There can't be a Harvest Moon in the RimWorld.

The strange black man suddenly burst into laughter, shaking the world around him, as if to prove that his statement that he could leave at any time was not an exaggeration.

"I admire your meager wisdom, just as I am curious about the person next to you. So tell me what I have done. If you can guess my plan, I may consider not taking your lives."

Old Yorkson was about to speak when he heard him continue, "But I hope you won't speak, let someone else speak."

The strange black man's pure black, lifeless eyes turned to me. "The mark on your body is very interesting... Speak, let me see the wisdom of mortals."

Suddenly being called upon, I glanced at old Yorkson and asked in a low voice, "Who is this guy?"

Old Yorkson said calmly, "Even if he speaks softly, he can hear it... He is the mastermind, the indescribable god who was just summoned..."

"Give me a clue?"

"The clues are all in your head."

The strange black man burst into laughter again, the space trembling continuously. "Speak quickly, this space can't hold me for long, I'll break open on my own..."

I coughed lightly, went over the sequence of events, and tried to stall for time, imagining myself as Cao Zhi, the poet who wrote the Seven Steps Poem—if I couldn't come up with an answer, I would just sit there and die!

"Did you send Migo in secret?" I asked tentatively. Those monsters were just causing trouble, not only expanding the spatial rift but also triggering earthquakes and tsunamis, stimulating the "Deep Sea Cataclysm" to accelerate its invasion. They were suspicious by all accounts.

The strange Black man wore a disdainful smile. "Continue."

The technology used by the Migo Flight Team was itself quite strange, and their insistence on utilizing Professor Albert Wilmas's knowledge was even more suspicious. This directly implicated the mysterious weapon design manuscript in the academy.

"Did you secretly keep that weapon design manuscript too?"

The strange Black man nodded slightly this time. "Anything else?"

After guessing correctly twice in a row, old Yorkson gave me an approving look, indicating that I should continue along this line of thinking.

Well, so you can throw mud at someone so easily? Could the person in front of me be Danzo, the King of Konoha, in disguise?

Instantly, I became bolder and continued to bombard them with questions.

"Did you steal Iwasato Masao's oxygen tube, causing his death?"

"Did you steal Uzi's minion wave and anger him to the point that he boycotted the summer split?"

"Did you steal the Piggy Hero Super Lollipop, causing him to lose to Superman Strong?"

Did you steal Ding Kaile's Enter key, causing him to lose contact with Happy Planet?

After I finished asking my questions, I saw that old Yorkson and the eccentric former US president were both looking at me speechlessly, and I looked at them in shock as well.

Did I guess everything correctly?

What is a mastermind? This is a mastermind, a mastermind for a thousand years!

Chapter 429 The Ninth Second Limit

Why aren't you afraid of me?

After a long while, the strange voice resounded in the space once again, and this time the question was undoubtedly directed at me.

I answered honestly, "I wasn't scared before, but after knowing all the amazing things you've done, I'm actually a little scared now..."

The strange black figure suddenly trembled, and his voice, like an echo from a valley, said, "This world is truly fascinating..."

He stretched out his hand, and on his matte black palm rested a colorful phantom, revealing the face of an old man.

"I discovered this fascinating world when humanity was banishing the offspring of the 'Fog of the End.' I never imagined that Henry Armitage, after reading so much knowledge that could plunge people into darkness, would still stand firmly on the side of humanity and maintain such a rare sanity."

I stole a glance at old Yorkson. Although Professor Henry Armitage's behavior was remarkable, I had a feeling that this cunning old man was just as shrewd.

Old Yorkson avoided my gaze and asked, "Are these tests you've given to humanity?"

A strange, deep black voice rang out, coalescing into a deafening narration: "Every piece of equipment in the weapon design manuscripts I left him has the potential to destroy this world. The main reason they become obsessed with these powers is that they will naturally become obsessed with them, ultimately returning to the great chaos. These are their choices..."

Old Yorkson said meaningfully, "But was the emergence of 'Deepsea Cataclysm' also part of your plan?"

The strange black man's expression was even more subtle: "The crouching chaos listens to the void, and will speak forever." He said with a cruel smile, "The mortal's self-proclaimed transcendence, do you really think you're not part of this plan?"

His face now resembled that of a demon enthroned on a throne, his twisted flesh writhing and shifting, leaving no doubt that he had donned a human form—a wax mask and a concealing robe—and strode across countless mad and foolish planets, descending from perilous lands to mock all living beings, searching for his next prey.

Old Yorkson said expressionlessly, "As expected of the 'God of a Thousand Faces,' who is keen on spreading madness and suffering."

I asked, "Do you know him?"

Old Yorkson said in a low voice, “Of course I know him. Although his incarnations are ever-changing, his fondness for driving humans to madness is unique. He is the most unique of the Outer Gods, and finds this deception more enjoyable than simple death and destruction.”

The figure of the "Thousand-Faced God" began to sway, and the dream world around him emitted a teeth-grinding sound. "Mortal, are you satisfied with the chaos I have spread?"

Old Yorkson's figure began to ripple in the space, like a shadow about to dissipate, and he said in a dazed voice, "'God of a Thousand Faces,' do you really intend to destroy this world?"

The "God of a Thousand Faces" remained unmoved and said, "These are all choices made by humanity itself. Rather than getting caught up in the mad waves of 'Deepsea Cataclysm,' they chose to return to the embrace of chaos."

Old Yorkson sighed. "Is every parallel world destined to suffer such misfortune?"

The humanoid body of the "Thousand-Faced God" emitted a bizarre and terrifying cloud of smoke that enveloped us, and it turned out that the voice was coming from this smoke.

"Mortal, you have actually come into contact with the gate to parallel worlds. But you should also have discovered that these 'prototype infinitys' are just countless twin brothers that are largely the same. The seed of chaos is the beginning of the universe, and therefore an irresistible destiny. Whether it is this world that I have already taken into my possession, or the world you are in, they are entangled in similar fates and resonate with the root of the universe."

His voice grew louder and louder, almost lifting the roof off the world. The black environment expanded wildly, revealing a faint white background, indicating that this was indeed a dream world.

"Although the mortals struggled for a long time, even obtaining the irregular trioctahedron from Migo in order to fight against the awakening of the 'Deepsea Cataclysm,' this was beyond my expectations—I originally thought that Professor Henry Armitage would summon me here using the avatar of the 'Black Pharaoh,' but I didn't expect that I would be summoned here by the irregular trioctahedron in the avatar of the 'Night Demon'..."

Before his voice had faded, old Yorkson's voice rang out in the gale, "'God of a Thousand Faces,' don't you think this is the miracle that humanity can achieve in this world? Even the slightest change, as long as it is beyond your plans, is a great victory for humanity."

However, the "Man of a Thousand Faces" no longer responded to old Yorkson's words. Perhaps keeping his promise and not taking old Yorkson's life was already the most merciful thing he could do.

Amidst the ever-spreading black smoke, a pair of black wings and three burning eyes emerged, finally revealing the "Night Demon" avatar he spoke of.

Old Yorkson's dream space, which he had painstakingly maintained, finally shattered into pieces. A chaotic storm swept the old man into it, and there seemed to be an abstract gate in the sky, containing things that were completely different inside and outside the dream.

The black avatar instantly flew into the sky, rushing towards the dream gate.

At the critical moment, old Yorkson suddenly grabbed my hand, leaned close to my ear, and said, "Marcus, he's gone. I can tell you now... If the 'Thousand-Faced God' escapes, he will spread the darkness from the summit of Mount Mads to the whole world. Then the parallel world will be destroyed... Oceans, mountains, buildings, and living beings will all disappear, turning into a black planet in the dark matter universe, drifting endlessly in the cosmos... It might even affect our world..."

I grabbed old Yorkson's hand and asked him loudly, "Then what should I do! You couldn't even contain him! What methods can be used to drive him away!"

Old Yorkson was stretched into a distorted shape, chaotically deformed in the dream world, and spoke to me with his last bit of strength.

“Marcus, I will do my best to widen the time difference between dreams and reality, keeping the ‘Thousand-Faced God’ in the gap, buying you ten seconds! You must seize it…”

I asked in surprise, "Grab what?"

Old Yorkson's voice had completely faded away; one could only infer his meaning from the faint shape of his lips.

"one?"

One? What does that mean? One punch? One dragon? Ichigo?

I looked at old Yorkson, completely bewildered, but the highly unstable dream world had already shattered.

I felt the scene before me rapidly change, as if I were being pulled back to reality from a deep sleep. I heard the familiar sound of chanting incantations beside me, as if my time had stopped at the moment when Old Man Hook chanted the incantation to send me back to Mount Mads.

"...vulgtmm, vugtlagln vulgtmm!"

The unfinished incantation escaped Old Man Hook's lips, and I was once again transported back to the frenzied journey of resurrection on Mount Mads. But I had a premonition that if I failed to stop the "Thousand-Faced God's" world-destroying act this time, I might never have another chance to travel through time...

All that old Yorkson left me with was probably one last witty remark.

Do I have to kill the "God of a Thousand Faces" in less than a second at the critical moment of the ninth second when time stops?

Chapter 430 This is a substitute attack

I don't have much time left.

My brain was racing, and I imagined myself as a professional gamer facing the most difficult level in the game, who had to rely on the existing clues to build a bridge to pass the level.

I closed my eyes and recalled the scenes from my dream.

First of all, Old York clearly knew the clues, but because of the existence of the "Thousand-Faced God," he kept quiet about it in front of me until the terrifying being left the dream world, at which point he was ready to tell me.

But based on my understanding of old Yorkson, he was the kind of person who liked to have many backup plans and like to take multiple layers of insurance when dealing with the same problem. He was definitely not a gambler like old Mr. Hooker who would risk everything.

Therefore, there must have been other considerations before old Yorkson told me this.

Okay, now that I've thought about this, my thoughts are gradually becoming clearer.

The next question is what clues Old Yorkson left behind.

From the words of the "God of a Thousand Faces," we can tell that his understanding of the Dream Realm is no less than that of old Yorkson, and may even be far superior to that of the old bastard. He is here simply out of curiosity about our actions.

Imagine a human walking down the street and accidentally spotting a six-pointed star formation made of ants. They'd be curious, take a picture, and post it on social media to get likes. But what if the ants thought they'd used some mysterious power to capture the human and wanted to carry them back to their anthill… well, a big leather shoe would be their best destination!

Therefore, old Yorkson dared not use telepathy to convey his message to me, and he did not even dare to use secret means such as facial expressions, tone of voice, gestures, or acrostic text, for fear that the gods would discover his plan and destroy his hope of victory.

What puzzled me even more was the way old Yorkson had spoken before.

To ramble on about a bunch of unrelated things and then abruptly stop at the crucial moment is simply not how a person expresses themselves...

Unless he mistakenly got the script of a martial arts master passing on his skills in a valley, he can talk a lot even if he is seriously injured, but as soon as the protagonist asks him about his background/enemies/treasure, the old man will die on the spot!

Therefore, I can conclude one thing—his seemingly useless earlier words are more important than this clue; informing me of the terrifying destructive power of the "Thousand-Faced God" is more important than telling me how to break the deadlock. The terrifying being summoned by Professor Henry Armitage from the eccentric trioctahedron will not only destroy this parallel world, but will also have a huge impact on the world where Mineral Town is located.

Saying this has no practical meaning, but it can alert me, stimulate my protective instincts, and prevent me from giving up and thinking that it doesn't matter if this parallel world is destroyed, and from continuing to pretend to be a nobody in this catastrophe.

But didn't this old man ever think about what would happen if I couldn't guess his riddle?

If you give me a lock but not a key, how am I supposed to pick it with the Arahu Cavern Opening Charm? Do you believe me if I give you Avada Kedavra?

Wait a moment……

To put it another way, if the "Thousand-Faced God" possesses the ability to see through all our thoughts, then even if Old Yorkson were to think of this clue, it would be extremely dangerous. Based on my experience in the Dream Realm, higher beings can see into the minds of lower beings—in other words, they can read minds.

If I were old Yorkson, and I wanted to protect the clues in my head from being discovered, I would have to completely stop thinking about it. This sounds difficult, but it's not impossible for this cunning old man—in fact, I could do it too. If I let go of the bizarre loop in my head, even the gods would fear my mental pollution!

So what should old Yorkson do when he is unable to speak or think?

...No, this problem is too difficult and too abstract. I need to find a more concrete example to refer to.

Let's take the ant example again. If I were one of them, what methods would I use to attract human attention and subtly express my malice without being trampled to death?

Moving around and biting randomly is definitely not good, and getting too close to humans may passively trigger trypophobia, or result in being trampled during war.

Since any action at this step is wrong, and the next step could easily trigger the death flag, it seems there's only one way to go—go back to the previous step?

For example... when ants line up, do they express their meaning? For example, lining up into a smiley face, forming a heart, or forming a dog's head to save their lives, can leave them a glimmer of hope.

What's even more ingenious is that, even if the ants excrete something completely nonsensical, humans would excitedly rush over, praising their work and deserving a reward, without the slightest offense. Isn't this exactly what old Yorkson did?

Old Yorkson, relying on his exceptional skill in dream manipulation, secretly pulled the "Thousand-Faced God" into a dream world almost identical to reality, earning the "Thousand-Faced God's" praise. Therefore, the old man's only chance was to conceal his own agenda within the dream's construction without being discovered!