"It was truly brilliant. Because I excel at modifying cognition and memory, you instead targeted my strongest area and toyed with me..."

Freud wasn't angry, but rather quite admiring.

"Excellent, you bring me such delight!"

Lin Yu laughed: "Alright, since both sides have shown our cards... now it's time to discuss interests."

"You want resurrection, correct?"

Freud nodded: "Of course... your tier isn't high enough to understand the principles behind my arrangements."

"But you only need to know that with sufficient souls, I can 'revive', no longer trapped in this small Misty Islands asylum... and I'll also obtain an extremely high tier."

Lin Yu shrugged: "I have no issue with that, as long as you keep operating, players will always enter eventually—I promise not to write any guides after I get out."

"Just let me clear the stage."

Freud looked at Lin Yu and slightly shook his head: "But I'm reluctant to let you go—your earlier statement was incorrect, I don't actually need souls."

"Player bodies retaining fragments of souls... can also provide me significant value."

Lin Yu spoke up: "You can't do it—the manipulations you can perform on souls and cognition require us to fulfill certain behaviors."

"Leaving the hospital, exploring restricted areas... in other words, you can only wait for passive triggers."

"If I do nothing, you can't touch my soul again."

"Conversely... because I'm trapped here, neither dead nor cleared, this [dungeon] hasn't ended—do you think new 『players』 will enter here?"

Lin Yu said coldly.

"And... the avatar of the god coming here probably isn't just to watch the excitement."

"Based on the hints they gave me, while you covet player souls, there are others coveting you."

Freud said: "That's true, but if we stalemate, would that really be more beneficial for you?"

"I can't interfere with you through souls and cognition, but ah..."

As Freud spoke, the stairwell door opened.

Outside stood crowded expressionless individuals, some wearing medical staff uniforms, others wearing patient gowns.

They spoke almost in unison.

"What if I try to kill you on the 'physical' level?"

Lin Yu watched this eerie scene but remained calm.

"So this is your confidence for negotiating with me this long? Gathering these guys to block me here?"

"But you also said I'm quite clever... so is it possible that I've been stalling for time too?"

Freud laughed: "You're trying to have your two 'summons' go to the wine cellar, right—I anticipated that."

"Although the wine cellar is outside my control range, but ah..."

Freud snapped his fingers.

The crowd in the stairwell parted, and some battered medical staff escorted Stiller, who was tied up securely.

Beside him were Hannah trapped in a glass box and Max, also tied up.

"I could deal with that madwoman in the wine cellar once, I can deal with her a second time."

Stiller exhaled.

"Sorry, Director—there were too many of them."

Lin Yu looked at Stiller: "It's fine, I expected it."

Over there, Max was completely confused: "What exactly is going on?! Am I having an episode? Wait, do I have schizophrenia? Is the doctor here! Can you increase my medication? I'm hallucinating!"

Ignoring the noisy Max.

Freud spoke again: "You seem to still have cards to play?"

"Of course, they're just bait," Lin Yu sighed, "Haven't you realized that if I'm pretending to be Robin, and my summons are pretending to be me... you actually don't know Robin's real location?"

Freud narrowed his eyes: "So what? Even if she's good at hiding and avoided one 'cognitive modification', half her soul has already fallen into my hands."

"What can she possibly do?"

Lin Yu curled his lip.

"Why don't you check the patient rooms then."

Freud's face darkened: "What trick are you playing now?"

"Nothing much, just... gave her some alcohol—although she was swapped in the wine cellar, but ah," Lin Yu laughed, "she's not in the wine cellar now."

"Stiller really worked hard, carrying an extra person when he went out, having to pretend it was just himself..."

"Clearly having an item that modifies cognition, yet the mechanism through which that item works is rather crude..."

Lin Yu said calmly. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

He had already figured out Freud's memory purge method through repeated reincarnation cycles.

It was the Misty Islands' "mist".

Fog formed from vaporized alcohol.

This wasn't hard to understand, since most of Freud's current methods relied on the asylum's own mechanisms.

And its primary function had always been extracting souls to brew alcohol.

The disruptions in "memory" and "cognition" were essentially a controllable form of "drunkenness" for Freud!

Therefore, even without using [Closed Mind], there were still methods to resist the modifications temporarily.

Such as covering the nose and mouth.

Or for example...

Making the target drunk with higher concentration "alcohol".

"This dungeon's clear condition is leaving the island rather than the asylum, which confirms there are other explorable active areas on this island besides the asylum."

"And someone as clever and cautious as you, your 'true body' or 'core' certainly wouldn't be inside this asylum."

Lin Yu said, calmly stroking his chin.

"Although I never told her my plan, reaching the Third Tier shouldn't make her too stupid, plus she's been to this dungeon before, so she probably isn't completely ignorant of your methods... calculating the time, she should be close to finding your hiding place."

As Lin Yu spoke, Freud's expression changed dramatically.

"You... you never intended to negotiate with me, you plan to kill me?!"

"Aren't you afraid I'll fight to the death with you?"

Lin Yu smiled and shook his head.

"No—what I just said wasn't even meant for you."

"You know, when fishing in a river, using loaches or insect bait is enough."

"But when deep-sea fishing in the open ocean, if you don't have good bait prepared, after fishing with insect bait, you can completely use the small fish you catch as bait to catch bigger fish."

Lin Yu exhaled and looked at Max.

"Alright, sir—what's your story?"

"Coming to this dungeon watching me busy working... what advantage are you planning to reap from our conflict?"