The address "Herr Stein" coming through the heavy door struck Lin Jie's psychological defenses.
The voice itself held no malice;
the young waiter's tone even displayed professional respect and friendliness.
But that was precisely the most terrifying part.
Because it proved the UMA's attack was not limited to internal invasion targeting only Lin Jie himself, but was beginning to spread to the external world like a colorless, odorless, virulent plague.
It was tampering and rewriting, subtly and gradually altering the basic definition of Lin Jie, this external data, in the minds of the other "NPCs" in the world.
The surna "Stein," originating from the Cartographer Karl von Stein, was replacing his unique na "Lin Jie," becoming the new label the world used to define him.
Lin Jie's body stiffened in place;
he neither opened the door nor responded.
After waiting for about half a minute, footsteps sounded outside the door again.
He heard the waiter pushing the al cart away, the wheels accompanied by a confused mutter that slowly faded, the voice seeming to say, "This Herr Stein really has a strange temper."
The crisis seed to have temporarily passed. Lin Jie slowly walked over and sat down in the only armchair in the room.
He felt as if sothing important inside his body was being slowly drained away.
It was an eerie sensation.
He could still think, breathe, and feel his own heartbeat, but his sense of existence, his presence in the world as "Lin Jie," an independent individual from the 21st century, was being irreversibly diluted and overwritten by an invisible force.
When all the reference points in the external world begin transmitting an erroneous ssage to you, how do you prove to yourself and the world that the "truth" you firmly believe in is not an even more massive illusion?
This ga had escalated into the most fundantal philosophical war concerning "existence" and "nothingness."
Lin Jie's gaze subconsciously fell on the *Heidelberg Daily* he had casually tossed on the table.
And then he saw it.
On the third page of the newspaper, in the section reporting local news from the university town, a short article titled "Light of Eastern Wisdom Shines on the Neckar Riverbanks" caught his eye.
The content of the report was written in an extrely positive and utterly normal tone.
It lavished praise on a newly arrived, talented young philosophy scholar from the distant Chinese Empire, who had co to Heidelberg University for academic exchange, and highly comnded the profound insights into German classical philosophy he had displayed during private discussions with Professor Schmidt.
Beside the report was a stark black-and-white photograph.
The delicate Eastern face in the photo, exuding a calm and intelligent air, was unmistakably his own.
This photo was likely taken covertly by so hidden reporter yesterday afternoon while he was walking alone on the Philosopher's Walk.
When Lin Jie's eyes scanned the caption below the photo used to identify the subject, he felt his heart clench once more.
Printed in lead type were the words: "Dr. Lin von Stein in Contemplation on the Philosopher's Walk."
Lin von Stein!
This was a completely Germanized new na, forcibly appended with the aristocratic "von."
Lin Jie stared fixedly at that na.
The na was so alien yet so "real," appearing so perfectly matched with this German newspaper filled with lead type, this hotel room brimming with German ambiance, and this ancient German university town.
In contrast, the na "Lin Jie" in his mind, composed of two simple Chinese characters, seed abrupt, incongruous, and unreal in this environnt.
He felt he was being "rejected" and "corrected" by the world.
Like a system that, upon discovering a segnt of erroneous external code, instinctively attempts to forcibly overwrite and assimilate that code using the most "reasonable" data already present in its database.
He had to fight back.
Before being crushed by this cognitive pressure from the world, he had to find the single logical fulcrum that would allow him to regain the initiative.
Under imnse ntal pressure, Lin Jie's mind, which grew calr the more perilous the situation, was stimulated to its potential.
He shifted his gaze away from the contaminated newspaper.
He closed his eyes and began to re-examine, from a bystander's perspective, every attack the UMA had launched since he entered this "cognitive barrier."
Starting from the venomous stare on the ancient bridge at dusk.
To the mocking mirror image in the room at midnight.
Then to the insidious mory tampering not long ago.
And finally, this current identity substitution pushing him to the brink of madness.
Each of the UMA's attacks seed patternless, random, and mocking. But when Lin Jie connected and analyzed these attacks in chronological order, a pattern he had previously overlooked was discovered.
Progressive layering.
Yes, each attack by the UMA, in terms of intensity, depth, and its power to dismantle Lin Jie's sense of reality, was not constant. Instead, it showed a pattern of continuous, escalating progression over ti.
From initially only being able to observe on a spiritual level from a distance.
To later being able to project an image onto a specific dium.
Then to further invade and tamper with the core mories of his ntal world.
And finally, to radiate influence into the external physical world, altering the cognitive definitions of surrounding people and objects.
Each of its attacks required ti—ti to analyze the prey's information, ti to digest the stolen cognitive fragnts, and even more ti to project the cognitive victory onto a broader reality.
Each successful invasion made it stronger and brought it closer to the ultimate goal of completely consuming the prey.
But this also ant that during the intervals between each attack, its suppression of Lin Jie's autonomous consciousness was relatively weak.
Lin Jie murmured softly in Chinese, "This is a race against ti..."
A fla of hope ignited in his eyes.
"It thinks it's slowly eroding my will by boiling the frog in warm water, but it's also exposing its attack process to during each interval of 'turning up the heat'!"
A cold glint flashed in Lin Jie's eyes. "I can't passively wait for its next move anymore!"
"I must take the initiative before its next attack arrives, before my final 'self-cognition' is contaminated and overwritten!"
He turned his gaze toward the blank postcard lying flat on the desk, the one he had retrieved and which marked the beginning of all this horror.
It was a tentacle extended from the UMA's main body.
It was also the only link point Lin Jie currently had to conduct reverse tracking on this ghost hiding in the "cognitive abyss."
Lin Jie knew how dangerous what he was about to do next was.
Directly using [Reverberation Touch] to contact this token constructed from "cognitive chaos" was tantamount to actively connecting his brain to a giant processor filled with viruses and logic bombs.
But he had no other choice.
The only chip Lin Jie held was his not-yet-fully-contaminated brain.
He had to take a look at the hole card that would decide the outco of this entire ga before the devil dealt its next hand.
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