"Where do you want to go? Do you need me to support you?"

The young girl helped Lin Ye move away from that wire, but their speed wasn't fast. The wire was still closing the distance.

"Thank you."

Lin Ye used his Special Ability on himself again. The young girl soon vanished. Before disappearing, she helped Lin Ye lean against the wall.

"See you soon."

After the girl vanished, the wire didn't disappear. Lin Ye could only crawl towards the emergency stairwell using the body parts he could still feel.

However, before Lin Ye could enter the emergency stairwell, the young girl walked out from inside it.

"Oh, we meet again."

"You're really persistent. Can't you let me have some quiet time alone?"

Lin Ye had actually considered whether to jump out of a window after using his Special Ability. But he didn't like the idea of choosing suicide when it wasn't a guaranteed death situation.

"Of course I can. I'll try my best to follow you quietly, so you won't even notice my presence."

The young girl walked behind Lin Ye, giving him a feeling that he might get stabbed in the back at any moment.

Fortunately, the emergency stairwell was right ahead. Using his remaining functional parts, Lin Ye rolled down the stairs.

He calculated which parts would absorb the impact during the roll. This way, he could leave this Building at a minimal cost.

After all, many parts of his body were already unusable. This was a perfect opportunity for some waste utilization.

Before long, Lin Ye rolled down to the ground floor. Using his momentum, he rolled out of the Building. There were no utility pole people outside.

"I've seen many people. If they had even one percent of your mobility, they probably wouldn't live in such pain."

The young girl standing behind Lin Ye couldn't help but sigh.

"Can't you just command those wire monsters to come and kill me?"

If the girl had that intention, Lin Ye would have been back in the prison transport vehicle long ago. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

"I won't harm you. After all, I am your mental illness."

The young girl slowly followed behind Lin Ye, not doing anything unnecessary.

"You probably can't, right? As part of the infectious disease, you caused the birth of those wire monsters, but you can't interfere with their actions. So you can only try to stop me from solving the problem here using this method?"

This was Lin Ye's conclusion based on the girl's behavior. There might be some deviation, but the general direction was probably correct.

"You're right. And if you die here, I'll disappear too. So I don't want you to die here. If you run away now, there might still be time."

The young girl bought a bottle of mineral water from a nearby vending machine. She placed the bottle opening at Lin Ye's mouth and gave him a drink.

"Please don't try to persuade me. I'm almost convinced by what you're saying."

Lin Ye licked his lips. He was indeed a bit thirsty.

"Even though you say that, you're actually not moved at all, are you?"

The young girl walked happily behind Lin Ye, like they were a couple on a date.

It would be even better if Lin Ye wasn't crawling on the ground.

Lin Ye gradually got used to crawling forward using the few remaining parts he could still feel. His movement speed gradually increased. He had long memorized the terrain of this area and knew exactly how to approach the Commercial District.

"Ah, oh no! Wire monsters have appeared!"

The young girl behind Lin Ye spoke in a very anxious tone.

Lin Ye used his Special Ability on the approaching utility pole person.

"...Huh? What's... happening to me?"

The utility pole person suddenly stopped, emitting crackling noises.

Relying on the system's translation, Lin Ye understood the meaning of those noises.

He ignored the utility pole person who had fallen into confusion and quickly crawled past it.

'I didn't expect I could even affect the brains of monsters like this.'

Previously, to avoid triggering unexpected situations, Lin Ye hadn't tried using his Special Ability on utility pole people. He never expected it would have this effect.

Relying on Brain Control, Lin Ye quickly wriggled like a caterpillar to the entrance of the Commercial District.

The Commercial District was piled with citizens' corpses. Each corpse had a wire inserted into it.

'Is this some kind of biological battery? Because spiritual energy is restricted, they're using these corpses to provide energy?'

Lin Ye quickly crawled near the giant metal construct. Since the area ahead was piled with wires, he could no longer crawl forward.

"Alright, you successfully crawled here. Now what are you going to do? Use that strange ability to affect that metal pillar?"

The young girl squatted beside Lin Ye, smoothing his hair, not minding the stains on him at all.

"I can only affect brains. But metal doesn't have a brain, so no."

Lin Ye wanted to do that too, but he couldn't use his Special Ability on the metal construct.

"However, besides that, there are other brains here that can be affected."

Lying on the pile of corpses, Lin Ye smiled. The surrounding corpses began to twitch. Near the entrance in the distance, some corpses had already gotten up from the ground.

"What's happening to me?"

"What is this place?"

"It hurts! Who are you people? What are you doing to me?"

"Why is there a wire inserted into me?"

"Help! Can someone save me?"

"My phone is dead. Can you call an ambulance for me?"

...

Chaotic voices sounded all around. Lin Ye didn't know what effect losing these 'batteries' would have on the metal construct. This was just an attempt.

"This is getting a bit troublesome."

The young girl squatted beside Lin Ye, murmuring to herself.

"You can feel troubled too?"

Lin Ye lay on a corpse's calf. He hadn't used his Special Ability on this corpse.

"No, I mean, these people will all be affected by me now. They might attack you."

As soon as the girl finished speaking, all the surrounding corpses turned their heads to look at Lin Ye, as if they had received some command.

"That's not really trouble. I wouldn't let the things I create attack me."

The corpses approaching Lin Ye suddenly clutched their heads and collapsed to the ground. Before long, their malformed brains crawled out from their eye sockets and ran outside.

For these corpses with strange ideas, Lin Ye just needed to keep using his Special Ability on them until their brains underwent Alienation to the point they could crawl out.

Fortunately, the consumption from using the Special Ability didn't need to be paid by Lin Ye, and Brain Control was a Special Ability that could be used repeatedly.

After those malformed brains separated from their bodies, they quickly lost vitality, turning into disgusting puddles of solid-liquid mixture. This was probably the price of pursuing freedom.

Lin Ye didn't know what the metal construct really was, nor the exact relationship between the metal construct and the young girl. But as long as he dealt with these 'batteries' of the metal construct, he should be able to stop the situation from worsening further.

"Huh? Why aren't you smiling anymore?"

Leaning against the corpses, Lin Ye smiled as he met the young girl's gaze.