That crazy old woman showed me the entire process of a girl aging from youth to old age. She kept saying she was waiting for someone, but in reality, the person she was w

Following the key's guidance, I continued downward until I reached the fourteenth floor.

I noticed there was also an iron door between the fourteenth and fifteenth underground floors, but the key in my hand couldn't open it.

"Looks like the person I'm looking for is here." Gripping the key in one hand, I could vaguely hear someone calling out to me in the corridor. It was a very strange feeling. He never called my name, yet I knew I was the one he was looking for.

Closing my eyes, I sealed off my five senses and pressed forward, following nothing but that profoundly mysterious feeling.

The distance closed. When I opened my eyes again, I found myself standing at the deepest end of the fourteenth floor, one hand resting on a door lock.

I looked up at the room number on the door—1444.

Filled with an indescribably strange emotion, I pushed open the door. The air inside was slightly damp, and all the furniture felt textured and real. It was vastly different from the creations of the Deep Dream Layer, creating the illusion that I had returned to reality.

A thick black carpet covered the uneven wooden floor. It looked as if it had been woven from the hair of the living. Stepping on it felt peculiar, as though I were standing above all living beings.

The living room held no other abnormalities. I pushed open the door to the only adjoining room. The moment the wooden door swung open, my raised hand froze in midair.

A man sat inside. He faced me, wearing a yellowed Paper Doll Mask.

"Live Show Examiner?!" I never expected to see a Live Show Examiner here in the abandoned ruins of the Live Show within the Deep Dream Layer!

"I have been waiting for you here for a long time. Or rather, I have been watching you ever since I first saw you." The examiner's voice was just as mechanical and calm as it was over the phone, utterly devoid of emotion as he stared at me.

Even through the mask, I could feel him smiling at me. "When did you enter the Deep Dream Layer?"

"I have always been here. I never left." The examiner stood up from the table and walked over to me. "You carry no trace of Destiny on you. This time, you found me under the guidance of fate."

"I don't understand what you mean. Furthermore, from what I know, the Live Show branch in the Deep Dream Layer was completely destroyed earlier. They couldn't possibly have left a hidden threat like you unaddressed. How exactly are you here?" I showed a hint of vigilance. After all, this was the Deep Dream Layer, a place where one careless step meant getting lost forever.

"No one can destroy the Live Show. What they destroyed was only the me from the previous second."

Every word the Paper Doll Interviewer spoke carried profound meaning, plunging me into deep thought. "The you from the previous second?"

I recalled my first time going to No-Lights Road for an interview. Three examiners had sat in front of me, perfectly identical in height and build. The only difference was the wear and tear on their masks.

At the mention of the Live Show, a memory I had almost forgotten surfaced. After my sixth live broadcast, I went to No-Lights Road once. Outside the doors of Buildings 43 and 45, I met a strange girl.

She said she was waiting for someone on No-Lights Road, claiming she had been waiting a full twenty years. Not long after, a middle-aged woman walked over, repeating those exact same words until the Old Granny finally appeared.

That crazy old woman showed me the entire process of a girl aging from youth to old age. She kept saying she was waiting for someone, but in reality, the person she was waiting for was just herself at different stages of life (see Chapter 201)!

I had been curious at the time, vaguely sensing that the old woman was using a very obscure method to pass me a clue about the Live Show. Unfortunately, I hadn't paid much attention to it back then.

But now, connecting it to the Live Show Examiner's words, the hidden threads in my mind finally linked together.

"The Butcher said the Live Show represents fate, drifting and uncertain. In every passing moment, a person could become a different version of themselves based on different choices. It's like the countless branches of a great river; no one knows where it will flow in the end. This is fate." I looked at the Paper Doll Interviewer. "I think I know the answer now. The Traitors killed the you from the previous second, and the current you is here waiting for me!"

"Looks like you've already figured it out." The Paper Doll Interviewer raised his hand, his fingertips sliding along the edge of the mask. He slowly gripped the Paper Doll Mask and took it off. "I am one of the reasons the Reincarnation Mirror cannot reflect you."

An identical face—the Paper Doll Interviewer actually looked exactly like me! No! I should say, he was me!

"Two versions of us from the same time cannot meet. This is a rule established by Destiny. Only in the Third World of the Deep Dream Layer can I stay a few seconds longer." The interviewer's gaze was calm, as if he were recounting something perfectly ordinary.

"I don't know if you're from the future or the past. I only want to know why you think I have a chance of succeeding." I never considered myself particularly smart or uniquely gifted. In many ways, I couldn't even match some of the viewers watching the broadcast. Setting aside Daoist master Wan or Half-Immortal Liu, even Chu Men and Du Yu were much stronger than me.

"I once asked the same question." The corners of the interviewer's mouth curled up as if he were thinking of something happy. "No one can guarantee success, but at the very least, you are trying over and over again. Your desire to defy fate exceeds anyone else's!"

He pointed upward. "Destiny has arranged the future of every living being. A person doesn't even know if the things they want to do stem from their own free will or if they are moving forward like a puppet under Destiny's influence. To control your own fate, you must break Destiny's arrangements with every step you take. This is an incredibly massive undertaking. Even if Destiny cannot control your life directly, it can influence other things to indirectly achieve its goals. Any tiny, inconspicuous detail could drag someone who has already jumped off Destiny's chessboard right back into the game. Therefore, escaping Destiny isn't something that can be achieved with just one or two simple reincarnations or rebirths."

"To hide your memories and evade the rules established by Destiny, we spent an unimaginable amount of time and paid a steep price to bury the Nine Dao Locks within your body. Of course, the payoff is just as substantial. You will naturally understand this once your Nine Locks are all opened. You will obtain the power accumulated across all your reincarnations. Do you have anything else to ask?"

The Live Show Examiner was simply a trace of will left behind by the me from another time. This will had been hidden inside the Paper Doll Mask, and the moment he took it off, he had already begun to disappear.

I still had many, many questions I wanted to ask, but looking at myself in front of me gave me an unreal feeling. "Can you tell me how many times I have undergone reincarnation in total?"

"Every Paper Doll Mask here represents one of your reincarnations. I don't have much time left. Let me show you one last thing." The Live Show Examiner walked outward. With every step he took, a portion of his body dissipated.

Following his lead, I arrived at the corner between the fourteenth and fifteenth floors. By this time, the Live Show Examiner's body had become transparent.

"If Destiny does not die, the cycle of reincarnation will never stop. You asked me how many times you have reincarnated in total. The answer is here." He used the last of his strength to push open the iron door I thought was locked. Behind that heavy, pitch-black iron door lay endless Paper Doll Masks, almost filling the entire underground space!

"The same starting point, but different endings! Beneath the mask, 2.6 billion reincarnations are buried! It is 2.6 billion rebirths and struggles that, in this entire world, only you know about!"

As his voice continued to echo, the four Dragon-Locking Pillars deep within my sea of consciousness all let out crisp cracking sounds. An unprecedented stabbing pain pierced through my entire body!

I wanted to scream but couldn't make a sound. I felt a bone-chilling loneliness, as well as an indescribably unique emotion suffusing my heart.

It was only after a long time that I calmed down. At the spot where the Live Show Examiner had last stood, I found a palm-sized Reincarnation Mirror Fragment. He had carried this mirror fragment on him the entire time, guarding it for who knew how many reincarnations.

"Is this the truth?" I looked at the endless Paper Doll Masks in the underground space of the Live Show, then reached back and pulled the iron door shut.

Perhaps a long time from now, I too will become a Paper Doll Mask displayed inside, but so what?

At least I seized my own fate. I didn't compromise with Destiny.

Taking out the Live Show Phone, I looked at my own face on the screen.

"Are you a madman, or are you a legend?"