I don't want to conquer witches anymore.

"It's no use! You're only in my dream; in reality, you didn't even have a gun..."

Joan's voice abruptly stopped, and her body began to swell and contract violently, then burst open like a balloon in a terrifying way. Before the exploding flesh and blood splattered onto Duke, this horrific scene truly brought him to his senses.

In reality, Joan didn't explode directly, but her whole body was covered in glaring wounds, with blood gushing out, turning her into a little bloody mess. She collapsed to the ground, her condition much worse than when she was half-dead while "faking illness."

Healing, Explosion, Instant Death, Copying, Evolution, Soul, Sheep Transformation.

Among the enchanted bullets in the Neon world, the two that appear to be the most powerful are the direct-kill instant-death spell and the high-level control spell polymorph. However, after experimentation, Duke believes that the two most powerful are copy and evolution.

These are two truly unreasonable abilities, not even found in conventional magic. Especially the latter, "evolution," this uncontrollable mutation ability, can be described as a matter of heaven or hell in an instant.

The best-case scenario of using an evolution spell on yourself is like stabbing yourself with an arrow, directly evolving into Golden Requiem. However, there is also a worst-case scenario where you mutate and "evolve" into a beast that cannot speak human language—and this kind of evolution is irreversible!

Duke would never use that bullet to shoot himself or his partner.

But this evolution also works on non-living things, and even on certain concepts. For example, Duke's bullet just now caused the dream that Joan wove to evolve to the point of directly backfiring on her.

This bullet might not be as effective outside, since its effects are uncontrollable and require a lucky shot to maximize its effect. However, he is currently in a world where "wish fulfillment" and "words become law," so it doesn't matter if he is in a dream controlled by someone else—as long as he feels that he is holding a neon, he doesn't need to actually take out the neon. The rules of the alternate dimension will help Duke complete all the procedures.

"In this witch's game, it seems I've reached the peak of my combat power. Even if I become stronger in the future, even if I reach the legendary level, I won't be much stronger than I am here," Duke exclaimed in amazement. "If I fight with words alone, wouldn't I be invincible?"

"Cough... cough..."

Qiong coughed up blood; the backlash from the dream had directly damaged her very essence. Without anyone's help, she was not far from death.

"Eat this."

Duke casually tossed him a potion he had bought from Eve.

"If Joseph comes back and finds you dead, I won't be able to explain myself... Tell me, which faction sent you as a mole?"

"Is it some kind of force whose name doesn't start with the character 'loss'?"

Chapter Sixty-Six: How many playthroughs is this already?

Joan obediently swallowed the potion, but after taking it, she fell silent, showing no intention of answering Duke's question.

But Duke didn't stop. Seeing that Joan didn't answer the first question, he naturally had his own considerations. He took out the Lucky Dagger from his pocket and whispered to the dagger, "Megan."

"What's wrong? It's still early before we go for a walk, isn't it?" Miss Saint was quite grumpy when she woke up. She appeared in a huff, but unexpectedly saw Duke and Joan in a strange standoff, and tilted her head. "You cheated on me again?"

Duke: "?"

"What do you mean 'again'? Where did 'again' come from?" Duke exclaimed anxiously, "No, I'm single now, so nothing I do counts as cheating!"

"Oh, I misunderstood. You and that little girl named Amber aren't exactly in love, are you?" The Sage rolled his eyes, then narrowed them as he looked at Joan, who was lying on the ground waiting for the potion to take effect. "Is this another dimension? Why did you call me out here?"

"She might be a member of the aphasia group. Do you know her?"

The saint's face showed an expression of no surprise, but he immediately shook his head: "I don't know any of the current Aphasic members, don't bother."

"Could you tell me about the organization for people with speech impairments?"

“Yes, but she can’t listen.” The saint pointed to Qiong on the ground. “She might die if she listens.”

"Oh, never mind then, we'll talk about it later." Duke waved his hand. "Megan, can you give a professional assessment of the situation in this world?"

The saint paused, looked around for a moment, and pondered, "This looks like the forest of Saint Ipugil, but the magical environment is completely different. Like the Titan and the red dragon that day, it is a fantasy born from someone's thoughts. I'm afraid it won't last long before it disappears."

"How long will it take to disappear?"

“It lasts much longer than the Titan and the Red Dragon that day, probably about seven or eight hours? I’m not sure.” The Sage’s spellcasting level is very high, and she is a true, fully-fledged Archmage. Her understanding of magic is much stronger than that of the four witches who participated in the game this time. “At the same time, I can also sense that this miracle born from fantasy has not yet reached its peak. As the end of the effect approaches, the power of this world will become stronger and stronger.”

“Thank you so much, Megan.” Duke nodded gratefully. Her professional advice was a huge help to him; he even felt like he had found the way to pass the game. “Go back and get some rest.”

“Alright.” The sage nodded, but before returning to the dagger, she suddenly frowned. “Is this the first time you’ve awakened me today?”

"Huh?" Duke was slightly taken aback. "Yes."

"That's strange?"

Saint Megan muttered something strange, but didn't say anything about what was wrong, and then disappeared.

Joan witnessed Megan's appearance and disappearance. Duke had noticed the significant change in her expression during the process. There was a hint of joy in her eyes, as if she had met her idol. However, she did not speak to Megan at all, as if she was afraid of something.

Duke could completely understand why Joan was being so cautious after uttering the word "loss" in the Casino Tower. After all, no one is fearless. However, the Dream Witch's behavior was not a good thing for him.

"Do you know Megan? Was she an important member of your organization before?" Duke asked curiously. Seeing that Joan remained tightly silent, he changed to a question unrelated to the mute: "Can you tell me why you're so afraid of me? We didn't know each other before, did we?"

“I don’t know you,” Joan finally spoke. “But I’m not afraid of you.”

"I can't quite tell. Think back to your own state," Duke said with a smile. "You keep saying that I'm just a veteran-level sorcerer and can't beat an elite-level witch like you, but you act as if the truth is exactly the opposite... Strange, what are you being so hesitant about? If this weren't the world, you would be the one with the absolute advantage."

"Besides, was it normal when you first slipped up? I jumped up and down the moment I saw it. The mastermind who could secretly influence us with dreams behaved so poorly. It's embarrassing for us to be fooled."

"Oh, well, I have another question. And where did you get the idea that I'm a trickster? You might have learned other information from the battle at the Casino Tower, but there's no way you would know I'm a trickster. I haven't even told Amber or Cecil, except for Megan!"

Unable to cope with Duke's persistent questioning, Joan simply closed her eyes and pretended to be dead. She was certain that Duke wouldn't hurt her, and with Joseph about to return, all she needed to do was maintain a non-violent, non-cooperative attitude.

"Sigh, what kind of organization are you Aphas? You're either cowardly traitors who cower at the drop of a hat or unyielding steel warriors who won't listen to reason. Forget it, just tell Joseph about your situation and let him handle his fiancée."

"You're not allowed to tell!" Joan suddenly opened her eyes and excitedly leaned closer. "Even if you tell, Joan won't believe you. You're not allowed to tell!"

"...You already said he wouldn't believe you, why are you still so agitated? Don't forget what kind of world this is." Duke curled his lip. "You say you're not afraid, but your body is very honest. Your tsundere attitude has already faded away, sister."

"I'm not some kind of tsundere, hmph!"

Duke rolled his eyes at the classic line, speechless. He held out his hand: "I won't tell Joseph, but only if... you show me your pocket watch."

Although she kept saying "Joseph won't believe it," Joan still obediently took out the pocket watch from her bosom and handed it to Duke.

The time shown above is 1:30.

Before entering the game, everyone's pocket watch showed the same time. The game started at approximately 3:20. Duke and Amber spent ten minutes finding Joan and Joseph, and when they set off again, it was exactly 3:30. Now, less than an hour later, Duke's pocket watch showed 4:25.

Duke checked Amber's pocket watch; it showed the same time as his, but Joan's pocket watch was almost three hours slow.

He tossed her pocket watch back to Joan, and at the same time asked her the most horrifying question of the day:

"Have we already gone through a cycle of reincarnation?"

Chapter Sixty-Seven: Watch Me Clear the Game in One Life!

"Have we already gone through a cycle of reincarnation?"

Joan looked at Duke in astonishment.

Although Joan had already witnessed Duke's prowess in the previous playthrough, she still couldn't have imagined that Duke could make such a deduction so easily.

How did he know that?

Could someone really detect something like this just by observing their own abnormality? Duke didn't know him at all before this, so how could he make such a bold guess if he couldn't detect anything unusual by comparing his past and present self?

"Alright, your expression has already told me the answer." Duke shrugged, somewhat surprised, and said, "You actually guessed right? I didn't expect that. Why are you the only one who retained the memories of the previous timeline?"

Amber certainly didn't know, and her pocket watch kept the same time as hers.

“Because in the end I was the only one left to survive, Du. I felt that only the survivors could retain their memories and carry them over to the next playthrough.” Joan sighed and said resignedly, “If you survive until ‘midnight,’ the whole world will return to normal, and at that time you can choose to finish the game and leave, or start over. I chose the latter.”

"Because Joseph died in the previous playthrough?"

Joan nodded seriously.

"Looks like the way to beat this game is simple: just survive until midnight." Duke clicked his tongue, realizing that the game's completion condition was the only good thing so far. "How did we die? Why were you able to survive to the end?"

“We didn’t see Cecil and the Elf Prince in our last playthrough. Before we found Natasha and the others, she had already been killed by Geyue. That madman attacked us as soon as he saw us, and Little lost an arm as a result.”

Joan's words were filled with a bloody atmosphere; the previous timeline that had already occurred, as she described it, was an incredibly cruel story.

"So you just started weaving a dream to stop us from finding Natasha and the others?"

“That’s right. Since we can’t save that succubus anyway, there’s no need to hurt Joshua.” Joan’s words were filled with a bloody aura. “In other words, for most of the process, it was just the four of us together, but because of your presence, we proceeded very smoothly.”

“That’s normal.” Duke frowned, and after hearing about Cecil and Natasha’s deaths in the previous timeline, he couldn’t help but waver. “As long as you learn to use the rules of the world, it’s not difficult to survive.”

“But after nightfall, the pace of change in this world’s rules still exceeds your original imagination. Every thought could cause fatal changes in reality.” Joan’s voice grew colder, because the events of the previous timeline were also incredibly cruel memories for her. “My reason for voluntarily participating in this crown-level game was to lose… to seize the power of ‘wish fulfillment’, but in this situation, I really can’t find any opportunity.”

"In this situation, no matter which organization you're working for, cooperating to complete the game is the only thing that matters."

“Yes, that’s what I think too, but my partner… you don’t think that way!” Joan glared at Duke. “Our own situation is already terrible, yet you still want to save everyone, including Natasha and the others who are already dead! Damn it, if it weren’t for this naive idea, we would have already finished the game, and Joshua wouldn’t have died because of your recklessness!”

Joan's situation is quite clear.

She was a traitor sent by the Mute Ones to infiltrate the strategy team of the Crown-level Witch Game. Her purpose was not to disrupt the Floating City strategy game, but to seize some benefits, just like in the Candy Castle game, where she planned to seize both the Candy Castle and the Saviors of the Bone Legion.

The greater the crisis, the greater the opportunity; the more difficult the witch's game, the more likely you are to obtain valuable loot.

This is true for ordinary witch games, and it goes without saying that it's even more true for crown-level witch games.

Among all the contestants, Joan didn't care about anyone else; she only cared about Joseph's life. In her view, as long as she and Joseph could successfully pass the test, everything would be fine, and it didn't matter whether they could complete the task for the mute.

This was almost a done deal with Duke's help, but then Duke ran into trouble.

Duke's expression changed slightly, and he asked incredulously:

"You said I wanted to save everyone, including Natasha and Cecil who are already dead, right?"

“Yes, you admitted it yourself back then,” Joan said viciously. “For this, you even planned to sacrifice me and Joan! Aren’t we among everyone else?”

"What was our condition back then? Were you the one who preserved the most of our strength?"

"...So what if it is?"

The person who knows Duke best in this world is Duke himself.

At this point, he was already aware of what he would do in this situation.

If possible, he would save everyone, and in this omnipotent world, Duke naturally wouldn't be without options, which means...

This cycle might be something he created.

"It seems everything is going according to my plan."

Duke slowly exhaled.

"Huh?" Joan's eyes widened, and she shouted indignantly, "If it weren't for this reincarnation mechanism, we would all be wiped out!"

She had no idea that all of this was actually part of Duke's calculations.

If the reincarnation mechanism succeeds, no matter who survives, they will not choose to complete the game.

Needless to say, he himself would also choose to restart because of each other, and Amber was certainly not the type to choose to live a life of ignominy. Of course, it would be best if Duke himself retained his memories, but such things are too unpredictable, and he couldn't completely control the clash of their thoughts.

"Alright, stop arguing, watch me beat the game in one life."