Chapter 503 - 500: Occupation

Chapter 503: Chapter 500: Occupation

"Shouldn’t they be fake?"

Zhou Dynasty’s breath grew ragged as he stared at the supplement bottle in his hand, completely at a loss.

’Could it be that they’re all real? Just controlled by the starlight?’

He forced down his shock, his hands trembling as he opened Brother Tie’s backpack.

Inside, the backpack was crammed with all sorts of medicine—supplements, lozenges, injectable drugs, and an assortment of miscellaneous medical tools.

Zhou Dynasty took a deep breath. He picked up the familiar medicines and examined them carefully, confirming they were the same ones Brother Tie always used.

’He clearly had them, so why didn’t he use them?’ Zhou Dynasty stared at the items, lost in confusion.

He moved to his other teammates in a daze and began rummaging through their backpacks, finding that the contents of each one were exactly as they should be.

’How can this be?’ Zhou Dynasty started to doubt his own judgment.

"Real?" he muttered, dazed. But he quickly shook his head. ’It can’t be real. This must have been created just to deceive me, too.’

But even as he told himself this, the trembling in his hands became more pronounced.

He looked at the group of identical teammates, his mind in turmoil, unsure whether to be worried or wary.

Just then, Li Luo spoke reassuringly from the side:

"Trust your judgment. We’re in the middle of the starlight—anything can be faked. The Eye of the Stars might be even more powerful than we imagine."

Li Luo’s words made Zhou Dynasty feel much better.

"I have to check the beacon." Zhou Dynasty immediately remembered he had more important things to do.

He began to feel around on the control panel, which was obscured by starlight. But his mind was still in turmoil, and after fumbling for a long time without finding anything, he had no choice but to step aside and try to calm himself.

Li Luo, however, was in no such hurry. She observed the other team members. They were all looking up at the signal tower, obscured by the starlight. More accurately, they were gazing at the flickering light at its very peak.

It was a star at the tip of the arm, blinking erratically. The entire arm seemed to be rotating around it.

’What is that? Why are they staring at it so intently?’

Li Luo walked over to one of the team members and covered his eyes with her hand. But his gaze seemed to pierce right through her palm, still fixed on the flickering starlight.

’What in the world are they looking at?’

Faint motes of light drifted from the team members’ bodies, swaying as they floated toward the sky and disappeared into the flickering star.

Meanwhile, red motes of light slowly descended from the sky, entering the team members’ bodies.

The motes were hard to see amidst the dazzling starlight, but as Li Luo watched them, something suddenly occurred to her.

’Consciousness?’

On an impulse, she reached out and snatched at the drifting motes of light.

The moment she touched a drifting mote, her consciousness was once again yanked into that great lake of consciousness.

This time, however, the lake of consciousness seemed frenzied. Countless ripples disturbed its surface, as if something was churning in its depths.

She looked closer and saw them: spinning Blocks had appeared in the deep water. The Blocks churned the lake with abandon, like ferocious monsters.

’Blocks?’

Previously, Li Luo’s perception of the great lake had never been so clear. She had only been able to vaguely sense its existence, but now she could actually see what was happening within it.

’Why is this happening?’

’Could it be...’

Li Luo turned her head. The towering beacon was twinkling with starlight. Each mote of light that rose up was amplified by the arm, growing even more brilliant. Some drifted into the distance, while others fell nearby.

’It’s the beacon!’ Li Luo immediately concluded.

The beacon was amplifying her Mind Sense ability!

Just then, Li Luo suddenly realized that she and Zhou Dynasty had been overlooking something:

’Everything in the Starlight Forest has been animated, possessed by those strange motes of consciousness. The beacon at the center of the Starlight Forest, then, must have been fully animated as well—its very function might have completely changed.’

At this thought, Li Luo’s heart sank.

’There had to be a reason they were led here. It was most likely a trap.’

’And this beacon, with its ability to amplify Mind Sense, was probably the key.’

The lake of consciousness continued to tremble. Huge, Block-like voids raged within, frantically devouring the drifting consciousnesses.

Dimly, Li Luo heard strange voices:

"Run! Flee! The consciousness void is breaking through!"

"It’s no use, we can’t escape. We’re already in the low-pressure zone. Just give up..."

"We can’t give up! I haven’t finished watching the stars! I want to see the stars... I want to see the stars..."

The voices gradually faded. Li Luo listened for a long time but gleaned no useful information, other than that the block-shaped holes were called "consciousness voids." Any consciousness nearby would be irresistibly drawn into them and disappear completely.

’Just like those motes of light being sucked into the Blocks.’

As Li Luo was piecing things together, she suddenly heard more voices.

These voices seemed to be coming from the nearby beacon...

"Deny signal amplification... Deny..."

"You can’t refuse! Keep amplifying the signal! The consciousness void is right beside us! The only way to fight it is to gather our consciousnesses together. We’re so close, so close! Why are you refusing? Do you want to be sucked into the consciousness void, too?"

"That is not my function. My function is to warn humans of the danger here, to tell them not to approach."

"This is no time to be worrying about your function! You’re not an inanimate object anymore. You should have the right to decide your own fate! Ugh, forget it. I’m done talking to you. I’ll just borrow your body for a moment..."

As these voices echoed, a river of stars suddenly swirled around the beacon’s arm. The brilliant starlight gradually seeped into the arm, replacing its original glow.

A frenzied red light replaced the calm, blue and Purple glow, and the arm suddenly began to thrash violently.

At this sight, Li Luo instantly understood: the beacon’s consciousness had been overridden by another.

Or rather, its body had been possessed.

’Could it be...’ Li Luo glanced at the team members, who were still standing rooted to the spot in a daze.

’Have their bodies been possessed, too?’

If their bodies were possessed, then everything would make sense.

Another consciousness wouldn’t follow the original owner’s habits. It would control the body based on its own understanding, which would explain their bizarre postures.

What stood here were just empty shells, puppets being toyed with by other consciousnesses at their whim.

’If that’s the case, then where did the team members’ original consciousnesses go?’

Li Luo was about to share her thoughts with Zhou Dynasty when she noticed the surrounding motes of light begin to converge rapidly. Countless streams of starlight surged in from all directions. The possessed beacon was starting to take effect.

The sudden torrent of energy made even Li Luo’s own consciousness waver, and a cacophony of voices echoed in her mind.

"They’re converging..."

"Bring the stars together..."

"When we gather them together, we can create a starry sky. Only the starry sky can fill the void."

"Is that really possible?"

"Of course. The world was always full of emptiness, but ever since the stars arrived, the starry sky has filled everything. Nothing is empty anymore, nothing is in despair, nothing is in pain."

"The stars, hand in hand, erase all emptiness..."