Lin Ye ran through the deserted city. The theater was not far from the amusement park, which was one of the reasons he preferred heading to the theater.

His body grew increasingly hot, and his mind became clearer than ever before. Lin Ye felt more awake now than he ever had in his life.

This clarity made him start thinking about the Protection and Severing Runes. The parts he couldn’t understand before now quickly became clear.

Spiritual energy gathered around Lin Ye. The concentration of spiritual energy in this city was extremely high, far surpassing that of the Red Maze, and it was very easy to control.

A first-rank mutation creature resembling a spider charged at Lin Ye from the street corner. Without even drawing his blade, a spiritual energy shield with a blade of spiritual energy appeared in front of him out of thin air. The spider monster immediately crashed into the spiritual energy shield and died on the spot.

‘It seems like it’s not very clear-headed. Is it because it’s a mutation creature? Or...’

Without pondering further, Lin Ye continued thinking about the runes as he rushed toward the theater.

Along the way, more creatures with unclear minds attacked Lin Ye, but in the end, they all died crashing into the spiritual energy blades, no different from that spider monster.

‘The loot space is really convenient. I don’t have to immediately deal with the loot or worry about running out of backpack space. Too bad I still have to process the loot when I return to the shelter. It would be great if there was a one-click loot processing function.’

Lin Ye thought to himself, unsatisfied.

He kept moving nonstop until he reached the theater. The city theater was a semicircular building full of artistic flair.

Outside the theater door, Lin Ye finally encountered an enemy whose perception was not so weak.

The opponent was a burly man dressed in a black robe. Lin Ye had seen similar robes before.

Neither of them spoke; the battle began the moment they met.

The burly man charged at Lin Ye with incredible speed. His weapon was a heavy sword. From five meters away, he swung the heavy sword down toward Lin Ye’s head.

Boom!

The heavy sword, charged with spiritual energy, slammed into the spiritual energy shield. Lin Ye didn’t block it head-on but tilted the shield, deflecting the heavy sword to his left side.

At the same time, Lin Ye drew the Red Blade and slashed at the burly man’s vital points. The burly man reacted quickly. The moment his black robe’s spiritual energy shield was cut open by the spiritual energy blade, he turned his body, trying to dodge Lin Ye’s Red Blade.

But Lin Ye had already anticipated this dodge. Because the heavy sword was deflected to the left, the opponent was likely to dodge to the right, so Lin Ye’s Red Blade slashed the right side.

The slash severed the burly man’s left hand, which he used to block, and then cut open his abdomen. The raging spiritual energy tore apart the mutation organs inside.

The burly man’s corpse vanished. Lin Ye sheathed his blade and entered the theater.

The theater had two floors of semicircular spectator seats. The ceiling was very high, and the stage sparkled under the spotlight.

Lin Ye stepped onto the stage, standing in its center, continuing to ponder the Protection and Severing Runes.

The effect of the Carnival Potion was extraordinarily good. Questions that usually took a long time to think through were now quickly understood. The scattered knowledge no longer needed organizing; it naturally arranged itself in his mind, as if it were also rejoicing.

Taking out the Basic Rune – Collapse card, Lin Ye used it directly. A flood of knowledge about Collapse poured into his brain.

However, this knowledge did not negatively affect him. Just like when he acquired the Protection Rune, someone else bore the burden for him.

Lin Ye began to accept this knowledge, slowly learning and understanding it. He wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to digest the runes quickly. If he left now and tried to learn rune knowledge elsewhere, it would require exponentially more time and effort.

The theater was relatively peaceful. Occasionally, some first-rank mutation creatures with unclear minds would break into the theater, leaving only patches of blood under the stage after being killed.

After killing the first mutation creature in the theater, Lin Ye felt a certain connection with the theater beneath his feet.

Each subsequent kill within the theater seemed to strengthen this connection by a bit. This was probably why Little Ye urged him to come quickly.

As the connection strengthened, Lin Ye’s mental perception range kept expanding, soon encompassing most of the theater. If he killed a few more mutation creatures, the entire theater would be under his control.

Lin Ye continued studying the rune knowledge. He was almost tempted to use the remaining two rune cards here, but at the thought of that unlucky guy from the Mutual Aid Society, he suppressed his adventurous spirit.

‘Forget it. There’s still plenty of rune knowledge I haven’t absorbed. After absorbing all of it, I can study how to use the runes. No need to rush to use those two cards.’

Lin Ye kept researching runes while killing enemies breaking into the theater. As time passed, the invaders seemed to grow more frenzied. This frenzy manifested not only mentally but physically as well.

After dispatching a mutation creature whose head was split in two, Lin Ye felt a faint weakness.

It wasn’t fatigue; his body and mind were still in an excited state, without a trace of tiredness. Rather, he sensed a slight weakness that came after intense revelry.

This feeling wasn’t unpleasant—on the contrary, it was somewhat comfortable.

Still, it meant his body was reaching its limit.

‘I can’t keep going like this... The nest... Maybe I can carve some runes inside the theater...’

Lin Ye began to manipulate the spiritual energy that already covered the entire theater to carve runes onto the theater walls. By now, the theater was no longer an ordinary theater; its walls could fully support runes and spiritual energy.

Before coming, Lin Ye had already crafted spiritual energy items. But after his recent rune research, his techniques had fundamentally changed. The spiritual energy items he made before now looked like crude doodles to him.

Lin Ye researched rune engraving techniques while carving various runes all over the theater. This was a precious experimental opportunity, as such high-quality spiritual energy buildings were rare.

More mutation creatures kept breaking into the theater, but this time, Lin Ye didn’t need to act. They were invisibly cut down by spiritual energy blades, leaving only bloodstains at the theater entrance.

‘Too bad their corpses went straight into the loot space. Otherwise, I could have taken the chance to experiment with splice runes.’

Lin Ye had mainly researched severing runes and only had a superficial understanding of splice runes. If he had spliced materials, he could have deepened his knowledge.

After a while, no more mutation creatures entered the theater. It seemed all nearby mutation creatures had been wiped out.

At that moment, someone suddenly knocked on the theater’s main door.

“Please come in.”

Lin Ye would show corresponding courtesy to polite people.

A fully armed humanoid creature entered the theater. It glanced inside and then left after saying one sentence.

“Sorry to disturb you.”

Lin Ye did not pursue it. He actually didn’t like killing; it was just that often, only violence could solve problems.

Afterward, more rational creatures entered the theater, but upon seeing the situation inside, they chose not to act and turned to leave instead.