It took Max a full five seconds after hearing Lin Yu's words to realize he was talking about her.

"Eh? Me?"

"Yes, you," Lin Yu sighed. "Just who are you?"

He knew very clearly that the woman before him was absolutely not the Night Watchmen's Wild Boar.

This was a false identity—whether it was fabricated or stolen, Lin Yu didn't know.

But he was quite certain that Max was absolutely not normal.

Because right after retrieving all his memories and reviewing all of Max's behaviors, Lin Yu suddenly realized something.

On that Director's list, only Robin's real name "Jiang Lin" was recorded.

His own name and Max's name were one garbled code and one blank space respectively.

In other words...

In a certain sense, both he and Max were more difficult to control for this "asylum" dungeon and for Freud than the Third-Tier Robin.

Of course, he himself was indeed a bit special—Lin Yu didn't deny this. He wasn't an ordinary player—plus, even the God of Change had a small account in this dungeon, so it wasn't impossible for him to casually cover himself up.

But what about Max?

According to the three hints given by that self-proclaimed "half immortal" Fur Ball, Robin corresponded to the second segment—"Mountains differ but resemble, revisiting old haunts thoughts remain;entering this game yet not a piece, standing outside the board yet not moving chess."

Based on this, Lin Yu had already completed his arrangements for Robin.

Although her name was indeed on the list, as someone "revisiting old haunts," sending her outside the asylum was most appropriate.

But the third segment corresponding to Max...

"Clouds mountains mist water heart is illusion, obsessed with old appearances unable to free oneself;body already trapped in countless layers of games, where could a death trap imprison the heart!"

Lin Yu still couldn't figure out what it meant.

However, after negotiating with Freud and learning about his ability to manipulate puppets, Lin Yu suddenly realized something.

What if...

Max actually corresponded to the first segment?

"False temple housing true Laozi, unaware one's body is wood and stone;ascending mountain entering game not true intent, true form not revealed disaster won't emerge."

Although this segment seemed to be about himself, upon careful thought, it didn't match at all!

First of all, he was just a First-Tier. Although his exterior was fake, saying he had a "true Laozi" inside wasn't quite right!

Moreover, Lin Yu didn't feel he was "unaware of his own body" either!

"Ascending mountain entering game not true intent" could be stretched to apply to him, but it still felt somewhat forced!

Who entered the Death Game voluntarily?

But if applied to Max, assuming some higher existence had altered Max's cognition and manipulated her into entering, everything made perfect sense.

Yet even so...

Max still showed no unusual movements.

"What are you talking about? I... am I not just a mental patient?"

But at this moment, Freud had already reacted.

"Damn it... she's also smuggled in!"

"Your tier shouldn't be able to enter here," he said through gritted teeth. "Damn it... wearing the skin of a First-Tier, just who are you?"

As he spoke, Freud's figure suddenly became "blurry" and "distorted."

"Bzzzt—"

Like a broken electronic screen, sharp, regular colors flashed across his body, and his entire being showed a panicked expression.

"No... goddammit, this can't happen!"

"Make that little girl stop!"

Freud's voice was also mixed with buzzing static, as if he might disappear at any moment.

"You also know this person is abnormal," Freud pointed at the still confused Max. "If I die and the 'restrictions' here disappear... you won't survive!"

The surrounding environment also began to blur, the originally spacious, bright hospital turning into a dilapidated, desolate scene... the situation kept changing.

Finally, large areas of distortion appeared, the surrounding walls and ceiling flickering.

Lin Yu exhaled, gently rubbing his temples. The environment before him and Freud's voice were making his ears ring and vision blur.

"You make a good point."

"Then save me quickly!"

Freud growled.

The patients he controlled began falling down one by one, turning into swollen, rotting corpses.

"Unfortunately," Lin Yu sighed, "I'm just a nobody playing small tricks. I'm neither clever nor powerful..."

"Breaking your design already exhausted all my strength—this situation isn't something I can just hit the brakes on."

Lin Yu was telling the truth.

He only knew that releasing Robin would likely break the situation from the outside, but how far Robin could go, Lin Yu didn't know either.

He didn't even know how Robin was currently dealing with Freud's main body, let alone stopping her!

As Freud's condition worsened, the flickering around them accelerated—finally, the "true" appearance of the asylum appeared before Lin Yu.

This place was simply ruins and debris.

The five-story building was crumbling, the so-called "intensive care unit" had no door at all, with even the walls and roof broken, revealing huge holes directly showing the outside.

Mist drifted, sparse and cold.

Looking through the holes in the walls, black cliffs and churning seawater appeared deep and icy.

Also in this instant, Lin Yu felt his mind clear considerably.

The Freud before him—that is, Doctor Li—had also turned into a highly decomposed corpse—this probably wasn't his original "corpse."

Stiller spoke with emotion: "So that's it, those lost souls and memories... were used for 'construction.'"

"Constructing an illusory scene through the collective cognition of hundreds of souls, even including powerful ones—the world here in the Misty Islands is truly marvelous."

Hearing Stiller's words, Lin Yu stroked his chin.

"I'm just curious, how was this guy planning to 'resurrect'? Just creating illusions here... shouldn't have anything to do with resurrection, right?"

"Quantitative change leads to qualitative change... this guy wanted enough souls to achieve sufficiently intense 'cognition,' and through that seize a 'god's' tier, authority, and domain—once he became a god, the 'illusion' he constructed, while still impossible to make real, could expand this 'fiction' infinitely. At that point, even though he'd still be 'falsely alive,' what difference would there be from being truly alive?"

The explanatory voice sounded beside Lin Yu.

He looked beside him—Max was sitting cross-legged on the ground, having taken out her compass, speaking softly.

She kept talking to herself, and Lin Yu only felt the aura around her growing increasingly terrifying. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

"You..."

Lin Yu tried to communicate with her.

But she ignored him, continuing to mutter incantations.

"This is why the God of Change and the fragments of destiny came here... this is also why I came here, truly marvelous to the extreme!"

As she spoke, Max manipulated the compass, which emitted a "buzzing" sound and radiated golden light.

She looked at Lin Yu.

"Kid, you're not bad either... even though you're from Order and killed quite a few of my people, I've always been clear about gratitude and grudges!"

Max said, lightly tapping the compass with her finger.

"Gen above Xun below, Mountain Wind Gu—go!"

Lin Yu suddenly felt his body become light.

And in that instant, he found himself already in the sky!

"What the hell? How did I fly up!"