with information they've never processed, the brain automatically substitutes it with the simplest cognition—just like primitive humans seeing an airplane for the first time instinctively think it's an iron bird. After all, normal people rarely cross their fingers to touch their nose, but doing it a few times makes it habitual."

"The two-headed logic is false."

"Shut up!! Keep quiet!! How could I not have thought of this? I know this matter! You have no idea what happened afterward...!"

"You don't know?"

Seeing Andre still unwilling to yield, the Second Will snorted coldly, launched a punch, and with a 'bang' blasted the re-formed giant face to pieces!

"It's you who should shut up!"

"Why keep deceiving yourself?"

"Andre, you may indeed have realized this, but it's too late, isn't it?! By the time you thought of this, you had already cut off your own head. You desperately realized you couldn't leave, that you'd been infected by the ghost skull—or rather fused with it...!"

"You're unwilling, you want to escape! So you can only fabricate a logic for yourself, forcefully explaining why you've become like this!"

"You can't admit your mistake, so you dump this memory onto Fiona, letting her 'escape'! Perhaps it's coincidence, perhaps it's your innate talent, but you really pulled it off! Fiona's success then gave you hope, making you even more convinced your logic was actually correct—you even 'forgot' this incident!"

"No!! Not like that! I didn't do it like that!!"

The human head collapsed and twisted, like a mind breaking apart. Andre, now transformed into a ghost skull, seemed to struggle, letting out a terrified, loud roar.

Black mist began to diffuse, as if disintegrating; Andre desperately sucked in large breaths, trying to draw the black mist back. He was nearly immortal! Compared to the Second Will's mental assault, these words were the deadly poison!

"That's not how it's done?"

Ignoring Andre's collapse and despair.

A flash of cruelty suddenly crossed the Second Will's eyes.

"You think I can't guess why you cut off your head? Or that you sent me to the Research Institute in the 'second round'? You're merely trying to mislead me into reaching the two-headed conclusion."

"Too bad wrong is wrong; Jiang Haochen's existence is also the biggest loophole in your entire plan."

"Have you discovered the ultimate? Found the secret to altering the system mission?"

"No, you merely used something invisible to 'touch' us, causing us to form erroneous cognition—or rather, an illusion!"

The Second Will gave a cold chuckle, his eyes turning toward his own hand.

"Just like the principle of touching the nose, you flooded us with false information to confuse our self-perception. But you never expected Jiang Haochen's ability to be so special! Even if he thought he'd lost his power, the meme on him wouldn't disappear."

No way, you can only cut off the Meme on his body and hide it near the exit! So whenever he gets close to the light gate, he always regains his strength.

Does he have a wound on his body? So from beginning to end he's been chased by ghosts, and to keep him from suspecting anything, you even deliberately splashed him all over with blood.