“Ye…Yes…”
A mechanically imitated girl’s voice echoed.
Lin Ran jerked his head down.
Only then did he realize the Doll Legion had turned her face slightly to the side, her eyelashes trembling.
Was she afraid to meet his gaze?
After speaking, she covered her face with her hand—though still expressionless.
But this was exactly like a shy girl being exposed!
And these words… seemed to be answering the thing he had just thought in his mind?
What was he thinking just now…?
…
What the hell did you answer!
Lin Ran truly never expected anyone would answer the dirty thoughts in his mind with a straight face.
Wait, could this be Mind Reading?
No wonder she could mimic Lim so well—it must be because she directly read Lim’s thoughts and emotions.
If so, does that mean the high favorability she inherited is still there?
Then he should hurry and solve the current problem while the favorability is still active!
“Lim and the others are gone, which means this isn’t the real world! How do I get back? Help me out!”
Lin Ran spoke, carefully getting off the Doll Legion.
He reached out to support her, propping her up against the bedhead.
Clearly, she still hadn’t recovered from the shock just now.
The silver-haired girl was silent for a moment, as if processing his request.
Then she stared quietly at Lin Ran, her gaze lingering for several minutes before she finally spoke.
“To be precise, this is a dream. The way to leave…”
“It’s simple. Just kill me.”
“The dream was established through our control over the dolls. The only standard for clearing it is to kill the Doll Legion hidden beside you—which is me.”
Her tone held not a shred of emotion.
As if it was a normal thing.
“You… What did you say…?”
Lin Ran swallowed hard.
There was no way he could do it.
Not to mention favorability, an angelic face, or any of those sentimental excuses like ‘I can’t hurt a woman.’
Just because the system designated her as a targetable character, he couldn’t bring himself to do it!
Emotionally, it was weakness.
Logically, it was for the system reward.
Either way, he had his reasons.
She didn’t repeat herself, but answered with her actions.
She picked up the fruit knife and handed it to Lin Ran.
The handle faced him, the blade pointed at herself.
“Currently, 4,762 humans have won against our Doll Legion’s offensive.”
“Please proceed quickly. Since you’ve already noticed my existence, your victory is guaranteed. As long as you kill me, this wave ends.”
“This is a friendly reminder: in the apocalypse, time is life.”
An extremely efficient, rational response.
But Lin Ran simply couldn’t stay rational.
A wave of sharp pain surged through his head, and countless images flickered before his eyes—
The same dormitory.
The same girl begging for death.
The same knife, handed over and over.
[The first time, he tried to spread the message to all other students, uniting everyone to find a way out, but in the end, they failed and the Doll Legion overwhelmed the Academy.]
[The third time, he tried to lure the dolls into the air wall to destroy them, but discovered the dolls were immune, and was crushed by the air wall himself.]
[The fifth time, he tried to use portals to guerrilla between dormitories, but was stomped by a Doll Legion grown larger than the dormitory itself.]
Every time, the ending was the same.
No matter how he struggled to save the girl, he failed and was swallowed by the evolved dolls.
He finally understood why he had failed this challenge six times.
Clearly, until now, everything—delaying the dolls’ evolution, discovering Lim was a fake—should have been easy to deduce.
He trusted his intelligence, believed he could succeed every time.
Yet at this one step, at killing the Doll Legion, he had failed five times.
“Don’t worry about me. Our fate was designed this way.”
“You’re a kind person. Among the successful ones, most never tried to save us. The rest at most tried 2~3 times.”
“You are the only human who tried to save us six times.”
“So, I hope you live a little longer.”
She pinched her cheeks with both hands, clumsily squeezing out a smile.
“This is a smile I learned from Miss Lim’s consciousness. I hope, even after I die, it leaves you with a good impression.”
Hmm…
At this point, the excuse of system rewards preventing him from acting sounded hollow.
Wait… Was it really just because he inherited favorability from Lim?
Looking at it…
Had he unknowingly… already completed her route?
“After all…”
“Who told you to always pin me down and do such intense things every time…”
Halfway through, the Doll Legion grew shy again, unable to continue, turning her head away.
“Hey! That was just a test! You’re doing it on purpose! Do dolls even have a function for teasing humans!!”
“And if you were going to say something embarrassing, you shouldn’t have started!”
“Also! Mind Reading is forbidden for this kind of use from now on!!”
After venting his frustrations, Lin Ran finally felt some relief.
The pressure from the previous deaths also faded.
Maybe she did it on purpose.
She let him calm down, forget the pain, and make a cooler-headed choice.
Indeed, she succeeded.
Lin Ran grew calm.
He picked up the fruit knife.
She nodded in satisfaction, extending her arms to welcome death.
But—
“Pu!”
“Fuck!! That hurts!!”
The place Lin Ran stabbed was not the core of the Doll Legion.
It was his own eye.
The pain was so intense, even Lin Ran, usually refined and gentle, couldn’t help but curse.
“You…”
The Doll Legion was stunned.
She didn’t understand why Lin Ran would do this.
So, she read Lin Ran’s mind immediately.
[Ahhhhhhhhhh it hurts!!]
[How can I not wake up after this much pain?]
[If you die in a dream you get sent to that damn Wooden Cabin, but if the pain level isn’t high enough, you can’t wake up…]
[Then keep going! Hurt myself until I wake up in the dream!]
“Stop…stop!! Don’t…don’t do this…”
The Doll Legion, seeing Lin Ran’s thoughts, tried to stop him immediately.
Her mechanical voice cracked for the first time.
She wanted to stop Lin Ran.
“If you try to stop me now, after all that setup, it’ll just be rude!”
Lin Ran’s bloody, hoarse voice made the Doll Legion freeze for a moment.
But it was too late.
He grabbed pliers and ripped out his fingernails, one by one.
Used the fruit knife to slice off his own flesh.
Whatever hurt more, he did it, as long as it didn’t kill him—he kept going.
Even if he died this time from pain, he’d keep at it upon revival!
Until he woke from the dream!
Finally, he scattered Lego bricks all over the floor and jumped onto them—
…
…
“No, I woke up like this? Isn’t this just borderline Cause-and-Effect Law?!”
When Lin Ran woke, this was the first question he asked.