Chapter 844: A Thousand-Layer Mystery and One World

Tick-tock—

Hanging on one side of the Meeting Room, a mechanical clock taken apart from somewhere, its hands ticking.

She hugged her knees, her head resting on Lin An's shoulder.

Mo Ling narrowed her eyes, listening to the tick-tock sound by her ear like a hypnotic lullaby, and couldn't help feeling drowsy.

She didn't think there was anything wrong with Lin An's idea, wondering if it was too cold-blooded.

To her, Chu An's image instead seemed more like a cunning, scheming villain.

In silence.

Chu An suddenly glanced at the cluster of permission light orbs on the table, but did not reach out:

"Lin An, do you feel that, in some sense, I have betrayed you?"

"I haven't fully stood in your position to handle the matter?"

"I admit, I really want more people to survive."

It's rare, Colonel Chu suddenly took off his glasses, placed them aside, and seriously looked at Lin An:

"But, please also believe me."

"I've said before, I will take you as the absolute core; you and Faction: Long An are what truly matter."

"Even if many are sacrificed, as long as you, Lin An, stay alive, that's enough."

Across from him, Lin An couldn't help but slightly startle upon hearing that.

He actually wasn't used to Chu An's expression that seemed like a personal emotion.

After a brief pause, Chu An put his glasses back on and spoke again:

"I know you're worried that I'm sacrificing the base's interests to save more survivors, even taking risks."

"But that's not the case."

He shook his head slightly.

"After hearing my plan, if you feel there's risk, you can terminate it at any time."

"Actually, I originally planned to tell you this after the matter was completed."

He took out a steel pen from his pocket.

"Shh-shh"

The metal pen tip scraped across the paper, yet left no marks.

Lin An looked over, somewhat puzzled, wondering what riddle Colonel Chu was selling again.

"This steel pen is a low-grade prestige item."

With a smile, Chu An handed the steel pen to Lin An:

"Its sole function is to consume spiritual energy and make writing appear on specific paper."

It sounded like a pointless explanation, yet it made Lin An vaguely realize something.

"Ignore... distance?"

"Exactly."

Chu An's face suddenly broke into a smile:

"I left that special piece of paper in the Amoeba Worm Instance."

"Oh.."

"It's the letter you brought in."

As the words fell, Lin An instantly recalled the letter that had fallen in the High Tower.

The letter inscribed with purple flowers!

The pen tip swished, writing faster and faster.

Across from him, Chu An continued speaking at breakneck speed:

"After completing the Amoeba Worm Instance's mission, I used this pen to contact 【Klein】."

The words had just fallen.

In an instant, Lin An jerked his head up, finally realizing what Chu An intended to do.

"You want to cultivate spiritual energy crops in the Amoeba Worm World!?"

"Klein and his team once 'created' an entire continent's worth of lifeforms; you want him to help us grow crops!?"

He blurted it out.

Lin An's eyes flickered; under his super-effective thought ability, he easily grasped what Chu An meant to convey.

In the Amoeba Worm Instance, time flows at a 1:10 ratio, allowing large amounts of food to be grown in a short period.

Moreover, the spiritual energy level there is sufficient to nurture crops.

After all, there lie 700 million third-rank zombies dead! The leaking spiritual energy is almost on the verge of exploding in richness!

Needless to say about secrecy, the High Tower also contains a teleportation array leading to the real world.

But..

Frowning tightly, Lin An stared fixedly into Chu An's eyes:

"Hasn't the instance already been closed? Or perhaps reset."

"You previously told me that one reason for reviving Zhang Tie was that the instance would refresh."

"The instance retains our information upon entry, then clears and reopens after the mission ends."

While speaking and thinking, Lin An quickly speculated in his doubt:

"You want to deliberately trigger a penalty mission, sending people into the Amoeba Worm Instance? Replicate the previous one?"

"But first, not mentioning we lack a third-rank key... no, we can now achieve third-rank strength."

"You want to use this B‑class permit to complete the mission?"

Brows tightly furrowed.

"But... no matter who enters, the most we can do is finish the mission and then return once with the harvested 'wheat'..."

"Once the mission is completed, the world will close. But if it isn't completed, we can't get out."

"Then it's not about using the permit to complete the mission, but letting multiple people go in and take turns coming out?"

"Can it be done?"

Lin An focused his thoughts, in an instant, and rejected this idea again.

"No, that's not right either."

"If that's the case, what's the meaning of Chu An leaving a note? The first instance has already been reset."

Ke Lai En had long forgotten them.

"Any physical substance left there will disappear."

Doubts piled up.

A moment later.

Under the bright lights, Chu An suddenly broke into a radiant smile:

"Lin An, don't bother thinking. Without information, it's indeed hard to figure out."

"It's simple."

"The Amoeba Worm instance is actually neither closed nor reset."

"Actually, I have been keeping in touch with Ke Lai En all along."

"Because, I left Zhang Tie there.."

!?

He lightly lifted the glasses frame.

On the reflective lenses, a startled Lin An and Mo Ling were reflected.

One minute later.

Mo Ling, as if seeing a ghost, curled up in Lin An's embrace, clutching his arm tightly and refusing to let go.

Their gaze toward Chu An was like looking at a pervert.

"You mean.."

After hearing Colonel Chu's explanation, Lin An was half incredulous, half shocked:

"Zhang Tie actually revived two?"

"One inside the Amoeba Worm instance, one in the real world?"

Chu An gave a slight nod, paid no heed to little Mo Ling's gaze, gave a faint smile—though that stiff smile was somewhat chilling:

"That's right."

"The moment you left, I contacted Ke Lai En and had him pull the corpse chunks out of the zombie's belly."

"Thanks to that stupid bear, it was big enough."

"Before the stomach acid could dissolve the corpse pieces, Ke Lai En successfully revived him."

"After all, the Amoeba Worm instance contains both the original Amoeba Worm and a large amount of scattered mental energy—life force."

"The only shortcoming is the lack of a suitable vessel."

"There's no choice; Ke Lai En could only revive a brainless zombie version of Zhang Tie, but it's good enough.."

Pulling out a piece of chocolate, Chu An ate while saying:

"As for why the instance wasn't closed, that's also simple."

"In the system's judgment, Zhang Tie died inside, so it didn't update his exit information, nor had any reason to."

"After all, what you took out was just a 'USB drive'."

"So when the instance was about to reset, the suddenly revived Zhang Tie jammed the reset process."

"Due to the misjudgment, the system could only decide that Zhang Tie hadn't completed the mission, so the instance world naturally kept running."

"Of course, this is also my payment to Ke Lai En."

"He doesn't want to be reset, so he has to work for me and, incidentally, grow some grain."

"With two Zhang Ties, we can completely let Zhang Tie repeatedly enter and exit the instance, turning that place into our granary!"

"A granary the size of a world!"

After hearing Chu An's final explanation, Lin An couldn't help but fall silent, shaken.

Indeed, it's beyond belief.

Wryly laughing, under his hyper‑efficient thinking, he also recalled all the previous anomalies.

That is, why Zhang Tie's talent traits changed after his revival.

I originally thought it was a trait granted by the Indestructible Asura, but now it seems the system, in its judgment, regarded Zhang Tie as half a new Awakened One.

This bug move would bring tears to the eyes of any savior.

Taking a deep breath, Lin An looked at Chu An with a complex expression, for a moment not knowing how to evaluate him:

"So, do you have anything else hidden from me?"

A world, used as a granary.

And all of this had been arranged by Chu An long ago, without my knowledge.

It can be foreseen that, if it truly succeeds, it will bring terrifying returns..

Step by step, layer by layer.

Whenever Chu An uncovered the bottom of the mystery, beneath it seemed there was yet another layer that could never be fully exposed.

With a gentle expression, Chu Colonel stuffed the leftover bag into his pocket, and did not hide it:

"A little."

He stretched out his hand, making the gesture most hated by men of a certain country, and continued:

"In theory, our food will be plentiful in the future."

"After rescuing a large number of Survivors, we can select suitable talent from among them."

"Human jealousy, anger, and loss of reason are based on being starving mad. As long as we can provide enough food, they will be very obedient."

He smiled:

"If someone among them has other ideas, or unfortunately brings a Meme infection, or anything else."

"Then we can also eliminate them."

"Rest assured, Lin An. I'm not that pedantic... I said, all plans revolve around you."

Sitting opposite, Chu An turned his head toward the position of the Spirit Ability Tower, meaningfully:

"Peo..

"It can also be used as fuel."