"I suggest you start by stating your na," I said, "Introducing oneself is a basic courtesy in social interactions, don’t you agree?"
The cartographer’s gaze towards the young man grew increasingly dangerous, and the young man seemingly realized his precarious situation, hesitantly responded, "My na... my na is Tan Xiang. Yes, Tan Xiang."
"Tan Xiang?" The cartographer looked at the young man with a pressuring gaze, "Are you sure that’s your na?"
"That’s my online nickna... uh..."
After blurting it out, Tan Xiang realized he had slipped and quickly covered his mouth.
You can’t bla him for not guarding his words well; the cartographer clearly possessed a much more formidable soul than his. Facing the pressure of a stronger soul, ordinary people can easily lose composure.
This kind of disparity doesn’t only occur between ordinary people and demon hunters; even exceptionally resilient ordinary people can exert this influence on others. People who don’t understand this will vaguely describe it as the "presence of important figures."
In secular society, people occupying high positions often exert this influence on ordinary people, but this is usually not because those of higher social status possess a stronger soul, rather it’s due to those in weaker positions instinctively belittling their own soul. If unaware of the others’ higher social status, they can actually remain calm.
In a certain sense, it bears a resemblance to the Fatian Xiangdi of Impermanence. Yet, because it’s overly primitive and simple, it can be applied in the chaotic doomsday land. I can also perform it now, but since it’s rely about applying psychological pressure bluntly, like the "pressure of the strong" in combat manga, one cannot expect to show much finesse.
"Online nickna..."
The cartographer unfamiliar with this term, loosened his grip on the steel pipe.
The fact that he gave such a false na was likely because the cartographer’s first impression resembled an underworld figure too much. Normal people certainly wouldn’t be willing to reveal their real information in front of such a person.
"Does this an he passed?" I asked.
With a seasoned tone, the cartographer said, "He passed. If Frenzy had corroded soone to the point of forgetting even their na, their mind would be too confused to co up with a temporary alias."
"Well... the ’Doomsday’ you were talking about... what is it exactly..." Tan Xiang timidly raised his hand.
The cartographer briefly explained, causing Tan Xiang to be stupefied, incredulously shouting, "The country... even human civilization has been destroyed? And it has been destroyed for a long ti!? You must be kidding , it’s only been a few hours!"
"So a few hours ago, where were you and what were you doing?" I was curious.
"A few hours ago... I was at ho, lying on the bed playing on my phone..."
Tan Xiang showed an expression of trying hard to recall, as if he had inadvertently fallen into a horrifying nightmare, attempting to justify his current situation through mories of living in the real world.
"I just finished dinner not long ago, it was dark outside. While playing with my phone, I saw a ssage from the shopping app notifying that my package had been delivered, saying it was placed at the nearby station. It was a mouse, because the old one wasn’t working so I got a new one. Then I wanted to pick up the package before the station closed, so I went downstairs...
"While walking on the road, I was still looking down at my phone, I suddenly looked up and found the surroundings sohow beca very dark, the community was also pitch black, unlike the usual.
"I initially thought it might be a power outage in the community, then I turned on the flashlight function of the phone to illuminate around, suddenly saw on the roadside greenery a... no, should say a bug? It looked like a large dog, seed irritated by the light from my side, jumped up and bit my shoulder...
"I was terrified, after shaking off the bug, I kept running away, as I ran, the surroundings beca more and more broken, more and more bizarre, even passing by an abandoned amusent park... on the road, saw several particularly terrifying monsters, tried my best to hide so that they wouldn’t find , later didn’t even dare to take out my phone, afraid the light would reveal .
"But later I discarded that phone, because when I tried to call the police, I found a photo of my crush set as the desktop suddenly beca very scary, the face in the photo was like a ghost with blood all over, and the blood kept flowing out from the screen... who would still dare to hold it!
"After that, I ca to this place, encountered that monster looking like ink. Originally thought hiding in the corner quietly could avoid it, no one knew how it discovered .
"I had to escape with all my might, and then encountered you guys..."
It sounded like his mories were quite coherent, didn’t seem like soone who lost mory.
And the cartographer also fell into contemplation, then spoke to Tan Xiang again, proposing several keywords like "blessing," "Sin Demon," "Frenzy," asking if he had any impressions of these words. Tan Xiang showed a bewildered expression, shaking his head for all of them.
"Strange. Even if many mories are lost, there should be faint impressions of these words," said the cartographer.
Frenzy can wash away event mories, but it’s hard to wash away knowledge mories. If the two are entangled, the latter might also be washed away, but not to the extent of having no impression. I previously claid to rember nothing, yet later showed so understanding of the Doomsday Era, the cartographer had no surprised reaction, perhaps there’s a reason related to this.
"I understand now! It seems that you were initially in the ti right after the Doomsday arrived..." The cartographer seed to have figured it out, "When I and my companions were struggling to survive outside, we passed through so very peculiar places. Those places are future locations far beyond the Doomsday arrival, where the chaos of ti and space is so severe that even the most basic physical laws cannot be upheld.
"Since there are those ’future locations far beyond,’ there must be places very close to the ti of Doomsday arrival. Although rarely seen, I’ve heard that people coming out from there all believe the Doomsday just arrived, or even haven’t realized the Doomsday arrival... You must be that kind, right?"
"Ah?" Tan Xiang couldn’t accept it.
I had also heard similar claims from Mazao in the past, in other words, Tan Xiang is a "person who just entered the Doomsday Era."
But is it really as the cartographer said?
"Tan Xiang, in your mory, what year is it now?" I asked.
Tan Xiang hesitated and said, "Twenty-five... I think?"
Twenty-five, which is the sa year as the one I was in before crossing into the Doomsday Era.
Just answering a year shouldn’t have required such hesitation, but it seems the successive bizarre experiences made him question the reality he was in.
Tan Xiang looked at the cartographer, and the cartographer, as if reading his gaze, said, "Don’t ask the year the Doomsday arrived, no one knows that."
In the era I ca from, the ti of Doomsday’s arrival is "within the next ten years." Although it’s unclear which year within the next ten years, the year twenty-five should still be a long way from the Doomsday’s arrival. Hence, if we’re not within the Doomsday Era’s radiation range, the cartographer’s definition of Tan Xiang has contradictions.
However, the Doomsday Era itself is full of powers beyond ti’s narrative logic, so maybe even this seemingly out-of-range year twenty-five is within the Doomsday Era’s radiation range. After all, even I have the power to alter history, it would be more shocking if the world-destroying Doomsday can’t achieve that.
Perhaps the ambiguity of the Doomsday prophecy about the Doomsday Era arrival ti is due to the possibility that the Doomsday Era possesses a backward-devouring characteristic along the tiline.
anwhile, I thought of the soul loss.
Mazao and I in the past had doubted more than once that the souls of the soul-loss patient group might have ti-traveled to the Doomsday Era, and Tan Xiang’s experience seed to partially match the definition of ti travel.
Could it be that Tan Xiang thought he ti-traveled while going downstairs to pick up a package, but in reality, he unknowingly entered a soul loss state while lying in bed playing on his phone, and his soul was captured by the Doomsday Era?
Is the "soul loss" phenonon occurring in the modern world a result of the Doomsday Era’s invasion up the tiline?
If true, how should the connection between the Post-mortem World and the Doomsday Era be explained? Ming Zhuo had said that Mazao’s Doomsday Dream is identical to the Post-mortem World, even the buildings of the Evangelical Institute look like Luo Mountain that was located in the Post-mortem World over a hundred years ago...
While I pondered, the cartographer asked Tan Xiang, "Can we take a look at your shoe soles?"
Though puzzled, he still lifted his foot. He was wearing sneakers, and the tread pattern on the sole was exactly the sa as the footprints we had tracked before. There’s no mistake, Tan Xiang was the owner of those footprints.
After the confirmation, the cartographer nodded, approached to examine Tan Xiang’s wound, then took out so disinfectant and bandages from his backpack to treat and bandage Tan Xiang’s wound. Although Tan Xiang said his wound was caused by a giant insect bite, fortunately, that insect didn’t seem to have a venomous ability, otherwise, he might not have lasted until he reached us.
"I want to invite Tan Xiang to join us, Zhuang Cheng, what do you think?" The cartographer, who eats anything, said.
Although Tan Xiang lacked combat ability and didn’t seem like a brave person, in the Doomsday Era, just having one more person mattered substantially.
To , the cartographer’s team is just a passing point, so I don’t mind, rather the cartographer didn’t really need to consult my opinion. So, I nodded, and the cartographer then officially invited Tan Xiang, "Then, you can continue with us from now on."
Tan Xiang didn’t seem to want to fall into a desperate situation of isolation again, and he quickly agreed with the cartographer: "Yes... okay! Thank you!"
Tan Xiang joined our team.
"Alright, let’s head back," said the cartographer, "hopefully we’ll get back to the safe house soon."
I also hoped to et the partners the cartographer ntioned and inquire about the Little Bowl clues.
We started moving again, and before long, without leaving this school area, I heard a familiar sound from afar.
It was footsteps, unusually neurotic, like walking on muddy ground.
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