The next day, in the residential area near Binhai Station, Meng Siyou was carrying out his routine inspection of the aftereffects left behind by the reality instance.
His special ability, Silent Decree, was intimately connected with sound. At this moment, the moment he closed his eyes, he could hear everything around him whispering softly under the influence of his power.
From living beings to lifeless objects, so small as insignificant ants and specks of dust, to towering trees and massive high rise buildings, everything was using its own unique language and tone to narrate to Meng Siyou the subtle movements and changes happening nearby.
This was precisely why the Bureau often entrusted patrol and inspection duties to him.
“Mhm, there’s no distortion or abnormal transformation occurring in any objects, nor has any inanimate matter been imbued with characteristics of life. Everything seems normal…”
Meng Siyou took out the notebook he always carried with him and began to write swiftly. “There are still faint residual energy fluctuations near the station but the overall trend is clearly diminishing. At this rate, the area should fully return to normal within a month.”
After finishing these checks, Meng Siyou followed usual procedure and began randomly visiting nearby residents in his capacity as a police officer.
Most residents gave unremarkable answers. It wasn’t until Meng Siyou arrived at the security booth closest to the station that the on duty guard, after hearing his questions, showed a thoughtful expression.
“Well… last night in the early hours, a strange young man suddenly came here. Would that count as something unusual?”
Meng Siyou’s hand, which had been recording the information, paused slightly. He snapped the cap of his pen back into place and looked up at the guard with focused attention. “What time is it early in the morning?”
The guard scratched the back of his head. “I can’t really remember exactly…”
But Meng Siyou heard the wall clock provide an exact answer, 2:45.
That timing was far too coincidental.
According to the report from the Sound Division, the passage connecting Binhai Station to the reality instance had been active precisely from 2:32 to 2:54.
Meng Siyou frowned, unable to stop himself from suspecting that the unfamiliar young man mentioned by the guard was connected to the instance.
“What did the young man look like? Did he have any distinguishing features?”
Hearing how seriously Meng Siyou pursued the question, the guard froze for a moment, fear slowly surfacing in his eyes. “Officer… you’re asking in such detail, don’t tell me that person was actually some sort of wanted criminal?”
“I’m sorry but that information can’t be disclosed at the moment,” Meng Siyou replied in a strictly professional tone. “However, we need you to recall everything as carefully as possible. Every piece of information you provide could be crucial.”
“O of course, of course. Let me think…”
The guard focused intently for a long moment, waving his fingers in the air as he pieced together his memories, describing the young man’s appearance. “He looked like a male college student, about twenty or so. Quite clean cut, really. He was wearing a black trench coat and a white dress shirt and he kept his head down, staring at his phone the whole time. No idea who he was chatting with…”
“He knocked on the door in a big hurry and said he hadn’t brought his keys or any money, and asked whether he could sleep in the guardroom for one night. He looked well presented, not like a bad guy at all, more like the obedient, studious type, so I agreed.”
“So he stayed in the guardroom, lay down on that recliner against the wall and fell asleep. He fell asleep incredibly fast and very deeply. I leaned on the desk and rested a bit myself. Around five thirty, I got up and did a round of patrol around the residential complex.”
“When I came back again, he was already gone. There were two hundred yuan left on the table…”
Hearing this, Meng Siyou raised a question. “Didn’t he say he had no money with him?”
The guard paused, momentarily stuck, his tone weakening. “How would I know? Maybe he checked his pockets again later and found some cash. Besides, he was already gone, so I had no way to chase him down. ”
So that person most likely left around five thirty and five thirty just happened to be the exact time when the instance ended.
Meng Siyou fell into deep thought. The more he considered it, the more suspicious the person seemed. He tried to extract even more details from the guard. “Did he mention any personal information about himself? While he stayed with you, did you notice anything out of the ordinary?”
“How would I know who he really was?” the guard retorted instinctively, then, as his memory slowly resurfaced, he corrected himself. “Oh, well, we exchanged a few words. He said his surname was Yi…”
“His surname was Yi?” Meng Siyou locked his gaze onto the guard’s eyes and repeated word by word, “You’re sure his surname was Yi?”
“I.. I think I remember correctly,” the guard panicked a little. “Officer, is there something wrong with what I said?”
Meng Siyou fell silent.
The surname Yi made it impossible for him not to think of that old classmate he had reunited with after a long time, Yi Fengchu.
When he thought about it carefully, all the characteristics seemed to match up…
Meng Siyou closed his eyes briefly, a headache beginning to form. He took a deep breath and encouraged the guard, “There’s no problem. Please continue.”
“If we’re talking about anything unusual… he fell asleep the moment he closed his eyes. Does that count?” the guard recalled. “And when he first came in, I already felt something was a bit strange about him, his expression looked half awake, half asleep and from time to time, it was like he was listening to someone talking to him.”
“Now that I think about it, he really was a strange person…”
After thanking the guard for his cooperation, Meng Siyou couldn’t help but sink into contemplation.
First, he had only just met Yi Fengchu yesterday. At least at that time, Yi Fengchu should still have been an ordinary person.
Second, going out in the middle of the night to an area near an instance was indeed irrational behavior and according to the guard, Yi Fengchu looked half dreaming, half awake, even as if he were experiencing auditory hallucinations…
From a mystical perspective, a plausible explanation emerged: perhaps Yi Fengchu wasn’t hallucinating at all but was instead listening to a kind of “voice” that the guard himself could not hear.
Following this train of thought, Meng Siyou grew even more perplexed. What exactly had Yi Fengchu been listening to at that moment?
What kind of voice had been calling him, guiding him, leading him to the vicinity of Binhai Station?
A massive sense of confusion surged up, so overwhelming that Meng Siyou even felt as though he were gradually stepping into a gigantic enigma, one surrounded on all sides by a quagmire, binding him tightly in place.
Suddenly, a flash of lightning tore through Meng Siyou’s mind as he remembered Wen Sheng’s work report.
According to Wen Sheng, he had encountered an entity suspected to be a “Constructor” within the instance, currently using the name Chu Fu, who appeared to have a close connection with that “Narrator.”
Considering the domain the Narrator might correspond to, Wen Sheng speculated that Chu Fu was very likely also an ability user of the causality or destiny domain.
Thus, a bold conjecture slowly began to take shape in Meng Siyou’s heart,
What if the thing that drew Yi Fengchu to the area wasn’t the Binhai Station instance itself but something within the instance or…
Some existence?
If it were the domain of destiny, then arranging the actions and behavior of an ordinary person would surely be effortless.
But Yi Fengchu was just an ordinary person, what value did he possibly possess that made him worthy of being targeted?
“Destiny domain… destiny…” Meng Siyou lowered his eyes and stared at his notebook for a long time.
On that page was the account he had compiled based on the guard’s testimony. If this report were submitted, it would inevitably and completely alter Yi Fengchu’s life.
No matter what the final outcome of the investigation might be, whether Yi Fengchu truly held some kind of secret or not, he was destined to be torn away from his original ordinary life and forced to step into the realm of ability users.
Just like Meng Siyou himself, back before the college entrance exams.
Meng Siyou pressed his fingers against the page, the pressure unconsciously increasing until the paper wrinkled beneath his hand.
Finally, at a moment even he himself did not consciously notice, he suddenly tore that record out.
“I’ve already torn it up,” Meng Siyou stared at the scraps of paper in his hand and let out a sigh. As though finally unburdened, he comforted himself, “At most, I’ll just have someone keep a closer eye on him in the future…”
No sooner had the words fallen than the thin paper in Meng Siyou’s palm trembled once. In the next instant, it was erased by an invisible force, as though it had never existed at all.
After Yi Fengchu left the instance under the identity of Chu Fu, the virtual body constructed by his phone shattered like melting first snow, dispersing into the air.
Meanwhile, Yi Fengchu’s real body, which had been sleeping inside the security booth, slowly opened its eyes.
Seeing that the guard was no longer there, he left a courtesy payment on the table and made his way home on his own.
Walking along the dimly lit streets, Yi Fengchu yawned repeatedly, his spirits low. He thought to himself that if, in the future, the virtual body created by the phone could exist without spatial limitations, he wouldn’t have ended up this exhausted.
Once he got home, his germaphobia pushed him through a quick shower. After that, he collapsed onto the bed and fell straight into a deep sleep, utterly unaware of the emotional turmoil he had caused Meng Siyou.
Thankfully, Yi Fengchu had no classes scheduled for the next day. He slept peacefully all the way until noon before slowly waking up.
After waking, he was still muttering about the brief journey he had experienced. “This instance didn’t have many horror elements, wasn’t terrifying or thrilling enough but I’m very interested in that train and the ‘Shadow Realm’ it leads to… All things considered, it was a pretty decent experience.”
The phone remained unmoved. Yi Fengchu had already expressed his curiosity about the Shadow Realm many times before but each time it had been firmly rejected.
【The Shadow Realm is absolutely not a place you’re allowed to enter right now. Just fantasize about it for the time being.】
“Ah.”
Yi Fengchu sighed at the phone’s lack of human sentiment and tossed a box of frozen ramen into the microwave, planning to hastily deal with lunch.
However, he had barely eaten halfway through when the phone buzzed twice.
【The senior sister who lives next door to you, her luck really is terrible.】 In its always mechanical, rigid voice, Yi Fengchu somehow detected a hint of helplessness. 【She’s gotten herself into trouble.】
“She got dragged into the ‘Amusement Park’ instance again?”
【If it were just an ordinary instance, it wouldn’t be called trouble.】
Hearing this, Yi Fengchu’s expression turned solemn.
If even the phone considered it “trouble,” then for a student who had only just stepped into the mysterious world, just how terrifying and difficult must it be?
✦ ✧ ✦
Nycreth
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
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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