Chapter 486 First Encounter with the Apocalyptic Strangeness 1
Let's sort out the whole story a bit.
Previously, at the location of the main stronghold in Peach Blossom Village, I fought a great battle with Huang Quan and Xu Gou, and at the end of the battle, I was banished to the void beyond the world.
After spending an unknown amount of time in the void, guided by "fireflies" in an unknown location, I managed to escape the void by sheer luck.
After escaping, I came to my senses and found myself in this room.
It was a messy room, with piles of trash on the floor and bed, and dust everywhere. The bedside lamp, lying on the bed, looked like a battery-operated one, about to run out of power. The flickering light was irritating, so I simply turned it off and summoned a fireball, suspending it in the air to provide light.
Superpowers cannot be used in the void, or rather, all the elements necessary for their existence are absent. Just as software cannot exist independently of hardware, flames cannot manifest in a place where all concepts cease to exist. Fortunately, I can now use my powers again, which is one piece of evidence that I have successfully escaped the void.
So, have I truly returned to the real world?
The answer appears to be no.
My "fireflies" are scattered throughout the real world, and I can reconnect with them once they return. But I can't do that now. It's as if all the "fireflies" have vanished.
I'm more inclined to believe that I'm still in an abnormal zone where I can't re-establish contact with the "fireflies."
It's either an alien planet light-years away, or a different dimension with strong isolation... Of course, it's unlikely that an alien civilization would have bedrooms like humans; I even saw Chinese and English on the garbage packaging next to it. Therefore, judging from the current situation, it can only be the latter.
Another piece of evidence is the result of my sensory feedback. This space feels very strange to me. As a Great Impermanence, I could originally easily perceive a space centered on myself that is at least the size of a province. Although I can't "hear conversations anywhere on Earth" like the Old Fist God, with some effort, I could try to expand the limits of my perception to the scale of a national territory, without being concerned about precision.
But this is impossible here. The space here seems to be constantly in a state of disorder and flux, and most of the feedback is noise, making it impossible for me to perceive the scenery beyond my field of vision as naturally as I usually do. Even within my own immediate surroundings, that is, within this room, it's the same. The seemingly unchanging scene, in my intuition, feels as if if I close my eyes for a few seconds and then open them again, it will transform into a completely different scene.
It's utterly baffling. Even a dream-formed alternate dimension might not be this chaotic, right? Although I've never actually entered a real dream-formed alternate dimension.
While checking the surrounding environment, I also took the opportunity to check my own condition.
Upon arriving at this strange space, my body and soul automatically recovered, and my consciousness became much clearer than it had been in the void. My memories were also intact; every day, every hour, and every minute of my memories were seamlessly connected.
As for the state of my true spirit, although I cannot directly sense it, I can indirectly confirm it through my state of consciousness. My true spirit is currently still bearing the injuries sustained in the fierce battle with Huang Quan. While not as severe as after the last battle with Ming Zhuo, it would still be best to find an opportunity to recuperate.
Rejoining the battle is not a problem; the Slag Straight Sword can be summoned again. Nearly two-thirds of the stored flame remains, more than enough to activate the third form, Light Body.
Then, it's about the fireflies that "guided" me to this place...
I tried to concentrate again to sense it. The signal from that unknown "firefly" was extremely weak. If I hadn't known of its existence beforehand, I certainly wouldn't have been able to sense it. Even now, it took me several minutes to finally vaguely detect its presence.
That unknown "firefly"... seems to be in this alternate dimension as well?
I'm not entirely sure. The other party's signal is intermittent. It's also possible that they're outside of another dimension, but because they're so close to its boundary, I happen to be able to detect their existence. I can neither establish a communication channel with them nor confirm the distance between us.
To put it another way, since my consciousness is now clearer, I no longer have the preconceived notion that the other person is a "firefly" like I did when I was in a state of nothingness. The other person could also just be a piece of heat or something... In any case, one thing is certain: the other person must be something transformed from my spirit.
Unfortunately, perhaps due to the influence of the chaotic surrounding space, I've become unable to determine the direction of that "firefly" (let's call it that for now), and I don't even know how to move over there.
In short, let's explore the area outside this room first.
I turned around, intending to open the bedroom door, but after turning the doorknob, I felt something outside forcefully push the door open.
It was a heavy object, weighing about a hundred pounds, that had been tipped over and pinning down the door, and it emitted a very strong, putrid stench. I took two steps back and stepped aside, and the object fell to the floor. Upon closer inspection, I realized it was actually a person wearing a dark blue tracksuit—or rather, a human corpse.
The corpse appeared to have been dead for a long time, its body severely decomposed, covered in foul-smelling bodily fluids and rancid blood. It made a sloshing sound when it fell to the ground, splashing up putrid liquid. Countless maggots crawled inside and out of the corpse, some even being flung away as it collapsed.
Even I felt an instinctive sense of panic and nausea upon seeing this scene. It had nothing to do with my strength or personality; it was purely a physiological reflex. Fortunately, after my previous exploration of the Humanitarian Division's main base ruins, I had developed some immunity to such scenes and was unlikely to actually lose my composure.
I burned all the maggots off the corpse and then roughly examined the cause of death.
Although I lack knowledge of autopsies, I have seen countless dead bodies and can tell that this body did not suffer any fatal external injuries before death, which means it is possible that it was poisoned.
Additionally, I noticed a medicine bottle where the body had fallen. I picked it up and glanced at it. It was a prescription drug, with instructions and contraindications printed on the bottle, specifically warning against taking large doses, as this could potentially cause death.
Not a single pill remained in the medicine bottle; the deceased had likely swallowed them all. A picture formed in my mind: for some reason, this person had fallen into immense despair before death; in his final moments, he leaned against the bedroom door and took a lethal dose of medication, awaiting his own demise.
I stepped over the body, entered the hallway outside the bedroom, and then moved to the living room, looking around.
If the bedroom was merely dirty and messy, then the hallway and living room were truly a "hellish painting."
I've seen videos posted by several accounts operated by domestic service companies on video websites. To demonstrate that no matter how bad the hygiene of their clients is, they can clean them to a spotless state, they would choose extremely filthy rooms, even worse than garbage rooms, as the filming locations for their videos.
The sanitation here was comparable to that of houses that made one wonder, "Is this even a place where humans can live?" All sorts of household and kitchen waste were scattered everywhere. Lifting back a layer of garbage revealed cockroaches and other insects crawling all over the place, and there was even a large amount of excrement. It seemed that the homeowner—presumably the deceased from earlier—had used every room except the bedroom as a place to relieve himself.
As for the reason, I think it's not because the deceased had such a lifestyle preference, but rather due to two factors.
Firstly, the water and electricity in this house have been cut off, and the toilet in the bathroom cannot be flushed. Living in such an environment for a long time, it seems reasonable that excrement cannot be moved outside and eventually accumulates all over the floor.
If that's the case, why didn't the deceased change their residence, or at the very least, why didn't they move all the garbage, including excrement, outside their home? This brings us to "the second point."
Secondly, the deceased seemed to be extremely afraid of the outside world.
In the entryway, I saw that the front door was secured and locked from the inside by layers of wooden planks and iron chains, with a lot of furniture piled up there, as if the deceased was afraid that something would break into the house from the outside. Even all the windows inside the house were firmly fixed with wooden planks and iron nails, so that no one outside could see into the house even a millimeter away, and vice versa.
What was the deceased afraid of before his death?
After a moment's thought, I reached out and removed all the wooden planks from the living room window. Since the deceased was so terrified of the outside view, my actions might put me in danger.
But even so, I am still a Great Unpredictable Being, and most strange creatures pose no real threat to me. Therefore, I have more options in dealing with strange events than ordinary people and ordinary witchers. Besides, I can't stay in this messy room forever; I have to go out and explore. If there really is danger, then let it appear before me now.
My current goal is to escape this alternate dimension and return to the real world.
The potential dangers within this alternate dimension might help me understand its nature and determine my next course of action.
While the gruesome corpses and environment certainly disgusted me, they also gave me a feeling akin to exploring a horror game, along with an inexplicable sense of anticipation.
Soon, I removed all the wooden boards from the window, and the scenery outside came into view.
At first glance, it's clear that it's late at night and in an urban area.
This is truly novel. Unlike the independent reality spaces I've experienced before, this alternate dimension isn't themed around the "interior of a building," but rather features a rather open landscape.
Calling it "open" might not be quite right, as the scenery here doesn't seem to allow me to see everything at once as soon as I come up.
When it comes to the scenery of a city at night, the impression is not one of complete darkness, but rather one of bright lights unique to cities. Even in the early hours of the morning, walking in poorly lit areas of a residential area, it's not impossible for the average person to discern the road conditions with the naked eye.
However, the "city night view" I saw was not like that at all. It was clearly a city, yet there wasn't a single light in sight; darkness enveloped everything around me, as if swallowing everything. If it weren't for this flame-mimicking body's extraordinary vision, far exceeding that of ordinary people, coupled with the glowing fireballs hovering around me, I wouldn't have been able to even distinguish that it was a city outside.
Even in the countryside and wilderness, it shouldn't be this dark. After all, even in the dead of night without city lights, there should be moonlight and starlight. But I don't know if the night sky here is covered with dark clouds, but when I look up, I can't find a trace of the moon, or even a single star.
(End of this chapter)
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