From the end of the world

Chapter 17: The Beginning of Doomsday 2
The cave reappeared!
I still don't know the rules of the cave's appearance and disappearance, so it's not surprising when the cave appears or disappears. I had already prepared for the worst, and planned to spend a lot of time investigating how to make the cave appear again, but now the cave has appeared on its own, how can I not feel surprised?

If Changan and Ma were here earlier, they might have considered the cave a very ominous sign. But in my eyes, this is just a good start.

I opened the wooden lid, and the dark and deep entrance appeared before me again.

Unlike last time, I was observing the cave alone at night, and my mood was completely different. Changan was worried about whether there would be "dirty things" crawling out from under the cave, but I couldn't empathize with him at that time. For me, during the daytime, this space with Changan seemed to be full of the atmosphere of secular life, and ghosts would definitely not come here.

But now, I just feel that this space seems to have turned into a magical realm that cannot be tolerated in reality. The hustle and bustle of the distant city has completely disappeared from my consciousness, and everything that happens here is a "ghost story" that belongs to me alone. There is no second eyewitness, and no matter how I tell the public, I will not be believed. In other words, it has become a field where monsters and demons can wade in at will.

This time, there was no Chang'an around to stop me, and no Agent Kong suddenly knocked on the door to disturb me.

If I go to the room downstairs and punch a hole in the ceiling where the cave is, what will happen? I imagined it with great interest. But it would be bad if this would cause the cave to not appear, and there are residents in the room downstairs. I don't want to destroy the mysterious feeling that only comes when I am alone, for fear that after alarming outsiders, the cave will be frightened and hide again.

I unloaded the backpack on the floor and took out the wired camera and selfie stick from it. I connected the wired camera to my phone, fixed it to the selfie stick, and extended it under the cave. Then I looked at my phone.

Unlike what I expected last time, no picture was displayed on the phone.

It seems that wired cameras don't work either. The signal blocking mechanism inside and outside the cave has nothing to do with wired or wireless. If so, why can't the human body be blocked by electronic signals? Is it really because the human body has a special status in strange events?
If I were a scientist, I might pursue a more rigorous conclusion, but I can accept this conclusion with mysticism. Then, I took back the wired camera and selfie stick, switched my phone to video mode and turned on the lighting function, and sent the selfie stick to the bottom of the cave.

After about a minute of filming, I put the phone back and looked down to check the footage.

In fact, I had expected that "electronic devices would not work properly in a supernatural space", as many horror stories say. But this time it exceeded my expectations, and the phone successfully captured the scene under the cave.

This scene matched Chang'an and I's first impression of the cave; it was indeed a basement.

It was a rather spacious basement, about two-thirds the size of a classroom. Naturally, there were no doors or windows installed on the walls. The interior had not been decorated at all, the floor and walls were bare concrete, and there were lonely gray shelves everywhere, like a closed convenience store.

Most of the shelves were empty and covered with dust, and the few that had items were just some yellow cardboard boxes with their bellies opened. There was basically no place to hide, and there was no sign of any monsters, ghosts, or other weird things.

It's hard to say. What if the electronic equipment can't capture ghosts? Or what if there are monsters as small as insects and mice? You can't use common sense to guess the weirdness.

Suddenly, I noticed something strange in the video footage.

At the end of the basement, at the base of the wall, there seemed to be something reflecting light.

I pressed my eyes tightly against the screen, trying to see what it was. But I couldn't see it clearly. It wasn't because of the shooting angle, but because the object was too small and too far away from where I was shooting. I couldn't confirm its true appearance from here.

I could only barely make out that it was probably not a piece of glass or something, and there were no other glass products or any other reflective objects in the basement.

That thing stands out very much in this basement.

It was fine before I found it, but once I found it, I felt that the unknown object had an indescribable presence. Although it was just a "thing I couldn't see clearly" in a "dark basement", it was like a dark ink stain on a white paper. When I came to my senses, my attention was completely attracted by it.

what is that?
I tossed and turned over this incredible feeling and put my phone away.

Now that we've seen it all, it's time to go home - that's impossible.

This is just an appetizer, it can only whet my appetite. I am already drooling and you want me to leave, don't even think about it.

Next, I'm going to go deeper into this cave.
-
I imagined the dangers I might encounter in the future.

The least threatening situations for me are dangers of a physical nature.

To exaggerate, even if ten Godzillas suddenly appeared in this basement, I have the "Second Form" as my ultimate move, which makes me invincible. But if a mysterious ghost appears, it's hard to say. If the opponent can launch a mental attack or a curse attack on me, I can't guarantee that I can resist it. After all, I have never been attacked by such a metaphysical nature.

The most threatening situation was undoubtedly that after I went down, the entrance suddenly disappeared and never opened again, completely trapping me inside.

Perhaps there are other more ingenious and clever ways to investigate the details inside, without having to take risks in person. But is there really a better way to experience this cave than to go deep into it with your own body? Words, pictures, videos... I don't want to know another mysterious time and space through such boring things. I want to measure the space under the cave with my own feet and breathe the air of this unreal space with my own mouth. This is why I came here.

Frankly speaking, I was very aware that my rationality had been greatly reduced at this moment. In my eyes, who was pursuing "adventure beyond reality", this cave had an irresistible charm, and I could not resist it with my rationality. No matter what, I had to explore it.

I looked at the stairs leading down into the cave, then took a step forward and placed my right foot on the first step.

It felt like I had stepped into a deep, muddy swamp. My foot had already stepped into a time and space that did not exist in reality. I felt numb all over. I took a deep breath, then lifted my other foot and continued to go down.

Step, step, step... I slowly walked down the stairs, and the floor around me gradually rose until it was above my head.

I couldn't help but look up, and the real space had now turned into a square hole above my head. I tried to control myself and look away, then stretched out my right hand and summoned the "firefly".

Orange-red dots of light appeared in the air, emitting a bright glow. As expected, it wasn't that the "fireflies" couldn't be summoned under the cave, but that they couldn't exist here when I was outside the cave.

"Fireflies" appeared one after another, and their number quickly increased to twenty or thirty. Then, under my command, they were distributed to various places in the basement, emitting even brighter light, making the place as bright as day.

My feet landed on the ground in the basement, and I looked around. There were no monsters, no ghosts, and no other strange phenomena for the time being. This space was completely under my perception. Not to mention tangible dangers, I didn't even find a bug. It was simply a place where life had disappeared.

After a brief pause, I moved straight to the end of the basement.

Soon, I saw clearly what the unknown object that was reflected in the video was.

The thing that fell at the base of the wall was an irregularly shaped hard substance, black in color, about the size of a ping-pong ball. Although it was black in color, the material was like jade, so it would only slightly reflect light when shining light on it.

I picked it up and looked at it repeatedly in my hand. This black jade not only looks like jade, but also feels warm to the touch, but the edge is a little scratchy, and if you are not careful, you may cut your hand.

As far as I can judge, this piece of black jade does not seem to be a complete object, but rather it is broken off from a larger jade ornament.

So I looked around again, but I didn't find any object that looked like the main body, nor did I find the second piece of fragment.

I refocused my attention on the black jade. Even the ground was cold to the touch, but the black jade did not give off any coolness, let alone any warmth, as if the concept of temperature did not exist from the beginning.

What the hell is this?
I watched more and more carefully.

And at this moment, something incredible happened.

The moment I focused all my attention on the black jade, I felt that the darkness of the jade "caught" my gaze just like a black hole captures light.

When I realized something was wrong, I couldn't look away anymore, not even my eyeballs could move. The black jade started to grow bigger in my field of vision, and I didn't know if it was really growing bigger or if my face was moving closer to it uncontrollably.

In a blink of an eye, the black jade filled my entire field of vision, and my soul seemed to fall, crashing into the black jade.

Then, in the pitch-black darkness, gray mist emerged.

(End of this chapter)