Chapter 106: 104. The

104. The "Immortal" Li Nuowei

After hearing Drake's analysis, Li Nuowei fell into a brief silence. His pitch-black eyes lost their luster like those of a dead fish, but a moment later, he suddenly shuddered with an inexplicable, terrified look in his eyes.

"What's wrong with you?" Drake noticed Li Nuowei's abnormality and asked in confusion.

Li Nuowei blinked, and the look of terror in his eyes vanished in an instant, as if the expression of fear he had just shown for something had never existed. He smiled and said, "Nothing, I just suddenly remembered some things. As for the tunnel you mentioned, I happen to know a few things about it."

"Tell me about it." Drake asked while driving. He frowned slightly, recalling Li Nuowei's attitude just now; the other party seemed to have some impression of the tunnel he mentioned, but after a momentary lapse in focus, he suddenly seemed to understand everything and became confident.

Li Nuowei smiled: "Hasn't it been said that that tunnel might be a road leading to the kingdom of the dead? Some people have even tried to send items to the other world through the tunnel, and they even said it could actually succeed."

Drake nodded: "Yes, a missing boy I am looking for once placed things his brother liked while he was alive at the entrance of the tunnel, so I am wondering if the boy's disappearance might be related to this action of his."

"Then let's assume it really is possible to send things to the other world." Li Nuowei looked all smiles, his mouth stretching into a slightly crazy grin, "Shall we try sending ourselves out?"

Upon hearing this, Drake was horrified and almost failed to control his steering wheel. Cold sweat broke out on his forehead, and then he revealed two rows of staggered shark teeth and smiled: "Heh, you really are crazy."

"Then are you going to do it or not?" Li Nuowei crossed his arms and asked with a smile.

"Since there is a probability of success, naturally I have to try." Drake let out a turbid breath and chuckled. He glanced at his wrist, where blue-black scales had already spread out from the gauze bandaging his wound.

Although he did not know why Li Nuowei kept saying he still had enough time, he felt the urgency of his own days being numbered; he had to race against time to solve the case.

As for his own life and death... ever since Drake confirmed that he had contracted "Jiaoren Disease," he no longer held any hope that he could "still be saved."

He was a detective, after all; as long as he could solve the cases he had handled before he died, he would have no regrets.

More than twenty minutes later, Drake and Li Nuowei arrived at the Mysterious Tunnel near Tianya Haijiao Beach. They stood at the entrance, looked at each other, nodded to confirm they were both prepared, and then stepped into the tunnel together.

"How should I make a wish?" Drake asked curiously, "How do people in the Shenzhou Region generally pray for the dead?"

Li Nuowei smiled and replied: "There are no special rules. Close your eyes, put your hands together, and think of your prayer in your heart. In the mysterious void, perhaps your intentions will be conveyed."

"Then how do you confirm that it was actually conveyed? It can't just be relying on a feeling, right?" Drake found it somewhat funny; he felt this was no different from the prayer and blessing cultures he was familiar with in the New York region.

Li Nuowei thought for a moment and said: "Actually, there seems to be a saying. There is an old saying in the Shenzhou Region: 'What you think about by day, you dream of by night,' meaning that the things you often miss will make you encounter them in your dreams. In other words, if you sincerely pray to a deceased person you miss, you might dream of the person you want to see when you sleep at night."

Drake nodded: "I understand this; it's the concretization of the subconscious."

This time it was Li Nuowei's turn to laugh. Li Nuowei squinted and said: "That's basically what prayer is, so give it a try."

The two stopped in the middle of the tunnel. Drake looked at Li Nuowei and asked: "Are you going to follow me too? If it succeeds, wouldn't you also fall into danger?"

Li Nuowei shook his head: "You don't need to worry about that, and you certainly don't need to worry about your own safety. I said I would protect you."

"... Seriously, saying it like that, I really doubt your orientation, little brother."

"You don't need to doubt that; I'm straight." Li Nuowei looked at Drake calmly, then proudly lifted his chin and said, "I am already a real man!"

Drake squinted and sized Li Nuowei up for a moment; this was something he hadn't noticed.

The two bantered with each other, and after easing their inner tension, they stopped talking, closed their eyes, and prayed silently in their hearts.

Once their eyelids closed, the world seemed to fall into darkness. With their vision blocked, their other senses seemed to be amplified. Drake felt as if there were some other things circling around him; they were peeping in the dark, twisting and crawling in the shadowy corners.

Before long, Drake actually faintly heard the sound of an unknown creature treading water; it sounded somewhat like a human treading on water surface with bare feet, or like a reptile such as a crocodile walking through a puddle.

But no matter how he imagined it, Drake realized that danger was approaching him.

There really was something hidden in this tunnel, or perhaps it really could lead to another world. The movements he heard at this moment were an emissary from another world coming out specifically to receive and guide him after hearing his inner calls and prayers.

Whoosh...

Suddenly, he felt someone playfully blow on his ear. The cold wind, carrying the fishy smell of the sea, made his left ear feel cold and stinging. He immediately shuddered and woke up.

When he opened his eyes again, the world seemed to have changed color. Before him was pitch black, and a low, unknown beast roar came from the darkness in front of him. Below seemed to be a fallen nether hell, a cold abyss of sin.

Drake suddenly felt his breathing become obstructed, and only then did he realize that he had forgotten to breathe for a moment, like a newborn baby. It wasn't until a hand from beside him slapped his back heavily that he finally recalled his survival instinct and gasped greedily.

The hand that suddenly slapped his back wasn't large, but the feel and temperature made him feel familiar. Drake asked: "Li Nuowei?"

"It's me." Li Nuowei replied while turning on his phone's flashlight function. He deliberately shone the light from below his chin to create a terrifying atmosphere: "It seems we have really entered hell."

Drake was silently speechless at the other party's childish, playful act. He also took out his own phone to provide light, illuminating the path they had come from.

They were now standing on a step of a staircase, with a thick wall behind them.

It seemed their act of praying had allowed them to pass through the tunnel wall to arrive here.

"Is this the Air Raid Shelter mentioned in history?" Drake used his flashlight to illuminate the environment. The walls were divided by white and green, which, from an artistic perspective, had a very World War era style.

"Perhaps." Li Nuowei shook his head; he couldn't be one hundred percent sure about this either.

Drake and Li Nuowei then walked down the stairs. The uncomfortable low roars continued to reach their ears. The two moved forward in silence, both able to feel each other's uneasy heartbeats.

When they reached a certain section of the stairs, Drake suddenly stopped his steps. He squatted down and picked up a game console with a shattered screen from the stair tread, on which small, blood-colored fingerprints still remained.

"Familiar?" Li Nuowei, who was to the side, asked.

"Yeah." Drake nodded and said, "It's the thing that child gave to his brother."

As he spoke, Drake stood up and let out a long breath, feeling a chill wash over him.

Sensing Drake's heavy mood, Li Nuowei said no more. The moment he saw the bloodstains, he, like Drake, had a premonition that the missing child was likely in grave danger.

Continuing to walk downward, not knowing how many winding stairs they had walked or how many steps they had trodden, the two finally arrived at a flat, open corridor.

Ahead was an ajar iron door. The iron door was covered in rust, and several deformed bloody handprints were miserably smeared on the door panel, which also retained the hysterical scratch marks of fingernails.

The two approached with heavy hearts. Although they tried hard not to make noise, the rusted iron door still let out a hair-raising creak as soon as it was pushed. Instantly, the low beast roars coming from the deep darkness ahead became drawn-out and restless; it seemed to be an excited prelude before a hunt.

Drake managed a smile and said: "Is it unable to resist coming over to eat us now? How interesting." He faintly heard excited low roars and the sound of footsteps coming in groups from the darkness ahead.

"Go this way." Li Nuowei suddenly grabbed his arm and led Drake to run in a certain direction in the darkness.

Drake, who had no sense of direction in the dark, could only let Li Nuowei lead him as they ran. What surprised him deeply was that they did not run head-on into any dark, twisted, terrifying creatures during this time. They passed safely through flat ground and past one after another incomplete human and beast skeletons, finally arriving at a closed underground room.

Li Nuowei closed the door and used a crowbar from the floor to wedge the two handles of the iron door, trying his best to block the terrifying creatures chasing from outside.

"What exactly do you still know?" Drake broke free from Li Nuowei's hand and pushed the other party a step away.

He once again felt an unconvincing abnormality from Li Nuowei. The other party acted as if he had known the escape route in advance and had made preparations along the way, while he felt like he had been led into a haunted house meticulously designed by the other party, facing those unknown things in solitary terror. This gave him a feeling of being toyed with, which was shameful and annoying.

Li Nuowei pondered slightly: "If I said I could see the future, would you believe me?"

Upon hearing this, the uncertain look on Drake's face gradually calmed down after his astonishment, and he said: "I believe you, as long as you tell me seriously."

Li Nuowei sighed softly, a helpless expression appearing on his face, and finally began to tell his story.

"My name is Li Nuowei, I am 21 years old, a sophomore at the School of Economics and Management of Liuhua Port Comprehensive University. Up until today, I have been a perfectly ordinary and normal, upstanding young citizen," Li Nuowei said, a strange look of reminiscence and nostalgia appearing in his eyes, as if these short two days were his entire lost youth.

As he spoke, Li Nuowei looked at the bewildered Drake and said earnestly, "And then, in the time today that you don't know about, I will die because I went to the Second Central Hospital to visit a classmate I have a crush on."

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Drake looked completely confused.

"Simply put, I possess an ability similar to loading and saving in a single-player game, but I have to trigger a 'rollback' through death," Li Nuowei said, rubbing his aching temples. "Every time I die, I return to two days ago, which is the day you... well, the day you first met me this time around."

Drake was incredulous and shocked, saying, "You... how could you have this kind of ability?"

"Heh, you might not believe it if I told you," Li Nuowei laughed and said. "A month ago, I suddenly dreamed of a Forest Cabin. The cabin was a small shop selling all sorts of bizarre and magical items. I bought a story from a shopkeeper who looked even younger than me, and ever since I bought that story, I gained this ability."

"To be honest, I didn't realize at first that this ability was connected to the strange dream I had that day. It wasn't until I had died I don't know how many times that I finally realized the connection."

"What exactly was that story?" Drake asked.

Li Nuowei shook his head, his breathing becoming uneven, and he smiled with a pale face, "I advise you best not to know this story; it is a story that can never stop."

Drake fell silent at once, then asked seriously, "Since you have such an ability, you should actually be able to completely avoid these dangerous things. Tell me the truth, why do you take the initiative to get involved in these Abnormal events?"

"I have already told you." Li Nuowei looked into Drake's eyes. "This is the only thing I haven't kept from you; I am indeed helping you out of a desire to repay a debt of gratitude."

"I used to not believe in things like fate, but only after experiencing countless cycles did I realize that fate truly exists in this world. In your life, there might be one or several people you can never shake off. I can rely on this ability to avoid countless dangers, and you, without knowing it, have saved my life countless times throughout my life."

Watching Drake's still-blank expression, Li Nuowei smiled, "I know you will believe everything I say, but you definitely cannot understand how I feel, and I also feel there is no need for you to understand my feelings, because this is a fortune too heavy to bear; for me, it is even more of a torment."

"Do you know how many times I have reincarnated?" Li Nuowei let out a deep breath, his eyes revealing a sense of agony.

"How many times?"

"One thousand three hundred and eighty-two times," Li Nuowei grinned.

Drake stood frozen in place. From this precise number, he felt the heaviness and pain in Li Nuowei's heart. He tried to imagine if he were the one who had experienced such nearly infinite deaths and returns, and he thought he might have become just like Li Nuowei.

Despite trying his best to maintain his rationality, his mind was slowly nearing collapse from remembering the memories of countless deaths.