Chapter 2016: An Opportunity
The chat with Kane had helped Rui gather his thoughts and regain his composure. The shock of the revelation had initially been truly overwhelming.
Not even the emotional desensitization of the inheritance of the Elder Tree had helped. He had been emotionally desensitized to external stimuli of pain and pleasure and surrounding emotions.
It didn't protect him against internal stimuli such as the realization that his drive had not been his own, that his memories were that of a dead man of another world.
Yet, in hindsight, he was grateful to have learned the truth.
It taught him an important lesson.
His drive would not yield even if its very foundations were ripped apart from under it. It was so powerful that it had embedded itself deep into Rui's conscious and subconscious mind.
It didn't matter if it came from another person.
It didn't matter even if it were somehow pure fiction.
Rui would make it reality.
And frankly, that was all that mattered, for now.
Who was he?
He still didn't know how to answer that anymore.
Of course, if knowing it wasn't necessary for fulfilling Project Water, then he wouldn't bother.
But, and he suspected that this was the case, if it was required to reach higher Realms, then he would fulfill this condition no matter what.
For now, however, it was time to get out of this place.
"Let's go." Rui narrowed his eyes as he snapped his fingers.
WHOOSH
The world around them flashed away as Rui effortlessly bent heaven and earth to propel them forward at tremendous speeds. With a simple gesture, he could not just unleash immense power, but employ it with nigh-absolute efficiency.
STEP
In seconds, they had already arrived at the core of the dungeon.
"You..." Kane's eyes widened with shock at Rui's newfound power.
Yet, Rui's attention had fully turned to the Divine Doctor.
The man hadn't even noticed their arrival.
He sat before the alien flora lifeform, studying it with a wide variety of artifacts and tools.
"Incredible..." he constantly muttered to himself. "...Truly."
WHOOSH
Rui effortlessly bent heaven and earth to hide the alien flora lifeform in an opaque shell of air and soil.
The Divine Doctor's eyes slowly shifted towards Rui with clinical regard. "Quite the way to express your gratitude to me for saving your life and enhancing your Martial Body."
Rui's eyes sharpened.
His perspective on the Divine Doctor had changed.
This man was just a vessel of information from the original Divine Doctor's mind and the minds of the Divine Doctor inheritors before him.
On top of that, while Rui could sense Kane's emotions very clearly thanks to the newfound quasi-mental sense of the Martial Mind, he couldn't sense anything from the Divine Doctor.
It was to be expected considering that not even the Elder Tree could sense it.
"Thank you." Rui's tone was impassive, albeit sincere. "However, the point of Operation Prisonbreak was to escape, not to spend the rest of our lives studying this admittedly fascinating alien specimen."
"I had no intention of doing the latter," the Divine Doctor smiled. "I am anxious to return to the Human Domain and conduct a soul transference data save. The memories of this particular vessel are priceless and must be preserved immediately."
His words were unnerving. He seemed to treat himself like a disposable pawn, which Rui found unsettling.
"However," he added, "there are some issues."
Rui's expression grew graver. "Don't tell me we cannot leave."
"We can, but the second I uproot the source of the manifold, all the land and water within this manifold will be exposed to the outside world. And that will attract the attention and interest of all the Master-level beasts in the surrounding Master-level regions."
Rui instantly understood everything the Divine Doctor was getting at. "The Mellow Dungeon grows more bountiful and resourceful the closer one gets to its core, where it is rich enough to attract even Master-level beasts."
The second they opened the Mellow Manifold, it would attract the attention of all surrounding Master-level beasts, who would be drawn towards the center of the open dungeon as all beasts in it were.
The three of them were at the core of the dungeon.
In other words, the moment the dungeon opened, they would be attacked by all Master-level beasts from all directions.
"That's why you waited for me to wake up."
"Correct."
Without Rui awake, the Divine Doctor and Kane would never be able to escape alive with all those Master-level beasts converging onto them at extraordinarily rapid speeds.
Previously, the prospect of facing several Master-level beasts would have chilled his bones, yet now—
The Divine Doctor and Kane froze as unfathomable power erupted from deep within Rui.
"Let them come."
His tone was steely.
Confidence and certainty radiated from every spec of his being.
"The chimera was too weak to allow me to test the limits of my newfound power."
With a single gesture of exertion, he had negated its greatest attack.
With a second exertion, it had died on the spot.
It had been unsatisfying.
Unenlightening.
It hadn't shown him his limits.
That was why he had absolutely no idea what he was capable of and wasn't.
"But you aren't accustomed to the power of the Master Realm, are you?" Kane asked with concern.
"That's not how it works with the Master Realm," Rui calmly remarked. "I have not gained any additional power. My net raw power is the same, I'm just orders of magnitude more efficient. With my Martial Mind, however, I can use all my systems of thought simultaneously with absolutely no restraint or limitations whatsoever."
Not even the original Angell of Laplace was stressful anymore.
Rui's mind was a computer. Together with his Martial Mind, it was a supercomputer. A supercomputer with his mind as the operating system and his systems of thought as the combat software.
"I'm at my peak," Rui calmly informed them. "There is no longer any need for delay. Kane, the moment the manifold is open and undone, take the doctor and run. I shall draw them away and hold them off single-handedly. If I stay with you, they will box us in and I will need to spend all my power protecting the two of you and the alien specimen, unable to break out."