That figure stood between the doors of rooms 188 and 190, approximately ten meters away from Shang Jianyao.

He wore a dark baseball cap, a blue top, and black trousers, with slightly worn leather shoes.

At this moment, he was leaning against the wall, the cap pulled low, almost obscuring his eyes.

The shadow cast by the brim spread downwards, enveloping his entire face, allowing Shang Jianyao to only clearly see the silver-black metal tube in his mouth.

This metal tube was only as long as a finger, like some kind of substitute for a simple cigarette.

Shang Jianyao's heart stirred, and he abandoned the attempt to take out his key. He slightly bent his knees, tensed his core, and instantly entered a ready-to-strike state.

Just then, darkness suddenly engulfed his vision.

It wasn't that he had fainted; rather, it was as if all the surrounding light had been absorbed by something.

Not only that, but he couldn't hear a single sound either.

Shang Jianyao's current state was as if he had returned to the "Sea of Origin," back to the first "island" he had encountered.

Complete darkness, complete silence, with no companions present except for himself.

Familiar fear welled up from the depths of his heart once again, causing him to tremble slightly.

Yue Qifan, who had been leaning against the wall, immediately stood up straight and turned his body.

He quickly raised his head, aiming the silver-black metal tube in his mouth at Shang Jianyao.

It was a blowpipe.

Unlike the simple blowpipes made from wood by wasteland wanderers, this one had a relatively complex mechanical structure, driven by springs and mechanisms. Therefore, it wasn't one or two meters long, making it highly concealable, and it didn't require actual blowing. A forceful press of the tongue against the button would launch it.

In a sense, it couldn't really be called a blowpipe, as it could also be used with fingers.

Its real name was "Dart."

The reason Yue Qifan was using the most inconvenient method, his mouth and tongue, was because the Holy Master had told him that the target had an Awakened ability that could prevent his hands from making movements.

Since that was the case, he wouldn't use his hands.

At the same time, he also knew the characteristics of the target's other two Awakened abilities:

One was similar to "hypnosis," but required dialogue, and its effective range was small. The other could cause people to act irrationally, with an effective range of four to eight meters.

Based on this information, Yue Qifan strictly controlled the distance between them.

He was currently nearly ten meters away from Shang Jianyao's room, placing himself outside the effective range of both "dialogue hypnosis" and "irrational behavior" Awakened abilities, while the "affecting hand movements" one was avoided by using the "blowpipe"—each room here was two meters wide, making it easy to calculate the distance.

The reason he didn't choose a greater distance was that the "Dreamlike Journey," the Awakened ability with the largest coverage among his three, could only affect humans within a range of eleven meters.

Yue Qifan's plan was this:

At the most suitable distance, he would take the initiative to use "Dreamlike Journey," an ability that relied on stimulating certain memories of the target to create realistic illusions, to plunge Shang Jianyao into a state of fear, confusion, dementia, or something similar, thereby briefly controlling him.

Then, he would blow out the dart, anesthetize the target, drag him into room 196, and systematically use the "Fragment Memory Erasure" Awakened ability to sift through his memories and erase all clues.

This was the best plan that Yue Qifan had put together based on his own abilities and available items. After all, things had happened suddenly, and the Holy Master's order had come too quickly and abruptly, leaving him no time to make extra preparations.

As for why he always carried a "blowpipe," it was because he used it to partially restrain the price he paid for his abilities.

In fact, Yue Qifan was a little puzzled. In his opinion, it would have been better to entrust this task to Xiong Ming, as a "sudden cardiac arrest" was an excellent ability for killing people and eliminating clues.

Perhaps the Holy Masters didn't want to cause any more deaths, fearing it would attract special attention from the company's higher-ups. That's why they employed me, an Awakened who can erase memories… Yue Qifan's thoughts flickered as he predicted the possible dodging direction of Shang Jianyao after he woke up in time, and pressed his tongue against the mechanism at the bottom of the "blowpipe."

Just then, Shang Jianyao, who was slightly hunched over and trembling gently, suddenly laughed:

"Such a weak ability."

At that moment, Yue Qifan was a little stunned:

"Why is he talking?

"At this time, even if he's not affected enough by 'Dreamlike Journey' and recovers in time, he should dodge to the side or roll on the spot to avoid the upcoming attack…

"Why is he wasting such valuable time talking?

"This isn't the reaction a normal person should have at all.

"Damn it, why did he have to talk!"

Yue Qifan's tongue had just touched the switch of the "blowpipe" and hadn't had time to exert any force when he lost the ability to perform the subsequent action.

Sweat appeared on his forehead as he opened his mouth and uncontrollably replied:

"How can you call it weak?"

With a clang, the silver-black metal tube fell to the ground and bounced a few times.

But Yue Qifan's words didn't stop because of this:

"It can induce certain memories of yours, making you immerse yourself in a scene from the past.

"If designed properly, with tightly interlocking steps, it can even make you unable to distinguish between reality and illusion."

Shang Jianyao was momentarily taken aback:

"Why did you respond to my mockery?

"I was just having a brain fart."

Before Yue Qifan could speak, he suddenly understood and laughed loudly:

"Is the price you pay that you have to respond to whatever others say?"

"Do you think it's that simple?" Yue Qifan retorted sharply.

A dense layer of sweat had already formed on his forehead.

The price he had paid initially was "self-discipline."

But in reality, the price wasn't that severe. Yue Qifan only lacked self-discipline in one aspect.

That aspect was "arguing."

As long as someone started a topic, he couldn't help but argue and debate.

Sometimes, even if he agreed with the other person's point of view, he would uncontrollably seize on one or two small details and forcefully argue.

He originally didn't think there was anything wrong with this. Otherwise, he wouldn't have used "self-discipline" as the price in the first place. But as time went on, he realized that this price was extremely dangerous.

After all, not every moment was suitable for dialogue and debate.

In an emergency, a second or two could determine life or death, and diverting one's attention to debate was practically wishing for a quicker death. Moreover, this would make Yue Qifan's relationships with others very poor.

For this reason, he had commissioned this metal tube through the cult.

As long as he held it in his mouth, constantly reminding himself, Yue Qifan could control himself to some extent.

And when covert actions were required, this "blowpipe" could be used as a weapon.

Of course, the price couldn't be completely avoided. Yue Qifan could only ensure that as long as others didn't talk about topics related to him, he could barely keep his mouth shut.

His planned operation had undoubtedly not given the target a chance to speak.

He also believed that no human being could avoid dodging or counterattacking and choose to speak first when facing danger.

Who knew, today he had encountered such a freak.

And this freak was still mocking him.

How could he endure this?

At this moment, facing Yue Qifan's rhetorical question, Shang Jianyao made a second response.

"Is being argumentative also the price you pay?" As Shang Jianyao spoke, his ankles, knees, and back exerted force simultaneously, and he pounced on Yue Qifan like a beast.

He wanted to close the distance between them.

Suddenly, Shang Jianyao felt his body lose balance in an instant.

For him, similar movements were a piece of cake, and he wouldn't make a mistake even once in a hundred attempts.

Who knew that he would inexplicably lose his balance in mid-air today.

Bang!

Shang Jianyao fell to the ground.

"Truth doesn't need words." Yue Qifan took out another "Dart" from his pocket.

He had prepared more than one weapon!

As he spoke, Yue Qifan pressed the mechanism with a smile.

His third Awakened ability was:

"Balance Impairment"!

The effective range was six meters.

Shang Jianyao's pounce had played right into his hands.

Of course, he hadn't initially hoped for such a development, because at this distance, the target's Awakened ability could also take effect.

Fortunately, this change was very beneficial to him.

With a whoosh, a small metal dart shot out, heading straight for Shang Jianyao on the ground.

Shang Jianyao only had time to slightly change his position, avoiding a fatal blow to his head.

Pfft!

The small metal dart lodged in the area from his left shoulder to his chest.

Shang Jianyao immediately did a carp jump, stood up, and showed no signs of being paralyzed.

Facing Yue Qifan's surprised gaze, he pulled out the dart, threw it on the ground, and said with a smile:

"I've been wearing a bulletproof vest this whole time!"

Although the deaths of Wang Yafei and Shen Du were clearly not due to gunshots, Jiang Baimian, for safety's sake, had given each team member a bulletproof vest after Shang Jianyao officially became involved in this matter.

——Inside "Pangu Biology," firearms and bullets were strictly controlled. Jiang Baimian had to report in advance and follow a complicated procedure to organize live ammunition training. However, items like bulletproof vests, which weren't very lethal, were not only easy to apply for, but as long as the team had them, the team leader could make the decision.

"Coward." Yue Qifan forcibly argued.

As he spoke, he suddenly turned around and was about to run away frantically.

In this situation, he felt that he had no chance of winning.

As for how to clean up the mess afterward, he would leave that to the Holy Master to worry about!

However, the moment Yue Qifan turned his body, a strong emotion surged in his heart:

How could he flee in such disarray?

How could he give up like this?

How could he leave so shamefully?

As thoughts swirled, he turned back his body and pounced on Shang Jianyao.

His dark brown eyes seemed to have turned pure black.

Almost simultaneously, Shang Jianyao only felt an invisible object expanding in his mind.

They were like stars rising into the sky, densely covering all the surrounding areas.

And within each "star" was a segment of Shang Jianyao's life that he had experienced.

At this moment, a ray of light drilled in from the outside, carrying a "star," streaking across the sky, and plunging into the illusory "Sea of Origin."

Shang Jianyao frowned immediately, seemingly very confused about what he was doing now.

Yue Qifan also regained consciousness, his pupils suddenly dilating:

"Crap, why didn't I run?

"I even turned around and used the 'Fragment Memory Erasure' ability to attack…

"Is this the Awakened ability that makes people act irrationally?"

Yue Qifan instantly understood what had happened just now, and his heart began to pound erratically.

His "Fragment Memory Erasure" ability wasn't a combat ability at all, because he had to pre-scan the memory, mark the fragments to be erased that were no more than three minutes long, in order to achieve precise effect.

This would take a lot of time, and the distance between the two sides had to be within three meters.

Just now, he had simply erased a segment of memory out of instinct, without knowing what effect it would have.

This would also be difficult to cause substantial harm to the target. After all, a three-minute memory fragment could represent too little.

Shang Jianyao frowned as he looked at Yue Qifan, whose baseball cap was pulled very low. He didn't speak or make any movements.

"…" Yue Qifan's heart stirred. "Could it be that I erased the memory of our fight just now? He doesn't remember that we're enemies, or even that I attacked him…"

Thinking of this, Yue Qifan's heart filled with joy, and he straightened his back.

He hummed a song nonchalantly and bent down to pick up the metal tube and a small dart on the ground.

After doing this, he pulled his baseball cap even lower, not allowing Shang Jianyao to see his appearance clearly.

One step, two steps, three steps, Yue Qifan hummed a song and slowly walked away.

"Hey." Just then, Shang Jianyao suddenly turned around and called out.

Yue Qifan's pupils dilated, cold sweat broke out on his back, and he ran frantically without thinking.

Watching his figure disappear around the corner of the "street," Shang Jianyao "uh"ed and muttered to himself:

"He can't accept criticism of his singing level?"

…………

Floor 349, Area C, Number 12.

Jiang Baimian logged into her account and carefully wrote an email.

After confirming the intended recipient, she moved the mouse and clicked the left button with a snap.

ps: The last day of double the votes, a triple update for monthly tickets~