Gulis felt like he had only been in a daze or trance for a moment, then felt an itch on his head that he couldn't help but want to scratch. Then, he sensed that something was wrong.

Yes, what was wrong was the sensation on his palm! The soft, delicate, and elastic feeling was clearly that of pressing against dry, warm sand!

Gulis suddenly looked up and saw that the setting sun in the distant sky had dimmed, but the clouds were burning red. The desert wind, rarely so gentle, brushed against his face. As far as the eye could see, there were rolling dunes, endlessly stretching in gentle lines, almost like scales all the way to the horizon.

"What the hell! Wasn't I ambushing the convoy in the river?" Gulis immediately shuddered. As he did, the surface of the distant dunes became hazy, as if swept by a strong wind.

But at this moment, a gentle yet weary voice said:

"Why don't you rest a bit longer? We've been scattered and are being hunted down by the Illuminati. This is a rare chance to rest."

Gulis turned around, incredibly excited, and said in disbelief:

"Beancurd!!! You... how are you not dead?"

Beancurd was a guy who looked a lot like Jake Gyllenhaal, the star of *Brokeback Mountain*, with deep eyes, but with a bit more vicissitudes. In comparison, the stubble-faced Gulis was much more rugged. Facing Gulis's question, Beancurd smiled:

"Haven't we reached our most desperate hour yet? Don't worry, I will fulfill my promise."

Hearing this, Gulis's eyes immediately welled up, because he clearly remembered that during the wipeout, his beloved Beancurd had fulfilled his promise to protect him with his life, standing in front of Gulis and dying in his place, turning into ashes.

At the thought of this, he couldn't help but get excited, grabbing Beancurd's hand and feeling the indescribable sense of reality:

"You're really okay! You're really alive!"

Beancurd frowned:

"Are you under some kind of illusion by the Illuminati? Why do you feel so strange?"

Gulis's subconscious was already willing to believe that everything at this moment was real. Most of his motivation to keep living was the hope that Beancurd would be resurrected, so he immediately shook his head and said with a wry smile:

"Maybe I'm just too stressed. I had a dream. I dreamed that we were wiped out, then eked out an existence, and finally fought desperately, hoping to turn the tables and rebuild the team. I even carried out a failed ambush, damn it, it felt so real."

Next, the two people's experiences were exactly the same as in Gulis's previous "dream." They were constantly attacked, but because Gulis foresaw the previous processes, he seemed to have pre-read the walkthrough guide and could make targeted predictions in advance. Therefore, although they stumbled along the way, they still reached the place where Beancurd had died in the "dream."

This time, Gulis didn't make a mistake. Instead, he lurked in the sand dunes, using his ghostly shooting skills to perform exceptionally well, continuously killing the three Illuminati members he hated the most!

Witnessing the brains of those three hateful people splattering and their miserable deaths, the joy in Gulis's heart instantly reached its peak.

He even felt like he wanted to laugh out loud. In the previous "dream," Gulis had been tormented by these three people in every possible way. He had been completely desperate like a cat playing with a mouse, but then he had narrowly escaped death. Now that he had killed them, Gulis even felt that the wind in the desert was so fresh.

But at this moment, Gulis suddenly felt a sharp pain in his right foot buried in the sand dune, as if there was an iron hoop on his foot! An indescribable force was pulling him straight down into the desert!

Moreover, the edge of that iron hoop was extremely hard and sharp, easily cutting through his flesh and even scraping "咯咯" against the bones in his leg. He could even feel the blood-streaked marrow gushing out happily from the cross-section!!

Gulis screamed and immediately activated a magic trap to teleport away. But the person attacking him also teleported with him. Looking closely, this person's face was actually that of the most brutal assassin, Yudian, who had recently joined the Illuminati!

This guy not only had a name similar to someone else, but his weapon also had a striking resemblance. The edge of the warblade could be compared to a dagger, and the curved design could lock onto other people's weapons, or even people's limbs—such as Gulis's right leg!

Yudian dragged the warblade cruelly, spraying blood everywhere. Gulis's right foot had already flown up. Then, Gulis felt this guy disappear in front of him. Before he could react, his head felt like it had been struck heavily with an iron hammer. Stars flashed before his eyes, his ears buzzed, and an indescribable pain paralyzed his entire body.

Then, a long, bloody light cut down from top to bottom, actually disemboweling Gulis. Blood and internal organs gushed out. Gulis screamed miserably and fell to the ground, struggling. But then he suddenly saw that Yudian was also frozen in place—Beancurd was covered in blood, panting as he stood not far away. His staff wrote out the incantation for "Grand Detonation" in the air. He was already charging up, but he realized that the power of this spell would inevitably affect Gulis and he hesitated.

Seizing this opportunity, Yudian put his knife to Gulis's neck, knelt beside him, and shouted:

"If you have the guts, finish chanting the spell! This spell causes indiscriminate damage. I'll die with your companion!"

Beancurd's face flushed red. Seeing that the spell was about to succeed, if he continued to delay the chanting and reached the limit, it would backfire! It would be as if he couldn't kill Yudian, and the two of them would be counter-killed by him at this moment!!

In this instant, Gulis suddenly thought of the panic and pain of losing Beancurd in the previous "dream." He suddenly remembered Beancurd's selfless sacrifice, and suddenly hugged Yudian and shouted:

"Fire!!"

Tears streamed down Beancurd's face. He shook his head in a Fei Yuqing-like melodious voice:

"No, no, I can't!"

Gulis's eyes were bloodshot. Something was surging wildly in his heart:

"Hurry, I can't hold on any longer. Don't let me die in vain!"

In fact, if Gulis could have thought carefully at this time, how could a magic-based Awakened who didn't have the relevant abilities hold onto Yudian, who was an agility specialist? But his heart was now filled with righteousness and the sacred feeling of sacrifice, so he completely ignored these details and just shouted hoarsely:

"Fire!"

Finally, Beancurd's Grand Detonation was released. A light like the scorching sun completely covered Gulis and Yudian. A comforted smile appeared on the corner of Gulis's mouth, and then... his heart stopped beating.

You've probably all heard the story of locking a prisoner in a dark environment and then using the sound of dripping water to simulate the sound of dripping blood.

And there are records that some devout believers have developed wounds on their hands after watching the Passion of the Christ, which are called "stigmata." Interestingly, those believers who have read some papers on the Passion of the Christ and believe that the nails were driven into the wrists rather than the palms, also have "stigmata" appearing on their wrists.

This still happens in the real world, which shows the power of psychological suggestion.

Because he himself believed that he had died, then he really died.

Although contractors possess extraordinary resilience and power, their hearts and wills are not necessarily stronger than those of ordinary people. When Gulis believed that he had died at the hands of his good buddy Beancurd, Freddy had already cackled strangely, raised his steel claws, and stabbed into Gulis's heart—although Gulis could resist, could revolt, could scream, could struggle, and could take medicine at that time, he did nothing because he firmly believed that he was already dead!

Old Charlie opened his eyes, his pupils showing an illusion of Freddy cackling strangely and then chewing on a bloody heart, but it quickly subsided. He said to Fang Senyan:

"Master, this team was crippled and then obtained information, so they entered the *2012* world to gamble. There are currently only three people left. The ones who crippled them were Zeus's Illuminati."

After hearing the three words "Illuminati," Zi couldn't help but change his expression. Old Charlie closed his eyes and rested for a while, then said:

"Master, Freddy's current power has evolved to the point where the space is taking notice, so after he killed this guy named Gulis, he couldn't get any merit points. He could only randomly draw an item from his equipment or props."

Fang Senyan nodded. The item that Old Charlie drew turned out to be a bag. When the bag was opened, it contained a full thirteen unknown curiosities. These unknown curiosities were called Stinky Phantom Particles, and their origin was staggering.

It turned out that when Gulis's team entered the *Avatar* battlefield, one of their teammates was a botanist similar to D'Artagnan. During the battle, he planted the genetically modified plants he had concocted on the ground.

As a result, this plant was not destroyed in the battle, but it mutated because it adapted to the environment of the planet Pandora and began to blossom and bear fruit. The fruits of this plant attracted the ninth-order creature, the Phantom Dragon, and became addicted to it. Because the fruit of this plant was very similar to oranges, with plump flesh and hard seeds inside, its seeds would often not be digested and would be excreted from the Phantom Dragon's digestive system along with its excrement.

——Stinky Phantom Particles were the seeds found in the Phantom Dragon's excrement. The reason why Gulis's sniper rifle was so powerful was also because he used these unknown curiosities to make bullets.

Furthermore, because this kind of unknown curiosity was not difficult to obtain, it was the cheapest unknown curiosity and could only be exchanged at a ratio of 1:1.