Mystery: Big Alarm Clock Ghroth Path

Chapter 382 Let there be light

Unexpectedly, Rosanne did not answer Roger's question immediately, but instead asked him in return:
"Brother, I also want to ask you, where exactly did you go before?"

"I?"

Roger was slightly taken aback upon hearing this. He had always thought that he had traveled through time after his death, but if that were the case, Rosanne shouldn't have asked him a question like "Where did you go?"

"I do not know."

He pondered for a long time, then suddenly sighed.

Although Roger arrived in the mysterious world, he didn't know where he had been before, so his experience in the "Ring" before he became Roger Abraham was missing.

Am I missing?

Roger then asked another question.

“You went out to work the night shift that day and never came back. Your colleagues said you got off work, and the police checked the surveillance footage on the street, but they didn’t see you.”

Rosanne's face lit up with a nostalgic expression, and then she said:

"The police searched for you for a long time but couldn't find you, and finally closed the case as a missing person case."

"..."

Roger suddenly felt a headache coming on.

"Yes, I think I did go to work at the time, and I even bought a boxed lunch downstairs at the company and ate it with my colleagues, and then... and then I can't remember."

He understood that the so-called time travel must have occurred at that time, but Roger couldn't remember anything at this moment. He couldn't even be sure if he had died before he traveled through time.

While Roger was deep in thought, Rosanne continued:
"My dad, mom, and I didn't believe you were dead, so we've been looking for you for years."

"At first, Sister Xin didn't believe you were missing and was still waiting for you, but after waiting for two years, she couldn't hold on any longer. Plus, her family was pressuring her, so she gave up."

"My mom quit her job, sold our house, and borrowed a lot of money. At first, we only looked for you in the city and surrounding areas, but eventually we started looking for you in other provinces."

"After searching for a while, my mother's mental state deteriorated to an extreme degree. At first, she would only call out 'son' to people whose backs and builds resembled yours, and show a disappointed expression after realizing that the person was not you. Later, she would assume that it was you whenever she saw someone wearing beige or red clothes, because you liked to wear those two colors."

Rosanne sighed:

"In the end, my mother went crazy and was admitted to a mental hospital. Finally, one night when no one was paying attention, she jumped off the building."

Roger listened intently, his fists clenched, and when he heard this part, tears finally streamed down his face.

"Where's Dad?"

Roger's voice choked with sobs, but he still managed to ask.

“Dad was devastated by your and Mom’s passing. He wasn’t in good health to begin with…you know that.”

Rosanne stopped there, because Roger had buried his head between his knees and burst into tears.

At this moment, he only felt dizzy. Although Roger knew very well that the mysterious world was Earth in the "future" and that his parents, sister and lover had long since died, he also knew in his heart that the "Rosanne" in front of him was just a phantom, because she had not aged at all compared to Roger's memory, and even her mannerisms and demeanor were exactly the same.

But he also knew that even if what Rosanne said wasn't true, it was probably close to the truth—because he knew his father and mother very well, and they would definitely do such a thing if they found out their son was missing.

This was the first fear buried in Roger's heart—for any time traveler, it would be fine if they were all alone, but if they had relatives, lovers, or other attachments, they would experience homesickness.

Not only Roger himself, but also Russell, Klein, and even other transmigrators such as Adam, Lilith, Amanisis, and Fabti. Roger originally thought he had suppressed this longing in his heart very well, but at this moment, when he heard about his parents' fate, he finally couldn't help but burst into tears.

Dad, Mom, your son is unfilial...

Roger could imagine the despair his mother and father felt before they died. His mother, who was always nagging but would always prepare Roger's favorite dishes at home and wait for him to come home, and his loving father, who, although demanding of him, spent a lot of effort teaching Roger right from wrong from a young age, playing with him, traveling all over the country with him, and always comforting him with a smile and silently supporting him in difficult times.

Roger had always avoided thinking about these things, because even though he had transferred his emotional attachment to the original world to the mysterious world and wanted to protect the people here, the grief his parents and relatives felt when they lost him should be exactly the same as his own at this moment.

However, they endured more torment than Roger, who already knew there was no hope. Those who were still unwilling to give up must have suffered even more.

The worst part is that in order to find her, her parents didn't leave Rosie anything and even incurred a lot of debt. This means that even if she can return to a normal life, she will suffer a lot, which is something Roger cannot accept at all.

"Fuck your Three Pillar Gods! Fuck your Gherros!"

Roger cursed inwardly. He simply couldn't understand why, out of the millions of unlucky people in the world, they had chosen him.
After a long time, with Rosie's comforting words, Roger finally stopped crying and slowly calmed down.

The brother and sister sat on the island, watching the waves crash against the white island and listening to the sound of the waves.

Suddenly, Luo Shan spoke again, her tone filled with curiosity:

"So, bro, where did you go?"

"me……"

Roger looked up at the dark sky and began to recount his experiences to Rosanne in great detail from beginning to end.

The story begins with Roger's time travel, then moves on to how he thwarted Ince's plot in Tingen, followed by his rise to fame through music in Backlund, his dominance at sea, his becoming the king of pirates, and his participation in a massive war that swept across the entire continent.

Finally, Roger talked about how he helped those who were struggling in the darkness in the "Forsaken Land," and how he taught them astronomy and calendar, guiding them step by step to regain their faith and prepare them to return to the world of light.

Rosanne listened intently, occasionally asking questions, especially when Roger talked about the brother and sister he met outside "New Fog City." Rosanne seemed very nervous, and only breathed a slight sigh of relief after Roger told her that the brother and sister were both alright.

"...Time travel."

Finally, with a somewhat vacant look in her eyes, Luo Shan sighed:
"How wonderful it would be if I could go with you to that... future world with extraordinary powers?"

"You guy."

Roger couldn't help but smile upon hearing this, and as Roger finished telling the whole story, his mood became much more peaceful once again.

He looked at Rosanne, whose face was filled with longing, with a doting expression, and said softly:

“It’s very dangerous there. Like I just said, if Zhou Mingrui hadn’t saved me, I probably would have died when I was advancing to Sequence 4.”

"Yes, yes, if I see Brother Zhou Mingrui, I will definitely thank him."

Rosanne nodded, and then said:
"But brother, don't be too sad. You should think of it this way: although you have lost a lot, you are also protecting a lot."

"The ordinary happiness of those people and families is also under your care. You can turn your longing for your parents into courage, which can be considered as giving them an explanation."

"After all, our parents always tell us that as long as we are able, we should not hesitate to lend a helping hand to people in danger, right?"

“You’re doing this right now, and they’ll be very proud of you.”

Roger covered his face with his hands and buried his head again.

Yes, he remembered his parents saying those words.

Although his family was small, his parents were very kind people. From a young age, they taught Roger to help others as much as possible while protecting himself. Roger's father was even a key member of a non-governmental rescue organization and had participated in several disaster relief activities.

Roger used to think his father sacrificed too much for others, but hearing those words again now evoked some inexplicable emotions in him.

The mysterious world is indeed dark, but Roger always knew clearly what he was protecting. Even though he knew that this world and the world he originally came from were parallel universes, as long as the two worlds were fundamentally the same, he would always have something to rely on.

It is often said that every father has a son, and in the end, Roger seemed to become more and more like his father.

At this moment, even he himself did not notice that the white island beneath his and Rosie's feet had grown slightly larger, as if the surrounding black seawater had receded somewhat.

Faint starlight began to appear in the sky, faint but undeniably present.

"Seriously, is there really no way to get me there?"

Upon hearing this, Luo Shan sighed with some disappointment:
"I thought I could do it."

"That won't work."

Roger shook his head, but then he sensed something strange in Rosanne's words. After a moment's hesitation, he pressed on:

Why do you think that?

"Because I crawled out of the sea."

Luo Shan pointed to the dark seaside, her eyes revealing a clear light.

"This……"

Roger finally realized that he had been talking to Rosie the whole time without thinking about whether there was anything strange about Rosie's presence.

Rosanne told him many things—things that undoubtedly represented Roger's deepest fears—but her purpose seemed to end there; she didn't create any more terror, nor did she die in front of Roger to deliver the final blow.

Thinking about this, Roger couldn't help but ponder the true nature of Rosanne before him. She had emerged from the dark sea; did this mean that, symbolically, she was part of Roger's "secret"?

"who are you?"

At this moment, Roger finally came to his senses and asked.

"The secrets of the past are all darkness, brother."

Rosanne smiled and said something that didn't make sense.

"dark……"

Roger was stunned. He was about to look up and ask more questions when he realized that Rosie had already disappeared in front of him.

A sea breeze blew by, and the stars in the sky became more numerous. Even the moon revealed its silhouette, and it was only then that Roger noticed the changes on the island beneath his feet.

Roger didn't pay too much attention to these things, because he knew it was a sign that part of his fear had been overcome. He also didn't feel sad about Rosanne's departure, because what she had just said was very intriguing.

"Is the secret of the past darkness?"

Roger pondered these words several times, seemingly grasping some key points, but still not quite understanding them.

Most importantly, this Rosanne seemed to believe that she could actually cross this dark sea and reach Roger's side, and she seemed to have actually done so.

“Luo Shan…”

Roger sighed softly, then took out a bottle of drinking water and added it to the kettle next to him.

Soon, the water boiled again, and Roger poured himself another cup of tea.

He knew that something new was waiting for him; Rosanne's appearance was just an appetizer, and all he had to do was sit here and wait quietly.

Several more days passed, and suddenly the moon in the sky underwent some kind of change.

The black mist that had been surrounding it gradually dissipated, and the moon grew brighter and redder.

Most importantly, it started to get bigger and bigger.

This made Roger wary again. He put down his teacup, stood up, and looked at the moon with a guarded expression.

The moon's proximity is not a good thing in a symbolic sense.

The moon grew larger and larger until Roger could see all its craters and feel the pure malice it contained.

In the end, it crashed straight down into the distant sea.

Roger immediately heard an indescribable roar coming from the ocean in front of him. At first, the sound was far away from Roger, but soon it drew closer and closer.

A colossal wave crashed towards Roger, and before he could even react, he was engulfed by it.

The pressure of the seawater was so realistic that Roger subconsciously activated his "Black Knight" armor, which prevented him from being shattered. After floating in the sea for an unknown amount of time, Roger finally managed to climb ashore once again.

The coastline looked desolate, and the moon that had been hanging in the sky had disappeared.

The sky also appeared extremely strange; it was neither white nor black. If one had to describe it, it was like a grayish-white color appearing in the middle of the night, or like a strange, large hole had been torn in the sky.

This made Roger feel very uncomfortable. He quickly recognized that this was the coastline next to Pulitzer Harbor, so he began to walk northwards based on his memory.

This journey took a whole day, during which Roger witnessed extremely horrifying scenes.

It wasn't just ruins and a completely destroyed city; there were mountains of human and animal corpses, many of them twisted, deformed, and dismembered, with blood flowing all over the land. Among the dead were the elderly and children.

The scene was so realistic that even Roger, who was usually able to maintain a clear understanding of the dream, experienced a blurring sensation. For a moment, he couldn't distinguish whether the situation in front of him was reality or a dream, as if his underlying cognition had been altered.

Upon seeing the corpses, Roger's heart skipped a beat, and a strange thought surfaced in his mind, prompting him to subconsciously begin searching around.

Roger soon found Alister and Perseus, who had already died.

The twins were pale, Alistair's lower body was gone, and Perseus was just a head. Roger could sense that they had fought a fierce battle before they died.

Roger's breathing became heavy again, but after what happened with Rosie earlier, he did not break down immediately. Instead, he began searching for the other corpses.

Soon, Roger discovered Mr. Edmund, Mrs. Summer, old Neil, Dunn, and Cohenley.

In addition, there are Alice, Philip, Zeus, and Dionysius.

These people died in various ways, but without exception, they all died extremely tragically.

Roger took a deep breath, and just as he was about to continue forward, he suddenly saw a bright light appear in a certain direction to his right.

Roger had a sudden inspiration, and guided by his spiritual senses, he began to fly in that direction.

Soon, he passed through layers of corpses and saw a rather bizarre scene.

Cecilia, Sam, Lindsay, and Bandit stood with their backs to Roger, their clothes tattered and their bodies covered in wounds.

Opposite them stood three different mythical creatures, confronting them.

First to appear was an angel with three heads, three bodies, and six arms floating in the air, his six pairs of eyes filled with indifference, looking at the mess on the ground as if it were a clay chicken or a clay dog.

Not far below Him was a creature that radiated a brilliant light and seemed to be composed of small fusion clusters bound by magnetic force. Roger could also sense angelic-level power emanating from it.

The third one has no specific form. At first glance, it looks like layers of dimensional shadows. Upon closer inspection, Roger discovered that it seems to be omnipresent, as if it exists in all dimensions.

"Outer Gods and Angels?"

Upon seeing this, Roger immediately realized that, judging from their appearance, these should be three of the ancient angels who were following the group outside the barrier.

"Why are Cecilia and the others confronting the Outer Gods and Angels here? Are they angels too? Or demigods?"

"Where have all the angels on Earth gone? What about Amun? Where have Urolius and the angels of the Church of God gone?"

Just as Roger was thinking this, a ray of sunlight, like a nuclear explosion, suddenly appeared on the horizon, even further away from the battlefield. The light illuminated the entire sky, but quickly dimmed again.

Similar scenes were appearing everywhere on the horizon, some hidden, some with firelight, some with the power of fate, some with bursts of lightning and raging winds.

It seemed that high-level battles were taking place all over the world, and the angels on Earth were locked in a fierce struggle with the invading enemy. However, Roger could not clearly see who was winning or losing at this moment.

As for those gods at Sequence 0, they must be in an even more severe state.

Roger didn't even have time to think about whether any Great Old Ones had been born on his side, or whether he could fight against those Outer Gods, because he saw that the angel, whose whole body was radiating brilliant light, had already launched an attack on his companions on the ground.

The attack came with extreme speed, manifesting as a dazzling beam of light. This beam of light seemed to involve fundamental forces at the microscopic level and the authority of particles. Roger only felt that wherever it swept, both air and light were annihilated, causing one "bad line" after another to appear in space.

With just this one strike, Bandit was reduced to ashes. The tabby cat didn't even have time to use its ability to transfer the "bad thread" to the space behind the door before it was instantly killed—the difference in power between the two was simply too great, and it couldn't even put up a fight.

At the same time, Lindsay's height began to drop rapidly, and her appearance began to change drastically.

In disbelief, he quickly transformed into a woman, as if some branch of fate, different from reality, had appeared.

Immediately afterwards, numerous identities were superimposed on Lindsay. A moment later, this "Iron Knight" silently transformed into a twisted, amorphous mass of flesh and blood, and then exploded with a bang.

As for Sam, he was directly reduced in dimensionality by that omnipresent dimensional power, quickly turning into something as thin as a piece of paper, and then this dimensional reduction reappeared, causing him to disappear completely.

This scene enraged Roger. He instantly appeared in front of Cecilia, whose body was stiff, and then used "Star Punishment" with all his might.

A huge meteorite immediately pierced through the clouds and fell towards the ground, but the radiant angel simply focused its attention on the meteorite, and its downward momentum was abruptly stopped.

Roger desperately attacked the three angels with "Astral Explosion," "Leak," "Spirit and Flesh Blade," and "Mind Storm" in an attempt to protect Cecilia. However, these attacks were of no use. The three-headed, six-armed angel of the "Fate" domain stretched out one of his hands and aimed it at Roger.

At the same time, the two angels from the "Brilliant" and "Higher Dimension" pathways also launched attacks on Roger. Roger felt three terrifying pressures locking onto him simultaneously, making it seem as if he couldn't even move.

"Still not working? Am I still too weak?"

Roger opened his eyes wide in despair, but just as the three different forces were about to strike him, they suddenly stopped.

The surrounding space seemed to be frozen, and Roger himself was completely unable to move.

At the same time, a magnificent and distorted voice resounded in Roger's mind. It was a voice he had never heard before, yet it was extremely familiar to him.

It was a pulsed sound with certain regularity, and Roger understood its meaning the instant he heard it.

Do you want to change all of this?

Do you wish to gain power?
"I can help you anytime you agree."

"Let me out. These angels are just ants to me that I can crush with one hand... I can even resurrect your friends and your cat, and I can drive away those intruders."

Are you content with this, Roger Abraham?

"..."

The voice kept tempting Roger, seemingly knowing his desire to turn the tide and change everything. It kept promising Roger revenge and to save the day, hoping he would give it a chance.

This caused Roger to waver greatly—the crucial point being that Roger was already unable to correctly distinguish between reality and dreams, and was in a state of extreme confusion, so he was now genuinely wavering and considering whether to do as the voice in his heart told him to.

However, at that moment, a woman suddenly appeared behind Roger and grabbed Roger's left hand from behind.

Wake up.

"Wake up."

"Roger, wake up!"

The next shout was almost a desperate scream, which brought Roger back to his senses.

He looked at the three mythical creatures who had attacked him, and listened to the tempting voice in his heart. The confusion and struggle on his face quickly faded away.

"I reject."

As soon as the sound rang out, Roger and Cecilia were simultaneously engulfed by three different high-level forces.

Before being truly hit, Roger glanced back at the girl behind him—it was Rosanne, who had just disappeared. Now, she had reappeared there, the one who had spoken up in time to wake Roger up.

When Roger regained consciousness, the apocalyptic scene had vanished, replaced by absolute darkness.

"Is it water?"

Roger shuddered. He was not actually in the void of Boötes, because he was neither wearing the cloak nor sitting on the chair made of flesh and blood.

All that was there was water, and although it didn't flow directly into Roger's lungs, he still couldn't breathe.

The oppressive, suffocating feeling, and the boundless darkness made Roger realize that the small island he had been standing on had indeed been swallowed by the sea. In other words, he was now completely submerged in the darkness of his subconscious.

The most terrifying thing was that Roger was sinking deeper and deeper—and this sinking was very unusual.

Normally, as a "dream weaver," it would be very easy for him to break free from the ocean of the subconscious. However, Roger was very clear that he absolutely could not leave in that way, otherwise he would never be able to try again.

Roger understood that this was his own third fear, and the deepest fear buried within all intelligent life.

Fear of one's own existence.

Some say that the greatest fear of mankind is the fear of death, while others say that the greatest fear of mankind is the fear of the unknown.

But at this moment, Roger understood that neither of these statements was accurate, because the fear of death exists because of life, and the fear of the unknown exists because people perceive the world from their own perspective.

As long as there are limitations, there will always be a fear of the vast unlimited; as long as a person is alive, there will always be a fear of their own existence.

This is just like Roger before him—on a small island in the middle of a dark and turbulent ocean, constantly fearing being swallowed up, being submerged by non-existence, to the point that limitation is completely transformed into infinity.

It is precisely because of this that people always subconsciously follow the light and despise the darkness, thus failing to see the secrets hidden in the darkness and failing to see the broader future.

Roger had been waiting for this moment. Adam's words echoed in his mind once more, and then he closed his eyes.

The power of the "Dream Weaver" finally activated at this moment, and a dazzling and dreamlike phantom was peeled off Roger's body.

Apart from his figure and height being similar to Roger's, he had very different features from Roger.

He wore a simple white robe and a crown that shone with the light of the sun. In one hand he held an open book, and in the other he held a scepter that carried the wind and thunder.

The shadows writhed beneath his feet, but instead of engulfing him, they seemed docile, harmonizing with the lightning, the sun, and knowledge.

Behind him was a shadow, which resembled an inverted cross or a huge tower with five different branches at the top, but the specific details were not clearly visible.

He was the "Lord of the Stars" who briefly existed and was simulated by Roger using a tributary of the "Chaos Sea".

This was precisely the ultimate solution Adam had devised to resolve the darkness—He had long anticipated Roger's current predicament and knew clearly that this overwhelming darkness could not be properly dealt with by ordinary means.

Therefore, after Roger eliminated the perceptible fears, he had to use special means to dispel the conceptual fears that originated from existence itself.

Due to the limitations of his position, the false identity of "Lord of the Stars" is currently in an extremely unstable state. Fortunately, Roger possesses a portion of the power of the "Chaos Sea," which is enough to support him in making this identity utter a complete sentence.

"Let there be light."

In an instant, brilliant light emanated from the very source of all things. The light came directly from the astral plane, from the essence itself, and even the boundless, meaningless darkness was completely illuminated at this moment.

Roger thus gained a clear understanding of the depths of the ocean, the essence of things that were difficult to comprehend, and everything else. He finally understood just how vast the gap was between the unknown and the known.

He saw himself clearly.

……

After a long time, Roger opened his eyes again in the darkness. He was still sitting on the "throne" he had set up for himself, wearing that warm cloak, floating quietly in the void of Boötes.

"ended."

He took a deep breath, his eyes revealing unparalleled depth.

(End of this chapter)