This disgusting worm actually launches mental attacks!
But did I manage to withstand it?
Lin Lan felt lingering fear, but his movements didn't stop. To prevent it from causing more trouble, he endured the pain and used all his strength to chop the worm into pieces vertically.
Sticky juice splattered everywhere. Only after confirming the mass of meat on the ground was completely limp did Lin Lan collapse to the ground, releasing the Philosopher's Stone from its liquid state.
The golden pattern covering him suddenly contracted, pulling Lin Lan like a rope.
Lin Lan's eyebrows slightly raised; for a brief moment, he experienced a sense of weightlessness, as though half of his foot had sunken into the ground, falling into an unknown space.
"Is this the cost of using the Philosopher's Stone..."
He murmured to himself as he put the pale golden Crystal Stone back in his pocket and stood up. The nauseating liquid around had changed, turning into rapidly dimming colorful specks.
Lin Lan noticed the bionic mechanical servant standing quietly in place.
He moved a step and found the servant had closed her eyes, appearing gentle and serene like a sleeping beauty in a fairy tale. The next moment, sensing something, she turned to Lin Lan and opened her pure white eyes.
Under Lin Lan's watchful gaze, the bionic maid lowered her head, bent her knees, and pinched the sides of her skirt with both hands.
She asked, "Are you my master?"
Lin Lan slowly stepped back, observing her actions.
The bionic maid didn't rush forward with a smile like before but tilted her head slightly, her pure white pupils showing a hint of confusion.
Lin Lan finally breathed a sigh of relief; the mechanical servant's loss of control was indeed directly related to the Starlight Worm.
To be cautious, he still asked, "You won't attack me again, will you?"
"As the first generation of bionic mechanical servants, my built-in chip holds the company's strictly formulated security protocol, so I won't harm human safety in any form."
The bionic maid responded formally.
What a joke of a security protocol; you almost twisted my head off just now...
Lin Lan squinted, inwardly mocking.
Then, the bionic maid gently asked again, "Are you my master?"
"Yes."
Lin Lan answered decisively; clearly, there was no downside to this.
At this moment, the bionic maid's gaze seemed more animated, no longer as hollow as before. She stepped forward, her pure white eyes carefully scanning the boy's appearance and physique.
After a moment, she smiled: "Please give me a new name."
"A name..."
Upon hearing this, Lin Lan appeared a bit troubled. He examined the girl's appearance, and after some thought, his face turned serious: "I'll call you Bai then."
He scratched his head and added, "That name should be fine, right?"
"The name 'Bai' is deeply bound with the identity certification system."
"Didn't you add the word 'Xiao'?"
"The name 'Bai' is deeply bound with the identity certification system!"
Bai's face was equally serious.
Lin Lan: ...
The next moment, Bai moved closer to Lin Lan, her eyes showing a hint of concern: "Master, please allow me to treat your wounds."
"No need, once I leave the dungeon, I'll heal."
Lin Lan helplessly waved his hand, looking at the white-haired maid shorter than him, his eyes flickered: "Follow me, we have more important things to do..."
·
[Dungeon exploration time remaining: 18 minutes]
Lin Lan returned to the starting point, where the vortex Light Gate to reality floated quietly in the air, and behind Lin Lan, a mountain made of storage boxes was moving shakily.
"Go slower, don't break anything."
Lin Lan turned back and casually instructed: "Next, just push them all through the vortex gate."
"Yes... master..."
Bai's playful face appeared between the storage boxes, easily stacking hundreds of pounds of heavy items on her arms, then she began to work as instructed.
Lin Lan, covering his shoulder, sat at the edge of the giant wall.
Moonlight hung like a thin veil over the boy as he admired the strange and dazzling terminal world before him alone.
At first glance, the damage to the Outer City seemed more severe than the Inner City, but Lin Lan knew that, despite only ruins remaining of the Outer City's infrastructure, there was still the possibility of repair and reconstruction.
But the Inner City was different.
Beneath the starlight, the neon-covered Space Ladder gave an absolute sense of immobility.
That city seemed like an insect trapped in amber; however vivid it appeared, it could never separate from the amber.
It was a despair that penetrated deep into the bones.
What has happened to this world?
Whenever he relaxed, Lin Lan's mind would be haunted by this unsettling question.
The dungeon card collection is the world's past; Ideal City's 'Space Ladder' sinks into the starry sky, everything went crazy under the starlight. The elf homeland 'Loya' collapsed in history, the civilization's grandeur vanished into the void with the Historian's death.
In the real world, these endings haven't left but have evolved into a Celestial Calamity deep in the oceans for unknown reasons.
There are too many doubts.
Moreover, under the influence of the ambitious, the Lion Heart Kingdom continues falling into the Abyss...
Could civilizations already regressing withstand successive ordeals?
Suddenly, Lin Lan thought of the Red Dragon that went to its death.
There's always been someone fighting against the terminal, and it seems he's taken over the baton passed by them.
In his thoughts, a gentle voice sounded beside his ear:
"Master, all the goods have been moved."
"So quickly?" Lin Lan was slightly surprised, turning around and nearly bumping into Bai's leaning face.
"Cough... thank you for your hard work."
He stood up, his once bewildered gaze quickly calmed down.
Instead of sitting there pondering aimlessly, it's better to actually do some real work for the territory.
Lin Lan planned to leave the dungeon with Bai. He glanced back and suddenly noticed a strange area at the very depth of the Space Ladder.
A cluster of light was flickering violently there.
He called, "Bai, can you see that place clearly?"
Bai nodded, her pupils slightly contracted, projecting the collected image in the air.
A bizarre scene emerged in Lin Lan's view.
A large sailboat, completely incongruous with this world, was embedded within the building.
It was stuck mid-air, surrounded by billowing black smoke, countless silver dots shuttled to and fro, differently styled machines climbed up and down, striving to repair the city's wounds under the starlight.
"Master, should we go and take a look?" Bai asked.
"Next time, we don't have enough time now."
Lin Lan shook his head, retrieving his gaze, and headed towards the hovering Light Gate.
[Dungeon Settlement in Progress...]
[Loot Acquired: Micro Nuclear Battery*12 (Blue), Bionic Mechanical Servant Torso*7 (Blue), Activated Metal Composite Material*36 (White), Small Light Beam Cutter*6 (White), First Generation Bionic Mechanical Servant (Unique)]
[Dungeon Card Cooldown Time: 48 hours]