From the end of the world

Chapter 317 The Lightless Land
There are many important turning points in my life, and some of them can be called the "beginning of everything". For example, in junior high school, I stared at an extinguished candle all day, trying to light it with my eyes, and then at a certain moment, I really lit it; for example, I explored an abandoned construction site and found Ma Zao lying unconscious in the depths, wearing a hospital gown.

In my mind, "The Basement on the 15th Floor" also occupies a significant position. I can't forget the indescribable throbbing in my chest when I found that the strange thing really appeared in front of me. Apart from the awakening of my superpowers, it was the first strange event I encountered. The gears of fate really turned - if I were asked to give a romantic description of the experience at that time, with my poor literary attainments, I can only come up with such a vulgar but appropriate description.

This incident should have significant significance not only for me, but also for Chang'an.

Xiao Changan stood in front of the door hesitantly, then gently pushed it. The door was not locked, and it opened with the sound of the hinges moving awkwardly. He walked in slowly.

After the entrance, there is the living room, which is still the same as I remember. The floor has not been cleaned, there are a few wrinkled clothes and pants thrown on the sofa, and the trash can is full of takeout boxes with residual vegetable juice and rice grains. Although Changan is very rich, he lives a very undisciplined life. He can pay for expensive fish and meat when he goes out, and he doesn't mind ordering some messy takeout meals at home.

The messy house is not just because you are too lazy to clean it up, but also because you are too lazy to pay a housekeeper to clean it up. Most of the time, you feel that it is not necessary to do a thorough cleaning, and you may even feel that it is well organized. Anyway, the items you need are placed in the most convenient place for you, and it will be inconvenient to let outsiders clean it up. I understand this feeling.

Between the sofa and the TV is the familiar black plush carpet with a few large brown English letters painted on it, which together mean "carpet".

Little Chang'an leaned over and lifted the carpet, exposing the floor underneath. There was a ritual array with dried and spoiled blood as the pigment, and in the center of the array was a large light brown wooden lid.

In the real world, the ritual array had long been dealt with by Zhu Shi, and the entrance to the basement no longer existed. After that, I occasionally returned to this house to check, and I was sure that the basement on the fifteenth floor had become a place that I could no longer enter.

Because I had memorized the lines of the ritual array and recorded them with my phone, I tried to replicate them in other places. I even hid it from Zhu Shi and sneaked into the room on the 15th floor to do experiments. Unfortunately, I was unsuccessful every time.

The appearance of the basement on the fifteenth floor was probably an accident within an accident. The reason why Agent Kong was able to summon it was not because he had the knowledge to summon it successfully, but simply because of "chance". Even this chance had nothing to do with him, but because Ma Zao's unlucky physique connected me to the fragment of the divine seal in the basement on the fifteenth floor, and at the same time, in order to guide me there, the ritual array that should not have been effective miraculously worked.

The wooden cover was opened by Little Changan, and the gray-white concrete stairs appeared in our sight again. Everything seemed to have returned to the day when we were in the basement on the fifteenth floor, but now I was no longer a novice in the weird world, and Changan had become a child.

"I have imagined more than once how happy I would be when the moment comes when I actually discover something strange. Because then I can finally prove that my ambiguous memories are not false, and the words I told others in the past are not embarrassing lies..." Little Chang'an stared at the deep and terrifying entrance in front of him in a daze, "But... I let myself down.

"I didn't dare go in... I was standing in front of the thing I had always dreamed of, but I was trembling with fear. Then, I thought of Zhuang Cheng...

"If it were him... he would probably choose to go in. Even if he couldn't get any guarantee that he could return after entering, he would still go in without hesitation. I believe he would make a completely different decision from me.

"But... maybe I just want to see him give up in the face of horror, just like I did. Maybe the reason I always accompany him to adventure in ghost stories is because I want to witness the moment when he gives up. If even a person like him gives up in the end, I can forgive myself. Maybe it was with this thought in mind that I told him about the existence of this basement."

Hearing this, I continued: "Then you will be disappointed, because I went in anyway."

"……yes."

Xiao Changan responded in a strange tone, and looked at the dark entrance on the floor for a while, and then he actually took a step and walked down step by step. I didn't stop him because I also wanted to go into this basement again to take a look.

Although this was the first strange incident I encountered, the basement on the 15th floor was not as simple as the "tutorial level" in a single-player game. Even though the water master Xuanwu smashed my body and soul with a dark blow, making me think that I was going to die, it turned out to be a false alarm; and even though the basement on the 15th floor did not show any destructive power, it made all the strength I was proud of useless. It was an experience that truly pushed me to the brink of despair.

However, the basement in this dream is still different from my memory. Under the stairs is a dark room where you can't see your hand in front of you. I tried to summon a fireball to illuminate the surroundings, but it couldn't illuminate the scenery in my memory. It was still a darkness that even light couldn't penetrate, and it even made people doubt that this darkness had no end.

Chang'an himself has never entered this basement in the real world, so of course he has no idea what it looks like inside.

I looked up at the entrance I had come from. At some point, the entrance disappeared, and even the stairs disappeared with it. Xiao Chang'an and I stood together in this disturbing, endless dark void.

This aspect is similar to my memory... While thinking this, I remembered what Chang'an had said before.

Although Chang An has never actually been here, he has had nightmares about it. He said that in the nightmare, he was grabbed by a big hand and dragged into a dark cave. Then the entrance disappeared and he couldn't find a way out.

Xiao Chang'an did not move any further, as if to say that this was his end.

He first looked at the fireball I summoned with a puzzled look, then looked at me and said, "Ah Cheng... are you here to take me out?"

When he called me that, I said, "Are you finally sober?"

"Awake? Yes... I am very awake now."

For some reason, I could sense something was wrong in his tone. Even though I came to save him, he didn't seem happy, and instead, he seemed distant.

"Do you know what happened to you?" I asked.

"I know very well that it was Silver Moon that revived in my body, right?" He said in a calm voice, "I've been watching here, watching what Silver Moon did in the real world. It's just that I can't go to the outside world and I was sealed in this place by her." "Seal... do you mean this darkness?" I asked.

"The basement on the fifteenth floor was a nightmare that I had been trying to escape from. Silver Moon turned it into a mental prison that trapped my thoughts. The scenes you saw before were nothing more than memories that I had in this darkness."

As he spoke these words, I noticed that many iron chains appeared in the darkness, almost blending into the background, and tightly bound his wrists and feet.

These iron chains were merely symbolic objects in the dream; what bound him was not these but this lightless land itself.

Seeing that he was unexpectedly calm, I asked, "Do you know how to leave here?"

"I know. To truly leave here, three conditions must be met." He actually answered, "First, I must find the non-existent exit in this dark nightmare with no exit; second, I must sever the connection between me and Yin Yue and separate my memory from her memory; third..."

He paused, then said, "I'll have to be convinced to walk out of here voluntarily."

"Wait, from what you said...you don't want to leave here?" I asked in disbelief.

He said nothing.

"Do you want Silver Moon to occupy your body forever and stay in this darkness forever?" I asked.

"But...even if I return to the real world, what can I be happy about? Or, will anyone expect me to go back?" He said in a low voice, "Grandpa has never liked me, and Zhu Shibacheng also thinks I am a useless brother. If I were not unreliable, she would not have to change herself abruptly and sacrifice her life to do something that is not suitable for her.

"I once wanted to attract my father's attention. Although he was rarely seen, whenever I got into trouble outside, he would ask someone to help me deal with the mess, so I thought he still loved me... But, he just used me as a vessel to revive monsters. The reason why he vaguely revealed his attitude of valuing me was probably because I occupied an irreplaceable position in his plan.

"And my mother is a man-eating monster. Even she only sees me as a tool to 'resurrect' herself, and has no feelings for her son.

"The friends I made outside were all just a bunch of fake friends who only cared about food and wine. They would only gather around me with a smile on their faces because I was rich and often treated them. Once I really got into trouble, they would run away faster than anyone else.

"Although there is nothing in this place, correspondingly, there is nothing that would make me sad. So, Ah Cheng, tell me... why should I leave this place and return to that uncomfortable real world?"

"What about me?" I asked. "In your opinion, am I not your friend... a reason for you to return to the real world?"

As he spoke, I was thinking hard about the "three conditions" he mentioned.

To find an exit in this dark place with nothing in it - this condition sounds impossible to solve, but it may be the easiest to solve among the three conditions. I am not without a solution. Although I haven't entered the practical stage yet, I still have some confidence.

As for separating the memories of Chang'an and Yin Yue, it sounds quite difficult, but it is not hopeless. After becoming the Great Impermanence, I have a deeper understanding of those tangible and intangible things. Even if I am asked to burn an abstract thing like "memories", I may not be unable to do it. At least with the help of the fake Shui Zhongyue, I can already access the spiritual world of others, and naturally I can also try to directly burn the spirit of others.

And because my flame can identify friend and foe, as long as I burn with the intention of "only targeting Yin Yue", even if Chang'an and Yin Yue's spirits are closely entangled together, I can only burn Yin Yue's memory and keep Chang'an's memory intact.

But I couldn't do it right away because my inspiration stopped me - don't do that, that would definitely lead to irreparable bad consequences.

"——Why do you think you can be that reason?"

As for my words, Xiao Changan first asked me this question, and then continued: "You obviously deceived me."

"What did I lie to you about?"

Although I asked this question, the answer vaguely emerged in my mind.

"I admire you so much because of your unremitting pursuit of strange things. There is a prerequisite in this matter, that is, I think you are just like me, struggling forward with confusion about whether strange things really exist. I thought you insisted on something that I couldn't insist on." Xiao Changan stared at me steadily, "But the truth... is not like that at all.

"You have been a superpower for many years, so you can embark on this path without hesitation. The existence of strange things has been proven by your own existence, so the next step is to find the strange things outside of yourself. Although there are probably many hardships and difficulties that ordinary people can't imagine, I can do things of that level myself.

"You failed my expectations... Ah Cheng, you are not the one I admire at all."

(End of this chapter)