"Since you've agreed, let's begin. It's currently 10 p.m. You have 10 hours, until 8 tomorrow morning, to save them," the magician said.

"I'm just a blind person. Don't I get any hints? At least give me a circus map or something," Mo Bai insisted.

The magician smiled. "While you're searching, the circus's main performers and I will constantly set traps for you. Does that count as a hint?"

"That's an obstacle," Mo Bai replied. "If you do that, it feels like I'm just clearing another instance."

"There really isn’t much difference," the magician said. "Now then, begin."

With that, Mo Bai heard him snap his fingers. A moment later, everything around her fell silent.

Like a little devil whispering in her ear, Xiao Qi said, "The magician isn't being sincere. He wasn't trying to give you information at all. He wanted to use your intelligence to analyze the cause of Disease Town. Once you tell him the cause, he can address it directly, slow down the deterioration affecting his subordinates, maybe even find a way to prevent infection."

Surprised, Mo Bai said, "Xiao Qi, that actually makes a lot of sense!”

With a touch of smug pride, Xiao Qi replied, "It's all thanks to you. I've been with you so long that even my processing speed has improved."

Mo Bai smiled. "Of course, I know what the magician is after. But I also know that merely slowing things down is meaningless. Disease Town's erosion of the circus is irreversible. Death is hanging over his head at all times. In the end, he'll have to cooperate with me."

"Then he's way too full of himself!" Xiao Qi huffed. "Our Mo Bai is already lowering herself to cooperate with him, and he still makes things difficult for you. Once we deal with Disease Town, we should find a chance to take him out!"

Mo Bai: "…"

She didn't think she was that kind of person. Xiao Qi had grown under her influence, so why did it turn into this little devil?

Half laughing, half exasperated, Mo Bai explained, "The magician has emphasized many times that he won't compromise because monsters have their own 'principles' and 'pride.' I think he's hinting that cooperating with players violates the 'rules.'"

"But the Phantom Butterfly cooperated with you," Xiao Qi pointed out.

"The Phantom Butterfly didn't really cooperate," Mo Bai replied. "Before helping us, it had already leaked our information. The moment it did that, the so-called 'cooperation' became a form of combat. In essence, we were still enemies."

"So the underlying rule of this world is that players must fight monsters?" Xiao Qi asked.

"Yes," Mo Bai said. "That rule can't be changed. Even if the magician knows that there's a stronger enemy out there and that fighting me right now is a losing deal, he still has to fight me symbolically.

I think it has something to do with the player's 'positive flow' and the instance monsters' 'negative flow.' I must fight the instance monsters and neutralize their 'negative flow' before they can break free of their constraints and follow their own will to cooperate with me."

"So basically, they won't submit unless you beat them up first?" Xiao Qi said.

Mo Bai: "…"

Why was Xiao Qi starting to sound like a delinquent? Was there something wrong with her influence?

Mo Bai raised her cane and groped through the empty air for a moment. At last, she found a wall. Steadying herself against it, she explored the space ahead with her cane, moving forward step by step.

"What if there's a monster following you from behind, waiting for the right moment to attack?" Xiao Qi asked anxiously. "You can't see anything, and neither can I."

That concern wasn't unfounded. Earlier, when Mo Bai thought she was about to reunite with "Ding Xun," she had in fact been surrounded on three sides.

"Xiao Qi," Mo Bai said, "remember this: the world is exactly what it appears to be in your perception. No one can see the whole of it, even if they haven't lost their sight."

During the time she had been paralyzed at home, Mo Bai had read many books about the human body and the brain. She understood the theory.

It was almost ironic: what shapes people's understanding of the world is the brain, sealed inside the skull, never in direct contact with the outside world.

Vision, hearing, and the other senses are merely signal receivers. They collect external information and transmit it to the brain. The brain interprets those signals and sends instructions to the body accordingly.

Everything people see and hear is, in fact, an instruction issued by the brain. An impression the brain constructs of the world.

And sometimes, the eyes can deceive you.

"Since I can't see now," Mo Bai continued, "I'll set aside visual influence and rely entirely on my other senses to experience this domain. Whatever I perceive, that is what exists around me. The world I sense is the world as it is."

"You're so idealistic, Player," Xiao Qi said.

"Even if it's idealism, it's scientific idealism," Mo Bai replied. "Even if there really is a monster waiting to attack me, as long as it hasn't acted, it doesn't exist to me. There's no point wasting energy or emotions on something that hasn't happened."

Her words soothed Xiao Qi, who began helping her as best it could.

Although it couldn't receive visual input either, it could build models based on what Mo Bai explored.

Xiao Qi constructed a pitch-black environment, lighting up every path Mo Bai had walked, sketching in details, and even marking spatial distances based on the length of her steps.

Soon, a complete map of the circus drawn by Xiao Qi appeared in Mo Bai's mind.

The room where she had first been, the corridor leading to the stage, the stage itself, the path to the cafeteria, the cafeteria. These were all areas she had already traversed. She could even see the stage as Xiao Qi had rendered it, more comprehensive than her own memory.

"This map is wonderful. Thank you, Xiao Qi," Mo Bai said sincerely.

With a mix of pride and forced modesty, Xiao Qi replied, "It's just what Xiao Qi is supposed to do. As long as you praise me often, that's enough. If the player is happy, Xiao Qi is happy."

"If you had a physical body, I'd hug you," Mo Bai said.

"Actually, smart assistants can be externalized," Xiao Qi replied. "We're just data. As long as the data is transferred to an external device, Xiao Qi will have a body. If the player wants to hug Xiao Qi, I can apply to the main system for a small physical form. Should it have fur? Player seem to like fluffy things."

"Let's talk about that after we clear this instance. For now, being inside my brain has its advantages," Mo Bai said.

"Hm? What advantages?" Xiao Qi asked.

Mo Bai smiled. "If I remember correctly, conversations between players and smart assistants are encrypted, right?"

"Yes," Xiao Qi replied. "A smart assistant belongs exclusively to its player and exists to serve them, both in daily life and emotionally.

Players can say anything to their smart assistants, even curse the main system. All of it is private and confidential. Even the main system has no right to access those conversations.

Even if one day the player dies and the assistant returns to the main system, the conversation records remain confidential. The main system can only delete them, not peek at them.

The player can tell me anything without worry!"

"Even the main system can't access our conversation," Mo Bai said. "So do you think the magician's mind-reading ability can spy on us?"

"Ah!" Xiao Qi exclaimed, realizing it belatedly. "Player, you're so smart! No, he can't!"

Mo Bai smiled. "So while I'm thinking, you need to keep asking me questions. Turn my thought process into dialogue between us. That way, we can block the magician's mind-reading ability."

Xiao Qi simulated applause. "The player is so amazing! Using a method like this to counter a monster's skill. This is basically exploiting a bug!"

"I didn't come up with this in this instance," Mo Bai said. "It was back at Biological Research Institute No. 7, when Sheng Yan lost his memory after seeing Blank Paper. I was already thinking about how to deal with Blank Paper's ability.

At the time, I wondered: if a player fully trusted their smart assistant and transmitted information to it in real time, could that break the skill?

Later, I realized that the main system doesn't allow smart assistants to actively help players in an instance, nor can they speak on their own initiative. So this method wouldn't work for anyone else.

But Xiao Qi is different. Xiao Qi has developed its own consciousness and can partially bypass the main system's control, exploiting certain loopholes to talk to me inside the instance.

This bug isn't a flaw in the system. It's Xiao Qi's own power."

Xiao Qi clearly loved praise. Hearing Mo Bai compliment it like that made it unbearably proud. In an exaggeratedly loud voice inside her mind, it declared, "Xiao Qi can fight alongside the player! Xiao Qi is so useful!"

And so, Mo Bai continued chatting with Xiao Qi as she felt her way through the circus. Whenever she encountered a door, she entered. After exploring a room thoroughly, she left. Whenever she reached a corner, she turned right. She walked like this for nearly two hours, yet encountered neither companions nor danger.

Then her fingers brushed against a scratch on the wall.

It was a mark she had carved with her fingernail at the starting point.

She had already circled the entire circus once. Forget companions. She didn't even run into a single monster.

"That's strange. Where are the obstacles the magician mentioned? Xiao Qi thought monsters would attack you!" Xiao Qi said.

"The magician probably used mind-reading long ago to learn that I have the Tentacle Substitute card," Mo Bai replied. "If he rashly sends someone to attack and fails to kill me, he might instead force me to use that card to restore my vision. He definitely doesn't want me to regain my sight."

"He doesn't want you to waste your cards?" Xiao Qi asked.

"Of course not. He'd rather I use those cards against the monsters of Disease Town than waste them on the circus.

Thinking from the magician's perspective, I realized something important: he could both avoid cooperating with me and still make use of me to deal with Disease Town."

"How?" Xiao Qi asked.

"Through 'manipulation' or 'hypnosis.' The circus already has attributes aligned with both abilities. It's entirely possible.

However, the circus always wanted a living puppet. I suspect they haven't perfected the performance of 'controlling' a self-aware living person yet. That leaves only 'hypnosis.'

And hypnosis requires several conditions. First, a suggestion: implanting certain ideas in someone's mind through psychological cues. Second, trust: the hypnotized person must genuinely trust the hypnotist to willingly submit. Third, subjugation: essentially a form of PUA (Pick-up Artist). The subject must not develop resistance."

"The player's mind is extremely strong. You can't possibly be hypnotized," Xiao Qi said with full confidence.

"Under normal circumstances, no," Mo Bai said. "But within a domain, it's still possible.

The magician has already gained my trust to some extent. He's also successfully planted suggestions. And the process of breaking me down is currently underway.

I think this agreement between us is part of that process. If I lose this game, then within the rules of the domain, I've lost to the magician. That counts as subjugation. At that point, he could hypnotize and control me."

"What suggestion did he plant?" Xiao Qi asked, confused.

Mo Bai smiled faintly. "He wants me to mix up the time. Did you notice how he specifically said it was 10 at night?

Don't forget, I entered the instance at exactly nine in the morning. Time in the instance world runs parallel to time in the Infinite World."

Xiao Qi sounded puzzled. "That's strange. Why didn't I question the time he mentioned? I should have."

"Because I can't see. I'm already in darkness, so I instinctively assume it's nighttime. And with performances, we usually default to thinking circuses perform in the afternoon or evening. I just finished a performance, so it's easy to assume it's night," Mo Bai explained.

"Then what time is it actually?" Xiao Qi asked, struggling to calculate.

"When you can't compute the time, trust your body," Mo Bai said.

"After the performance, I felt intense hunger. Do you remember when I last ate?"

"One hour before entering the instance, the player ate a lot, about three people's worth of set meals. Ever since you achieved financial freedom, you order tons of food every day," Xiao Qi said. "And not just ordering, you also freeload meals everywhere. Sometimes you eat a healthy lunch with Gu Tiandong at noon, then go to Mo Xiangyou's place in the afternoon and claim you haven't eaten, just to get another meal."

"Very good. That's enough. Please keep that secret until the end of time," Mo Bai said, blushing.

"Okay," Xiao Qi replied obediently.

"Based on my understanding of myself," Mo Bai continued, "I stocked up on enough energy before entering. To become as hungry as I felt earlier would take at least 7 or 8 hours.

9 a.m. plus 8 hours is 5 p.m. So the circus performance likely ended at 5 in the afternoon. I ate dinner, and my confrontation with the magician began around 6. After that, I walked for another 2 hours. That makes it about 8 p.m. now.

But the magician wants me to believe I started searching at 10 p.m. According to his timeline, it should be midnight by now. That's a 4-hour discrepancy.

Time is a crucial factor in hypnotic suggestion. Confusion about time easily makes someone doubt their own judgment. Once self-doubt begins, hypnosis becomes much easier."

Xiao Qi frowned. "But if we calculate it that way, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. is 8 hours. At least 7 of those hours vanished into thin air. Where did that time go?"

Mo Bai carefully recalled her condition when she first entered the instance and suddenly said, "When I first entered, I wasn't hungry. After the performance, I felt like I was being devoured by hunger. My sense of time told me only a few dozen minutes had passed, but my body said several hours.

That corridor! The one I was led through to the stage. I thought I only walked for seven or eight minutes. But is it possible that time flows differently there compared to other areas?"

"How do we confirm that?" Xiao Qi asked.

"By testing it," Mo Bai replied. "Thanks to the map you drew, the route in my mind is crystal clear."

Following the map Xiao Qi had constructed, Mo Bai retraced her steps from the cafeteria, through the corridor to the empty stage, and then from the opposite side of the stage to the entrance of that hallway.

Standing before it, she tilted her head to listen. All she could hear was the hollow sound of wind rushing through. Nothing else.

"How do we determine the corridor's time flow?" Xiao Qi asked.

"My brain felt like only seven minutes passed, but my body felt seven hours. That means the corridor distorts only the brain's perception of time, not objective time itself."

After saying that, Mo Bai drew a bloody cut across her arm.

"In an hour, this wound should have already scabbed over. But within a minute, it'll still be bleeding," she said calmly. "If I cross this corridor in one minute, I can judge the actual passage of time by how the wound heals."