I will burn books and slay gods.

At six o'clock in the morning, Chen Ye stood on the rooftop of Morning Star Hospital, holding a brand new cognitive anchoring card in his hand.

The card contained a drawing Old Li had made the night before: a bridge, one end of which was shrouded in mist, while the other end was clearly visible.

Below the image is a line of small print: "Path Card - When you don't know where you're going, first find out where you came from."

This was the eve of his first solo purification mission.

"The loop ramp is under Level 2 Nightmare conditions, resulting in 17 vehicles and 43 people being trapped."

The instructor's briefing from last night still echoed in my ears: "The trapped people are stuck in a 'route-finding loop,' and their perception of time is distorted. The longest-trapped couple has been wandering around the ramp for three days, but in reality, only six hours have passed."

She looked at Chen Ye and asked, "Can you handle this?"

Chen Ye did not answer immediately.

He pulled up the data from the monitor. The light core at the center of the soul fire was shining steadily, and the karmic mist flowed slowly like clouds, but no longer tried to extinguish the flames.

In his mind, the cognitive blueprint was no longer a two-dimensional map, but a slowly rotating three-dimensional model—with a light core at the center representing himself, surrounded by symbols of eight basic anchor points, and subtle light connecting the symbols.

"Yes," he said.

Lin Su wanted to say something, but Instructor Gui Chi raised his hand to stop her.

"Everyone must be able to operate independently. Wang Xiaoming is going to deal with another infection node of the 'Trending Search Ghost,' and Lin Su, you're in charge of covering him. Chen Ye, this is your trial."

Now, Chen Ye put the bridge-shaped card into his pocket and checked his equipment: goggles, breathing mask, three core reference books, the bookmark given by Lao Li, and the notebook with his self-declaration written on it.

He took a deep breath and walked from the stairwell to the parking lot.

Morning Star provided him with an ordinary-looking black sedan, and the car's navigation system had already set the destination—the third ramp entrance of the West City Expressway.

The car drove out of the mountains and into the city.

The streets were still quiet in the early morning, but Chen Ye could feel a subtle "pressure".

Since the cognitive blueprint has taken initial shape, he has become more sensitive to fluctuations in the reality membrane.

The city is like a huge, taut membrane, with subtle "dents" appearing in some places—traces of Nightmare activity or cult experiments.

Navigation prompt: "500 meters ahead, enter the ramp."

Chen Ye slowed down the car.

The scene before my eyes began to distort.

It was an ordinary elevated ramp with a concrete surface and guardrails on both sides.

But in his "vision," everything looks like a snake biting its own tail, forming a perfect, luminous Möbius strip.

The surface of the ring is not static, but moves slowly like a conveyor belt, carrying the vehicles on it in a continuous cycle.

The seventeen cars traveled at a constant speed on the ring road, maintaining an eerie, fixed distance from each other.

The expressions on the faces of the people in each car were almost the same—first focused, then confused, then anxious, then numbly repetitive, and then back to focused again.

They are in a loop.

Chen Ye parked the car in the emergency lane outside the ramp entrance and put on his goggles.

Data shows that the energy concentration is at level two, the conceptual pollution type is "spatial-temporal complex", and the impact range is limited to the ramp.

He got out of the car and walked towards the ramp entrance.

The moment you step inside, the air becomes thick and sticky.

It's not physically viscous, it's perceptual.

His feet were on the ground, but it felt like he was on a treadmill—the ground was moving backward, even though his eyes saw it was stationary.

This is the Nightmare Realm trying to pull him into a loop.

Chen Ye closed his eyes and activated the "bridge"-shaped anchor card.

The pattern lit up in my mind.

Where did he come from?

From Morning Star Hospital.

Why did you come?

Because we need to save lives.

Who should we save?

Rescue these trapped people.

Why only them?

Because it was the Night's Watchman's duty, and also because... he wanted to save them.

A simple logical chain, but clear enough.

When he opened his eyes, the "sense of movement" under his feet disappeared.

He stood steadily at the edge of the ramp, watching the vehicles circling around him.

The question is: how to save them?

Should we just rush in and pull people in?

Then he himself will also fall into a cycle.

Damaged ramp?

This is a public facility, and the core of the Nightmare's domain may be attached to a conceptual node, not a physical structure.

Attack with abilities?

He has limited understanding of the concept of "cycle" itself...

and many more.

Chen Ye suddenly recalled a case he had looked at while preparing last night: Thirty years ago, a night watchman in Europe dealt with a similar "endless corridor" incident. His solution was to give the trapped person a "destination" that was even more compelling than the cycle itself.

It's not about breaking the cycle, but about using a stronger gravitational pull to "pull" people out.

Chen Ye walked to the first car.

Inside the car was a middle-aged man, dressed in a suit and tie; my knuckles were turning white as I gripped the steering wheel.

The man was staring straight ahead, his lips moving silently, as if he were saying, "The exit... the exit..."

Chen Ye knocked on the car window.

The man slowly turned his head, his eyes vacant, as if looking at a stranger—no, as if looking at a road sign, a tree, or something insignificant.

"Sir," Chen Ye said in a steady but penetrating voice, "where are you going?"

The man blinked, then hesitated before speaking, "Exit...exit the highway..."

"and then?"

"Then... I went home."

Is someone at home waiting for you?

A flicker of emotion crossed the man's expression. "My daughter...it's her birthday today...I bought a cake...it's in the back seat..."

Chen Ye looked at the back seat and confirmed that there was an exquisitely packaged cake box.

The ribbon on the box was still intact.

He had an idea.

Chen Ye tore a page from his notebook, quickly wrote a line of text, and then folded it into a square.

He used his abilities to infuse the three concepts of "birthday," "father," and "home" into the paper—not complex philosophy, but simply the most basic emotional connection.

Then, he did something risky: he stuck the piece of paper on the man's forehead through the car window.

The paper glows faintly the moment it touches the skin.

The man's eyes widened suddenly.

He was jolted awake, as if he had just woken from a dream.

"The cake...I need to be home before seven...I promised her..."

He muttered to himself, then suddenly jerked the steering wheel hard!

The vehicle abruptly veered off the flow of traffic and hurtled toward the edge of the ramp.

Just as it was about to hit the guardrail—the vehicle crossed some invisible boundary and broke free from the cycle!

He stopped erratically in the emergency lane, the man slumped over the steering wheel, panting heavily.

Succeeded,

But before Chen Ye could even feel happy, he felt the entire ramp area tremble.

The remaining sixteen cars slowed down simultaneously, and all the faces in the windows turned towards him.

Those empty eyes now have a focus—an angry, offended focus.

The cycle has been disrupted, and the Nightmare has "awakened."