Die, Replay, Repeat

BOOM!

Fang Xiu summoned the projection of the Angel once again.

“Sir please, don’t kill me… I am…” Joker stammered, his voice trembling in fear.

SLAP!

Fang Xiu’s hand cut through the air, landing hard across Joker’s face, stopping him mid-sentence. He had no patience left for Joker’s pathetic excuses anymore. The same groveling words again and again had worn thin.

Joker, already paralyzed by fear, didn’t dare resist. He accepted the slap in silence, too terrified to even flinch.

Meanwhile, Xiao Chuxia stood frozen like a statue, her eyes wide in sheer terror as she stared at the Angel’s overwhelming presence. It was as if her soul had fled her body, leaving her completely immobilized.

BOOM!

The sound of the Specter’s hymns roared in the background, shaking the very earth as the entire headquarters crumbled into ruin once again.

As Fang Xiu and Xiao Chuxia walked through the debris, Fang Xiu asked abruptly, “Xiao Chuxia, what’s the maximum amount of lie energy you can absorb at once?”

She blinked, startled by the question. “Xiu… why are you asking me that?”

“Just answer.”

After a moment of thought, she replied, “I don’t know for sure… but I’ve never hit my limit before, no matter how much I’ve absorbed.”

Fang Xiu nodded, deep in thought. “Good. Come and sleep with me.”

Suddenly, Xiao Chuxia’s eyes lit up with a strange excitement. “Xiu, are you… going to let me experience what it’s like to be completely filled?”

As soon as the words left her mouth, her face turned bright red. “I-I mean with lie energy! Don’t get the wrong idea!”

“Shut up,” Fang Xiu muttered, his patience wearing thin. “I don’t want to hear anything that isn’t related to the battle. Now, come here and lie down.”

“W-What?!” Xiao Chuxia gasped, her face now a mix of shock and embarrassment. “First, you say you didn’t misunderstand, and now you’re saying that? How is lying down related to the battle?!”

Fang Xiu ignored her protests. His attention was focused on the chaos around them—the Specters running rampant, the twisted figures of the Pokers closing in, taking full advantage of the destruction to wreak havoc.

BOOM!

Thousands of ethereal swords appeared in the sky, gleaming coldly in the moonlight.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

Like a deadly downpour, the swords rained down on both Specters and the Pokers alike.

In an instant, the battlefield became a graveyard of mangled bodies, severed limbs, and cold steel buried deep in the blood-soaked ground.

Fang Xiu scanned the area, ensuring they were relatively safe, at least for now.

To be certain, he activated several more abilities stored in his ring, summoning tens of thousands of soldiers who formed an unbreakable human wall around the perimeter.

“Now,” he said firmly, “Lie down here. Sleep with me.”

Xiao Chuxia’s face twisted in horror. “Xiu, I get that you’re in a hurry, but seriously?! Shouldn’t our priority be helping with the battle, not… this? And besides, this place is way too exposed!”

“Fighting is pointless,” Fang Xiu replied, walking toward her with steady determination. “Right now, you just need to follow my orders.”

Panic flooded Xiao Chuxia’s mind, but then something clicked. “Wait… you said fighting is pointless. Does that mean you’ve seen the future? Are we going to lose to the Pokers?”

Fang Xiu nodded.

Her face paled even more. She knew that if Fang Xiu’s foresight was telling him they were doomed, there was no hope left for them. He had never been wrong before. If the headquarters fell, they’d be facing nothing but death and destruction.

Suddenly, Xiao Chuxia thought she understood. 'Is Fang Xiu seeking comfort in life’s final pleasures?'

If the future was sealed, she get it that maybe he wanted to make the most of the present, to find some final joy before everything came crashing down.

And of course, who else would he turn to? She was young, attractive, and they were alone together amidst the ruins.

It was like one of those stories where people facing death indulged in one last moment of passion.

Honestly, she couldn’t even blame him. She didn’t want to die with regrets either.

She glanced at Fang Xiu’s face, her heart racing. He was strong, handsome—this wouldn’t be the worst way to spend her last moments.

Nervously, she bit her lip.

“Xiu, I… I’ve never done this before,” she stammered, her cheeks burning. “But if we’re about to die anyway… I don’t want to die with regrets. So, if you want… you can… you can…”

Before she could finish her trembling confession, Fang Xiu reached her.

She felt his overwhelming presence, the sheer power radiating from him. Her heart pounded in her chest, her mind racing with what was about to happen.

She closed her eyes, bracing herself, and whispered, “Be gentle.”

THUD!

In one swift motion, Fang Xiu brought his hand down sharply on the back of her neck, knocking her out cold.

Xiao Chuxia’s bashful expression froze in place, her eyes rolling back as she fainted on the spot.

"Such a nuisance," Fang Xiu muttered under his breath, a frown crossing his face.

He lay down beside her, staring at the sky while contemplating her odd behavior.

He couldn’t help thinking that her artificial personality must have some serious flaws. Or how else could someone spin such an absurd narrative in just a few seconds?

It made him wonder—what exactly had Xiao Chuxia based her persona on? He suspected it was heavily influenced by movies and TV shows.

After all, media was the easiest way to soak up personality traits. Judging by her over-the-top behavior, it seemed highly likely her inspiration had come from the most cliché, brainless soap operas.

This, in turn, revealed something else: Xiao Chuxia’s real personality couldn’t be too far off from her constructed one. People who gravitated toward shallow dramas usually shared similar traits with the characters they idolized.

Closing his eyes, Fang Xiu activated Nightmare's ability, entering Xiao Chuxia’s dream world.

The moment he stepped in, he was greeted by a scene so... indecent, even Fang Xiu—normally unbothered by most things—found himself uncomfortable.

Her dream had picked up right where her wild imagination left off, continuing the bizarre storyline she had concocted just moments before being knocked out.

With a snap of his fingers, Fang Xiu forcefully ended the inappropriate dream.

SNAP!

Xiao Chuxia jolted awake, landing unceremoniously on her rear, her face filled with confusion as she blinked up at him.

When her eyes met Fang Xiu’s, she broke into an awkward smile, almost relieved to see him.

“Why did you run off? Come back over here!” she called out, not fully aware of where she was.

SNAP!

The realization of what she had been dreaming about crashed down on her. Her face turned beet red, and she stared at the ground, too mortified to speak. “Xiu… I… I didn’t mean it! I wasn’t trying to… you know! You didn’t explain yourself clearly, and my mind just—”

"Shut your mouth," Fang Xiu cut in, his voice icy. “There’s no time for your filthy thoughts. Dream time may move slower than reality, but we still can’t afford to waste even a second. Stop with your nonsense and focus.”

*'FILTHY?'*Xiao Chuxia froze, utterly floored by the word. 'Aren’t guys the ones usually caught thinking indecent thoughts, not the other way around?'

Before she could muster a protest, the dream world around them began to shift.

The ground beneath them fell away, and they found themselves floating in the middle of a cosmic expanse, surrounded by a vast array of stars and planets.

Each of those planets represented a dream world, swirling with strange, vivid colors and surreal images.

“This... this is incredible,” Xiao Chuxia gasped, her eyes wide with awe as she took in the new surroundings. “Why is it so different from last time? Is this because you’ve advanced to the third tier?”

Fang Xiu nodded. "Exactly. Since reaching the third tier, all of my abilities have improved, including Nightmare."

But Xiao Chuxia didn’t realize that this new dream universe wasn’t just about aesthetics. The real power came from Fang Xiu’s ability to now do something much more impressive: unite every dreamscape into one vast, stable dream world.

He couldn’t fully replicate the power of the original Nightmare, whose dream world could affect reality, but this level of control was enough for what he had in mind.

Fang Xiu stretched out his hands and began to slowly bring them together.

Suddenly, a thunderous rumble shook the dreamscape. The stars and planets quivered as, one by one, they collided in the center of the cosmic expanse.

The boundaries between the dream worlds began to dissolve, merging into a single, unified dream.