Ironclad: How can hand-crafted knight belts not be considered genius?

Jiang Ning slowly woke up and raised her hand to rub her blurry eyes.

"Little one, where did you come from? What made you think of coming to this godforsaken place?"

Jiang Ning paused, looking in the direction of the sound.

A silver-white rabbit half-mask was almost touching his face, and the owner of the mask was quietly gazing at him.

"Holy crap! It's a ghost!?"

Jiang Ning rolled off the bed and quickly got up to distance herself from the rabbit mask.

"Ghosts? Where are the ghosts?"

The masked man looked around suspiciously, searching for the "ghost" Jiang Ning had mentioned.

The surroundings were deathly silent; apart from her and Jiang Ning, there was no one else present.

After a long while, she belatedly raised her hand and pointed to herself.

You mean me?

Hey! That's so rude!

Who calls a beautiful girl a ghost right off the bat?!

Jiang Ning was slightly taken aback, his eyes narrowed, and he looked the strange man wearing a rabbit mask up and down.

The masked man wore a black and white short-sleeved research coat adorned with irregular prism patterns, and his long silver-white hair was styled into a high ponytail that hung down his back.

Although the mask covered the upper half of her face, it was easy to see that the other person was definitely not bad-looking, at the very least on par with Cocolia.

After a long while, Jiang Ning dusted himself off, slowly stood up from the ground, and bowed slightly to the masked woman with her hands on her hips.

"I'm...sorry...I was being presumptuous...I just woke up, and my mind isn't quite right yet..."

The masked woman changed from standing with her hands on her hips to standing with her arms crossed, and raised one hand and waved it gently.

"Never mind, I'm too magnanimous to hold a grudge against a petty person."

The next moment, the masked woman moved her feet, instantly closing the distance between herself and Jiang Ning, and the rabbit mask moved closer to Jiang Ning's face.

Faced with a stranger so close at hand, Jiang Ning instinctively shrank back warily.

The masked woman ignored Jiang Ning's little gestures and stared intently into his eyes.

You haven't answered me yet!

Who are you? How did you get in? What are you doing here?

Upon hearing this, Jiang Ning was slightly taken aback, and then curiously observed the unfamiliar surroundings.

The air was thick and the surroundings were dark and damp, creating a somewhat oppressive atmosphere.

Instead of answering the masked woman's question directly, he blurted out his own doubts:

"Where... am I?"

"Where am I?!"

The masked woman's voice suddenly rose, as if she had heard some earth-shattering joke, and she covered the lower half of her face and chuckled secretly.

"So, you don't even know where this is? You just walked into the 'River of Oblivion' on your own?"

"The River of Oblivion...?"

Jiang Ning lowered his head and pondered, carefully searching his mind for relevant information about this place.

Got nothing.

"No way...? You really don't know, are you just pretending?"

Seeing Jiang Ning's troubled expression, the masked woman's tone returned to normal.

"That's strange...? How did you get in?... Didn't that guy stop you?"

"Alright, alright... having more company isn't bad either. Tell me how you got in!"

As she spoke, the masked woman looked at Jiang Ning with even greater curiosity, as if she could see right through him.

Jiang Ning remained silent for a moment, scratched his cheek somewhat speechlessly, and then slowly opened his mouth.

Before the first syllable was even fully uttered, the ground beneath his feet suddenly began to tremble violently.

"Damn it! What's going on now?!"

Jiang Ning tensed up instantly.

Since transmigrating, he has encountered more misfortunes than he did in his previous life combined!

God, I told you to let me off the hook, not to come at me!

The masked woman looked into the distance, her expression darkening. She turned and grabbed Jiang Ning's sleeve, then ran uphill.

"Feed...?! Where are you taking me?"

"Stop talking nonsense! Stay close to me! If you really get entangled with those things, even a regular 'Commander' can't save you!"

Jiang Ning had no choice but to run for his life, following the white-masked woman in front of him.

After an unknown amount of time, the two arrived at a cliff, panting heavily.

"You brought me here...what do you want me to do?"

Jiang Ning bent over, supporting himself with his hands on his thighs, and looked up at the masked woman who was also exhausted.

"What are you saying... Do you think I would want to harm you?... Just keep reading and you'll see!"

The masked woman spoke with a resentful tone.

Jiang Ning moved to the edge of the cliff with some skepticism and looked down the mountain.

Just one glance, and goosebumps instantly covered my entire body.

Down the mountain, a dense, dark red tide surged and engulfed everything around them; the clearing where they had been was already completely submerged.

What's even more chilling is that the dark red tide isn't made up of water.

Instead, they were individual souls, screaming, howling, and wailing.

"What are those things...?!"

Jiang Ning stared at the scene that made his sanity drop, and unconsciously swallowed a mouthful of saliva. His back was already soaked with cold sweat.

"Blood Sin Spirit" is the lingering, illusory image of a deceased person's obsession in the "River of Oblivion".

They float unconsciously in the River of Oblivion, endlessly repeating the obsessions of their past lives.

If the living are contaminated, their consciousness will be polluted, resulting in anything from mild mental damage to complete loss of self, turning them into mindless zombies.

The masked woman nonchalantly plopped down on the edge of the cliff, her legs swinging leisurely back and forth in mid-air.

Jiang Ning looked at the mysterious masked woman with a complicated expression. After a moment's thought, he finally spoke:

"Whoever you are, thank you for saving my life, otherwise I would be buried underneath..."

The masked woman waved her hand dismissively and replied casually:

"Of course."

I've been here for a long time, and it's so rare to find a living person to chat with.

I wouldn't want you to become that boring, pathetic thing.

Jiang Ning took a deep breath and began to re-examine this place, which was full of strangeness.

The entire space was empty and deathly silent; there was no sound of wind, birds, beasts, or machinery, only the faint, desolate hum of flowing water.

The distant view was blurred by the void and miasma, and the further away the scenery was, the more it dissolved into gray and white mist. There were no fixed cities or settlements, only scattered dark purple spider lilies with roots embedded in the black waters of the River of Oblivion.

The flowers and leaves glowed with a cold, fluorescent light, the only faint sign of life in this deathly silence.

But even in such an environment, the masked woman in front of me can live freely as if nothing has happened.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?"

"You're quite interesting, little one. Answering my questions with questions? Who taught you that?"

The masked woman braced herself with one hand, flipped over, and jumped back from the edge of the cliff, landing steadily.

"So, as the only two... no, only three living people in this godforsaken place, let's exchange information. I also want to learn about the outside world."

Jiang Ning thought for a moment and nodded.

The masked woman nodded in satisfaction, patted her chest, and spoke first.

"Speak up if you want to know anything."

Jiang Ning pondered for a moment, then looked up at the masked woman.

"The more detailed the information about this place, the better."

"The River of Oblivion is an isolated realm between the real material world and the void of destiny, a critical interlayer between the living world and the abyss of annihilation."

As the living enter, their memories are slowly stripped away by nothingness, their senses become dulled, and their consciousness gradually fades into emptiness.

The deceased's obsession cannot be reincarnated here; they are trapped in the endless cycle of the past reflected on the river.

Of course, I'm an exception... well... and of course, there's also the "Guardian of the River of Oblivion".

Her duty is to guard this place, slay the rampant blood evil spirits, and guide lost souls back to the mortal world.

Alright, now it's your turn for the Q&A session.

What's your name? How did you get into the "River of Oblivion"?