LotM: Surviving as a Marionette

Having broken free from the limitations of his body, his spirit body level had not been enhanced.

Don had already anticipated this.

Even in spirit body state, the system's voice could still ring out from the depths of his spirit body. The connection between the system and him was not merely manifested in his physical body—the binding on his spirit body was obviously even tighter.

"I must sever this connection to liberate the specialness of my spirit body."

The descent of the mad mysteries from the Wilderness of Knowledge had directly thrown him out of his body, leaving the system behind in his body along with it, thus allowing him to lift the system's suppressive effect on his own status.

So, if he wanted to raise his own status, the system's binding couldn't remain on him.

Don looked toward his own body.

The young man sitting there hung his head low, as if he had fallen asleep while sitting.

Hazy light enveloped his body, these faint glimmers transforming into countless indiscernible thin threads, binding the spirit body and physical body together, thus preventing the spirit body from truly encountering an accident and being unable to return to the body, leading to the arrival of true death.

[Host, I'm beginning now.]

Standing in the classroom as a spirit body, Don raised his hand. He could feel his body becoming lighter.

This was a very subtle feeling—no, not just the spirit body's abnormality.

It was as if invisible shackles that had originally been carried on his back were being peeled away layer by layer, unloading the burden.

The system's voice grew more and more distant, lighter and lighter. Don could feel the connection between the system and him rapidly weakening, followed by his body, which had already lost its spirit body, slowly raising its head.

Something began to take control of his body, and was rapidly severing the connections between spirit body and body, and between him and the system.

[Violation Warning: Unauthorized departure from host——]

[You have violated regulations! Please immediately rebind!]

System: [Can't understand, can't understand, smecta.]

[?]

The system was attempting to change binding targets.

It had experienced changing bindings once before. Although replicating it was somewhat taxing, it had ultimately succeeded.

And Don's status was also rapidly rising after breaking free from the system.

Just as he had thought, the system itself was a limiter, preventing his status from forcibly rising to a level that couldn't be suppressed, where he would 'see' terrifying things.

And this time, without the mad knowledge of the Wilderness of Knowledge to escort him and provide strength, he was truly landing as an Outer God.

The scenes around him were shadowy and indistinct, with rich colors constantly overlapping upon the real world.

This was the Spirit World.

As another world that completely overlapped with the real world, the 'Observer' status could simultaneously perceive the overlapping parts of the Spirit World and Physical World.

He discovered he could easily perceive the existence of the Spirit World. Even without meditation, without divination, he could still obtain the answers he needed from countless torrents of information.

But this was equally accompanied by terrible negative effects.

Those countless torrents of information were rapidly surging toward him. Compared to relying on normal pathways—that is, liberating his status through the power of the Knowledge Moor—this forced elevation of status lacked corresponding protective measures, namely the ability to refuse the information and images constantly being transmitted from all around.

His status was like a reader speed-reading through millions of words of books every second.

These words weren't terrifying in themselves, but merely 'observing'—this reverse-flow-like information stream was deadly enough!

"It's like mad knowledge." Don experienced this sensation.

But he also quickly tasted the difference. Maddening Knowledge and this information stream were both terrifyingly knowledgeable, but the former was contamination—it was the status carried by knowledge itself, with information volume being secondary, making people unable to digest it and ultimately achieving the purpose of 'exploding heads.' The latter was pure information volume that could make people's heads literally bloom in a physical sense.

The two might differ, but for Don, both were deadly enough.

Without divine support, he was passive, unable to resist.

He could see the scenes around him—color blocks overlapping, information becoming substantial, countless mad and twisted Spirit Body Threads appearing from all directions, layer upon layer. And because there was too much information, one stacked upon another, he was already beginning to lose sight of the specific appearance of things around him.

Seeing such scenes, he realized his spirit body was beginning to show signs of collapse. His spirituality was rapidly consuming, and without the connection to his body, if he didn't immediately return to his body, the only outcome awaiting him would be complete depletion of spirituality and death of his spirit body!

Without a body as an outer shell to isolate part of the information for support, the surrounding information was like a tide about to swallow him!

At this moment, something within Don's spirit body automatically emitted a faint glow.

That was the 'Mosaic Glasses for Stargazing.'

Detecting things that children shouldn't see, this system-exclusive item began to fulfill its proper function.

If the Knowledge Moor was designed to prevent him from seeing some terrifying Great Old Ones and dying suddenly, then now its role was to spontaneously isolate those massive information flows that could drive him mad to death.

The rich color blocks were covered with countless thick mosaics. Don, who was already a spirit body and shouldn't have had the action of gasping for breath, still instinctively gasped twice.

"Is it ready?"

"Ready, ready."

Don looked toward his own body. His body had now stood up, and there were subtle changes in the body, so naturally Don's feelings were no longer the same.

From the Observer's perspective, the system flowed like substantial liquid through the internal organs and blood vessels within the body, cleverly influencing the countless Beyonder characteristics swimming through the flesh and tissue, temporarily sealing them up—

It treated the body as a sealed artifact, using 'Artisan' techniques with his body as the foundation and the system itself as material, crafting a demigod-level Beyonder item!

Without the existence and interference of the spirit body, it was very taxing and dangerous. The slightest carelessness would cause this body to be influenced by demigod-level Beyonder characteristics, but it had obviously succeeded.

The binding changed from spirit body to physical body. This way, the system's influence on the host (body) would be reduced to the minimum, and it would be sufficient for the system to temporarily replace the host's body for a short time, briefly becoming Sequence 4 (body portion).

With the system as the dominant force, suppressing the Seer pathway potion within the body, what manifested externally was Sequence 4—a fusion mixed with spiritual power and divine power.

That belonged to the system's Sequence 4 Alchemist Beyonder characteristics!

Don walked to his own body. The system looked at him, then nodded.

Don, in the form of a wraith, returned to his own body.

The spirit body returned, the system relinquished control, and Don manipulated his own body in the manner of a wraith controlling the possessed.

Divinity—obtained.

Status—sufficient.

Come on, open the door.

The false · powerless · mad but not mad · demigod · Don commanded the system.

[Opening the 'Observer' module.]

All around, light and shadow overlapped, flickering bright and dim.

(End of Chapter)