Chapter 830: Same Kind?

The drumbeats thudded continuously, each one resonating with Lu Mi's heartbeat, making him feel so nauseated he wanted to vomit blood.

He forced himself to endure the discomfort, pushing forward through a downpour of icy liquid, under countless watching eyes and amid strange, faint, tinkling laughter.

One step, two steps, three steps—suddenly, in Lu Mi's vision, obscured by bandages and rendered utterly dark, a blood-red hue flared to life.

It was a vast red plain, where an endless army of undead creatures clad in iron-black armor marched forward in overwhelming numbers.

"Was this the first nightmare I've had since I started studying?" Lu Mi had just flashed this thought when the scene before him shattered into fragments, overlaying images of a palace engulfed in flames, a forest of lightning, a mountain piled with corpses and bones, and a line of experimenters marching in perfect unison with their eyes covered.

All of these came from the nightmares he'd endured during this period.

Lu Mi immediately realized it wasn't that the bandages had lost their effect and revealed the hall's true state—he was experiencing hallucinations, where reality and illusion had become indistinguishable, influenced by some unseen force.

At the same time, the monotonous voice echoing in his left ear no longer recited textbook knowledge; it shifted between shrillness and hoarseness, roaring something incomprehensible.

Lu Mi instantly felt a searing heat and sharp stinging in the palm of his right hand.

The residual aura of the Blood Emperor, Aristar Tudo, had been triggered!

Simultaneously, the mark of the Mingdaoren grew colder, suppressing the violent, frenzied impulses threatening to burst forth, while a faint burning sensation appeared in Lu Mi's left chest.

"So this is just a big stew…" Lu Mi automatically sneered at himself in his mind.

With these changes, the dripping icy liquid grew slightly softer, like the touch of countless sinister, damp palms brushing over his body.

The drumbeats no longer struck in perfect sync with Lu Mi's heartbeat; the countless watching gazes lost their ability to make his scalp crawl, and the faint, irritating whispers transformed into a seductive, haunting song—faint, elusive.

Lu Mi paused, a vague suspicion forming.

He maintained his steady, unhurried pace, walking toward the hall's depths as marked on his mental map.

The "rain," the drums, the gazes, the song—all remained unchanged, allowing him to move with unusual ease.

"This is the contamination from my exposure to the '0—01' sealed materials and the knowledge I've studied—triggered by the dangers here, plunging me into hallucinations composed of those nightmares, and in turn, causing the danger here to recognize me as one of its own, another being heavily contaminated by '0—01'?"

"This also triggered the Blood Emperor's residual aura, and triggered chain reactions in the Mingdaoren 's mark and the Fool's seal. Without them, I would have truly become one of the dangers here—a real experimentee…"

"Hmm, did the Fool's seal also subtly distort perception and concepts? The judgment that 'similar contamination equals one of us' could stem from the Law of Similarity in mysticism—or from exploiting a loophole…"

Lu Mi's thoughts grew clearer. He raised his right hand, pressed it against his left chest, and whispered silently to himself, adding a mocking tone:

"Praise the Fool!"

"Thank you, Archbishop Hera Berg! Thank you, knowledge, for granting power!"

"Studying makes me happy!"

As Lu Mi listened to the strange roars from his earpiece, trying to discern what information they carried, he kept moving swiftly, wary of provoking the unseen dangers around him.

He counted his steps and distance, constantly comparing them to his mental map, until he finally reached the location marked as the hall's exit.

At that moment, the nightmare scenes before Lu Mi shifted.

He felt as if he stood at an immense height, looking down upon the mountain of corpses and bones he had seen earlier.

His gaze descended further, past the pale flames burning in the eye sockets of the skeletons and the dim crimson glows, past decaying flesh and bleached bones, landing on the deep crimson, nearly black ground, and on the iron-black armor.

The metal surfaces of those armors reflected a single black silhouette.

Lu Mi clearly saw that silhouette:

It was Gey, the bespectacled, mild-mannered serial killer!

This exile, who had been sent to Mogan with Lu Mi, Zhu Li, and Lies, had vanished after spending some time reading in the Knowledge Church—Lu Mi had never encountered him again!

The reflections of Gey on the metal armor seemed to sense Lu Mi's gaze—they suddenly lifted their heads, staring upward, then quickly lowered them again, as if the movement had been an instinctive, mistaken reaction.

The fragmented images before Lu Mi vanished, no longer appearing.

"Gey?"

"His silhouette reflected on the surface of each iron-black armor… that's like a mirror…"

"Is he the 'Man in the Mirror' who infiltrated Mogan?"

Lu Mi's eyes, hidden beneath white bandages, widened sharply.

He swiftly compared Gey's silhouette to the "Man in the Mirror" he'd seen in his nightmares:

Almost certainly the same person!

"It's him… and he even went to the Knowledge Church to study… has he already reached the area surrounding that corpse mountain?" Lu Mi suddenly felt Gey, the "Man in the Mirror," would be as troublesome and difficult as Aunis Medich, Zhu Li, Sarist, and Vanak.

Lu Mi recalled the images he'd just "seen" and realized his perspective had been deeply flawed:

"At the very peak of the corpse mountain?"

"Overlooking everything…"

"Did I just share the '0—01''s viewpoint?"

"Of course—being heavily contaminated by '0—01' means becoming its puppet. And from what I've seen, high-level Hunters can share power, damage, vision, hearing, and sensation with their team members…"

"Did '0—01' just treat me as one of its own?"

"It didn't grant me power like it did to Vanak, meaning it doesn't fully 'recognize' me yet… If I truly finished reading the remaining books and mastered the knowledge, would the contamination reach the critical point, making '0—01' see me as utterly submissive—a complete puppet, its own limb—when I'm not? In that case, I could approach it more easily and find a way to leave my mark…"

"This matches my earlier guess—the exam measures the degree of contamination, my body's tolerance, and the balance among the various pollutions within me…"

"I really need a perfect score. If I hide anything and mislead Archbishop Hera Berg's judgment, I'll be the one who suffers—either I'll truly become '0—01''s puppet, or I'll die here from insufficient contamination…"

"Knowledge truly is power! Knowledge truly holds wealth!"

Lu Mi couldn't help cursing Zhu Li and Sarist—the two bitchy "witches" who had prevented him from completing his studies!

The damage was done. He could only curse as he passed through the hall's exit.

After walking several dozen meters along the corridor marked on his mental map, Lu Mi suddenly sensed strong movement from the side, hearing the rush of heavy objects cutting through air.

Holding the carbide lamp and the "Pus-Swollen Severed Hand" head, he lunged forward and rolled aside.

Bang!

The sound of the heavy object striking the ground echoed.

Using that sound, Lu Mi rapidly sketched the "enemy's" form in his mind:

It was a greatsword!

In the underground mausoleum, the only non-living beings carrying greatswords were—Lu Mi could think of only one: the automata!

"Did I get attacked by an automaton in this corridor?"

"Hey, we're the same kind! We're both soldiers of '0—01'!"

Before Lu Mi could finish, a whooshing sound came again—the greatsword slashed toward him.

Completely blind, Lu Mi immediately activated the black mark on his right shoulder, flickering behind the suspected automaton.

Simultaneously, fragments of knowledge from the book "The Making and Maintenance of Automata" surfaced in his mind:

"Automata used in the underground mausoleum are uniformly two meters tall, forged from steel…"

"Their weapons fall into four categories: greatswords, great hammers, long spears, and bows…"

"The automata's weakest point is the neck—both a mechanical flaw and an inevitable consequence of the underground mausoleum's contaminating power…"

As the knowledge flashed through him, Lu Mi leapt upward, tensed his chest muscles, pulled back his arm, raised his right fist, and swung it toward the back of the automaton's neck as visualized in his mind.

His fist ignited with layers of compressed, blazing white flame, which struck a hard, icy surface.

With a metallic clang, the compressed white flame surged into the automaton's neck.

Lu Mi used the recoil to flip backward midair; inside the automaton, a thunderous explosion reverberated.

A "Harvest" performed with Flame-Infusion!

Immediately, clanging sounds rang out, as if multiple heavy metal fragments had fallen to the ground.

As Lu Mi regained his footing, Aunis's voice sounded in his ear:

"Can you see?"

The member of the Medich family's voice carried an odd metallic resonance.

Aunis was here too? He witnessed my precise harvest of the automaton? Lu Mi's right hand subtly slipped into "The Traveler's Satchel," and he replied with a smile:

"Can you see?"

Aunis's metallic voice echoed from another location:

"I cannot see, just like you—my eyes are covered. But I can borrow the automata's vision, sharing their sight."

This was a minor manifestation of the Hunter's high-level power… the "Red Angel's" gift? This gift can even piggyback on '0—01''s puppets… According to the "Magician" lady, that Angel-King once governed '0—01'… Lu Mi deliberately snorted:

"Was it you who ordered the automaton to attack me?"

Aunis shifted position again, as if using different automata to speak:

"It was a test. Only those who pass are worthy of cooperating with me."

"You? Cooperate with me? Why would I ever want to cooperate with you?" Lu Mi spat out a tone of disdain.

Aunis chuckled:

"That 'witch' carries a dangerous item. If we don't cooperate, she'll pick us off one by one."

(End of Chapter)