From the end of the world

Chapter 177 Escape
I immediately quickened my pace.

At Chenlong's top speed, it would only take a blink of an eye for him to move to my side.

Even though the roads in this secret base were complicated and he couldn't reach full speed, the slowest he could go would not exceed the time it takes to breathe.

Unfortunately, I am no match for him now.

I have more or less grasped the full strength I can reach at this moment, which is almost close to the level of the monster maker I have fought in the past. This is not only the limit of the outer way of the sword, but also the limit of this independent reality space.

When I killed those weirdos just now, I once again felt that the space I was in was shaky. Even if the Outer Path Impermanence Sword could be strengthened by one or two points, I couldn't really use it to strengthen myself. Doing so would only force me to log out of this base again.

Even if I can strengthen myself to a level that is strong enough to fight Chen Long now, I am helpless against the cheating portal armor. The last time I fought him, my chances of winning were based on the premise of violently breaking the portal armor with a power density far superior to his. That method cannot be based on just fighting him on equal terms.

However, since this stronghold can only bear the power of the Cheng level at most, why can Chen Long now burst out the magic power fluctuations of the Great Perfection level?

Could it be that he has the "home advantage" in this place, and only outsiders like me need to worry about being logged out, while he can do whatever he wants freely?
In addition, based on his performance last time, he was clearly able to display stealth skills that even I could hardly detect. Why did he now specifically release such a fluctuation of magic power before moving towards me? Isn't this like reminding me to quickly escape?

With strong doubts in my mind, I looked around, looking for a place to hide. I didn't plan to go back to the original cell to hide. That was where I killed people, and hiding there was not a good idea. If I had to hide, I would hide in another cell.

However, the iron doors of the other cells were all closed and obviously locked. Thinking of "locked", I took out the iron key I got from the senior researcher. Judging from the keyhole, the iron key might also be used to open the lock here. And the senior researcher also said that this iron key is a "door card".

I went forward and tried it, and the iron gate opened as expected.

How could the key to the cell door and the key to the wooden yoke be the same? However, the facts were before my eyes and could not be disputed. I hid in the cell without thinking and closed the door. The door locked automatically. This cell happened to be vacant. It was not a coincidence. I specially chose a cell where no noise could be heard.

This is not the end yet. I continued to look for other hiding places in the cell, and soon I saw the Iron Maiden in the corner, whom I had seen in other cells before.

Normal people would never hide in a torture device like the Iron Maiden, but my situation was different. I opened the Iron Maiden, crawled inside, and then closed the lid from the inside.

The countless knife-like spikes inside the Iron Maiden stabbed into my flesh all over my body mercilessly, as if dozens of knife-wielding murderers were stabbing me at the same time.

If it were an ordinary human, they would either die or be disabled, and they would not be able to make such a choice. However, I am a flame aggregate, and the pain and blood are mimicked. I can also freely choose whether to turn off the mimicry. The knife-like spikes that stabbed into my body not only did not cause me any decent pain, but even no blood came out.

It seemed to take quite a while from entering the cell to hiding in the Iron Maiden, but in fact, with my current processing speed and movement speed, it was only half a breath. Almost at the same time when I closed the lid, Chen Long's mana wave rushed to the corridor where I was just now like thunder, and then stopped moving.

It was dark inside the Iron Maiden. I held my breath silently, imagining myself as a cold-blooded animal in hibernation.

Then, from outside the corridor, there were sounds of Chen Long opening the iron door and checking inside the cell.

After a while, Chen Long finally came to the cell I was in. There was the sound of the door lock being unlocked, and then the iron door opening with its jerky movement. Footsteps entered the room.

I didn't rashly use my perception to sense the outside of the Iron Maiden, but instead peeked outside through the gap in the Iron Maiden's lid. Faintly, I could see Chen Long's figure, standing in the middle of the cell, looking around with sharp eyes.

Originally, Chen Long was not an enemy so strong that I could not match him, but due to environmental factors, I had to hide like this. I felt a little uncomfortable and had the urge to jump out and fight him.

On the other hand, I actually quite like this kind of hide-and-seek game. If you ask why, it's because I'm just like the protagonist in a horror game hiding in a closet to avoid monsters. This kind of "role-playing" can only be experienced in this situation.

As for the saying “the situation is stronger than people”… although this reason may be very important from an objective point of view, it takes a back seat in my heart at the moment.

Maybe Chen Long can not only sense my heat energy, but also sense my gaze, and then find me hiding here. Well, I'll take this opportunity to think about what I should say when he finds me, and decide on the posture of jumping out of the Iron Maiden... I don't know if it's because of my twelve-year-old body, but I can't help but think wildly. I'll just turn off the simulation process of my breathing, heartbeat and other physiological activities. Anyway, I don't need breathing and heartbeat, blood circulation and endocrine system, and those physiological activities will be captured by Chen Long's extraordinary perception.

I don't know how much this effort can help, after all, Chen Long can still sense the fluctuations of mana. However, if he can really find me in this way, then when he first saw me in this base, he should also be able to find out through the fluctuations of mana that I am not an "ordinary twelve-year-old child." Perhaps my "aura of misunderstanding" in this base can still hinder the other party's perception?

Chen Long could also use his extraordinary vision to see me directly through the gap in the lid of the Iron Maiden... But although this device looks like an Iron Maiden to me, it may look like other precision equipment suitable for scientific experiments to others. The same is true for the cells in this place. Maybe to others, it is not so easy to hear screams, but a laboratory with excellent sound insulation.

The scene I saw in Lu Youxun's vision was also a tidy operating room, not a messy cell.

"..."

Chen Long seemed to have some mysterious certainty, which might be related to his sixth sense amplified by his "comprehensive strengthening" ability. He probably thought that I was in this cell and stayed here for an unusually long time. Just like a loner who is afraid of cockroaches and carefully checks everywhere in his home after encountering an escaped cockroach, his expression was extremely tense.

However, he never came to open and inspect the Iron Maiden.

Even if he really thought my hiding place was an iron virgin, he shouldn't have failed to check it. The common sense that "iron virgins can't hide" is not applicable to people in our world from the beginning. It's as if in his eyes, my hiding place is not a device that can be opened. No matter how well a hide-and-seek player can hide, he can't hide in a bare clothes hanger - his attitude seems to say so.

After a long time, he finally seemed to give up and turned away.

I did not leave the Iron Maiden hastily. A moment later, his figure reappeared, and he quickly entered the cell, checking everywhere for any signs of change. Of course not. He stood up with his back to this side, and left again with regret.

A long time passed, and after I was sure that he would not come back, I opened the lid of the Iron Maiden and walked out.

It can be considered that I escaped a disaster.

Moreover, this is almost certain.

My perception here is not only that "what I see is different from others", but it can even produce the effect of "what you see is what you get".

It is said that dogs can distinguish fewer colors than humans, so the world looks different to dogs. That being said, we cannot say that the world that humans see is correct and the world that dogs see is wrong. We can only say that the world perceived by both parties presents different forms.

Even if the objective world is different in the subjective cognition of both parties, the objective world should not adopt double standards in actual interactions. Even if a drunk person mistakes a man for a woman, it is impossible for him to really make the person he mistakenly sees pregnant.

However, my situation was obviously different. The iron key that was supposed to be a "door card" could open both the iron door and the wooden yoke; it was very likely that what Chen Long saw as a device that could not be used as a hiding place was a place that could be used as a hiding place in my eyes.

Could it be that what I see is the correct world, and what they see is wrong? I can't think so. This is their territory, and even a field for scientific research activities that must be based on correct cognition. It doesn't make sense that what I, an uninvited guest, observes is the real correctness.

It is very likely that two contradictory "correctness" exist here at the same time.

Why does this incredible phenomenon happen to me?

When I presented the contradictory "correctness" to them, how did the situation appear in their eyes? Just thinking about it made me feel weird, like there were worms crawling in my blood vessels. I couldn't tell whether it was fear or curiosity.

I moved silently to the door of this cell and peered into the corridor outside.

(End of this chapter)