The sniper team had only surpassed five hundred points, not five thousand—an extra zero had slipped in. Gulis felt as if he had only drifted in a haze or a trance, then noticed an itch on his head and instinctively wanted to scratch it. It was then he sensed something was fundamentally wrong.

The wrongness lay precisely in the sensation under his palm! That soft, delicate, yet springy texture was unmistakably the feeling of pressing down on dry, warm desert sand!

Gulis snapped his head up. The sunset in the distance had already dimmed, but the clouds were burning crimson, as if ablaze. A rare, gentle desert wind washed over him, and as far as his eyes could see, there were nothing but rolling sand dunes, their continuous, soft lines almost scaling their way to the horizon.

"Damn it! Wasn't I just ambushing a convoy in the river?" Gulis jolted, and with that sudden movement, the distant dune surfaces seemed to blur as if swept by a great wind.

Just then, a voice, gentle yet laced with exhaustion, spoke:

"Why didn't you rest a bit longer? We've been scattered, and those Illuminati guys are chasing us. This is precious downtime."

Gulis whirled around, utterly agitated, hardly daring to believe his eyes: "Y-you... how are you not dead?" Standing there was a man who looked strikingly like Jake Gyllenhaal from Brokeback Mountain, his eyes deep but now carrying a weight of weariness. Compared to him, Gulis, with his rough stubble, looked far more imposing. Facing Gulis's stunned inquiry, the man smiled faintly:

"Haven't we reached the point of utter despair yet? Don't worry, I will certainly fulfill my promise."

Hearing this, Gulis's eyes immediately brimmed with tears, for he clearly remembered the moment of their team's annihilation: his beloved... keeping his solemn vow to protect Gulis with his own life, stepping in front of him and dying, dissolving into dust and ash before his eyes.

At this thought, he couldn't help but surge forward, gripping the man’s hand, savoring the indescribable reality of it: "You're really okay! You’re really alive..." He frowned, "Did one of the Illuminati trick you with an illusion? Why does this feel strange?"

Gulis's subconscious was already leaning towards accepting this reality as truth; the main driving force keeping him going was the hope of... resurrection. So, he immediately shook his head with a bitter smile: "Maybe my stress is too high. I had a dream—a dream where our team was wiped out, we barely survived, and then we made a desperate last stand hoping to turn things around and rebuild. I even botched an ambush. Damn it, it felt so real."

What followed was an exact replication of the events in Gulis's prior "dream." They were constantly attacked, but Gulis, having foreseen every turn, was like someone who had memorized the cheat codes, able to make preemptive, targeted judgments. Thus, despite stumbling along the way, he managed to reach the very spot where he had "died" in the dream.

This time, Gulis made no mistake. He burrowed into the yellow sand and, utilizing his ghostly marksmanship, delivered an extraordinary performance, consecutively killing the three most detested members of the Illuminati!

Witnessing firsthand the gruesome scene of those three hated figures exploding with brain matter and dying right there, the satisfaction in Gulis’s heart instantly soared to its apex.

He felt an urge to throw back his head and laugh aloud. In the previous "dream," Gulis had been tormented endlessly by these three, pushed to absolute despair like a cat playing with a mouse, only to narrowly escape death. Now, having executed them, Gulis felt even the desert wind was astonishingly fresh.

But just then, Gulis felt a searing pain shoot up his right foot, buried deep in the dune, as if an iron clamp had suddenly fastened around it! An indescribable force dragged him directly down into the sand!

The edge of that clamp felt incredibly hard and sharp; it easily sliced through skin and flesh, even scraping against the bone with a grating "clack," and he could feel marrow mixed with blood joyously surging from the exposed wound!

Gulis cried out and immediately activated a Magical Trap to teleport away. However, the attacker followed him through the transference! Looking closely, the attacker's face was indeed that of Yudian, the most savage assassin newly joined to the Illuminati!

This wretch not only shared a name with someone else, but his weapon bore a startling resemblance. The edge of his War Blade was comparable to a dagger, and its curved design allowed it to hook onto others' weapons, or even limbs—like Gulis's right leg!

Yudian savagely dragged the War Blade, sending a spray of blood as Gulis’s right foot was severed. Before Gulis could even react, the attacker vanished from sight, only to reappear behind him. It felt as if a heavy hammer had struck the back of his skull; stars exploded in his vision, his ears rang deafeningly, and an indescribable agony paralyzed his entire body.

Then, a long streak of bloody light descended from above, slicing Gulis open from chest to abdomen, spilling out blood and viscera. Gulis collapsed, screaming hideously and struggling, but suddenly saw that Yudian had also frozen in place... drenched in blood, standing nearby and panting, his staff having just inscribed the arcane formula for "Great Detonation Spell" in the air, poised to strike. Yudian hesitated, realizing the spell's indiscriminate power would certainly engulf Gulis as well.

Seizing the opportunity, Yudian instantly brought his blade to Gulis's throat, kneeling beside him, and roared:

"If you have the guts, finish chanting your spell! This spell is indiscriminate damage; you and your companion will die together..." Yudian’s face flushed crimson; the spell was nearing completion, and any further delay beyond the limit would result in a backlash—meaning if he couldn't kill Gulis, they would both be killed by Yudian himself!

In that instant, Gulis suddenly recalled the frantic pain of losing... in the previous "dream," and remembered the selfless act of... taking his place. He lunged forward and fiercely embraced Yudian, screaming:

"Fire it off...!" Tears streamed down his face, his voice surprisingly melodious like Fei Yu-ching’s: "No, no, I can't!"

Gulis’s eyes bulged with fury, something raging within him: "Quickly, I can't hold him! Don't let me die for nothing!"

If Gulis had paused for a moment of true reflection, he would realize that as a magic-aligned Awakened without relevant abilities, there was no way he could physically restrain Yudian, who specialized in Agility. But his heart was entirely consumed by a sense of righteous duty and the sanctity of sacrifice, causing him to ignore these details. He only roared hoarsely: "Fire now!"

Finally, the Great Detonation Spell unleashed, its light like a scorching sun engulfing both Gulis and Yudian. A faint, gratified smile touched Gulis's lips, and then... his heart stopped beating.

You have surely heard the tale of the prisoner kept in darkness, where the sound of dripping water is used to mimic the sound of blood dripping?

And there are historical records of devout believers who, after witnessing the Passion of Christ, developed wounds on their palms, known as "stigmata." Interestingly, some research on the crucifixion suggests the nails were driven through the wrists rather than the palms; consequently, believers who developed "stigmata" found them appearing on their wrists.

This all happened in the real world. Such is the power of suggestion.

Because he truly believed he was dead, he was, in effect, dead.

Although Contractors possess superhuman tenacity and strength, their minds and willpower are not necessarily stronger than ordinary people's. The moment Gulis believed he had died alongside his closest comrade..., Freddy, with a sinister cackle, raised his steel claw and plunged it into Gulis's heart—even though at that moment Gulis could have resisted, fought back, screamed, struggled, or taken medicine, his absolute conviction that he was dead meant he did nothing at all!

Old Charlie opened his eyes. The pupils reflected an illusion of Freddy cackling maniacally while chewing a bloodied heart. But the vision quickly subsided, and he spoke to Fang Senyan: "Master, this team was crippled and then secured some intelligence, leading them to gamble everything in the 2012 world. Only three members remain now. They were decimated by Zeus's Illuminati."

Upon hearing the name 'Illuminati,' Zi could not help but change expression. Old Charlie closed his eyes to rest for a moment.

"Master, Freddy's power has now evolved to a level recognized by the Space. Therefore, after killing this fellow named Gulis, he cannot claim Merit Points; he can only randomly extract one piece of equipment or an item from the deceased."

Fang Senyan nodded. The result was that Old Charlie pulled out a bag. When the bag was opened, it contained thirteen unknown strange items, referred to as 'Stinking Phantom Particles.' The source of these items was astounding.

It turns out that when Gulis’s team entered the Avatar battlefield, one teammate was a botanist, similar to D'Artagnan. During the fight, this teammate planted genetically modified plants on the ground.

The plant was not destroyed in the battle but adapted to the environment of Planet Pandora and began to flower and bear fruit. The fruit attracted the ninth-tier creature, the Phantom Wyvern, which became addicted to it. Because the fruit closely resembled oranges—fleshy with hard seeds—these seeds were often not digested and were subsequently excreted through the Wyvern’s digestive tract in its droppings... The Stinking Phantom Particles were the seeds recovered from the Wyvern’s feces. This was also why Gulis’s sniper rifle possessed such immense power: these unknown strange items were used as ammunition.

Consequently, these unknown strange items are not difficult to acquire, making them the cheapest type of unknown item, exchangeable only at a 1:1 ratio.