"This is the inside of the box?"

Lin Ye looked around. They had been teleported to a place Lin Ye was very familiar with.

The interior of the red maze.

Not the red maze related to the system activity, but the dilapidated crimson maze Lin Ye had entered during that consciousness experiment.

'Is this a world of consciousness? Or does this place truly exist in the real world?'

Lin Ye glanced at Cynthia, the Boy, and the Alienation Beast standing beside him. He felt this wasn't a world of consciousness, but if this really was the kind of consciousness world that could make him unaware of any anomalies, that would be terrifying.

"This is the inside of the box? It's not quite what I imagined..."

Cynthia looked around curiously, but there was nothing interesting about the red room. It was just a crimson room with nothing in it.

"I'll go out and take a look." 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Lin Ye could only perceive the situation in a very small nearby area. Moreover, past experience told him that perception abilities weren't omnipotent; any contact for information carried the risk of being affected.

The Alienation Beast had said this place was dangerous before, and Lin Ye hadn't yet found the source of that danger.

This wasn't a good thing.

Outside the door was a crimson corridor Lin Ye was extremely familiar with, with crimson doors lined up on both sides.

The corridor was filled with a large amount of dark red stagnant water. The water occasionally produced slight ripples, but the ground wasn't shaking, indicating something was moving inside it.

'Is this the danger the Alienation Beast mentioned?'

Lin Ye wasn't entirely sure. With his strength, ordinary spiritual energy creatures could hardly threaten him.

At that moment, the stagnant water not far away suddenly began to churn violently, and a slender, deep crimson tendril emerged from within.

Lin Ye used his mental energy to sense the tendril, only to find his mental energy couldn't penetrate the tendril's epidermis at all.

A crimson eyeball grew on the tendril. That eyeball stared at Lin Ye, giving him a feeling of being seen through.

Lin Ye didn't act rashly. This tendril gave him a very bad feeling. If possible, he didn't want to fight this unknown entity.

After quite a while, the eyeball on the tendril finally retracted back into the tendril's interior. The tendril drooped towards the ground, looking as if it was bowing to Lin Ye.

Lin Ye took a slight step forward. The tendril didn't attack them but retracted back into the stagnant water.

As Lin Ye approached, a single tendril would emerge from each pool of stagnant water. After carefully observing Lin Ye, these tendrils all made the same reaction as the first one.

'Do these tendrils recognize me? Is it because of the God's Blood or the divine seat? Is this a place related to that Abyssal Evil God?'

Lin Ye had never considered before that the red maze, as a system activity area, could be related to him.

Originally, Lin Ye had no intention of exploring this area; he just wanted to figure out the source of danger here.

But now it was different. That Abyssal Evil God had always been his biggest trouble. He needed to gather as much information as possible before facing that deity.

Moreover, these tendrils didn't seem to attack him. This was a good opportunity to explore this area.

If he missed this chance, he might not find a way to enter this area again.

Lin Ye placed the two children on the Alienation Beast's back. Holding the Cross Scepter, he walked alone at the front.

It wasn't that he liked scouting ahead, but only with him in the lead could they move unhindered through this corridor filled with stagnant water everywhere.

Lin Ye passed through one dilapidated corridor after another. This place was just like the red maze in that consciousness world—there was simply no maze exit, only endless corridors. He wasn't sure if he could find anything useful here either, but he couldn't just give up.

However, Lin Ye still had an unresolved problem: he didn't know how to return to the black box.

He originally thought there would be a survivor here who had successfully lived through the first stage, and he could return by dealing with them. But there was nothing like that here. The rooms were completely empty, and outside the rooms were extremely dangerous corridors.

'Maybe that survivor has already been dealt with by those tendrils. We just need to stay here for a while to return...'

Lin Ye could only make some relatively optimistic guesses.

During his exploration of the red maze, Lin Ye tried to communicate with those tendrils, but they completely ignored him, retracting back into the stagnant water after looking at him.

Just as Lin Ye began to doubt whether this exploration had any real meaning, he discovered a corridor without any doors.

'...So there's this kind of corridor here too.'

Lin Ye quickly walked along the corridor to its end, where there was a pair of deep crimson double doors.

As Lin Ye approached, the large door automatically opened. Behind it wasn't a square hall but a connection to a vast space containing a peculiar building resembling a palace.

'This couldn't be that one's residence, could it? No, it shouldn't be. This place is too small.'

Lin Ye approached the steps leading to the palace. The steps were also covered in a large amount of stagnant water, and the color of the water gradually deepened, becoming completely black stagnant water near the palace entrance.

"Wait for me here. I'll go up and take a look."

Lin Ye wasn't sure if his status would allow him to enter the palace interior, so he didn't plan to bring two burdens along for this risky venture.

"Alright, be careful."

Cynthia said very obediently.

Lin Ye, holding the Cross Scepter, ascended the steps alone. Crimson tendrils emerged from the nearby stagnant water. Just like before, those tendrils retracted back into the water after looking at Lin Ye.

However, as Lin Ye approached the palace doors, a dark shadow suddenly shot out from a pool of black stagnant water. This shadow was extremely fast. By the time Lin Ye activated mental acceleration, the shadow was already in front of him. It was a mass of black flesh, its surface covered in slender structures resembling straws.

Even in the mentally accelerated state, the flesh mass was still slowly approaching Lin Ye. A surge of mental energy erupted from within the flesh mass, exploding in front of Lin Ye like a bomb, forcibly interrupting Lin Ye's mental acceleration state.

Just as Lin Ye thought his Reality Simulation would be consumed here, several crimson tendrils shot out from the surrounding red stagnant water, instantly tearing the black flesh mass to shreds.

'Damn! This place is way too dangerous!'

Lin Ye broke out in a cold sweat. Outside of simulation missions, he hadn't experienced this kind of certain-death situation in a long time. If not for those crimson tendrils, he would have been completely unable to resist the black flesh mass. After the teddy bear doll was consumed, it would have been Reality Simulation's turn next.

'Luckily these red stagnant water pools are friendly units, otherwise this would have been a huge loss.'

Lin Ye tentatively took two steps forward. Another dark shadow shot out from the black stagnant water. The shadow had just gotten close to Lin Ye when it was dismembered by those crimson tendrils.

"...Heh heh."

Lin Ye began continuously moving back and forth. Dark shadows kept shooting out from the black stagnant water, but they all died right in front of Lin Ye.