Chapter 76.

Chapter 76.

Despite the challenges, Albert finally got his hands on the laboratory key. Although Professor Aldus explicitly prohibited removing any materials from the lab, let alone the school, for someone as skilled as Albert, obtaining those valuable research documents was almost as easy as reaching out and grabbing them.

It was then that Soren, the leader of the foreigners, reappeared before Albert, urging him to quickly secure the laboratory documents.

Albert could tell that Soren was growing impatient due to his continuous excuses. If he delayed any further, his life might be at stake.

So, should he follow Soren's orders and hand over the research materials?

Albert hesitated, unwilling to contribute to the strangers' schemes. He decided to first send the documents to the Inspection Bureau for them to judge.

The Inspection Bureau replied that the documents could be handed over to Soren, reasoning that most of the theories within were hypothetical and of little value.

Upon receiving this response, Albert thought he'd feel relieved, but he didn't. Instead, Lann's earlier warning flashed through his mind.

...Is the Inspection Bureau really trustworthy?

To be on the safe side, after pondering over it for a night, Albert decided to modify some of the content before meeting alone.

The time had come.

Lann, who had been observing the whole process, thought this was an opportunity to test her previous speculation.

If she wasn't wrong, the crucial moment should appear soon.

As expected, when Albert went alone to the meeting and had already left Mida University, walking alone on a small path, the anomaly happened again.

This time, it wasn't just one. The leading anomaly was at least a C-class, followed by several D-class minions. Lann reappeared, deliberately entangling with the C-class anomaly. Meanwhile, a mysterious figure wearing a mask seized the moment when Lann was distracted and shot at Albert without hesitation!

The bullet was blocked by a sudden appearance of plants on the blond boy's body, emitting a metallic sound despite their fragile appearance. The figure turned to flee immediately, but Lann quickly turned back.

The moment of victory or defeat had arrived!

[Roll: Success!]

A seed hurled by Lann towards the fleeing figure rapidly sprouted into dense vines in mid-air, falling perfectly onto the person and securing him tightly.

At the same moment, Lann quickly drained the other anomalies of their spirit, garnering several more seeds in an instant.

"Is it really you?" Albert stared in disbelief at Lann, who was too busy to attend to him, quickly approaching the ensnared figure before they could escape the vines.

As she drew closer, Lann finally got a clear view of the person's face.

"…It is you, Albert."

Lann had suspected it when she saw the bullet glowing with a golden flame, a flame she found eerily familiar.

The younger Albert, following behind, arrived and gazed bewildered at the figure entangled in vines, who bore an uncanny resemblance to himself.

"How is this possible?"

"Why wouldn't it be?" mocked the captured Albert, ceasing his struggles and lifting his head to face the nearly identical countenance, "It's simple, you're just an imposter."

The younger Albert pressed his lips together, not believing the words of the figure so similar to himself, whose eyes were shadowed with darkness: "You're the imposter!"

The captured Albert paid no heed to his words, instead turning to Lann, "What happened afterward?"

Lann was taken aback, "What do you mean?"

"Arkham City. Did the foreigners succeed?"

"No, of course not. Although they caused some destruction and casualties, everyone pulled together to overcome the crisis."

"Is that so."

The expression on Albert's face was complex, a mixture of crying and laughing: "Then I can rest assured that..."

Observing Albert's expression, Lann's feelings were incredibly mixed, realizing that this Albert might not be the disguised special anomaly she initially suspected.

An anomaly couldn’t exhibit such deeply human expressions: guilt, self-reproach, a sense of relief, as if letting go of everything.

But this just made the situation even more complicated!

Lann looked at the two versions of Albert present - one young, one mature - her pupils shaking:

There can't be two cores in a dream, two Alberts, can there? What in the world is going on?

"He's not me; he's just a tool." At that moment, Albert spoke, coldly gazing at his younger self, "I never imagined that the artifact could be used this way."

The artifact Albert wore, the personality switcher given by Amos, was for a mission from the foreigners, to infiltrate the vicinity of a suspected evil deity. He wore it to prevent his identity from being exposed.

It could not only block the contamination from the Rift of Dreams but also temporarily switch his personality and alter his memory.

But Amos never told him that the artifact would have such an effect during the trials of the Rift of Dreams!

Albert looked at his younger self, lips tightly pressed.

The third level's trial in the Rift of Dreams was supposed to have anomalies enter memories, kill the dream's host, and replace them in reality.

To be honest, the reason Albert initiated this trial was because… he never intended to survive.

But now, due to the personality switcher, he had inadvertently created a perfect decoy, a 'fake', delaying his intended end. The reason anomalies only attacked under specific circumstances was because of the nature of the trial itself, which actually was—

What exactly is this trial? Meanwhile, Lann was also pondering. Embarrassingly, she had thought the challenge of this layer was simply to kill the attacking anomalies. But having already eliminated so many and still not completing the trial meant it was far from that simple.

Tch, she should have asked for more details before entering.

Oh wait, she didn't even know how she got here in the first place. She just thought about unraveling some mysteries, and then she found herself here automatically.

It was like the mist, or perhaps the divine realm or the dream itself, was responding to her.

Lann shook her head, temporarily discarding these thoughts, and looked back at Albert: "Despite having such an object, you still haven't passed the third level's trial, plus your previous actions... are you trying to commit suicide, Albert?"

Albert didn't respond, but his attitude said it all, causing Lann to start feeling a headache.

The first level's trial of the Rift of Dreams was to overcome fear.

The second level was to move from madness to clarity.

From these two trials, it's evident that the challenges of the Rift of Dreams actually require a strong display of subjective initiative, meaning if the person involved doesn't cooperate, nothing will work.

And Albert's intense self-destructive desire...

Lann looked at the younger Albert, who wasn't foolish. From the conversation between the two, he seemed to have deduced what was going on.

When Lann turned to look at him, the younger Albert also looked back, disbelief on his face: “What he said... it can't be true...”

He didn't finish his sentence, as the two people in front of him disappeared again.

Lann, realizing this, saw confusion written all over the younger Albert's face. He stood up after a moment, holding the documents, unsure of what to do next.

Lann understood his feelings well, as she herself didn't know what to do either.

Lann silently waved her hand, retracting the vines that had bound Albert. Not knowing whether it was because he felt he couldn't escape, or for some other reason, Albert didn't leave immediately but instead asked, “Why did you stop me from killing ‘Albert’ earlier?”

Lann glanced at him indifferently: “What do you think it was for?”

Albert fell silent for a moment before looking up and saying, “Information.”

Beyond that, Albert couldn’t think of any reason why he would be saved.

He had long lost the privilege of being redeemed by a deity.

In a way, Albert had actually guessed correctly.

Lann entered this place partly to extract information about the foreigners' legacy and the fall of Mida University from Albert's memories.

"If it's for information, you'll soon have what you want." Seeing Lann's silence, Albert spoke cautiously, "After that, please don't bother me anymore."

Lann knew what he meant – not to interfere with his suicide.

Truth be told, Lann's feelings were quite complicated at the moment.

Although she came for information, Lann wasn’t averse to saving someone if she could, especially since she didn't dislike Albert, and he was a friend of Alchi. She couldn't just stand by and do nothing.

But now, with the person himself lacking the desire to live, even going to great lengths to kill his dream self, wouldn't Lann's act of saving Albert be overstepping? And who could guarantee that even if she could get Albert out, he wouldn't end up committing suicide anyway? This could bring even more pain to Alchi.

Thinking about it was troublesome, and Lann, unsure how to proceed, opted for silence, waiting to see how things would unfold.

Lann's silence seemed to confirm Albert's guess, so he simply didn't leave either, standing beside her, watching the events unfold.

The younger Albert, after a long period of confusion, finally decided to go to the place he'd agreed to meet Soren. However, he took out some key information from the documents and destroyed them, ensuring that even if something went wrong, the foreigners would only get incomplete information.

At that moment, Lann seemed to hear a mocking, cold laugh from Albert. She turned to look at him, "By now, things must have already changed, right?"

After Lann and his mentor's reminders, Albert no longer fully trusted the Inspection Bureau's words. The information given to Soren was incomplete, so the subsequent events might not occur as expected.

"No," Albert looked coldly at the young Albert, watching his past self stride towards destruction, "Fate cannot be altered."