From the end of the world

Chapter 9 The Basement on the 3th Floor
The person who was most surprised when seeing the wooden lid in the center of the magic circle was not me, but Chang'an.

Before I could comment on this, he couldn't help but let out a strange cry, his eyes fixed on the wooden lid.

After a moment, he shouted excitedly: "It appeared... It appeared! I knew it wasn't just my imagination... Ah Cheng, did you see it too? You saw it too!"

"I saw that," I responded simply.

"...You don't seem very excited?" Seeing this, he calmed down a little, and then asked in confusion, "Aren't you most interested in this kind of thing?"

"I am very interested, but what I see now is just a piece of wood."

I won't "open the champagne" until I see the basement that Chang'an mentioned earlier. Having said that, I was only very calm verbally. Based on the basic trust in my friend, I am now really eager to make a move, and I feel that the blood is flowing faster.

I didn't rush to open the wooden lid. Instead, I squatted down and observed the magic circle on the floor.

This magic circle is composed of a large number of twisted lines and symbols, but it contains a clear order, so people will not mistake it for a messy graffiti. As for Western mysticism, I only have a messy and unsystematic knowledge, and I know nothing about analyzing this magic circle. But there is one thing I can see.

I stretched out my hand and lightly touched the lines on the edge of the magic circle, getting a little bit of the black paint used to draw the lines. After rubbing my fingertips slightly, I was completely convinced. This paint was oxidized and dried blood.

Combined with the clue of "a strange murder case that once happened in this house", could it be that the person who drew the magic circle was the murderer, and the paint was the victim's blood?
Assuming this is true, what was the murderer's purpose and why did he leave the magic circle in this house?
Is the murderer still keeping an eye on this house?

"Do you want to open the lid and take a look?" Chang'an asked tentatively from the side, but he didn't dare to go forward and lift the wooden lid himself.

"Yeah." I nodded, stood up, took the initiative to step forward, and stepped straight into the center of the magic circle.

The wooden lid had no handles or grooves, so I bent down and dug my fingers directly into the gap between the wooden lid and the floor.

Soon, I lifted the wooden lid high up, and the things below came into my sight.

At this moment, I reflexively held my breath.

What appeared under the wooden cover was, as Chang'an said, a dark entrance, and under the cave was a bottomless staircase leading to the basement!

But this is the fifteenth floor!

Changan seemed to hold his breath as well, and then said in a tone as if he was afraid of disturbing something: "Did you see it? I didn't lie to you..."

I stared at the stairs in front of me.

The material that made up the stairs was gray-white concrete, and the surface had not been decorated at all. One part was bare in front of me, while the other part was deeply immersed in darkness, as if leading to an unknown and terrifying netherworld, and just looking at it made me feel cold all over.

For a moment, I felt like countless messy shadows flashed through my mind.

This strange scene was like a meteorite smashing heavily into the lake of my heart, causing a thousand ripples. All the efforts I had made in the past to explore the weirdness emerged one after another.

Even Ma's words from earlier joined in the mix and came to my mind.

——Comparing the current world and the doomsday world, the biggest difference between the two is time and space - the time and space in the doomsday world are distorted, and survivors may encounter strange and bizarre phenomena at any time.

——The end of the world does not come suddenly, but has its signs and preludes. It’s just that people today have not paid enough attention to them.

——Unbelievable phenomena, or bizarre monsters... Things like these must have appeared openly in this era.

Could this be what Ma Zao had said, the sign and prelude to the end of the world?
However, judging from the magic circle at the scene, this should be a man-made anomaly, not a natural disaster... No, wait, I have a preconceived notion. Who said that the doomsday must be caused by natural disasters, not man-made disasters?

Could this strange phenomenon be related to the doomsday sign mentioned by Ma Zao?

Slow down, my thoughts have gone too far. Don't think about things that are far away and lack evidence. What should I do now?
"Changan, wait here for me. I'll go downstairs to confirm."

After saying that, I walked out to the corridor, leaving a "firefly" in the house.

At this critical moment, I found myself still worried about the outcome, fearing that this strange and bizarre incident would turn out to be a deliberate scam. So I did not immediately control the "firefly" to explore the space under the cave, but let the "firefly" monitor Chang'an there first.

As for myself, I first leaned on the railing in the corridor to look at the scenery, calmed down my racing mind, and then went downstairs and knocked on the door of the downstairs resident, pretending to be a visitor who knocked on the wrong door.

While the resident opened the door, I secretly released a "firefly" into the house and explored around inside.

As Changan had described before, there were no descending stairs to be seen, nor were there any holes in the ceiling.

At the same time, I also completed the crucial confirmation by monitoring Chang'an's "fireflies" - Chang'an did not close the wooden lid during this period, and I was still able to continue to observe the existence of the cave. Now I can finally confirm it 100%.

That cave indeed leads to a "space that does not exist in reality."
-
The strange things that I have dreamed of and searched for so long, which I have only seen in fantasy stories in the past, actually exist!
In the past, I had imagined countless times the scene of myself finally confirming this matter. But now, I finally verified the existence of the strange thing with my own eyes, but I was not as ecstatic as I imagined.

It's not because I'm scared, or my enthusiasm for incredible things suddenly ebbs at this critical moment. I think the emotion I'm having now should be quite common.

It is said that many people will not act as exaggerated as in the movies when they encounter sudden changes. For example, if someone suddenly finds out that they have won the lottery, or if someone learns that a family member has died in an accident...they will not be overjoyed or sad all at once, but will have to spend a long time to digest the huge fact.

As if falling into a dream - perhaps this is the most suitable word to describe my current mood.

I couldn't even tell if my feet were firmly planted on the ground.

Today is a very important day in my life, and even this feeling of having my feet dangling in the air is so precious. If I could, I would really like to immerse myself in this dreamlike experience for a long time.

However, I must regain my ability to think normally as soon as possible. The more bizarre and weird events I face, the more I need to keep a clear mind. Many characters in horror stories die when they forget everything else, and I don't want to be that inferior.

Besides, I have to face a very important issue seriously next.

Since what Chang'an said was true, the credibility of Ma Zao's claim that he was a "jinx" also increased. And if Ma Zao really brought disaster to the people around him, then would this bad influence spread to the "people around the people around him"?
In other words, could it be that the reason why Changan encountered strange events is because he is my friend?
I met Ma Zao last night, and Chang An encountered the strange incident the night before. From the perspective of chronological order, Chang An's experience and Ma Zao's disaster-inducing physique do not constitute a normal causal relationship. However, when it comes to strange things, we cannot treat them with common sense, and we must also take into account the possibility of confusing cause and effect.

That is: because I met Ma Zao last night, Chang'an encountered strange events the night before, and his purpose was that he wanted to respond to Ma Zao's disaster-inducing physique today and involve me in strange events - this bizarre cause and effect relationship might also be true in the strange world.

If so, how should I handle my relationship with Ma Zao? -
I returned to the house where the cave was. Chang'an was standing outside the cave entrance with a flashlight, carefully looking inside, as if he was afraid that some monster would suddenly come out from inside. Seeing me come back, he finally breathed a sigh of relief. I had almost sorted out my situation at this time.

"I'm sorry, Changan." I sighed, "Maybe I have implicated you."

"What's wrong? Why do you say that suddenly?" He was surprised.

"I'll explain it to you later." I already had some ideas about how to deal with that matter. "For now, let's focus on the problem at hand."

Hearing this, he stopped asking questions and turned his attention back to the cave.

With the help of the flashlight, I could see the scene below the stairs clearly. The space below was only about three meters deep, with a gray concrete floor at the bottom, and it really looked like a basement.

I observed the cave in silence.

Once I realized the supernatural nature of the cave, it had an irresistible attraction for me, like pulling the plug out of a bathtub full of water and silently watching the water swirl and be sucked into the dark cave, and it seemed as if even my heart was about to flow into the cave.

While savoring this magical feeling in my heart, I took two steps forward, wanting to get a closer look.

Suddenly, someone grabbed my arm from the side. I turned around and saw that it was Chang'an. He grabbed me and showed a rare serious expression.

"You want to go down?"

"Isn't that natural?"

It is absolutely impossible for me to say that I don't want to go down and take a look.

He was dumbfounded and said, "What nonsense are you talking about? I didn't come here to ask you to go down."

"You called me here, how could I not go down and conduct an actual investigation?" I asked rhetorically at first, and then it suddenly dawned on me.

By the way, from my perspective, it is impossible not to personally investigate everything when encountering strange events, and I think other people will definitely see me in this way. Needless to say, Changan, as my friend, must also know my habits very well.

But this time it was different. Chang'an probably had experienced this strange incident first, so he had a preconceived first impression that "this cave cannot be entered". Then, when he told it to me, he unconsciously transplanted his own judgment onto me - he never thought that anyone would have the idea of ​​going down to take a look.

"Don't worry, I'm not as reckless as you think. Even if I want to go down, I won't do it right now."

As I said this, I used my body to block his sight and controlled the "firefly" to fly under the cave.

But at this moment, something incredible happened.

When the "firefly" entered the bottom of the cave - into that "space that does not exist in reality", the spiritual connection between me and the "firefly" was severed, and the "firefly" itself disappeared out of thin air like a candle flame blown out by the wind.

(End of this chapter)