"How did you..."
Janeus stared at the individual who had just entered a room submerged in pitch darkness, a figure bearing stark white hair and wielding two weapons.
He flashed a forced, exhausted smile, his eyes roving until they settled upon Janeus.
"I had to search over ten bases just to locate you; fortunately, nothing changed."
"So then, you came here to kill me? Since when did madmen become this intelligent?"
"Nah, but you could consider me something like that."
Janeus looked at Quân, then yanked a nearby rope.
SLAM!
A heavy, reinforced iron door slammed shut, leaving Janeus and Quân alone inside the empty room.
It was a spacious, aristocratic bedroom.
"..."
Janeus took a deep breath, drawing two daggers and adopting a combat stance, preparing to charge at Quân.
Currently, she was outside the police shelter; thus, no one would come to her aid.
"I advise you to stop."
Quân closed his eyes, his weariness gradually replaced by something else.
Amusement.
Like an addict.
Quân raised both hands high, one clutching an axe, the other holding a handgun.
Janeus narrowed her eyes. She suddenly recognized that posture.
It was her very own combat stance.
Physical essence.
Technique.
Speed.
Power.
...
"So, you believe we are fake?"
Emy sat alongside Ron inside the hospital room, the two of them discussing their current situation.
At this moment, they were calculating their next move after receiving the warning from Quân.
Ron nodded at Emy's words; indeed, that was something he felt quite certain about.
Yet that did not imply every single word spoken by that person was true.
Thus, he was pondering several possibilities.
Even so, it remained rather obscure even to himself.
"Allow me to explain a little."
...
CRASH!
Two weapons collided, forcing both combatants backward.
Seizing that brief moment of hesitation, Janeus gripped her dagger firmly, spun around, and hurled it sideways toward Quân.
SWISH~
Quân tilted his body, using his axe blade to deflect the flying dagger; he instantly felt his hand vibrate and go numb.
"Tch."
Quân raised his remaining hand, aiming his gun to fire two shots at Janeus. She quickly took a step back, and before Quân could pull the trigger, she used her long hair to create a positional distraction.
She did not rush her attack, instead utilizing her superior five senses to observe her opponent; within the limited vision of the dark room, she possessed ample ability to monitor him.
Click~
Phoo!
Right before her eyes, a lighter suddenly flew toward her and burst into a roaring flame.
Janeus felt a moment of shock—had she been careless?
Tick tock~
BOOM!!
The lighter suddenly exploded, blinding her vision and engulfing her in flames.
(First of all, you need to understand this information:
The nature of this world consists of two overlapping layers of reality.
Because two sealed anomalies appeared simultaneously, a state of superposition was created.
Yet one must understand that the train and the ground are two distinct mystical occurrences; thus, despite the overlapping reality, in actual terms, they exist inside one another.
Meaning what?)
BANG!
Quân raised his axe high, blocking the fiery stone bullets rushing toward him.
CLANG CLANG!
Repeatedly deflecting projectiles capable of piercing a human skull warped the axe blade, turning it into useless junk.
The limit: physical essence.
Speed.
Parrying capability.
Endurance.
Quân channeled power into both legs, sinking into a firm stance, his eyes wide open to track the movement of the flames.
THUD!!
Quân used the shaft of his axe to block the stone bullets, gritting his teeth as he swung the weapon at supersonic speed, causing veins to bulge across his arms and blood to stain his hands.
However, no matter how fast he was, it remained merely the human limit; his entire body and abdomen were still peppered by tiny stone shards.
"Urgh!"
Quân clamped his mouth shut, suppressing the urge to vomit.
SWISH!
From behind him, Janeus had somehow flanked his position; she raised her leg high, kicking directly at the back of Quân's neck.
Yet at that exact moment, Quân turned his head back, his mouth puckered, spitting out a blood drenched cigarette.
BANG!
Quân flashed an ecstatic grin, while shock filled Janeus's eyes.
When exactly had Quân stuffed that cigarette into his mouth?
(Meaning that fundamentally, physical state integration is possible.
However, mystical phenomena possess their own logic and rules, so conflicts are entirely understandable.
Yet if a conflict occurs, either one side must gain the upper hand, or a bug is created.
Upon reflection, the train is vastly smaller than this city.
And its mystical functions ceased working the moment you set foot in this city.
Meaning logically, this city holds superiority in both quality and quantity over the train.
Yet thinking deeper, why did it have to stretch out until Ron arrived in the city? More precisely, given its overwhelming size and level, why did it have to wait for Ron?)
...
CRASH!
Janeus and Quân burst out of the building, followed by hundreds of shattered glass fragments embedded in their bodies.
The limit.
Essence:
Parrying capability.
Control capability.
Quân had his arm seized by Janeus, who stretched her body to lock his right side with her arms and legs, rendering his dominant hand useless.
Quân gritted his teeth as they plummeted toward the ground; falling from the fifth floor meant certain death.
He relaxed his muscles, twisting his torso; with his arm pinned by Janeus, the sole option left was to dislocate his own joint.
CLICK.
With that done, his right arm regained flexibility, yet it was not enough.
Quân surveyed his surroundings with his right eye, his left eye having been burned away long ago.
Quân stuck out his tongue, revealing another cigarette resting upon it.
Janeus felt startled by this—what kind of tobacco was Quân holding?
Something that possessed a small blast like a mini firecracker, the very thing that had scorched her leg and half of Quân's face earlier.
Yet Quân remained utterly composed; he secured it upon his tongue and bit down.
BOOM!!!
Within two seconds, he slammed into the ground, having bitten the cigarette just in time.
His whole body was soaked in blood; having served as a cushion for Janeus, his frame was mangled and oozing blood.
Yet upon his face, that smile had still not faded.
(Recall that initially, Ron knew there would be mystical phenomena here, but its level far exceeded his estimates; thus, it is hardly surprising that at level 10, this Pegasus city could suppress the train.
Looking closer, although both utilize rules to kill people, employ individuals inside to execute the kills, and consume corpses through the surface...
There remains a clear distinction: one side possesses clear logic and rules, and to save survivors, the required body count does not exceed ten.
The other side possesses warped logic, pure chaos, bloody carnage, and an amorphous nature.
Thus, Ron believed there was a discrepancy here—meaning from the start, the two were not so different, yet their execution of rules and manipulation of actions differed wildly.
One can understand the logic like this: both remain bound despite their differences, and that bond was destroyed when the train stopped.
How does that relate to the humans inside, like Emy or Mark?)
...
"Urgh!"
Quân staggered to his feet, his mouth torn wide open and half his face hideously disfigured.
Eyes, blood, and teeth converged at that single instant as Quân wiped away his wounds.
"!"
Janeus witnessed that sight, her heart trembling violently as terror gradually invaded her mind.
The entity she was facing felt as though it were Ron himself.
"Unable to die?"
Janeus gathered her focus, twisting her body, leaning forward, and leaping high into the air.
She would execute Quân instantly with this decisive blow.
Yet Quân maintained his ecstatic grin.
A bloody smile stretching ear to ear, set upon a face with white hair stained red.
He had never believed that he, a magicless person, could defeat her.
Yet, so what?
THUMP THUMP!
Janeus suddenly felt something stir within her chest.
Her heart was involuntarily beating faster than ever before.
It sent a wave of panic through her, as she was losing control over her biological functions.
While she was sinking deep into that sensation, a shattered piece of mirror flew out from nowhere.
(In truth, yes, there is a deep connection.
First, Quân.
Quân has no magic, so if pulled into this virtual world, only two possibilities exist:
Soul or mind.
Yet the soul is tightly bound; if so, Lusk—the entity that once tried to possess Ron and whom Ron killed—would have appeared.
And Ron could sense him through the mental link he once established.
So only the mind remains.
Yet considering all conditions, from assimilation to ignorance and other factors...
One can infer a possibility like this:
There exists a primary personality serving as the ground itself.
And the other humans are secondary personalities that this primary personality read and copied.
Why deduce that?
This relates somewhat to occultism, and fundamentally, it demonstrates a far more plausible alternative:
A facade.
Meaning not merely learning, but wearing a facade.
This implies that the madmen are psychological facades fighting back against assimilation, whereas the normal individuals are secondary personalities.
And secondary personalities do not necessarily share the same side or information with the primary personality.
This becomes easier to comprehend upon seeing the city ravaged by worms; driven by primal instinct, those people fought back unconsciously.
Meanwhile, those who were assimilated and merged in consciousness remained calmer.
Of course, that was the hypothesis when Ron accompanied Emy.
And now, Ron finally understood.)
...
"Is it over already?"
Quân froze after hearing a voice behind him.
It was a voice resembling rusty metal, heavy and non human.
A jet black wooden puppet stepped forward with a clattering sound behind Quân.
He walked lightly and nonchalantly, like a feather drifting to Quân's side.
Behind him lay a stark white sky, where tens of thousands of human beings hung suspended.
Every single one... was being hanged.
Even a living heart was suspended up high.