Chapter 154
Chapter 154
Yin Manqing had been smiling.
At Qin Lan’s words, that smile melted like snow.
She ground out through clenched teeth, “You could identify me from my voice…”
“Why insist on judging from my figure?”
Qin Lan answered righteously, “I recognize your voice, but the readers can’t hear it.”
“Readers?”
“Forget I said anything.” Qin Lan waved. “As a former peak four-star Anomaly Hunter, can you rush out, kill every anomaly in this instance, and carry me through?”
“Maybe unleash some absurdly named move like [Heaven-Shattering Demonic Ultra-Kill Cannon] and blast the whole screen into dust?”
Yin Manqing surveyed their surroundings, looking grim.
“First, I was once an Anomaly Hunter. My remaining mental power is less than a tenth of yours, so you’re actually stronger.”
“Second, against an unsolvable instance, a four-star Anomaly Hunter isn’t much different from a one-star.”
“No matter how close I came to Ascension, an uncrossable gulf still separated me from it.”
“The only difference is dying quickly or slowly.”
Qin Lan nodded with a comforted expression.
“Thank you. Hearing that makes me feel much better…”
“Not at all!”
His expression changed as quickly as a page refreshing after someone pressed F5.
“This isn’t even an ordinary unsolvable instance. It’s six stars!”
“I wouldn’t dare dream this high–yes, we’re inside a dream, but that’s not the point! How do we escape?!”
“The last unsolvable instance was only five stars and nearly killed me…”
Yin Manqing glanced at him in surprise.
“Oh? You escaped an unsolvable instance alive with only a tier-three Curse Core?”
“That’s rather impressive.”
Qin Lan sighed and rubbed between his brows.
“Technically, I didn’t exactly leave alive…”
“It’s complicated. If I had to explain–”
Buzz…
Like tinnitus after staying awake all night, the world abruptly became unbearably noisy, resembling static on an old television.
Black and white interlaced, then sank into darkness.
One moment, Qin Lan stood beside Yin Manqing in the empty space of consciousness.
The next, he felt violently dragged from a swamp.
Fresh air flooded his lungs. As he gasped instinctively, his darkened vision brightened.
He opened his eyes.
Everything was familiar.
Boys chatted beside the classroom door while unlucky students rushed to finish homework inside.
White fluorescent tubes hummed overhead.
In the stifling air, a useless ceiling fan rotated unsteadily, apparently spinning since some unknown graduating class.
This was Third High School in Eastern Safe Zone 088.
More precisely, Third High School before the joint examination among the four schools.
Qin Lan instinctively touched his face. The sensation was real and the temperature normal.
The classroom door stood half-open. Laughter and bickering drifted in from outside. Everything resembled an utterly ordinary afternoon.
But he knew it was wrong.
Only seconds earlier–or what he believed were seconds–he had been with Yin Manqing.
Then something dragged him here.
“Sister Yin?” Qin Lan called tentatively.
No answer.
Several classmates glanced at him, then looked away without speaking.
“Fuck, it’s all back. They really did look at me like garbage… Did the dream have to simulate that too?”
Qin Lan’s unpleasant memories resurfaced.
He had clearly entered the instance.
But why couldn’t he summon its interface?
Qin Lan tried reviewing the rules for clues, but couldn’t.
“Seriously…? Even that’s restricted?” His expression turned grave as he took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.
Even in Final Destination, he could view the instance page and track mission changes in real time.
Now he could do neither.
He closed his eyes and tried sensing his mental power.
It remained.
But it felt wrapped in thick cotton. He could sense that immense power lying dormant inside him, yet couldn’t mobilize it.
Rules.
The instance’s unique rules were suppressing his strongest and most advantageous power.
“A six-star unsolvable instance…” Qin Lan spat. “Did I destroy the world in my previous life?”
“I could accept five stars. What the hell is six…?”
Qin Lan rose and surveyed the familiar faces around him.
The instance had probably extracted images from his deepest memories and reproduced the people within them.
That realization made his heart sink.
[Rule 1: Reality and illusion are indistinguishable within the dream. Carefully identify anything disguised as something familiar.]
He still remembered it.
“So these scenes identical to my memories probably conceal some random monstrosity…”
“But why do I know this is a dream?”
Qin Lan frowned.
The instance suppressed his mental power and blocked its information, presumably to immerse him fully until he couldn’t distinguish dream from reality and sank forever.
By that logic, the illusion should also have altered his consciousness when it appeared.
It could have blurred his memories so he forgot what happened earlier.
Yet Qin Lan remained completely lucid.
“Since this is a dream, can’t I do whatever I want?”
Qin Lan paused thoughtfully.
“What happens if I suddenly massacre the whole school?”
“Or forcibly kiss a classmate, set the curtains on fire, and jump from the building in front of everyone…? Uh, that seems like copyright infringement. Forget it.”
These were only scenes assembled from fragments of his memories.
Killing everyone around him would cause no guilt.
[I wouldn’t recommend that.]
Yin Manqing’s voice sounded.
“Oh, Sister Yin, you’re not dead?”
“I mean… you’re okay?” Qin Lan was surprised. “Weren’t you dragged into the instance too? You should be trapped in a dream.”
[I entered, but the instance doesn’t regard me as a participant.]
[Strictly speaking, I’m already ‘dead.’]
Yin Manqing sounded calm.
[A damaged soul fragment carries only part of my memories. The true Yin Manqing died beneath that Ascendant’s palm.]
[Pure Hearts repaired me, but a fragment remains a fragment. At most, I became more complete.]
[I must remain attached to the combat uniform to avoid dispersing.]
[Therefore, I’m only an ‘item.’]
Yin Manqing laughed self-mockingly. [The instance probably considers me a tool you carried, so its restrictions on me are less severe.]
[That allows me to speak with you.]
[But you’d better wake quickly. Otherwise, you’ll drown soon.]
“Drown?”
Qin Lan looked around, seeing no possible water.
Would a tsunami suddenly flood the school?
Or would someone drag him into the men’s bathroom and shove his head into a urinal?
“Wait…”
Qin Lan shuddered as one possibility occurred to him.
“Sister Yin, this dream has more than one layer, doesn’t it?”
“When you say I’m about to drown, could it be…”
[Very clever,] Yin Manqing teased.
[Your mental incarnation one layer above is floating in seawater, cosplaying a sea urchin.]