“Origin Sea,” Jiang Baimian emerged from the shimmering water, once again seeing the island that had stopped her progress.

The island was like the part of a mountain that had not been submerged by the sea, its surface covered in protruding rocks interspersed with holes leading into the depths.

For so many days before, as long as Jiang Baimian stepped onto this island, even before entering the caves, she would directly lose consciousness, unable to resist.

Gazing at it for a moment, she began to recall her two experiences of fainting in reality, constantly reminding herself that most of the corresponding fear from the awakening experiment had been dispelled.

Then, she materialized an object.

It was a doll wearing grey-green camouflage clothing. Its face was different from normal dolls; it had no facial features, but a mirror was inlaid where they should be, reflecting Jiang Baimian's face.

Jiang Baimian focused on the doll in her hand, and a little bit of brilliance suddenly lit up in her eyes, like the stars in the night sky, or pieces of broken mirror illuminated by moonlight.

In the next second, she used "Stimulus Misalignment" on herself, modifying her own reaction to the dizzying stimulus.

This could only be maintained for one minute at present, but for Jiang Baimian, who would faint as soon as she stepped onto the island and could only last for a maximum of ten seconds, it was enough.

——After failing to directly use the mirror to cast the abilities "Stimulus Misalignment" and "Item Misrecognition" on herself, Jiang Baimian tried many methods, all without success. Later, she considered that the area she was in was called "Shattered Mirror," and put the mirror back into the plan.

Inspired by the statues and doctrines of the "True Self Church," she specially made a doll that looked very much like herself, using a mirror as its face. Thus, every time Jiang Baimian took out this doll and looked at its head, she would have a subtle feeling of seeing her true self.

Relying on this feeling, she finally completed the step of applying "Stimulus Misalignment" and "Item Misrecognition" to herself, and pushed open the door from "Hall of Stars" to "Origin Sea."

This also made her more certain of the role of psychological suggestion in awakening ability mining, believing that after more training, she could completely stop relying on the special doll and directly use a simple mirror to influence herself.

Once she entered the "Corridor of the Mind," she probably wouldn't even need a mirror anymore.

As soon as she completed the "modification," Jiang Baimian did not delay, and arrived at the island like a swimming fish.

With a grab and a push of her left hand, her whole body silently emerged from the water and jumped up.

Jiang Baimian quickly sat down in front of a broken cyan-black boulder, and at the same time materialized her portable computer.

She wanted to recreate the scene of the awakening experiment.

Soon, the song echoed:

"Do you still remember the dream of your youth?
"Like a flower that never fades
"Accompanying me through the wind and rain
"Watching the impermanence of the world
"Watching the changes of time..." (Note 1)

Listening to the familiar melody and lyrics, Jiang Baimian leaned back against the cyan-black boulder, adjusted her mood, and waited for the coma to come.

Before long, darkness occupied her vision, and silence dominated her mind.

She unknowingly fell into a coma.

In the boundless darkness, a little bit of light emerged in the distance, dyeing that area red, and awakening Jiang Baimian's consciousness.

Her eyelashes flickered a few times, and she slowly opened her eyes.

Unlike so many times before, what she saw after waking up was not the ceiling inside the company or the roof of the jeep, nor the blue sky dotted with white clouds and the starry night sky.

What appeared before her eyes was the sky above the "Origin Sea," shrouded in a thick mist.

"It's a success..." Jiang Baimian was overjoyed, and immediately straightened her back, sitting upright in place.

Because she was in a coma before, and no longer had the consciousness to maintain the materialized items, the portable computer had long disappeared, and the song had stopped at some unknown time.

"Listening to songs still has some use, it's not in vain to feed such fanaticism..." Jiang Baimian said with a self-deprecating smile.

For her, the role of the song just now was more to boost her morale, to self-motivate, which was another kind of psychological suggestion, rather than directly waking her up.

Jiang Baimian did not immediately return to the real world. She stayed here and wandered around, observing the complete appearance of the island.

"Why are there so many caves?" she muttered to herself with a slight sense of puzzlement.

Then, she had a guess:

"Representing the heart with seven apertures?"

As soon as she said this, she laughed at herself:

"Isn't this a bit narcissistic?

"Uh...can't say it's resourceful, right? Bah, the appearance of this island must be a manifestation of inner fear, a kind of distortion!"

After grumbling for a while, Jiang Baimian returned to the real world.

Seeing her open her eyes, Bai Chen casually asked:

"How is it? Any obvious effects?"

Jiang Baimian showed a smile:

"It's a success."

"So fast?" Long Yuehong in the back row exclaimed in astonishment.

Pa pa pa, Shang Jianyao, weak, dizzy, and lightheaded, still insisted on applauding.

Jiang Baimian hummed:

"This is called fast?

"I've been stuck on this island for almost three months!"

"I mean, just changed the plan, and it succeeded so quickly," Long Yuehong quickly explained.

Jiang Baimian heard this and sighed:

"So, sometimes it's purely a matter of thinking. Change your thinking, change your direction, and the difficulty may no longer be a difficulty."

"Yes, yes," Shang Jianyao deeply agreed.

After "educating" his team members, Jiang Baimian looked at Long Yuehong and said with a charming smile:

"I can't wait to experiment with how much stronger my abilities have become."

Long Yuehong hesitated and responded:

"Me?"

"Are you going to find Wei? He's half dead now," Jiang Baimian coaxed. "Can't let Xiaobai come, right? She has to drive."

Bai Chen immediately interjected:

"It's almost time for Xiaohong to drive."

"I'll do it," Long Yuehong made a decision in an instant. "Anyway, it's not a big deal."

Bai Chen pursed her lips and finally said nothing.

She found a relatively open place and stopped the jeep.

In the next few minutes, Jiang Baimian experimented with the changes in her three abilities. The final results were:

"Spatial Illusion" could only affect one person, and the maximum range was fifteen meters. Now it can affect four people, and the maximum range is twenty meters. It is the type that loses its effect as soon as you stop using the ability;

"Item Misrecognition" has increased its maximum range from ten meters to thirteen meters. It can still only affect one target, and the target will only misidentify one item at a time. For example, Long Yuehong only mistook the can Jiang Baimian threw at him for a bomb and instinctively rolled to dodge. The effective time is currently one minute;

"Stimulus Misalignment" is still modifying one associated reaction for one target at a time. For example, this time Long Yuehong chose to close his eyes when he heard a sound. The duration has increased from one minute to one minute and twenty seconds. The maximum range is currently ten meters.

Overall, after passing through this island of fear, Jiang Baimian's abilities have increased by about 30%, with slight differences between different abilities.

...

As they approached the Angry Lake area, the soil gradually became moist, and various grasses and trees became more lush.

After a winter, the road that was originally "walked" out had to be "developed" again.

The "Old Task Force" encountered an attack, which came from an atavistic and mutated bird.

It was huge in size, astonishing in flight speed, and knew how to pick up stones and throw them down to hit people, like a relatively backward equipped helicopter.

However, without Jiang Baimian and Shang Jianyao even needing to take action, and without the team using exoskeletons and bionic intelligent armor, Long Yuehong lured it slightly, and Bai Chen found an opportunity and shot it in the head.

After modifying relevant points, her shooting ability has improved to a very terrifying level.

"How do we eat this?" Shang Jianyao stood next to the huge bird monster and raised a thought-provoking question.

He forgot the pain as soon as the wound healed. He had only just recovered from his dizziness and was already looking forward to wild game.

Before Jiang Baimian could answer, Shang Jianyao had already clapped his left palm with his right fist and said:

"I've figured it out, let's stew the whole thing into a soup!"

"Where are you going to find such a big pot?" Jiang Baimian scoffed. "Even a grill may not be able to fit it."

During their discussion, Bai Chen suddenly opened his mouth and said:

"There are two cars coming from afar."

The terrain here is open, and she noticed something hundreds of meters away.

Shang Jianyao was immediately "terrified":

"Could this be their pet?"

Jiang Baimian was too lazy to pay attention to him and said to Bai Chen:

"If they insist on entering the 150-meter range, leave a distance and fire a warning shot into the sky."

The reason why she limited it to 150 meters was because Shang Jianyao could exert influence after entering this range.

The two cars that came had been modified to the point where it was almost impossible to tell what the original model was. They had machine guns mounted on the top, flags fluttering on both sides, and the outer shell, although grey and dusty, was painted with patterns such as blood, organs, and semi-naked humans.

This reminded Long Yuehong of those modified vehicles and motorcycles in the Forward Camp in the Northern Mountain Ranges. They were unique, diverse, and amazing.

In an extremely oppressive environment, humans will inevitably have places to vent their emotions at will.

The two cars seemed to have also discovered that there were people here, and began to turn to the side, preparing to bypass the "Old Task Force."

Just then, in the car in front, someone shouted in surprise:

"Bai Chen?"

Note 1: Quoted from "The Price of Love" by Li Zongsheng