Samsara Paradise: Dream Weaver of Connections.

Just as Lin Yi was about to further analyze his gains, his personal imprint sent him a notification.

It was a message from Su Xiao, extremely brief: "Marvin Waltz asked me to tell you it was a success, and to tell you to find a place to try it out."

Succeeded?
It seems that Hill's experiment on the fusion of the soul and the bodies of the Shadow Legion has yielded initial results that are stable enough to be tested in actual combat.

Without the slightest hesitation, Lin Yi, who had just returned from the Land of All Beings, immediately got up and chose to teleport.

As the light and shadow shifted, he reappeared in the public area of ​​the trial grounds, ignoring the curious or awe-inspiring gazes of the lower-level contractors around him, and headed straight for the entrance to the simulated scene.

He randomly selected an environment labeled "modern battlefield," paid the fee, and stepped inside.

After the familiar sensation of being transported, the smell of gunpowder and rusting metal filled my nostrils.

Before me lay a scene of ruins, resembling an industrial city from the mid-to-late 20th century, but on a scale several times larger.

The charred skeletons of buildings pointed towards the dim yellow sky, and the streets were littered with the wreckage of abandoned vehicles and sandbag fortifications.

In the distance, the faint sounds of explosions and intense gunfire could be heard, interspersed with inhuman, sharp screechs—simulated hostile units, seemingly a chaotic battleground between some kind of arthropod insectoid creature and human mechanized forces.

Ignoring the commotion behind him, Lin Yi stood in a corner of a relatively intact building ruin, closed his eyes, and extended his senses along the contract to the space where the Shadow Legion was located.

The thought, like a probe, swept across the almost boundless army of shadows.

The vast majority of units exude a dull "presence," like precision parts produced on an assembly line, possessing only basic combat feedback and the instinct to obey.

Within this seemingly uniform and orderly perceptual landscape, several unusual points of light suddenly appeared.

If the other shadowy soldiers were like cold, hard blocks of iron, then these few points of light were like living jade infused with warmth.

They still belong to the Shadow Legion's overall network and are controlled by Lin Yi's will, but they have gained an indescribable "activity" within them.

If I had to use a metaphor, it would be like a row of uniformly sized terracotta figurines, where a few real-life models with subtle expressions and breathing patterns have quietly slipped in.

At first glance, it may not be easily noticed, but with a little focus, its unique vitality cannot be concealed.

"found it."

He locked onto the seven clearest points of light, and with a thought, issued a summoning command.

Like ink dripping into clear water, it spread naturally, and seven figures condensed from it.

They remained as they were in life, wearing the school uniforms of the various schools in Kivotos, their figures somewhere between young girls and mature women, their eyes vacant.

The seven people stood there blankly, as if waking from a dream, or as if their consciousness had just been stuffed into an unfamiliar body, trying to understand the basic concept of "self".

They subconsciously moved their fingers, looked down at their bodies, and their faces showed a mixture of confusion, curiosity, and a hint of barely perceptible fear.

Lin Yi didn't give them much time to adjust.

Through the dual connection of the Seed of Reincarnation and the Contract, a massive flow of information was directly poured into the consciousness of the seven.

The basic rules of the Cycle Paradise, the framework of the Void Races, the identities of the Contractors, and their current status were all transmitted to them.

"Uh..." The short-haired girl closest to Lin Yi groaned and raised her hand to cover her forehead.

The other six people made similar movements, their bodies trembling slightly and their faces showing pain.

The impact of information overload is intense, like having a thick encyclopedia crammed into your mind in an instant.

The pain lasts only a short time, about three or four seconds.

When they lowered their hands and looked up again, the confusion in their eyes receded quickly like a tide, replaced by a gradually clearer understanding and a complex expression that finally settled down.

Their gazes all turned to Lin Yi, their eyes filled with awe, obedience, and a hint of apprehension as they faced their creator and ruler.

"My lord." The seven men bowed slightly almost simultaneously, their movements still a little clumsy, but their posture respectful.

Lin Yi's gaze swept over them, and he paused slightly when he recognized one of their faces.

She was a girl who wasn't very tall, with short, light blonde hair and a face that still had a touch of childishness, but her eyes held a stubbornness and vitality that set her apart from others.

She was wearing a slightly worn dark uniform, with what appeared to be a logo on the shoulder, but it was now blurred.

"Aru?" Lin Yi pronounced her name accurately.

The girl whose name was called visibly trembled, then suddenly looked up, her light golden eyes bursting with unbelievable surprise.

She almost immediately ran forward two steps, came up to Lin Yi, and said with barely suppressed excitement, "Yes! It's me! Sir, you still remember me!"

Her reaction was more outgoing than the other six, which also influenced the emotions of the others.

The six girls, from different colleges such as Trinity College and Gohena, were initially a little uneasy, but now they subconsciously moved closer together, forming a small circle centered around Lin Yi and Aru.

The tension of the unfamiliar environment still lingered on their faces, and their eyes would occasionally glance warily at the distant sounds of gunfire, but Aru's presence clearly gave them a sense of security.

Lin Yi nodded to Aru, then asked, "After leaving Giwatos, did you have any special feelings or lingering memories?"

Aru thought about it carefully for a moment, then shook her head, her short, light-gold hair swaying as she did so: "I don't have a very clear feeling... It's like I had a very, very long dream, but I forgot the contents of the dream as soon as I woke up. I only remember that at the end... the world seemed to have changed, and then there was darkness and silence. When I opened my eyes again, I... I saw you, sir, and this place."

Her description was echoed quietly by several other girls.

"This is the training ground of the Paradise of Reincarnation, a simulated combat environment, not the real world," Lin Yi explained simply, temporarily calming their instinctive fear of the environment.

He noticed that their hands were empty, and prompted them, "Where are your weapons? Try to recall, or feel, the connection with this new body."

Upon hearing this, the seven girls were all taken aback and subconsciously looked at their hands.

Almost the instant the thought arose, a subtle light appeared and gathered in their palms.

The color and nature of the light spots varied from person to person. Within a second or two, familiar firearms appeared in their hands—assault rifles, marksman rifles, shotguns, submachine guns, and one person even conjured a special pistol with a heavy design and an energy indicator.

The firearms were very similar in style to those they used during their lifetime.

With the weapon in hand, a sense of completeness and power welled up within them, dispelling their last trace of bewilderment.

They naturally gripped the gun handle, their fingers resting on the guard or trigger.

Lin Yi raised his hand and pointed to a street in the distance where the battle was most intense. There, dozens of mantis-like insectoids with dark shells were exchanging fire with a small squad of human simulated soldiers who were taking cover. Lasers and live ammunition flew everywhere, and the sounds of shattering shells and screams of humans filled the air.

"Go over there and test it."

The seven girls immediately understood the intention, quickly exchanging glances, and a tacit understanding based on their shared background and current situation was quietly established.

Instead of rushing forward rashly, they quickly dispersed and set up simple firing positions using the nearby ruins.

Aru, holding her weapon, took a deep breath and was the first to pull the trigger.

"boom!"

The gunshot wasn't particularly loud; in the brief flash of the muzzle flash, you could see the trail left by the bullet as it left the barrel.

In the distance, a Zergling was lunging at the human bunker from the side. The moment the bullet hit its tough carapace, large sections of the carapace suddenly lost their luster, becoming gray and fragile. Then, its entire upper body exploded as if detonated from within, scattering fluids and carapace fragments everywhere.

The other girls also opened fire.

Precise rifle bursts can annihilate a Zerg's vital limbs or head with a single shot.

The bullets they fired seemed to possess a natural dual nature of "penetrating defenses" and "corroding".

The Zerg's armor, which was strong enough to withstand small-caliber machine gun fire, was useless against these bullets.

Even more bizarrely, the Zerg that are hit rarely leave behind intact corpses; they either disintegrate directly or their remains quickly lose their vitality, becoming like a fragile shell that has been weathered for a long time.

In just three rapid and precise shots, more than half of the attacking Zerg squad was killed or wounded, and the rest were thrown into chaos.

The simulated human soldiers were relieved of pressure. Although the program made them "confused" by the sudden arrival of reinforcements, it did not prevent them from taking the opportunity to expand their gains.

Lin Yi had already made his judgment. He gave the order, and the seven girls immediately stopped firing and quickly retreated from their firing positions back to his side. Their faces still showed a bit of excitement and disbelief after their first real combat experience. They looked at the guns in their hands and then at the messy remains of the Zerg in the distance.

The shadows spread, enveloping the seven girls once more and sending them back to that special space.

The test results exceeded expectations.

The combat capabilities, adaptability to their new bodies, and weapon proficiency of these fused individuals all met or even exceeded Lin Yi's initial estimates.

This is just the first batch of individuals.

If those fragments of the soul that possessed special abilities or even stronger talents in their previous lives were to complete the fusion...

Lin Yi did not linger in the trial grounds and chose to return directly to the Paradise.

He needs a more demanding testing environment to quantify the specific performance of these new units in different combat scenarios.

Ten minutes later, Lin Yi appeared at the entrance of the amusement park arena.

You have entered the Paradise Arena (Tier 6). Please select a mode.

【Competitive mode/spectating mode. 】

Lin Yi directly selected the competitive mode.

[Competitor: Lin Yi.] [Status: Good.]

[Amusement Park Arena Ranking: 21099 (Tier 6)]

[Number of consecutive wins: 62 games.]

[Top ten honorary awards: Not obtained. ]

Lin Yi quickly set up his disguise appearance—this time it was no longer the attire of a priest or swordsman, but rather a summoner-like image, with a dark hooded robe and his face blurred in the shadows.

The match notification sounded quickly.

【Matching...】

[Successfully matched with an opponent. Opponent's arena ID type: Void.]

[Opponent's ranking: 21099th.]

Lin Yi's figure disappeared, and he appeared in the center of a standard yellow sand arena.

The surrounding area was a towering circular grandstand, and many people were already seated in the stands. The cheers and discussions projected on the virtual screen formed a noisy background.

His opponent appeared almost simultaneously, about 100 meters away on the other side.

He was a male of the Feathered Clan, tall and slender, with two pairs of pure white wings on his back, the feathers as smooth as snow.

He wore close-fitting silver light armor, with smooth wind runes engraved on it, and held a silver spear about the height of a person, the tip of which gleamed with a cold light.

The winged people had handsome faces, with a unique elegance and a touch of arrogance.

Upon seeing Lin Yi's "Summoner" attire, the Winged Clan athlete showed a slightly relaxed expression.

He seemed to think he had encountered a relatively "easy" type.

He even had the leisure to temporarily plant his spear on the ground according to the Feather Clan's etiquette, place his left hand on his chest, and bow slightly in Lin Yi's direction, performing a standard warrior's salute.

This graceful gesture immediately drew cheers from many female spectators in the audience.

Lin Yi did not react to this.

He raised his right hand, making a summoning gesture, only after confirming that his opponent had no intention of attacking first.

Just as he was "selecting," a subtle discovery made him pause slightly.

The number of light spots representing the merged individuals has increased by a few compared to before.

Lin Yi immediately understood that after successfully completing the first batch of fusions and establishing a stable model, Hill had begun to use the alchemical array to perform small-batch synchronous fusion operations.

While it is still some distance from full automation or large-scale mass production, this is undoubtedly a positive sign.

Without hesitation, he locked onto the twelve clearest and most stable points of light, including Aru, and issued a summons.

A shadow spread out on the ground in front of Lin Yi, and twelve figures emerged one after another. They were the seven girls from before, plus five new faces.

They appeared briefly bewildered, but recovered much faster this time. Their eyes focused quickly, and they gripped the guns that appeared at will. Naturally, they formed a loose defensive formation centered around Lin Yi.

Twelve girls with halos above their heads and holding guns suddenly appeared on the yellow sand field, a scene that clearly startled the winged warriors on the opposite side.

As a member of the Void race, he was well-informed and naturally knew that certain high-ranking branches or special individuals among the Feathered Race did indeed possess halos, often being mistaken by lower civilizations for "angels."

But the aura of these girls before him was completely different from any of the aura races he knew.

The ease on the faces of the winged warriors vanished instantly as twelve gun barrels were pointed at them, seemingly out of nowhere.

A sense of being locked on and threatened crept up my spine.

He abandoned his ceremonial posture, his wings fluttered slightly, and his body was already several meters off the ground. He held his spear horizontally and entered battle mode.

"Fire freely, but be careful to avoid enemy attacks," Lin Yi gave the girls simple instructions.

He didn't give specific instructions, and he also wanted to see how they would react under pressure.

"Yes!" Aru responded softly, seemingly the other girls' tacit approval of her as the squad leader.

She quickly glanced at her companions, then looked at the winged creatures floating in the air, a hint of excitement and tension flashing in her eyes, but her hand holding the gun remained extremely steady.

Without any warning, gunshots rang out!
Three girls wielding precision rifles fired first, their bullets tracing pale black paths as they aimed directly at the torso and wing joints of the winged creature in the air.

Several other girls using fully automatic weapons provided suppressive fire, their barrage blocking any possible escape routes.

The winged warriors reacted with lightning speed, flapping their wings and performing a swift zigzag maneuver in the air while simultaneously brandishing their spears, the tips flashing silver arcs as they precisely targeted several of the most threatening bullets.

"Ding! Ding!"

Two crisp sounds of impact rang out as the two bullets aimed at his chest were deflected by the gun tip and veered off course.

But the winged warrior's expression changed slightly—the recoil from the spear tip was unusually heavy, causing his arm to go numb.

This also resulted in several other bullets not being completely avoided.

"Pfft! Pfft!"

Two bullets pierced his left wing root and lower abdomen side, respectively.

The silver light armor was pierced as if it were made of paper. Blood did not gush out immediately from the wound, but the feathers in the hit area instantly lost their luster, turned grayish-white and fell off. His flesh felt like it was burning. More importantly, a cold energy was lingering at the wound, trying to erode it inward and interfere with his energy circulation.

"The power of the abyss!?" The winged race competitor was secretly shocked, immediately recognizing the strange power within his body.

He suddenly increased his flight altitude, attempting to escape the range of the attack, while chanting a short incantation. His body shone with silver light, and the runes on his light armor lit up one by one, forming a flowing silver light shield—the Winged Clan's advanced defensive spell, "Flowing Wind Barrier."

The girls below seemed to have anticipated this, and at Aru's short command, the rhythm of the gunfire changed.

Two girls holding special-type rifles crouched down, raising the muzzles slightly as they aimed at the fast-moving winged creatures.

They pulled the trigger, and instead of ordinary bullets, they fired two fist-sized energy blasts.

The energy projectiles, though seemingly slow, possessed a certain tracking and hovering ability, tracing an arc in the air as they hurtled towards the Feathered Clan.

The winged warriors attempted to disperse the energy projectiles with their spears, but the projectiles exploded on their own when they were hit or came within a certain distance of the target.

"Boom! Boom!"

The smog enveloped a space of more than ten meters around the Feathered Clan. When the barrier came into contact with the smog, it made a hissing sound, and the silver light dimmed at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Even more troublesome is that the smog seems to have the effect of interfering with perception and slowing down movement. The winged warriors feel as if they are stuck in sticky glue, their flight speed drops sharply, and their perception of their surroundings becomes blurred.

"A great opportunity!" On the ground, Aru's eyes lit up.

She picked up her weapon and, along with several other gunners, aimed at the area shrouded in energy haze and whose speed had been greatly reduced, and pulled the trigger.

A dense hail of bullets poured in.

Having lost the protection of the barrier and being in the area of ​​interference, the winged warriors, despite desperately swinging their guns to block and dodge, were still hit by several bullets in an instant.

The intense pain and the erosive sensation combined to cause his flight to become unstable.

He realized he could no longer passively take the beating, and a ruthless glint flashed in his eyes.

Despite the pain and the interference of energy erosion, he gripped his spear tightly with both hands. The spear shaft shone with silver light, and a condensed, almost tangible silver wind cone gathered at the tip of the spear, locking onto the area below where the girls were relatively concentrated—he was preparing to use his ultimate move to clear the field, or at least force back these annoying ranged units.

Just as the wind cone was about to shoot out.

A calm voice rang out in the arena, not loud, but clearly drowning out the gunfire and the whistling wind.

"stop."

As soon as the word was uttered, the twelve girls, like precision machines receiving the highest command, instantly stopped all firing.

Meanwhile, Lin Yi, who had been standing in the background like a backdrop, raised his right index finger and gently tapped the Feather Clan athlete in the air who was about to unleash a powerful attack.

A sword aura instantly pierced through the opponent's body.

Having practiced on the fifth level of the Land of All Beings, Lin Yi's control over momentum has now reached a level of consummate skill.

This wisp of sword energy blended into the environment, and the opponent was pierced through by the sword energy before they could even sense it.

The silver spear slipped from his grasp and fell to the ground.

The winged warrior could no longer maintain flight and plummeted from mid-air, crashing heavily onto the yellow sand and kicking up a cloud of dust.

He struggled to get up, but the terrible corrosiveness and excruciating pain from the wound, along with the disordered energy within his body, rendered him temporarily unable to fight.

The arena's ruling mechanism has taken effect, determining that he has lost the ability to continue fighting.

[The individual match has ended; victory is assured.]

[The Hunter's Arena ranking has improved, from 21099th to 18541st.] (End of Chapter)