Chapter 133: 131 What is Reality? What is a Story? (Two-in-One)

131 What is Reality? What is a Story? (Two-in-One)

The group successfully obtained the Yinghuan Nest and shook off the curse radiation from the gold, silver, and jewelry in the stone chamber.

Provoking an Alien God and snatching things from its hands—even when the opponent is in a state of forced sealing—carries obvious dangers, yet miraculously, no one died or was even injured during the entire process.

Yu Lianyun had to completely believe in the so-called "Death Reincarnation" ability that Li Nuowei had explained on the way; only by going through countless drills and accumulating rich experience could one so easily accomplish these nearly impossible things.

After all, no matter how difficult an exam paper is, as long as you repeat it ten thousand times, even if you still don't understand the meaning of the questions, you already know how to do it and what the correct answers are.

However, what Yu Lianyun admired was that Li Nuowei used his life and his own sanity to test for errors, and after countless trials and errors, he found the correct answer.

"Next is when weapons come in handy. Those fish-men are right above; we will run into them head-on when we go out." Li Nuowei skillfully loaded his pistol and did not forget to remind them, "The weaknesses of fish-men are no different from humans, but they have sturdy scales on their bodies. It is recommended to destroy their eyes if you can hit them; their eyes are just as fragile as a human's."

Just as Li Nuowei took a step, Yu Lianyun asked, "Didn't you say before that there was another survivor? Where is he?"

Hearing this, Li Nuowei was stunned. He also remembered that innocent boy and couldn't help but look at Yu Lianyun, because he remembered that it was Yu Lianyun who had found the innocent boy first, and as for where the boy had been hidden before, he had absolutely no idea. However, he could guess that the missing innocent boy should be somewhere in this spiral staircase; perhaps that "somewhere" was just like the hidden tunnel and this stone chamber filled with treasure—all places that had been hidden away.

"I'm sorry, I don't know either, but I think he should be on the road we came from. We will look for him while we walk back." Li Nuowei shook his head and stated his proposal.

The group nodded and followed behind Li Nuowei.

Drake walked side-by-side with Li Nuowei. He glanced at Li Nuowei, and after a brief moment of hesitation, Drake still asked, "How many times have you started over?"

"I don't remember. I've stopped counting." Li Nuowei glanced at Drake and said casually. He truly no longer cared about how many more times he had to die, because he saw the hope of "clearing the level."

Hope is a good thing; it gives people motivation. It can make a timid person become reckless and bold, having the courage to venture even into a desperate situation where death is nine times out of ten.

The current Li Nuowei felt that he was a reckless brute, but he was very happy with it.

Drake was silent for a moment, then asked another casual question: "In the other reincarnation lines, did I die miserably?"

"At least the ones I witnessed with my own eyes, yes." Li Nuowei said calmly, "Do you want to hear about your thousands of ways of dying?"

Drake chuckled, "Compared to that, what I want to know more is, have I ever survived? Even if it was surviving in the ugliest way possible."

"Yes, there was one death line where you turned into a fish-man and successfully survived." Li Nuowei looked at Drake, "You even seemed to become a small leader among the fish-man group."

"Sounds pretty impressive." Drake grinned and said, "But I don't have any intention of leading a team. As expected, that 'God's Child' stuff is better left alone."

Li Nuowei couldn't help but laugh as well. He would not tell the other person that in that death line, it was he who had personally ended the other's life.

Haa-dah-hui-ke!

The unique roar peculiar to fish-men suddenly sounded, coming from above the stairs, accompanied by a burst of thundering footsteps.

The group immediately became vigilant, holding their firearms and standing against the walls. Li Nuowei and Drake took the lead, their eyes fixed firmly ahead.

Before long, a crazed fish-man poked its head out first, but after it broke into the range of the green light radiation from the Yinghuan Nest in Li Nuowei's hand, the groups of fish-men following behind the leader all slowed their steps one after another.

When they saw a group of fully armed humans waiting for them, those clever fish-men realized they had crashed this time.

After a burst of gunfire, the fish-men who had been charging wildly were swept to the ground one after another; almost none survived, all were dead.

Li Nuowei only felt it was very satisfying. Wiping out this group of fish-men, who looked dull-witted but were actually insidious and cunning, was truly a happy event. Thinking of how he and Drake and the others had died at the hands of these fish-men countless times, it was hard to have such a refreshing chance to counterattack. Now that he had finally caught the opportunity, how could he not let loose with a barrage?

Just as the group was passing through the section of the stairs filled with fish-man corpses, a sharp-eyed Mysterious Investigator noticed a pitch-black hole and pointed at it, calling out: "Look there, is there a hole?"

The group looked up and found that there really was a hole. They finally discovered another passage that had been covered by those Yinghuan.

The group walked through a deep, dark section and soon arrived at another stone chamber, which was also the fish-men's granary. Looking at the "leftovers" left by those fish-men, the members of the Xuanmi Group felt it was unbearable to look at and whispered a curse: "Animals."

Following the faint, unconscious moans for help from the innocent boy, whose desire to survive was bursting, the group found him hanging high in mid-air by a hook and immediately rescued him.

"Stay strong and live, child." A Mysterious Investigator looked at the innocent boy, whose consciousness was chaotic and whose body was limp, and softly offered a word of encouragement.

It was unknown whether the boy's consciousness was still clear, or perhaps he felt safe by instinct; the boy no longer made painful moans for help, but instead lay quietly in the arms of a Mysterious Investigator, fast asleep.

A sturdier Mysterious Investigator took responsibility for carrying the boy on his back, while also protecting his safety.

Drake looked at the rescued boy, feeling some emotion in his heart. Although it wasn't his credit, it could be considered finding the missing boy and sparing a family a tragedy.

Leaving the tunnel and returning to the Air Raid Shelter, the group no longer saw any traces of the fish-men. They had disappeared without a trace; perhaps they had left, or perhaps they had all died under their guns.

But the group still dared not lower their guard. Before returning to the surface and before the Mysterious Disappearance Case in Liuhua Port was completely concluded, they could not afford to be careless.

And everything seemed to be over. It was calm and peaceful; the group returned to the surface safely without being attacked by anything. The fish-man population that had plagued Liuhua Port for who knows how many centuries seemed to have evaporated into thin air.

As they walked out of that eerie Tunnel, Drake and Li Nuowei heard the sound of airplane engines cutting through the sky. The two looked up; they were fighter jets. They were like black petrels passing through the rainy night sky, shuttling through the black clouds. Their high-speed passage sliced open the dark clouds, and they resolutely plunged into the thick fog.

Everyone stared blankly as they followed the fighter jets to the beach. In the heavy rain, they heard several "thunderous" roars coming from the distance in the fog. Immediately after, the waves by the beach seemed to grow larger, and the tide crashed against the coastline, splashing black spray.

They did not see those fighter jets return from the fog, but Li Nuowei also did not see a crouching giant beast emerge from the sea on the day he considered the most hellish of his life. That earth-shattering tsunami did not swallow this city.

Li Nuowei did not know what those fighter jets had done, but he knew that those guys who went and never returned were cool.

Drake thought so too.

On the night of the Aquila meteor shower, Liuhua Port was, as usual, a port city shrouded in haze. Although gloomy, the people in the city lived their lives with all sorts of flavors, living actively.

Just in case, on this day, Drake was transported by the Xuanmi Group to an inland city far from Liuhua Port. Only Li Nuowei remained in that city.

Li Nuowei went to sleep very, very early that night. He felt that if the apocalypse could not be stopped today, dying in one's sleep was the sweetest way to die. This time, he chose this painless way to die.

Of course, if after today everything remained the same and he could still see the next day's sunrise and the haze dispersed, he stated that this time he would definitely live until he died of old age.

As he entered his dream, Li Nuowei found himself wearing his pajamas, arriving once again at the door of that Forest Cabin.

The mood of entering the door this time was completely different from the last. He pushed the door open and entered, smiling as he came before Lin Ling, who was sitting at the counter: "Boss, I succeeded."

Lin Ling smiled without a word and nodded. The black cat in the Shrine opened its calm golden cat eyes, watching him quietly like a statue of a god.

Li Nuowei sensed the eeriness of the atmosphere, feeling cold tree branches drilling into his blood vessels, drawing out the blood from his body and squeezing his temperature dry bit by bit. His joyful expression slowly stiffened.

Suddenly, Lin Ling smiled and asked a question that made Li Nuowei feel extremely familiar, like a tree stump used for striking a bell slamming into his head.

"So, what kind of story happened to you?" Lin Ling rested his hands on the tabletop, lazily leaning on the table with his chin resting on it, hiding most of his face behind his arms, revealing only one cold, black eye.

Wait... this sentence, where have I heard it before?

Li Nuowei looked at Lin Ling blankly, his mind inexplicably drifting for a moment, then he felt a buzzing in his ears, dizziness, and his consciousness seemed somewhat unclear. He kept repeating the question to himself: where had he heard this sentence?

The more he repeated the question to himself, the faster his heartbeat raced out of control, and the closer he got to the terrifying truth.

Can't think anymore! Stop thinking!

No! Hurry and remember!

Stop!

Continue!

Think!

Give up!

Think! Think!

Drake, fish-man, sea monster, God of Anhai... the stars are right, the end of the world is coming, the seal, the Ancient Ones, fear, true name, despair, blind, idiot, return...

Almost there! Almost there!

The answer is hidden right there!

The murky truth!

The suspicious world!

Other people's voices kept popping up in Li Nuowei's mind, roaring and howling at his brain, which made his mind increasingly chaotic.

One more left, one more left, answer, answer, murky, murky, suspicious, suspicious...

Ah... still missing an answer, the murky, suspicious truth...

Ah da... murky... suspicious...

Ah da... hui ke...

Li Nuowei's face was flushed, his eyes were bloodshot, and he pressed his head hard with both hands, as if he wanted to force his soul to escape from this frail fleshly body, to escape the fish-man whispers that had burrowed into his brain.

In a trance, the world before Li Nuowei's eyes lost its color, and a great force tugged at his collar, dragging him away from the twisted world stained with paint everywhere.

Suddenly, Li Nuowei felt a chill, and then howling souls emerged all around him; they reached out their hands with hideous faces, wanting to grab him and drag him into an abyss of no return, and Li Nuowei instinctively screamed, wanting to escape; he had to leave this eerie world.

Not until he slammed heavily into a white door did he stop, but those deformed figures that had walked out of the different colored paints still refused to let him go easily, chasing him fiercely.

Li Nuowei had no choice; he stumbled back to his feet and opened the door that led to who knows where.

A bright white light flooded into Li Nuowei's eyes, and in another blink, he had returned to the Forest Cabin.

He looked at the furnishings in the shop, the environment inside the room, that sleepy black cat, the red-clothed brother who was always busy, and the Lin Laoban who was always faking a smile before his eyes... taking it all in...

But in another blink, he found himself lying on the ground, soaking wet, with a vast sea before his eyes; a violent storm was gathering over the sea, and a dazed fish-man was lying on top of him, its mouth full of bloody sharp teeth, and a part of his body was hanging in the gaps of its teeth.

"Great God's Child, what are you waiting for? Let's continue the ritual quickly, the meteor shower is coming!" Ma Hong, who had torn off half of a human face to reveal a hideous fish visage, shouted at the fish-man who had suddenly stopped biting.

The fish-man who was gnawing on Li Nuowei's body listened to Ma Hong's words, and facing Li Nuowei's complex gaze, the fish-man only felt a splitting headache; it held its head and roared in pain, its hideous fish face constantly changing amidst a series of distortions, one moment it was Drake's human face, the next it was the cold and ruthless fish-man appearance.

Lying on the temporary Sacrificial Altar built on the edge of the cape, Li Nuowei looked at the painfully collapsing Drake and the panicked believers of the Anhai Divine Society, and Li Nuowei, whose life was almost at its end, smiled.

So everything was fake...

His name is Li Nuowei, a university student at Liuhua Port Comprehensive University; recently, the Group Leader of the Xuanmi Group's Tiger Team, as well as the A-ji Xuanmi Tan of the Liuhua Port branch, had both come to the university to give them lectures and, incidentally, investigate the recent Abnormal personnel disappearance cases.

He once had a twin brother who died in a car accident; the first time he met Drake was at the Tunnel entrance four days ago; he believed in the Urban Legend that one could send items to the dead, so he sent his childhood collection to the Tunnel entrance, where he happened to meet Drake, who had just returned from the beach.

He also never expected that he had long been regarded as a sacrifice by the fish-men; after sending the items according to the steps of the Urban Legend, he was actually captured by the fish-men hiding in the shadows.

On the night of the meteor shower, the prophecy seemed to come true; that great detective Drake turned into a fish-man in front of him, and in order to complete the Sacrificial Ritual and send a signal to the meteors, Drake, who was called "God's Child" by those crazy fish-men, began to follow his instincts and gnaw on him.

However, what the beasts present did not expect was that he had dreamed long ago that he had come to a mysterious Forest Cabin shop, and he had bought a story, a story that could loop infinitely forever...

He "told" the story to the fish-man Drake who was tasting his flesh; the other party was as if hypnotized, and in order to ensure that the listener could keep "listening" and find his own will in the process, he made the characters in the story die and restart over and over again.

Now, Drake is awake, and the story should stop.