Even knowing that the person before him was rely an illusion, Shi Rang still stepped forward to et the figure.
'Non-aggressive, zero risk... these two points should still be the sa, right?'
As he walked, he attempted to reconnect to the Terminal Station to see how long it would take to analyze the altered Records. However, he was shocked to discover that because he was suffering from Cognitive Pollution, the Terminal Station's data had turned into garbled code. Shi Rang had no choice but to raise his guard again, slowing his pace as he approached.
Grandfather remained standing in his original spot, only lifting his head when Shi Rang ca right up to him.
"Tian Tian, you're back?"
That familiar voice instantly transported Shi Rang back to his childhood.
The Flashlight vanished from his palm, and his perspective gradually lowered, bit by bit reverting to the angle from which he used to look up at his Grandfather and Grandmother back then.
He clung tightly to the thought, 'This is an Anomaly Project.' Only then did the physical changes cease, but Shi Rang's height had already shrunk to be level with the hunched figure before him.
The Entity that looked exactly like his Grandfather gazed at him.
In the past, Grandfather had a fiery temper and spoke brashly. He used to chase Shi Rang all over the house with a Bamboo Cane, frequently arguing with Grandmother, who always protected her grandson. But after Grandmother passed away, it was as if all the air had been let out of him. He lost all his vitality and spirit, spending his days sitting in a chair or by the door, staring blankly into the distance.
He had beco a "silent old man." Even when Shi Rang left to study in the city, it failed to elicit much of a reaction from him.
"...Yeah, I'm back."
"You're not leaving?"
Shi Rang hesitated for a mont before answering, "I'm not leaving."
Grandfather turned around and walked into the building, which still maintained the appearance of a five-story Small Building, completely different from the Ancestral Ho in Shi Rang's mories. Shi Rang glanced around and stepped forward to follow.
The furnishings inside the house had changed.
The rooms on the left and right sides of the first floor were completely sealed off, leaving only the narrow Stairwell. Shi Rang tried pushing on the doors, but they would only open a crack, revealing countless indistinguishable silhouettes inside.
Perhaps there were monsters inside, perhaps just discarded furniture, or perhaps...
He followed Grandfather, changed into slippers, and climbed up the narrow stairs.
The lodic babble of traditional opera drifted down from the second floor, accompanied by the static of a radio coming from the room on the right side of the stairs. Grandfather walked ahead, his cane tapping rhythmically against the floor in ti with the actors' lines. He walked all the way to the end of the room and sat down in the Wheelchair basking in the sunlight. Turning his head to gaze out the window, he bobbed his head in a half-asleep daze, exactly as Shi Rang rembered.
Shi Rang used to wonder if Grandfather would just sit there until the end of ti if no one called him for dinner.
Completely uncertain whether this Anomaly Project was malicious or possessed certain "death triggers," Shi Rang froze in the Stairwell.
His earlier promise of "I'm not leaving" was also sowhat dangerous. Once certain anomalies obtained a "promise," they would reveal their vicious nature.
Without any intelligence support, Shi Rang could only test the waters little by little.
He cautiously peeked his head in, confirming that Grandfather was still resting. The Bedroom was indeed exactly as he rembered it—even the photo of his Grandfather and Grandmother hung at the head of the bed—only the room's location had shifted from the first floor of a single-story house to the second floor.
On the right was the Bedroom, and on the left was the kitchen with the Wood-fired Stove.
'If the blueprint for these rooms is my mory, then my room should still be upstairs...'
Shi Rang gripped the waxed wooden handrail and climbed upwards. He took two steps before backing down again.
Grandfather's room matched his mories, but the Stairwell did not. The second-floor Stairwell had solid wood wainscoting and baseboards, but on the third floor, both of these elents vanished, as if the upper floors were unfinished.
"Grandfather, I'm going to sort out so things in my room. I'll call you for dinner later."
"Alright."
Shi Rang arrived at the third floor.
A figure stood with her back to him by the window next to the stairs. In the sunlight streaming through the open window, she was beating a pillow. The soft thumps continued until Shi Rang drew near.
"Tian Tian, you're back?"
"I'm back," Shi Rang replied, his voice trembling slightly.
Grandmother's white hair was tied into a small bun at the back of her head, and her back was deeply stooped. She always had a smile on her face when she spoke to him. "We're going to eat soon. Should I go buy you so fried chicken wings?"
"I'm not hungry right now, Grandmother."
The Grandmother from his mories and the despondent Grandfather after her passing would never exist at the sa ti. At this mont, they were indeed separated across two floors, two entirely different worlds. Grandmother had bad legs and couldn't climb the stairs, and Grandfather's Wheelchair couldn't be pushed up here either.
Even within the hallucination created by the Anomaly Project, they were kept apart.
"Then I'll go buy so when you're hungry." She flipped the pillow over and continued to pat it.
Unable to hold back, Shi Rang reached out. "Let help you."
The large red flowers on the pillowcase had already faded from countless washes; this was Grandmother's pillow. Shi Rang flipped it over and fluffed it up in the sunlight. Just as he was about to hand it back, he noticed that the room on the right side of the stairs was another Bedroom for his grandparents. Gently supporting Grandmother, he helped her inside.
After she got into bed, Shi Rang placed the pillow beneath her head.
Grandmother curled up on her side and fell asleep on the wooden bed.
It was exactly as he rembered.
Although the Bedroom on this floor was a replica of his grandparents' Bedroom, it had also undergone changes.
The patterns on the floor tiles were missing a color, the solid wood wardrobe had developed cracks, and moss grew in the corners of the ceiling, faintly exuding a desolate sense of decay.
Shi Rang tiptoed away from Grandmother and headed to the opposite room, discovering it was a Warehouse. Inside were brick-sized parcels stacked all the way to the ceiling, which could have been tea leaves or sothing else entirely. From childhood to adulthood, Shi Rang had never solved this mystery, only ever imagining the contents in his mind.
At this mont, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't tear them open.
'Will things that don't exist in my mories of Grandfather and Grandmother fail to appear?'
Shi Rang left the Old Tis behind and climbed toward the fourth floor.
The colors of the floor tile patterns grew even more monotonous, and large chunks of wall paint had peeled off, revealing the plaster underneath like festering wounds. The hollow interior exuded a strange, unsettling terror. There was no one on the fourth floor. The rooms were Shi Rang's Bedroom and the guest room, but the wallpaper was gone. His desk, chair, and bed were covered in mildew, as if sitting in the middle of ruins.
As he climbed higher, sothing was fading away.
Shi Rang stood in the Stairwell, gazing upward.
The fifth floor was close at hand, and the Rooftop was just a bit further away. However, through a child's eyes, the winding stair handrail seed to stretch on endlessly. The fifth-floor walls he could see were already mottled and cracked, with bricks and rubble exposed, and the air was thick with dust.
The areas further up no longer resembled a human dwelling.
Fear began to fester in his heart.
'Stop climbing. There are fewer and fewer things here. Who knows what lies further up?'
The figures of Grandfather and Grandmother surfaced in his mind; they were waiting for him downstairs.
The sense of security they brought him during his childhood was on par with that of true parents. In fact, Shi Rang's vision of model parents was simply what his Grandfather and Grandmother looked like when they were younger.
He had promised to return ho and stay with them.
No Shi Shixin, no Xia Nianji, no Ascension Society, no Alliance, and no Managent Authority...
He could remain a child forever, enjoying Grandmother's kindness and Grandfather's tranquility, staying trapped within this slice of Old Tis for all eternity.
'As long as you don't step outside, those terrible things in the future will never happen,' a voice whispered in Shi Rang's heart.
His hand slipped down from the upper part of the stair handrail, and he couldn't help but look back downstairs.
"Tian Tian, ti to eat! It's all your favorite dishes!"
Grandmother was calling him.
Carefully gripping the handrail that now lood tall over him, he took a single step downward, and then paused.
Yes, he deeply missed those tis, and he had been overwheld with grief when Grandmother and Grandfather passed away one after another. Because Shi Shixin had forcibly taken him away to attend a so-called elite middle school, he had missed his final chance to see both of them, leaving behind only the mory of their silhouettes standing outside the door, watching him leave.
But a person couldn't be a child forever.
That seemingly ruined fifth floor might house the Board Ga Club's activity room, or perhaps the ho he shared with Ying Shang. Those were places of mories filled with laughter and happiness; they just hadn't manifested yet.
They were all waiting for him in the future.
The future would be fraught with disasters, and he felt absolutely no gratitude for those hardships. But if he ran away from tomorrow, he would be discarding those beautiful fragnts along with it.
He felt that he lived precisely for those monts.
It was true in the past, and it remained true now.
Shi Rang turned around and, pumping his two unconsciously shortened legs, sprinted toward the fifth floor.
The fifth floor was actually completely blank; the Ancestral Ho in his mories had no more rooms to offer.
He charged up the final flight of stairs. As he ran, his figure grew taller. His chubby limbs stretched out and beca lean, and his face shed its childish roundness, replaced by a weathered maturity as he reverted to his current appearance.
Grandfather and Grandmother stood before the door to the Rooftop, blocking the way with their bodies.
"I have to go, Grandfather, Grandmother. I really have to go—"
Shi Rang stopped and reached out, intending to gently push them aside so he could squeeze past and rush for the Rooftop door.
The mont he touched the two elders, the world shattered.
[Plunder Successful]
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