Chapter 171: Blood of the Gods
"God's Blood"
"I suggest you kill yourself quickly. I've already appeared, and in a little while, you'll fall into hallucinations again."
Little Ye continued.
Lin Ye drew his pistol and pressed the muzzle against his head, but he didn't pull the trigger.
"...If I commit suicide, it means I've already determined this is the real world. Would that mean I can never escape?"
Lin Ye lowered his pistol. When Little Ye appeared and told him this was reality, there were moments when he almost believed it.
But ultimately, he couldn't completely trust others, even Little Ye.
"It's really hard to fool you. Have you never truly trusted anyone?"
Little Ye grabbed her hair, looking at Lin Ye with frustration.
"I simply don't hold any expectations of others. Without expectations, one is never disappointed." Lin Ye got off the bus and began dealing with the surrounding corpses. If possible, he wouldn't want to resolve the illusion this way.
But he had no other options left.
"You're not thinking of connecting to the divine seat, are you? But even if you connect, you can't verify whether the divine seat is real or not."
Little Ye followed behind Lin Ye, speaking with a smile.
"You really are just an illusion after all. If you were truly her, you wouldn't ask such a foolish question."
Lin Ye never did meaningless things. When he acted, it was usually only in two situations: testing or delivering a fatal blow.
And the testing phase had already passed.
"...You're not planning to connect to that Abyssal Evil God, are you?"
The smile disappeared from Little Ye's face. She hadn't expected Lin Ye to choose mutual destruction so directly.
"Correct. Don't rush, it will begin soon. I'm quite skilled at mutual destruction."
For Lin Ye, connecting to the Abyss wasn't difficult since his divine seat was directly linked to it.
Even within an illusion, connecting to the Abyss meant connecting to the Abyss - the Abyss didn't care whether it was an illusion or not.
"Wait, it wants to talk with you. Maybe we don't need to go that far."
Little Ye unconsciously quickened her speech.
"There's no need for talk anymore. Now that I can't distinguish illusion from reality, you've pushed me to this point. Even if the illusion is lifted, it means nothing to me. I must connect to the Abyss to feel completely secure."
Lin Ye wasn't threatening them; he was stating facts. The moment he realized he couldn't tell reality from illusion, their fate was already sealed.
"Ready?"
Without waiting for a response, Lin Ye directly pulled out the mushroom growing from his head and offered it as a sacrifice to the Abyssal Evil God.
The ritual began. The sky and ground disappeared, and everything around began falling downward.
The dilapidated divine seat appeared beneath Lin Ye as the Abyss descended upon this place.
Mushroom Man appeared in the void, trying to grab the edges of the divine seat. But before touching it, his body rapidly alienated. In just an instant, he mutated into a mass of rotting flesh and fell into the Abyss.
A gigantic figure stood behind the divine seat. It looked at Lin Ye sitting on the throne and extended its right hand toward him.
Just as the right hand was about to touch the divine seat, Little Red suddenly appeared beside Lin Ye. She sighed and pushed Lin Ye to the edge of the throne.
A stream of blood-red energy flowed into Lin Ye's body, and his form began to undergo alienation. The transformation wasn't rapid, but it fundamentally altered his physical structure.
Just as Lin Ye was relieved that his true body wasn't here, he felt this energy actually follow the connection between him and his true body, finding its way to his body far away in the Shelter and beginning to merge with it.
Lin Ye didn't know what consequences merging with this energy would bring, but he couldn't resist at all, only silently enduring.
This was his choice, and whatever price he had to pay, he must accept it.
The ritual ended, the Abyss disappeared, the sky and ground reappeared, the divine seat beneath him returned, and Lin Ye landed on the road.
The road was empty - both the bus and passengers had vanished.
Robert's body couldn't withstand alienation of this degree. Lin Ye was about to die.
"How does it feel?"
Little Red poked Lin Ye's cheek. Her hair color had deepened slightly.
"Terrible. I can't control this body at all. It's too complex to operate."
Lin Ye tried to squirm in response, but he failed.
If not for the system's translation function, he wouldn't be able to speak properly now.
"Normal. You'll get used to it after some time."
Little Red patted Lin Ye's head.
"I'm sorry. Are you okay?"
Most of that energy had been absorbed by Little Red. Without her, the energy merging with Lin Ye's true body would have been several times greater.
"What could happen to me? This was originally my power. The troublesome part is your true body."
Little Red sighed as she spoke.
"Will my body become like this too?"
Lin Ye wanted to sigh too, but he couldn't.
"Not that extreme. For someone at your current level, God's Blood will not only strengthen your body but also impart some knowledge and skills through physical transformation - almost entirely positive effects. But God's Blood is nearly impossible to remove, especially His blood. It will cause you great trouble when you need to face Him in the future."
Little Red had already seen their future: the three of them holding hands as they fell into the Abyss.
"Before facing Him, I'll find a solution."
Hearing that he wouldn't turn into a monster, Lin Ye relaxed. As for solutions, he could only ask Doraemon Ye.
"Then do your best."
After speaking, Little Red also disappeared, leaving only a deformed monster on the empty road.
Lin Ye's consciousness gradually blurred, and soon he fell into darkness.
………………………
Buzz buzz buzz...
Lin Ye opened his eyes. He had returned to the moving prison transport vehicle.
[Remaining Simulation Attempts: 8]
'The bus was pulled into the Abyss. Can this mission still be completed?'
Lin Ye stood at the edge of the road, looking toward the road's end. After the previous simulation, he didn't know what would become of this mission.
A bus appeared at the end of the road. Lin Ye's pupils contracted - he could sense the Abyss's aura on the bus.
'Damn, it already drove into the Abyss. Why did it come back?'
Lin Ye followed the previous simulation's procedure and drove away the bus. The journey was largely the same, with Yang Lin and the Boy boarding in sequence, both carrying slight traces of the Abyss's aura.
When contacting the Abyss, the higher one's rank, the easier it was to fall into it.
Spike Woman was still waiting by the roadside, but this time she didn't board.
Even when Lin Ye opened the door and waited for her, she showed no intention of boarding, instead moving away from the bus.