Chapter 364: Illusion From Illusion

After giving the order, Li Yizhi turned and started running toward the green island. We all followed closely behind her, not daring to stop for anything. The island was roughly 5 kilometers away from us. We ran madly on the small path, afraid that we would encounter more of those invisible monsters. 

The two little cats were running on all four of their limbs, moving at an incredible speed that put them ahead of Li Yizhi in a short while. A surprise always came unexpectedly. While everyone was running, Wind Spirit suddenly left the ground and shot into the sky.

"Shit!" I roared and dashed forth in an attempt to grab her body. Unfortunately, my fingers were 10 centimeters away from reaching her as she flew beyond my reach.

"Princess!" Dondon stopped running and roared as he took out his laser gun. He was about to pull the trigger when I pressed the muzzle down and said, "The enemy is invisible. If you attack rashly, you might hurt Wind Spirit by accident."

"Commander, please save the princess," pleaded Dondon anxiously as he looked at the struggling princess in the sky. She was getting farther and farther away from us.

Before I could think of anything, Anxashe pulled his bow and unleashed an arrow in the princess's direction. The arrow whistled through the air as it moved rapidly. We could all hear a clear sound as the arrow struck its target even though it was over 100 meters away. The arrow seemed to have stabbed into something as it immediately shifted direction and soared straight upward. At the same time, Wind Spirit fell from the sky.

All of us cried out with alarm as Wind Spirit rapidly dropped toward the sea. I could hear Dondon calling out at Wind Spirit repeatedly through the communicator, but Wind Spirit's communicator seemed to have failed, and only static sounds could be heard.

At that time, Anxashe and Zhang Bao'er released their weapons and prepared to jump into the sea to save Wind Spirit. But then, another invisible creature appeared and grabbed Wind Spirit and flew toward the island.

Anxashe hurriedly picked up his bow again and shot an arrow. Unfortunately, he was in too much of a rush to hit anything. Furthermore, the invisible creature was ready for the attack as it moved deftly in the air with Wind Spirit's limp body to avoid the arrow. The creature flew quickly. Before long, Wind Spirit was a mere dot in the sky before vanishing above the island. Everyone was stunned by the sudden change.

"What are you waiting for? Start running! If we're late, the little fellow will become beast food," shouted Li Yizhi.

Her remark instantly roused us, and we resumed running. Old Du picked Dondon up and placed him in a backpack to prevent the little fellow from being kidnapped like Wind Spirit. We ran as fast as we could and covered the distance of 5 kilometers in less than 10 minutes. The small island that looked lush from afar yet like a towering mountain from near was right before our eyes.

"The programs always like to design a dangerous and terrifying place to scare all intruders," muttered Baron Sisse to himself.

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Li Yizhi ran to the foot of the mountain and started observing the mountain before her, looking for a path forward. Meanwhile, Dondon was still frantically trying to contact Wind Spirit. However, only static was coming from the communicator. The little fellow was obviously in a distressed state.

The side of the mountain we faced looked like an uneven wall, obstructing our way into the island. Apart from the sound of loud waterfalls, we couldn't hear anything else. We worked with Li Yizhi to search for a path, but even after a long while, we weren't able to find any.

"Canyue, if we really can't find a path, we will have to consider climbing," suggested Old Du.

I nodded and said, "This mountain is steep, but it can't compare with the icy blade mountains we encountered on Jupiter II. We can consider climbing if we don't have any other choices."

Suddenly, Li Yizhi pointed at a spot and said to Zhang Bao'er, "Little fatty, come give it a try."

"What? What do you want me to try?" Zhang Bao'er appeared confused.

"Try touching the cliff with your hand," ordered Li Yizhi.

Zhang Bao'er walked up to the cliff and slowly reached out doubtfully. Surprisingly, his hand phased right through the cliff and vanished behind it.

"My god. This is a fake cliff," exclaimed Zhang Bao'er.

"Yes. This is an illusion, concealing the path with a fake cliff. I believe the path forward is right behind the cliff," said Li Yizhi.

"I thought we were already in a massive illusion. Why is there an illusion within an illusion?" asked Old Du.

"You're correct. This is an illusion stacked atop an illusion. By stacking illusions, all intruders will be further confused. The stacking effect will create something akin to a four-dimensional space that can confuse our brains, which can only perceive things in two dimensions. This can even cause a nervous breakdown. The droid in charge of this room is definitely a super modern product utilizing some advanced programming," said Li Yizhi.

"Nervous breakdown? We have all seen four-dimensional and five-dimensional spaces before. That had never happened. Why do you believe we'd have a nervous breakdown due to stacked illusions?" I asked doubtfully.

"Here, not only is everything you see fake, the scenarios you're experiencing might be fake as well. Simply put, in Wind Spirit's eyes, Dondon could have been the one kidnapped. And the people I'm seeing can very well be fake as well," said Li Yizhi, causing all of us to break out in cold sweat.

At that time, I saw Dondon, Old Du, Zhang Bao'er, and the baron grip their weapons tighter. They seemed to have been convinced by Li Yizhi's words and were starting to see everything around them as illusions.

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'This is bad. These fellows are becoming overly anxious,' I thought anxiously.

Suddenly, I saw a black flash rushing toward me. I moved aside by instinct, and the mist in my mind suddenly cleared. I noticed Master Crystal throwing rocks at everyone, seemingly trying to wake everyone up. Li Yizhi was no exception. After the disturbance caused by the rock, a look of clarity covered her face.

"What happened? There is a blank spot in my memories. I don't remember anything from a moment ago," Li Yizhi asked in astonishment.

"She was mind-controlled by the program. Through her, the program created a fake scenario to trap everyone else. We Storms have completely different brain waves, so I wasn't controlled and could wake all of you up immediately," said Master Crystal.

"What? But I also discovered the issue with Li Yizhi. Why did you think that I was under control as well?" I asked, somewhat unconvinced.

It was at that moment that I discovered that I was also gripping my gun tightly and had my finger on the trigger. My entire body was drenched with sweat.

'Heavens. So I was really controlled,' I thought with alarm.

"Damn this program. It was actually able to create an illusion in our minds. Damn it, lady. Why are you so weak that the program could use you to control us?" Zhang Bao'er complained.

"But why did the program pick her? The weakest here should be me and Zhang Bao'er. The two of us should have the minds that are the easiest to control," I asked with confusion.

Suddenly, a new thought surfaced in my mind. All our previous events were stringed together by that thought, pointing me toward the answer.

"Fatty, this cliff is really an illusion. I'll go through it first. Follow behind me," said Li Yizhi before turning to walk through the cliff wall.

Seeing that, I temporarily placed my new thought to rest. We all followed her through the cliff. Behind it, we saw a straight path leading directly to the peak of the mountain. However, we were all shocked to see that something seemed to be lying in the middle of the path. When I scanned with my laser probe, I saw that the thing in the middle of the path was none other than Wind Spirit.

"Canyue, what's that? Can you see it?" asked Dondon anxiously. He had lost his scanning gears during his crawl through the tube in the spaceship.

"According to my probe, that thing seems to be Wind Spirit," I said.

I had barely finished my words when a white flash darted forth. Dondon was running straight toward Wind Spirit.

"Watch out! It might be an illusion!" I shouted after Dondon.

However, Dondon was too worried to listen and continued running, leaving us with no choice but to follow him with our guns raised. Dondon ran quickly and reached Wind Spirit in only a few minutes. The little fellow had little care for whether it was a trap and immediately lifted Wind Spirit up.

When we caught up, we formed a circle around them and scanned our surroundings carefully with our weapons raised. With Wind Spirit in his arms, Dondon constantly rubbed Wind Spirit's face. From what Dondon was doing, this was likely to be the real Wind Spirit, not an illusion. Under Dondon's efforts, Wind Spirit slowly opened her eyes.

"Where is this? Why am I here?" asked Wind Spirit the moment she woke up.

Everyone relaxed somewhat upon seeing that Wind Spirit had woken up. That was especially true for Dondon, who had a big smile plastered on his face.

"You were kidnapped by an invisible monster. We were chasing the monster when we found you here," said Old Du.

"I had a really odd dream earlier. I dreamed of a gaseous droid giving me a bow and forcing me to shoot arrows at you guys. I firmly refused, so it started burning me with scalding steam. I fainted, and the next thing I know, I woke up with you guys around me," said Wind Spirit.

"Looks like Master Crystal is right. The Storm race has different brain waves. The program here failed to control Wind Spirit and dumped her here upon discovering that she was useless," said Baron Sisse.

"Baron, I have a question. When a program is controlling something, would it be easier to control something with a similar language or would it be easier to control something with a different language?" I asked.

"Canyue, I don't understand your question," said Baron Sisse.

"Simply put, will it be easier to control a different program or a sentient life form with independent thoughts?" I asked.

"What stupid question is that?" said Zhang Bao'er. "When a program works on a program, it is essentially a process of copy and paste. When a program works on a sentient mind, that's a trademark of high tech. Even I know the answer to that question."

"Theoretically, that's right. But Canyue, why are you asking?" asked Baron Sisse in astonishment.

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