Ah Xiang followed behind with a blank expression, but her skipping and hopping running posture reflected her current mood; she was excited.

Seeing Mo Shuwan walk away with A Xiang, Yang Zhou, who remained in the group, became nervous. He cautiously walked to Wen Zuo's side, but before he could gather the three of them together, the clan leader's voice rang out from the front, "Let's go!"

Yang Zhou's eyes widened suddenly.

What's going on? Isn't Ah Xiang a core member? Why are they leaving before Ah Xiang even returned?

Yang Zhou gritted his teeth as he ran and quickly sent a message to Mo Shuwan, but he soon realized that the people in front of him were even faster. They arrived at the place where something was bound to happen in less than ten minutes.

Yang Zhou witnessed his former captain and others, along with himself, crawling out of the sandpit. If things had gone according to plan, they would have been slaughtered quickly and then entered the next cycle!

But no, this is their last chance. If they enter the cycle of reincarnation, their mission will fail!

"grass!"

Seeing Wen Zuo and the other two rush forward, Yang Zhou panicked. He ran after them recklessly, shouting, "Wen Zuo, wake up! Liu Dongcheng!!! Chen Jiaxu!!! Wake up!!! That's yourselves! Look closely!!!"

His voice immediately made those who were dead and those who were still alive turn their heads, but Yang Zhou couldn't care less about that now. He called out Wen Zuo's name and tried to rush to their side.

He failed because he had only run a short distance when someone next to him grabbed his arm. The person forced a stiff smile and said, "Got you."

Yang Zhou gritted his teeth and struggled violently. Just then, a huge roar came from his ear. Instead of being angry, Yang Zhou was delighted and immediately led the person holding him toward the direction where the monster had appeared.

What he hesitated about when he received Mo Shuwan's message was whether or not to tell Mo Shuwan about this. The monster could not kill him personally, so the monster would only kill him by burying him alive so that he could enter the cycle of reincarnation.

In the chaos, Yang Zhou grabbed the person who was holding him and rushed towards the monster, meeting its claws head-on. The monster immediately became enraged and dodged to the side.

However, his range of movement was limited to this area, and he couldn't go much further. Even though Yang Zhou was captured, he still caught up with the monster immediately. He suddenly remembered that in the previous cycle, the captain said that changing the 'past' would also affect the present, and now they were standing at the 'past' node.

He didn't know why this monster existed, but judging from the situation before and after, it must be an indispensable character. What would happen if it died here now, or if I died here now?

At this moment, Yang Zhou couldn't think too much. He only knew that the monster in front of him couldn't attack him, and that it existed in his own identity. If he really died, would things change?

In a flash, Yang Zhou made his decision. The clansman who was holding him stiffly reached out and hugged Yang Zhou. His already emaciated body was shrinking at a visible rate.

Yang Zhou gripped the monster tightly with both hands, panting heavily as he held onto its hands. Amidst the monster's roars, he plunged its hand deep into its heart. His own breath grew weaker and weaker, and he was no longer able to think about why killing the monster was so easy. In his dying moments, he glanced at the battlefield not far away and thought...

Captain, you must survive!

...

Yang Zhou suddenly sprang to his feet. He touched his chest in disbelief, where it still ached faintly. A jumble of chaotic memories swirled in his mind. He didn't have time to sort them out. He rushed out of the wooden house and immediately saw Mo Shuwan and the others sitting on the oasis.

"team leader!"

Yang Zhou rushed over suddenly.

"You're awake."

"What is going on? My memory is all over the place... I should be dead, I should have died in my last chance."

“You are indeed dead.” Mo Shuwan thought for a moment, feeling that the situation was too complicated and she didn’t know how to explain it. In the end, she could only say briefly: “You killed yourself, which changed our course of action. Now we have one hour left before we complete our mission.”

"I killed myself?" Yang Zhou was shocked.

“Look.” Mo Shuwan drew a map on the paper, which was covered with countless lines and dots. “This is a series of reincarnation worlds. This is us when we first entered this level. At that time, we successfully completed the task and entered the third level, which led us into the reincarnation world created by the game. The two levels were merged together, making us think it was a trap.”

"After we entered the cycle of reincarnation, we lost ourselves. With the help of hope and the stratosphere, you were the first to wake up and wanted to stop it from happening. But actually... we have already passed the second major level and arrived at the third major level. You woke up in the game's trap and thought we were still in the second major level, so you wanted to stop it."

Mo Shuwan spoke slowly and calmly, which made Yang Zhou understand the key point almost immediately. He swallowed hard, "If I hadn't stopped it, none of this would have happened?"

"You could say that in order to pull us back from the cycle of reincarnation—" Mo Shuwan paused, "you, who had become a monster, had been assimilated. You thought you were just a monster who wanted to leave the cycle of reincarnation in your place and gain freedom. But with each reincarnation you lost yourself, we were assimilated more deeply. In the end, at the crucial moment, you killed yourself and the monster, which in fact affected the past of the third major level. That's why we all came back here conscious."

Yang Zhou, panting heavily, rubbed his temples. He looked at the captain who was calmly analyzing the situation for him, but for some reason, he felt uneasy.

I'm probably overthinking it...

"Don't overthink it. We'll finish our mission and leave soon. Just pretend what happened before never happened." Mo Shuwan comforted Yang Zhou for a few moments, then ladled him a bowl of soup. "I made this especially for you. Drink it first to warm your stomach."

"Thank you, Captain."

Yang Zhou subconsciously reached out and took the bowl. Looking at the captain who had turned to talk to Wen Zuo, a hint of doubt flashed in his eyes, a doubt he himself didn't even know. He heard a voice urging him to drink the soup, and he quickly brought the bowl to his lips. The aroma of meat immediately filled his nose.

Thud—

Yang Zhou, having dropped the soup bowl, suddenly stood up and rushed towards the boundless desert. His back was icy cold, and the panic in his heart grew bigger and bigger as he ran.