# 2029
Chapter Title: 2029
Chapter 2013: Letter
And this was only the beginning.
Lin Qiye gazed at the wall covered in knife-carved words, his expression complicated, but ultimately, he raised the blade in his hand and firmly carved more characters into the wall's surface!
After carving several words, Lin Qiye set the knife back on the table, took a deep breath, turned, and pushed open the door to leave the ward.
"Thief! Blasphemer! Damn crawling insect!!"
The moment he opened the door, [Chaos] stood right outside, cursing venomously!
Lin Qiye completely ignored Its presence, his form passing directly through, heading straight for the stairs leading down. [Chaos] could only grit its teeth and follow behind him.
"So, what are you going to do now? Send him a letter?" [Chaos] walked beside him, its expression suddenly becoming unprecedentedly grave. "Give up... He won't respond to you. While you were dreaming, I already killed him!! Hahahaha..."
[Chaos]'s嚣张 laughter echoed through the corridor, but Lin Qiye acted as if he heard nothing, his face expressionless as he passed through the courtyard. He arrived at the green mailbox beside the Asylum of the Gods' gate.
It was an ordinary mailbox. When Lin Qiye first acquired this hospital, it had already been there. At the time, Lin Qiye thought the design was pointless—no one would ever send letters to this hospital... Besides, this hospital was now situated within the Higher-Dimensional World.
But this time, Lin Qiye opened the mailbox. A parchment letter lay quietly inside, a bright red postmark stamped on its surface.
In the lower right corner of the envelope, elegant medieval English script read:
—Dear L.
Seeing this letter, [Chaos]'s face turned ashen.
Amidst [Chaos]'s cursing, Lin Qiye carried the letter back to his room, locked the door behind him, trapping [Chaos] outside, then sat at the desk and opened the envelope.
"Dear Lin, perhaps you've already completed the 112,290,017th dream cycle?"
"I've returned to the 'Gray Layer.' I assume you've awakened from the dream as well? This time, do you still remember who you are?"
"I don't think you'll have forgotten. You've experienced so many dream cycles, your strength has completely surpassed my imagination. Perhaps the gap between you and Azathoth has become negligible?"
"Don't worry about me, my friend. I'm very safe in the Gray Layer. If you're also safe, please send me a reply... After all, this is the promise we made after completing our first dream cycle."
"Wishing you a safe beginning to your next dream cycle."
"—Your friend, Yeland."
After reading the letter, a hint of relief finally appeared in Lin Qiye's eyes. He flipped the letter over, conjured a feather pen from thin air, and wrote on the back:
"Dear Yeland..."
"As you said, I've completed this dream cycle and successfully remembered everything."
"Furthermore, I'm safe. During these hundreds of millions of dream cycles, Azathoth and I have both been endlessly repeating everything I've experienced. Under the power of [Incitator], I can feel Azathoth's will is gradually being assimilated by me... He has begun to believe that he is me."
"I don't know how much of Azathoth's power I've assimilated. In any case, the time it takes for me to remember who I am keeps getting shorter each cycle, which means His will has been weakened considerably. But it still isn't enough to defeat Him."
"This war of wills is far from over. Between Azathoth and me, only one can emerge victorious... The winner shall become the sole sovereign of the Higher-Dimensional World."
"I'll soon begin the next dream cycle. If one hundred million cycles aren't enough to defeat Him, then let it be two hundred million, three hundred million... Someday, I will recreate the Fifth Universe."
"I look forward to our official meeting."
"Your friend, Lin."
After writing the final word, Lin Qiye stuffed the letter back into the envelope and walked toward the mailbox by the door.
In that initial battle, Lin Qiye had locked his and Azathoth's wills inside the sixth ward. At the time, under Azathoth's overwhelming will, he truly forgot who he was, completely believing himself to be Azathoth. Even when Azathoth noticed the Fifth Universe was missing and felt a strange disconnect in its thoughts, it failed to awaken Lin Qiye's memories or personality.
And so Azathoth remained locked in the hospital for a long time... Until one day, a parchment letter floated out from the mailbox beside the hospital's gate.
That letter bore elegant English words, which translated to:
"Upon seeing this letter, all evil shall retreat."
It was a sacred covenant.
A covenant forged by a powerful being who had reached half a step into 'dimensional ascension'... Yeland.
This covenant within the letter briefly suppressed Azathoth's will, which had been locked in fierce combat with Lin Qiye's will, and awakened Lin Qiye's memories. It was also from this letter that Lin Qiye learned of the existence of the "Gray Layer."
The Gray Layer refers to the existence between the low-dimensional universe and this Higher-Dimensional World—a sort of rift or crevice.
Beings within the Fifth Universe who broke through to half-step 'dimensional ascension' would not disappear when the universe perished. Instead, they would become stuck in the crevice between low and high dimensions. Yeland was precisely such a being.
Yeland's soul had been in the depths of the universe, witnessing the great battle between Lin Qiye and Azathoth. Thus, he exhausted all his divine power and used the sacred covenant to throw this letter from the Gray Layer into the mailbox of the Higher-Dimensional World, establishing the first contact with Lin Qiye.
It was this letter from Yeland that saved Lin Qiye from the brink of will annihilation.
Recovering his clarity, Lin Qiye conceived of a method to use [Incitator] as a weapon to assimilate Azathoth's will. He forcefully mobilized the portion of power that had been assimilated by Azathoth and created a "dream." From Azathoth's perspective, this was the creation of a brand new Fifth Universe...
Within this recreated Fifth Universe, Lin Qiye replayed everything from his memories, directly inserting Azathoth's will into his former self, completing an absolutely perfect "incitement"!
It wasn't only Azathoth attempting to assimilate Lin Qiye... Lin Qiye was also attempting to assimilate Azathoth!
This was a silent, formless war within the psychiatric hospital.
Lin Qiye dropped the letter into the mailbox, his gaze passing through that massive iron gate, looking out at the world beyond the hospital...
Beneath a lead-gray, ashen sky, an empty and desolate world stretched endlessly. At this moment, the Asylum of the Gods was positioned closest to this gray-black sky.
And at this moment, directly in front of the hospital, a massive black core that seemed to fill the entire space floated silently, expanding and contracting in a slow, rhythmic pattern... As if breathing.
That was Azathoth's true form.