Chapter 187 Discovering Chang'an
I described the wooden door I saw to the young girl, Lu Chan.
The wooden door itself was unremarkable; it was just a pale yellow, old wooden door with a rough surface, seemingly neglected for years, and a loose-looking spherical doorknob. What was truly strange wasn't its appearance, but its very existence. She listened to my description, gave me a strange look, then stepped forward, touched the door, pressed her ear against it, and gently tapped the wall.
"...There really seems to be a hidden room behind the wall," she said calmly. "I didn't expect the supervisor's office to have such a hidden space. There might be something very important hidden behind it."
"It's better if we don't just break down the wall; doing so will definitely trigger the alarm. To open this secret room normally, we'll probably need to operate some kind of hidden mechanism or use a special password. I suspect we'll need to use the computer here."
"However, that's just normal procedure. If it were you..."
Towards the end, she turned to look at me, her tense expression seeming to falter.
I grabbed the handle of the wooden door, twisted and pulled, and opened the door that "could only be opened by manipulating a hidden mechanism".
"Password correct, please proceed."
The wooden door even emitted a mechanical beep, even though I hadn't specifically entered any password. It felt like using a cheat code in a horror game, skipping all the puzzles and getting straight to the end.
"..." said the girl, Lu Chan, "Let's go inside."
She didn't seem to want to comment any further.
Behind the wooden door was a narrow passageway, only wide enough for one person to pass through. It was pitch black inside, unlit. I summoned a small fireball with the Unpredictable Sword of the Outer Path, and by its light, I could roughly make out that it was a concrete passageway. Not knowing if there were any traps inside to deter intruders, I went in first, followed closely by the young girl, Lu Chan.
The passageway wasn't long, and I soon reached its end, where another wooden door stood. I pushed it open and stepped into the space beyond.
This also looks like a prison cell, but it's more than three times larger and has no other entrance or exit besides the one we came in through—truly a secret room. And in the very center of the room sits a huge container.
I didn't know what to call this container for a moment. If I had to describe it, it was like a transparent glass vase enlarged to a height of four meters, with two-thirds of its interior space occupied by water. And what was floating in the water was not a bouquet of flowers, but a figure that looked very familiar to me.
Upon closer inspection, the figure submerged in the water was none other than Chang'an, whom I had been searching for for so long.
At this moment, his eyes were closed, he was naked, his face was covered by a sealed breathing mask, and several needles and electrodes were attached to his torso. His posture of floating in the water was reminiscent of a futuristic warrior in a science fiction movie who was seriously injured and immersed in a healing fluid for treatment.
Beneath the container was a metal base, from which a faint green glow emanated. This was the only light source in the room before I entered with the fireball. A mystical atmosphere permeated the space.
We've finally found Chang'an.
Seeing that he wasn't missing any limbs, I breathed a sigh of relief.
He appears to still be unconscious. Although I don't know why he was brought here, I must find a way to get him out of here.
"Is that Zhu Chang'an?" the young girl Lu Chan asked.
I nodded and moved closer to the container, and she followed.
However, before I had taken many steps closer, I felt a strange force acting on me from who-knows-where.
This was the first time I had ever experienced this feeling. Although it was described as "force acting on oneself," the sensation was not that an external force was trying to control me, but rather as if my muscles had their own will and were struggling against me, dragging my body in the opposite direction of my own will.
I recalled my elementary school days when I first learned about the "knee-jerk reflex," and how I tried tapping my knees with a prop and then using my willpower to fight against the physical reflex. In the past, I could suppress this reflex to some extent if I consciously tried. But now, the intensity of this "reflex" was amplified many times over, and its duration was endless. Caught off guard, I actually involuntarily took two steps back.
Is this a trap? But it doesn't seem to be dangerous?
As soon as the thought crossed my mind, I felt a competitive spirit and forced myself to move forward. And when I did this, my opponent's "reflexive movements" unexpectedly crumbled. I moved very smoothly.
The young girl Lu Chan was different. She seemed to be swept away by that mysterious power as well, and was forced to retreat quickly backward until she reached the entrance of the room.
I noticed her unusual movement, stopped in my tracks, and looked at her.
She looked surprised and blurted out, "This is... the power of restarting?"
Is this actually Dr. Silver Mask's "reboot"?
Hearing her say that, I temporarily stopped resisting the mysterious force acting on my body and allowed myself to move as a "reflex." My body seemed to be flowing backward, rapidly retreating along the same walking motion until I was next to her.
This phenomenon perfectly matches what I've heard about "rebooting".
As I retreated, I scanned my surroundings, while the young girl, Lu Chan, looked warily back towards the passageway we had come from. However, there was no sign of anyone else besides us, nor did any new figure appear clapping and announcing that we had fallen into his trap.
Moreover, apart from the appearance of this mysterious power, no further "enemy tactics" have been used against us.
It seems the rebooting power wasn't activated in real-time from the shadows by Dr. Silver Mask, but rather set up as an automated defense mechanism in this location. The reason is obvious: to prevent intruders from getting close to the container.
However, he probably didn't expect, and even I didn't expect, that I could actually resist the power of restarting.
Is it because my power is so great that I can burn through this space-time with just a little effort that "Time Reset" cannot easily manipulate me?
Or is there some other special reason?
Although I had deliberately acted as if I was affected by the power of the reboot, the girl Lu Chan had obviously realized what was happening. She said incredulously, "You can resist the power of the reboot?"
"That seems to be the case."
To reconfirm, I tried moving forward again, and the mysterious force acted on my body once more. However, this time I did not let my body be controlled; instead, I resisted the mysterious force and moved forward, feeling my body and consciousness.
This mysterious force seemed to be affecting not only my body but also my consciousness. However, as I consciously resisted this mysterious force, something within my consciousness was subtly vibrating. It was a fragment of the divine seal—like a wild beast provoked by an uninvited guest, the fragment of the divine seal seemed to release some invisible power, driving away the foreign mysterious force affecting my consciousness.
The fact that the Divine Seal Fragment could produce such a reaction confirms my complete certainty that I have come into contact with Dr. Silver Mask's Rebooting Power.
At the same time, I've finally figured it out.
Regardless of the principle behind the power of reactivation, its source must be the fragment of the divine seal located in Dr. Silver Mask's heart. Even if he can use it to influence other things at will, he cannot directly affect another fragment of the divine seal, and I, who have stored the fragment of the divine seal in my consciousness, seem to be an exception.
My body, consciousness, and flames are all the same. Since the fragments of the divine seal cannot affect my consciousness, they naturally cannot affect my body and flames either.
Of course, that's the logic, but perhaps I haven't completely equated the body and consciousness at an instinctive level. So, although my consciousness was unaffected, my body was still slightly affected. Fortunately, it was something I could overcome with my willpower.
This is undoubtedly great news. Although it doesn't completely seal off Dr. Silver Mask's Rebooting power, just knowing that one's mind and body won't be controlled by the Rebooting power is already a huge step forward.
I've considered how to overcome Dr. Silver Mask's Rebooting power before. While this power is practically unsolvable, that's true for the test subjects who can't leave this base; it's not the same for me. My original idea was to use the limitation that "the rebooting phenomenon is confined to the base" and leverage my ability to "transcend both the inside and outside of the base" to escape the endless cycle.
Now that I have made this discovery, not only can many steps be omitted, but it has also shown me new possibilities.
However, that alone is not enough. I am only immune to the power of reboot, while Dr. Silver Mask can still resurrect at will and reset this independent reality space countless times. The conditions for success are still insufficient.
The young girl, Lu Chan, seemed to realize something; a hint of excitement flickered across her face, but she suppressed it and focused her attention on Chang'an. Looking at her, I couldn't help but think of that question again.
Why wasn't her memory erased by Dr. Silver Mask's "reboot"?
I am because there are fragments of divine seals in my consciousness, but why is she?
“Zhuang Cheng, there seems to be something engraved on the base over there. Can you see it clearly?” she asked.
Upon hearing this, I brought the fireball closer to the metal base and looked down. The metal base seemed to be engraved with complex runes and patterns, possibly some kind of formation, but I couldn't discern its effect.
I manipulated the fireball to make it bigger and brighter, so that Lu Chan, the girl standing at the entrance, could also see the markings on the metal base clearly.
(End of this chapter)
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