A strange, untraceable dim glow filled the entire space, and the air carried a musty scent mixed with chemicals. Zheng Zhi cautiously poked his head out from his hiding spot, carefully observing the environnt he was currently in.
It was the interior of a large building, with a vast circular hall visible outside. The white walls and do ceiling still barely held traces of their past grandeur, but clearly, that splendor belonged to a bygone era. There was also a set of columns arranged in a circular formation, surrounding the hall. Two of the columns had already collapsed, breaking into several sections in the center of the hall, and large chunks of debris from the roof were scattered around.
Above, on the high do ceiling, a central structure covered by a hemispherical glass could be seen — possibly deford due to the collapse of the supporting pillars. One-third of the glass shell had already shattered, revealing only a chaotic darkness beyond the gaping hole, making it impossible to discern the situation of the "sky."
Zheng Zhi was currently in a small cubicle at the corner of the hall — the cubicle was piled with a large amount of rubbery "junk" that seed to have randomly taken shape after lting, its original appearance unrecognizable.
"What kind of place is this... Is this sothing an intern is supposed to face?"
Zheng Zhi muttered with difficulty and then looked down to check the items he carried with him —
The phone had no signal, the locator was giving errors, and he only had a self-defense pistol since he was in an intern phase, so he couldn't use high-power disintegrating bullets, only regular rocket-propelled explosive rounds. Other than that, he just had the packed al in his hand — the bad news was only half was left, but the good news was there were still quite a few chicken nuggets.
Zheng Zhi recalled what he had learned during training and the contents taught in the agent's ergency manual. He found that the only part he could use at the mont was "maintaining a good mindset."
That part wasn't difficult; he always had a good mindset — and he had adapted to situations of suddenly landing in strange places.
So he adjusted for a while in the hiding cubicle, observing the hall outside for quite so ti to confirm that it wouldn't collapse, and that there were no other suspicious live entities within his line of sight, before boldly stepping out.
He carefully walked through the empty hall, passing between the remnants of the broken columns, attempting to find an exit that could lead back to the real world.
When he reached the other side of the hall, he turned back to glance at the path he had just walked, noticing large patterns on the ground — alternating light and dark lines ford so kind of design, although a significant portion of the pattern was covered by the collapsed ruins, it was still roughly discernible as so spider-like shape.
Zheng Zhi went through his limited knowledge of mysticism and the Exotic Realm but couldn't find any corresponding reference.
He also couldn't identify the style or origin of this building.
Walking along the edge of the hall for quite so ti, he finally found a door that seed to be an exit.
The door was not locked, rely ajar, and Zheng Zhi boldly stepped forward to push it, finding it opened easily.
"At least I can get out of this dangerous building..."
Zheng Zhi let out a sigh of relief, pushed the door open, and poked his head out to look around. Before he could finish his sentence, he was suddenly caught off guard, the rest of his words stuck in his throat, and the remaining breath beca a gasp: "...What the hell!!"
Luckily, he took a look outside first, or he would have almost stepped into the void.
There was nothing outside the hall — beyond the door was an empty and chaotic dark space, without sky or ground, boundless and endless!
"...This is really not sothing an intern should face..."
Zheng Zhi gulped, his legs twitching a bit as he looked at the situation outside, hesitating for several seconds before mustering the courage to poke his head out a bit further, turning to look at both sides.
He saw the entire hall he was in floating in such darkness, and the hall itself seed to be just a part of a larger structure torn away from another entity.
He saw more debris — chunks of construction in varying sizes, so even barren rocks and soil, floating around in the dark, as if stirred by an invisible force, aimlessly swirling and drifting in the void.
He stared outside for quite a while, finally taking a sharp breath, unable to resist the oppressive unease in his heart, and quickly withdrew his gaze.
But at the mont he retracted his sight, he suddenly felt as if he had seen sothing — in the deepest part of that darkness, there seed to be so massive structure floating amidst the nurous fragnts of debris.
Zheng Zhi rubbed his eyes vigorously, trying his utmost to look into that darkness, attempting to distinguish that outline from the blurry, chaotic background, but he couldn't see anything clearly.
After a while, he ca to his senses, quickly placing the remaining half of his packed al on the ground beside him, and swiftly drew out his phone.
The phone had no signal, but taking pictures didn't require an internet connection — with the modern technology-supported high-definition cara, it was more capable than the human eye.
Low-light, night vision, deep space mode, AI compensation, smart stacking, with all paraters turned up to maximum.
Zheng Zhi pressed the shutter, trying to steady his phone, and finally saw a sowhat clear image appear on the screen.
A tower, constructed from an unknown black material, stood tilted in the center of a vast expanse of ruins, as if it pierced through the entire space, floating in a void.
At the sa ti, within the limited range that the phone could capture, the tower presented another bizarre scene—it seed both ends were being infinitely "stretched," with no visible start or finish, extending into the depths of darkness beyond the cara's capability.
Zheng Zhi clutched the phone tightly with both hands, eyes wide open, staring at the image on the screen.
After a while, he finally snapped back to his senses and realized there seed to be sothing at the edge of the image.
Take a look, take a look, take a look...
A certain deadly "attraction" seed to stir in his heart, as Zheng Zhi felt a buzzing in his ears. He slowly lifted the phone, aiming the cara at a certain position above the tower, constantly adjusting the image, trying to see more in the chaotic darkness—unsure of how long he adjusted, he finally saw so vague outlines appear in the center of the screen.
A dark star, a massive black celestial body—it perched coldly like a giant moon atop the endless tower, hanging aloof over countless floating wreckage around it.
When Zheng Zhi suddenly woke up, he realized he had sohow "stepped out" of the broken hall where he had been hiding, and was uncontrollably floating upwards.
He was being drawn by that "Black Star," constantly drifting skyward.
A bone-chilling cold swept through his entire body, and Zheng Zhi exclaid, trying with all his might to "run" back in this unanchored chaos, but there was nothing to grasp or hold in this environnt. He couldn't escape the imnse gravity coming from the "Black Star," and could only feel himself floating faster and higher.
"Damn it—" The unlucky intern flailed in the air, "Rescue... Brother Yu, save !"
He didn't know why he suddenly thought of calling Yu Sheng for help, but in his desperation, that na popped into his head instinctively, and just as he called the third ti, a peculiar, icy chill surged in his heart.
Zheng Zhi widened his eyes in shock, seeing a pitch-black thread sohow appear beside him—in the dim surroundings, this black thread was hard to discern with the naked eye, but for so reason, it exuded an extrely strong "presence," almost as if it was burning bright in his vision.
There was no ti to think; Zheng Zhi reached out and grabbed the thread.
The bone-chilling cold almost made him let go in an instant.
But in fact, he couldn't let go even if he wanted to. The thread seed alive, instantly wrapping tightly around him, and then a massive pulling force ca abruptly.
He also heard so familiar voices in his ear—
"I've got it, I've got it! Ah, ah, a bit heavy... Arm, arm, my arm's about to break! Yu Sheng, help out here!"
Then ca a chaotic rumble.
Erin exclaid and fell backward, luckily bumping into Yu Sheng behind her, with the little puppet only colliding on the latter's leg, while a black Spider Silk soared into the air—a twisted crack carving through the air like a hot knife through butter, and then a figure flew out from that crack, dog paddling in the air as they ca out.
Zheng Zhi was pulled back by Erin just like that.
Several people imdiately surrounded him, helping the dazed nephew up, while Li Lin leaned in close, noticing the dazed expression and odd, foggy eyes of the younger man in front of him. He felt a tightening in his chest and slapped him twice on the face: "Wake up! Wake up!"
With two slaps landing on his face, Zheng Zhi suddenly ca to his senses, looking around slowly and muttering, "…I'm back?"
Yu Sheng first picked up the little puppet that had bumped into his leg, holding it in front of him carefully checking the arms: "How's it going? Did your arm break?"
"Scared the hell out of , almost broke! This body is made of lotus root by you back then, I always said it's not strong enough..." Erin patted her chest, muttering as she adeptly flipped around and climbed Yu Sheng's arm onto his shoulder, finally turning to look at the still sowhat dazed Zheng Zhi, "Hey, nephew, how are you?"
"Oh, oh, I'm fine, just a bit stunned from the fall just now," Zheng Zhi finally fully ca to his senses. His frequent drops into the Exotic Realm and being pulled out had accustod him to regain his composure quickly. He imdiately took out his phone, "Brother Yu! I fell into I-don't-know-where, but I took a picture! Co and see..."
Several gazes instantly fell upon Zheng Zhi's phone screen.
Yu Sheng also ca closer with Erin on his shoulder.
The little puppet blinked, looking at the screen with everyone else for a long while before hesitatingly raising his head: "This just shows nothing on your screen? It's all black..."
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