I was just fishing, how did I become a Great Old One?

On the palace square that Jiang Li had forcibly cut open with his "Dimensional Slash," the battle did not end as quickly as expected, but instead fell into a stalemate that made one's scalp crawl.

After realizing that its spatial folding tactics had failed, Folding Tyrant Mandelbrot revealed its true terror as a "fractal monster"—

That is an endless self-replication and proliferation originating from the abyss of mathematics.

The Creation Pen in Jiang Li's hand transformed into a sharp blade, drawing streaks of golden light in the void. Each slash carried a sharpness capable of severing concepts, precisely striking the tyrant's jagged limbs.

There was a crisp "snap" sound.

The arm, composed of countless stacked small triangles, snapped off instantly, the break smooth as a mirror, with black ink splattering like blood.

However, before everyone could cheer, a bizarre scene unfolded.

The broken wound did not heal, nor did it stop growing. Instead, within a mere microsecond, two identical, only slightly smaller, new arms burst forth from the broken end.

Jiang Li's eyes narrowed, and with a backhand slash, he severed the two new arms at the root.

However, from those four smaller cuts, four even smaller arms immediately grew out.

This is an absolutely terrifying nightmare!

Cut one down, and two will grow back;

Cut off two, and four will grow back;

Cut off four, and eight will grow back.

This proliferation is not linear, but rather an exponential burst.

In the blink of an eye, the void in front of Jiang Li was filled with countless densely packed, writhing, and forking serrated limbs.

Those limbs are not only aggressive, but also possess a visual pollution attribute that drives people to the brink of madness—no matter which part you stare at, what you see is a microcosm of the whole.

This infinite self-similarity visually constitutes a labyrinth from which there is no escape.

"Damn it! How come there are more and more of these things the more I cut them?"

Although Odin's stick figure form was agile, it couldn't withstand this overwhelming onslaught. The moment his toothpick spear pierced a fractal tentacle, the spikes on that tentacle instantly split into hundreds of tiny hands, gripping the spear shaft tightly.

"Let go! Let go of me! This is a divine artifact! Not your toothpick!"

Odin was furious and tugged at the gun, but the more he struggled, the tighter those tiny hands gripped, even spreading along the shaft like a layer of black mold, about to climb onto Odin's arm.

Abel's situation is also not optimistic.

As a silhouette assassin, his greatest skill was finding his enemy's weakness and striking with deadly precision. But when facing Mandelbrot, he was completely lost.

In his field of vision, there were repeating patterns everywhere, and jagged edges everywhere. He swung his knife, thinking he had struck the tyrant's neck, only to find that it was just one of the countless tiny structures on the tyrant's body.

The intense visual disturbance made him dizzy, and he swung his blood-stained knife more and more erratically, almost hitting his own allies several times.

"Damn it, this is visual illusion!"

Abel clutched his head, feeling as if his black and white lines were about to fall apart from the processing overload.

"It has no fixed shape; it is 'infinity' itself! As long as even one pixel exists, it can keep replicating infinitely!"

Jiang Li was also covered in sweat at this moment (if paper dolls could sweat).

Although the Creation Pen in his hand was wondrous, its ink was not unlimited. In order to maintain the high intensity of the previous slash and the consumption of the "Dimensional Slash," the special abyssal ink in the pen barrel had run out.

He could feel that with each stroke of the pen, the fluidity of the pen tip decreased, and the lines he drew were no longer as full and black as before, but instead showed dry, flying white.

"System, ink levels?" Jiang Li asked anxiously in his mind.

"Warning! Ink level less than 5%. We recommend replenishing immediately, or... running away." The system's notification was cold and realistic.

Running away? Are you kidding me?

The entire palace square is now blocked by the monster's fractal limbs. It's surrounded by those disgusting jagged edges, with not a single gap. Where can we run?

Moreover, if we retreat now, not only will we lose the reward of the Möbius noodles, but this entire two-dimensional world will likely be devoured by this rampant monster, turning into a desolate fractal hell.

"Hahahaha! Despair? 3D demon!"

The tyrant's sharp, overlapping voice came from all directions, as if every saw tooth was speaking.

"This is the power of the 'Mandelaght'! Within a finite area, I can create an infinite perimeter! You can never cut through it, you can never escape it! In the end, you will all be assimilated by my fractal structure, become part of my body, and become a footnote on this perfect pattern!"

The serrated tentacles began to contract, like a giant, spiky cage, gradually squeezing everyone's living space. The air was compressed, emitting a sharp whistling sound, and the grid lines on the ground were torn and twisted.

At this critical moment, a voice that was extremely out of place, yet full of life, suddenly rang out from a corner of the battlefield.

"Crack...crack...burp—"

That was the sound of chewing crunchy chips, followed by a loud and long burp.

Everyone instinctively looked in the direction of the sound, and saw that at the edge of the battlefield, the round glutinous rice ball that everyone had been ignoring was lying on a pile of Tyrant fragments that Jiang Li had just cut down, eating with great relish.

Those fractal fragments that are nightmarish and highly corrosive to others are like freshly baked potato chips in Tangyuan's mouth, crunchy and delicious.

"Stop eating! Think of something quick!" Jiang Li shouted, "We're going to be stuffed like dumplings!"

Tangyuan raised its head, a half-cut black serration still hanging from its mouth. It blinked its large, watery eyes, which seemed somewhat confused even in the two-dimensional world.

But then, a violent twitch suddenly broke out inside its belly—that perfectly round shape.

"Gurgle—"

The sound didn't seem like it was from hunger, but more like... indigestion.

Or rather, something extremely dense that had been accumulating inside it was finally "pushed out" by the large number of fractal fragments it had just ingested.

That was a long time ago, in some ruins, the remains of a [Dimensional Steamroller] that Tangyuan swallowed for fun.

Although most of that thing was digested into energy that allowed everyone to reduce their dimensions, the core part—the "singularity" containing the rules of extreme compression—stubbornly remained in its stomach.

At this moment, stimulated by those fractal fragments, this singularity was activated.

"dad……"

Tangyuan's little face (the features in the circle) suddenly turned bright red, and she covered her stomach with both hands, her expression a mixture of pain and barely suppressed urgency.

"I...I feel like throwing up..."

"Spit? Spit over there!" Jiang Li pointed at the approaching Tyrant's true form.

Tangyuan took a deep breath, and its round body instantly swelled up a size, then it suddenly opened its mouth wide in front of it.

"Ugh—bo!"

It didn't vomit anything filthy, nor did it vomit a rainbow.

What came out of Tangyuan's mouth was a... dot.

A tiny black dot, even smaller than a pixel.

It looks inconspicuous, like a tiny drop of ink accidentally splattered on a piece of white paper. But the moment this black dot touches the air, the surrounding light, lines, and even sounds all begin to bend strangely.

The black dot began to rotate, but it did not grow larger; however, the "gravitational field" around it was expanding wildly.

"That is..."

Nyarlathotep's silhouette trembled violently, as if it had seen something incredible.

"That's... a two-dimensional black hole?!"

In the three-dimensional world, a black hole is a sphere. But in the two-dimensional plane, a black hole is a circle.

Moreover, this circle is absolutely black; it is the edge of the horizon. Any line that enters this circle will be instantly erased from existence.

"This is a combination of the 'dimensional reduction' rules and the 'devouring' instinct that Tangyuan just digested!" Jiang Li reacted instantly. "It spat out a... monster that specifically eats lines!"

The black dot landed amidst the tyrant's overwhelming fractal tentacles.

At first, the tyrant paid no attention to the tiny thing, and even tried to crush it with its tentacles. However, the moment the first serrated tooth touched the black dot, something terrifying happened.

"Slurp—"

It's like noodles being sucked into a mouth. The huge, infinitely branching tentacle is stretched and twisted the moment it touches the black dot, and then sucked in without any resistance!

Then came the second one, the third one...

That black dot was like a greedy, bottomless pit; it didn't follow any logic or geometric rules, it only followed one principle—"devouring".

Moreover, it devours not only matter, but also "area".

For a fractal monster like Mandelbrot, its greatest pride is its "infinite perimeter." But in the face of a black hole, perimeter is meaningless, because it directly devours the "area" that contains the perimeter.

"No! What is this?! My hand! My fractal!"

The tyrant let out a terrified scream. It felt its ever-expanding body disappearing at an alarming rate.

That kind of disappearance isn't being severed, but rather a complete reset to zero.

The suction force generated by the black hole created a visible vortex. Countless jagged lines were forcibly straightened, like strands of yarn being straightened, continuously drilling into that tiny black dot.

"Stop! Stop it now! My structure is collapsing!"

The tyrant desperately tried to sever its tail to survive, attempting to cut off the part that was being sucked in. But under the gravitational pull of the black hole's event horizon, space itself was collapsing towards that point, and it had no chance of escape.

In just a few seconds, the countless fractal tentacles that originally occupied the entire square and blotted out the sun were swallowed up by that black dot.

The battlefield instantly became empty, leaving only the tyrant's incomplete core, still clinging tightly to the grid lines on the ground, trying to resist gravity.

"A great opportunity!"

Jiang Li looked at the tyrant who was struggling desperately, like a tattered rag about to be torn apart by a strong wind, and his eyes flashed with a sharp light.

"Strike while the iron is hot, kill it!"

"It's immobilized now! All its energy has been used to fight the black hole!"

"Not enough ink? Then draw something simple!"

Jiang Li wielded the Creation Pen in his hand once more. This time, he didn't draw any complex weapons or intricate magic arrays.

He simply drew a huge, flat-bottomed triangular object with a handle above the tyrant.

At the bottom of the object, several wavy lines representing "high-temperature steam" were drawn.

【Dimensional Reduction Attack - The Iron of Truth】

"Ergou! Odin! Abel! Attack together!" Jiang Li roared, "Push them!"

Everyone understood immediately. They might be out of ink, but they had the strength!

Odin put away his toothpick gun, Abel put away his blood-stained knife, and Er Gou stopped lying down. They all rushed forward and grabbed the handle of the giant iron that had been drawn.

"One, two, three! Press!"

Jiang Li converted the last bit of Gluttony Divine Power in his body into "heat" and injected it into the iron.

"Zzzzzzz!!!"

The enormous iron, with its scorching heat and unparalleled gravity, pressed heavily onto the struggling Folding Tyrant.

This is not just physical suppression, but also "flattening" in terms of rules.

What is the concept of an iron? It's used to smooth out wrinkles.

What is the source of the Folding Tyrant's power? It is folding, fractals, and endless wrinkles.

This is an absolute advantage in terms of attributes!

"ah----!!!"

The tyrant let out a final, piercing scream.

Under the combined influence of the black hole's suction and the pressure of an iron, its extremely complex fractal body began to collapse, disintegrate, and melt.

Those once-proud serrated edges were forcibly ironed flat.

Those infinitely nested structures were fused together into a single piece by the high temperature.

The fractal monster, which was originally full of three-dimensionality (pseudo-three-dimensional), gradually lost all its edges and details amidst the hissing sound of steam.

It's like a tangled ball of yarn that's been forcefully pressed into a flat piece of felt.

at last.

The black hole seemed to have eaten its fill (or dissipated because it lost its energy source), and disappeared with a "pop".

Tangyuan let out a satisfied burp, rubbed its belly, and returned to its original obedient appearance.

Jiang Li and the others were also panting heavily, and loosened the handle of the iron.

At this very moment, in the center of the palace square, the once invincible folded tyrant, Mandelbrot, has vanished.

Instead, there was a sheet laid flat on the ground, hundreds of meters in diameter, with delicate patterns on its edges, and as thin as a cicada's wing...

Extra Large Lace-Edged Crispy Cookies

It has a burnt golden-yellow color all over, and the surface still retains some fractal patterns that have been flattened by the heat, making it look like the most luxurious French lace tile pastry.

A gust of wind blew, and one corner of the huge pancake even lifted slightly, making a crisp sound.

The entire room fell silent.

The nobles hiding in the distance, as well as the civilians who had just been rescued, all stared blankly at this scene.

That tyrant who ruled the flat-faced nation for centuries, making all graphics live in fear of folding...

And just like that... it turned into... a pancake?

"Waaaaah..."

A suppressed sob broke the silence. It was Director Stanley.

This irregular polygon that had always followed Jiang Li was now lying on the edge of that huge lace pancake, so excited that it shed tears of black ink.

"it's over……"

"There are no more folds... no more fractals..."

"The world... has become flat..."

"Is this... the taste of freedom?"

It reached out, broke off a small piece of the crust, and put it in its mouth.

"Click."

The crisp sound echoed throughout the square.

"It smells amazing!" Stanley exclaimed.

Jiang Li wiped the cold sweat from his brow (if it were drawn), looked at the enormous trophy before him, and smiled with satisfaction.

He walked over and kicked the pancake with the tip of his foot (the end of the line).

"Yes, the heat is just right."

"Although the process was a bit tortuous, this final step—'ironing'—truly gave it its soul."

"Everyone!" Jiang Li turned to face the residents of the flatland who were still in a daze and opened his arms.

"The tyrant is dead! The pie is ready!"

"What are you still standing there for?"

"Dinner's ready!!!!"

"Ohhhhhhh!!!!"

Cheers instantly engulfed the entire palace. Countless lines surged forth, beginning a grand carnival feast belonging to the two-dimensional world.

Jiang Li silently picked up a core fragment from the ground—the most central and essential piece of the Tyrant's "Singularity Cookie".

"This stuff... I'll take it back for Grandpa to try. Maybe it can cure his chronic leg pain (though I don't know if there's any logical connection)."

Just then, the system notification sounded at the opportune moment:

[Congratulations, host! Hidden mission completed: The Liberation of the Flatland.]

[Rewards: Two-Dimensional Space Folding Technology (blueprint version), Fractal Food Encyclopedia, and... a ticket to the next dungeon.]

Jiang Li raised an eyebrow slightly as he looked at the newly appeared ticket with strange symbols in his hand.

"Looks like the journey of the Pancake Man isn't over yet."