Chapter 198: The Mist of Calamity

"Trapped in a time loop?" Wu Chang couldn't help but ask.

He Yun popped open the pull-tab can in his hand and said, "The people in the underground shelter are all like the two you just saw. Our lives are anchored to a certain point in time. Once we die, or our life undergoes a massive change, life rewinds back to that point."

"No matter what we did in between, the physical and mental traces fade away with it, as if nothing ever happened."

Wu Chang was silent for a moment, unsure how to respond, and could only say, "Sounds like a kind of alternative immortality."

"Immortality?" He Yun scoffed.

"Here, nothing ever changes. No matter what we do, we can't leave any trace on our own lives. Those important moments we swear to remember for a lifetime might be gone by the time we wake up, not a single memory left in our minds."

"When you study hard, master enough knowledge, push your body to the limit, and possess techniques everyone praises. When you win match after match, become the center of attention in the shelter, and stand on the finals stage—the next instant, because you've changed too much, you rewind on the spot, back to being a bewildered teenager looking at the match poster ten years ago."

"Can you imagine what that feels like?"

Wu Chang only thought about it for a moment before he couldn't help but furrow his brow.

For someone who lies flat, this would be perfect, but for those with dreams, yearning to accomplish something, this setting of rewinding upon change is a little too cruel.

If it were just one person, it wouldn't be so bad—after all, once all memories are lost, you wouldn't know how far you'd once gotten.

But in a city, everything you do always leaves traces somewhere else. When you know you were once only one step away from the finish line of your dream, yet the next moment you rewind to the starting point, that gap would absolutely drive someone to collapse.

He Yun crushed the empty pull-tab can, tossed it casually onto the ground. A trash-can robot rolled over, its mechanical arm grabbed the garbage and stuffed it into its mouth. After a series of beeping prompts, a metal coin rolled out of its recycling slot and dropped into the metal storage canister beneath the robot.

"When you realize that all your efforts only bring more regret and a maddening sense of loss, people stop trying to change and work hard to play their original roles."

"Do you still think this is a kind of immortality now?"

Wu Chang didn't answer. No wonder the natives of Underground Shelter No. 88 all seemed to have some kind of hyper-masculine syndrome—either busy courting death or on their way to do so.

Maybe only through this way could they feel they were still alive.

He looked at He Yun and asked, "You haven't gone crazy like the others. Aren't you afraid?"

He Yun turned and went upstairs, leaving behind a faint reply.

"In this underground office, whatever happens doesn't count as a major change for me."

Before long, He Yun came back downstairs, dressed, and started shooing him away.

"I need to go out to work, and you should leave too."

Wu Chang excitedly came over to He Yun and asked, "What are we doing today?"

He Yun's movements paused for a moment. The word "we" sounded especially grating to her ears.

"There's no 'we,' only you and me. I do my thing, you walk your own path."

Wu Chang said to himself, "What I need to do now is get familiar with this underground shelter. In my experience, nothing beats sticking close to a local friend to learn about the local customs and people."

He Yun looked at Wu Chang in surprise. "You have a local friend?"

Wu Chang looked at her and nodded.

He Yun realized something was off, pointed at herself, and asked, "You don't mean me, do you?"

Wu Chang said matter-of-factly, "Where I come from, being able to stay overnight at someone's place is already a sign of a close relationship. So I consider us friends."

He Yun sucked in a sharp breath. Damn, this guy really has latched onto her.

Wu Chang quickly added, "Besides, the people here are all very unfriendly. I'm afraid I might lose control, and the commotion from self-defense would be too loud, causing some trouble. If I'm not within your line of sight, you definitely wouldn't feel at ease either, right?"

If before he was just thick-skinned and clingy, now his words carried a hint of threat.

Wu Chang's words hit He Yun's concern right on the mark. As a native of the underground shelter and one of its strongest, He Yun understood the shelter's limits very well.

An outsider like Wu Chang, who possessed teleportation and devastating destructive power, if he really clashed with the locals, the locals would most likely suffer greatly, and they'd have a hard time dealing with Wu Chang.

After all, the underground shelter was a tech-side plane; they had no way to stop spatial jumps.

After a moment's hesitation, He Yun relented.

"Listen up. You stick by my side, but don't cause trouble. Without my permission, you can't make a move, or don't blame me for being rude."

Wu Chang said with a grin, "I knew we were good friends."

The Laozu Sect was right—when dealing with a gentleman, you have to bully them with propriety.

He had sized up He Yun's dislike of abusing force and her reluctance to kill recklessly, which was why he could brazenly keep succeeding, mooching his way into staying at her place for a night.

He had also sized up that He Yun was different from the other locals—rational and full of responsibility—which was why he could half-threaten her into binding their actions together.

If it were those lunatics he ran into last night, Wu Chang's tricks would have been hard to pull off. Those hyper-masculine brats would have pulled out their weapons and emptied their magazines long ago.

But for those people, Wu Chang had another way of communicating. See, he got along just fine with the bartender at the bar, didn't he?

The two left the house and headed toward the bus stop where they had gotten off the night before.

Passing the billboard from last night, he noticed the scorched shelter-version Pete had already disappeared—probably revived on the spot like the two assassins.

The thought of reviving made Wu Chang ponder the locals' revival mechanics.

What was their method of revival—regeneration, or reassembly on the spot? So he asked He Yun directly.

He Yun said, "I once tried to study why people revive, but after a few attempts, I found it's not something that can be proven through science. Still, if I had to put it into words, it's like a kind of rewind—rewinding the body back to a certain point in time."

Wu Chang pressed, "What if I take a target, say those two assassins from last night, throw them into an iron barrel, fill it with cement, then sink it in water? What would happen? Would they keep reviving and dying?"

He Yun looked at Wu Chang with a strange expression and asked, "What do you do out there? Run with the mob, or are you a professional assassin?"

Wu Chang shrugged and said, "I've had a lot of jobs. A week ago, I was still a tycoon."

"I've never seen a tycoon who puts hot milk on the tab." He Yun scoffed, then went on to answer Wu Chang's question.

"The underground shelter's revival mechanic is very special. It takes into account the possibility of being killed repeatedly after reviving, so if a local dies three times in quick succession, after the third death, they revive at the collective revival point instead of on the spot."

Wu Chang hadn't expected the revival mechanic to be so user-friendly. "Where is this collective revival point you mentioned?"

He Yun said, "Because revival has a divine nature, and the Bliss Sect is the only religion in the underground shelter, the collective revival point was remodeled into the Bliss Sect's grand cathedral."

Oh-ho, with that connection, the Bliss Sect's prestige in the underground shelter must be off the charts.

Wu Chang furrowed his brow and asked, "If I rashly clash with the Bliss Sect, will it start a war with the entire underground shelter?"

He Yun asked, puzzled, "Why would you clash with the Bliss Sect?"

Wu Chang said, "Because of a friend of mine."

He Yun: "Huh?"

Wu Chang knew nothing about the underground shelter. It was obvious he had never entered a shelter before, so he couldn't possibly have any friends here. Even if he did, the number of people in the underground shelter who had a conflict with the Bliss Sect could be counted on one hand.

On top of that, when Wu Chang had latched onto her earlier, he had called them friends.

This guy wouldn't be planning to go cause trouble for the Bliss Sect just because she got assassinated yesterday, would he?

He Yun immediately said, "My own business I'll handle myself. I don't need you to do anything."

Wu Chang:?

What the hell was that? Where did that come from?

He caught on quickly. He Yun must have misunderstood. He had been thinking about the kidnapped Fang Hui, but He Yun, because of the morning's joke, had mistaken it to be about herself.

If he cleared things up now, He Yun would definitely be very embarrassed.

So the considerate Wu Chang decided to let the misunderstanding stand, and said, "Forget what you think, here's what I think. Those Bliss Sect people can go out and ask around about my name. Any friend I've acknowledged has never had the right to be bullied."

He Yun piped up softly, "Isn't your name Peace?"

"Right, so how does peace come about? If you don't slaughter all your enemies, does peace just sprout legs and walk over on its own?" Wu Chang said, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

He Yun sighed. In certain respects, she felt this outsider Wu Chang was more extreme than the locals.

She said, "I advise you not to act rashly. Just as you said, ever since that outsider archbishop moved in some time ago, people's faith in the Bliss Sect has risen sharply. If you go after the Bliss Sect, you'll really turn public opinion against you."

Wu Chang rubbed his chin and thought aloud, "When those two guys revived during the day, not only did their bodies become thin and weak, they completely forgot they had come to assassinate you. You said revival rewinds memory. About how far back does it usually go?"

He Yun said, "Hard to say. Usually it rewinds to before whatever caused the death or the major change. Could be a few months, could be eight or nine years."

Wu Chang: "Then what if I kill every Bliss Sect supporter, and their memories all rewind to before the outsider archbishop arrived? Wouldn't that weaken the Bliss Sect's influence?"

He Yun: "I was being conservative before. Out there you must be either a terrorist or a dictator. But I advise you not to even think about it. Even if it's for my sake, I'll stop you."

Wu Chang shrugged. "Fine, you win." The two took a bus to the power station between the suburbs and the city.

Although the locals of the underground shelter couldn't die, they still needed to work in order to maintain themselves and keep the underground shelter running.

He Yun's daily job was inspecting and maintaining the power station.

The power station was a massive building. Just from the outside, it looked like it needed at least a hundred employees to run, but in reality it was eerily empty inside—so empty that standing outside, you couldn't hear a single sound from within.

Seeing He Yun arrive, the power station's main door opened. An old man in his fifties, with half his hair white, walked out of the reception room and greeted He Yun.

"Heard you made a big splash at the bar last night. Took out a troublemaking outsider with one punch."

He Yun had no desire to dwell on it. "Hardly a splash. The other guy was just too weak."

The old man put on his glasses, sized up Wu Chang behind He Yun, and asked, "Who's he?"

He Yun hesitated for a moment, then said somewhat reluctantly, "A friend."

After saying that, she went into the equipment room and began changing into the maintenance mech suit required for inspecting the power station.

!

The old man took the chance to pull Wu Chang aside and whispered, "Kid, be honest. What exactly is your relationship?"

Wu Chang also whispered back, "Just like she said. For now we're still friends. I only just got permission to visit her place yesterday."

The old man clicked his tongue twice, stole a glance at the equipment room, and said:

"Phew, if she can get back to a normal life, I'll be at ease. Kid, if you get the chance, get her to switch jobs. This place doesn't need someone to inspect it—or rather, it doesn't need her to inspect it."

"This place isn't right for her. The longer she stays here, the more she'll get stuck in the past. I once promised her brother I'd take good care of her, but clearly, an old fogey like me has a hard time influencing her. Maybe you can help her move on."

Wu Chang had just been about to ask the old man what exactly he meant, when He Yun, now changed into her maintenance mech suit, came out and urged:

"Don't listen to his nonsense. Let's go!"

The area He Yun needed to focus on inspecting was the underground circuit passage. As the elevator descended, He Yun asked:

"Did that old man blab just now? Did he say anything he shouldn't have?"

Wu Chang had always been a man of loyalty to his friends and never told them lies, so he sold the old man out on the spot.

"He told me you shouldn't keep staying here, and that something happened to you here."

He Yun's brow furrowed slightly, and she muttered a quiet curse at the old man for meddling.

Wu Chang: "Would you mind talking about what happened here?"

He Yun was very resistant to this and said coldly, "There's nothing to talk about."

As the elevator stopped, they had descended at least another hundred meters, arriving at the underground beneath the underground.

He Yun passed a face scan, opened a heavy metal door, and led Wu Chang into the circuit passage.

The sight beyond the metal door gave Wu Chang some surprise. Through his Law-Breaking Eye, he could see the space here was brimming with energy, continuously streaming into the circuit passage's interface.

No wonder the power station had so few people, and no sound of generators running. It wasn't because the underground shelter's technology was too advanced—it was because the underground shelter simply didn't need to generate electricity.

What era is this, still playing with traditional power generation? In the underground shelter, the air here generates electricity on its own!

The circuit passage sounded like a dedicated space for transmitting circuits, but in reality it was more like a passage leading further underground.

Wu Chang followed behind He Yun and asked, "What's going on here? Why do I feel this passage constantly generating energy?"

He Yun used her specialized maintenance mech suit to scan the passage walls while answering:

"You're right. The energy supplying the entire underground shelter isn't electricity generated by the power station—it all comes from here. Only that energy isn't produced here; it seeps up from an even deeper area below."

"In the space even further underground, there is endless energy, enough to keep the underground shelter running and to squander freely."

Wu Chang tensed up instantly upon hearing this. That kind of talk couldn't be said carelessly—if Bai Ta overheard, wouldn't the mold swarm out in force?

Pure natural infinite energy—wasn't this stuff way better than oil?

Setting aside the infinite energy, what Wu Chang was more concerned about was that this energy came from even deeper underground.

The special properties of the Pillar of the Present World, combined with He Yun's explanation, made it hard not to wonder whether the deeper layer constantly sending up energy was, in truth, the second layer of the Abyss.

"Are we going to enter the deeper area now?"

He Yun shook her head. "That's a sealed-off area. Entry is forbidden. We only need to patrol the outer perimeter and make sure the fog hasn't leaked out."

Wu Chang: "Fog?"

The moment Wu Chang's doubt arose, he saw a thin crack over a dozen centimeters long appear on the corridor wall not far away, and a faint white mist seeped out from within it.

Through his Law-Breaking Eyes, he caught a glimpse of mysticism within the mist, but the mysticism contained in it exceeded the upper limit of the Wasteland Realm, making it impossible for him to fully analyze it; he could only vaguely sense that it was a kind of sinister power.

It seemed to induce people to indulge in their desires, while simultaneously releasing the monsters hidden within the hearts of those affected.

He Yun avoided the white mist like venomous snakes and scorpions; the instant she saw it, she immediately pulled Wu Chang back.

"Don't you dare touch that thing!"

After He Yun finished speaking, she switched her maintenance armor into fully sealed mode, forced her way into the white mist, and squeezed out a special paste-like substance from the maintenance mecha to patch the crack on the wall.

Her movements were extremely practiced; in just over a dozen seconds, she had completely sealed the crack.

What remained to be done was to wait for the crack-repairing material to dry thoroughly, and for the leaked mist to dissipate.

Because the white mist was so tenacious, this process usually took several dozen minutes.

But today seemed a little different; the white mist was dissipating far faster than before, flowing actively toward the rear.

He Yun turned her head back in curiosity, and her whole body instantly jolted. "Are you insane! What are you doing!"

Behind her, Wu Chang had actually ignored her warning, walked into the white mist, and was taking huge gulps of it.

No wonder the white mist was dissipating so fast — with an extra living air filter added in, how could it not dissipate quickly?

Seeing He Yun rushing over, Wu Chang raised a hand to signal he was fine, then, as if savoring the scent of a perfume, carefully lingered on the taste for a moment, before expelling all the mist he had inhaled from his mouth.

He couldn't absorb this mist.

"This stuff smells like sweat mixed with hormones — sure, it's a bit X-rated, but there's no need for you to be this scared, is there?"

He Yun stood at a distance, watching warily. After a while, confirming Wu Chang had no reaction, she was dumbfounded. She pointed at Wu Chang and exclaimed in surprise:

"The Calamity Mist has no effect on you?!"

Wu Chang shrugged and said, "What kind of effect is it supposed to have?"

He Yun: "Under normal circumstances, anyone who inhales the Calamity Mist will have the desires in their heart twisted into monsters, which then manifest into reality. The stronger the desire, and the more Calamity Mist inhaled, the stronger the manifested monster."

Wu Chang said with an innocent look, "Looks like they really don't work on me."

After perceiving the mystical structure within the mist, although he couldn't fully decipher it, he could tell that this mist posed no threat to him.

There were many ways to analyze a mystical ritual; besides brute-forcing it with the Law-Breaking Eyes, experiencing it firsthand was also one of the important methods.

Fully experiencing the mystical energy within the mist would allow him to sense its function without having to completely decipher its mystical structure.

After all, one of his class-change talents was called "Mysticism Mastery."

When it came to mysticism, even if it exceeded the scope of his Wasteland Realm, he could still learn and master it quickly.

The idea was good, but a small hiccup occurred.

Because his Will was too high, the white mist's judgment failed, and it simply couldn't take effect on him.

A Will of 138 — forget about a dream, even if Leiman descended using His eye as a medium and revealed an evil god's true form to perform a pole dance in front of him, Wu Chang's heart wouldn't stir in the slightest.

"What a pity. I had originally wanted to further analyze the abilities of this Calamity Mist through firsthand experience, but it looks like that's not going to work."

Wu Chang's face was full of regret, but the surprise on He Yun's face could not be concealed at all.

As she looked at the outsider who had suddenly appeared before her, she suddenly, at this very moment, found she could somewhat understand those believers.

Believers had told her before that at a certain moment, a person would suddenly feel the existence of fate, realize that everything that happened came from the arrangement of the gods, and from then on, people would believe in the gods.

At this moment, she truly felt what was called fate.

Before, she had given Wu Chang the cold shoulder, even thinking his persistent pestering made him a huge nuisance, but now it seemed this might have been a meeting destined by fate.

"You wanted to know what's happening further underground, didn't you? I'll tell you right now."

(End of chapter)