Chapter 329: Only Playing Pixels

Yang Yixie stared at the pattern on Luo Jinyou's body for a while.

Just as he could feel the cold of the holy water, he could also sense the power inside Luo Jinyou that was about to go out of control.

Unlike the sporadic colored pixel blocks on the previous Luo Jinyou. zip, now he could feel the energy contained within them.

Not through a System Prompt, but some more direct perception.

Yang Yixie was about to open the system panel for a quick glance when a Ying Guang Lu window lit up in the center of his view.

The window adhered to his retina, its edges a familiar pixel jaggedness, yet more realistic than what he saw on a computer before; it shifted slightly with his head movements while staying at the exact center of his sight.

【System Prompt: Detected that you have met the conditions for receiving special information.】

【System Prompt: Decrypting the transmission to NPC "Fang Zhiyan"...】

【System Prompt: Decryption complete.】

Window content refreshed.

Yang Yixie saw the "method" that had previously been blocked by a crimson warning, sent by Fang Zhiyan.

No longer garbled, but clear lines of text appeared.

【Fang Zhiyan: Luo Jinyou's situation is unique; his Mutation is the result of a "God's Fragment" entangling with his consciousness depth and being prematurely detonated by external forces.】

【Fang Zhiyan: Holy Water can suppress Mutation factors, but cannot suppress the fragment's activity; once the holy water is removed, the fragment will immediately take over his body, completing a full Aberrant Species transformation.】

【Fang Zhiyan: However, "consciousness" itself is a subtle law. According to my Observation of you, your Aberrant Arts likely involve the Consciousness Law. If you are willing to try, you can attempt to let your consciousness enter his mental world.】

【Fang Zhiyan: After successful consciousness linkage, you need to locate the chaotic zone being eroded by both Mutation and the fragment, find his sinking self, and then guide him to the untouched corner deep within his consciousness.】

The information ends here.

Yang Yixie stared at the text, silent for a long time.

Consciousness Law.

Enter the mental world.

Guide.

He looked down at his hand made of pixel blocks.

He hasn't even figured out what he is now, and he's supposed to perform "consciousness guidance" inside someone else's mind?

What a joke.

Yang Yixie stood still, watching the words fade from his view before raising his head to look at Luo Jinyou.

The man floated there quietly, his body covered with grotesque Mutation patterns, horns on his head, a tail behind him, the distance to total loss of humanity reduced to a thin membrane of holy water suppression.

Subconsciously, Yang Yixie reached to touch his own chin—a habit when he thinks.

But his finger froze halfway.

Because he could not touch his own chin now.

The modeling of this body seems a bit… fuzzy at the chin area.

"…Forget it."

He lowered his hand and looked back at Luo Jinyou.

Luo Jinyou kept his eyes closed, brows tightly knit, the Mutation patterns on his face rising and falling gently with his faint breath.

He was living a nightmare he would never wake from.

Yang Yixie slowly extended his hand; he felt he only stretched out a single finger, yet an entire arm reached forward.

A cool sensation came from the hand; Yang Yixie could no longer tell whether he had turned the whole world into a pixel game or only his own perception was wrong.

Broken—he had thought the Church and Academy's inspection results were problematic, but it turns out Ying Duo truly has a cognitive defect?

Is this the authority of the reports given by the Church and Mitra......

【Detected conscious access target: Luo Jinyou (under Mutation)】

【Attempt to establish consciousness link?】

【Yes/No】

The edges of the Ying Guang Lu popup flickered slightly, as if urging Yang Yixie to decide quickly.

Since he's already here, his intention wavered.

【Yes.】

"Gleam… clang…?"

The voice seemed to come from far, far away, yet Yang Yixie heard it clearly; his own consciousness also felt pulled out at that moment.

But the voice called out Ying Duo, not Yang Yixie.

That is the game name he uses in this world, the way he exists here, the name with which he forged bonds with others.

Though, it is extremely purposeful.

————————————————

【Consciousness link completed.】

【Welcome to—Luo Jinyou's mental world.】

Ying Duo opened his eyes.

No, he doesn't know what he "opened" with, but he certainly can "see."

He now stands in a room, if that can be called a "room."

The walls are made of blurry gray pixel blocks, the floor similarly indistinct, apparently stone‑like; in the center lies a bed, fully dressed, though the edges of everything are outlined with obvious squares.

Yang Yixie tried walking a few steps in the room; the pixel blocks forming the floor emitted a faint "tap" sound, exactly like the sound of stepping on a real floor.

The tactile feeling is terrifyingly real; he can sense the floor is hard, icy, even feel the slight rebound when his shoe soles contact it.

Too strange.

Visually, this world is as rough as an unfinished prototype.

To the sense of touch, it feels more real than any game.

A bed frame made of dark‑gray pixel blocks, topped with a sheet made of light‑blue pixel blocks, the sheet bearing a few deeper folds.

The wardrobe is also dark‑gray pixel blocks, its doors featuring handles formed from even darker gray, and inside there are only a few pieces of clothing and nothing else.

On the desk surface lie several books, each a neat stack of colored pixel blocks; the spines are composed of smaller pixel blocks forming blurry characters, and when picked up the system pops up the translated normal text.

Yang Yixie stands in the room, silently scanning the entire space first.

To an ordinary person, this might just be an utterly ordinary room.

He walks to the window and looks outward.

Outside the window is also a chaos.

It is neither darkness nor blankness, but composed of countless pixel blocks; in the distance, pixel blocks are assembled into vague shapes that look like trees, people, or the outline of some building, indistinct.

Yang Yixie stands where he is, gauging this decidedly strange room before him.

This… is Luo Jinyou's mental world?

So, is it he who's ill, or is Luo Jinyou ill?

Yang Yixie helplessly turns and looks toward the only door in the room.

The wooden door is made of dark‑brown pixel blocks, its handle a metallic‑colored pixel block, reflecting detailed highlights under the beige light.

He walks over, grasps the handle, and pushes down.

The door opens.