Chapter 650: I Have Endured Three Betrayals (Please Refresh 4600 Words)

If it’s just a dream, whether dressed as a woman or using a female avatar doesn’t matter—after all, when playing games, even the macho characters you choose can wear Scottish kilts.

“This isn’t the true dream world—it’s reality!” Li Huowang sprinted toward the two.

Lu Mingfei stared blankly at Huozi, dressed in blue-and-white striped hospital scrubs, appearing here without surprise, then glanced down at the skirt he was wearing.

“.”

Fake.

Even you, Li Huowang, are fake.

“All the Source Materials have been forcibly gathered together!” No sooner had Li Huowang spoken than he lost his balance mid-run and was tackled to the ground by several orderlies and security guards behind him:

The psychiatric patients confined to the hospital’s B2 level are all Outer Gods—the hospital’s director is Kleine Moretti!

What the hell.

Lu Mingfei felt his mind was about to shut down, but Xiao Yan didn’t care—he noticed Li Huowang’s condition and Audrey’s still-smiling face, sensed something was off, and immediately moved to pull the group off Li Huowang.

At that moment, he saw the staff he’d traveled with, the doctors in the cafeteria, all rise in unison.

Each pair of eyes was hollow, heads tilting upward toward the sky obscured by the ceiling; the cafeteria grew unnervingly oppressive, darkness slowly seeping from the cracks like a tangible substance.

Xiao Yan felt his thoughts slow, his spiritual awareness pulled upward as if by an invisible thread; gradually, his joints stiffened like a puppet’s.

But this anomaly lasted only a fleeting instant—the next second—

Dark water shimmered; the surroundings blurred, like the hazy, abstract scenery of a dream.

“Director Xiao, are you feeling unwell?” Audrey asked cautiously.

Xiao Yan looked around: Lu Mingfei was still on the phone, Zhou Mingrui had gone to the restroom and hadn’t returned; doctors and nurses in the lobby sat in small groups, eating and chatting at the smooth metal tables.

“Nothing… uh?” Xiao Yan suddenly touched his throat: “My voice?!”

A warm, melodious voice came from his own throat.

“Let’s continue discussing our previous collaboration,” Audrey smiled beside him.

“Our hospital has the best team for treating gender identity disorder—the condition of being unable to tell whether you’re male or female.”

Xiao Yan was dazed, staring toward the other side; through the reflective glass window of the cafeteria serving counter, he saw a woman with long black ponytail, deep brown eyes, soft facial contours, and a distinctly handsome…

Was the person in the mirror male or female?

Audrey’s voice came again: “If I remember correctly, you have this condition too.”

“Me?” Xiao Yan murmured, as if trapped in a loop of consciousness.

He unconsciously pulled out his wallet from his pocket and saw the ID inside—

—[Xiao Yan, Female]

The mirror’s dark reflection remained calm.

“I won’t harm them, because I am you.”

“I knew from the very beginning what you expected and hoped for.”

“But I won’t let them leave or interfere with our Ascension Ritual.”

The Zhou Mingruis in the mirror spoke in orderly succession, voices overlapping, echoing in the confined space.

“This round, you’re in the stratosphere,” Zhou Mingrui affirmed with a gentle smile.

“You exist at the apex of the ‘Deceiver,’ having absorbed the pillars of Error, Door, and Deception—it’s only natural you could anticipate all this.”

“By ordinary reason, under normal circumstances—especially under time pressure—it would be extremely difficult for me alone to contain you.”

“I can no longer change my Path unless I abandon everything I am now and become an ordinary person.”

Zhou Mingrui stepped forward, gazing at the ‘Zhou Mingrui’ in the mirror, who stared back.

“If you truly thought that, you wouldn’t have chosen Ascension,” the mirror’s Zhou Mingrui laughed. “Our fates have already merged.”

“That’s true,” Zhou Mingrui nodded slightly. “From the very beginning…”

The image of the mirror’s Zhou Mingrui blurred; countless translucent worms swirled into a dark-green vortex.

When everything overlapped, a figure of average height, black hair, brown eyes, and unmistakable scholarly aura appeared on the other side of the mirror—

—Kleine Moretti

“Yes,” Kleine Moretti held a revolver glowing with a brass sheen, a grotesque wound on his temple; he nodded. “From the very beginning.”

“I didn’t expect you to be so decisive—using Nyarlathotep’s acknowledgment to transform part of yourself into my divinity,” Zhou Mingrui gazed at this form, feeling a pang of awe.

Precisely because of this fragment of divinity, you severed the identity of Kleine Moretti and tethered it to this world.

“Unless I reclaim this life, I cannot awaken—and by the same logic, neither can you.”

Because of this, Zhou Mingrui, as an individual, had set the original alarm clock in motion.

All Source Materials in the entire universe—including the Ancient Ones beyond the barrier—began converging toward the Source Fortress above the Spirit Realm, where Zhou Mingrui slept.

Every image ever appearing within Zhou Mingrui’s and the Heavenly Sovereign’s thoughts, cognition, and consciousness had been overwritten by the leaking dreams, spreading across the entire planet.

Zhou Mingrui said: “You seek to draw closer to the Blind and Foolish Origin—the primordial deity that gave birth to all things, above even the original Creator.”

“It is instinct—and inevitable,” Kleine Moretti said seriously.

“Azathoth is merely a hollow shell—an empty vessel without intellect, incapable of ever generating intellect. We are the errors born from its projection, intellects absolutely impossible within blind foolishness.”

“After our fusion, we attempt the final step.”

“Enter that hollow body.”

Zhou Mingrui rolled his eyes, speaking with wry humor: “They’ll kill me first, for sure.”

After saying this, he observed Kleine Moretti for a moment, then shook his head—his companion had no sense of humor and wouldn’t play along.

“So if I had a choice, I don’t want divinity to dominate, nor do I want to become the humanity of the Heavenly Sovereign.”

“This is an unchangeable fact—and your best option.”

The Kleine Moretti in the mirror said: “Before the ritual ends, they cannot leave this place.”

Countless snow static points surged from his body; fragments of images appeared showing scenes from the “Ancient Hospital.”

Zhou Mingrui stepped out of the restroom, smiling calmly, shaking water from his hands, and walked toward “Xiao Yan” and “Lu Mingfei,” who were serving food at the window.

He suddenly stared in surprise at the cafeteria “auntie” flipping a wok—red hair, delicate features, mechanically wielding a ladle to serve food to those swiping cards.

Beside her stood a girl in a dress, with dark blue-black hair.

“Master Wei, Huai Zhi, why are you here?” Zhou Mingrui asked.

“Working to pay for school,” Huai Zhi said.

“Working,” Master Wei replied.

“No wonder Doctor Audrey said the food here is delicious,” Zhou Mingrui said, surprised; he was about to say more—

CRASH!

Glass shattered, bricks and wood flew; Li Huowang, clad in blue-and-white hospital scrubs, executed a tactical roll and flew through the window into the cafeteria hall.

“Big Brother Xiao Yan…?” Li Huowang stared blankly at the several figures he vaguely recognized—now all with long hair and altered facial features.

“Huowang?” Xiao Yan blinked, snapping back to himself: “Right—I’m male!”

He dashed toward the men’s restroom.

Lu Mingfei was speechless, staring at the softened features of Emiya Shirou: “I haven’t even reached Sequence Seven yet?!”

“Bro Lu, I just remembered—I didn’t need to get involved in this at all,” Huai Shi said, glancing around in confusion: “Where are we?”

At the entrance to the men’s restroom, Xiao Yan’s thoughts froze again—he turned and walked into the women’s restroom.

The next second, dark water shimmered; the environment blurred.

Everything returned to how it had been moments ago.

BOOM—!

The ceiling cracked; Li Huowang descended again, staring at everyone: “What’s going on? Where’s Brother Zhou?!”

Above and below, within the dark mirrors and countless reflected mirrors, countless scenes of Li Huowang rampaging through the asylum played simultaneously.

But each scene lasted only a moment before going black, then restarting.

Watching this, Kleine Moretti remained calm, showing no emotional change.

“Gender is the most fundamental cognition of human beings. After memory alters gender, this mistaken perception can be twisted and amplified into a distorted view of the world.”

Zhou Mingrui grew serious and said:

“You intend to use blind foolishness at the mental level to trap them in their assigned identities within this world, severing all contact with the outside.”

“The Genie…” Kleine Moretti frowned.

In the mirror opposite him, a scene from the B2 corridor appeared.

A pale golden figure wandering nearby seemed to sense something; he adjusted his monocle and grinned.

“I made a wish to the Fool: Can you give me the Source Fortress?”

Kleine Moretti’s smile didn’t change, but the scene cut to another location.

Zhou Mingrui’s smile was radiant:

“In this world, you’ve laid too many plans and tools—I abandoned any angels or true gods who might have helped me from the very beginning.”

“Otherwise, why do you think I had Su Lin take Amon and Adam out of this world?”

“I’m not watching them—I’m watching you.”

“The Chaos Sea is in Adam’s hands, the City of Calamity is contained by Lu Mingfei, Amon has descended into madness so extreme even you and I find it unsettling—better to let them develop outside for a while.”

“The unstable elements that don’t exist within this world are my weapons against you.”

Moreover, after the incident of the Celestial City, he sensed the Heavenly Sovereign’s intense desire to ascend to the “Designated Myth,” and was certain this slumber wouldn’t be simple.

As expected, during the slumber, through historical reenactment, both the Heavenly Sovereign and he regained their former ranks within the dream; combined with the Source Materials gathered by the original alarm clock, this influence dragged the entire world into the dream.

“Your becoming my divinity isn’t entirely bad for me,” Zhou Mingrui said. “Thanks to this, within the dream, we gained identical permissions.”

Because of this abandoned portion of self, the once-advantaged Heavenly Sovereign now stands evenly matched with him within the dream world.

“Huowang was fooled by me again—this place is both dream and reality.” Zhou Mingrui’s gentle smile reappeared.

“But your remaining self has merged into the entire dream world; therefore, as long as I wake up from the dream—”

Zhou Mingrui did not finish his words, but the divine aspect of Kleine, manipulated by the dream world, understood what it meant.

“On the condition that you can wake up.”

Everything inside the old hospital kept restarting, as if trapped in a loading bar glitching endlessly.

Everything cycled endlessly, yet Li Huowang remained fully awake.

That was natural—Li Huowang’s appearance in the psychiatric hospital was not the work of the Heavenly Lord, but Zhou Mingrui’s prior arrangement.

The medicine Li Huowang consumed served as a medium, through which Zhou Mingrui’s subconscious influenced this critical area to graft the dream world’s authority onto him.

The Lantern God in the corridor was the guardian placed by the Heavenly Lord.

Once Li Huowang makes a wish, the rules will twist and reverse the form completely.

“Looks like I won the bet.” Zhou Mingrui nodded. “But I didn’t expect Amon’s composition had grown even more complex.”

As Zhou Mingrui had noted, the instability factor—Amon’s current rank exceeded even what he had anticipated, surpassing the layered rank accumulated during the events in Zhutian City.

At this speed, what else had he stuffed inside?!

Zhou Mingrui and Kleine locked eyes, and gradually, within the narrow space surrounded by mirrors, a brilliant, pure light door appeared.

“Achieving this effect was beyond my expectations—I originally intended to fight you for a long, long time.”

Zhou Mingrui walked calmly toward the light door, a faint smile on his lips, his tone now lighter:

“You just said Su Lin’s condition is bad?”

“Combined with the problem of the Catastrophe City’s primordial essence, I guessed you wouldn’t waste this chance—you’ve likely directed most of your available authority toward Su Lin and Lu Mingfei.”

“Therefore, at the intersection of dream and reality, when it comes to controlling the authority over blind folly, I now hold the upper hand over you.”

Before the gaze of Kleine and Zhou Mingrui reflected in countless mirrors, he pulled open the light door.

The next moment, a bathroom lined with white tiles and filled with the scent of disinfectant appeared before him.

Zhou Mingrui stared at his reflection in the mirror, his eyes blank for a moment before clearing again.

He slowly exhaled, some memories rapidly overwritten, others disturbed.

Seizing the moment while his state still held, he snapped his fingers, restoring a measure of awareness to the people in the cafeteria outside the bathroom.

At that moment, Li Huowang burst through the door.

The world trembled, as if another restart was about to begin.

Zhou Mingrui nodded in relief at the scene—he was about to step out of the bathroom to freeze it and prevent the restart—when Huai Shi ignored why he was here and pulled Lu Mingfei toward the women’s restroom door.

“I’ve already dressed as a woman anyway—why don’t you tell Su Ge I won’t be involved in this?” Huai Shi whispered.

“Why should I tell him?” Lu Mingfei suddenly narrowed his eyes, puzzled.

“Su Lin has a decoy to hide his condition—he won’t be exposed. I’m already socially dead—why drag anyone else down with me?”

Nearby, voices of negotiation drifted.

Behind them, the mirror once again revealed Kleine’s image.

“With Su Lin’s help, they’ve already taken the potion.” Kleine’s lips curled slightly; his hair lengthened, his face blurred and softened into an appearance nearly identical to Melissa’s.

“All I need to do is graft the fact that I—meaning you—once became a witch onto them, members of the Assassin Sequence.”

Zhou Mingrui turned his head in disbelief. “His condition has deteriorated this badly?”

“Worse than you imagine,” Kleine said calmly. “That’s why he was fooled by me.”

Click.

The Kleine in the mirror snapped his fingers.

Outside the bathroom, Xiao Yan hurried to the door, pulled down his pants, glanced, and his expression shifted from rigid to slowly relaxing.

“Thank heaven and earth—the brother’s still there.”

He turned and walked away, seemingly unaware of Zhou Mingrui and the Kleine in the mirror.

Just as both were puzzled—

Ziiiir—

The bathroom lights suddenly went out, then flickered back on after an instant.

Ziiii—

One of the stall doors slowly opened. Zhou Mingrui and Kleine instinctively turned toward it, pupils contracting.

“So that was the deception.”

Su Lin sat on the toilet, chin propped on his hands, struggling to speak: “Wasn’t it all for our friendship?”