The Strange Adventures of Hearn the Believer

Huhuhu

My body is so heavy

Haven't caught up yet

Sticky

Is there water on the floor?

Legs can't be pulled out

My waist has sunk in too.

What is that?

Those are eyes

So many eyes

Golden Eyes

So dark, so beautiful, so pretty

So lively and crowded!

I'm so happy today!

Huhuhu

Huhuhu

Hoo hee hee hee hee hee

Aa ...

"?"

I could vaguely hear hallucinations coming from behind me.

That's a howl that only a living being dies makes, a cry unrelated to reason.

Thanks to an experience she had once had helping her father start his car on a cold winter morning, she had unfortunately heard that sound.

The earthquake-like footsteps stopped.

Then, a faint, chewing-like sound could be heard.

Did you shake them off?

Have you given up?

Or

Forget it, I won't go in that direction to check again, no matter what.

The warm yellow light illuminated the corridor, but it couldn't reach the area beyond the corner.

They had just escaped from that direction, but now when they turned back, all they could see was darkness.

We're far from being safe; we need to keep moving forward until we leave this place.

She decided not to waste any more energy on the anomaly around the corner, turned around, and ran forward with all her might.

The corridor is very wide.

Beneath my feet was a soft, reddish-brown carpet, yet when my heels touched the ground, I could faintly hear an echo that didn't belong to the concrete building.

The same goes for that guy. In the few fleeting glimpses I caught out of the corner of my eye, that huge club that looked like it would send someone to the other side of the Sanzu River with a single blow, when he pounded on the wall in a fit of rage, only produced a dull metallic thud.

To conserve her energy, she gradually slowed down, maintaining a pace slightly faster than race walking, as she walked through the wide corridor.

Without a map, you're just wandering aimlessly.

But I did see area signs on the road I was just speeding along.

From time to time, there are vermilion doors on the side of the corridor. After entering the doors, you can see bookshelves that stretch from the ground to the ceiling, with a vast collection of books.

She had previously walked through the natural history section, then the food section, then the philosophy section, and now she was back in the corridor.

Incidentally, there was a lamppost in the very center of the philosophy section, with a brass birdcage on top of it. She used this obstacle to slightly hinder her pursuers during her escape.

As for whether there were any birds living in the cage, I couldn't see clearly because they were running too fast.

If so, it would be truly regrettable; please accept my condolences.

Because that big, dumb guy quickly smashed the lamppost away with a single blow.

"I'm so sorry, little bird."

She silently mourned in her heart.

The corridors are all laid out exactly the same. If you keep walking through them without any specific signs, you will soon get lost and visually fatigued.

The immediate priority is to find a map, and then use the map and signs to find the way out.

It doesn't seem that this place is much safer than the primeval forest outside.

Suppressing the growing unease in my heart, I forced myself to rely on experience and reason to find a way to reach the future.

Well, let's just accept reality for now.

She never thought of herself as particularly strong, but she could always understand the meaning behind the things that made her unhappy.

I understand. So, whatever happens, I'll accept it for now.

At the very least, you can't let yourself become someone you don't recognize.

After a not-so-long period of time, the aimless exploration came to an end.

Her steps faltered, and she could faintly hear the whistling of the sea breeze beside her.

sea ​​breeze?

sea?

There's an exit ahead!

She inhaled the salty scent of the sea in the wind and listened to the whistling of the sea breeze through the corridor. Following the guidance of nature, she quickened her pace.

Her destination wasn't far away, and with each step she took, she could clearly feel the sea breeze growing stronger. She started running again, and after rounding two corridor corners, she saw a door that opened downwards on one side of a warm yellow wall.

Dark gold doors.

It was another corridor that required descending steps, but the sound of the tides, the scent of the sea breeze, and even a faint glimmer of sunlight, so different from the lamplight, could all be found at the end of that corridor.

After spending some time observing and confirming that the end of the corridor did indeed lead to the outside world, she suppressed her rising emotions and swiftly descended the dark corridor steps.

Finally, after passing through nine identical, open, dark gold doors, the girl arrived at her intended destination and saw the unexpected scenery she had hoped for.

It was a familiar, silvery-white sandy beach.

And the endless sea of ​​silver.

The silvery sea was as still as a mirror.

Beneath the bright mirror, a white moon lies hidden deep within.

Above the mirror-like sky, a black sun hangs high.

The mercury-like moonlight and the molten gold-like sunlight shone together on the endless sea, weaving together a strange celestial phenomenon that resembled both dawn and dusk.

She turned her gaze away from the ominous celestial phenomenon and focused it on the beach that was so close at hand.

On the beach, there is an incongruous whiteboard.

In front of the whiteboard, there was another out-of-place boy, holding a marker and a small blue notebook, reciting something aloud.

Calling him a boy is a stretch; he looked to be only about seven years old. His frail, slender figure was dressed in a plain white hunting robe, without a hat. A strand of dark red, shoulder-length black hair fluttered in the sea breeze under the sunlight. His skin was thin and pale, with a sickly pallor. His azure eyes occasionally shifted between the notebook in his hand and the audience.

His audience was naturally a group of respectful yet strange creatures.

They sat upright or cross-legged on the beach in front of the white board. Some were as burly as the red demon from before, some had wings like crows on their backs, some had ears like beasts on their heads, some had claws like spiders on their backs, some had only one eye, some had very long necks, and some simply had no lower body!

What demons and monsters? What a parade of a hundred ghosts!

If it weren't for the clear, childlike voice reciting the text, the girl would have almost already turned and run back.

When she first stood at the entrance to the beach, the boy's pale blue eyes momentarily lingered on her, but he quickly looked away as if he hadn't seen her and continued his sermon.

"Nine out of ten cases of love at first sight in this world are actually lust at first sight."

"Humans are visual creatures, as are monsters; all things with human intelligence are visual creatures."

"If it weren't for the other person's appearance that captivated him, why would he have had the patience to go to such lengths to deepen his relationship with them?"

"Is it enough to travel with a beautiful woman? Perhaps some people think that way, but they overlook human nature, the greed of human nature. After a first meeting, one wants to meet again; after a second meeting, one wants to meet again x2; after a second meeting, one wants to meet again x3; and after N meetings, one wants to stay together forever."

"If life is just like the first sight, what is the autumn wind and sad painting fan."

"Beautiful things often remain in the memory of the first encounter. After that first encounter, greed arises, and the trials that follow are nothing more than blind box opening experiences driven by greed. If you open something beautiful and eventually stay together, others will envy you and call it love at first sight, mutual affection, and a happy ending."

"If a landmine is detonated, oh friend, goodbye, oh friend, goodbye, never to see you again. Then, we'll put on a layer of 'better to forget each other in the rivers and lakes than to share a life together' as a facade to salvage a little bit of face for the heartless."

"In conclusion, everyone, listen carefully. Life is short and fate is full of twists and turns. Everyone has a love for beauty. If you really meet a good match, you can follow your heart and do your best to win her over. Don't pretend to be virtuous while also being a promiscuous woman, and pretend to be a virtuous person who has transcended worldly desires. Don't half-heartedly give in, clearly enjoying it, but pretending to be suffering to save face. Tell me, isn't that kind of person despicable?"

"cheap!"

"That's fucking despicable!"

"Too cheap!"

"Quiet, quiet, quiet, please don't get excited. Time's up. Good times always pass too quickly. Today's sermon on 'Love at First Sight is Equivalent to Lust at First Sight' has come to an end. If you are still interested tomorrow, we can meet here as usual. By the way, tomorrow's sermon topic is 'Why Childhood Sweethearts are Gods'."

"Yay! Childhood sweethearts are awesome!"

"Yay! Down with the tyranny that descended from heaven! The world belongs to Qingmei!"

"Yay! I want to be your childhood sweetheart's dog!"

PAPAPPAPAPAPAPA

As the closing ceremony approached, thunderous cheers erupted from the audience.

After the show ended, the group of demons and monsters who brought their own stools did not dance wildly as they had at the closing ceremony. Instead, they neatly tidied up the fruit pits and peels on the beach, and with their own stools and belongings, they lined up obediently and jumped into the silvery sea with a splash.

It sank and didn't even float up for half a day before disappearing without a trace.

The girl stood silently, a faint phantom pain throbbing in her forehead.

What bizarre farce had she just witnessed? All she remembered was a group of lunatics dancing wildly and shouting "Yay!", accompanied by a torrent of incomprehensible ravings.

While she was lost in a daze, the boy was there alone, cleaning up the venue after the event.

That whiteboard for adult instructors was indeed quite beyond his level; he had been preaching from a platform made of sand piled up beforehand.

Let's call that nonsense a sermon for now.

"Ok?"

After much difficulty, the whiteboard was finally lowered to the bottom of the slide rail and locked. The boy stood on the sand pile and turned around.

surprise.

"So there were still people who hadn't left?"

Two pairs of pale blue eyes met once again.

"Let me think you must be an outsider, right? Poor big sister."

He glanced at the guest who had joined his daily sermon halfway through on the beach, then turned away to fiddle with the whiteboard.

"Poor older sister?"

The girl had some reservations about the word, but she couldn't bring herself to deny it.

Indeed, she's had a very unlucky day.

Whether it's staying up late to sleep in and then being called to school, or being asked a bunch of troublesome things by a teacher who doesn't want to get involved, plus encountering a mysterious disappearance on the way home, being chased relentlessly and ending up in this place.

Everything is terrible.

Fortunately, it seems that I have finally found someone to talk to.

He was still a harmless little boy.

Her mood improved slightly.

The little boy dragged the whiteboard to the beach, just a step away, and then flung it into the silvery sea.