The road below was already flooded with red liquid, and thick red tendrils grew out from underground, spraying red liquid all around.

Lin Ye looked up at the octopus phantom above him; he felt that the phantom seemed to have become a bit more solid.

The tendrils on the road grew taller and taller, the red liquid began to spread upward, and some Octopus-Headed People swam through the liquid. Numerous tendrils grew from their bodies, as if they were transforming into actual octopuses.

Lin Ye sat on the edge of the rooftop. He used to be a bit afraid of standing at heights, even in places where he couldn't fall.

However, after becoming a spiritual energy user, he quickly stopped fearing heights. Even now that he had turned back into an ordinary person, he could still sit on the edge of the rooftop, or even jump and move around at a height of over three hundred meters.

"When those people try to escape to the rooftop later, why don't you destroy the elevator and kill everyone on the top floor first?"

Little Guardian sat down next to Lin Ye, speaking in a flat tone.

"There's no need for that, and I don't like killing people who have nothing to do with me."

The reason Lin Ye had locked the fire exit was simply to prevent those people from casually coming up to bother him. If they couldn't even open a single door, then they could just die down below.

"They're just spirit fragments inside the Dream World, not humans."

Little Guardian looked down at the tentacles coiled around the building below; she couldn't understand this inefficient behavior.

"Our definitions of humans are different. You're right, but I won't always do the right thing—I only do what I want to do."

Nearby survivors were all gathering toward the City Center Tower, but they had already missed their chance to enter it.

Those survivors were drowned by the red liquid and turned into monsters covered in tendrils.

Lin Ye didn't get a crowd of survivors charging onto the rooftop. He had made a choice that wasn't exactly right, so he got a result that wasn't exactly good.

The fire exit door was smashed open, and a group of monsters covered in tendrils charged onto the rooftop. Unlike the Octopus-Headed People, they still had normal human heads.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang…

Lin Ye could only pull out his pistol and fire at the monsters. The pistol's power was average, but his marksmanship was terrifyingly accurate—every shot hit a tendril monster right in the eye, and one bullet was enough to take one down.

Little Guardian took the backpack and helped Lin Ye prepare magazines. Lin Ye only had four magazines on him, just enough to rotate and reload bullets.

However, Lin Ye had only found four boxes of bullets in total, with just twenty rounds per box. That meant even if he never missed a single shot, he could only take out eighty tendril monsters.

Just as Lin Ye was considering the remaining bullets, a young man sprang out from behind the tendril monsters. He held a submachine gun and began spraying bullets in Lin Ye's direction.

Little Guardian had already placed a small riot shield beside Lin Ye. Lin Ye grabbed the shield and used it to block the submachine gun bullets flying toward him.

Bang!

The young man only fired a few shots before his head was blown off by Lin Ye. And out of those shots he fired, only the middle two actually hit the riot shield.

The handheld riot shield Lin Ye had found wasn't bulletproof equipment, and it could only cover his chest.

Still, the young man's submachine gun was mediocre in power, and combined with his terrible marksmanship, he failed to injure Lin Ye.

Lin Ye continued shooting the monsters charging at him. These people had probably been influenced by the master of that abandoned area, which was why they attacked him.

'It seems the other side still has some kind of mental ability left… Isn't that going too far? Even I, the user of a Special Ability, don't have any special powers.'

Lin Ye quickly cleared out the monsters that had rushed onto the rooftop. There were only about thirty or so that came up, so he still had over forty bullets left—more than enough.

After the tendril monsters were all killed, the fire exit went silent, as if those monsters had just been an accident.

Lin Ye knew the other party was somewhere downstairs, but he didn't go down to look for them, nor did he approach the corpses.

He had already secured an undefeatable position. As long as he didn't make any mistakes, he could force the enemy into a corner.

The red liquid continued to rise, and the giant tendrils cheerfully sprayed pale red liquid, while a large number of Octopus-Headed People swam around in the liquid.

Lin Ye stood in the center of the rooftop, staring at the fire exit. If anyone came up, he would blow their head off with a single shot.

No normal person could hold out until now—the survivors had already turned into tendril monsters.

The other side seemed to be preparing to drag things out until the very last moment. The red liquid rose floor by floor, already past the hundredth floor. The entire city had been submerged by the red liquid, leaving only this section of the City Center Tower above the surface.

Jumping into the liquid was meaningless. The Octopus-Headed People were even more agile in the liquid than on land, and their tendrils could easily entangle small boats, tearing the humans inside to shreds.

"Still not coming up? I'll give you a chance for a fair fight."

The fully loaded pistol spun on Lin Ye's fingertip. If anyone so much as showed their head, he would blow it off.

Nothing is fairer than death.

Bang!

Just as Lin Ye was spinning his gun, a gunshot rang out from behind him.

Lin Ye didn't turn around. Instead, he kept his attention on every point in his field of vision.

Little Guardian was leaning against his back. She also held two pistols in her hands. If anyone tried to sneak up behind him, she would take them out.

By now, the red liquid had already risen into the fire exit, meaning the floors below had been completely submerged.

Lin Ye didn't rush to leave. He only began to slowly retreat when the liquid got close to his feet, keeping an eye on every possible hiding spot for enemies.

"The other side might be hiding in a mezzanine level of the building, using some materials to create a sealed space," Little Guardian speculated.

"That's pointless. Even if they hide in a submarine, those Octopus-Headed People will find them… Are they trying to see who can outlast the other?"

Lin Ye had a strange expression on his face. This reminded him of a game he used to play.

Once, he won the game without firing a single shot.

The red liquid kept closing in on the two of them. The rooftop was an empty, flat surface—there wasn't even a water tank.

Lin Ye had initially thought the other side wouldn't last long, so he hadn't made many preparations. But that didn't mean he had no preparations at all.

Little Guardian stepped onto a path made of scattered debris, ran to the edge of the rooftop, and pulled out a section of ladder from the outer wall—the rooftop's backup access ladder.

Lin Ye and Little Guardian climbed onto the ladder. The red liquid flooded the rooftop, the surface rippled, and some Octopus-Headed People approached them.

Just as those Octopus-Headed People leaped out of the liquid, ready to drag them under, the entire world seemed to hit a pause button. Even the Octopus-Headed People in the air stopped mid-lunge.

The tendrils drooped, and the octopus phantom above them finally woke up.

The Dream World began to collapse, and Lin Ye was plunged into darkness.