Given that Sheng Yan didn't know the others, it wasn't convenient for everyone to meet at his house. Among the two groups, the only person who could connect both sides was Mo Bai. Therefore, she quickly rented an apartment in a Seaview community with Xiao Qi and reached out to Ding Xun and Ye Pingjun, who had visited them earlier, through Gu Tiandong.

An hour later, Mo Bai, Gu Tiandong, Ding Xun, Ye Pingjun, and Sheng Yan were all assembled in Mo Bai's newly rented apartment.

"I can't contact Liu Congyi," Sheng Yan said. "We didn't exchange contact information inside the instance either. I have no idea where to look for her."

After thinking for a moment, Mo Bai said, "I'll try looking for Zhuang Xiangyang's girlfriend tomorrow. Maybe Liu Congyi will go see her."

At the mention of Zhuang Xiangyang, Sheng Yan fell silent for a moment.

He hadn't been especially close to Zhuang Xiangyang, and he was already used to life and death in the Infinite World. It was just that, for an instant, he put himself in the shoes of the one left behind and felt a pang of shared sorrow.

"I'll go," Sheng Yan said.

"That works too," Mo Bai replied.

Meanwhile, Ding Xun and Ye Pingjun were looking around Mo Bai's new apartment.

After leaving the Count's Castle instance, the two had returned to their normal appearances.

When she was turned into a young teenager, Ding Xun was already 1.7 meters tall. Now that she was restored to her adult form, she stood over 1.8 meters, which was almost the same height as Sheng Yan.

She still wore her hair in a high ponytail, dressed in a white T-shirt and brown pants suited for movement, with black boots on her feet. She looked dashing and cool with a longsword hung at her waist.

Ye Pingjun, on the other hand, remained perfectly average: average height and average looks, looking even more nondescript than the fake researcher Du Heng had created. He was about the same height as Gu Tiandong, but their appearances were worlds apart.

As she toured the apartment, Ding Xun said enviously, "I wake up from one nap, and you're already living in a big place! How did you suddenly get over a million points? What instance was that? I want to go too."

Sheng Yan said teasingly, "Want to be serum?"

"Of course I'd go to protect Mo Bai. With me around, she'd definitely have an easier time than with you," Ding Xun said confidently.

"You think you're stronger than me?" Sheng Yan shot back.

"Stronger? Maybe not. But I don't need to waste Mo Bai's abilities. I can move independently. Isn't that already better than you?" Ding Xun put one hand on her hip and lifted her chin arrogantly at Sheng Yan.

Sheng Yan bristled. "Without me, could you have blown up the research institute? Taken down two powerful A-rank monsters? You also have no idea how strong Du Ying was!"

"No matter how strong, he was just an A-rank monster. I would have cut him down in one strike!" Ding Xun drew the sword at her waist. A flash of cold light streaked through the air, and a part of Sheng Yan's carefully styled bangs was cleanly sliced off.

Ding Xun knew her limits, so she simply cut a piece of hair that would not incur system punishment.

Sheng Yan had seen plenty of players who used cold weapons. Sheng Lei, with his immense strength, was a prime example. His giant axe could split mountains and crack stone.

But Ding Xun's strike was different.

Sheng Yan clearly wanted to dodge. Only his abilities were sealed, not his mobility.

Yet at the instant she swung her sword, he suddenly felt his senses grow dull. In his eyes, her blade was impossibly fast, while his own limbs moved unbearably slow, slow enough that he couldn't believe it.

Seeing the exchange, Mo Bai raised an eyebrow slightly.

Sheng Yan glanced at the fiery red strands drifting to the floor and, without another word, threw a punch.

Mo Bai sighed. "That's enough. Ding Xun, do you want the system to seal your abilities too?"

As she spoke, the floor beneath Sheng Yan and Ding Xun shifted simultaneously, swapping positions with tiles one meter away. The two were separated. Sheng Yan's punch cut through empty air, and Ding Xun's sword struck nothing.

Watching the interaction, Ye Pingjun clapped twice. "Looks like after advancing to the intermediate level, everyone's abilities have significantly improved."

Ding Xun executed a flashy twirl with her sword, sheathed it neatly, and flicked her ponytail with a confident swordsman's swagger. "Naturally."

"What ability?" Ye Pingjun asked.

"Guess!" Ding Xun was just as insufferable as Sheng Yan.

Mo Bai said, "Your beginner ability was Extrasensory, which is related to the senses. Your intermediate ability should be based on that, so I guess it lets you control other people's senses. Sheng Yan's Constitution and Agility aren't bad, but facing your sword, he still became noticeably sluggish. You probably dulled his senses."

Ding Xun stepped forward and hugged Mo Bai happily. "Still the smartest. My intermediate ability is called Synesthesia (通感 - Tōng Gǎn), which allows me to connect to other people's senses. So far, it has two functions. One is a full sensory connection where I can see what they see, hear what they hear, making them my eyes and ears without them noticing.

The other is Dull Sense (鈍感 - Dùn Gǎn), which weakens their five senses. At the same time, I can use Extrasensory to enhance my own.

Right now, fighting anyone feels like disciplining a child. That Du Ying of yours? I could've killed him in minutes."

"When my abilities are restored, let's spar in an instance and see," Sheng Yan said, cracking his knuckles.

Mo Bai asked, "How many people can you control? And what's the range?"

"I'm only Intermediate-1 right now," Ding Xun replied. "I can control only one person. Dull Sense works within ten meters, while Synesthesia works within a hundred-meter radius. Furthermore, Synesthesia and Dull Sense can't be used at the same time."

"That's a big difference in range," Ye Pingjun noted.

Mo Bai explained fairly, "Because Dull Sense causes real damage in combat, while Synesthesia is only sensory linkage. Different levels of impact, different range.

Combined with her Beginner ability, Ding Xun is extremely strong. She can manipulate and weaken her opponent while strengthening herself, and even observe blind spots through others' eyes. As her ability evolves further, she'll practically be the strongest single-target melee fighter.

If we only consider close combat, Sheng Yan might not be her match."

"How am I not her match?" Sheng Yan protested. "My flames can keep her from getting close!"

"You control the flames around your body through skin and tactile perception. If Ding Xun dulls your senses, you wouldn't even have time to shield your vital areas with fire before she cuts you down," Mo Bai said. "Everyone has their own strengths. She excels at single-target melee, while you excel at crowd control. You're not the same type of player, and your preferred combat styles are different. If Ding Xun stepped on one of your pre-set bombs, she would also..."

"No," Ding Xun interrupted smugly. "My Extrasensory lets me sense danger in advance. I wouldn't step into a trap."

Sheng Yan clenched his fists tighter, clearly itching for a fight.

Mo Bai didn't bother trying to stop them anymore. Once Sheng Yan's seal was lifted, she could just let them spar in a daily instance. As long as no one died, it would be fine.

Ye Pingjun said, "Our team's strength is quite impressive. Ding Xun is a powerhouse fighter with information-gathering capability. Sheng Yan's bombs and flames are perfect for clearing mobs, and of course, he's also got devastating explosive power for going blow-for-blow. We're not lacking in offense. As for defense..."

He looked toward Gu Tiandong, who stood by the window gazing out at the sea like some melancholy prince. "Did your defensive ability improve?"

Gu Tiandong nodded but didn't seem eager to elaborate.

"Still calculated based on the team average?" Ye Pingjun asked.

Gu Tiandong nodded, then shook his head.

He noticed Mo Bai watching him too, waiting, so he let out a sigh. "My intermediate ability builds on Keep Your Distance and adds Cold-Hearted (不近人情 - Bù Jìn Rén Qíng). It still uses Appearance as its defense threshold, but now it covers mental attacks too. As long as the enemy's Appearance is lower than mine, neither physical nor mental attacks can hurt me. The range is only five meters, though."

"Still Appearance, huh? Then just focus on protecting Mo Bai. The rest of us will fend for ourselves." Ye Pingjun sighed.

"But my Observation title changed," Gu Tiandong added. "It makes up for that weakness."

"What title?" Ding Xun leaned in. "You've gotten ridiculously good-looking. What kind of title change made you look like this?"

"I'm not sure why my appearance changed so much either. But the title change probably has something to do with you." Gu Tiandong turned his blue eyes on Ding Xun with a hint of resentment, his deep blue eyes full of helplessness.

Ding Xun turned away and covered her face. "Don't look at me like that. You're way too good-looking. I might do something I regret."

"When the castle collapsed, you used my frozen body as a shield to block most of the falling rubble," Gu Tiandong said. "That's probably what caused the change."

"So what is it now?" Ye Pingjun asked curiously.

"The Lonely Sufferer (孤獨的受難者 - Gū Dú De Shòu Nàn Zhě)."

Mo Bai knew a bit about religion. Thinking back to Gu Tiandong's previous title, Frozen Angel, she immediately recognized the religious significance behind Sufferer.

In certain religious traditions, a sufferer is someone who endures hardship as a trial or punishment from heaven. And then there's the legend of the Holy Son descending to earth, bearing humanity's suffering, and becoming its savior.

If Gu Tiandong's Sufferer pointed to that legend, then the title was a rank above Angel. An upgraded form.

"The Lonely Sufferer lets me gather all suffering onto myself," Gu Tiandong said. "Basically, I can pull every attack within the range of Keep Your Distance and Cold-Hearted onto me alone. I'll bear all the suffering and shelter everyone."

"Will you get hurt because of it?" Mo Bai asked.

Gu Tiandong shook his head. "As long as the opponent's Appearance is lower than mine, I won't be injured. This title is actually pretty good. It makes my defensive ability useful for once, instead of just being a decoration that only protects me."

"That's basically absolute defense!" Ding Xun clapped her hands happily. "Who could possibly have a higher Appearance than you!"

Ding Xun was always like this. Her carefree attitude could chase away any gloom and bring a touch of absurd lightness to even the heaviest mood.

Hearing her words, Gu Tiandong's eyelashes trembled slightly. Then a relieved smile spread across his face. "Yeah. It's better than before. There's something nice about the feeling that everything's finally settled."

Mo Bai finally understood why his looks had improved so much.

Before, his Appeal had leaned heavily toward androgyny. Now that he had fully become genderless, that trait no longer needed to be emphasized. Therefore, his Appeal had shifted toward suffering instead.

There was a new sense of fragility and loneliness about him. Those two qualities elevated his overall aura, and even though his base Appearance hadn't increased much, his Appeal had climbed considerably.

The result was that he looked far more beautiful than before.

"Where'd you put your free attribute points?" Mo Bai asked.

"Split evenly between Appearance and Mental Power," Gu Tiandong replied. "Keep Your Distance and Cold-Hearted still need Mental Power to maintain."

His tone was calm. He clearly accepted everything already.

In truth, he wasn't sad at all. The sorrow Mo Bai and the others saw was just an illusion of that aura of fragility and loneliness. Gu Tiandong himself was actually doing fine.

But the calmer he seemed, the more distressed Mo Bai felt.

She reflected on Sheng Yan's Information Extraction card, Mo Xiangyou's hostility towards combat-type players, and the price Gu Tiandong had paid on the path of constant advancement. Her heart ached for the players in the Observation Group.

And then there was her latest instance. The feeling the Information Extraction had given her, combined with Du Heng's hesitant and uncertain demeanor.

Moreover, his insistence, no matter what, that Mo Bai join Mending Heaven, and the main system's frantic rush to throw everyone out of the instance before Du Heng could say more.

All these clues pointed precisely toward a suspicion Mo Bai had long harbored.

Mo Xiangyou said that Observation Group players always leveled up faster than combat-type players, but he did not want to reach the Advanced level.

Xiao Qi had told her that Appearance also included collection value, and that low-level ornaments had none of it.

The system had repeatedly hinted, through various abilities and card descriptions, that her future was an abyss.

The answer had long been on the tip of her tongue, but Mo Bai refused to admit it...

That is, once they reached the Advanced level, Observation Group players could be transformed into cards.

And this transformation was not automatic. Combat-type players could, through some method, turn Observation Group players into cards.

It wasn't that Sheng Lei's friend didn't want to contact him after reaching Neverland; it was that he no longer could.

That Information Extraction card was his eternal resting place.

In the prophecy, Mo Xiangyou had seen Mo Bai collecting his corpse. The hidden meaning was that he would become a card, and he hoped Mo Bai would take it away, so it wouldn't fall into the hands of combat-type players.

He did not want to become his murderer's puppet after death.

Gu Tiandong's efforts to level up, his desire to do something for his teammates, would ultimately result in him turning into a card.

This was the fate of the Observation Group.

There was no road ahead of them at all.

At that thought, Mo Bai couldn't help but step forward and hug Gu Tiandong tightly. Pained for him, pained for herself, and even more so, the unwillingness to let such a future come to pass.

She didn't know what she could do to stop it.

She could only guess what Du Heng had wanted to say in the end: only Mending Heaven would not harm Observation Group players. Only Mending Heaven would shelter them.

Mo Bai trusted Du Heng, but she did not trust Mending Heaven.

A common man is innocent, but possessing a precious jade is a crime.

Mo Xiangyou's attitude toward combat-type players wasn't wrong. As long as Observation Group players could become cards that can be used by combat-type players, then from the Observation Group's perspective, no combat-type player could be fully trusted.

Even if a wolf doesn't eat a sheep, the sheep cannot rely on the wolf's mercy and walk alongside it.

"What's wrong?" Gu Tiandong looked at Mo Bai. The Mo Bai he knew was never one to be discouraged, so why did she look so heartbroken now?

He thought she was upset on his behalf, so he smiled gently and said, "As you said before, I can finally help the team. That's a good thing."

What he didn't know was that all the effort Observation Group players made just to survive would ultimately turn them into tools for others.

Mo Bai smiled faintly. Taking advantage of her height, she ruffled his hair and said firmly, "Let's grow stronger together."

Stronger. Keep growing stronger. In ability, and in spirit.

Strong enough that no one would dare covet them. Strong enough to protect others.

Mo Bai would not place her trust in Mending Heaven. She would build a new organization herself. One that is composed entirely of Observation Group players and powerful enough to shelter them all in Neverland.

Her future is definitely not an abyss.

Her fate will be decided by her own hands.