Chapter 23 Superpowered Individuals VS Fallen Witchers 1
I am Zhuang Cheng.
I am not someone who cannot tolerate being alone, but when forced into a prolonged period of isolation, and unsure whether I can return to civilized society, even I cannot think with a normal mindset.
There were too few clues in this basement, and not many objects to help me make positive connections. Before long, my mind wandered aimlessly, like watching a documentary about the universe. In a sense, I was like those bored people who went to the toilet without their phones and had to contemplate the meaning of life and the end of the universe. It wasn't that I didn't want to figure out how to leave; it's just that I was in the toilet.
However, after some time, as I lay on the floor like a fish washed ashore, trying to find some inspiration in the texture of the concrete ceiling, a spark of thought suddenly shone in my consciousness.
I sat up abruptly, repeatedly searching my memory for clues and pondering the inspiration I had just received.
I think I've figured out the pattern of how caves disappear and reappear.
The disappearance and appearance of caves likely follow the same set of rules. At first, I thought "just knowing why caves disappear isn't enough," but I was wrong. Agent Kong and the witcher woman might have thought the caves were formed outside the ritual circle, but that's not right. The answer is "the ritual circle."
Detective Kong once mentioned that the purpose of the ritual array was to "open up certain alternate dimensions that overlap with the real spacetime," and the reason he judged it as a failure was because it "missed the final part of the spell symbols."
I'm not entirely clear on the specific principles behind the spell symbols, but since caves have appeared, it must mean that the missing spell symbols in the ritual array have been replenished by some unexpected event.
So what exactly is it that fills in the missing magical symbols in the ritual array?
My current suspicion is about that black plush carpet.
Strictly speaking, it's a letter pattern on a black plush carpet.
This doesn't mean that the letters are equivalent to spell symbols, but perhaps the lines that make up the letters happen to meet the requirements of spell symbols. Furthermore, I have sufficient evidence to support this reasoning.
Try to recall the circumstances of the cave's appearance and disappearance. Every time Chang'an and I covered and uncovered the black plush carpet, the cave's state would change between appearing and disappearing.
This morning, Chang'an and I opened the carpet, and a cave appeared; then we covered it up again, and opened it again in front of Detective Kong, and the cave disappeared; later that afternoon, Detective Kong casually covered the carpet while inspecting the room alone, and I opened it when I came alone at night, and the cave appeared.
The same thing happened the night before last when Chang'an first witnessed the cave. He discovered the cave after initially opening the carpet and called the police, then "lifted it again" in front of the police—yes, he explicitly mentioned "lifted it again" when he told me his story—meaning he had covered the carpet before the police arrived.
Why did he cover the middle with a carpet? Because he was afraid. He told me today that he was worried there might be something dirty hiding below the cave, so he chose to seal the wooden lid and carpet together the night before last.
In this series of situations, the black plush carpet acts as a "switch," directly related to all the changes.
Is my reasoning correct? Can I be certain of it?
Wait, wait a minute... I've missed a very important step!
That's why the cave entrance disappears after I enter it.
If the cave's state only changes after I've covered it with the black plush carpet, then the cave shouldn't have disappeared on its own after I entered it.
Unless... unless after I entered the cave, an "unidentified person" sneaked into the fifteenth-floor room and sealed the cave off.
I have indeed been monitoring my surroundings, but the only thing I can't monitor right now is the real world outside the cave. Moreover, the cave disappeared while I was being pulled into the illusion by the black jade, making it even more impossible to see if anyone is outside the cave.
Moreover, this reasoning has another despairing problem.
Just as I had initially feared, the cave could only be opened and closed from the outside, and could not be opened from this side.
I'm truly at my wit's end.
No, I haven't fought to the very end yet. It would be too ugly to surrender like this. Since I yearn for an adventure that transcends reality, I shouldn't just sit and wait to die so easily. To struggle to the very last breath is in line with my aesthetics.
So how should I struggle? My location and the ritual array outside aren't even in the same space-time... Wait, Agent Kong mentioned before that this alternate dimension should overlap with the real space-time. Since it overlaps, it can't be simply considered "not together".
In other words, if I draw the letter pattern of a black plush carpet on the ceiling, can it overlap with the ritual circle outside?
There are still some problems. First, the ceiling surface and the floor surface are not exactly on the same plane… but the pattern on the black plush carpet is also not exactly on the same plane as the ritual circle on the floor. If it works there, maybe I can try it here too. Although the degree of deviation on the two sides is quite different, how many centimeters thick is this floor slab again…?
Never mind, thinking about it is no substitute for putting it into practice. Let's give it a try!
I raised my right hand, pointing my finger at the spot on the ceiling where the cave entrance had originally been. Then, flames suddenly appeared out of thin air, like thin snakes slithering rapidly through the air and climbing up the surface of the ceiling.
The letter pattern on the black plush carpet spelled out "carpet"—I remembered that clearly. Then there was the style and size of the font… As I recalled, I changed the position of the fire serpent, finally adjusting it to match my memory.
After finishing my homework, I let out a long sigh of relief, and then nervously observed the ceiling.
Nothing has changed.
I was greatly disappointed.
Is this still not enough? Is it because we're not in the same space-time, or is it because the floor slab is too thick, causing an excessive deviation between the two planes?
Or is it because I shouldn't use flames to draw the patterns? Ritual circles are drawn with blood, so perhaps I should use blood too... But the letters on the black plush carpet aren't blood, are they? Could it be because that dirty carpet, as a murder scene object, is stained with blood...?
I craned my neck to observe, moving around to examine the flame letters I had pieced together from different angles. After all, I might have misspelled the word.
Walking around in this position can easily make you dizzy. I felt a little uncomfortable after a while, so I lowered my head, closed my eyes, and rested for two seconds.
And when I opened my eyes again, something incredible happened.
A concrete staircase appeared in front of me without my noticing.
After a moment of stunned silence, my gaze moved upwards along the stairs, and I saw a light brown wooden lid on the ceiling at the end of the stairs.
The cave entrance has reappeared!
Why didn't the entrance appear immediately after I drew the letter pattern with flames? I only came up with a theory about this afterward, though I don't know if it's true or not.
This deduction is somewhat ironic. Initially, I was standing directly below the cave, and the concrete stairs later appeared in that same spot. Just like in strategy games where new buildings can't overlap with other objectives, perhaps it's because I occupied the space for the stairs that they and the entrance/exit couldn't be easily revealed.
To avoid any further accidents, I acted immediately after spotting the entrance and exit. I went up the stairs to the wooden cover, then pushed it open and returned to the floor of the fifteenth-floor room.
Finally, we're back to the real world.
I looked around and breathed a long sigh of relief.
At the same time, I vaguely sensed that the almost enlightened state of mind that had arisen when I was in the cave facing loneliness and death was now slowly receding.
That kind of enlightened state of mind must be a special state of mind that only appears under special circumstances, and I, having escaped death, can no longer possess it. However, I think that state of mind must have left a special mark on my heart.
The person I am now is completely different from the person I was before entering the cave.
I ruminated on my thoughts, then looked back at what was behind me.
Let's put aside abstract questions for now and look at the practical ones.
During the process of opening the wooden lid, I did not feel the black plush carpet that should have been covering it. After coming out, I saw that the carpet was still piled up next to me as before. This means that while I was in the cave, no "unidentified person" entered the fifteenth-floor room and covered the carpet.
Since my actions allowed me to escape successfully, it means my reasoning about the disappearance pattern of the cave is correct. But if there were no "unidentified individuals," how can we explain the previous disappearance of the cave's entrances and exits?
I was completely baffled, and then I looked back at the cave entrance.
This cave, this basement... I thought I had figured it out, but there are still many unknowns.
Putting everything else aside, I still don't know what the black jade stone I got from the basement is, or what the misty illusion and the three shadows I saw earlier were all about.
There are secrets hidden below that I don't know about.
Or... should I go down again?
Although it's not wise to turn back now that I've just escaped death, this cave will be destroyed tomorrow, and if I don't complete the exploration now, I probably won't have another chance.
I did have this idea originally, but then another anomaly made me put it aside for the time being.
All the "fireflies" I set up in the real world have disappeared. Needless to say, this is because I disconnected them in the basement. The biggest problem is that I've now lost control of Asahi.
I can't stay here any longer.
Mazao has mentioned leaving me from time to time. If I were only temporarily out of contact with her, I could accept it; I could just leave and come back quickly, which was my initial thought. But now that I'm out of contact with her for an extended period, the situation is different. If she really leaves during this time, I'll never be able to find her again.
It's possible that Asahi's jinxed nature led me to encounter strange events. I'm not so bad that I can't even tell the difference between "one full meal" and "full meals every day".
I have no way to explore the basement while sending "fireflies" to the house at the same time, so I have to leave this place for now.
Before leaving, I still took photos and videos of the ritual circle and the black plush carpet from different angles. Maybe I can replicate this circle in other places in the future.
After doing all that, I turned around and left the fifteenth-floor room, walking out of the residential building.
Looking at the moon in the night sky, I finally felt like I had "seen the light of day again".
However, before I had gone very far, a strangely shaped shadow appeared in front of me in an eerie way, blocking my path.
(End of this chapter)
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