Past and Future

Thorne had never met Victor in this simulation, so this was obviously not some ridiculous drama where he suddenly came to his senses right before harming a loved one. Rather, it was because in addition to the psychological suggestion Luna had implanted in Thorne, there was another layer of suggestion buried deep within Thorne's mind.

“Never harm an innocent person.” The one who had implanted this psychological suggestion was none other than Thorne himself. Freya had previously suspected that as the Branch President of the Mind Research Association and the strongest Mind Pathway extraordinary in the city, with no one to supervise him, he might use his power for evil. In reality, however, that was impossible.

Thorne might have had rather unusual kinks and a habit of seeking petty advantages, but he was not a bad person at heart. To prevent himself from doing evil, he had implanted this suggestion within himself a long time ago.

At this very moment, the effect of the suggestion triggered, allowing him to briefly regain his sanity. Thorne looked down at his hands, which had turned into sharp claws, and his massive, non-human body, instantly realizing that he had lost control.

Though he had no idea how he had lost control, it no longer mattered. He immediately clawed at his own chest. His sharp claws scraped against his scales, producing an ear-piercing screech as hard scales were violently ripped away, quickly turning his chest into a bloody mess.

However, this minor injury was not enough to kill him. Thorne could sense that the effect of his psychological suggestion was about to wear off, and his sanity was slowly receding. Looking around, he shouted, “Do you have any powerful attacks? Kill me!!!”

Although she didn't know exactly what was happening to Thorne, Freya made a decisive call. “Don't move! Steady your body and open your mouth! Let me try!”

All the light spheres lined up neatly in front of her to gather energy. Summoning his final shred of sanity, Thorne dug his claws deep into the earth and opened his mouth wide.

In an instant, five beams of light erupted simultaneously, precisely striking Thorne's throat and piercing through the back of his head. Just as Freya had guessed, while his scales were incredibly tough, his internal defenses were quite ordinary.

Once the beams of light dissipated, Thorne's massive body collapsed to the ground with a heavy thud. Fortunately, Victor had already scrambled to the side beforehand, avoiding being crushed.

Looking at the outcome, it seemed Thorne had suddenly “come to his senses” and Freya had executed him, while Victor had seemingly done nothing at all. Yet, to say it had absolutely nothing to do with Victor would be incorrect. This was the power of “luck.”

Regardless of the process, at the end of the day, Thorne was dead, wasn't he?

The battle on Freya's side was over, but when they turned to look at Luna, they found the situation was highly unfavorable. The three pink-haired teammates had each been impaled by ice spikes, while Joan had half her body encased in ice. Luna was stepping on her head with a smug, arrogant expression.

However, Freya also noticed that Luna's entire left arm was gone. It hadn't been severed; it had literally “vanished.” The wound was perfectly smooth, exposing bone and muscle, yet not a single drop of blood leaked out.

As the trio looked over, Luna turned his head toward them and smiled. “It seems I am still the superior one.”

Thus, the current situation had turned into Luna alone against Freya's trio. A dual-pathway Rank Five against a Rank Five, a Rank Four, and a Rank Three. Looking purely at the numbers, Luna clearly held the upper hand.

Luna looked at Victor and suddenly spoke. “Actually, I don't think there is any need for conflict between us. Are you really risking your life to fight me just because that little white-haired girl gave you a few flowers, and that person named Freya told you where your target is? Do you honestly think it's worth it?”

“How about this? I'll let you leave right now. You can head straight to the neighboring city to find your target, and we can go our separate ways. What do you say?”

Thinking about it carefully, that did seem to be the case. Victor was only helping because of a small favor and a few minor gifts. No matter how one looked at it, these things were certainly not worth risking his life over.

Furthermore, strictly speaking, Victor wasn't even that close with Freya and Euphemia. They had known each other for barely over a week.

Victor shrugged and said, “Heh, you make it sound like we're guaranteed to lose. But what if? What if we win?”

“I am a Gambler, after all. If I only bet on the hand that's highly likely to win, what's the fun in winning? Of course I have to bet on the one that's almost impossible to win! That's the only way winning feels satisfying!”

“I'll put it out there right now—I'm going all-in! I'm betting that our side wins!”

However, even as he said those words, Victor raised his right hand without a shred of hesitation, pointing the barrel of his gun straight at Freya and Euphemia.

Seeing this, Freya's lips twitched slightly. Seriously, dude? What you're saying is completely opposite to what your hand is doing!

Of course, she could tell that Victor had obviously been hypnotized. The only reason Luna knew about Victor's situation was because he had just read his mind.

At this sight, Luna himself couldn't help but burst into laughter. “Hahaha! This is hilarious! It's just too funny!”

After laughing for quite a while, he looked down at Joan beneath his foot. While keeping an eye on the battlefield to enjoy the show Victor was putting on, he activated his ability, Mind Reading.

Everyone assumed Luna's inner desire was to wear women's clothing. It was, but not entirely. There was no rule stating a person could only have one deep desire. Luna's other desire was to pry into the secrets buried deep within others' hearts. In other words, he was the type of person who loved reading other people's diaries and thoroughly enjoyed the process.

For Luna, the current situation had stabilized, and his victory was practically guaranteed. Eliminating an Earth Pathway and a Scholar Pathway extraordinary was no difficult task, so he decided to indulge in some instant gratification.

Luna smiled. “Oh? Who would have thought that the hot-tempered Captain Joan actually had someone she liked when she first joined the Shadow of the Empire? You even chased after them every day, calling them ‘Senior’ over and over?”

Furthermore, exposing other people's private secrets and embarrassing pasts in front of everyone was the most satisfying part, wasn't it? This was another reason Luna was in no rush to make his move. If Freya and Euphemia died right away, who would be left to serve as his audience?

Joan struggled beneath his foot, but it was in vain. She could only curse furiously, “You idiot, screw you! Get the hell out of my head!”

“If you have the balls, let me go! I'll chop you into pieces and feed you to the pigs!”

But Luna didn't care in the slightest. Instead, he continued to spill other amusing secrets. In fact, in the previous simulation, Luna had used his mind abilities on Euphemia because of this very hobby—he was simply bored and wanted to peek at the memories of those around him. Euphemia had always believed the mastermind had used some mind ability to influence her, but in truth, he hadn't.

There was no rule stating that using one's abilities on others had to serve some utilitarian purpose. In other words, Luna had exposed himself purely because of this hobby of his.

On the other side, Freya and Euphemia stared at the hypnotized Victor. The situation was indeed highly unfavorable. Freya didn't even know how to handle Victor alone—was she supposed to just blast him to death?

And even if they killed him, though Euphemia was technically a Rank Four Warrior on paper, she honestly possessed very little combat capability. If they kept fighting, it would come down to a duel between Life Freya and Luna. When the team's support was forced to act as the main damage dealer against the enemy, their chances of winning were incredibly slim.

Therefore, Freya was already considering whether she should directly terminate the simulation and try again later. The strength of this mastermind was far greater than she had anticipated.

At this moment, Victor was still deeply trapped in his hypnosis. He muttered, “Come on... I'm loading all of my luck into the chamber.”

Immediately after, he aimed in the direction of Freya and Euphemia and pulled the trigger without hesitation.

Then, an absurd scene unfolded. The moment Victor fired, the gun in his hand—which was an extraordinary item—exploded on the spot. Subsequently, amid the explosion, a bullet shot directly toward Luna.

One had to keep in mind that Luna's position was at least a ninety-degree angle away from where Victor had been aiming. No one knew how the bullet had flown in that direction. This... was likely Victor's so-called “all of my luck loaded into the chamber.”

Victor was hypnotized, but his luck was not. As long as he internally regarded Freya and the others as allies and Luna as the enemy, no matter who he aimed at, his luck would ultimately steer the bullet toward Luna.

This strike was far too sudden. Luna, who had been thoroughly enjoying Joan's private secrets, failed to react in time. Only at the very last second did he manage to raise his remaining right arm, activating the effect of the bracelet on his wrist—【Distort and Deflect】!

However, right before the bullet could strike Luna, it prematurely detonated in midair. Raging flames surged forward. Though the power of Law warded off the fire itself, it could not block the intense heat. In the blink of an eye, multiple burns appeared on Luna's body, and dense blisters erupted across his skin.

Severely burned, Luna staggered backward, which naturally freed Joan from beneath his foot. By a stroke of luck, the ice that had previously encased half of Joan's body now served as a protective shield against the flames, sparing her from major injury.

Moreover, because of the sudden attack, the mind-control ability was disrupted, and Victor instantly snapped out of his hypnosis. Seeing his right hand, which had been blown to pieces along with his gun, he couldn't help but gasp. “Holy crap!”

Witnessing this, Freya couldn't help but silently marvel in her heart. The Gambler Pathway is just too underhanded.

He clearly had only one extraordinary ability—good luck—yet this tiny bit of good luck had practically allowed them to pull off a miracle turnaround from a desperate situation.

Joan quickly scrambled to her feet. Gritting her teeth, she spat, “You're dead, motherfucker!”

Without a moment's hesitation, she lunged forward to press the advantage. The Law bracelet on Luna's wrist had an internal cooldown. Joan was highly confident that a single slash right now would be enough to kill him.

But right at that moment, an incredibly powerful Mind Piercing struck. Joan, Freya, and Victor all froze. Immediately following this, sharp ice spikes erupted from the ground, prioritizing Joan. Before she could react, she was impaled clean through.

The sound of footsteps echoed from the side, followed by a voice identical to Luna's. “I could hear all the crackling and popping from a mile away. I was wondering what was going on.”

Without a doubt, it was another Luna—or rather, the Luna who existed in the past.

As the flames dissipated, Freya, Euphy, and Victor slowly recovered from the Mind Piercing. Staring at the two Lunas before them, Victor couldn't help but look utterly despondent. “Are you kidding me, man? Seriously?”

Fighting one Luna was already this exhausting, and they had barely managed to leave him near-death after putting in so much effort. Now, another one had appeared in peak condition. How were they supposed to play this?

However, after the two Lunas exchanged looks, both of them revealed expressions of confusion. The “real Luna,” covered in blisters, froze for a moment before instantly realizing something. “Damn it! This is the power of the 【Future】!? I'm not in the normal timeline!?”

“Who is it!?”

At Rank Five, a Mind Pathway Memory Thief would obtain an ability called 'Dive into the Past'. If normal time were a straight line, the essence of this ability was to create a temporary, false 【past timeline】 “beneath” the normal timeline.

Anything the Memory Thief did in this false timeline would have absolutely no impact on reality. Conversely, the Memory Thief could do anything here, such as investigating the truth behind past events, practicing abilities to digest potions, or digging up dirt on others.

Because this timeline was created by the Memory Thief, the Memory Thief himself did not exist here. Luna dragging Freya and the others into the past was an upgraded version of this 'Dive into the Past' ability, born from the fusion of the Mind Reader and Memory Thief pathways.

The essence of the ability had not changed, so theoretically, there should not be a second Luna here. Yet, a second Luna had indeed appeared, which meant that this timeline had not been created by Luna!

Working on a principle completely opposite to the Memory Thief's 'Dive into the Past', Freya's future simulation temporarily created a false timeline “above” the normal timeline.

Thus, when Luna first used his ability, no new timeline was actually created. He had merely adjusted the time of the timeline Freya had already created forward.

Having realized this, if Luna could locate the 【normal timeline】 and use it as a reference to activate 'Dive into the Past', he could theoretically briefly appear in the 'normal timeline'. In other words, he could deliver this piece of intelligence to the real him in reality!

...