Bang!

The woman pulled the trigger, and the bullet accurately struck the very center of Lin Ye’s forehead.

In that instant, Lin Ye used his Special Ability on his own brain one last time.

His activated brain shrank into a ball, dodging the direct hit by shifting to the left side of his skull. Before the bullet could completely destroy his brain, Lin Ye forcibly seized control of the spiritual energy inside the bullet.

This was the woman’s only flaw, and also Lin Ye’s only chance of victory.

In the entire city, only the woman’s Spiritual Energy Pistol and that protective suit contained spiritual energy, and Lin Ye had already lost the ability to get close to either of those items. So his opportunity lay only in the moment the woman fired.

Only in that instant could he touch the spiritual energy contained within the bullet.

Because the Special Ability couldn’t instantly kill an enemy, using it on the woman would not only be pointless, but would also alert her.

After Lin Ye used his Special Ability, the woman’s position suddenly shifted, moving about ten centimeters to the left.

Lin Ye had seen this phenomenon before—after the young girl disappeared, the effects she caused also vanished.

Now Lin Ye had only one chance to attack. After this, he would completely lose the ability to resist. So this strike had to hit.

With limited spiritual energy, Lin Ye had almost no time to think. He compressed the remaining spiritual energy to its extreme, then added the concept of penetration to the compressed energy.

The compressed spiritual energy shot out like a bullet, but Lin Ye didn’t aim at the figure in his field of vision—he aimed at where the woman had been standing before.

Bang!

The compressed spiritual energy pierced through the spiritual energy shield on the protective suit, then shot through and blasted the woman’s head apart.

The headless corpse fell to the ground. Lin Ye’s brain crawled out through his eye socket, lying limp and powerless on the wires, completely unable to move.

At the very last moment, Lin Ye had managed a counter-kill.

“Sigh, can’t I fool you even with that?”

The young girl picked up the brain lying on the ground and walked toward the center of the platform.

After being picked up by the young girl, Lin Ye’s gradually blurring consciousness suddenly cleared a little.

“How did you know that in the end, I would mislead you by altering your brain structure? With so little time, how did you make the right call?”

The young girl asked, puzzled.

“Because there was an obvious logical flaw in it.

There was no cooperative relationship between that woman and you. You couldn’t communicate with her either. But to achieve that scenario, she would have needed to cooperate with you by changing her position. And if you couldn’t tell her that you would affect my brain, there was no reason for her to change her position.

Besides, although that woman seemed to value me highly, she was actually very arrogant—arrogant enough that she wouldn’t change position for a D-Class personnel who couldn’t even move. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have given me the chance to climb onto the platform.

That was my judgment of human nature.”

Lin Ye communicated with the young girl inside his mind. She was attached to his brain, affecting him by altering its structure.

In Lin Ye’s perception, the young girl was now carrying him toward the center of the platform. But from a third party’s perspective, there was only a brain slowly moving toward the center.

The young girl had repaired Lin Ye’s brain, so he could stay conscious. Unlike before, they were now crawling toward the center of the platform together.

“That’s why I don’t like working with useless people. If she had been just a little smarter, you wouldn’t have found a chance to counter-kill.”

The young girl sighed, sounding somewhat regretful.

“You almost fooled me. Especially the part where you didn’t affect me while I was climbing up the platform—that was really deceptive.”

If the woman hadn’t had such obvious problems, Lin Ye really would have needed to spend some time carefully thinking before making his choice.

“Because I felt that even if I affected you, it wouldn’t stop you from climbing up. So I thought it was better to pretend I’d given up—that way it would be easier to trick you.”

The young girl placed Lin Ye on the instrument. The woman’s corpse was nearby, and the Spiritual Energy Pistol was there too. But Lin Ye could now only move with the young girl’s help, unable to access the spiritual energy inside them.

“Why are you helping me now? If you did nothing, I would have died there.”

Lin Ye didn’t know what the young girl’s goal was.

“I want to try tricking you one last time. Right now, I’ll help you stop the instrument from continuing to run. You can choose to trust me, or not trust me.”

The young girl showed a pleased expression. She slowly pressed the buttons on the instrument. Soon, the instrument’s screen displayed her image, and below it appeared a line of text:

Do you want to completely release the main body of the mental defense system?

Yes / No.

“Choose ‘Yes.’”

After saying this, the young girl stood behind Lin Ye and stopped interfering with his brain.

Lin Ye regained control of his brain. Now it was his turn to make a choice.

“There wouldn’t happen to be a third option, would there?”

Lin Ye didn’t like this situation, but he had to make a choice quickly. Because after the young girl left him, his brain had already started losing activity. In ten seconds, he would be completely dead.

“Of course not. This is the final option. If you choose ‘No,’ the instrument will self-destruct, and I’ll die completely too. But no matter which option you pick, this incident will end for good.”

Seeing Lin Ye hesitate, the young girl was very happy.

“I see.”

Lin Ye used the tentacle of his alienated brain to press the button marked ‘Yes.’

“…Why?”

The young girl picked up Lin Ye in confusion. Her body began to fade and disappear.

“Because I decided to trust you this once. If you’re not planning to trick me this time, then consider it your win.”

At moments like this, Lin Ye always gave the other party a chance. But only one chance. If the other party could survive, he would be happy for them too… probably.

“I hope you won’t regret this. I am the murderer who destroyed this city.”

This time, the young girl wasn’t trying to trick Lin Ye. She thought Lin Ye would definitely choose ‘No.’ Because Lin Ye had no reason to release her. She was ready to die together with Lin Ye here.

“What does that have to do with me? I’m just a D-Class personnel. I only do things I like. And the one who destroyed this city was that woman, right?”

The mental defense system wasn’t meant for attacking. She was just doing her job.

“I am Accomplice Number One.”

The young girl said in a fierce tone.

“That’s really terrifying.”

Lin Ye completely lost consciousness. The young girl’s figure also completely faded and disappeared, leaving only a string of electrical signals flashing through the brain that had entirely lost activity.

“Then, goodbye.”

………………………………………………

[Simulation Ended] 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

[Remaining Simulation Attempts: 10]

[Simulation Attempts not consumed. Do you wish to retrieve the core item?]

“Retrieve.”

[Core item obtained: Unfinished Instrument]

[Title obtained: Last Stand Counterattack]

Lin Ye climbed up from the bed. That complex instrument was now placed in the center of the Shelter, taking up most of the space in the bedroom.

“How did this thing get moved over here?”

Lin Ye stared at the complex buttons with unknown functions on its surface, feeling a headache coming on.