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

Perhaps noticing my uncertain expression, he took a few minutes to organize his thoughts and then decisively changed the subject: "Don't interrupt. As I said, Herod's image represents death and the end, while the alchemical prophecy in the Emerald Book states, 'To all virtues and treasures, when Herod the Great, who calls himself 'King,' dies, it will be the time when the true 'Spirit' is born.'"

“The Zak you just saw was in a state of boiling evil, a state that would destroy everything in its path. In other words, only when the evil of this world, representing Herod, is extinguished can the pure spirit of truth be born. Your attack shattered the ‘vessel’ that held ‘malice’, and what we need to do now is find the ‘fruit’ that has been borne from it…”

In the unprecedentedly dark sea of ​​consciousness, only the sound of voices echoing from the depths of space resounded, rippling outwards layer by layer.

"Go find out where Zack is..."

I felt like Charon, ferrying people across the River Styx, as countless specks of dust slowly fell and settled on the oil-thick surface of the water, drifting on and reflecting distorted and tangled human faces...

It seems... there really is a human face underwater?

I felt utterly absurd, yet I couldn't help but crouch down and stare at the sunless water. My fingertips slowly touched something cold and slippery, which flared up like snake scales, rushing straight to my consciousness!

In an instant, countless intense, stimulating, heavy, guilty, annoyed, panicked, angry, gloomy, restless, resentful, hesitant, and fearful emotions, like venomous snakes leaping from the water, shot towards my arm like crossbow bolts, releasing the most vicious venom!

"Hiss... What is this... thing..."

My consciousness was instantly polluted by all sorts of negative emotions. These emotions multiplied in my mind and instantly took over all my thoughts, causing my body to involuntarily contort. My eyes were probably covered with blue veins, just like Zack's!

But it was precisely at this moment that the last vestige of clarity in my mind blossomed!

A chill ran through the crumbling soul, and an emotion colder than the desolate universe suddenly erupted, emitting a cold laugh that only death could possess. It was as if this performance of extreme negative emotion was a trivial farce...

This was not an indescribable horror, but rather the result of the repeated accumulation of negative human emotions. Only the activation of the [Death] characteristic was enough to finally stop this unprecedented mental pollution!

In the same darkness, my soul transformed into Death, draped in decaying wings, coldly surveying everything from high above. Finally, like a hunter accustomed to the darkness, I saw a figure in the murky, swirling water, embracing its own body, drifting in the abyss of the void, emanating endless black mud...

This body resembles Zack, yet it carries a sense of incongruity that feels completely foreign to me. It's as if the person with Zack's simple, honest, and silly face is composed of utter rebellion and malice that is diametrically opposed to virtue.

For something so unprecedented, I have a more fitting name...

Inner demons!

"This is clearly still the fourth stage of the Gene Lock!!!"

Chapter 644 The Miraculous Healing Methods of the East

The Grim Reaper, clad in decaying wings, coldly stared at Zack's inner demons, yet remained motionless, his expression utterly unmoved, locked in a silent standoff.

“Marcus, can you wake Zack?” Old Man Hook asked expectantly.

I jolted awake from my chilling state, regaining a little self-awareness, but I hadn't completely shaken off the influence of the [Death] trait.

"Hmm... I'll give it a try..."

But before I could take any action, a huge wave suddenly surged up in the chaotic sea of ​​consciousness before me, layer upon layer, moving without wind, raising endless waves from the flat ground, roaring and spreading in all directions.

"What's going on?! An earthquake?!"

My mind was filled with alarm bells, but my body remained sluggish, as if under anesthesia.

"This means that Zack has discovered clues to our intrusion and is using the vibrations in the dream to distinguish friend from foe!"

The techniques for defending oneself while asleep are a crucial part of dream warfare and also dangerous operations that directly affect the mind.

Fortunately, at the crucial moment, I was still able to free up my hands to hold onto the small boat tightly, and used the rudimentary meditation techniques I had learned in dream manipulation to ensure that I would not be kicked out of the dream due to the drastic change.

Old Man Hook's voice was also a little anxious: "You'd better give up resisting, or the world will really turn upside down!"

Upon hearing this, I immediately understood the dangers of rash resistance, but I didn't yet grasp the meaning of this earth-shattering upheaval. Who would have thought that the next moment, a true physical reversal would begin!

In the dim, cave-like environment of the dream, it was impossible to distinguish between the four dimensions, but in the next moment, it seemed that some factor simulating gravity was reversed, and a huge amount of seawater was poured out of the tank, rushing and surging, covering this small space, rumbling and rolling up, almost crushing everything!

This is not a physical giant wave, yet it is more terrifying than any wave. In the human mind, countless thoughts arise and countless thoughts vanish every instant, and it is precisely in this ebb and flow that the continuity of thought is maintained.

For ordinary people, dream resistance is nothing more than shaking a glass of water or clearing away clutter; the total amount of consciousness remains unchanged.

But such behavior in the sea of ​​consciousness is equivalent to directly overturning the rationality and consciousness in the mind, activating the thoughts that have died out, and suppressing the thoughts that are about to be generated. The two are extinguished at the same time, and then burst forth together in the next moment. In this instant, a repulsive force several times that of an ordinary person is generated in the mind, which can even be called - mental power!

Normal humans cannot do this because creating such an act not only requires igniting the countless forces hidden in the sea of ​​consciousness, but also because such "water pressure" would project a huge impact on the closed "water tank" of the sea of ​​consciousness, making the carrier extremely prone to cracking, and even causing the subject and object to shatter simultaneously—in that case, not only would this dream be impossible, but all the dreams in this life would probably be exhausted.

But Zack is a genetically unlocked level three individual, and his control over his brain is beyond the ordinary. If I were hit by the "waves" he creates, I probably wouldn't be able to read a watch for the rest of my life...

"You old liar, come help me now!"

Old Man Hook's voice rang out instantly. I was about to retort, "Let me clarify, you can call me a liar but I'm not old," and then spend the rest of my life happily as a little bastard. But just as the surging, turbid waves were about to engulf me, an invisible force spread out in all directions, and a hunched old man suddenly appeared in front of me!

This man was like Moses parting the Red Sea. He opened his mouth and chanted mysterious words. His voice seemed to be so deep that it was almost inaudible. He forcefully cleaved a chasm in the raging waves. The seawater rushed and roared past him. He could only look on in despair at the enemy who was so close at hand. Finally, he fell heavily into the inverted valley!

As for why I could still see the other person's face even though they were right behind me, it was because as their gray hair was blown around by the wind, two faces, one in front and one behind, appeared on their head!

I remained in a gazing posture, still in shock, when I noticed that Old Man Hook's figure, which had suddenly appeared, was surging and fading with the waves, until it became transparent.

My gaze passed through him, and naturally I saw a terrible, dry, cracked river valley exposed in the dome hanging in the sky!

In the distance, I saw strangely scattered rubble and ruins in the valley, seemingly the ruins of a city that had been completely destroyed by external forces.

The mysterious city ruins lie sprawled above the domed valley, their ruins resembling the remains of corpses exposed in a desolate cemetery. They seem like ancient survivors of the Great Flood, ancient enough to be the great-grandmother of the oldest human-built structures in history.

The style of these buildings is so bizarre that it reminds me of the city buried deep underwater on Kuroshio Island. Could it be that Zack also entered the cursed city of an ancient seafaring people?

As I gazed directly into those stones, worn smooth by time, I could sense an invisible force repelling me, preventing me from uncovering the ancient and sinister secrets of this place…

“Marcus, that’s the ‘Garden of Snakes’ painting, don’t look at it!”

Old Man Hook's figure vanished completely, and his voice, weak once more, echoed faintly in my ears, "First, find a way to deal with the culprit who caused the 'Herod's Plot'..."

"Just like you said, I have a personality flaw, and anyone who gets close to me will be severely affected... I had hoped you could work a miracle, but unfortunately..."

I thought to myself, how could that be a flaw? It's clearly like building a Maginot Line in terms of psychological defenses, and the line is only occupied by one Italian division...

I tried several times to reach out and touch that serpentine darkness again, but my movements always froze in mid-air before inexplicably falling back down.

"Uh...it doesn't seem to work. I can't touch him. It's like something is holding me back..."

I looked at the slow-motion video, which was presented due to the slowed-down thought process, with a puzzled expression. "What's going on here? Are you using me as a guinea pig?"

"This world is equal..."

Old Man Hook suddenly said, "In this world, the weak are met with compromise, the brave with challenge, and the tenacious with sharpness. Therefore, the more distinct the character of someone like Zack, the deeper the wounds they suffer, to the point that they can never heal..."

If I had a physical body right now, my expression would be similar to that of a certain Zhuge Liang or the youngest of the three dragons, specifically, one eye looking at Old Man Hook's literary outburst with a puzzled expression, while the other eye staring coldly at the inner demon Zack—these two people happen to be in opposite directions.

I couldn't help but say, "As the saying goes, if you didn't learn physics and chemistry well in compulsory education, then the world is full of magic and miracles. With your severe skepticism and paranoia, the world should often reward you with a bunch of unsolved mysteries... Hmm, the world is indeed equivocal."

"Shut up."

Old Man Hook's angry voice rang out, "Zack's problem, I discovered the hidden anomaly through dream manipulation as early as when he landed on the island due to the shipwreck, and tried to defuse this unexploded bomb many times, but I was always interfered with and failed repeatedly..."

Looking at the creature floating in the dark mud before me, I sensed the predicament: "Such a severe obsession is something even a professional psychologist can't help with... Dad, your approach is clearly inappropriate..."

"How so? Indeed, I hadn't mastered the Shattering Dream technique back then, so doing this was a bit risky..."

I interrupted his analysis immediately, "No, no, no, I mean, what hospital would allow mental patients to treat other patients? Are they raising parasites here?"

Old Man Hook: "...Shut up!"

But I can roughly guess Hook's artsy explanation: it's because the inner demon Zack in front of us is an extreme form of negative consciousness that amplifies people's weaknesses infinitely.

For example, when I approached the demon with a sense of curiosity, my inner demon unleashed countless negative emotions that tried to overwhelm me.

In the [Grim Reaper] state, although he was able to nullify mental attacks by relying on "pure heart", his "negative" consciousness was strengthened by Zack's inner demons, which directly erased his idea of ​​contact.

For every emotion, the inner demon has a corresponding negative method, which is what makes it so terrifying, even leaving Old Man Hook helpless.

If someone like Old Man Hooker, a serious skeptic, were to come into contact with him, he would probably immediately begin to question life, the world, and the meaning of existence, and his illness would likely worsen instantly...

So don't let patients treat patients, you bastards!

Speaking of pacifism... cough cough, I mean pacifism. Suddenly, an idea popped into my head.

"Dad, wait a minute. Have you heard of a non-contact treatment method that can treat this disease..."

Old Man Hook pondered for a moment, "Are you talking about homeopathy?"

"What's the difference between that thing and waiting to die... Okay, I was being imprecise. What I meant wasn't no contact, but very slight contact! Slight, you understand?!"

Old Man Hook asked again, "Slight contact...is that acupuncture?"

"Don't talk nonsense, just say it straight: Fan is dead! There's no need for acupuncture today!"

"Then tell me!" Old Man Hook said impatiently.

I sighed and said, "Then I'll be frank. My method is no injections, no medicine, I'll just sit here and chat with you. It's called talk therapy, or simply talk therapy..."

Old Man Hook: "..."

Chapter 645 The Vitality to Be Found

On the muddy Kuroshio Island, it was as if an anthill had been disturbed, with many black "ants" swimming around, busily dragging all kinds of equipment and supplies out of the stranded steel "ant nest" and building simple temporary camps along the coast.

If viewed from above, one can see the chaotic and busy crowd, centered around a temporary tent, divided into two distinct groups.

A group of people dressed in black suits, carrying weapons, stood guard on the perimeter. Every now and then, a group of people would scramble out to explore the unseen underground ruins. Their figures gradually disappeared into the filthy environment that was now exposed to the light of day, leaving only a series of footprints.

Meanwhile, another group worked at an extraordinary speed in the temporary base, installing equipment, connecting power, repairing devices, and treating the wounded wherever they went, gradually sorting out the aftermath of the chaotic aircraft.

The black-suited agents patrolled the beach, nervously observing any unusual activity around them. They even took in the occasional splashes of water on the surface of the sea. Fortunately, the fish and shrimp here had long since fled, so there would be no troublemakers who couldn't sense the atmosphere and would get hit by a burst of bullets for no reason.

But right there between the towering black waves and the sky, a series of exhaled water droplets suddenly appeared, making a gurgling sound...

"There's movement over there!"

An agent whispered a warning, which immediately attracted four or five of his comrades to provide backup. In the ensuing chain reaction, others rushed to the temporary base to report the news. The series of actions were as smooth as flowing water.

Ignoring the muddy ground and getting their trousers splattered with mud, the armed agents, bent over and in a firing stance, approached the sea in a triangular formation.

The gurgling water drew closer, then suddenly a dark, indistinct head popped up. Its features were indistinguishable, only its eyes were clear and bright. Seeing someone approaching, it cried out, "Help! I can't move it anymore..."

Ada Wong also appeared out of nowhere, suddenly shouting, "You are... Kai from the Navigators' Alliance?"

In this state where he didn't even recognize his own mother, being called by name made Kai even more overjoyed. He swam a few more steps and forcibly dragged his partner, who was tied to the arm with a rope underwater, to shore.

“Miss Ada, Gray just fell into deep water, and I barely managed to rescue him.”

Kai was an excellent swimmer. After adjusting his breathing, he quickly recovered from his fatigue and hurriedly reminded his men, "By the way, tell your men not to touch Gray directly! His breathing has stopped for some reason, but his heart is beating very fast and his body temperature is very high!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the two agents who were about to rashly carry Gray away cried out "Ouch!" and immediately let go. Their numb hands instantly developed large blisters, as if they had been scalded by boiling water!

Agent E glanced meaningfully at his arm, which was bruised from being strangled by the rope, and ordered his men to attempt another rescue using a makeshift stretcher before replying, "The place where he fell into the water was at least two hundred meters deep, and you actually managed to rescue him naked... Also, who said my name was Ada?"

Kai, wringing out the dirty water from her purple headscarf, instinctively replied, "Didn't Marcus say your name was Ada Wong...?"

Then the two looked at each other and finally realized what had gone wrong, and the scene became very awkward.