Chapter 181

Passing through the portal, when Wen Xishu appeared again, he had returned to the auction site.

In the auction site, there were still quite a few people left; although the auction had ended, many people had not left.

For example, Reina, who was full of hostility towards Wen Xishu. And the boy who lost his perception ability, as well as Yoshida Dabu with half a head.

"Why did you come back?" Yoshida Dabu asked.

"What's the situation?" Tanaka Shotai, who lost his eyes, asked.

"Yo, couldn't bear those pains, so you gave up? Or did you see the human cave and get scared?" Reina mocked.

Wen Xishu didn't care about everyone's eyes; he just realized...

Time shouldn't have passed much. Otherwise, this group of people wouldn't be reacting like this now.

It seems that although a long, long time passed in the human cave, in fact, the time in the Mysterious Tower didn't fluctuate much.

"This is very interesting; in this way, at least I don't have to worry about exploring too many human caves, leading to not enough time."

Wen Xishu thought, and by the way looked at Xu 04:

"Where is your curator."

Xu 04 said: "You walk inside. Keep walking along this road until you lose your perception ability, and you will see the curator."

Xu 04 stretched out her hand and pointed the direction for Wen Xishu. That was a safety passage.

All the employees of the auction appeared from that passage.

Whether it was Xu 04, or the auctioneer responsible for introducing items, or other staff of the Pain Auction.

Seeing Wen Xishu walking towards the safety passage, some people still remaining at the auction were even more confused.

Fortunately, at this time Xu 04 said:

"Just now the warrior has successfully dismantled a human cave."

"He seems to have encountered some problems in the human cave, so he needs to ask the curator for advice. The curator also agreed to his request."

Xu 04 always spoke with a sense of smile, like a waiter with excellent service awareness.

But as her voice fell, there was silence all around.

Tanaka Shotai, who lost his eyes, even without eyes, made a surprised look, because his mouth was open too wide.

Even Reina, who had been cursing Wen Xishu, was the same.

Everyone in the field was shocked by this result.

"Human cave... dismantled? In less than two hours?"

Many people didn't leave the auction because the auction itself was a relatively safe place.

Hujiang is full of demons and ghosts, and the human cave village is just one area in the vast Hujiang.

Before this, the human cave village was called District 19.

And Hujiang has a total of twenty-two areas. It can be said that each area has its own ghost stories.

So even if the auction ended, everyone felt that this could be used as a stronghold.

Collecting pain, displaying pain, and attacking human caves are the fates of the people in District 19 and District 20.

Because if they don't do this, the next time the curse appears, many of them will also become human caves. They can't escape.

But so far, many rare items have appeared at the Pain Auction, and many people have gained superpowers because of pain.

But no matter how rare the items are, and how rare the superpowers are—

There has never been a survivor who entered the human cave.

So suddenly hearing that Wen Xishu broke open a human cave made everyone shocked.

Yoshida Dabu was the one who wanted to see Wen Xishu most at this moment; he was very curious, the human cave Wen Xishu broke open...

Was it the human cave of his grandson, Yoshida Xiaohui.

If so, what did he experience in the human cave?

Wen Xishu couldn't answer the question of the half-headed old man Yoshida Dabu for the time being.

Because Wen Xishu was walking towards the deepest part of the Pain Auction.

The light in the original safety passage was green.

Wen Xishu also met many people, such as cleaning staff, such as Auctioneer No. 1, Auctioneer No. 2, Auctioneer No. 3.

Such as Xu 01, Xu 02, Xu 03...

The Pain Auction has many staff members. There are even security personnel to prevent robbery—Zhen 01, Zhen 02, Zhen 03, etc.

These people seemed to have accepted their weird names.

They looked like people... but they were different from real people.

Xu 04 gave Wen Xishu the feeling of being an... artificial intelligence doll.

But soon these people disappeared.

The light in the safety passage turned red. Wen Xishu immediately felt the surroundings quiet down.

"This passage, how does it have a feeling of the backrooms..."

Wen Xishu had been walking along the red passage for fifteen minutes.

The environment had been changing, not repeating. There were also some strange graffiti on both sides of the passage.

He was a bit amazed; did this place use some kind of sequence power to make the spatial structure complex.

Otherwise, how big could an auction hall be?

Gradually, Wen Xishu found that his perception ability began to weaken.

Even though he had swallowed Arnold's finger, he clearly felt that his perception ability was becoming sluggish.

Vision, touch, smell, everything began to become dull.

Even the most miraculous spiritual sense was suppressed.

The red light visibly began to become pitch black.

Darker and darker, dimmer and dimmer.

Finally, he seemed to have come to a place with only darkness.

At the same time, Wen Xishu heard a voice.

"Hello, warrior."

This voice was clearly processed.

Wen Xishu said:

"You are the curator of the auction?"

"Yes. I am the curator of the auction." The curator's voice was a mixture of multiple voices, but a hoarse feeling could still be heard.

Wen Xishu said:

"Is it necessary to be so mysterious?"

"Sorry, my identity is relatively special, so I cannot expose myself. Once I am discovered, I will likely be hunted down," the curator said.

Wen Xishu had a certain judgment about this curator in his heart.

He suddenly wanted to blurt out the real identity of this curator.

But considering that the other party might have a stress reaction and he couldn't figure out the other party's strength, Wen Xishu didn't say that answer.

Collapse-er.

"Okay, I respect your idea," Wen Xishu nodded.

The curator said:

"What do you need to know? Since you can come in, it means you have already broken open the first human cave."

Wen Xishu nodded:

"I hope to know the secret of the human cave village. Of course, I can also tell you how I broke open the human cave."

The curator sighed:

"The cause and effect with that place is too deep, so it will be affected by the curse... I just hope to find someone to eliminate the human cave. But I don't know the internal structure of the human cave either."

"I don't want to know either. So please don't tell me how you survived from inside the human cave."

Wen Xishu didn't expect the curator's answer to be like this.

He remained suspicious of the authenticity of this statement and continued to ask:

"But you must know some things about the human cave village, right?"

The curator said:

"Yes, that place is the original District 19 of Hujiang, which is a relatively backward area, completely different from District 20."

"But the people in that place are all very successful and very happy."

"You only need to know one point... everyone who comes out of District 19 is an elite, a dragon among people, a successful person."

"Everyone there is a winner in life in people's eyes."

"Either they have an extreme appearance that makes people feel inferior, or they have extreme wisdom that makes people feel their own ignorance."

"Either they have amazing wealth, amazing luck... of course, everyone is also very sound."

"District 19 is said to have something that can make people happy!"

The curator's words made Wen Xishu feel shocked.

Although he knew that the theme of the human cave village was related to happiness...

But for a place where everyone is very happy, isn't this too outrageous?

"You seem to be holding something I haven't seen before in your hand," the curator opened his mouth.

In the absolute darkness, after Wen Xishu's perception was stripped away, he couldn't see the curator's appearance...

But clearly, the curator could see him.

Wen Xishu said:

"This is misfortune. If you need me to help you dismantle the curse of the human cave village, then you must know some things; some causes and effects cannot be escaped."

The curator was clearly surprised to hear the word 'misfortune'.

"Misfortune? Is this what you brought out from the human cave?"

"Could it be that the condition for leaving the human cave is to collect misfortune? Collect enough misfortune... could it be that you can enter the black vortex?"

The curator is very smart.

Wen Xishu said:

"Yes, digging misfortune out of an absolutely happy life. I think this is also a key to entering the ultimate place."

This sentence seemed to have explained everything clearly.

The curator thought for a long while:

"So that's how it is. It seems this is not difficult for you."

Wen Xishu shook his head:

"If I were to rate the danger level of the human cave, I would give it ten out of ten."

"If you are interested, I can tell you the details of the human cave."

The curator stopped him immediately:

"No, I don't need to know; I am already very painful. But even so painful, I crave to live, I don't want to die."

Wen Xishu had almost concluded that this curator was a 'Collapse-er'.

He was also becoming more and more curious—

A Collapse-er who is afraid of death?

Isn't the death of a Collapse-er the start of a new journey?

"What do you need me to do for you?" The curator asked again.

Wen Xishu said:

"Is the happiness of the human cave village derived from some supernatural power? You only need to answer yes or no."

The curator said: "Yes."

Wen Xishu asked again:

"Is there a little boy in the human cave village? Wearing a white kimono, with curly hair, like an... little angel."

The curator said:

"No. It's not no, it's that I don't know. I know very little about the human cave village."

Wen Xishu changed the subject:

"In other words, you don't belong to District 19."

"Yes, the people who originally belonged to District 19... have all turned into human caves, surrounded by those floating ruins," the curator said.

Wen Xishu nodded:

"Then you belong to District 20?"

The curator fell into silence again, but finally said:

"Yes, I belong to District 20. Originally, I should have been a very happy person; I should have been carefree. All I had to do every day was to make myself happy."

Wen Xishu seemed to hear a trace of hatred in the voice.

Indeed, what Collapse-ers do every day is to tease others. Trapped in a cycle, constantly repeating, constantly creating changes.

This is indeed carefree.

"But now... I have become the bearer of all pain!"

"All the pain you suffer, as the curator of the Pain Auction, I will experience it again!"

"I am very painful, very painful! But my pain is destined to serve others!"

The curator was clearly standing up.

Wen Xishu's sense of smell was infinitely weakened, so he couldn't smell the stench of flesh and blood rotting, regenerating, rotting again, and regenerating again.

But his hearing was not weakened; he heard, the moment the curator stood up—

The sound of flesh tearing.

"My identity is fixed; I have become the curator of the Pain Auction. I have been given a mission; I must bear all the pain that everyone has suffered to ensure that items with the theme of pain are always born in the auction."

"All of us in District 20! Are cursed!"

Clearly, Wen Xishu heard the curator's anger and humiliation.

"We have lost all wealth; the only thing we can rely on is pain. Everyone in District 20 is destined to accompany pain for a lifetime. If one day we are no longer in pain, it means we have lost our value!"

"And I!"

"Am the most painful of all!"

The curator spoke excitedly, almost roaring these words.

"The pain you suffer in the auction to bid for items will all be staged again on me!"

"That bastard actually stabbed his own eyes! And Xu 04, how many times have I criticized her, don't commit seppuku in the auction! She never listens!"

Wen Xishu said:

"So why did District 20 become like this? Since you don't know about the human cave village in District 19, then as a native of District 20, you should know a little bit about the problems in District 20, right?"

Wen Xishu guessed that all this is related to the fusion of the Great Devouring Vortex.

But the vortex fusion... is it possible that the root cause is in the Obsession World?

Maybe it's not because of the vortex fusion in the Great Devouring that led to the fusion of the two areas...

But because the two areas fused, leading to the fusion of the two vortexes in the Great Devouring?

Because one is in District 19 and one is in District 20, it seems that the two areas are very close.

One area is full of happiness, and one area is full of pain.

Is it possible that the two sources of creating happiness and creating pain...

Are trying to fuse?

The curator said:

"How could I know? I only know that suddenly one day, the end of the world arrived!"

"So many demons and ghosts in Hujiang began to appear... People in District 20 could only hide."

"But gradually, people discovered that as long as they make themselves painful, they can gain power."

"The most outrageous... is me."

"I don't know why, I was chosen as the curator of the Pain Auction."

"Others suffer pain, at least they gain something. They can gain power by relying on pain."

"But I am not... I suffer pain, it only injects into the container. The more pain I inject, the better the items that appear in the auction."

It is rare for a Collapse-er to be played like this.

Of course, the curator is a Collapse-er is just Wen Xishu's guess.

He is 99.9% sure.

But it doesn't rule out the possibility that the curator is not a Collapse-er.

Wen Xishu said:

"So, the pain rules of District 20 have descended, and you can't provide any clues?"

"Even if you are completely different from others, others are painful but have gains, you are painful but can only be paying..."

"You clearly seem to be targeted by the creator of the rules, but you want to tell me that you are completely ignorant?"

The curator's attitude is very firm:

"Of course, I am completely ignorant. If you want to ask me why I am so special and targeted..."

"I think, perhaps I can tell you one of my guesses."

Wen Xishu said:

"What guess?"

The curator said:

"My mission. I don't know when it started, I was implanted with a mission."

"Only by achieving this mission can I leave here, and can I get rid of the identity of the curator."

Wen Xishu said:

"This mission... could it be related to the human cave?"

The curator nodded:

"Yes, it is related to the human cave. As long as all human caves are eliminated, I can regain my freedom."

"You don't need to know the reason, I don't know the reason myself..."

"You are a warrior, you come from an area that doesn't belong to us, so... warrior, great warrior!"

"I hope you can dismantle the human cave."

"There is a saying, you can refer to it. I reiterate again, these are speculations. Not necessarily the truth."

"And, I don't know any truth."

Wen Xishu became interested and said:

"What saying? Please tell me."

The curator said slowly:

"Everyone in the human cave village is very happy, but their misfortune is absorbed by people outside the human cave village."

"This is also why our area is so painful. We are all paying debts for the human cave village!"

"We must eliminate the human cave!"

Wen Xishu is the kind of person who completes the mission when he receives it. He likes to explore the stories behind the mission himself.

He has also tried to ask NPCs to understand the story... he enjoys the feeling of fragmented information being pieced together.

But if an NPC directly gives a large piece of information and shows a high sense of justice and mission—

This makes Wen Xishu feel very uncomfortable.

Especially, Wen Xishu guessed that this curator is likely a 'Collapse-er'.

After hearing the sentence 'We must eliminate the human cave', he instead felt...

The human cave village must have some kind of evil, but is it really related to your District 20?

Are you in District 20 really innocent for getting the current pain rules?

Of course, Wen Xishu still said:

"Okay, I know, our conversation should end. Finally, if I want to collect misfortune in the fastest time... which human cave should I choose."

The curator thought for a while and said:

"Deep ones. I can only tell you, go deep into the human cave village... go deep into District 19, where you might be able to uncover the secret."

Wen Xishu thought to himself, you seem to know quite a lot.

Just deliberately hiding it and not saying it, right?

He didn't show it and asked again:

"Is there a way to keep me always maintaining myself?"

This is the most critical question; as long as this problem is solved, the human cave will not be feared, and that truth... will inevitably be revealed.

(End of chapter)