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Chapter 159 - The Corridor of Time (XV)

Thank you so much, ChrysAmans for your kofis –Bonus Chapter (1/3)

Editor: Kitty & Humu

“What’s in the church?” Luo Jian asked Duan Li curiously.

Duan Li shook his head: “I don’t remember. I vaguely feel that there was a large, empty room, and there seemed to be a big statue in it. I can’t remember the rest. When I came to my senses, I was already outside the church. I didn’t go inside the church again but went out. This time, something horrible happened.”

“What happened?”

“They surrounded me.”

“They? Who are they?”

Duan Li recalled with much difficulty: “Those people, the people on the street, the people in their houses, those who ignored my existence, suddenly collectively sensed my existence. Every time I went anywhere, they would approach me. They held all kinds of weapons: plastic cans they picked from the floor, steel pipes or knives, even garbage...... They threw these things at me, and they chased after me.”

Duan Li’s words made Luo Jian feel a trace of suspicion. In Duan Li’s description, people in that strange city seemed to be controlled by something. They repeated the things that they did the day before every day and repeated something or many other things they did every day, just like...... they were stuck in a cycle.

Yes, a cycle that continuously repeated itself. This made it so that Luo Jian could not help but recall what happened in the punishment chamber. All the plots and tricks in the chamber were strung in a circle. It also put players into such a loop. It allowed players to circle around this terrifying loop, this never-ending loop.

As a result, players were trapped in the ‘loop’ as if they were completely isolated from the outside world. They could not go out of or avoid the circle. They were shackled and trapped by the secret chamber. They were unable to get rid of the shackles all their lives. Their souls were constantly and endlessly moving forward in the cycle of reincarnation regardless of whether they felt pain or happiness.

Duan Li was still narrating his experience. He said: “Those people are ordinary people.”

“Ordinary people?”

“Yes, I realized that when I tried to attack them with my weapons, the ordinary people who surrounded me had no fighting power and could easily be knocked down, so I did not choose to continue fighting with these people because it was meaningless. They were just living corpses.”

Duan Li said, “But these people were everywhere. They would follow me wherever I went. When I was surrounded by these people, they would start talking to me.”

“What did they say?”

“&#k2018;You can’t be here.&tjfy;” When Duan Li said this, he pulled out a strange smile and said, “Those people spoke these words, a single word at a time. They were all expressionless. Some of them said &#k2018;you’ while some people said &#k2018;can’t be’ and others spoke the &#k2018;here’ out loud. With that, they completed the sentence&#k2014;you can’t be here.

“They repeated this sentence countless times, and I fled in a fluster. I didn’t know where I should go, but I had a strange feeling at that time. It was like a premonition. If I continued to stay in this strange city, I would become one of those people, and I would repeat these meaningless things like them, like a puppet permanently strung up.”

The expression in Duan Li’s eyes appeared frightening. He had been staring at Luo Jian’s direction all this time. Even though he could not see him at all, he seemed to have realized that Luo Jian was standing there, facing him, at a distance that was neither too far from nor too near him.

“I ran around everywhere until I got to where I was, the door where I first entered the city. I returned to the door, and when they started to crazily surge up to surround me, I opened the door and returned. And then I went back to the original secret chamber with countless doors.”

Duan Li’s expression seemed confused. He said, “That was a very strange experience because it was not until I returned to the secret chamber that I found that I had not really escaped from the secret chamber. I had opened the wrong door and had entered the ‘city of lawlessness.’ However, it is still unknown why I could coincidentally open the door and enter the city.”

After listening to Duan Li’s experience, Luo Jian felt that there were some parts of the story that he took to heart. He could not help asking Duan Li, “Did you find out that the city you went to was the city of lawlessness afterwards?”

“Yes, I heard the rumors about the city of lawlessness, and I suddenly felt that the city I had been to might have something to do with the city,” Duan Li said.

“Why, then, did you tell me that you are still asking for help? Now that you’ve managed to escape from this strange city, why ask for help?” Luo Jian stated.

Duan Li shook his head. “No, I didn’t completely leave the city. I feel that part of me was left there.”

Luo Jian felt that he did not understand: “What does that mean?”

Duan Li insistently shook his head. He suddenly became like a lunatic and became emotional. He stood up and grabbed his weapon, the tang sword! He drew his sword out of the scabbard, and the bright blade was exposed to the air. His blade was moving very fast and could cut anything. Luo Jian had seen the strength of this man, and he knew Duan Li would be very powerful even though that was something of the future.

Now, Duan Li was still very naive. He could not hide his restlessness and anger. He said to Luo Jian, “You can’t understand my feelings, can you?! As long as you have been to that city, you will understand! That horrifying place, I feel that the city seems to be taking my soul away, and some part of my body was left there! They are aware of my existence! That group! They want to catch me and put me back there!”

“Calm down, Duan Li.” Luo Jian felt Duan Li’s lunacy. He approached Duan Li and lowered his tone in an attempt to make himself sound gentle. Luo Jian knew that this was very effective. His red umbrella and hypnotic abilities would cause Luo Jian to magically be able to pacify others. He had tried this repeatedly in the Asura Realm.

Duan Li calmed down within moments, but he still held his blade up. He said to Luo Jian, “Don’t get close to me again!”

Luo Jian’s tone was gentle, just like earlier: “Of course. I won’t get close to you, and I won’t hurt you,”

Luo Jian emphasized: “I just want to help you.”

“You can’t help me!” Duan Li’s hands were shaking. Luo Jian did not understand the sudden outburst of anger and uneasiness, but he could understand his feelings of loneliness. He knew how Duan Li felt. He was alone and no one could help him. He would only have himself to depend on in everything that happened to him, and all this would crush this young man. He was far less mature than Luo Jian imagined—at least, the current Duan Li was not mature enough now.

“I can absolutely help you.” Luo Jian used a positive tone. His self-confidence would bring forth similar feelings in Duan Li. Thus, Duan Li would feel his strength, and that would make Duan Li believe him.

Duan Li still shook his head: “I don’t believe you. I can’t even see what you look like. For a person like you who doesn’t even want to expose his true appearance to others, how can I believe in such a person like you?!”

“I don’t want you to know what I look like, Duan Li,” Luo Jian said, “Although it’s easy for me to make you forget.”

Luo Jian could not help sighing, but he finally shook his red umbrella. He removed his disguise and exposed himself in this small sundry room so that the teenager opposite to him could see him.

Duan Li was surprised when he saw Luo Jian. He said in astonishment: “Is this really your true appearance? Are you sure you didn’t use any props to disguise yourself?”

“There’s no need. If I were to disguise myself, I would just make it so that you wouldn’t be able to see me, like what happened just now.” Luo Jian was still shaking his umbrella.

“But you are still a child.” Duan Li could not believe it. He looked at the child in front of him. He was a ten-year-old boy dressed in grey clothes. He held a red umbrella bigger than himself. He was so thin that it seemed he would collapse as soon as the wind blew. But someone of this age...... made Duan Li recall Ah Lan.

“Do I sound like a child?” Luo Jian asked Duan Li.

Duan Li shook his head: “Not at all.”

“Then don’t think of me as a child. You can think of me as an adult much older than you, even if I appear like this,” Luo Jian said, “Actually, I don’t really like this look myself.”

“Can you really help me?” Duan Li was still harboring doubts inwardly, “How would you benefit from it if you help me? Maybe such a way of thinking is not really good, but I feel that any action a human would make...... is purely driven by interests.”

“Of course, I am willing to do so because I have some purpose.” Luo Jian blinked as he stated: “I want to go to the city of lawlessness once.”

“There’s nothing good in that place. There will only be people staring at you.”

Luo Jian asked something he was concerned about: “Is the person who is after you the so-called group?”

Duan Li also indicated that he did not quite understand, “The intelligence I received is limited, but in my opinion, everyone in the city should be members of the group or...... is a member controlled by the group.”

“After that, I investigated a lot of information about the city, and I finally found interesting information.” Duan Li went on to say, “I found that the city of lawlessness was actually a city that existed in reality. But this city disappeared from the eyes of people around the world. Even if such a large city disappeared, it did not attract most people’s attention. Nations and people did not realize that a city had lost contact with them, and no one noticed it either.”

“How do you know that?”

Duan Li said: “Although ordinary people would not notice the disappearance of a city, some players have noticed it. Some people wanted to look for the city, but they couldn’t find a way to enter the city. The city seems to be completely isolated by some invisible force. It clearly exists in this world, but it seems to be isolated in another dimension.”

Luo Jian suddenly understood that the only power in the world that could make a whole city disappear was something the secret chamber possessed. In other words, it was the secret chamber that made the city disappear and turned the city into the ‘city of lawlessness’ as dubbed in the rumor spread by players. However, why did the secret chamber need to do this?

In fact, the answer was very simple.

The reason why the secret chamber made the whole city disappear was because of a certain thing that existed within the city. The secret chamber wanted to hide something in the city. One was afraid that what the secret chamber wanted to hide at such a high price could not be more obvious.

The heart of the secret chamber was the ‘lock.’ It could not be hidden in spaces created by the chamber itself. The chamber could only leave the lock in reality, but it would never be at ease. Therefore, the secret chamber would find a way to ensure the safety of its heart.

The city of lawlessness was that safe place. The secret chamber had eliminated the whole city from the world map and eliminated the memory of the entire city from all human beings. Everyone had forgotten the existence of this city. Then the secret chamber may have played some tricks. It had set up a place similar to a border or put up a prohibition spell. This thing had surrounded the whole city of lawlessness. Although the city still remained in reality, there was no way or path to enter the city in reality.

As for the people in the city of lawlessness, they were all turned into puppets or something like puppets by the secret chamber. These people existed only to protect the heart of the chamber. Obviously, this was something that the secret chamber was proficient in doing. After all, the secret chamber had turned countless players into various monsters, stalkers, NPCs, and other strange things.

In front of Luo Jian now, Duan Li was probably one of the unfortunate people involved in this incident. Although it was not known how Duan Li did it, Duan Li obviously entered the city ‘by chance.’ He had hit the probability of 1/1,000 or even 1/10,000, and he miraculously entered the mysterious ‘city of lawlessness’ through a certain door.

But Duan Li’s misfortune caused the secret chamber to take notice of Duan Li’s existence. Luo Jian could already foresee what kind of means the secret chamber would use to torture the poor boy.

“What happened to you after you exited from the city of lawlessness?”

Duan Li heard Luo Jian’s question, so he suddenly showed his abdominal wound to Luo Jian. He said, “This is a cut I coincidentally got when I was walking on the streets. It was inexplicably done by a passerby on the streets.”

“Passerby?”

“Yes, it was just a passerby. She was an ordinary lady who was strolling around the streets with her friends. She snatched a knife from the butcher next to her and swung the knife towards me. What’s amazing is that even if this woman cut me in public, no one noticed. No one called the police; no one looked at us. The owner of the stall with the knife snatched away did not even change his expression. It was as if something like this happening in the streets was normal.”

Luo Jian, who heard what he said, frowned and touched his chin. The secret chamber unexpectedly could also use such despicable means? He thought Duan Li was likely to be killed by the secret chamber’s will because the secret chamber would raise the difficulty of his secret chambers instead.

“Don’t doubt it.” Duan Li seemed to see through Luo Jian’s doubts. He continued: “This kind of thing happens almost every day. Whenever and wherever I appear, someone will chop me with a knife. It’s almost impossible to prevent this...... but I don’t think these people really want to kill me because they would tell me something.”

“What did they say?”

“It was that sentence again......” Duan Li sneered: “You can’t be here.”