[System tip: Player Bai Liu has been attacked by Player Liu Huai's Dark Night Sleeve Sword. His mental value has been eroded by 35 points. Current mental value: 4. Warning! Warning! Rage state activated!!]
[Player Name: Bai Liu (Rage Attribute Bonus Panel)]
[Physical Strength: 56 → 655][Agility: 249 → 1133][Attack Power: 37 → 1555][Resistance: 36 → 1776]
[Comprehensive defense and attack power have increased. The total attribute points exceed 4000. The player is rated A+ level. Player Bai Liu's level has risen from F to A+.]
"That's enough." Bai Liu finally stopped Liu Huai's relentlessly stabbing hand.
Puppet Zhang glanced at Bai Liu's attribute panel and quickly assessed the situation. "Your stats aren't enough to fight Brother Thief. He's at least an A+ monster. Only someone like Mu Sicheng—an A++ in rage state—can handle him."
"I know," Bai Liu replied calmly. "Aren't you still here? Why are you so anxious?"
[System tip: Player Bai Liu has controlled Player Puppet Zhang to use the personal skill 'Puppet Enhancement' on himself.]
[System warning: Player Bai Liu does not have sufficient mental value to deduct 50 points! Forcibly using Puppet Enhancement will cause mental value collapse!]
[System warning: Does Player Bai Liu wish to forcibly activate the personal skill 'Puppet Enhancement'?]
Bai Liu didn't hesitate. "Yes."
"You're insane, Bai Liu!" Puppet Zhang roared as his fingers were forcibly manipulated. Transparent silk threads shot into the back of Bai Liu's head, piercing his occipital bone like syringes. The remaining threads vibrated and burrowed into the seams of his bones. It was a grotesque and excruciating process—but as his mental value plummeted, the pain quickly dulled into numbness.
"Bai Liu!" Puppet Zhang shouted desperately, struggling against the control. "Your mental value is only 4! You can't forcibly use Puppet Enhancement! Even though skill consumption won't drop it directly to zero, your mind will collapse! You'll go insane!"
Mental value collapse referred to a state where a player's sanity was reduced through non-monster means, yet never truly cleared.
Players could lower their mental value using skills or items, but it could never be forcibly reduced to zero. Within the game's rules, only monsters could clear a player's mental value completely.
For instance, Puppet Zhang couldn't control a player already in rage state, and the erosion caused by Liu Huai's Dark Night Sleeve Sword would suddenly weaken at critical levels. These mechanics prevented direct mental erasure.
However, there existed a far more terrifying state.
If a player forcibly activated skills despite insufficient mental value, continuous depletion could push their sanity infinitely close to zero. This was known as "infinitely small mental value" or more commonly, mental value collapse.
In this state, a player's consciousness became trapped between "monster" and "human."
The mind was already that of a monster, sealed within a human shell.
It was called "collapse" for a reason.
Every player who had ever entered that state went mad. Some slaughtered every other player in the instance. Others laughed hysterically and committed suicide after exiting the game. No one remained sane after touching that threshold.
Worse still, players in mental collapse often received massive attribute boosts due to rage-state amplification. They became nightmares within an instant, indiscriminate killers feared by all.
"Bai Liu!" Puppet Zhang fought with everything he had, trying to halt the enhancement. "Don't lose your mind! Mental collapse isn't the same as having 0.1 mental value! It's far more dangerous! In theory, your sanity is zero, but not quite. You'll fall into a chaotic subconscious space. You'll go insane!"
He gritted his teeth, veins bulging, dragging at the silk threads. "Mu Sicheng dying won't affect you! You can still clear the instance! Aren't you supposed to be the smart one? If your mind collapses, you'll attack everyone! With those boosted stats, you'll kill us all! You won't save Mu Sicheng, you'll kill him!"
The train doors were slowly closing.
As Mu Sicheng was dragged toward the exit, his fingers curled weakly around the doorframe, clinging to it in a final instinct to survive.
His blank white eyes suddenly focused. He looked toward Bai Liu. His lips moved faintly as though struggling to call Bai Liu's name.
"I know." Bai Liu had long since learned about mental value collapse from Mu Sicheng and Du Sanying. His eyes were calm, so calm they seemed inorganic. His tone remained relaxed, indifferent.
"Even so, I don't like breaking my promises."
"Puppet Zhang, or should I say, Master." Bai Liu turned and smiled at him. "If I really go mad, then it's your turn to prove yourself. I'm still your puppet. You'll have to control me and make me do what needs to be done."
"Damn it! Bai Liu!!!" Puppet Zhang's face contorted, veins standing out as his hands convulsed against his will. "No! I can't do that!!"
"You can." Bai Liu waved casually, smiling faintly. "I believe in you, Puppet Master."
[System tip: Player Bai Liu has entered the 'Enhanced Puppet' state. Mental value insufficient. Supplementary calculation in progress… Calculation failed. Player Bai Liu cannot provide the required 50 mental points. Forced mental value collapse initiated—]
[System tip: Request successful. Player Bai Liu's mental value is decreasing. 4, 3, 2—0.00000000…1]
Puppet Zhang became hysterical. "Bai Liu, stop!!!!"
[System Warning (for all players): Player Bai Liu's mental value has entered a collapsed state. He is now classified as an extremely high-risk entity! All players are advised to flee immediately!]
Bai Liu's eyes gradually lost focus. His breathing slowed, and all the sounds and lights in his vision stretched into long, chaotic lines, as if overlapping with another dimension entirely.
He had entered the hallucination state triggered by the collapse of his mental value.
Suddenly, it felt as if something dragged him into the carriage. Brother Thief stepped on his chest and swung a flaming fist down at him. The blow landed heavily. Bai Liu saw brain matter, bone fragments, and blood splattered across the burning fist. The pain spread through him in a vivid, horrifyingly real way.
A second later, the scene shifted.
He was standing on the train as it began to move. Passengers flooded inside. Mu Sicheng said gloomily that they were going to chase after something. Seconds later, Mu Sicheng stole the Mermaid Amulet and left without looking back. Bai Liu was seized by the pursuing passengers. They grabbed his limbs and pinned him in place. Flames engulfed him, and he felt himself being burned alive.
His vision changed again.
He was standing on Du Sanying's car, holding the whip. He knelt on the roof, gasping for breath. Du Sanying looked at him with tears in his eyes and said, "I can't do it. I can't stay with you." Then he pushed Bai Liu into the crowd of passengers and drove away.
The hate value locked onto Bai Liu. His stamina was exhausted. He fell to the ground and was torn apart by the passengers.
He saw Mu Sicheng use the Mermaid Amulet. Bai Liu became a puppet in Puppet Zhang's hands forever. His intelligence was gradually siphoned away until he became dull and empty. In the end, he was discarded in an instant to die alone.
Endless visions of death surged forward.
Every possible branch in the decision tree that could have led to Bai Liu's death, every path that had flickered through his subconscious, became real. Each one replayed as though it had truly happened to him.
People cannot stop thinking. They cannot stop imagining. They cannot prevent their subconscious from generating hallucinations.
Not even Bai Liu.
Thus, he could only relive these imagined deaths hundreds of times.
"It's boring to assume that something has zero probability of happening."
Bai Liu was pressed to the ground by Mu Sicheng. He had already forgotten which node in the branching timeline this particular death came from. Mu Sicheng's monkey claw slashed brutally across his throat. Blood poured into his windpipe, mixing with his words and making him choke even as he laughed.
Then he sighed.
"Still… I'm bored with calculating all the ways you could betray me, Mu Sicheng. There are so many. I've counted them. Perhaps more than eight hundred."
Burning. A slit throat. Being bitten apart. Strangled.
Mu Sicheng looked at Bai Liu strangely. Even as he lay dying, Bai Liu was still laughing. His face was covered in blood. His eyes slowly closed as death approached. A hoarse, broken sound escaped him through his torn trachea.
"Out of so many possibilities, you chose the one where you didn't betray me." Bai Liu's voice grew weaker as his eyelids lowered. "Then I'll choose that one too. Mu Sicheng, this is a fair deal."
[Bai Liu, if I were really dragged away by a monster… would you actually come to save me?]
[Don't worry. If you don't use the Mermaid Amulet, then I'm very trustworthy. Even if I lose my mind, I'll still remember to save you, Mu Sicheng.]
After hearing Bai Liu's words, Mu Sicheng lowered his eyes and sneered softly.
"I'll believe you, Bai Liu."