I don't want to conquer witches anymore.

In the sixth playthrough, the survivors are: Kazuki, Duke, and Bane, but Bane also has no memories left.

In the seventh playthrough, the survivors are Kazuki and Joseph, but Joseph, who had always retained his memories before, has no memories left this time.

Eighth playthrough...

Kazuki experienced eleven playthroughs in total. She didn't know if there were any playthroughs she didn't survive; she could only confirm this through the memories of others. At least, no one else retained memories of playthroughs she didn't know about. In the eleven playthroughs she experienced, besides herself, Duke and Joseph survived the most. Of the others, only Bane survived twice, but he didn't retain any memories of either.

The Dream Witch Joan, who had a successful start in the strategy group, did not survive past 10 PM in the subsequent eleven playthroughs. Amber was slightly weaker; although her spatial abilities were extremely powerful, she was helpless against targeted forces, so she never survived past 11 PM.

The powerful Cecil and Natasha both managed to hold out until 11 PM, but neither survived until midnight. The difficulty of this witch game increased with each of Kagetsu's repeated playthroughs.

Duke analyzed this in one of his playthroughs and believed that the increase in difficulty began when the Wishing Tree "awakened".

"The difficulty has increased because of the memories of the reborn. These memories have provided us with convenience, but they have also directly led to the increase in difficulty. Your and Joseph's memories are naked in front of the 'Wish Tree', and He also knows what happened in previous cycles."

"He sensed fear and threat, so He used your memories to keep increasing the difficulty."

"Damn it, I thought it was a 486 scenario, but it turns out we're playing a 'Summer Replay'? The BOSS dies and returns with you? What the hell is this?!"

"I think I understand why I never retained any memories... To be honest, I never thought there would be a way to finish the game at midnight, and that choosing it would actually allow me to complete this witch's game. If I hadn't wished to restart the cycle during my first playthrough, we would have been wiped out, and that unlucky Joan wouldn't have been able to finish the game alive either."

“Geyue, you must retain your memories, because Natasha’s opening attack is closely related to you! You are the most important person in this witch’s game. You must protect Natasha and take her away from us to act alone... No matter what, you must ensure that she lives until midnight before rejoining us.”

"Don't let me know the truth about this world ahead of time."

Kagetsu sighed helplessly and muttered to herself:

"Don't worry, protecting Natasha is my responsibility... but don't come here and make my mission more difficult."

Based on her experience, Duke and the others would soon arrive at the scene with Amber's help, attempting to reunite with the two of them.

The Wishing Tree isn't fully awake yet; it will gradually awaken starting at nine o'clock and fully awaken by eleven. Before the Wishing Tree fully awakens, the Wishing Fairy isn't too difficult to deal with, and Geyue can ensure Natasha's safety.

On the contrary, it would be more difficult to take her on a solo mission, since Kagetsu can't get close to Natasha, and the latter is currently out of her mind.

Ge Yue slowly exhaled, squinted at the fairy head rolling around to the side, touched the ground with her toes, reached out and scooped up the head that was trying to cause trouble, then turned to look at the succubus who was still in heat.

"What a hassle."

She stomped her foot and suddenly shot into the air, then drew her longsword.

The sword flashed.

"Boom—"

As Ge Yue struck, the earth began to shatter, revealing a completely hollow space beneath the bottomless abyss. As the sword light shattered the earth, Natasha lost her balance and fell along with the rubble to the next level of the bottomless abyss.

Kazuki also leaped down to the next level of the bottomless abyss, and before leaving, she waved her hand into the air:

See you later.

About thirty or forty seconds later, Duke and the others appeared.

"Holy crap, what the hell is this place?"

As soon as they landed, Duke was scalded by the churning lava on the ground. If Cecil hadn't reacted quickly and used a beam of holy light to protect everyone, they probably would have had to "try to swim in the lava".

“This seems to be one of the layers of the Abyss.” Bain frowned. “I have never been to the Abyss, but I have read about it in writing.”

“Oh, Natasha’s hometown.” Duke nodded, immediately understanding why the bottomless abyss appeared in the witch game, just like the previous Saint Ipgil, both scenes born from the player’s memories. “So they’re nearby? Let’s look for them.”

"I don't want to date either of them."

Joseph, who had been relatively quiet until now, suddenly spoke up and stopped Duke and the others from taking action.

Duke looked at Mad Song with some confusion.

“Your pocket watch is almost nine o’clock, isn’t it? Let’s call it a day and split up, Duke.”

Chapter 77 The Impassable Path and the Real Way to Clear the Level

“Your pocket watch is almost nine o’clock, isn’t it? Let’s call it a day and split up, Duke.”

Duke frowned and looked intently at the mad singer Joseph in front of him. Since entering the witch game, his presence had been very faint—but this did not attract Duke's attention. After all, in the previous witch game in Candy Castle, Joseph's only presence was his extremely destructive singing voice.

But at this moment, Duke realized another possibility.

He pondered for a moment, then concluded: "Have you also experienced reincarnation?"

“That’s right, and I have memories of reincarnation, having experienced it at least twice.”

Joseph nodded.

"Have you also experienced reincarnation?"

Upon hearing Duke's question and Joseph's admission, Joan looked at Joseph in surprise, her reaction far more intense than the others—as if Guangbao were completely oblivious to the concept of reincarnation: "When, Joseph? Why didn't I know?"

“You didn’t ask.” Joseph shrugged and said dismissively, then narrowed his eyes and stared at Duke in front of him. He didn’t show any hostility, but instead looked regretful: “Everyone’s pocket watch should be showing around nine o’clock. Even if there’s a difference, it should only be a few minutes, right?”

Duke took out his pocket watch, and the time was indeed as Joseph had said. He looked at the others, and after hearing this, everyone took out their pocket watches. Except for Bain, they all had a time of 8:50. There was indeed a slight error, but it was no more than three minutes.

Only Bain's pocket watch showed that it was not yet six o'clock.

Bain stared at the pocket watch in his hand, frowning. He knew too little; he didn't even know about the midnight cycle. Therefore, this top-tier player couldn't deduce anything at the moment. Upon seeing the time on Bain's pocket watch, Joseph showed a hint of surprise and extended his hand to him:

“Brother Bain, come with us.”

"Why?" Bain instinctively rejected Joseph's offer: "I don't want to."

With only one arm, he stayed by Amber's side the whole time, and no one could pull this sister-obsessed man away from her.

“Because your time is the same as ours, if you go with Duke and the others, there will be unexpected dangers.” Joseph took out his pocket watch, which showed the same time as Bane’s. He also gestured for Joan to take out her pocket watch. “The three of us will arrive at midnight a full three hours later than you.”

“What do you mean?” Duke interrupted Joseph, frowning. “Joseph, explain these things clearly.”

He had initially thought the anomaly in Joan's pocket watch was because she had experienced a death resurrection, but Bane, whose time had also changed, seemed to have no memory of the previous cycle, which contradicted his judgment so far.

“I will explain… I hope you can lead us through this time.” Joseph said calmly, “I have memories of two cycles of reincarnation, but these two cycles of death did not change my pocket watch. The survivors of the first cycle were you, me, and Kazuki, and the survivors of the second cycle were only me and Kazuki.”

Duke repeated in astonishment, "Me?"

“That’s right, Duke. I’m sure you’ve lived past midnight, but I don’t know why you have no memory of it.”

Joseph shook his head, but his words made Duke unable to calm down.

If both he and Bane had experienced more than one cycle of death but retained no memories, many of his previously established assumptions were overturned. If the cycle of death was due to his wish and therefore had no effect on him... then why did Bane also lack memories?

Moreover, according to Joseph, the changes in time on the pocket watch have nothing to do with the cycle of death?

"So, when did your pocket watch start changing? And how did you make it change?"

“I don’t know either.” Joseph shook his head. “At least in the last two death loops in which I had memories, my pocket watch kept the time normally. But for Joan’s sake, I kept looking for a way to change the time on my pocket watch. Obviously, I succeeded, but I also lost the memories of that loop.”

Joseph retained his memories in the third and fourth playthroughs. He survived to the end in both playthroughs and successfully preserved his memories. However, his pocket watch remained unchanged after these two playthroughs.

The next time he survived until midnight was the seventh time around. However, in the eighth time around, he did not retain the memories of the seventh time around. In the subsequent timelines, he survived twice more, in the eighth and ninth timelines, but again, he did not retain the memories.

It is evident that after the third and fourth playthroughs, he realized the problem with Joan's pocket watch time and then tried his best to synchronize his pocket watch time with Joan's.

Clearly, he succeeded on his seventh loop, but even so, he couldn't save Joan's life. The three-hour delay in the pocket watch's time was too fatal for them, and even the addition of Bane later couldn't save them.

Of course, Duke was completely unaware of these complete processes at this time. If Geyue, who retained the entire memory, were present, Duke and the others would have been able to quickly understand the situation. However, at this moment, they only had Joseph, whose memory was incomplete, and could only rely on speculation for most of the information.

“After nine o’clock, the Wishing Tree will gradually awaken, and by eleven o’clock it will be fully awake.” Joseph shook his head: “We must separate. If we stay together, the time will be based on your pocket watches, which means we will have to endure the pressure of the Wishing Tree for an additional three hours… Joan can’t handle it, so we have to leave. Moreover, my presence will also increase the difficulty you face, so splitting up is necessary.”

Duke took Cecil and Amber, while Joseph took Joan and Bain.

This sounds like a very reasonable team division plan. In terms of combat power, Cecil and Bane are both heroes, and in terms of strategy, Duke's team is second to none, with Joseph and Bane being equally capable. Duke's team has Amber, so they can escape most crises, while Joseph has Joan by his side, making it easy to deal with the still-living Wishing Fairy.

"I have a question, Joseph. Were the two loops you experienced consecutive? Did I use the Lucky Dagger in either of those loops?"

“It should be continuous, at least from Kagetsu’s perspective.” Joseph paused slightly, then quickly began to recall: “It was used in the second playthrough, but not in the first.”

"That would be terrible, we absolutely cannot split up."

"Why? Not splitting up will cause huge problems. In my 'last playthrough,' not splitting up led to a complete wipeout." Joseph's voice rose slightly: "Duke, you died in that playthrough too, understand?"

"But splitting up into teams won't work either, because we've already tried it, at least twice, you understand?"

Duke took out the Lucky Dagger and said coldly:

"We need a real way to beat this game...we need Natasha's magic!"

Chapter 78 Join the Glorious Evolution!

[Item Name: Lucky Dagger (Modified)]

[Item Description: This dagger was once your family heirloom, but now it has become the dwelling place of a saint's soul—it is no longer pure!]

[Item Effects: 1. Skill "Lucky Strike": The user can use the dagger in any form to deliver a lucky strike, causing events to deviate in the user's desired direction (Cooldown: 72 hours). 2. Skill "Soul of a Saint": The soul of Saint Megan resides here; you can awaken her through her true name.]

The Lucky Dagger, which is always stored in the system's inventory, is unaffected by the death loop. For example, if Duke used the Lucky Dagger in the previous playthrough, its cooldown will not be reset even after experiencing the death loop.

The system is not affected by the rules of this world.

Duke realized this because he had just glanced at the taskbar and discovered that he had accepted a task.

[Quest Acquisition: Golden Experience Requiem]

[Mission Objective: Reach a reality you can never reach!]

[Quest Reward: Insect Arrow.]

Honestly, Duke was stunned by this mission, especially its name and reward—they were simply too eye-catching. That's why he spotted it so quickly in a fleeting glance. Duke was certain he had never seen this mission before, let alone accepted it himself—such an awesome mission, if he had seen it before, he would definitely remember it.

Through this mission, Duke quickly realized that the system was not affected by death return.

Duke then carefully examined his system and even discovered something else outrageous.

[When Natasha's affection level reaches "Passionate," you can claim a reward.]

[Item: Tome of Truth, already generated.]

[Item Name: Tome of Truth]

[Item Description: All the truths of the world are recorded here.]

[Item Effect: The Tome of Truth will automatically analyze the "Truth" of its surrounding space. The skill "Truth" allows the user to ask the tome a question; if the tome can answer it, it will guide the questioner to the specified page. (Cooldown: 666 hours)]

This is absurd, because Duke checked Natasha's current affection level and it wasn't enthusiastic, just friendly—which is normal, since they haven't met in the Witch Game yet, and the affection level wouldn't increase for no reason. And the Tome of Truth is currently on cooldown, and more than twenty hours have passed since it was used… Clearly, Duke used it in the previous playthrough.

In other words, although Duke didn't know what questions he had asked the tome, he could still determine how many playthroughs he had experienced from its cooldown time. The other long-cooldown item, the Lucky Dagger, has the same effect.

The cooldown was already reset at the start of this playthrough, which misled Duke. If Duke had realized this when he discovered the problem with the Sage's memories, he would have avoided a lot of detours.