“By normal reasoning, your thinking is correct,” Baiyang nodded at me. “The reason we two can stand here and converse, look into each other’s eyes and listen to each other’s thoughts—all of this is premised on the fact that we believe ourselves to be human.”

“So… if we are human… we’ll have shackles?” I asked.

“If we are ‘human,’ our upper limit is predetermined. We believe we’ll die from lack of oxygen, from starvation, from injury. Many common deaths in games actually cannot kill us. At the end of the day, we’ve always been killing ourselves,” Baiyang said. “Even if we strengthen our subconscious to the extreme, we rely on using our thoughts to control our subconscious, and thoughts and subconscious are precisely the hallmarks of us being human.”

“Although it’s somewhat abstract, I barely understand…” I nodded. “Yang Ge, are you saying… if we want to obtain the strongest ‘Echo,’ we cannot rely on controlling the ‘subconscious’ from the very beginning? We need to forget that we’re human?”

“Yes, communicating with you is truly smooth,” Baiyang rarely showed an approving look, then continued, “These so-called ‘divine powers’ are what they have bestowed upon us…”

Baiyang raised his hand and pointed at the sky, then said, “Can a beggar buy a wealthy man’s estate with money the wealthy man has given him as alms?”

I nodded, but my expression remained heavy. “But there’s one thing I still don’t quite understand.”

“What?”

“‘Humans’ are already the most intelligent beings we currently know of, right? If we don’t consider ourselves human… wouldn’t that turn us into beasts without much reason?”

After hearing this, Baiyang said, “That’s why I just said ‘by normal reasoning, your thinking is correct.’ Unfortunately, in the ‘Land of the End,’ this concept needs to be adjusted… There truly are existences here that transcend ‘humanity.'”

After hearing this, I was stunned, and my lips trembled slightly.

Baiyang continued to raise his hand and point at the sky, asking, “Why do you think they are so strong? Do they consider themselves ‘human’?”

I understood…

To become the most powerful ‘Echoer’ here, to become an existence that can transcend everything, from the very beginning it wasn’t about relying on one’s subconscious.

Although ‘controlling the subconscious’ and ‘not considering oneself human’ seem similar, the starting point was wrong from the beginning.

From the very start, he believed he could do things that humans cannot do.

And when we activate transcendent abilities, we always remember in our hearts that we are human.

What a deeply hidden paradox this is…?

It’s like stock investors preparing to get rich through stock trading.

Stock trading is itself a paradox. To know whether a stock can appreciate, one needs to understand business operations, economic principles, market trends, and international directions—only then can one accurately judge whether a stock will rise.

But if a person can simultaneously understand all this theoretical knowledge, they wouldn’t need to rely on stock trading to make money at all. Since they already completely understand the principles of business operations, the value they’d create by doing any business would far exceed the profits from stock trading.

This is the difference in underlying logic that exists from the very beginning.

“So you’ve thought this through long ago…” I murmured quietly. “Becoming a strong person by ‘controlling the subconscious’… is something only ordinary people would do.”

“Yes, ordinary people become strong by constantly controlling their subconscious, but continuing this way will eventually drive them completely insane,” Baiyang said. “They haven’t analyzed why those above are so powerful. Although those above also seem insane… this kind of insanity isn’t the madness of losing reason, but rather the madness of a human being able to converse with ants.”

“Then you want to…”

“I want to forget that I’m human,” Baiyang answered. “Consider myself as something else.”

He raised his head and looked indifferently at the sky. “At least something similar to them. This way, where my heart directs, my body follows—I will be omnipotent.”

After hearing these words, I had the same feeling as before.

This path is somewhat too difficult.

“So how do you plan to do it…?” I asked again.

“This relates to the question I asked you earlier…” Baiyang said. “I’ve gone through so many books but still haven’t found a suitable motive.”

He looked at me with a slightly helpless expression. “These things aren’t even written in books… How exactly can a person, after knowing there’s clearly no way out of here, still single-mindedly want to get out?”

I understood the feeling Baiyang was describing.

This is a motivation that defies common sense, just like a beggar who knowingly does what cannot be done, single-mindedly wanting to become the world’s richest person.

For such a person, merely having the motivation to “want to make money” is completely insufficient.

But before expressing this idea, I first needed to confirm whether Baiyang was the same type of person as me.

“Yang Ge, do you love yourself?” I asked.

“Love myself…?” He hesitated for a moment, then shook his head. “Probably not. In the past, I seem to have always been rushing around and risking my life for others.”

“Excellent, you’re not the same type of person as me,” I said. “Then escape for the sake of others.”

“For the sake of others? Ha…” Baiyang seemed to hear something extremely laughable, then shook his head. “I’ve been alone and suffering since childhood, and now you’re telling me to escape for the sake of others…?”

“Alone and suffering since childhood…?”

“Do you know why I’ve always been rushing around and risking my life for others?” Baiyang asked again.

“I don’t know,” I answered straightforwardly. “To me, no one in this world is more important than myself. I only love myself, and I cannot take any risks for others.”

“Then we can only say we’ve chosen different paths,” Baiyang said. “After coming here, I discovered that not everyone deserves to go to hell, and not everyone deserves to accept this damned cycle of reincarnation. I cannot bear to see good people suffering and struggling here, nor can I bear to see evil people committing evil deeds here for eternity, so I’m preparing to rely on my own strength alone to liberate these people.”

From this sentence onward, I seemed to see human divinity in Baiyang.

It was a transcendent, ultimate and magnificent spiritual value rooted deep in his heart.

I began to understand the “karmic cause and effect” that Jiang Ruoxue insisted on. Perhaps it was precisely because Baiyang was this kind of person that I chose to help him.

“Yang Ge, if that’s the case… is there someone you like?” I asked.

“Someone I like…?” He looked at me, as if he didn’t immediately understand the meaning of these four words.

“Yes, Yang Ge,” I nodded. “Is there such a person in this world… who has suffered for you, endured hardship on your behalf, who is your entire life’s hope?”

The atmosphere was silent for a full ten-plus seconds.

“Unfortunately…” Baiyang looked at me dimly. “That exceeds my knowledge range.”