The aquarium was divided into three floors. The first floor was the exhibition area where the majority of visitors came to sightsee and linger. The second floor housed the staff dormitories, the cafeteria and various storage rooms for miscellaneous supplies.
The third floor was the smallest in terms of area, primarily containing the offices of the management personnel. The long neglected director’s office, abandoned and thick with dust, was also located on this floor.
Using “asking about salary related matters” as her excuse, Luo Shengle passed through without obstruction and arrived at the finance office on the third floor.
Seated behind stacks upon stacks of pale, aging financial reports was the financial administrator, a kind looking elderly woman with snow dusted hair at her temples and a pair of thick presbyopic glasses perched on her nose.
What made things even more fortunate was that this elderly lady, despite her age, still retained traditional record keeping habits. After Luo Shengle reported a false name, the administrator began flipping through an old fashioned telephone directory.
Her fingers, rough and dry like withered branches, slid line by line across the pages, which recorded the names, positions, contact information and other details of all the staff members.
It was as if heaven itself was lending a helping hand.
For Luo Shengle, who possessed wind type abilities, if she still failed to glimpse the information she wanted right in front of this elderly grandmother whose eyesight was clearly no longer sharp, then she would truly be useless beyond redemption.
While the administrator bent down to rummage through a drawer, Luo Shengle seized the opportunity and stirred up a faint breeze, swiftly flipping through the telephone directory as she searched for someone with the surname Jiang.
Very soon, she successfully left the third floor of the aquarium with Director Jiang’s contact information in hand.
Luo Shengle’s own phone was unable to make calls within this instance world, so she took out Lin Ye’s phone instead and dialed the number with barely concealed anticipation.
Before long, the call connected. From the other end came the slightly hoarse voice of a young man. “Hello?”
“Hello, Mr. Jiang. Regarding the Whale Bone Aquarium under your name.. ”
Before she could finish her sentence, all that remained by Luo Shengle’s ear was a series of busy beeps. Director Jiang had hung up with startling speed, as though afraid of being latched onto by some devil.
Unwilling to give up, Luo Shengle tried several more times but the number seemed to have been added to a blacklist. It was never answered again.
Just as her spirits sank and she was preparing to look for another way to inquire about the whereabouts of the whale bone, a line of text slowly appeared on her phone screen:
【Change to another phone. Keep dialing.】
【I’ll make sure he answers】 Yi Fengchu guaranteed calmly, unhurried and composed. 【However, I need you to do one thing for me.】
At that instant, Luo Shengle’s mind involuntarily filled with countless examples from the “amusement park” cases where people made deals with unknown entities, grew too deeply entangled and ultimately met their end without even a corpse to bury…
But then she thought of the fact that deep within her very eyes already dwelled a snake from the “The Narrator” and she suddenly felt fearless again
Leaving aside the fact that she had never truly believed this mysterious being harbored malicious intent, even if one took ten thousand steps back and assumed He did have ill intentions, she would have no power to resist anyway.
From the bottom of her heart, Luo Shengle felt that she simply did not possess the qualifications to provoke the “ The Narrator’s” hostility.
So she agreed to Yi Fengchu’s request almost without hesitation. “What do you need me to do?”
【Let him know me.】
Through the neat, upright characters, Luo Shengle could almost imagine His gentle, smiling yet bone chilling tone.
【“Cognition” is reversible. Once he becomes aware of me, I, too, will know him.】
Thousands of miles away, in a mountain foot villa of extreme luxury, Director Jiang added a phone number to his blacklist and muttered under his breath, “What rotten luck…”
“I’ve clearly done everything I can to avoid anything related to that place. Why are there still people who keep coming to bother me?”
“Hah.. ” he exhaled slowly as he looked at the now quiet phone, making up his mind. “I must hide far away. I absolutely can’t end up shortening my lifespan like my ancestors did…”
With that, his whole body relaxed and he leaned back, settling comfortably into the soft, genuine leather sofa.
But before long, the phone at his side rang again.
Before answering, Director Jiang deliberately glanced at the number displayed on the screen. Only after confirming that it was not the same one that had brought up aquarium related information earlier did he let his guard down.
Once the call connected, a familiar female voice traveled through the airwaves into his ears and an ominous premonition nearly made him shudder.
With trembling hands, Director Jiang tried to hang up but it was already too late, the voice on the other end was speaking rapidly:
“Praise be to you, great Narrator, master of the River of Fate, king of the silver white serpents.. ”
Bang!
The phone was hurled viciously across the room by Director Jiang, crashing down with a thunderous noise.
The veins at his temples throbbed violently as he instinctively cursed aloud. His tone was irritable and vicious yet deep terror was hidden in his eyes, his chest heaving sharply.
He watched as the phone slammed into the wall at great speed, the screen shattering and fragments scattering across the floor, no longer able to transmit those eerie words yet his heart remained unable to calm down for a long time.
“Is this guy insane…”
Maintaining the posture of having thrown the phone for quite a while, Director Jiang panted heavily, his eyes opened unnaturally wide. Several vivid red blood vessels slowly spread across the whites of his eyes.
He buried his face in his palms, gradually steadying his emotions. Letting out a long breath, he planned to press the bell and call the housekeeper up to clean this mess.
As he lifted one leg to step forward, Director Jiang merely cast a casual glance at the floor and his foot, suspended midair, instantly froze, unable to move even an inch,
On the flawlessly cut marble floor before him, polished to a mirror like sheen, rows upon rows of silver white text were reflected:
【Answer the phone.】
【Answer it.】
【Respond to it.】
The endlessly repeated words seemed to transform into a snow white web, densely wrapping around Director Jiang on all sides. Because they were so tightly packed, a single glance revealed nothing but a tide of silver white, as though it were about to silently drown him.
These words were reflected on the smooth floor, in the glass windows, even within the crystal goblets. They covered every reflective surface, large and small alike, sparing not even the most intricate, minuscule facets of the crystal chandelier.
And amid this bizarre scene, the television continued playing. The handsome men and beautiful women on the screen maintained their gentle smiles, turning their heads in unison. The lines in which they professed love to one another were distorted into,
“Answer the phone.”
Witnessing these impossible, common sense defying scenes one after another, Director Jiang felt his blood freeze for a split second. Then it surged thickly toward his head, causing his skull to throb, his eyes to redden, while his feet remained ice cold and rooted to the spot.
In that moment, he wanted to scream hysterically: Get away, monster that should not exist in this world! Get out of my room…
But as his trembling lips collided with each other, Director Jiang dazedly realized that all he could produce were weak, whimpering sounds.
“There’s no escaping… there’s no escaping…”
He heard himself mutter.
At this moment, Director Jiang finally acknowledged the fear that had taken root deep in his heart, a fear of the unknown, of mysterious non human existences.
In a daze, he even felt as though he had returned to his childhood: as a young boy, he had been carried into a dim, damp room, helplessly watching as his once strong, vigorous father aged drastically overnight. It was then that he first came into contact with that inhuman, terrifying and unfathomable power.
In his distant memories, his father’s eyes were pale and bulging like those of a dying fish, staring unwillingly at the ceiling. His gradually cooling hand clutched Director Jiang’s wrist tightly, sharp nails digging deep into the tender skin of a child.
His father’s weathered voice was like wind passing through a decayed hollow log, carrying the stench of approaching death,
“There’s no escaping, my son. We can’t escape…”
Even until the moment he closed his eyes for good, his father continued murmuring that sentence.
This became the greatest nightmare of Director Jiang’s life.
These mysterious existences, which humans could neither resist nor even comprehend, had no need to peel away his violent, irritable exterior. They could simply nurture the seeds of fear in his heart, making them sprout and grow, leaving his weakness utterly exposed.
“Mr. Jiang? …What happened? Are you all right?”
At that moment, hurried footsteps approached from afar. It was the live in housekeeper, who had been cooking downstairs and rushed over in a panic after hearing the noise.
Director Jiang came back to himself slightly, only then realizing that his shirt was already soaked through with cold sweat, clinging damply to his back and giving him a suffocating sense of restraint.
The housekeeper aunt seemed unable to see any of the abnormal phenomena. She methodically helped Director Jiang onto the sofa, then began cleaning up the phone fragments scattered across the floor.
…Was it over?
Collapsed weakly on the sofa, a glimmer of hopeful light flashed through Director Jiang’s eyes. Clinging to wishful thinking, he instinctively retreated, extremely unwilling to answer that number inquiring about the aquarium.
However, when the housekeeper passed by a glass window, her reflected body continued walking forward yet her head turned slowly toward Director Jiang at an unnatural angle. The corners of her mouth lifted as she silently shaped the words:
【Remember to answer the phone.】
In an instant, every hair on his body stood on end. Director Jiang scrambled and crawled to find a spare phone, swapped in his usual SIM card and promised repeatedly through tears, “I will, I’ll do exactly as you instruct…”
✦ ✧ ✦
Nycreth
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
Coffee first. Existential crisis later.
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
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ChaptersChapter 1 · Mysterious letterChapter 2 · Divine MessagesChapter 3 · Gamer ForumChapter 4 · Invitation from GodChapter 5 · JudgeChapter 6 · TerminalChapter 7 · Destruction of recordsChapter 8 · Whale Bone Aquarium (1)Chapter 9 · Whale Bone Aquarium (2)Chapter 10 · Whale Bone Aquarium (3)Chapter 11 · Whale Bone Aquarium (4)Chapter 12 · Whale Bone Aquarium (5)Chapter 13 · Whale Bone Aquarium (6)Chapter 14 · Whale Bone Aquarium (7)Chapter 15 · Whale Bone Aquarium (8)Chapter 16 · Whale Bone Aquarium (9)Chapter 17 · Whale Bone Aquarium (10)Chapter 18 · Whale Bone Aquarium (11)Chapter 19 Part 1 · Whale Bone Aquarium (12)Chapter 19 Part 2 · Whale Bone Aquarium (12)Chapter 20 · Interlude: His ApostlesChapter 21 · Echoes in the pupa (1)Chapter 22 · Echoes in the pupa (2)Chapter 23 · Echoes in the Pupa (3)Chapter 24 · Echoes in the Pupa (4)Chapter 25 · Echoes in the Pupa (5)Chapter 26 · Echoes in the Pupa (6)Chapter 27 · Echoes in the Pupa (7)Chapter 28 · Echoes in the Pupa (8)Chapter 29 · Echoes in the Pupa (9)Chapter 30 · Echoes in the Pupa (10)Chapter 31 · Echoes in the Pupa (11)Chapter 32 · Echoes in the Pupa (12)Chapter 33 · Echoes in the Pupa (13)Chapter 34 · Interlude: Investigation by the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs (1)Chapter 35 · Interlude: Investigation by the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs (2)Chapter 36 · Interlude: Investigation by the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs (3)Chapter 37 · Small World: God’s Chessboard (1)Chapter 38 · Small World: God’s Chessboard (2)Chapter 39 · Small World: God’s Chessboard (3)Chapter 40 · Small World: God’s Chessboard (4)Chapter 41 · Advertisement Coming Soon (1)Chapter 42 · Advertisement Coming Soon (2)Chapter 43 · Advertisement Coming Soon (3)Chapter 44 · Advertisement Coming Soon (4)Chapter 45 · Advertisement Coming Soon (5)Chapter 46 · Advertisement Coming Soon (6)Chapter 47 · Advertisement Coming Soon (7)Chapter 48 · Advertisement Coming Soon (8)Chapter 49 · Advertisement Coming Soon (9)Chapter 50 · Advertisement Coming Soon (10)Chapter 51 · Advertisement Coming Soon (11)Chapter 52 · Advertisement Coming Soon (12)Chapter 53 · Advertisement Coming Soon to EndChapter 54 · Interlude – Tonight No One Sleeps (1)Chapter 55 · Interlude – Tonight No One Sleeps (2)Chapter 56 · Interlude – Tonight No One Sleeps (3)Chapter 57 · Interlude – Tonight No One Sleeps (4)Chapter 58 · Childhood Ghost Stories (1)Chapter 59 · Childhood Ghost Stories (2)Chapter 60 · Childhood Ghost Stories (3)Chapter 61 · Childhood Ghost Stories (4)Chapter 62 · Childhood Ghost Stories (5)Chapter 63 · Childhood Ghost Stories (6)Chapter 64 · Childhood Ghost Stories (7)Chapter 65 · Childhood Ghost Stories (8)Chapter 66 · Childhood Ghost Stories (9)Chapter 67 · Childhood Ghost Stories (10)Chapter 68 · Childhood Ghost Stories (11)Chapter 69 · Childhood Ghost Stories (12)Chapter 70 · Childhood Ghost Stories (13)Chapter 71 · Childhood Ghost Stories (14)Chapter 72 · Childhood Ghost Stories (15)Chapter 73 · Childhood Ghost Stories (16)Chapter 74 · Childhood Ghost Stories (17)Chapter 75 · Childhood Ghost Stories (18)Chapter 76 · Childhood Ghost Stories (19)Chapter 77 · Childhood Ghost Stories (20)Chapter 78 · Childhood Ghost Stories (Complete)Chapter 79 · Interlude: His Kingdom (1)Chapter 80 · Interlude: His Kingdom (2)Chapter 81 · Interlude: An Epic of Faith (1)Chapter 82 · Interlude: An Epic of Faith (2)Chapter 83 · Interlude: An Epic of Faith (3)Chapter 84 · Interlude: An Epic of Faith (4)Chapter 85 · Interlude: An Epic of Faith (5)Chapter 86 · Interlude: An Epic of Faith (Complete)Chapter 87 · Fate casually rolls the dice (1)Chapter 88 · Fate Casually rolls the dice (2)Chapter 89 · Fate Casually rolls the dice (3)Chapter 90 · Fate Casually rolls the dice (4)Chapter 91 · Fate casually tosses the dice (5)Chapter 92 · Fate casually tosses the dice (6)Chapter 93 · Fate casually tosses the dice (7)Chapter 94 · Fate casually tosses the dice (8)Chapter 95 · Fate casually tosses the dice (9)Chapter 96 · Fate casually tosses the dice (10)Chapter 97 · Fate Casually tosses the dice (11)Chapter 98 · Fate casually tosses the dice (12)Chapter 99 · Fate casually tosses the dice (13)Chapter 100 · Fate casually tosses the dice (14)Chapter 101 · Fate casually tosses the dice (15)Chapter 102 · Fate casually tosses the dice (16)Chapter 103 · Fate casually tosses the dice (17)Chapter 104 · Fate casually tosses the dice (18)Chapter 105 · Fate casually tosses the dice (19)Chapter 106 · Fate casually tosses the dice (20)Chapter 107 · Fate casually tosses the dice (21)Chapter 108 · Fate casually tosses the dice (The End)Chapter 109 · Interlude