Pain Immunity: Worried the Villains Aren’t Twisted Enough

Chapter 717: Sequence Item No. 0, The Seven Deadly Sins

Huh?

Xie Antong instantly quieted down, her trembling ceased, and she quickly lifted her head, climbing up from the knee she had been resting on and stepping back warily.

In front of her, the guy who had seemed dead a moment ago had reopened his eyes and was smiling at her.

The hideous wounds on his body, including the Godslayer Spike that had pierced his head, were still lodged there. It was hard to believe the figure before her was even human.

Moreover, that dark-green Sloth mask had not reverted, it was still fused to his face, in the so-called "Overload" state.

Overload...

Xie Antong snapped out of her sorrow, hurriedly wiped away all her tears, and asked cautiously,

"Who are you?"

Lu Ce: ?

He was momentarily stunned, but then reacted, lifting a hand to lightly touch the Godslayer Spike lodged in his skull. He, too, found it hard to believe.There was no pain, yet he was still alive...

"Did I just... turn into something else?"

"Is it... Agony?"

Lu Ce frowned. He felt his memories and consciousness had shattered into fragments, unsure if the spike had churned them inside his head.

He had a hazy impression of what had happened, but nothing certain, like waking from a dream.

Agony... choosing me—was there really a purpose behind it?

Xie Antong did not lower her guard. She still couldn't be certain whether the being before her was the Agony deity or the Lu Ce she knew.

Lu Ce touched his face, puzzled why he remained in an Overload state.

Yet he felt no particular sense of wearing a mask; he felt much the same as usual.

"Nonsense! If I backed out now, could you even survive? You really want to be a vegetable?"

Lu Ce: ?!

Who was speaking?

Wait, did I just say that myself?

He looked up and saw Xie Antong staring at him with terror, clearly not understanding why he had suddenly blurted an abrupt, out-of-nowhere sentence.

That wasn't a voice in his head, but more like a stray thought.

Had he split his mind?

Xie Antong shuffled on the ground, supporting herself with her hands, but suddenly felt a burning pain at her side.

Looking down, the space beneath their feet was collapsing bit by bit toward them. In this ink-black universe, only the small patch of ground under Lu Ce and Xie Antong remained.

"If you are Lu Ce, I have a few questions."

"When is my birthday?"

Lu Ce: ?

Tsk! He realized he'd never paid attention to that.

"I... seem to have forgotten," he said, sounding unconfident.

"When is your birthday?"

"I think I never knew that."

"When did you last confess to me?"

"When did I ever confess to you?"

They both fell silent; the atmosphere had become unbearably awkward. Lu Ce rubbed the spike in his head.

After a moment of awkwardness, Xie Antong's expression softened and the corner of her mouth lifted slightly.

That was right.

With answers like that, it had to be Lu Ce.

"Being alive is enough. The rest is just the rest."

Xie Antong said finally, and the two of them vanished from that spot, returning to the game's space.

If they didn't leave now, they really would perish with that patch of space.

......

The familiar warmth wrapped around Lu Ce. The comforting, relaxing sensation made him involuntarily exhale in relief.

Through the brief exchange with Xie Antong, he found the anchor of his life in his mind—he realized he was himself, he was Lu Ce.

[Game Over. Congratulations to player "Sin" for a Perfect Clearance. The body is now undergoing full restoration.]

Hearing that voice at his ear, Lu Ce opened his eyes and looked at the void he found himself in.

Thinking the voice might have been the Arbitrator, he felt an odd urge to laugh.

Floating beside him were four long, dark-golden spikes—the Godslayer Spikes from this time, pulled out from his body.

Each of the four still bore a trace of blood.

Seeing them made the skin on Lu Ce's head itch. He raised a hand to test it, and felt a hole at his brow!

It seemed as if bone and flesh were surging toward the center; Lu Ce couldn't dwell on the sight. That sort of thing happening to him was hard to accept.

His head itched, as if a brain were about to grow.

Scratching his head, Lu Ce suddenly slammed a few fists into his own skull and said,

"Hey, hey, you there? Agony?"

"Have you been living inside my head all along?"

He asked himself like a madman, but no voice came back.

Not entirely silent, though—the game's reward settlement arrived.

For some reason this settlement came a little late, as if the game didn't want to hand it over right away.

[This game's participant count was...]

Glancing past all the things he never cared about, Lu Ce's eyes quickly moved down. He only wanted to know his rewards.

Basic points, potions, and the Dimensional Backpack were present, of course, but notably there was no Exit Coin this time—what did that mean?

Besides that, the official rewards mainly included four items.

[...Powerful Divine Might Baptism*1; Heart-Piercing Thunder evolution—officially entering artifact tier; Chosen of Agony evolution (see details); Sequence item: The Seven Deadly Sins Soul upgrade!]

[The Seven Deadly Sins Soul → Sequence 0 - The Seven Deadly Sins!]

The original description for the Seven Deadly Sins Soul was wiped away, leaving only the title "The Seven Deadly Sins," very concise.

But following the rule that the fewer the words, the bigger the matter, this was probably its final form.

Moreover, even the sequence number and sequence level had vanished!

Sequence Item No. 0? What was that.