Chapter 19 First Steps into the Apocalypse 4
My right hand was raised with my palm facing up. When I activated my superpower, a large amount of flames appeared out of thin air in my palm.
The flames converged in the center, forming a large fireball with a diameter of nearly half a meter.
Superpowers are a concept found in many fantasy stories. Some superpowers can stop time, some can control consciousness, and some can modify the body. Some superpowers also have complex mechanisms that require hundreds or thousands of words to explain, leaving the audience confused.
Unlike those superpowers that are either powerful or complex, my superpower is extremely simple.
In short, it's about "manipulating flames".
They can summon and manipulate flames out of thin air, or control existing flames within their field of vision. It's so simple it's almost classic, to the point that almost every fantasy story with superpowers as its theme features an early character who can manipulate fire. And those fictional characters can do at least 80-90% of what they can do, if not everything.
The "fireflies" I summoned earlier were essentially tiny flames. And there's a reason why they could be used as reconnaissance tools.
For a normal flame to be produced, it requires the three elements of combustion: fuel, oxidizer, and heat. But my flames arise spontaneously, without needing those material conditions. Or rather, all the material conditions have actually been replaced by my spirit.
My spirit is fuel, accelerant, and heat.
In other words, my flame is my spirit. The "fireflies" scattered outwards are "myself" scattered outwards, naturally able to perceive the surroundings on my behalf.
At the same time, it is only natural that since it is fire, it must possess powerful destructive force.
I slowly lifted the raging fireball, which then collapsed towards its center, transforming into a blazing ball of light the size of an eyeball. I then pointed forward, and the ball of light crashed into the solid concrete wall before me.
Without obstruction or explosion, the high-density sphere of light effortlessly pierced the concrete wall, like a spoon plunging into tofu, and arrived in the space outside the basement.
Through my spiritual connection with the flames, I was able to obtain a view of the outside of the basement.
Then, I couldn't help but hold my breath.
There was nothing there.
There was nothing in the space outside the basement.
There was no earth, no sky; no color, no sound... only endless darkness.
From an external perspective, the basement I was in was just a small concrete box suspended in the vast void, and nothing else. Even maneuvering the light sphere to get directly below it, I couldn't find any substance supporting this "concrete box." There wasn't even anything else, not even the most basic elements like air and gravity.
It's like outer space, but at least outer space has countless stars, harmful cosmic radiation, and extremely thin cosmic dust, so in a sense it's quite "lively".
But this place is different; it is utterly desolate, a void.
It was as if all matter had met its end; this was a time and space that had already ended.
Loneliness, terror, suffocation.
The boundless emptiness seemed to transform into an endless suffocation, flooding my respiratory tract. This basement was like a tiny speck of dust in the vast afterlife, and I was the only passenger on that dust, ready to turn into meaningless bubbles at any moment, dissolving without a trace in the void.
After standing there in a daze for a long time, I dispersed the external light sphere and my perspective, and sat down on the ground to try to sort out my thoughts.
The approach of "returning to the real world from the outside" is definitely not going to work.
Fortunately, despite the emptiness outside, the air in the basement did not leak out through the opening I made. Although I can move normally in a vacuum environment once I enter "Second Form," and sealing such a small opening is not very difficult.
To find a bit of humor in this situation, we can deduce another truth from this phenomenon: certain physical laws don't apply in this place. This discovery can be considered a kind of "exploratory gain."
So what should we do next? Do we really need to re-examine the conditions under which caves appear?
If there were still a connection between me and the "firefly" in the real world, I could try other methods, but the connection has long been broken.
It's ironic, but when Chang'an came to my door this morning, I was thinking that if Chang'an really encountered some strange event, I would have the opportunity to use my superpowers to show off my skills, and in the process, I would be like a comic book character, demonstrating my power while explaining my "ability settings"... Sure enough, life is full of disappointments, and my superpowers were completely useless in this situation.
Someone once said, "All fear stems from insufficient firepower," but even with the most powerful firepower, it would probably be helpless in the current situation.
Perhaps this is the predicament I was destined to face, a fate that was bound to arrive sooner or later.
My superpowers are undeniably powerful and straightforward, something anyone can easily understand. However, strange and unpredictable things can kill in countless ways; no one knows how they might strike. Even with a spear capable of destroying everything and a shield that can defend against everything, there are still many things I cannot do.
I stood up, supporting myself on my knees, and paced around, looking for other useful clues on the shelves.
Actually, those yellow cardboard boxes on the shelves weren't entirely empty; some still contained small items, such as cartoon stickers, plastic keychains, and candles, none of which seemed to offer any real help in the current situation. Before, I would have been excited to take them home as souvenirs, but now I had no such intention.
To concentrate, I stopped using the "fireflies" that provided light from all directions and instead lit a candle I'd picked up from the shelf, placing it on the floor. The basement returned to darkness, but the small light source in the darkness helped me focus and also brought back memories of the past.
Speaking of which, back in my third year of junior high, when I first awakened my superpowers, the trigger was also related to candles...
People who have had near-death experiences often say that when a person is about to die, they will involuntarily recall the past.
Could it be that my sudden recollection of the past is because I knew I was going to die here?
Time continued to pass second by second, and an unknown amount of time had passed.
My analysis of the predicament remains completely unsuccessful.
Since I'm not very hungry yet, it means there's still a long time until dawn.
However, this is a spacetime outside the real world, where the flow of time might also follow an alien rule. Perhaps more than a day has already passed in the outside world, just like the story of "Watching Chess and Rotten Axe Handle" in classical tales of the strange and supernatural. I have been abandoned by the world in this otherworldly place.
Marxism says that man is the sum total of social relations. At this moment, I am undoubtedly cut off from all ties with society, and I don't even know if I can ever return. If I were to die like this, it would be less like dying as a human being and more like dying as an unnamed animal.
Perhaps influenced by the strange environment, I even had a stranger thought—could it be that I have been a resident of this basement from the very beginning, never having lived in the real world, and that my life so far has just been a hallucination?
I felt my pocket; inside was the house key. But this didn't prove I'd ever lived in a house outside, nor did it prove the "real world" I remembered existed. A key is a pair with a lock, and there were no locks here, so it couldn't prove this metal object was a key.
ID cards and loose change are the same; these things only have meaning within society. Once separated from society, they are merely objects with a special shape—just like me now.
All meanings built upon the concept of "society" vanish here. Whether it's these material things, my personality, or even the clothes I'm wearing, everything seems to be dissolved by this dim space, revealing the most primal and natural nakedness.
Amidst a strange tremor, I felt a slightly intoxicating sensation. In this realm isolated from everything, I felt as if I were gradually transforming into some unimaginable, alien existence.
Those who live in solitude are either wild beasts or gods.
Incredibly, although I am now filled with fear, anxiety, and pessimism, I feel no regret or panic.
Because I came here with determination and awareness.
As I've mentioned before, one reason I've been seeking adventures beyond reality is that I'm very curious to know what I'll be like then. To put it bluntly, I think this could perhaps be categorized as a kind of "desire for enlightenment." And now, facing adversity, facing despair, facing the imminent, solitary death... I seem to have finally found a more authentic version of myself.
In my daily life, I might be proud of who I am now, and feel excited and happy, but I don't have that kind of passionate emotion right now.
It's not that I've been controlled by negative emotions; on the contrary, I feel an unprecedented sense of relief towards myself right now.
What a moment of clarity, like the sun breaking through the clouds. No matter how many negative emotions well up in one's heart, they cannot affect this pure state of mind.
However, I would never say something like, "If I hear the Way in the morning, I can die content in the evening."
I am very greedy, and this level of reward cannot satisfy my appetite.
I will use my own strength to "break through" this predicament and prove that I am not just an early-stage character who will easily die in an adventure story that transcends reality.
After that, I want to go back to my home and see Mazao again, and one day I'll make her reveal all her secrets; I also want to explore the secrets of Rozan and the Witcher, and figure out how the supernatural forces in this world distribute their power. There are so many more things I want to explore, too many to count.
So, the question is, can I really do it?
Just as negative emotions cannot affect my clear-headed state of mind, no matter how relieved I am, I cannot deny the objective existence of a desperate situation.
Because I am calm, I am clear about this.
Perhaps this is the end of my adventure.
My adventure is about to end as soon as it begins.
(End of this chapter)
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