Chapter 346

Next... all that was left was to wait.

Wait until he returned from the simulation.

Then interrogate Ansu about the Deep Ground.

It was obvious Ansu knew quite a lot—unfortunately, in his current state, Rei Kanzaki had no way to extract that information.

The airport announcements echoed continuously overhead.

Rei Kanzaki picked up his phone and exchanged a few casual words with his parents.

But...

He couldn’t let himself be deceived by illusion.

Attachment was still just attachment.

The restroom he had shattered with a single punch the day before had already been sealed off for repairs.

It had been a long time since he’d scrolled through short videos...

He lay lazily across a row of seats, idly swiping through his phone.

Thinking carefully about it—

Why had he entered that fissure between the Real and the Void without hesitation?

Under normal circumstances, when faced with something so unknown and dangerous, he would have hesitated.

He would have analyzed it thoroughly.

Weighed the risks and benefits before making a decision.

And yet...

It had felt like something had influenced him.

The Deep Ground...

It was clearly dangerous.

Once you entered, there was no clear way out.

And while inside it, there was always a sense of dissonance—

A fracture between this mundane Earth and the vast world of the Real Plane.

That other world...

Felt like nothing more than a brief nap taken at the airport.

A dream.

And after waking—

Everything became nothing more than a vague illusion.

If not for the fact that his combat techniques still remained, and his spirituality was intact—

He might have truly believed it had all just been a hazy dream.

Even Ansu had fallen completely silent.

"...The time should be close."

Since he couldn’t sense the existence of his talent—

Rei Kanzaki had no way to manually end the Future Deduction.

This wasn’t like reincarnation after death.

Even after rebirth, he could still feel the influence of his talent.

But here, in the Deep Ground—

There was nothing.

He didn’t choose to kill himself to return.

Because there was something else he was worried about.

...

[Fallen Moon Island]

Rei Kanzaki opened his eyes.

Luluwi’s sea of consciousness...

Had become far too strange.

Why did her inner world contain a boundary between Real and Void?

And within that boundary—

A fissure.

And beyond that fissure...

Nothing.

He shook his head.

Whatever Luluwi was hiding—

He still didn’t fully understand it.

Rei Kanzaki turned his gaze inward—toward his own sea of consciousness.

Within the dark, murky waters—

Ansu stood, smiling at him.

"Ansu. What’s with that look?"

"You think I’ve been contaminated?"

Rei Kanzaki looked around at the darkened, turbid sea—

Yet felt no discomfort whatsoever.

"...Oh."

"Maybe I have."

He paused, staring into the hollow darkness.

His sea of consciousness hadn’t been like this before.

But after leaving Luluwi’s inner world—

After peering into that empty fissure between Real and Void—

When he came back...

It had become like this.

Rei Kanzaki already had a rough idea of the source of Luluwi’s contamination.

And now—

He himself had been tainted as well.

...Whatever.

This was still within Future Deduction.

Once 24 hours passed, everything would reset.

Might as well take this opportunity—

To experience what spiritual contamination actually felt like.

Rei Kanzaki fell into a brief daze.

Luluwi was still there, her eyes rolled back.

After being directly struck in her sea of consciousness by a Sixth-Tier transcendence-level mental spell, her mind was still completely shut down.

The sea of consciousness was an extremely fragile place.

Mental attacks within it could amplify their effects dozens—甚至 hundreds—of times over.

Rei Kanzaki began to observe the changes within his own thoughts...

It was true—

He felt far less emotion.

Things that once felt important...

Now seemed insignificant.

Do I really need to avoid contamination?

The thought surfaced naturally.

What meaning did morality and principles hold?

Weren’t they just limitations—

Obstacles preventing him from becoming stronger?

Only those who reached the highest levels of power had the right to act freely.

Otherwise—

No matter what you did, you lived in fear.

Friendship.

Gratitude.

Connection.

Companionship.

Family.

Kindness.

Justice...

Did any of it really matter?

Suddenly—

Rei Kanzaki understood how Mace had felt.

Why call it contamination?

Wasn’t this... purity?

A state stripped of all external burdens—

Pursuing only true strength.

Why had he ever called this contamination before?

A true powerhouse should be willing to abandon everything in pursuit of power.

Luluwi.

Izparut.

Kumironi.

They were all just tools to be used.

If necessary—

He could simply fake the appropriate emotions.

Did he really want to return to who he was before this "purity"?

Once Future Deduction ended—

He would revert to his former self.

And that weaker version of him would inevitably fear this state—

Call it contamination—

Become hesitant. Cowardly.

No.

He couldn’t allow that.

He needed to preserve this state.

Rei Kanzaki’s gaze grew cold. Unfathomable.

...Right.

Memory erasure.

He would make himself forget—

And leave behind instructions.

Whoosh—

He took out a sheet of Fire Script Paper and wrote down a message.

"Explore the depths of Luluwi’s sea of consciousness. Within the boundary between Real and Void, there is a fissure. There lies the true answer.""It can also completely cure Luluwi’s spiritual contamination.""But after curing it, I will forget."

After leaving the message—

He severed his own memory.

Everything after returning from Luluwi’s sea of consciousness—

Erased.

Only the memory of the Fire Script Paper remained.

Then, with a single thought—

He activated the reversal of Future Deduction.

[Future Deduction — End]

Buzz—

His consciousness flowed back through Luluwi’s body—

Re-entering her sea of consciousness.

At the same time—

A "memory" returned to him.

Rei Kanzaki looked into the distance.

Luluwi’s inner world...

And the grotesque presence hidden deep within it...

So—

The key to curing her contamination lay within that fissure between Real and Void?

...Perfect.

That meant Luluwi could be saved.

As for his simulated self—

Rei Kanzaki had no reason to doubt it.

Why would he deceive himself?

Everything he had seen in the simulation had been consistent.

If he couldn’t even trust himself—

Then all future insights gained through Future Deduction would become meaningless.

Alright.

Then the next steps were clear.

Knock Luluwi unconscious—

Then head toward the source of that voice.

After that—

Enter the fissure between Real and Void.

Inside Luluwi’s sea of consciousness, Rei Kanzaki couldn’t contact Ansu.

After all—

This wasn’t his sea of consciousness.

...

[Earth]

Future Deduction—

Had not ended.

Rei Kanzaki sat inside the airplane, in his assigned seat.

Through the window, he gazed out at the endless sea of clouds.

He was absolutely certain—

A full day had already passed.

And the worst-case scenario he had imagined—

Had come true.

His Future Deduction talent had not activated.

He was still... on Earth.