The "Survival on the Train" game has bugs, it's really laggy!

Xiao Huo's golden vertical pupils suddenly focused.

He glanced down at the panel, then looked up at Su Yuan's back.

His lips moved slightly.

"It's...recovered?"

Wang Hu also sensed the change.

His robotic arm, which had been wandering around aimlessly, snapped back to his right shoulder in a single moment.

It no longer flickers.

No more jumping.

He clenched his fist.

The command is issued, and the finger executes it.

The causal chain is reconnected.

"You're back?!"

Wang Hu growled, repeatedly clenching and unclenching his fists in disbelief.

But he noticed a detail.

Several dark gold barbs had appeared on the back of the robotic arm's hand at some unknown time.

Short and sharp, it emerged from the gaps in the metal shell, like some kind of parasite taking root on the metal surface.

Wang Hu was stunned for a moment.

I don't have time to think about it in detail.

The treasure chest in the guardian spirit's arms was restored to its original state—the pattern was back, the lock was the right style, and the color had changed from verdigris back to dark gold.

But it also has a few more features.

Several extremely fine runes appeared on the surface of the treasure chest, almost invisible to the naked eye, and could only be vaguely discerned when reflecting a dark golden light at a specific angle.

The treasure-guarding spirit froze, clutching the treasure chest, its chubby fingers tracing the runes.

Not hot. Not cold.

But there was an indescribable...sense of reassurance.

outside.

The lead dog stopped.

It "looked" at the Emperor's Path Devourer—with its eyeless "head" woven from threads of law.

The law of causality has been annihilated... it has failed?

It wasn't hacked.

It's not about being retaliated against.

It was denied at its very root.

This concept goes beyond the scope it was intended to be when it was written.

It will not hesitate.

It is a tool that has been written, with no option to hesitate.

Its body's laws began to re-weave, switching its attack mode.

The annihilation of causality is unacceptable.

Let's choose another one then.

Concept stripping.

Hundreds of high-dimensional hunting dogs simultaneously completed the mode switch.

The frequency of the laws governing them changed abruptly, shifting from "erasing cause and effect" to "stripping away concepts".

This time, their target is no longer the cause and effect of the existence of the Emperor's Path Devourer.

Rather, it's the concept of "Level 8 Starfield Predator" itself.

They want to strip away the concept of train class.

The classification concept of "Starfield Predator" is stripped away.

Strip away the defensive concept of "Obsidian Armor".

Strip away all the definitions that give this train its power, layer by layer.

Let it be reduced from level 8 back to level 7, from level 7 back to level 6, and so on, until it is reduced back to its original, nothing-is form.

Hundreds of concept-stripping waves were released simultaneously from all directions of the encirclement, overlapping and covering without leaving any blind spots.

The concentration of their superimposed laws was absurdly high—in the perception of the One Who Unifies All Things, it was not hundreds of independent attacks, but a conceptual fishing net covering the entire hunting ground.

The net is tightening.

Little Fire sensed danger once again.

This fluctuation is different from the previous one.

That was severing cause and effect—making you "non-existent".

This time it's about stripping away the concept—making you "not yourself".

More targeted. More ruthless.

"Master! They've changed tactics! Concept stripping! Their target is defining the train's core hierarchy!"

Xiao Huo's voice was sharp, and his fingertips slid rapidly across the panel.

"If the stripping is successful, we'll be reduced to our original state!"

Outside the train window, hundreds of conceptual stripping waves had already approached within 500 meters of the train's exterior.

The dark golden conceptual web began to tremble.

"I am the rule" can negate "others' rules".

But “concept stripping” is not about imposing rules.

It is revoking the definition.

The difference is that the former is "I say you don't exist," while the latter is "I remove 'your name' from the dictionary."

It has no name, no definition, no concept.

You are still you.

But you are no longer "what".

The tremors of the web of concepts are intensifying.

Su Yuan felt the pressure.

The net is leaking.

It's not that the network is broken; it's that the attacker's attack logic has bypassed the network's defenses.

On the train's exterior, the dark gold glaze of the grade 8 obsidian scales began to fade.

It's not fading.

The concept of "dark gold" is being stripped away.

Just then.

Su Yuan smiled.

It wasn't a bitter smile.

It wasn't a sneer.

It's the kind of restrained yet excited laugh that a hunter has when he sees his prey make a mistake.

"Concept stripping?"

He repeated those four words in a low voice, and the pure white halo around his right eye suddenly expanded.

Creation and evolution.

Core authority activated.

But this time he did not directly resist the concept stripping away.

He did something that no one expected.

He took the concept and peeled it away.

It's not about blocking it.

It means to catch it.

They proactively opened their defenses, letting those conceptual stripping waves in.

Xiao Huo's pupils contracted sharply.

"host--!"

"Shut up." Su Yuan's tone was not harsh, but it brooked no argument.

Concept stripping wave surges into train structure.

The dark gold glaze on the scales is fading rapidly.

The concept of "level 8" is being stretched.

The definition of "Starfield Predator" is being torn apart.

Su Yuan closed his eyes.

The One Who Unifies All Things operates at full speed deep within his consciousness, analyzing the law structure of every conceptual stripping wave that surges into his body with incredible precision.

The core of causal annihilation is "denial of existence".

The core of conceptual stripping is "revoking the definition".

Their first-level logic is different.

But what about the twelfth floor?

Su Yuan's consciousness sank into the deepest part of those law fluctuations.

First layer: Revoke the surface definition of the target.

Second layer: Defining the function to cancel the target.

Third layer: Defining the structure of the target.

……

Level 11: Revoke the "self-awareness" definition of the goal.

The twelfth floor—

Su Yuan has been found.

The core logic of the twelfth layer is exactly the same as that of the twelfth layer where causality is annihilated.

Both are "denying existence".

Same way.

Whether it's severing causality or stripping away concepts, the ultimate goal is to make the target "no longer be".

And the three words "no longer"—

It falls precisely on the opposite side of creation and evolution.

The core of creation and evolution is "from nothing to something".

"From not to be".

Su Yuan opened his eyes.

His dark gold left pupil and pure white right pupil shone brightly at the same time.

He uttered two words.

"Reversal".

The power of creation and evolution was poured into the train's underlying structure through his hands, and then flowed upstream along the path of those laws that were stripping away concepts.

The concept stripping wave should be unidirectional.

From attacker to target.

However, Su Yuan directly rewrote the underlying setting of "flow direction" through creation and evolution.

The direction of the law fluctuations has been altered.

The message changed from "pointing to the Emperor's Path - Devouring Wasteland" to "pointing to the launch source".

The concept has been stripped away; the situation has reversed.

The lead dog has no time to react.

Because the causal chain of "reaction" is no longer important—Su Yuan did not launch an attack on a physical level; he simply changed the direction of the stone thrown by the enemy, using the enemy's own force to hit the enemy's own face back.

The threads of law on the lead dog began to loosen.

It wasn't torn apart.

It is being "revoked".

The concept that it is "a high-dimensional hound" is being stripped away.

The concept that it "has offensive capabilities" is being stripped away.

The concept that it "exists in this very moment" is being stripped away.

The lead dog's body began to blur.

The outlines become blurred, the threads of rules become sparse, and all the definitions that make it up are like ink splashed on water, spreading, fading, and dissipating in circles.

It struggled.

Those threads of law frantically tried to reweave, to redefine their own existence.

However, the rewriting of the direction of law fluctuation by creation and evolution is at the fundamental level—it does not "cancel out" the concept stripping, but rather turns the concept stripping into "self-concept stripping".

Your power is attacking yourself.

The stronger you are, the faster you will die.

The lead dog's body became 70% ethereal within five seconds.

That last 30% lasted for three seconds.

Then it disappeared.

It wasn't an explosion, it wasn't shattering.

It's like turning off the projector.

The screen disappeared.

The sound disappeared.

Even the concept of stripping away the wave itself has disappeared.

Because the source of the emission no longer exists.

The emitted wave naturally ceased to exist.

The cleanest break in the causal chain.

On the Emperor's Path Devourer, the fading dark gold glaze suddenly returned.

The concept of "Level 8" is back.

The definition of "Starfield Predator" is back.

Brighter. More concentrated. Deeper than before.

Because the train began automatically absorbing the remaining fragments of the laws the moment the lead dog disappeared.

Xiao Huo paused for three seconds.

He watched as the defense index on the panel, which had been plummeting, rebounded to full strength in an instant and continued to rise, surpassing the previous highest value.

"..."

His lips moved silently twice.

The mouth movements contained one more word than last time.

"That's awesome."

But this is only one.

There are still hundreds of them inside the encirclement.

The outer pack of hounds did not retreat despite the death of the lead dog.

They have no fear.

The logic they were written into did not include the option of "fear".

The remaining hounds no longer acted alone. Hundreds of them exerted their strength simultaneously, and the conceptual stripping waves surged in from all directions, dozens of times more concentrated than before.

It's no longer a flood.

It was a tsunami.

Su Yuan looked out the window at the waves of laws pressing in from all directions, the smile on his lips undiminished.

On the contrary, it increased.

He raised his chin.

"Small fire."

"exist!"

"vine."

One word. Little Fire understood.

His hands completed a crisp and efficient sequence of operations on the panel.

The body of the Emperor's Path Devourer suddenly shuddered.

The obsidian scales covering the body of the Level 8 Starfield Predator stood up in unison, and from the gaps between the scales, countless thick vines wrapped with dark golden law patterns poured out.

Not just a few dozen.

Not just a few hundred.

Thousands upon thousands.

Each one is three times thicker than the previous version, with barbs formed by high-dimensional law patterns on the surface, and huge dark gold plague spore sacs blooming at the top.

These vines did not extend outwards to fight against those conceptual stripping waves.

They were rolled up.

Curled up.

Like a clenched fist, it coiled around the train into a dense, dark golden cocoon.

The tsunami of conceptual stripping crashed into a giant cocoon.

The surface of the cocoon trembled violently, and the dark golden glaze of law was peeled off layer by layer.

But the new glaze grew back in the same second.

Hunting Ground Effect: Increases the efficiency of devouring, parasitizing, and assimilating by three times.

Hunting Ground Effect: Reduces the self-repair speed of the Target Law Shield by 50%.

The hunting grounds that Su Yuan had set up before were not intended to restrict the enemy.

It's to feed oneself.

While enduring the impact of the conceptual stripping wave, each vine is frantically absorbing fragments of high-dimensional laws contained within the wave.

Creation and evolution rewrite the logic of "separation" into "gifting".

The energy of the laws carried in the concept stripping wave is intercepted, decomposed, absorbed, and transformed by the vines, and finally poured into the pitcher plant engine along the train's neural network.

The hounds' attack caused no harm.

They are being fed.

He is using his own laws and energy to feed an even larger monster.

"Tsk." Su Yuan made a slight clicking sound.

He could feel the influx of energy.

Although it wasn't as violent as when it devoured the Star Destroyer, it was more sustained and stable.

It's like turning on a tap; even if it's not a flood, the pool will eventually fill up if you don't turn it off.

Meanwhile, the hounds continue to tirelessly unleash waves of conceptual stripping.

Because their logic does not include the option to "stop the attack".

They were programmed for the sole purpose of attacking until the target is destroyed or their own energy is depleted.

The current situation is that hundreds of high-dimensional hounds are constantly feeding the Emperor's Path Devourer, and they are completely unaware of it.

Su Yuan enjoyed it for thirty seconds.

Then he felt that was enough.

"Open."

The giant cocoon of vines suddenly burst open.

Thousands upon thousands of dark golden vines, like the tentacles of a deep-sea monster, instantly spread across the entire hunting grounds, each tip precisely targeting a high-dimensional hound.

Then it got tangled up.

There is no elegance to speak of.

Wrap. Entangle. Twist. Pull.

The dark golden vines dragged the hounds away from their positions in a purely violent aesthetic, no matter how they struggled, how they released the fluctuations of law, or how they tried to cut the vines with conceptual peeling—they could not be cut.

Within the hunting grounds, the assimilation efficiency of the vines increased threefold.

Within the hunting grounds, the hound's Law Shield self-repair speed has been reduced by fifty percent.

This is a long time.

Absolute advantage.

The first hound was dragged by vines into the living area at the bottom of the train.

A sickening creaking sound of laws rubbing together rang out—not a mechanical sound, but a piercing resonance produced when two completely different systems of laws clashed in the same space.

The resonance lasted for less than two seconds.

And that was it.

The sound of friction from the law disappeared. The hound's whimper went from "Awooo" to "Awooo—" to a very short trailing note, and then stopped abruptly.

It felt like a radio had its power cord suddenly pulled out.

The second one.

The third one.

The tenth head.

The vines are growing faster and faster. Digestive efficiency in the living domain is increasing positively with the amount of food consumed—the more you eat, the faster you digest. The faster you digest, the more you eat.

Positive cycle.

Wang Hu stood by the train window, watching as hundreds of high-dimensional hunting dogs woven from laws were swept into the train's "mouth" in droves by dark golden vines, like krill being swallowed by whales.

His mouth was open.

It can't be closed anymore.

From the first time he followed Su Yuan until now, he has witnessed countless "impossible" things. But every time he felt that the ceiling of his understanding had been broken to its limit, Su Yuan always managed to break through another layer for him in an even more outrageous way.

The treasure-guarding spirit, clutching the restored treasure chest, huddled in a corner, not uttering a single word throughout.

Its expression had changed from fear to blankness, and then from blankness to a kind of detachment.

It's as if the soul has already left the body.

peripheral.

The number of hunting dogs is declining sharply.

From several hundred to two hundred.

One hundred heads.

Fifty heads.

Thirty heads.

The last ten heads.

They are still attacking.

The wave of conceptual stripping is still unfolding.

However, its intensity has weakened to the point that it can be ignored.

Because their own reserves of laws have been completely exhausted—half of them were drained by the vines of the Emperor's Path Devourer, and the other half were wasted in ineffective attacks.

Su Yuan stood by the car window, watching the last ten hunting dogs get entangled in the vines.

Their bodies rapidly etherealized under the strangulation of the vines, and the threads of law broke, dissolved, and were absorbed one by one.

Before being dragged into the living domain, the "head" of the last hound emitted a final tremor of law towards the direction of the Emperor's Path Devourer.

The translation only conveys one concept.

"impossible."

Then it was swallowed.

The void returned to silence.

Within the hunting grounds, only the Emperor's Path Devourer remained, humming alone.

The buzzing sound carried a distinct sense of satiation, like the contented snort of a giant beast that had just finished a large pot of food.

Inside the train carriage.

Xiao Huo looked down at the panel.

The energy data surged again after devouring all the high-dimensional hounds. Although it wasn't as exaggerated as when it ate the Star Destroyer, it was still enough to cause his newly compiled counting system to malfunction once more.

He took a deep breath and looked out the car window.

The dark gold hue at the edge of the hunting grounds is slowly fading.

It's quiet now.

It's really quiet now.

"Master... is it over?"

Su Yuan did not answer.

His gaze passed through the car window, looking into the distant void beyond the hunting grounds.

The perception of the One Who Reaches the Unity of All Things is still functioning.

far away.

Those fluctuations did not disappear.

Instead, it became even stronger.

Su Yuan's expression remained unchanged, but he lightly tapped the armrest with his right index finger.

Just then.

A very fine fold appeared in the air.

Like a calm lake, someone gently touched the surface with their fingertips.

Ripples spread from the center of the carriage.

Then the phantom of the chess player appeared.

It was still that same face as Su Yuan's.

They were still those pure black eyes, without irises or pupil boundaries.

But this time, there was no smile.

The gentle smile was gone.

The polite smile was gone.

His face was clean and expressionless.

It's that kind of blank space.

The last time I saw such a blank space was when Su Yuan created a white pawn out of thin air on the chessboard.

The chess player spoke.

The voice was still Su Yuan's voice, but the tone had changed.

No longer the gentle and refined top student.

It is a more subdued, highly restrained calm.

"It seems I underestimated your ability to digest 'elephants'."

His gaze swept across the battlefield outside the window, where not even a trace of the hunting dogs remained.

"Using 'order' to offset 'cause and effect'. Using 'creation' to reverse 'stripping'. Both hands were played beautifully."

Su Yuan leaned back in his chair, his hands behind his head, in a relaxed posture.

"You flatter me."

"That's not an overstatement."

The chess player stared directly into Su Yuan's pure black eyes.

"It's a statement of fact. Your evolutionary speed at the level of applying the laws has exceeded my model's predictions. According to the normal evolutionary curve, you would need to devour at least three more higher-dimensional beings of the same level to reach your current level."

He paused for a moment.

"But you did it in just one round."

"Your growth is not linear. It's exponential."

His tone contained no anger, no fear, and not even praise.

Pure analysis only.

Like a chess player reviewing a game, objectively evaluating the opponent's moves.

Su Yuan tilted his head.

"Are you done talking?"

"no."

The chess player raised his right hand.

His slender fingers made a few strokes in the air.

High-dimensional runes.

One by one, they slipped from his fingertips, drifting slowly through the air like snowflakes.

Each rune exuded an aura of extremely ancient laws—unlike any Su Yuan had ever seen before. It was not the law of causality, not the law of concepts, not creation or annihilation.

It's something at a deeper level.

The rune fell into the void and disappeared silently.

Even Su Yuan's All-Unifying One could not track down where they went after they disappeared.

The chess player withdrew his hand, lowered his head, and his pure black eyes curved slightly.

That wasn't a laugh.

It was something deeper than laughter.

Examine.

He no longer regarded Su Yuan as a pawn.

"Very good, my 'white' piece."

His voice wasn't loud. But every word traveled along some invisible channel, making it clear to everyone in the carriage.

"You won this round."