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Chapter 608: Important Decision

“Is the question of who gets to open the Gates really that important?” Gao Yang didn’t understand.

“It is.” Qilin’s gaze was serious. “Things aren’t as simple as you think, Seven Shadow. Dragon is simply trying to mislead you in a way that you’ll be susceptible to, making you think that you’re making the right decision on your own and have you insist on your position.”

“Think about it carefully. Can the Gates really be opened by a nobody?”

Qilin slightly lowered his eyes. “Just like the exploration of the abyss tonight. Can it be done by anyone other than you? Heavenly Dog and Black Fish both tried, and look where that got them. Different people would get different results by opening the Gates. The Gates of Closure isn’t a simple doorway. I cannot leave such an important task to someone else.”

Gao Yang fell silent.

Qilin said in an earnest tone, “I can make concessions on anything, Seven Shadow, anything but that. The Gates have to be opened by me, and I’m willing to give my life for it.”

“Even after you’re no longer a member, I hope that you’ll understand and support me in that.”

Gao Yang stayed silent. He was thinking.

His head was a mess. He needed time to calm himself. He looked up and said, “May I use the bathroom?”

“Be my guest.”

Gao Yang headed to the bathroom, shutting the door behind him. Opening the tap, he splashed water on his face and looked at himself in the mirror for ten seconds.

Then he walked out of the bathroom, closing the door behind him and sitting back down on the sofa.

“Guildmaster.” Gao Yang looked at Qilin seriously, speaking in a determined tone. “Thank you for all you’ve done for humanity, and thank you for your trust in me and your support.”

He took a deep breath. “Still, I insist that the Gates should be opened by Ke Yo or another impartial individual.”

The room grew silent.

Qilin’s expression grew tired. He sighed softly and took off his glasses, looking at Gao Yang with clear eyes. “It wasn’t until just then that I realized I might have made a mistake, Seven Shadow. I was fooled.”

“What?”

“The Guard Rune Circuit hasn’t gone missing. It’s been with you to start with.”

Gao Yang started.

Activate Tele...

Tele...what?

The Gao Yang hiding in the bathroom had forgotten the name of his Talent, and at the same time, the flow of his energy slowed to a halt, the route blocked off. Moreover, his other Talents had gone dormant, and he lost all his experience and skills in fighting and fleeing.

Then all his memories, emotions, thoughts, and knowledge faded from his mind, too.

Like a quickly fading old photo, Gao Yang’s brain became a blank sheet of paper in seconds, emptied. While his physical body and brain remained intact and his heart was beating normally, signifying that he was still alive, he was, in a manner of speaking, dead.

The existence known as Gao Yang, including all the information and memories he had gotten over the past eighteen years, was erased. His brain was emptier than that of an infant.

Save for Hong Xiaoxiao, no one would be able to restore his brain.

Unfortunately, Hong Xiaoxiao wasn’t with him, and she hadn’t marked Gao Yang with Gamer.

Inside the bathroom, Gao Yang collapsed to the floor with a thud, his body spasming and his bladder and bowel losing control. He had lost even his memory and experience of his most basic functions, and he couldn’t do anything but breathe instinctually—he didn’t know how to.

The system continued to repeat the same warning in his head, yet he could no longer understand the words.

[Warning, Luck acquisition rate increases to 14000 times.]

[Warning, Luck acquisition rate increases to 14000 times.]

[Warning, Luck acquisition rate increases to 14000 times.]

...

“I’m sorry, Seven Shadow.” Small, imperceptible white spots appeared in Qilin’s green eyes. He had used the skill he acquired with level 7 Eidos, the trump card he had never used on a human before—Brain Formatting.

Its effective range was small, but it was discreet, quick, and dangerous.

If one were to divide psychic attacks into close-ranged and long-ranged moves, Brain Formatting would be equivalent to a blade hidden in one’s sleeve. It caught the target by surprise and made a fierce, merciless attack without pulling back.

Qilin ignored Gao Yang’s double, which remained unmoving on the sofa. He stood up and walked to the bathroom with his cane.

He slowly crouched down and reached out to search Gao Yang’s armpit. Normally, Rune Circuits would be hidden in a bag tucked under the arm. While he didn’t know how Gao Yang had evaded Azure Dragon’s search, his instinct told him that the Guard Rune Circuit must be with Gao Yang, and the abyss was nothing but a red herring.

Suddenly, he tensed.

The body didn’t feel right. It was melting—no, it was vanishing...

Qilin didn’t even waste his time to turn around before he unleashed a mental shockwave at the largest range he could manage. However, the “double” on the sofa was already gone.

...

Three seconds before.

Whoosh. Gao Yang teleported from the sofa through the bay window, flashing into existence outside. He started free-falling from the nineteenth floor, and still he needed to go faster. He teleported himself downward to speed up his fall, and in two seconds, he hit the ground.

With a roll forward, he broke his fall. He quickly jumped up and teleported through the dark road and the riverside scenic area, diving into the Li River and heading toward the bottom of it.

It took less than five seconds for him to escape.

Five seconds later, Gao Yang activated Willful Power without hesitation at the bottom of the river, putting most of his stats into Charisma. Only then did the rigidness and dullness of his brain fade, and he slowly recovered.

That’s insane!

After taking off his glasses, Qilin had used Brain Formatting on Gao Yang’s double in the bathroom rather than Gao Yang himself, yet the psychic damage that spread to his real body still almost killed him.

Yes, the Gao Yang in the bathroom was his double, and the one sitting before Qilin was the real deal.

During the ten seconds he hesitated before the mirror above the wash basin, he wasn’t agonizing over whether he should support or resist Qilin; he had made the decision already.

He must not allow Qilin to acquire all twelve Rune Circuits!

What he had been thinking about during the ten seconds was whether he should hide his real self in the bathroom or have it go outside.

He had a strong feeling that Qilin wouldn’t let him go tonight.

Qilin had already decided to kill him, and he was likely to have guessed that the Guard Rune Circuit was in Gao Yang’s hands—which he had actually handed to Wang Zikai for safekeeping already.

Lying to Qilin on something this fundamentally important would surely be punished by death.

Whether Gao Yang agreed with or disagreed with Qilin, the man was never going to trust him again, and he wouldn’t allow a threat like Gao Yang to survive.

That much was apparent when Qilin first interrogated Gao Yang. He was terrifyingly determined and wouldn’t mind getting his hands dirty for his goal.

Thanks to the points Gao Yang put into his Charisma, he sensed a psychic pressure that would be unleashed once triggered as soon as he walked into the bathroom. Like countless intangible strands, the psychic power went through the wall and quietly encircled Gao Yang, touching the hair on his skin.

No matter if Gao Yang chose to attack or escape, he would be hit by Qilin’s psychic attack immediately.

To Gao Yang’s knowledge, Qilin’s maximum attack range was thirty meters in diameter, which meant Gao Yang wouldn’t be able to escape the range with one teleport. His only choice was to create a distraction with Double.

However, Qilin must have guessed that Gao Yang had gone to the bathroom under the excuse of thinking in order to attempt an escape with Double. Qilin was the kind of person whose shrewdness couldn’t be overestimated.

After debating with himself for more than ten seconds, Gao Yang decided to take the risk and did the counterintuitive thing: after activating Double, his real self walked out of the bathroom to face Qilin, while his double remained hidden inside, making it seem like it was ready to escape at a moment’s notice.

Moreover, Gao Yang had left a tiny crack when closing the door gingerly, acting as naturally as he could, and the gap allowed Qilin to see the mirror in the bathroom, which reflected a small part of the shadow the double cast on the wall.

In the end, Qilin fell for it.

He took off his glasses and made a deadly move, using Brain Formatting on the double inside the bathroom. Gao Yang’s true self was sitting before Qilin, and the secondary impact of the move turned his brain rigid and deprived him of much of his memory, experience, and emotions.

Even with 1200 points in Charisma, the resistance he could put up before Qilin broke down easily.

If his mental resistance had been paper thin, it was now at most as thick as cardboard, and Qilin’s willpower pierced through it like a dagger.

Doing his best to contain the damage done to his mind, Gao Yang teleported away from the sofa.

Five seconds later, having plunged into the dark cold depth of the river, Gao Yang activated Willful Power to push his Charisma to 6000 temporarily, allowing him to fight the lingering impact of Brain Formatting.

Without hesitation, he took out his waterproof cellphone and sent the group message he had set up beforehand.

Ring.

The message was sent successfully.