"So, are you willing to let me make this decision?" Mo Bai asked.

The magician didn't answer. Clearly, he was still hesitating.

Mo Bai wasn't in a hurry. Hesitation itself was already a huge step forward.

After all, instance monsters and players were natural enemies. Who would ever cooperate with an instance monster?

Mo Bai had only thought of this possibility thanks to the Phantom Butterfly.

In the previous instance, the Phantom Butterfly had wanted to kill her right up until the very end. But setting aside its personal feelings, strictly in terms of objectives, there had never actually been a direct conflict between them.

Although the process involved scheming and sabotaging each other, the final outcome was a win-win. Both the players and the Phantom Butterfly escaped from Biological Research Institute No. 7.

That was when Mo Bai realized that when an instance monster faced a greater crisis, cooperation was possible, so long as it could suppress its hostility toward players.

Thinking of this, she couldn't help but spare 0.01% of her attention to worry about the Phantom Butterfly.

In the 86 days since leaving Biological Research Institute No. 7, she assumed the Phantom Butterfly would enter the regular instances to continue hunting her down. Unexpectedly, there was no sign of it during those 86 days. All her vigilance had apparently been in vain.

Based on what she knew of the Phantom Butterfly, Mo Bai didn't believe that it would simply give up chasing her.

Not long after they left the instance, they received the system notification that the Smiling Circus had turned into Disease Town. Presumably, that was the moment Disease Town came into being.

Which meant that the Phantom Butterfly, also connected to Biological Research Institute No. 7, had likely been trapped in Disease Town at the same time.

And this time, without Mo Bai, it would have no way to leave the S-rank mutated instance. It would be trapped there indefinitely. Who knew whether it was still alive?

Thinking of this old acquaintance with absurdly good luck, Mo Bai couldn't help but feel a little sorry for it.

After all, the two of them had shared a fake romance full of PUA (Pick-Up Artist) tactics and mutual deception. If the Phantom Butterfly were to die just like that at the hands of another instance monster, it would be a real shame.

Its ability had been quite useful. If it had died by her hand, she might even have obtained an A-rank Mimicry card.

"Stop. Stop. Stop thinking!" The magician finally couldn't take it anymore and interrupted her 0.01% concern.

"You're a bit domineering, aren't you? Since when do you get to control what I'm thinking?" Mo Bai said innocently.

The magician took a deep breath. After calming himself, he said, "First of all, I appreciate Miss Mo Bai for using the Phantom Butterfly as an example and letting me witness a case where an instance monster and a player achieved win-win cooperation.

However, you could have left out that part about coveting the Phantom Butterfly's ability.

You talk about instance monsters being full of hatred toward players. But don't you players also want to obtain cards from us?"

"The Phantom Butterfly is different from you," Mo Bai said with utmost sincerity. "It was the one who kept trying to kill me. I only fought back to protect myself. I'm very clear about grudges and gratitude. If you don't harm me, I won't covet your ability."

"You don't need to promise anything. I can hear your thoughts. I know what you truly think," the magician said.

Mo Bai knew he hadn't made a decision yet, so she didn't interfere. This was the perfect chance to gather information.

"You didn't refute my guess about the Phantom Butterfly's situation," she said. "Which proves it really was trapped in Disease Town 86 days ago. Was it the same for your Smiling Circus?"

At the mention of this, the magician sighed. "Yes. A perfectly fine town suddenly turned into this."

"You don't blame us for destroying Biological Research Institute No. 7 and causing the current situation?" Mo Bai asked.

"If Professor Yang had been allowed to become a complete entity that day and gained the power to transcend domains, we would either have been devoured by him or become his subordinates like Du Ying, Blank Paper, and the rest. We each have our own domains. Who would willingly serve under someone else?

You destroyed the research institute, and in exchange, we gained three months of lingering survival."

"Sounds like you're rather grateful to us," Mo Bai said, taking the opportunity to build rapport.

The magician gave a contemptuous laugh. "Not grateful. I only dislike Professor Yang and Disease Town. But toward players, I feel disgust, hatred, malice. Your very existence revolts me. Whenever I see a player, I want to torture them to death."

The magician suddenly radiated intense hostility. Facing it, Mo Bai remained calm.

"You sound just like the Phantom Butterfly. Are all instance monsters like this?"

"Lower-level ones have lower intelligence and less malice. The higher the level, the more they hate players," the magician replied.

Why did instance monsters hate players so deeply? Mo Bai couldn't understand.

She recalled the system mentioning positive flow and negative flow. She wondered whether the monsters' hatred had something to do with that.

To avoid provoking the magician into rejecting cooperation out of impulse, she quickly shifted the topic to survival.

"What has the town outside the circus become? How much longer can you hold on?"

The magician sighed. "Everyone in the town is sick. At first, the symptom is coughing. Constant coughing. Not an upper respiratory infection, but more like something foreign invading the airway.

The staff member from our circus who was responsible for procuring supplies from town started coughing a month after Disease Town swallowed the circus. When I found out, I immediately took him to the abandoned hospital in town to see the Dismemberment Forensic Doctor. The doctor said it wasn't a cold, so he couldn't treat it.

I had no choice but to isolate that employee. After that, I wore a mask every day and went out for supplies myself with several other A-rank monsters."

As she listened, Mo Bai suddenly felt a twinge of bitterness. These instance monsters were strangely… domestic.

And going to see someone called the Dismemberment Forensic Doctor for medical treatment? Judging by the name, he was obviously a powerful instance monster. Was that for healing or for finishing someone off?

She didn't interrupt, merely letting her thoughts wander for a moment. But the magician could hear her thoughts.

He stopped speaking. Even without seeing him, Mo Bai could guess he was staring at her in speechless exasperation.

"I'll rein in my thoughts. Please continue," she said sincerely, tapping her head twice.

Perhaps he had been holding it in for too long. As the leader of a domain, bearing the lives of the entire circus troupe, the magician was under immense pressure.

He couldn't confide in his subordinates about his burdens. He could only swallow it all silently. Now that he had encountered Mo Bai, a player and an enemy, he felt oddly free of his leadership constraints. He found himself wanting to talk.

"To treat that employee, I observed the sick townspeople. After the coughing begins, the symptoms branch in two directions.

In one case, after a few days of coughing, they develop headaches, dizziness, heart palpitations, nausea, and weakness in the limbs. Everyone assumes it's just a cold and buys some cold medicine.

At first, the medicine helps a little and eases the symptoms. But soon they experience confusion, drowsiness, hallucinations, intermittent fainting, and sluggish thinking. At that point, no medication works.

Eventually, there's incontinence, purple lips… and they slowly lose their lives.

In the other case, after a few days of coughing, the skin begins turning red over large areas, swelling painfully. The red patches are excruciating, and blisters continuously form. When the blisters burst, they ooze pus. The sight is horrifying.

After a while, it spreads across the entire body. Yellow, foul-smelling pus seeps from the skin, and the body is in constant, agonizing pain.

The second type doesn't lead to death. Instead, they remain in agony until they can no longer endure it and take their own lives.

I don't know which of the two is more terrifying."

When he finished, he heard Mo Bai think to herself, Just as I suspected.

He asked in surprise, "You've already figured out the cause just from my description?"

Mo Bai smiled. "Talking to someone with mind-reading abilities is really annoying. There's no sense of mystery at all. Is your mind-reading passive? You can't turn it off?"

"No. I can't. It annoys me too. Being able to control it at will is one of my wishes. Can you help me fulfill it?" the magician probed.

"We can discuss conditions later. And that's not your true wish anyway, so fulfilling it wouldn't help much. Let's focus on the town's illness," Mo Bai said.

"I'm curious," the magician said. "You only heard a description of symptoms. What exactly did you figure out?"

"I had already made some guesses about Disease Town before entering it," Mo Bai replied. "What you described just confirmed them."

Even before entering Disease Town, she had been considering its origin.

It was an instance that appeared after the research institute was destroyed. The instances it encompassed were all once related to the institute. In other words, Disease Town and Biological Research Institute No. 7 shared the same origin.

Once she understood that, analyzing the town became much easier.

As for someone who shared the same origin as Professor Yang, Mo Bai could think of only one person: his daughter, who had disappeared after suffering severe burns.

Professor Yang left with his unconscious daughter. He wanted to heal his own injuries and bring his daughter back to life.

If he could turn himself into an Ultra-Star Rank monster, there was no way he wouldn't be able to treat his daughter's wounds.

Mo Bai concluded that Professor Yang most likely transformed his daughter into some kind of monster as well.

The ultimate boss of Disease Town was very likely Professor Yang's daughter.

With that premise in place, analyzing the townspeople's symptoms became much easier.

Their illness wasn't a cold at all. It mirrored two possible outcomes of a fire.

The first was inhaling excessive smoke. The smoke contained toxic gases such as carbon monoxide and hydrogen sulfide, ultimately leading to fatal poisoning.

The second was avoiding smoke inhalation but suffering severe burns instead.

These two scenarios corresponded perfectly to Professor Yang's wife and daughter.

His wife had died at the scene of the fire, most likely the first type of death. His daughter had survived, but with severe burns, living in unbearable pain and spending most of her time in shock.

At first, Mo Bai had thought the ultimate boss of Disease Town was only Professor Yang's daughter. Now it seemed it wasn't just one person.

Or rather, the ultimate boss might not consist of a single consciousness, but a fusion of Professor Yang's wife and daughter.

In the world of instances, anything was possible. If Professor Yang could split his psyche, then his wife and daughter sharing one body wasn't far-fetched.

It might even have been his doing. His goal was probably not just to heal himself and save his daughter, but to resurrect his wife as well.

A family reunited in full. That was Professor Yang's true objective.

Although Biological Research Institute No. 7 had been destroyed, Professor Yang's obsession didn't disappear.

Mo Bai was exhausted and starving. She couldn't be bothered to explain all this to the magician out loud. Instead, she ran through the entire line of reasoning in her mind and let him pick it up himself.

The magician: "…You really know how to save effort."

"Since you've heard everything I'm thinking," Mo Bai said, "could you please get me some food? I'm starving."

She had a strong constitution, but she absolutely could not tolerate hunger.

"We've been at the cafeteria for a while. Sit there. I'll get your food," the magician said.

"Get a bigger portion. I can eat a lot," Mo Bai replied.

While he went to get the food, Mo Bai tilted her head and listened. She heard only the sound of the magician serving dishes. No other voices.

Did he not take her to the staff cafeteria, but to the troupe leader's private dining hall instead?

Why? Were her companions in the staff cafeteria? Did the magician not want them to meet?

"Stop overthinking," the magician said, placing a tray in front of her. "You're the noisiest mind I've ever heard."

"That's your ability's problem. I'm actually a very quiet person," Mo Bai said, feeling around to identify the food.

Hamburger. Soup. Fried chicken leg.

She let out a small sigh of relief.

As a newly blind person, she wouldn't have been able to handle chopsticks skillfully if it had been rice, noodles, and side dishes. She would've made a mess everywhere, utterly undignified and helpless.

The magician gave her food that was easy to eat. Rather considerate, actually.

"I'm not being considerate," the magician said with a sinister chuckle. "I deliberately chose something unpleasant. Want to know what kind of meat is in that burger?"

Without blinking, Mo Bai deliberately picked out the meat from the burger and ate it first. After swallowing, she politely asked, "What kind? The Phantom Butterfly's? Yours? A sick patient's? Or a player's?"

"Your guesses are more disgusting than what I was going to say," the magician said in a tone of distaste. "Aren't you afraid what you said might be true?"

"It doesn't matter," Mo Bai replied calmly. "Whatever kind of meat this is, I'm eating it to survive. I haven't toyed with anyone's life. I haven't treated humans as playthings or tools. I eat this with gratitude, thanking it for helping me live one more day. My conscience is clear."

The magician could tell her words and her inner thoughts were perfectly aligned.

She wasn't pretending to be composed. She genuinely meant it.

"No need to worry. It's ordinary beef," the magician said. "I didn't give you food that's easy to eat for your convenience. It's because eating messily doesn't fit my aesthetic. Likewise, giving you something disgusting wouldn't be to kill you, but merely to disgust you, and that also doesn't fit my aesthetic."

"You instance monsters all have your own pride and principles," Mo Bai said approvingly.

"I'm actually a little glad that Disease Town swallowed up the Smiling Circus," the magician said with a sigh. "If I had to face you alone, the Smiling Circus would definitely have been destroyed by you, and I would have died by your hand."

"Since you see that clearly, cooperate with me," Mo Bai urged.

"That won't do. Surrendering too quickly doesn't fit my aesthetic either," the magician insisted.

"So what, we still have to fight?" Mo Bai said. "Do you instance monsters refuse to admit defeat unless you're beaten into submission?"

"You can think of it that way," the magician replied. "Or you can think that before cooperating, I need to see your strength.

Four players entered the Smiling Circus, including you. Aside from you, none of them lost their senses. I've locked the four of you in separate places and trapped you each in a small magic trick. Of course, you received the most special treatment.

Tonight, find your companions. Break them out of my magic. Regroup before dawn, and I'll cooperate with you.

"What do you think of that condition?"

"I agree, of course," Mo Bai said. "But what did you say? Aside from me, no one lost their senses? None of the other three?"

"That's right. I don't know why Disease Town gave you special treatment," the magician replied.

After a brief moment of thought, Mo Bai understood.

What set her apart from Gu Tiandong, Ding Xun, and Ye Pingjun was that she had destroyed Biological Research Institute No. 7. She carried the extract of an Ultra-Star Rank monster within her body. That's why Disease Town targeted her.

Following that line of reasoning, the other three who had lost a sense must be Liu Congyi, Sheng Yan, and Du Heng.

She not only had to regroup with her companions inside the Smiling Circus but also rush to Disease Town as soon as possible, to find the other three, who had lost their senses and were enduring the erosion of the disease.