Chapter 317 The Land Without Light

There have been many important turning points in my life, some of which can be called "the beginning of everything." For example, the moment when I was in junior high school, I would stare at the extinguished candles all day long, trying to light them with my eyes, and then at some point I actually lit one; or the moment when I was exploring an abandoned construction site and found Ma Zao lying unconscious in a hospital gown deep inside.

In my heart, the "basement on the fifteenth floor" also holds a significant place. I can't forget the indescribable pounding in my chest when I discovered the strange object actually appearing before my eyes. Aside from the awakening of my superpowers, that was the first strange event I encountered. The gears of fate had truly turned—if I were to give a romantic description of that experience, with my meager literary skills, I could only offer this vulgar, yet perfectly apt, description.

This incident should have significant meaning not only for me, but also for Chang'an.

Xiao Chang'an stood hesitantly in front of the door, then gently pushed it open. The door wasn't locked, and it opened with a clunky sound as the hinges turned. He slowly walked inside.

After passing through the entryway, you enter the living room, which is exactly as I remember it. The floor hasn't been cleaned much, a few wrinkled clothes and pants are thrown on the sofa, and the trash can is full of takeout boxes with leftover food scraps and rice grains. Although Chang'an is very rich, he leads an extremely dissolute life. He can spend money to treat people to expensive meals outside, and he doesn't mind ordering random takeout food at home.

The messy house isn't just because the owner is too lazy to clean it, nor is it because they're too lazy to hire a cleaning service. Most likely, they feel it doesn't warrant a major cleaning, and might even think it's perfectly organized, since everything they need is in its most convenient place, and having someone else tidy it up would only make things more inconvenient. I can understand that feeling.

Between the sofa and the television was the familiar black plush rug, with several large brown English letters drawn on it, which together spelled out "rug".

Xiao Chang'an bent down and lifted the carpet, revealing the floor beneath. There, a ritual array was painted with dried, decaying blood, and at the center of the array was a large, light brown wooden lid.

In the real world, the ritual array had long been dealt with by Zhu Shi, and the entrance to the basement no longer existed. I would occasionally return to this house to check after that, and I could confirm that the fifteenth-floor basement was now a place I could no longer enter.

Because I had memorized the lines of the ritual circle and taken photos of them with my phone, I tried to replicate it in other places. I even secretly went into the fifteenth-floor room to conduct experiments, without Zhu Shi's knowledge. Unfortunately, I never succeeded.

The appearance of the fifteenth-floor basement was likely an accident within an accident. Detective Kong was able to summon it not because he possessed the knowledge to summon it successfully, but merely by chance. Even this chance had nothing to do with him; rather, it was Asahi's jinxed nature that connected me to the divine seal fragment in the fifteenth-floor basement, and in order to guide me there, the ritual array that shouldn't have worked miraculously activated.

Xiao Chang'an opened the wooden lid, and the gray-white concrete stairs reappeared in our view. Everything seemed to have returned to the day we explored the fifteenth-floor basement together, except that I was no longer a novice in this strange world, and Chang'an had become a child.

“I’ve imagined more than once how happy I would be when the moment I finally discover the strange thing arrives. Because then I could finally prove that my ambiguous memories weren’t false, and that the words I told others in the past weren’t shameful lies…” Xiao Chang’an stared blankly at the deep and eerie entrance in front of her. “But… I’ve disappointed myself.”

"I was too scared to go in... Even though I was standing in front of something I'd always dreamed of, I was trembling with fear. Then, I thought of Zhuang Cheng..."

"If it were him... he would probably choose to go in. Even without any guarantee that he could return the way he came, he would still go in without hesitation. I believe he would make a completely different choice from me."

"But...maybe I want to see him give up in the face of something terrifying, just like I did. Perhaps the reason I've been accompanying him on these adventures to haunted places is because I want to witness the moment he gives up. If even someone like him gives up in the end, I can forgive myself. Maybe that's why I told him about this basement."

Hearing this, I continued, "Then you'll be disappointed, because I still went in."

"……yes."

Xiao Chang'an responded in a strange tone, staring at the dark entrance on the floor for a long while before actually taking steps down into the basement. I didn't stop him, because I also wanted to go back into the basement and take another look.

Although this was the first strange event I encountered, the fifteenth-floor basement was not as simple as a tutorial level in a single-player game. Even though the Water Master Xuanwu shattered my entire body and soul with a single strike, making me think I was about to die, it turned out to be just a false alarm. The fifteenth-floor basement, while not exhibiting any destructive power, rendered all my proud strength useless. That was a truly desperate experience that pushed me to the brink.

However, this basement in the dream was ultimately different from my memory. Below the stairs was a pitch-black room where you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. I tried to summon a fireball to illuminate the surroundings, but it couldn't illuminate the scenery I remembered. It was still a darkness that even light couldn't penetrate, making me wonder if this darkness had no end.

Chang'an himself had never entered this basement in the real world, so of course he wouldn't know what the inside looked like.

I looked up at the entrance I had come from. Sometime during the night, the entrance had vanished, along with the stairs. Xiao Chang'an and I stood together in this unsettling, boundless, dark void.

This is similar to my memory... As I was thinking this, I remembered what Chang'an had said before.

Although Chang'an had never actually entered this place, he had had related nightmares. He said that in his nightmares, he was grabbed by a giant hand and pulled into a dark cave. Afterwards, the entrance disappeared, and he couldn't find his way out.

Xiao Chang'an stopped moving, as if to say that this was its final destination.

He first glanced at the fireball I summoned with a puzzled look, then looked at me and said, "Ah Cheng... are you here to take me out of here?"

When he addressed me that way, I said, "So you've finally come to your senses?"

"Sober? Yes... I am very sober right now."

For some reason, I sensed something was off about his tone. Even though I had come to save him, he didn't seem happy; instead, he exuded a sense of distance.

"Do you know what's happened to you?" I asked.

“I know very well that Silver Moon has been revived within me, right?” he said in a calm voice. “I’ve been watching from here all along, watching what Silver Moon is doing in the real world. It’s just that I can’t go outside; she’s sealed me in this place.”

“Seal…you mean this darkness?” I asked.

"The basement on the fifteenth floor was a nightmare I once tried to escape. Silver Moon turned it into a mental prison, trapping my thoughts. The scenes you saw before were just memories I had in that darkness."

As he spoke these words, I noticed that many iron chains, almost blending into the background, had appeared in the darkness and were tightly binding his hands and feet.

These iron chains were merely symbolic objects in the dream; what truly bound him was not these chains, but the land of darkness itself.

Seeing his unexpected composure, I took the opportunity to ask, "Do you know how to leave from here?"

“I know. To truly leave this place, three conditions must be met.” He actually answered, “First, I must find the non-existent exit in this dark nightmare with no way out; second, I must sever the connection between myself and Silver Moon, separating my memories from hers; third…”

He paused for a moment, then said, "You have to convince me to leave here willingly."

"Wait a minute, from what you're saying... you don't want to leave here?" I asked incredulously.

He remained silent.

"Do you want Silver Moon to keep possessing your body forever, while you remain in this darkness forever?" I asked.

“But… even if I return to the real world, what happy things will there be? Or rather, will anyone expect me to go back?” he said in a low voice. “Grandpa has never liked me, and Zhu Shiba probably thinks I’m a useless older brother. If I weren’t unreliable, she wouldn’t have had to force herself to change and waste her life doing something so unsuitable for her.”

“I used to try to get my father’s attention. Although he was rarely seen, whenever I caused trouble outside, he would ask someone to clean up my mess, so I thought he still loved me... But he only used me as a vessel to resurrect monsters. The reason he vaguely showed that he valued me was probably just because I occupied an irreplaceable position in his plan.”

"My mother is a man-eating monster, and even she only uses me as a tool to 'resurrect' herself, and has no feelings for me as her son."

"The friends I make outside are all hypocritical fair-weather friends. They only gather around me with smiles because I'm rich and often treat them to meals. Once I get into trouble, they all run away faster than anyone else."

"This place may have nothing, but correspondingly, there's nothing that would make me sad. So, Cheng, tell me... why do I want to leave this place and return to that painful reality?"

“And what about me?” I asked. “In your eyes, am I not your friend…and not a reason for you to return to the real world?”

As he spoke, I racked my brains trying to figure out the "three conditions" he mentioned.

Finding an exit from this desolate, dark place—this condition sounds daunting, but it might be the easiest of the three. I'm not entirely without a solution. Although I haven't yet put it into practice, I'm still quite confident.

As for separating Chang'an and Yinyue's memories, it sounds incredibly difficult, but it's not entirely hopeless. After becoming the Great Impermanence, I gained a deeper understanding of tangible and intangible things. Even if it meant burning something as abstract as "memory," I might not be unable to do it. At least with the aid of the fake Moon in the Water, I can now access the spiritual world of others, and naturally, I can also try to directly burn their spirits.

Because my flames can distinguish friend from foe, as long as I burn them with the intention of "targeting only Silver Moon," even if Chang'an and Silver Moon's spirits are closely intertwined, I can still burn away Silver Moon's memories and preserve Chang'an's memories intact.

But I couldn’t act immediately because my inspiration stopped me—I mustn’t do it, that would absolutely cause irreparable damage.

"Why do you think you can be that reason?"

In response to my words, Xiao Chang'an first asked me this question, and then continued, "You have clearly lied to me."

"What did I deceive you about?"

Although I asked the question, the answer was already vaguely clear in my mind.

“I admired you so much because of your relentless pursuit of the strange. But there was a premise to this: I assumed that you, like me, were struggling forward with uncertainty about whether the strange truly existed. I thought you were persisting in something I couldn’t.” Xiao Chang’an stared at me intently. “But the truth… is not like that at all.”

"You've been a superhuman for many years, which is why you can embark on this path without hesitation. The existence of strange beings has been proven by your own existence, so the next step is simply to find the strange beings outside of yourself. Although there will probably be many hardships and sufferings that ordinary people can hardly imagine, I can do that myself."

"You have let me down... Cheng, you are not the person I admire at all."

(End of this chapter)