Oh no! I'm surrounded by female ghosts!

Chapter 254 This is the grave I chose for myself

"Come with me."

Chen Zhiwei grabbed Su Ming's wrist and ran forward quickly.

Fifteen minutes later, they stopped in front of a completely silver-white sealing pod.

The screen on the cabin reads: [Number 001: Namebook]

Su Ming looked at Chen Zhiwei with a puzzled expression.

Why did she bring me here?

"Weren't you going to give me a ride?"

"This is fine."

Without offering any further explanation, she released his hand and walked straight into the sealing chamber.

The next moment, an unusual phenomenon occurred.

Chen Zhiwei's figure suddenly became transparent and blurry, like ink stains being washed away by flowing water, fading and dissolving little by little.

Inside the sealed cabin, the book of names, suspended in mid-air, turns its pages on its own.

After Chen Zhiwei completely disappeared, a new line of black text slowly appeared at the very end of the book: [Chen Zhiwei].

Su Ming frowned.

The Book of Names was the first source of contamination to arrive on Earth, causing the "749 Cataclysm" and resulting in the disappearance of millions of people.

Over the years, Bureau 749 has been trying to decipher the book of names.

Even today, they still know nothing about the book of names.

All I know is that the names of the people in the book were once real people.

Are they dead or alive? There's still no conclusion.

Fortunately, the book of names is in stable condition.

As long as they are sealed in the isolation chamber and there is no contact with other people, they will not pose any threat.

Why was Chen Zhiwei included in the register of names?

"Could it be that she knows what the ability of the Book of Names is?"

After pondering for a moment, Su Ming decided to enter the sealing chamber as well.

He did not resist the list of names; on the contrary, he cooperated very well.

As he disappeared.

At the end of the book of names, a new name has been added: [Su Ming].

The dizzying, weightless feeling lasted only a moment.

In that instant, the world underwent a tremendous and earth-shattering change.

The ground beneath Su Ming's feet was no longer the pure white alloy floor of Bureau 749, but an asphalt road.

The dim, old streetlights stretch along the street.

Looking up, he saw an old town with a strong sense of history.

Department stores, video arcades, and grain and oil shops.

Several old Santana cars covered in a thin layer of dust were parked by the roadside, along with rows of old-fashioned bicycles.

The walls were painted with slogans in red paint.

[One person having more children than allowed will result in punishment for the whole family; harboring someone who has violated the one-child policy will also be investigated and held accountable.]

Family planning benefits the present and future generations.

[It's the same whether you have a boy or a girl; daughters also carry on the family line.]

Su Ming was stunned.

It has such an old-fashioned feel to it.

He vaguely remembered that China implemented the one-child policy in the 80s.

The 90s were the peak period of the one-child policy.

"Is this place in 1996?"

Su Ming's Adam's apple bobbed slightly.

He clearly remembers that the book of names was released in 1996.

At that time, a city with a population of millions disappeared.

Could this city in front of me be the same city that has vanished?

But this city was not the desolate and eerie place Su Ming had imagined.

Instead, it was bustling with people and filled with the aroma of cooking.

Cars streamed along the streets, and bicycle bells jingled.

The shouts of street vendors, the laughter of passersby, and the playful shouts of children chasing and playing.

The lights in the residential buildings are scattered, and warm yellow light shines from the windows of every household.

People were coming and going at the entrance of the department store, young people were chatting in front of the video arcade, and the owner of the grain and oil store was busy greeting customers.

Everything here is unbelievably real.

Filled with doubt, Su Ming walked along the roadside, listening to the surrounding hustle and bustle of the city.

People chatting and laughing together were seen, while those heading home hurried along.

Just then, he noticed a slender figure standing quietly at the street corner, looking at him with a smile in her eyes.

It was Chen Zhiwei.

Su Ming's heart skipped a beat, and he quickly went over.

"Chen Zhiwei, what's going on?"

"Do you know the power of a name registry?"

Chen Zhiwei shook her head: "It was just a guess before, I wasn't sure."

"I only found out now that I'm inside."

"The ability of a biographical catalog is to preserve information in a simplified, hierarchical manner."

"The city here is a city from books, and the people here are people from books."

"It preserves everything about that city from 1996."

"The only difference is that they no longer belong to Earth, but only to this book of names."

"But what exactly is the situation?"

"We'll find out soon enough."

Night gradually fell.

Time ticked by, second by second.

The two sat side by side on the stone steps by the street.

But the pedestrians on the street seemed not to see them.

Chen Zhiwei explained softly, "We have just entered the dimension in the book and have not yet fully integrated into it, so to the people here, we are non-existent phantoms."

When the clock struck midnight.

An invisible wind swept through the entire old town.

The next instant, Chen Zhiwei's figure vanished into thin air.

Su Ming suddenly stood up and shouted, "Chen Zhiwei?"

No matter how he called out to her, Chen Zhiwei did not respond.

Even with all their observations, they couldn't find Chen Zhiwei.

So, Su Ming quietly activated the low-level blind spot.

This time he finally saw it.

However, what he saw was not Chen Zhiwei's figure, but a faint black character floating in the void: [Chen Zhiwei].

Su Ming's pupils trembled slightly.

"What's going on?"

The world constructed by the book of names was too bizarre, completely beyond his comprehension.

However, since Chen Zhiwei came here, she must have her reasons.

Suppressing his doubts, Su Ming dusted off his clothes and got up to wander through the streets and alleys of the old city, exploring everywhere.

The people of this old city still cannot see him.

He was like a phantom drifting through the world; even if he bumped into a passerby, his body would pass straight through the other person's body.

At 10 a.m., spatial ripples appeared in a street in the old town.

Three people dressed in 749th Bureau special operations uniforms appeared out of thin air.

The moment they landed, they warily looked around, their bodies tense.

One of the team members, mouth agape and face full of astonishment, asked, "Captain, what's going on?"

The team leader's eyes were serious as he whispered, "The situation is unclear. Everyone be on high alert and investigate cautiously."

Su Ming stood in front of them, waved, and then tentatively asked, "Hey, can you see me? Can you hear me?"

The three glanced at Su Ming without lingering, completely ignoring him, and continued to focus on examining their surroundings.

They couldn't see him.

At 2 PM, the space fluctuated again.

Two 749 Bureau processors appeared out of nowhere.

Their clothes were slightly different from the previous three, and the styles seemed more modern.

However, they also couldn't see Su Ming, nor could they see the three 749 processors who had appeared earlier.

Even if the two groups meet, it's as if there's an invisible barrier between them, so they don't perceive each other or interfere with each other.

At 5 p.m., the third batch of processors appeared out of nowhere.

They were basically the same as the previous handlers: vigilant, investigating, and searching.

Su Ming frowned and silently followed behind them.

The list of names has already been processed by three batches of personnel.

He had previously heard Lao Zhou say that "several groups of top processors had risked entering the book of names to investigate, but all of them disappeared without a trace, never to return, and were completely reduced to new names added to the book."

Could this "number of batches" refer to these three batches of processors?

Su Ming muttered to himself thoughtfully.

"Time in this old town has been frozen on the same day."

"It resets every day at midnight and then starts the cycle."

"But they, along with Chen Zhiwei and me, were not born in 1996, so they can't see it."

"We are in the same space, but not the same time."

To confirm his suspicions, Su Ming returned to the street corner where he had first arrived and observed carefully.

Sure enough, the pedestrians on the street were repeating the same patterns they had followed before.

There are no variables, no surprises.

It's like words that's already written and a plot that's already set in stone.

It was 7:30 p.m.

A slight tremor ran through the space at the street corner.

The three characters 【Chen Zhiwei】slowly emerged, the characters trembling violently, twisting, stretching, and finally transforming into a human shape.

Su Ming immediately walked up to Chen Zhiwei and quickly recounted his findings.

"You guessed right, this is a story world of dimensional reduction."

"Time is frozen on the same day, and they are all repeating the events of that day."

"The three batches of processors who came to process the name list earlier are also stuck here."

"The characters in these books cannot see us because of the different times and spaces."

Upon hearing this, Chen Zhiwei was initially bewildered, then her pupils suddenly contracted.

She immediately asked, "How many times have I appeared here?"

Su Ming said, slightly puzzled, "The second time."

But as soon as he finished speaking, he froze, then immediately realized: "Could it be that in your memory, you have only just entered the Book of Names?"

Chen Zhiwei nodded.

Su Ming finally understood why those processors were trapped here forever.

Because each time they appear, it's the first time they've stepped into the book of names.

Their memories are constantly being reset, forever remaining in the initial state.

Just like Chen Zhiwei now, her memory is still stuck at the moment when she first entered the Book of Names.

The reason I was not affected.

That's because it's immune to all pollution.

Just as Su Ming's emotions were churning, Chen Zhiwei laughed.

"Su Ming, let's stay here."

"This won't take up your real-world time."

Su Ming froze, staring at her incredulously: "You...you didn't choose to enter the Book of Names just to avoid taking up my time, did you?"

Chen Zhiwei nodded frankly: "Yes."