"...You didn't take that red powder? Then how did you enter that world?"

The man looked at Lin Ye in puzzlement.

"Oh, you mean the capsules by the nurse's cabinet and Patient No. 3? That blatantly obvious trap you set—so obvious even a fool could see it—was made by you?"

Lin Ye only now understood why the other party had frozen.

"...Was it that obvious?"

The man's expression grew somewhat awkward.

"If you ignore that researcher's arrangement, then maybe it isn't that obvious, but add the secret passage and swapping all the powder to blue—any idiot could tell something's wrong, right?"

The reason Lin Ye had taken those suspicious capsules was to reassure the mastermind;

it was part of the plan.

"But even if you figured out the problem, you didn't have any red powder, and that's the fundamental issue. I controlled that researcher to destroy all the red powder—you couldn't possibly find safe red powder here."

The man raised the question, unconvinced.

"You underestimate those patients too much. I have a friend—before coming in she was a PhD. In just a day and a half she used her body to analyze the drug's function and accurately deduced the minimum nightly dosage. On the second night, she kept one dose of red-and-blue powder."

"But that's not the point. The point is, although she was terrified, she still secretly put that single red dose into my hand instead of taking it herself."

"That PhD may have been timid and short, but she also had the courage to risk everything for one last gamble."

"You've underestimated us."

If it weren't for Caroline, Lin Ye would have had no way—he didn't know how much powder to take each time, so he couldn't reserve any.

"...Alright, you really are strong. I did underestimate you."

The man sighed. It actually didn't want to fight Lin Ye;

if it acted, that ghostly thing behind Lin Ye wouldn't be watching. A restriction prevented it from sensing what it was, but its sharp mental energy warned it that it was better not to make a move.

"Wait. Can I ask you something? Why didn't you just swap my powder directly instead of making things so complicated?"

Lin Ye had been thinking about this question earlier.

"Because of a restriction, I cannot perform that operation. Those two fake capsules were already the limit."

The man said regretfully.

If this weren't a world formed by a dream, if Lin Ye weren't a Survivor of the system, it would have already squeezed Lin Ye to death.

"I see. One more question: since you could use that researcher's flesh to build a body, why not absorb all the flesh here? There are clearly so many materials."

The burning torches had not been consumed;

they still emitted energy. To Lin Ye they looked like excellent materials. The other had the obvious ability but didn't make full use of it.

"Would you hang a pile of trash on yourself?"

The man said disdainfully.

"I would. I wouldn't waste anything useful. You'll regret your arrogance."

Lin Ye was ready and just waiting for the other to make a move.

"Then let me regret it."

The man began to modify its body structure. It hadn't engaged in such low-level combat for a long time;

before a fight it needed to prepare.

Seeing this, Lin Ye violently swung the fishing rod;

the fishhook pierced through the man's body with precision, but it sank in like it had been cast into some liquid—there was nothing to hook.

"I told you, you can't reach it like that. Use that move. Now I can act."

Little Ye stretched out her right hand. Lin Ye placed his left hand in her palm. A violent, invisible wave of mental energy swept the scene. Using Little Ye's mental energy and the spiritual energy generated by those forty-three torches, Lin Ye barely activated the Ultimate Skill he had just obtained.

The World of Ashes.

The man was pulled into the gray world.

Lin Ye glanced around;

this was also his first time using the skill, and he had no idea what it did.

Around them lay a ruined city. In the gray sky countless ashes drifted, flickering with dull red embers. The man, Lin Ye, Little Ye, and Little Qi all stood in the middle of a wide road.

"This is the World of Ashes? What does this skill do? I don't feel anything at all."

Lin Ye looked at Little Ye and asked.

Little Qi curiously stared at the suddenly appearing girl;

she had felt someone tailing them earlier.

"Obviously. The mental energy used to trigger the skill came from me, so of course you won't feel it."

Little Ye glanced at the man opposite. The ashes that fell onto the man's body crawled into him like insects and began to grow wildly inside him.

"...This is the World of Ashes? It's that terrifying?"

Lin Ye watched as the man's surface sprouted heaps of ash. More ash reproduced within his body;

in seconds it tore the man's body apart.

Little Qi, seeing this, hurriedly tried to brush the ash off, but the world was full of ash. The more she dodged, the more ash, seemingly conscious, fell onto her.

"No. This is your Ultimate Skill. I can't use your abilities, but since I provided the mental energy I can guide those ashes to directly attack enemies. I don't actually know how this skill works. You really shouldn't force it like I did."

Little Ye said earnestly.

"Fine. So what now? Is that man dead?"

Lin Ye felt it wouldn't be so simple.

"Not yet. He's still struggling, but it's meaningless. Like that fish-head monster, it's only Second Tier. Outside it might have some chance;

here it has no ability to resist."

Little Ye didn't understand the other's choice. If the other had absorbed the torches sooner, Lin Ye would have had a hard time gathering enough spiritual energy to use the Ultimate Skill.

"Damn it! If my true body were here, you would already be dead."

The man suddenly reappeared in front of Lin Ye;

heaps of ash had grown on it again.

Lin Ye swung the fishing rod, but found the fishhook still couldn't touch the man.

"Heh. You think you've won? This ability shouldn't last long, right? When this damned ability ends, I'll turn you into Flesh Puppets."

The man said calmly.

"Is it really Second Tier? Why does it feel completely different from the fish-head monster?"

Lin Ye watched the flesh on the man's body continually break and reassemble;

it was hard to imagine creatures of the same tier having such a gap.

"It has a Rule Fragment inside its body, and it can fully utilize the fragment's power."

Little Ye explained.

"Oh? Can you pull that Rule Fragment out?"

Lin Ye didn't want to miss out on something this valuable.

"No. I can only use Second Tier power too, otherwise I'd have killed it already."

Little Ye said helplessly.

"I might be able to do something..."

Little Qi, who had been listening from the side, suddenly spoke up.