I, the final BOSS of the beta test server!

But Ingrid still shook her head at Lust.

Her answer was still no.

I don't want to return to the dark shadows of the past, living as a weapon of killing, as a hateful black glove.

Ingrid hated her past self from the bottom of her heart, the self who would do anything to avenge her mother and whose hands were covered in blood.

She would not regret what she had done, because Ingrid had no choice at that time, but in contrast -

After her mother's death, nothing in this world could hinder her, not even Ingrid's own life.

"Alas, Senior Sister, you are really stubborn."

"She's truly the most elite soldier in the military... If it were someone with a weaker willpower, it would probably only take one or two times for their mental defenses to crumble, and they'd be on their knees, tearfully begging me to let her go."

Last sighed: "But from the very beginning, I have been prepared for a long-term battle."

He stretched out his hand and snapped his fingers again: "I'm sorry, senior sister."

"If you change your mind, all you need to do is knock on the front of the iron coffin three times in a row, and I will pull you and the coffin up together, saving you from the sea of ​​suffering."

The sound of chains being dragged across the rocks could be heard again.

Before Ingrid could even catch her breath, she was pulled by the steel chains.

Together with the heavy iron coffin, it sank into the deep sea again.

……

wow-

wow-

After a long period of chaos, the pain of drowning and struggle.

Ingrid was once again pulled out of the vortex of death and despair, and saw the bright sunshine through the iron coffin.

"Thirteen days, or to be more precise—three hundred and fifteen hours."

This time, before Luster could speak, Ingrid took the initiative to speak in a hoarse voice.

Her face was extremely pale, without a trace of blood, and her eyes were filled with fatigue and haggardness that were difficult to conceal. Her originally delicate face now looked numb and withered.

But Ingrid's eyes still gleamed: "I counted my heartbeats and estimated that each time I suffocated to death, my survival period was about 25 minutes..."

"And I have drowned from suffocation seven hundred and fifty-six times."

"In this way, we can estimate the time span of sinking to the bottom of the sea this time."

She said softly, "Laster, it seems you have lost again this time."

Even in the agony of suffocation and near-death, he was still able to clearly calculate the duration of his own punishment and retain a clear mind...

This naturally means that Ingrid never gave in.

"and--"

She paused for a moment and said, "You have countless times restored my body from the moment of drowning to the state before death—"

"This directly involves the retroactive ability of the law of time. When using it, you will definitely not pay any price, right?"

"Equivalent exchange" is the hidden rule of the extraordinary world.

No matter how powerful and bizarre it is, even if it involves special abilities in time and space, it will never be able to be activated without limit and without any cost or side effects.

Time and again, he brought himself back from the state of near-death to a normal physical state - this was almost like making himself immortal in a certain sense, becoming a true immortal.

And since Last used such a supermodel skill that was almost shameless, he would have to pay the price for it.

This is a variable that Last never mentioned, but it actually exists. It is also Ingrid's only chance of winning in this gamble and game.

This desperate cycle of drowning and resurrection in the deep sea cannot continue indefinitely.

While enduring the pain of suffocation and drowning, Last must also be paying an equal price for it.

And when Rast can no longer pay that price, it means he wins.

Ingrid was able to face death calmly without succumbing to the other party's ambitions.

"Should I say that Senior Sister is worthy of being a Senior Sister? Under the Legend, you have already established yourself at the pinnacle of the extraordinary world and are well aware of these hidden power rules."

"Even in such a hopeless sea and suffering, even when encountering unprecedented space-time abilities, he was still able to quickly calm down and guess the general clues."

As if to confirm Ingrid's inference, Rast's pleasant voice sounded immediately afterwards.

"As you said, my 'Time Rewind' does have limitations; it's not a skill that can be used infinitely."

"The consumption of magic power and mental energy was only a small amount. After all, you simply died of suffocation in the seawater, and none of your organs were damaged. Compared to those who were seriously injured or even missing limbs, it is undoubtedly much easier to trace back."

"The real price I have to pay is that every time I use a rewind on you, I must personally experience, feel, and experience everything you went through during that rewind cycle."

Rast's words were indifferent.

"Your near-death experience of suffocating and gradually drowning over a twenty-five-minute period, gradually approaching death, is compressed into a very brief moment, and then I personally relive it as if I were there."

"This is the price of initiating a 'rewind' on someone else."

Compress all the pain I felt when I was near death into a single moment and experience it again?

Hearing this, Ingrid in the iron coffin was slightly startled.

Even if the painful suffocation experience and the feeling of near-death were spread out over about half an hour, it would be enough to make a battle-hardened soldier kneel down and beg for mercy in agony.

Under such painful torture, "death" itself became a kind of relief.

Ingrid herself was able to hold on and not surrender thanks to her experience of using the "Yin Iron" countless times, her near-death experiences in battle, and the hardworking and tenacious character forged from her poor background.

It’s not that she is not afraid of pain, but because she has suffered more, so she can better endure torture and pain.

Ingrid asked herself on this point, even other senior military officials could not be compared with her.

But—Last said that the price of every time he looked back was that he personally felt his complete near-death experience in an instant?

Compressing a half-hour death experience into one twenty-thousandth of a second means that the degree of pain is increased by dozens or even hundreds of times...

How can this be?

"To be honest, I had already guessed that my task of winning you over... wouldn't be so smooth."

Rast looked through the gap in the iron coffin and met Ingrid's gaze.

The boy's face remained calm, his dark eyes clear and bright, not at all like he had just experienced the same pain of drowning as herself, but the pain was intensified tenfold or a hundredfold due to compression... She couldn't help but suspect that Last was deceiving her.

But Ingrid's intuition told her that Rast was not lying.

"Time travel", such a cheating ability... Only what Last said is the price that matches such a powerful ability and the gift from fate.

"I know that although I came from a humble family and started from humble beginnings—"

"But you, Senior, are like a lonely and proud eagle."

"You clearly lack resources and connections, and clearly started out unfairly compared to your peers... but you've never once resented the unfairness of fate."

"You've never proactively sought refuge with any aristocratic faction, nor have you approached wealthy professors or deans for additional help and support...even though you know many are waiting for you to ask them for help."

"Countless powerful figures would love the opportunity to invest in you and recruit you into their faction."

"But deep down, you are a proud eagle who refuses to bow to anyone—"

"If not, how could you, with such a humble background, have risen step by step to the position of Director of the Inspectorate without relying on anyone's support?"

Luster paused for a moment and said, "You are willing to become the gravekeeper's black glove in order to avenge your mother."

"But in fact, in your heart, no one in this world is qualified to be your master, and no one is qualified to judge you."

"So you didn't leave the empire with the gravekeepers, nor did you obey Hiltina's orders and return with her to face the judgment of the empire's laws."

"The Gravekeeper is not qualified, the Granville Empire, and the Starry University are not qualified..."

"but me--"

He smiled and said, "You are also not qualified."

"But it just so happens that what I'm attracted to is your pride."

"Like the eagle on the vast snow-capped mountains, looking down upon all living things with aloof pride."

Last's gaze shifted slightly, looking towards a distant direction: "Senior, do you know?"

"In my hometown, there is a people who live between the snowy plains and snowy mountains and make a living by hunting."

"Hunters from that tribe would tame a falcon as their companion to help them hunt in the vast snowy plains."

"But eagles are naturally ferocious and unruly. To tame their wildness and make them accept the hunter as their master, a special training method must be used. That people call it 'hawk training.'"

Last's gaze was far-reaching. "The so-called falcon training is to deprive the falcon of sleep, gradually wearing away its unruly nature, and ultimately making it able to obey its master's commands with ease."

"This process requires great skill and patience, and usually takes a week or even half a month."

"During this period, both the hunter and the eagle need to work tirelessly. It's a battle of wills, day and night, until the eagle's will breaks and it becomes docile and surrenders to the hunter... If the hunter falls asleep before the eagle, all previous efforts will be wasted."

His voice remained calm: "And what I want to do is to use the 'hawk training' method..."

"Go and conquer, you proud eagle, Senior."

Luster snapped his fingers again. "Since you've already mastered your own method of measuring time, I won't hide it anymore."

"This time..."

He chuckled.

"Three months."

The iron chain rolled, dragging the iron coffin that imprisoned Ingrid into the deep sea again.

Chapter 187: Can I, a demon from hell, illuminate your dark night? (7k)

The abyss swallowed up all the light, and one could not see the sunrise or sunset, nor could one tell north from south, east from west, or west from north.

This is an abyss of despair and a whirlpool of pain.

The steel coffin, along with the scattered chains, sank to the seabed of the deep sea, as if forgotten by the world.

I don’t know how long this chaotic time lasted.

Until a certain moment, the chain, which had been gradually rusted by the sea water and stained with bronze rust, began to roll again.

……

wow-

The iron coffin broke out of the water driven by mechanisms and chains.

Immediately afterwards, the steel coffin lid that had been rusted by sea water was pushed open little by little, revealing Ingrid who was imprisoned inside the iron coffin.

Every joint of her body was locked with mithril shackles, and her jet-black hair was spread out, looking disheveled.

Hidden by her messy hair, the skin on Ingrid's face was abnormally pale due to being soaked in sea water for a long time, without a trace of blood.

Her expression was numb and stiff, like a doll that had been abandoned for a thousand years. Both her body and spirit had been buried in the deep sea along with the coffin, dying little by little in the grave until she was extinguished in pure nothingness.

But even though the woman's appearance and figure were as stiff and withered as a corpse.

But when the iron coffin was opened and Rast's figure appeared in her sight along with the sunlight——

Ingrid's eyes seemed to be smiling, a very bright smile.

"You didn't expect that...Laster."

Her voice was as hoarse and withered as a mummy that had been buried in yellow sand for thousands of years, but her tone was so free and cheerful.

"Haha...I'm afraid even you didn't expect that you would miscalculate."

The numb and indifferent expression slowly revived.

Ingrid lay on her back in the iron coffin, gazing at the black-haired boy bathed in sunlight and looking down at her, her eyes bright and cheerful.

At this moment, her eyes were not like those of a high-ranking, serious military official, the former Director of the Supervisory Department.

Instead, she looked more like a little girl who had snatched a lollipop from her childhood playmate.

"I was drowned and resurrected repeatedly in the deep sea... I died and died and lived again and again."

"It was truly a torture worse than death, a torture that felt like years – it was only three months, but it felt like hundreds of years in the deep sea."

She stared quietly into Luster's eyes. "You must have thought that after I get out this time, I would kneel on the ground in tears and beg you not to send me back to the deep sea, back to that hopeless cycle of death and life, right?"