Chapter 297: The 9th True Self Player Died Eighty Years Ago?

Chen Ran felt it wasn't safe.

He suppressed his Mental State.

And reconsidered the logic within all of this.

The first answer he arrived at was: using the Eternal Kingdom would allow for a safe landing.

The second answer he arrived at was: do not suppress his Mental State, and take a gamble.

The first answer applied to the current situation.

The second answer applied to the entire Instance.

'This is rather interesting. I thought I could only arrive at the first answer.'

'It seems that the First Realm of Lingtai has many more uses worth developing.'

Given that this place was riddled with Common Sense traps, he felt that the countdown this time would highly likely be less than 60 seconds.

Therefore, he quickly said, "My first skill effect is to prohibit players from using skills for one hour."

"My second skill effect is to break players' skills."

He stopped right there, having made his point.

He thought he would have to wait a while longer, but the moment his words fell, a skill command...

"Ghost Whisperer: Forbidden Bookstore!"

It wasn't a single voice, but six voices ringing out simultaneously. It seemed that when the six Youths used their skills, none of them had considered whether the other five would use theirs.

When the light returned, they found themselves in a bookstore Secret Room.

However, there were no books inside, only bookshelves. Perhaps the Youth had hidden them; after all, this time he was saving people, not killing them.

Because it was just a Secret Room overlaying the space, the Iron Cages and stone spheres vanished. The six Chen Rans plummeted from mid-air and crashed onto the floor.

The atmosphere inside the Secret Room was a bit bizarre.

The scene Chen Ran had imagined—the Youth joining forces with Big Gold Tooth to kill Short and Fat—didn't happen. The fourteen of them were simply waiting quietly for the stone sphere in the outermost Secret Room to explode.

"Can't figure it out?" the Youth asked, seemingly knowing what Chen Ran was thinking.

"Tell me, if your skill is Id Tier, and your opponents are all players at the First Realm of Lingtai who can be immune to your skill, what would you do?"

Chen Ran nodded. He had also considered this question before and gestured for the Youth to continue.

"Since you can't affect them, then affect yourself."

"If you have a hypnosis-type skill, then hypnotize yourself. If you have a memory-type skill, then let yourself retain your memories. If you have a Cognition-type Skill, then alter your own cognition. Therefore, if you encounter Distance-Free Technique players with Id Tier skills in a Three-Star Instance, you have to be extremely careful. They are ferocious!"

"As for how ferocious, let's put it this way. Theoretically, they can be immune to the illusions, hypnosis, memory loss, and cognitive alterations that accompany most Ego-Tier and Superego Tier Skills."

"For example, Qiu Yinong's Wheel of Time comes with temporary amnesia. Theoretically, if Short and Fat's Id Tier skill is related to memory, it's highly likely he can ignore the amnesia effect accompanying the Wheel of Time."

"Are you talking about the Distance-Free Technique?" Chen Ran seemed to grasp the crux of the matter.

"Exactly. A century ago, when the Dragon-Slaying Technique was first born, an unprecedented, epic war broke out in Hell. The 9th True Self Player, taking pity on the suffering of Id Tier players, created the Distance-Free Technique. Thus, in that war which lasted nearly twenty years, Id Tier Distance-Free Technique players actually became the main force."

Perhaps it was because, in the Youth's eyes, Chen Ran was like a child holding a brick of gold—he would eventually be manipulated to exchange for his own freedom.

Or perhaps he was weighing exactly how many grand schemes Chen Ran was involved in.

Therefore, he even chose to reveal, without holding back, some of the deeply hidden secrets of Hell.

"Wait, are you saying that Hell once gave birth to the Dragon-Slaying Technique?"

"Of course. The people's perspective on history, overthrowing the local tyrants and dividing the land—this kind of Dragon-Slaying Technique was the absolute pinnacle of ideology during their lifetimes. Its effect in Hell could also be called a nuclear explosion level. However, it ultimately failed and was scattered. Isn't that right, Big Gold Tooth?" the Youth chuckled lightly.

Big Gold Tooth shrugged. "We indeed lost back then, but the spark of revolution has been preserved. Sooner or later, The Underworld will overthrow the rule of the two alliances."

"Are you certain it has been preserved?"

The Youth's rhetorical question left Big Gold Tooth in silence. As far as the current Underworld was concerned, it had indeed deviated from the original intentions of the people's perspective on history.

Chen Ran stood frozen on the spot.

Bad news: The Dragon-Slaying Technique he had just thought of hadn't even been implemented yet, and it was already declared unfeasible.

Good news: There was past experience of failure that Chen Ran could use as a reference.

"The 9th True Self Player already appeared a century ago?"

Chen Ran felt something was off. He suddenly realized he seemed to be surrounded by...

All sorts of lies.

"Yeah, the 9th True Self Player's skill was of the time attribute. It's said she already died in the final stages of that war, jointly sniped by the leaders of the two alliances and killed in..."

"A Ten-Star Instance!"

'The war lasted twenty years, she died in the final battle... so she died eighty years ago?'

'Then in the previous Instance...'

'Who did I meet?'

'Moreover, if the 9th True Self Player died, why hasn't the stone pillar disappeared?'

'What exactly is true?'

'And what is false??'

'Or rather, have I been targeted from the very beginning, and what he's telling me is a fabricated history of Hell?'

"Is the 9th True Self Player a man or a woman?" Chen Ran asked a question that exceeded everyone's expectations.

"A woman. She seemed to have the surname Li. As for her specific name, there are no records."

Chen Ran fell silent.

'It seems the weight behind the phrase 'Beware of Qiu Yinong' is still increasing...'

'Keep pretending!'

'I have to keep pretending, acting as if I know nothing. Because, with my current Mental State and experience, I fundamentally cannot deduce what their schemes are. I suspect the trigger for the next all-out war will be me in the 18th Level...'

'Using the Eternal Kingdom!'

'Or, me carving a certain rule they want onto the stone pillar.'

'In other words, all these various layouts are designed to guide me towards causing these two results.'

'Next is the Distance-Free Technique. The Distance-Free Technique combined with an Id Tier skill seems to produce some kind of chemical reaction, granting Id Tier players—who should be the weakest—the qualifications to contend against Ego-Tier and Superego players.'

'Is this the reason why the Youth didn't dare to rashly launch his skill at Short and Fat?'

'But if the Eternal Kingdom and the Distance-Free Technique were combined, what would happen?'

'Is there a possibility that players can use skills while in the Distance-Free Technique?'

'Impossible!'

'When I'm in the Distance-Free Technique, I can't even open my mouth to speak, and using a skill requires a lie.'

'Wait, a Ghost Whisperer...'

'I feel like, perhaps one day in the future, I will have to become a Ghost Whisperer...'

There were far too many things he couldn't figure out, but the six Chen Rans weren't in a hurry either. If all these calculations centered around him, he felt he was actually quite safe, having ample time to grow.

However, he couldn't rule out the possibility that there really were people among the various factions who wanted him dead.

'The plan remains unchanged for now: first cultivate the self, then govern the state, and finally bring peace to the world...'

The Secret Room was frighteningly quiet. Short and Fat, the Youth, and Big Gold Tooth were constantly observing Chen Ran's reactions, trying to spot something.

After all, Chen Ran was very likely tied to some earth-shattering schemes, schemes that small fries like them had no right to participate in.

However, there was also a distinction. The Youth was an Unaffiliated Wanderer. As long as he got a hold of Chen Ran in this Instance, it was equivalent to having a nuclear bomb by his side. Conversely, under Hell's despair-inducing mechanisms, this would allow him to navigate between factions and carve out a bloody path to survival.

One had to know, before long, Hell's most vicious event, the Hell Great Escape...

Was about to begin.

During the Hell Great Escape, the main focus of the two alliances was to hunt down uncontrolled players like them, as well as players from The Underworld. Thinking back to the last Hell Great Escape, where he was hunted like playing hide-and-seek by a group of Six and Seven-Star Players, the Youth still felt a lingering fear.

Boom!

A muffled explosion broke the tranquility, and a slight tremor ran through the entire Secret Room. They knew the stone sphere in the outermost Secret Room had exploded.

However, they all knew that the moment Chen Ran stated his skill effects, the underlying game within the entire Instance had already taken form.

That is to say, as far as the Youth was concerned, everyone else had to die, but Chen Ran had to live.

For Short and Fat, Chen Ran had to die; there was no other possibility.

For Big Gold Tooth, he only had one opponent, and that was the Youth.

For Chen Ran, he had to maneuver among the three factions within this Instance and turn all of them into the Instance...

Instead, Qiu Yinong and Lin Xuan, the two Superego players, saw their value plummet dramatically.