Chapter 56 The Power of Causality

Shanran fell to the ground, and everything in front of her was pitch black; she couldn't see anything.

She touched the ground; there was gravel and pebbles, but the texture was strange, a little sticky. However, when she rubbed it with her hand, she didn't feel any liquid.

I tried to stand up tentatively, but the next moment I saw two glowing dots in front of me.

Those were a pair of eyes.

A pair of enormous eyes.

Only the eyes were as big as a bedroom in a fantasy world.

It's hard to imagine how enormous the whole thing must be.

This is a monster that you will never encounter in the world today.

Based on the bizarre beast cocoon and the long passage, Shanran guessed that what they had just seen was the bizarre beast's lair, and this place was very likely the source of the bizarre beasts.

——Another World

Shan Ran looked up and gazed into those eyes.

With just one glance, she felt as if she had been stabbed, her eyes throbbing with pain.

She, who was usually able to endure pain, screamed in agony at that moment, her whole body trembling.

Her eyes were tightly closed, and blood was flowing from them.

At the same time, a dreamlike voice echoed in her mind.

"Insignificant ants...not worthy of our attention..."

All sorts of sounds, seemingly from nowhere, surged into her mind like a torrent of water.

Hundreds of millions of dreams were compressed together and then ignited in Shan Ran's head, making her feel like her body was about to explode.

She clutched her head tightly; the pain was now much more intense, while the pain in her eyes was negligible in comparison.

Amidst the overwhelming pain, Shan Ran regained a sliver of consciousness. She wanted to use her powers, to fly, to escape, to teleport.

However, she discovered that she had no way to use those superpowers.

Her wings, her water spheres, her agility, and even the spatial ability she gained just before nearly fainting, were all unusable.

They were utterly powerless to resist.

It turns out that when facing God, humanity is truly so insignificant.

Shan Ran's tense body gradually relaxed.

Is she going to die?

Amidst countless indistinguishable murmurs in her sleep, Shanran gradually found her own voice.

Even without superpowers, she still has her hands; even without eyes, she still has her legs.

Even if she were to die, she would bite off a piece of flesh from the monster in front of her before she died!

Even if you are a god, don't think you can easily crush an ant like me!

"Ranran, you're not an ant..."

Amidst a cacophony of painful and eerie whispers, a clear and distinct voice suddenly broke through.

Shan Ran froze. She recognized it; it was the voice that had said "Go go go" in her head last time.

"You are not an ant, you are the heroine I chose."

"Who are you?" Shan Ran suddenly realized something. "Are you this book?"

"This is not a book, it is the real world."

"you....."

"Ranran, focus on the present first."

"Right now? Am I even alive?"

"Focus your consciousness, pay attention to your special ability, seek out the rules, and use the power of the rules..."

Saying these words in another world seemed to have exhausted all his strength, and afterwards he could no longer make a sound.

The clear voice faded, the brief peace vanished, and chaotic, incoherent babbling returned.

Shan Ran tried her best to understand the meaning of the voice.

She endured the excruciating pain and tried to immerse herself in her own mental world.

At this moment, her mental world had almost collapsed into ruins.

Five orbs of light were trying their best to shine.

The chibi-style horned eagle struggled desperately to fly upwards, trying to move the unknown black object above its head.

The chibi-style Xiao Ran leaps and bounds, leaving only afterimages as she moves aside the things pressing down on her.

A puddle, a storage room, two small doors...

Each of the light clusters was busy with its own affairs.

Shanran laboriously stretched out her tiny spiritual hand, trying to gather the five lights together.

Each movement was tantamount to stripping the ball of light from her mental world, yet this intense pain somewhat alleviated the agony caused by her delirium.

She moved slowly, biting her lip so hard it bled, then swallowed it to try and clear her head.

After an unknown amount of time, all the orbs of light finally gathered in one place, then compressed and merged...

"Hmm..."

Shan Ran was in so much pain that she could barely make a sound, yet in this desperate moment, she spared no effort in harnessing the power that pain brought her.

At the peak of the pain, the ball of light exploded into a cluster of white light. This bright light filled Shan Ran's head, driving away all the terrifying and distorted babbling, and finally became a force of law for Shan Ran.

--cause and effect.

The power of cause and effect: cause produces effect.

If I say there is an effect, then there must be a cause.

Shan Ran opened her blind eyes, yet she could pinpoint those eyes and stare intently at them.

She stood up, her back ramrod straight, and uttered three words with difficulty, "You will die."

However, the next moment, her back bent, and she coughed up blood because she could not withstand the power of the rules.

She understood that she was not powerful enough to use cause and effect to kill her opponent.

So she spoke again with difficulty.

"You will go blind."

A buzzing sound came from afar, and when it reached Shan Ran, it violently knocked her back, slamming her against the boundary not far away, and then she fell to the ground.

Amid the buzzing sound, there was an ancient and murky tone mixed in.

Shanran couldn't understand it, but she seemed to be able to sense the pain in it.

It's the pain conveyed by this thing on the other side.

Unfortunately, she can't see it.

How she longed to see the suffering of those in power who viewed her as an ant.

How I long to see them fall.

Before she could make a move, a sudden burst of white light appeared.

Shan Ran couldn't see, but she could sense the brightness in front of her through her thin eyelids.

She didn't know where the light came from.

After what seemed like a long time, a noisy sound came from inside.

Unlike the bizarre and eerie babbling just now, this was a sound that Shanran could understand—the noisy sound of human speech.

"Dye it!"

"Captain Shanran!"

"......."

Hearing familiar voices, Shan Ran smiled. She had succeeded; she was out.

Then she could no longer hold on, her head throbbing with pain as if struck by a heavy blow, and she collapsed to the ground.

——

[Shocking! The first person capable of clearing the fog actually came from the Third Continent.]

[We still don't know if it's Kunwu Yecheng or Shanran. If it's Shanran, then I'm sorry, she's from our Second Continent.]

[Second Continent, please don't try to glorify yourselves. It's been exposed that the people who called Shan Ran their nemesis last time were from the Shan family of the Second Continent. She was kicked out of her family at a young age; don't try to curry favor with them now.]

[Maybe she wasn't driven away, but rather Shan Ran wanted to leave on her own? And the fog might not have been cleared by her. Kunwu Yecheng is an official, with such strong abilities, he must have some special methods. Shan Ran was just an ordinary college student before the apocalypse; even those elites couldn't do it, so how could she?]

[Is the person upstairs from the Shan family? Don't think I won't recognize you just because you're anonymous. Even if it wasn't Shan Ran's achievement alone, it was definitely a collaboration between two people, neither of whom could have done it alone! You think you can erase Shan Ran's contributions with just one sentence? Anyone who wants to say anything bad about Shan Ran, please go into the fog first, and come out alive before you spout your nonsense.]

[So many people have gone in so far, only Shan Ran and Kunwu Yecheng have come out alive, and they even cleared the fog. Do you know what this means? It's possible that in this world, only the two of them, or even just one of them, have the ability to dispel the fog! Now you know their value, the value of saviors!]

[That's an exaggeration. They've merely made history; other superhumans capable of clearing the fog may appear soon.]

[If only Shan Ran and Kunwu Yecheng can do it, won't they be exhausted? There's so much mystery in the world, how long will it take them to clear it all?]

I'm so curious! What exactly did they go through? What's inside the fog? I don't have the ability or the courage to go in. I just hope they wake up soon and reveal what happened inside.

Even if you told me, I wouldn't dare go in. It's too scary. I can't imagine how worried the people waiting outside must have been. I can't imagine how devastated I would be if something like this happened to the person most important to me.

The camaraderie among those teams is so strong; I almost cried watching it on screen. I don't know how they managed to keep going.

Those two handsome guys are so pitiful, they look so haggard. I support Shan Ran accepting them all; I don't want to see handsome guys cry.

[You upstairs don't understand. A man's tears are the best dowry. Our Shanran is beautiful and strong. It's a blessing for any handsome guy to be chosen by her. Just wait patiently for her to pick you every night and don't get jealous and upset Shanran.]

[Has no one noticed Kunwu Yecheng? He's handsome and gives off a sense of security. All the handsome ones have already been chosen. They've been through thick and thin together, emerging from the fog together. He and Shanran are a perfect match.]

If your perspective is too narrow, you'll end up wanting everything.

[Add 1 to all]

[Add 1 to all]

[I've watched that video over and over again. The mist was suddenly sucked into a black hole, and Shan Ran was right next to it, tears of blood streaming from her eyes. She was so disheveled, but her smile was so beautiful! Waaaa, what kind of top-tier beautiful, strong, and tragic character is this? My heart is fluttering!]

[Heartbeat +1]

[Heartbeat +1]

[...]

Shan Ran had a very, very long dream.

In her dream, she was on Earth, and some things she had forgotten because of the long interval gradually became clear.

Shan Ran was found when she was a child and sent to an orphanage. Apart from not having parents, she was no different from others.

She was very cute from a young age, but strangely, she was not liked by adults and lacked affability. No one chose to adopt her, so she worked hard to grow up, study, go to university, and start working.

Life is ordinary and uneventful, but even a simple and ordinary life can be a kind of happiness that flows like a gentle stream.

In winter, I buy a hot sweet potato from a roadside vendor, and when the weather is nice, I ride my bike to the lake to enjoy the scenery.

When a bubble tea shop launches a new product, I buy a cup to check it out. When a new restaurant opens nearby, I meet up with friends to try it out.

Once I've saved up enough vacation days, I travel all over the country. When I have plenty of money, I stay in nice hotels; when I'm on a tight budget, I plan budget travel itineraries.