The Heavenly Demon breathed heavily, her chest heaving with exhaustion.

The white slowly faded from her hair. The cracks on her skin began to seal.

She glanced to the side, to where Maya had been standing.

She was gone.

"What?"

Before she could process this, she felt something.

An overwhelming aura descended upon her from above.

It seemed the demon had some backing.

She didn't hesitate.

She ran.

It wasn't like her to run away. But this wasn't running away.

This was a strategic retreat.

She told herself this as she fled through the forest at maximum speed.

…

A while later.

The Heavenly Demon walked through the forest, each step heavier than the last.

She was breathing heavily, her lungs burning with every inhale. She supported herself against a tree, her legs threatening to give out.

Her entire body was covered in a layer of concentrated qi. Since she had her divine sense to hide her presence, the only way she could be tracked was visually.

She had covered herself like this to ensure she didn't drop any blood that could lead pursuers to her location.

But the exhaustion was catching up.

She dropped to her knees.

Then fell onto her stomach.

She crawled forward, dragging herself through the dirt and leaves.

Her eyes were blurry. Her vision swimming. Darkness crept in at the edges.

Finally, she saw it.

The clearing.

The wooden shack.

She was almost there.

Then she saw someone running toward her.

A figure. Moving quickly. Reaching out.

"Cipher?" she called out.

Her lips moved, but no sound came out.

…

Darkness.

No, it couldn't even be called darkness. There was nothing to perceive it as such.

Cipher's consciousness floated in the void. Or rather, what remained of it.

It couldn't even be called consciousness, really.

Just strands of thoughts. Scattered and slowly drifting from each other.

Each strand held a fragment. A memory. A feeling. A piece of identity.

But they were pulling apart. Drifting further and further into the endless nothing.

Suddenly…

[Y^@$$#!]

[K@%@%&*^]

[R#@!$%^&]

[??ERROR??]

Notifications flickered in the void. All just jumbled up incomprehensible nonsense.

The strands of thought each tried to make sense of what was happening.

But they couldn't form a single coherent thought.

Couldn't maintain a single byte of information for longer than an instant.

A fragment would grasp at meaning, and it would slip away the next instant.

What... is...

Gone.

Where... am...

Gone.

Who...

Gone.

But suddenly, the strands stopped drifting apart.

They hung suspended in the void for a moment.

Then they began moving together.

Slowly at first. Tentatively. Like magnets feeling each other's pull from a great distance.

Then faster.

Accelerating.

Information finally began lasting longer. A thought would form and persist for a moment before fading. Then two moments. Then three.

Coherent thoughts emerged, though they were mostly random and unrelated to the current situation.

I need to find a way to save Julie.

Why would she say that...

Elaine is definitely suspicious...

Wait, you can track me? What a useless skill.

How do we get to Beijing?

Li Chen is quite reliable. I'll trust him for now.

Selene, what's my schedule?

The strands drew closer. The thoughts came faster.

Wait, where am I?

Oh, I remember now. I entered the Gate.

I was kidnapped. So were my friends.

Wait, I think I managed to escape.

That's right. Then I picked a path.

Which path was it?

Now I remember. It was the wrong turn.

I faced a demon.

And then...

The strands of thought accelerated even more.

Faster and faster until eventually…

They collided.

Then they merged, becoming one.

[You have died]

The notification appeared before him before slowly disappearing.

And Cipher opened his eyes.

…

"Where am I?"

He looked around.

Wooden walls. A rough ceiling. Dim light filtering through gaps in the planks.

He was lying on some kind of bed. Also wooden. Not comfortable, but functional.

He looked down at himself.

He was alive.

The plan had worked.

A smile spread across his face.

He placed his hand on his chest, feeling the steady rhythm beneath his palm.

His heart was beating.

Dying really felt...

He couldn't even explain it.

Before, although he had died multiple times - thousands, even - he would always revive quickly. The experience was unpleasant but brief.

But this time was different.

He had felt his mind and thoughts slowly scatter away. His entire self drifting apart. Becoming... not him.

Piece by piece, he had been dissolving into nothing.

He really didn't want to experience that again.

And seeing what had happened, he realized there was a limit to this kind of revival.

The plan he had formulated after realizing he would die was simple.

He had noticed that when leveling up, one would lose their status effects. Even physical ones like bleeding and tiredness would be cleared for a second before they returned.

Since death was technically a status effect, as long as he leveled up, he should be able to clear it.

That's why he had let the Heavenly Demon out. So she could escape, kill some random monsters, and trigger his revival through the level up. Since she was his skill, she should count as him killing them.

It was just a bet.

And it turned out it really worked.

Even so, this method had severe limitations.

For example, if his consciousness was left to scatter like that for too long - if the strands drifted too far apart - they might not be able to merge back together.

They might move once the death status effect was cleared, but he would quickly regain the status effect and die again. He would need to constantly level up for a long time before the strands of consciousness could fully reunite.

This was really dangerous.

He needed to be more careful next time.

Then his expression became serious.

But it wasn't all bad.

He had finally figured out the Immortal King's immortality.

The Immortal King wasn't being revived through some mysterious power or artifact.

He probably had one or multiple of his summons holding countless people hostage somewhere. Every time the Immortal King died, they would kill off captives so he could level up and clear the death status.

How had he not thought of that before?

He needed to capture the Immortal King quickly, before he could kill even more people.

At that moment, he heard a thud.

The sound of someone falling.

He quickly got off the wooden bed and moved to check it out.

He reached the door and pulled it open.

The clearing stretched before him, and there, at the edge of it…

A figure.

Battered and bruised. Covered in wounds. Struggling to crawl forward, each movement weaker than the last.

Her hair was disheveled and her clothes were torn.

But even then, she kept moving. Kept reaching toward the shack.

Cipher's eyes widened.

"Heavenly Demon..."

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