Chapter 69: I am Lin Yan.

By the time the last memory ended, the loss of control had climbed from his abdomen all the way through his chest.

Everything below his neck was gone.

[Soul Cohesion I] was still working, but a White Trait was still only a White Trait. Against a soul that had lived for four hundred years and spent centuries in contact with Sacred Energy, all it could do was slow the process down.

At this rate, even his head would be gone soon.

His right hand, completely beyond his control, lifted itself in front of his face and slowly raised its middle finger.

"..."

"System," Lin Yan called inside his mind. "This thing is trying to steal my body. Got any way to get it out?"

The interface hung there as usual. Missions, Traits, draws—every function was still there. Only the System remained silent.

"Your host is about to get replaced."

Still no response. Lin Yan stopped wasting time.

As the fusion continued, the boundary between them grew thinner and thinner. Lin Yan had seen all four hundred years of the doctor’s life, and in return, the doctor had seen everything inside him.

It wasn’t limited to memories. Every thought that surfaced in Lin Yan’s mind was visible to the other side the moment it appeared, while whatever the doctor thought was just as impossible to hide from Lin Yan.

"The System... if something like this can exist, then perhaps the so-called gods aren’t merely legends either."

"And stop struggling."

The doctor said it while Lin Yan was pouring everything he had into moving his right hand, but he made no attempt to stop him. Everything below Lin Yan’s neck was already under his control. Lin Yan couldn’t move so much as a finger.

Lin Yan ignored him and kept fighting for control. He could clearly feel his fingers against the fabric of his pants, but no matter how hard he tried, the entire arm remained unresponsive.

If he couldn’t take back the whole hand, then he would take back one finger.

Using the final sliver of breathing room bought by [Soul Cohesion I], Lin Yan focused everything on his right index finger.

Move! Fucking move!

The finger twitched, barely enough to move at all. His entire right arm immediately locked tight and all five fingers curled into a fist. The doctor began actively suppressing the arm, and under two completely opposite commands, the muscles convulsed violently. Every time the arm managed to rise slightly, it was forced back down again.

"Fuck..."

Again and again, every time the doctor forced his hand back down, Lin Yan seized control of it once more. [Soul Cohesion I] was still buying him that final sliver of separation, while [Willpower II] kept him clinging to whatever control he managed to recover.

At first it was only the index finger, then the knuckle, then the wrist. The whole hand trembled violently as control spread little by little up the arm.

The doctor pressed down harder, stopping the movement almost completely, but Lin Yan forced the arm forward again. His hand dragged along his thigh a fraction of an inch at a time, every bit of progress immediately contested as the muscles jerked under two completely opposite commands.

This time, however, he was no longer starting from nothing. The control he had clawed back remained, allowing him to keep pushing farther until his fingertips finally brushed against cold metal.

The revolver.

"FUCKING DIE——!!!"

His five fingers clamped around the grip. The entire arm convulsed under the struggle, but this time Lin Yan pulled through and ripped the silver-black revolver free.

[The Real Man’s Revolver]

The doctor was still trying to take the arm back, but Lin Yan was no longer thinking about how to keep it.

The duel required the target to verbally accept, and right now, the two of them shared one body while their memories and consciousness continued to fuse.

Still not enough.

In that instant, the doctor caught the thought forming in Lin Yan’s mind.

"No! Don’t unequip it!"

The doctor’s voice trembled.

"We don’t have to kill each other! Once the fusion is complete, you’ll be me and I’ll be you. We can both survive! You can control the body. I won’t fight you for it anymore. Four hundred years of memories, Sacred Energy, everything I know—you can have all of it!"

Lin Yan ignored him and unequipped [Soul Cohesion I].

The final barrier vanished. The fusion that had been forcibly slowed suddenly accelerated as the doctor’s soul flooded into him, and the already blurred boundary between them rapidly collapsed.

"No——!"

With [Soul Cohesion I] gone, their two souls nearly fused into one. Four hundred years of memories poured wildly into Lin Yan’s consciousness, washing away his own experiences along with what remained of his control over the body.

Even the person called "Lin Yan" was rapidly disappearing.

But [Willpower II] was still there.

The Trait had never possessed a fixed numerical value. What it strengthened was the user’s ability to carry their own will through to the end.

The flood of memories continued to tear through Lin Yan until he could no longer tell which experiences belonged to him and which belonged to the doctor. His past, his name, even the reason he had come here were all rapidly fading, leaving less and less that still belonged to him.

Yet the more everything else disappeared, the clearer and heavier one thought became. Those memories could be washed away, those experiences could be overwritten, and he could even forget why he had come here, but this one thing refused to disappear.

I am Lin Yan.

I. AM. LIN. YAN!!

[Willpower II has entered an anomalous activation state.]

[Current Status: Overdrive.]

His lips trembled as his jaw forced itself open under his own control.

"Zeta Valerius!"

"Stop!"

Under normal circumstances, the doctor had nothing to fear from the revolver. As long as he refused the challenge, the duel could never begin. But now their souls and memories had already blurred together.

If Lin Yan accepted on his behalf—

"I challenge you to a real man’s duel."

"No! No——!"

Would the duel still count?

"I accept."

The revolver jolted.

The Duel Domain unfolded.