The moment his consciousness returned, Lin Yi felt as if he had been thrown into a shattered ice cellar.
A sharp pain surged from the depths of his soul. He knelt in the ruins under a blood-red sky, his fingertips digging deep into the scorched ground—this was the core battlefield of the illusion. He could hear the shrill whistling of the Night Owl's giant blade tearing through space, and he could see the fragments of spacetime he had just swung out entangled with the core of that purple light, like countless transparent knives strangling some kind of living thing.
"Cough..." He covered his mouth, and pale golden blood beads seeped out between his fingers.
The aftereffects of mental exhaustion were more terrifying than imagined; snowflake-like spots of light flickered on my retina, and even my breathing was accompanied by crackling electrical sounds.
The owl's figure blurred in my vision. The giant shadow shrouded in black mist was raising a second giant blade formed from negative emotions, the purple light flowing on the blade even brighter than before.
"Host's vital signs have fallen below the critical value!" Chu Yao's electronic voice suddenly exploded in her mind, with obvious distortion, "Mental strength reserve 0.3%, the conditions for opening the spacetime rift are not met - Night Owl is using the rules of the illusion to extract your memories!"
He's looking for your weaknesses!
weakness?
Lin Yi's pupils contracted slightly.
He had learned about energy analysis in many battles and had a keen sense of subtle energy changes.
He could feel icy tendrils climbing along the edge of his consciousness, memories that should have been sealed by the laws of time and space were surging uncontrollably: his mother's back as she kneaded dough in the kitchen, steam blurring the white hair at her temples; his father squatting in front of the toolbox, repairing an old pocket watch with a magnifying glass, the "click" of the gears turning like a heartbeat; the white-bearded old man under the old locust tree in the beginner village, his calloused hands etching the essence of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit into his palm; the half-piece of energy stone Su Qing handed him from the depths of the ruins, the beauty mark at the corner of her eye like a broken diamond in the dim light; and Chu Yao's earnest expression when she first materialized, holding his game helmet and saying, "This time it's my turn to protect the host..."
"No..." The owl's roar suddenly changed tone, and for the first time, panic appeared in the vertical pupils within the black mist. "You couldn't... you couldn't have awakened these memories before your mental breakdown!"
But those images have already merged into a sea of light.
When his mother pushed the steaming hot hand-pulled noodles in front of him, the steam blurred her face, but clearly reflected her often-repeated words: "Xiao Yi, when you encounter difficulties, think of the noodles in the pot—no matter how boiling the broth is, you still have to scoop out the noodles one by one."
The father placed the repaired pocket watch into his palm, the case still warm from his body: "When the gears get stuck, don't rush to smash it; first find which screw is loose."
The white-bearded old man patted him on the shoulder, the energy of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit resonating in their palms: "Kid, true power isn't about blasting your enemy to smithereens, it's about being able to stand still and watch the sunrise afterward."
Su Qing's voice came from deep within the ruins, mingled with the soft thud of falling stone chips: "Look at these star maps; all the cracks are where light gets in."
Chu Yao's electronic voice suddenly softened, as if she were learning a human sigh for the first time: "Lin Yi, I'm here."
\"I am here......\"
Countless voices overlapped, creating waves in the sea of consciousness.
Lin Yi suddenly smiled. He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and slowly stood up, his knuckles touching the ground. His body, which had been as transparent as mist just moments before, was solidifying at a visible speed. The memories that Night Owl had taken from him had not become a weakness, but rather ignited the light deep within his soul like a spark.
"I see." He gazed at the night owl, his voice as soft as a sigh, yet it sent a tremor through the entire illusion. "You thought extracting my memories would defeat me, but you don't know..." He flicked his finger into the air, and a silver spatial rift opened in response. "These memories are my sharpest blade."
When the owl's giant blade slashed down again, Lin Yi did not dodge.
He opened his arms to face the blade, letting the purple light cut through his clothes and leave bloodstains on his skin—but the blood droplets did not fall; instead, they floated in mid-air, condensing into a small ball that shimmered with starlight with the movement of his fingertips.
"When my father taught me how to repair watches, he said that every gear has its own rhythm." He looked at Night Owl, his pupils reflecting the other's suddenly contracting vertical pupils. "Your Purple Core experiences a 0.3-second energy vacuum every seventeen oscillations." With his knowledge of energy analysis and experience accumulated from long-term combat, he had already imprinted the subtle rhythm and energy changes of Night Owl's attacks in his mind.
Before he could finish speaking, the blood bead suddenly exploded.
It didn't explode, but instead transformed into millions of silver threads that precisely pierced the seventeen nodes at the core of the purple light.
Night Owl was then shocked to realize that all of his attack trajectories had already been analyzed by Lin Yi using fragments of his memory—the rhythm of his mother kneading dough, the pauses of his father repairing the watch, the frequency of the white-bearded old man's punches, and even the angle of Su Qing's wrist when she handed over the energy stone, all of which became the codes to break the rules of the illusion.
"The Mystery of Space-Time: Memory Anchors!"
Lin Yi pressed his fingertips against his heart, where a pale golden law pattern was reassembling.
This is a new skill he learned in the darkness of consciousness: to materialize the most important memories into spacetime anchors, which can both stabilize the soul and accurately lock onto the enemy's energy vulnerabilities.
The core of the purple light emitted a dying shriek.
Countless blood droplets burst from the black mist of the night owl. His giant blade crashed to the ground with a clang, and his body was pulled into the air by an invisible hand. Every inch of his body was being distorted by the power of spacetime—as if he had been stuffed into a wildly spinning meat grinder. Jagged bone fragments were exposed in his translucent body, and the madness in his vertical pupils finally turned into fear.
"Impossible... You're clearly exhausted of mental energy..."
"Because they are giving me strength." Lin Yi looked up, and the sky of the illusion had cracked open at some point, letting in rays of light from the real world.
He saw Chu Yao's projection emerging from the crack, her hair damp with condensation from the game pod, her eyes shining like two stars: "Host!"
Your shadow imprint shines in reality!
Blood Moon... the energy of the Blood Moon is pouring into your body!
"So..." Lin Yi clenched his fist, the patterns of laws flowing around him like a galaxy, "The real me has never fought alone."
The final blow was utterly unpretentious.
With a flick of his finger, the reconstructed law pattern pierced the Night Owl's core like a sharp arrow.
The black mist instantly dissipated, revealing a gray shadow curled up inside—that was the Night Owl's true form, an energy entity with spiderweb-like cracks covering its surface.
"This is impossible... The selection mechanism of an advanced civilization... How could there be humans...?" The gray shadow's voice grew weaker and weaker, "I want... I want..."
"What you wanted is over." Lin Yi's voice was as cold as ice. "Go back to your alternate dimension and tell your boss—the players on Earth—that they're not so easy to bully."
The gray shadow let out a piercing shriek and vanished into countless points of light in the air.
At this moment, the blood-red sky in the illusion began to darken further, and the surrounding ruins emitted eerie tremors, as if foreshadowing a new crisis.
The illusion began to collapse, and in the space shattered into stardust, Chu Yao's projection was finally able to fully materialize. She threw herself into Lin Yi's arms, and the ahoge on the top of her head stood up like a little flag because of her excitement: "Host, you were super cool just now!"
I knew you wouldn't lose!
But Lin Yi did not laugh.
He gazed at the newly appeared cracks deep within the illusion, from which wisps of dark mist seeped out. Within the mist, he could vaguely see translucent outlines—phantom monsters, each carrying the distorted aura unique to spacetime rifts, their numbers as numerous as a tide.
"Chu Yao." He gently pushed her away, and new spacetime power began to gather in his palm. The patterns of laws flowed beneath his skin like living things. "Contact Whitebeard and the others, and have Su Qing prepare the star map of the ruins."
"These phantoms..." He narrowed his eyes, watching the nearest monster raise a bone blade formed from black mist, "are related to the origin of spacetime."
Chu Yao's expression instantly turned serious. She traced a holographic panel on the virtual airflow with her fingertips, and immediately the loud voice of the white-bearded man came through the communicator: "You brat, the blood moon in reality has driven all the equipment in the base crazy!"
How's the situation on your end?
"New trouble." Lin Yi gazed at the approaching swarm of phantoms, a fierce smile playing on his lips. "But..." In his pupils, the patterns of spacetime mysteries were weaving into even more intricate designs. "Perfect timing to test my newly mastered skill."
Just as the first phantom monster's bone blade was about to strike, Lin Yi moved.
His figure disappeared from the spot and reappeared standing behind the monster.
The moment the palm touched the back of the other's neck, the law patterns burrowed into its body like living things—the next second, the monster let out a terrified scream and began to decompose in reverse, even drawing away a third of the surrounding mist.
Chu Yao's eyes shone with an astonishing light: "Host!"
These phantoms are absorbing spacetime energy, but your ultimate technique... is absorbing it back!
"Because their core is tampered memories." Lin Yi's voice held a hint of realization. He gazed at the swarming phantoms approaching from afar, the law patterns on his fingertips shining ever brighter. "And my memories..." He looked up at the sky where illusion and reality intertwined, where the light of the blood moon flowed into his body along the shadow imprints. "...are the purest origin of spacetime."
The last phantom that pounced on him froze half a meter away.
Lin Yi reached out and held up a ball of light in his palm, which contained fragments of memories—the image of his mother making hand-pulled noodles that Night Owl had just extracted.
"It's time to go home and have some noodles," he said softly.
The moment the ball of light exploded, all the phantoms let out heart-wrenching screams.
In the real world, Lin Yi's Shadow Mark suddenly burst forth with a dazzling silver light.
Outside the game pod, the red and silver light of the blood moon intertwined and soared into the sky, drawing a dazzling star trail on the city skyline.
In Chu Yao's communicator, the white-bearded voice boomed deafeningly: "You brat!"
Guess what I saw on the security camera?
The void behind you... is cracking!
Lin Yi gazed at the swarm of phantoms that continued to emerge in the illusion, and then looked at the spacetime power that had been re-condensed in his palm.
He smiled; it was the brightest smile he had ever seen after experiencing darkness.
"We'll take whatever comes in."
He raised his hand, and the patterns of laws flowed around his body like a galaxy.
The next second, the entire illusionary space began to shrink rapidly, compressing all the illusions into particles of light.
Deep within the light particles, an even larger shadow is slowly opening its eyes.
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