Escape the Infinite Chambers-Chapter 167 - Ancient Remains (I)
Chapter 167 - Ancient Remains (I)
Editors: Kitty & Humu
Crimson Asura Realm.
Ying stayed under the big tree day after day for a long time. He crossed the battlefield that was filled with flashing knives and swords and came to the place from which Luo Jian had left. The big grey wolf was nestled tightly there, and his soft fur covered the ground.
“I should have thought it was yours.”
Ying climbed up the steep rock, walked to the wolf, squatted, and touched his head.
The wolf did not move and kept his eyes tightly shut, and he was calm as if he were dead. Ying knew what he was waiting for, and Ying knew why he did not want to leave. Because this wolf was the embodiment of a part of Xing Yan’s soul.
In earlier periods, the stalker had entrusted a small part of his soul to Ying. In fact, such a way of describing it was very abstract because generally speaking, a person’s soul was inseparable. If it was forcibly divided from the person, the person would be delirious and their bodies would weaken until they died, and the broken soul could not be combined into one again. Finally, it would disappear, and the soul could not obtain an afterlife.
But the existence of the secret chamber may violate this.
The stalker had always told Ying that his soul was born from the darkness and primal chaos of the secret chamber. But in fact, Ying himself understood that there could never be any life or will in the real darkness or primal chaos because there was nothing in the endless darkness—no matter, no life, and no soul could exist.
The secret chamber would never make such a low-level mistake as allowing a strange soul to enter the stalker’s body to control the stalker’s actions. Because of the secret chamber’s will, the props it could control should not have a self-consciousness. No one wanted to attack the enemy with a weapon that would not cooperate with their actions, would disobey their commands, and would wipe clean the chance they created.
So when the secret chamber’s will turned players into stalkers, they would lock their souls, smash their self-consciousnesses, and turn them into obedient puppets. From then on, they would never be able to speak and communicate, and they could only act according to orders. They would never live their lives beyond the cages made of their bodies, which trapped their self-consciousnesses, never to obtain afterlives.
Logically thinking, the secret chamber should have discovered and destroyed such an atypical stalker long before, but up to now, as a stalker, Xing Yan still lived very well, and he was even alive and kicking. Occasionally, Xing Yan even boldly disobeyed the orders of the secret chamber, such as when he grandly saved Luo Jian’s life a few times.
In fact, Ying was quite puzzled. He guessed that something strange had happened to Xing Yan, which was related to the secret chamber’s will. It could allow him to disobey orders without receiving punishment, and he could keep his will but not be destroyed…… All these factors combined shaped him into how he was today.
But what exactly happened?
Before Luo Jian arrived at the Crimson Asura Realm, Ying had planned to hand over the body of ‘Abyss’ to Xing Yan. He wanted to hand over to him the fulfillment of the task to destroy the secret chamber and save the world. Xing Yan had extraordinary willpower and fighting capabilities. If he were free, he could be trained in the Asura Realm.
However, after thinking for a long time, Ying was unable to decide. That was because there was something he was especially doubtful about on Xing Yan’s body. What exactly happened, and what were the reasons that would cause Xing Yan to be different from the rest when he became a stalker? Why could he be out of sync with those of the ‘same kind’ around him?
Was it just an accident, or was the secret chamber deliberately setting a trap for Ying?
These suspicions made Ying feel that it was hard for him to move forward with his plan. He did not carry out any actions because of his suspicions. He could only silently continue to keep his calm and irritably wait patiently. Then, Luo Jian appeared.
But who could guarantee that Luo Jian’s appearance in the Asura Realm was not also a trap specially designed for Ying by the secret chamber?
However, when Luo Jian told Ying that Xing Yan&#k2026;&#k2026; who was the stalker, deliberately used his spatial skills to transport Luo Jian to this world, somehow, Ying breathed a sigh of relief.
He understood that the stalker was on his side.
“I’m sorry, but you have to understand that he may never return to this place again.” Ying squatted down and continued to touch the fur of the wolf with his hand. The soft touch he felt on his hand made him feel too fond of it so that he was unable to part with it.
The wolf finally had a little reaction. He raised his eyelids lazily and looked at Ying. His eyes twinkled under the blood-red light under the blood-red sunset. He turned his head to the side, changed his posture, and continued to lie on his stomach. Luo Jian had been away for a long time, and the residual smell had disappeared. But the wolf still loathed to leave this place. He scratched the ground with his big claws, and his ears drooped. When he acted this way, he appeared strangely pitiful.
Ying thought it was funny, but he also had to comfort him: “Don’t worry; actually, you won’t be waiting for too long.
“Because we are about to have a decisive battle soon.”
.
.
.
In a multi-player secret chamber instance.
Location: Ancient Remains in Space.
Time limit: Three Hours
Number of people: Five.
Objective: These remains in space were an abandoned space station floating in space. Due to the wrong directives given out by unknown space aliens, the asteroid would collide into and destroy this place in three hours. The mission objective was to find a lifeboat to leave the space station.
Special tips: This time, the secret chamber only allowed the use of modern hot weapons or ordinary cold weapons. Futuristic weapons had been unlocked and could be used. Magic props were not available. Magic weapons and skills would be weakened to the greatest extent.
This was written on the back of the note that described their mission:
[Those things came in, but how did they come in?]
“Oh! Heavens! You can’t use magic…… Won’t I be deemed useless here?” The tall and handsome man of mixed ancestry and brown hair in the team voiced out. His name was John. Luo Jian did not know his Chinese name. His face was covered in a pained expression, and accompanied by a tone as if he felt the situation was inconceivable, it would seem that he was this group’s magician.
But Luo Jian still wanted to rebuke him.
This fella was at least 1.89 m tall. He had a tall and strong figure. If one said that he was not great in close combat just by carrying a machete and swinging it around, Luo Jian would not believe it. However, this fool was a magic user because Luo Jian could already see that he had taken out a super long magic staff with a large icy-blue crystal gem on top of it.
“We were also given a map of the space station with the location of the lifeboat on it.” The dwarf, who was almost the same height as little Luo Jian, started to speak as he shook the map on his hand. His name was Wang Yue. In this team, his role was a scout. Because he was small and very flexible, his weapon was a crossbow.
The captain, Xing Yan, also took the map and looked at it. He frowned slightly and said, “This space station is very big. It has four floors. The lifeboat is placed on the bottommost level of the station. But we don’t know where we are now…… Anyway, we should just head down.”
“This time, the secret chamber that we are supposed to escape from is really high-end, and the background has actually become a futuristic space station,” Wang Yue continued. He was rather eloquent. He was obviously interested in future technology and immediately began to observe the surrounding terrain.
They were now in a room similar to a rest area, and the squarish room felt very clean. There were several resting pods fixed on the ground. There was a small, high table next to each resting pod. Some things similar to flat plates were fixed on the tables. It seemed that these flat plates could be used to open the resting pods so one could use it.
But the power indicator was off, and the rest area was dark. The only light source was the flashlights held by the four people in the team.
Incidentally, Luo Jian also held a lamp in his hand, and the lamp had become a deformed version of the netherfire lamp. Because magic weapons had been weakened, the use of the lamp seemed to be only for lighting. Of course, because Luo Jian’s strength was too great, the lamp could still be used. If others used this lamp, it was estimated that the lamp would not even light up.
Xing Yan took out his weapon and waved it at will. He also said, “My spatial abilities will probably be affected…… No, I think there’s not much of an influence on it, so we can only use hot weapons or ordinary cold weapons here.”
Wang Yue said: “In fact, it means that we can only use ordinary weapons. It’s the first time that magic weapons have been weakened to this extent…” Wang Yue said. He suddenly looked at Luo Jian, who was beside Xing Yan, and said: “It’s the first time that I saw someone who would actually continue to use their weapons when their weapons were weakened to such an extent.”
Luo Jian shook the lamp in his hand, and the faint blue light caused his surroundings to be in beautiful blue shades.
The one who did not speak in the team was the one who wrapped up their whole body such that one could not tell their gender. Luo Jian only got to know their name from Xing Yan. Their name was Jiang Li. Their weapon was a little rare and special. Their weapon was an inexhaustible powder. They used poison.
Wang Yue said to Luo Jian: “Shouldn’t you introduce yourself?”
Luo Jian pointed to himself: “Me? My name is Abyss.”
“Is there anything else you can say besides your name?”
“My hobbies are eating chocolate and fighting.” After Luo Jian was done talking, he took out some chocolate from his pocket in passing and chewed on it. Before entering the secret chamber, he had stuffed a pile of chocolate into his pocket because in the secret chamber, he could not use a GM’s authority at will.
Wang Yue felt that after asking that question, it was the same as not asking at all, so he looked at Xing Yan. Xing Yan looked at Luo Jian, who was glancing at Xing Yan as he leaned on him, tightly hugging his thigh. He was at wit’s end, so he picked up the child and let him curl in his arms and continue to eat chocolate.
Xing Yan’s behavior made several teammates around him turn silent. This development was not quite right: was the captain the kind of person who liked children? Where had the usual noble and cool manner gone?
However, even though the team members did not understand, Xing Yan didn’t want to explain too much. As he hugged the child, he felt that the child’s body was soft and warm, and the child’s fragile heartbeat could be easily detected. It seemed like if he used a little strength, the child in his arms would break.
Such a feeling was very strange. Xing Yan did not quite understand what was going on. He suddenly felt that there was something in the child that felt familiar to him. It felt the same as when he met an old friend. However, Xing Yan was also sure that he had never seen the child anywhere before. So where did this misconception of familiarity come from?
On the contrary, Luo Jian did not think so much. He ate all the chocolate and wiped his mouth using his clothes. He rubbed himself in Xing Yan’s embrace. He was secretly a little pleased inwardly as he hugged Xing Yan’s neck in anticipation. He was even not willing to get down from Xing Yan now.
Because not long ago, in the arena A Lone Boat, Luo Jian had discovered something about Xing Yan.
The stalker once told Luo Jian that he was not the true Xing Yan.
Luo Jian thought what he meant was that Xing Yan, the player, was different from Xing Yan, the stalker.
However, it seemed that that was not quite right.
Although there were differences in their personalities, the wavelengths of their souls were the same. Rather, it seemed that the player Xing Yan seemed to be…… more complete. As a stalker, Xing Yan seemed to be missing something.
He was still him, but he seemed to be no longer him.
Luo Jian felt this difference. His perception was so keen that he could easily see through some things, but he was also muddled about some things. However, he could confirm some facts: Xing Yan was indeed Xing Yan, and he was not some other soul that occupied Xing Yan’s body after Xing Yan died……
The confirmation of this fact made Luo Jian feel a little relieved because in this way, Xing Yan, whether his soul or his body, would belong to Luo Jian.
This was the first time that Luo Jian had felt happy in the many days after coming out from the Asura Realm. He tightly hugged Xing Yan’s neck. Regardless of whether he was familiar with him or not, he boldly and arrogantly directly bit the handsome face of the other party.
Afterwards, Xing Yan touched his cheek helplessly. It was strange that he was not angry at such rude actions made by the child. His heart was filled with the incredible feeling of wanting to indulge and care for the other. This feeling did not belong to him, but it also actually belonged to him. It was like the feelings had crossed through space and came from another space-time.
The ultimate belief of wanting to protect someone.
T/N: I’m back! 2 Chapters a day will be released until Monday. Then releases will go back to 1 chapter a day from Thurs-Sun. Thank you, everyone, for your good wishes and your continuous support in EIC. Love you guys. I read each and every comment and really appreciate all your comments. I’ll not still too well now, but I’ll still try my best to reply to every comment that needs replying.
