The target base was established on a larger landmass beneath the pitch-black wasteland. Currently, the base was under siege by a massive number of Abyssal insectoids. Some squads wearing the same model of armor as Lin Ye were dealing with the Abyssal insectoids near the base.

The insects besieging the base were mostly mid and low-tier spiritual energy creatures. This was likely just a pre-battle attrition tactic, so the combat intensity wasn't particularly high.

Lin Ye naturally blended in with those combat squads. Seeing his armor, those squads didn't stop him from approaching the base.

The Abyssal insectoids were like endless waves. After clearing them for a while, Lin Ye entered the interior of the base. He wanted to figure out what was going on first.

The base's protective measures were very thorough. Lin Ye couldn't use his mental energy to scan the interior situation either, but he quickly found the Female Captain and her team members. They had become base staff, doing miscellaneous chores inside the base. Cynthia was also mixed in with them, with the small Alienation Beast staying by her side. However, that Boy was nowhere to be seen.

"What exactly is going on here? Is this... inside the Abyss?!"

Seeing Lin Ye with his faceplate open, the Female Captain urgently asked in a lowered voice.

Anyone suddenly transported inside the Abyss would feel extremely anxious.

"This should be some kind of Information Space formed because certain information was affected by the black box. I don't know how to get out yet, but I'll do my best to get you all out of here."

Lin Ye hadn't expected using the Information Armor to be this troublesome. Had he known it would be like this, he would have used the sealed Surprise Box instead.

Though doing that might not have been much better than the current situation... maybe even worse.

"That Boy earlier wanted to get close behind you... did I mess up?"

Cynthia approached somewhat uneasily and asked.

"No, it's good you warned me. Otherwise, I might have been ambushed by it."

Lin Ye felt his luck had been a bit poor lately, always encountering these kinds of existences he couldn't detect.

"...That's good then."

Cynthia visibly relaxed with a sigh of relief.

At that moment, Lin Ye received a message through the Nameless Armor. A certain Sir inside the base was inviting him to a meeting in the conference room.

"Stay here. I need to go meet a Sir here."

Lin Ye closed his faceplate and found the base's conference room according to the map.

Before Lin Ye could even knock, the conference room's alloy large door automatically opened. A middle-aged man wearing luxurious formal attire stood in the center of the conference room. In the vast conference room, he was the only person.

"Sir, didn't you call me for a meeting? Why are there no others here?"

Lin Ye entered the conference room interior. The conference room door automatically closed behind him. The man turned to look at Lin Ye.

"You bastard, you always manage to screw me over using various methods."

If looks could kill, Lin Ye would already be dead by this man's hand.

"Are all existences like you this unreasonable? Clearly, you set a trap to ambush me, and now you blame me for not letting you solve things easily?"

Lin Ye wasn't in a hurry to act. The man's identity was likely part of this base's command structure, yet the other party hadn't directly attacked him. This indicated the man had a reason he couldn't act.

Perhaps because fighting wasn't allowed inside the base, or perhaps for other reasons. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"I didn't actively design a trap to ambush you. For existences at our tier, we generally avoid excessive contact with the system. Those idiots attacking the system's Survivors weren't guided by me. That was all Fate's choice."

The man was clearly very wary of the system.

"I'm also a system Survivor. How dare you attack me?"

Lin Ye pulled out an alloy chair and sat down on it.

"This between us is a private grudge. The system doesn't interfere with that."

The man sat opposite Lin Ye. The two of them gave off a feeling of having an intimate, knee-to-knee talk.

"So you merged into that Boy's body to ambush me, a low-tier spiritual energy user?"

The man was a powerful Red Sea creature. His understanding of flesh and blood far surpassed Lin Ye's. If the man hadn't been in a hurry to act, Lin Ye would never have been able to detect the problem with that Boy.

"It shouldn't have been this troublesome originally. The second stage of the black box can isolate connections inside and outside the box. Inside the black box, killing you wouldn't cause any trouble. But your luck was just too good. You actually happened to pick that black box and enter that place."

At that time, the man hadn't dared to move recklessly. Fortunately, that monster inside hadn't come out and swallowed him, otherwise the loss would have been too great.

"That wasn't luck. You know about that place?"

Lin Ye probingly asked.

"Hah, do you think I'd tell you?"

The man really wanted to deal with Lin Ye right now, but even he didn't dare to fight Lin Ye to the death here.

"So what now? Do we fight here? Or go outside the base?"

Lin Ye deliberately said this.

"If you want to stay here forever, then go ahead and fight. Although I'd also end up in a miserable state, I'd still be slightly better off than you, a low-tier spiritual energy user."

The man spoke without any politeness.

"This is just an Information Space. How could it trap an existence like you? Is it the effect of the black box?"

Lin Ye looked at the man with a suspicious gaze.

"That's irrelevant. This is the Abyss. You simply don't understand what the Abyss represents. Whether past, present, or future, no matter the location, as long as you die inside the Abyss, you will fall into the Abyss and begin an endless descent. Are you sure you still want to fight me to the death here?"

The man sounded somewhat flustered and exasperated. He completely hadn't expected Lin Ye to possess an item that could pull his consciousness into the Abyss. Otherwise, he would never have given Lin Ye this opportunity to perish together with him.

"Of course not. I don't want to perish together with you. However, I must remind you, my spirit is connected to an Abyssal Evil God. Falling into the Abyss isn't an unacceptable outcome for me... Thinking about it this way suddenly makes me feel like I'm at a disadvantage. Give me a Rule Fragment. Otherwise, I'll test whether I can finish you off here."

Lin Ye suddenly changed his mind.

"...Are you serious?"

The man stared at Lin Ye expressionlessly.

"This is protection money. It can protect you from being dragged into mutual destruction by a bad person. So, are you paying or not?"

Lin Ye completely didn't care about the malice the man displayed. Since they could never shake hands and make peace, and since they would have to kill each other sooner or later, he might as well extort something from the other party now.

"...This is the first time I've ever been charged protection money by someone else. This feeling is quite interesting."

The man very casually took out a Rule Fragment and tossed it to Lin Ye. He didn't even waste more words with Lin Ye. The malice he had shown earlier also vanished.

"Pleasant cooperation."

Lin Ye, however, could sense the icy killing intent in the man's eyes. But he didn't care, because between him and this man, a final reckoning was inevitable sooner or later.