Response

In the darkness, Wang Yiyang stared fixedly at the lines of data emerging from the system.

'Identity Mission: Successfully suppress the hypnotic lethal alcoholism and quit drinking entirely.'

'Mission Completion Reward: Randomly restore one of your peak hypnotic techniques from your time as Finn.'

'Warning: Once an identity is generated, it will be permanently effective.'

'Warning: The greater the convenience an identity brings, the equivalent the risks that accompany it.'

'Warning:

1. You have seventeen days to prepare for the immense danger that is about to follow.

2. You have six days to prepare for the serious trouble you faced while you were Finn.

3. Spacetime inlay conflict detected; this identity has been automatically merged into an unknown space.'

Holy crap!! After reading through all the instructions, Wang Yiyang's first thought was that he had truly hit the jackpot this time!

From the system's brief introduction alone, he could already see the formidable nature of this new identity.

If the hypnosis of this identity was truly as powerful as the description claimed, then his chances of breaking free from this current crisis would be significantly higher.

But, this alcohol addiction? Wang Yiyang hadn't fully processed it yet.

Suddenly, a massive surge of information regarding Finn flooded into his mind.

The pride, arrogance, triumph, and agony of being Finn.

Ugh...!!!

He clutched his head frantically, hunched over, and let out a cry of pain.

Scene after scene, memory after memory, were carved into his mind like a chisel.

Especially the moment he was defeated one-on-one by the Red Hypnotist; the despair of sliding into the Abyss was exceptionally vivid, stinging like needles throughout the entire memory.

It brought with it an indelible hatred for the Red Hypnotist.

Following that were the images after his defeat and destruction, where he drank alcohol frantically. His body had been rendered incredibly weak by the massive intake of alcohol.

Yet, he couldn't control himself at all; the moment he woke up, he had to drink.

Eventually, he even started drinking alcohol as if it were water.

The final scene of the memory froze on him holding a bottle of pure alcohol, preparing to down it in one gulp.

"Haa!!"

Wang Yiyang broke out in a cold sweat as he snapped back to reality.

When he regained his senses, he discovered that, without even realizing it, he was standing by the cabinet, holding a bottle of beer he had stored long ago, and was in the middle of pouring it into his mouth.

When did I...?!! His heart turned cold. Is this the hypnosis of the Red Hypnotist??

He had previously assumed the opponent's hypnosis was at most an enhanced version of the ordinary hypnotists in the Mien Federation.

Now it seemed this wasn't just an enhanced version—it was complete subconscious manipulation!

As he came to, he was horrified to find he had already raised the bottle to his mouth again.

No! I have to find a way!!

With the little alcohol he had consumed, Wang Yiyang's mind actually felt a bit clearer.

He immediately used his other hand to pull out his phone and call Jian.

Right now, Jian was the person he trusted most.

The phone rang for a while, and while Wang Yiyang tilted his head back and took another large gulp without realizing it, the call finally connected.

"Hello, Boss? I just fell asleep," Jian's voice came from the other end.

"Come to my place. Bring strong hypnotic needles, rope, and a gag. Now!"

"??!!"

The other end of the line went deathly silent.

After a brief pause, "B-Boss... I... I think it would be better if you called Lei Wei..."

Jian's breathing was labored, and his scalp felt numb.

"Stop the nonsense! I told you to come, hic... so come. We're both men, what are you afraid of!" Wang Yiyang felt he couldn't control his right hand, watching helplessly as it shoved the bottle toward his mouth again.

"..." It's precisely because we're both men that I'm afraid!!

Jian roared internally, his sleepiness completely vanished.

Although he looked rugged and dressed like a gay man, and was often hit on by them, he still preferred the opposite sex.

At such a late hour, to be asked to bring rope and a gag... and strong hypnotic needles...

Boss... how did I never know you were into this kind of thing?

Jian was on the verge of tears. But with his chip under control, he had no choice but to agree, suffering through every moment.

To be safe, he brought two of his brothers along.

That way, if the boss tried to force him into anything, his brothers could burst in and rescue him in time.

Fifteen minutes later.

Jian arrived with a bag of supplies, and the moment he stepped inside, Wang Yiyang locked the door behind him.

"Hurry, tie me up! Quickly!"

Wang Yiyang's face was deathly pale, his stomach distended and bloated, as if he had consumed an untold amount.

The floor was littered with the beer he had previously stocked for guests.

Jian shuddered, looking from his boss to the floor, too terrified to move.

"B-boss... isn't this... a bit inappropriate?"

"My alcohol addiction is acting up, hurry and inject me!" Wang Yiyang managed to choke out in one breath.

Jian blinked, glancing at the bottles on the floor and then back at Wang Yiyang.

"Hurry!" Wang Yiyang roared in a fit of rage.

"Yes!" Realizing he had misunderstood, Jian rushed forward, skillfully pulled a syringe from his waist pouch, and jabbed it into Wang Yiyang's thigh.

He watched as Wang Yiyang's eyes rolled back and his breathing gradually slowed.

Not daring to slack off, he helped him onto the bed and used ropes to bind him tightly, circle after circle.

Once finished, he let out a long sigh of relief and sat on a nearby chair, ready to rest for a moment.

Bang!

The bed suddenly shook violently.

Wang Yiyang, who had just been tied up, began to thrash wildly with his eyes closed.

Despite being bound like a mummy, he managed to contort his body into bizarre, unnatural positions.

Most viciously, the direction he was thrashing toward was the pile of beer bottles on the living room floor.

"He can still move after a high-potency sedative?!!" Jian was horrified, but recalling his boss's earlier orders, he quickly stood up to pin Wang Yiyang down.

Fortunately, after thrashing for a while, the sedative seemed to take effect, and Wang Yiyang's strength gradually faded.

About ten minutes later, he finally lay completely still on the bed.

Only then did Jian breathe a sigh of relief.

He felt at ease, but the unconscious Wang Yiyang was trapped in agony.

Even in his dreams, he was drinking massive, endless amounts of alcohol.

He dreamt he was sitting on his living room floor, surrounded by countless bottles—beer, baijiu, red wine, yellow wine, all of it.

Streams of liquid flew automatically from the bottles, converging into lines that poured directly into his mouth.

He felt his internal organs soaking in alcohol, his entire being dazed and his mind sluggish.

He had no idea how long this state lasted.

Every time Wang Yiyang thought he couldn't hold on any longer, his will to survive forced him to struggle, buying him a little more time.

Struggle after struggle, delay after delay.

He didn't know how many times it had happened.

He had even become numb, feeling his consciousness drifting away as he soaked in the alcohol.

The sensation of watching himself slowly lose his mind, yet being completely powerless to stop it, nearly drove him insane.

No! If this continues, I'll die!! Wang Yiyang felt himself sliding further into the Abyss of mental chaos, the sense of crisis in his heart growing ever more intense.

He struggled to open his eyes.

He saw himself lying in his living room, which was now flooded with amber-colored alcohol.

Countless fumes of liquor were drilling into his eyes, ears, mouth, and nose.

He looked down and saw his stomach was as bloated as a soccer ball, and it was still rapidly expanding.

The bloating pain in his gut and the dull ache in his brain alternated, torturing his nerves back and forth.

He felt like he was going crazy; this endless torment made him nearly lose his sanity and give up several times.

But he knew clearly that if he gave up, he would likely become a mindless lunatic.

Time and time again.

Wang Yiyang fought to maintain his thinning shred of reason, while the overwhelming drunken lethargy and the agonizing pain acted like two ropes, desperately trying to drag him into the Abyss.

Time seemed to have lost all meaning.

Wang Yiyang had no idea how many times he had struggled.

A hundred times? A thousand times?

He could no longer remember.

To maintain his final shred of sanity.

He began to try and fix his thoughts bit by bit, to prevent his increasingly sluggish brain from suffering an anomaly.

How to keep his thoughts fixed?

He began to recall his entire life. From memories of his earliest childhood, he dug into his brain little by little, constantly reminiscing.

But soon, this method proved too complex; he could not persist after recalling for only a short while.

Then he switched to another method: doing arithmetic.

Soon, this method was also abandoned, for the same reason—it was too complex. It was simply impossible to maintain.

Immediately after, he began to sing, one by one, the songs he was most familiar with. He kept recalling them.

Soon, songs that were too complex were completely discarded, leaving only the simplest nursery rhymes, doggerel, and word-chain songs.

"One plus one equals two."

"Two plus two equals four."

"Three plus three equals what?"

"Is it six or seven? Is it seven or nine?"

"Floating, floating."

"Rocking, rocking."

"You are my little boat, you are my wind."

"The wind blows the little boat, rumble, rumble. The wind blows the little boat, gurgle, gurgle."

Wang Yiyang forgot everything, simply repeating the songs over and over.

He could only rely on singing, singing the nursery rhymes he knew best, to remember his own existence.

He did not even dare to stop; once he stopped, he felt an extreme sense of crisis, as if he might forget everything at any moment, forget himself.

Over and over, again and again, he repeated them.

Time seemed to have lost its meaning. Everything around him gradually blurred.

He did not know how much time had passed.

An hour? Or a night? Or a whole day? Or even longer?

Wang Yiyang slowly opened his heavy eyelids.

The white light from the window stung his eyes, making it hard to keep them open.

"Boss, you're finally awake!" Jian's voice shouted from the side, filled with relief.

Wang Yiyang felt himself being helped up, and a cup of hot milk was placed before him.

He parted his lips and began to drink, little by little.

The slightly scalding whole milk felt like a fierce, warm current surging into his stomach, then spreading and diffusing from his gut in all directions.