Chapter 61: Chapter 061: Miles, is that you?
Chen Ke carefully recalled the events of last night, awakened by the excruciating pain of having his heart gouged out, then crawling out of a pool of blood before eting the first person who wanted to kill him.
He reflected on his experiences over the past dozen hours, trying to pinpoint the mont when ti started to go awry.
Chen Ke believed that Parker was the key to understanding the ti anomaly, much like Schrodinger’s cat.
On October 4th, Parker entered the Black Box Space and encountered a duplication effect before jumping into the Great Void.
When he entered the Spirit Explosion Space where Chen Ke was located, through a door on one side of the Great Void, that was when the disorder in ti started.
Perhaps he arrived earlier than Chen Ke, perhaps later, but anyhow, Chen Ke and Parker t.
...
Their tilines beca intertwined, and after encountering a pack of dogs in the lobby, it was unclear which one of them triggered the condition that split ti.
Who was it? And what did they do to cause the problem with ti?
Was it because of his own traversal? If that was the case, then the difference couldn’t simply be Parker’s life or death alone.
He looked up at Parker, combining what he had said earlier, Chen Ke ventured a bold speculation.
Perhaps, this Parker was originally from another parallel universe. He ca to this universe through the Great Void, replaced the Parker of this universe, and then died before Chen Ke’s eyes.
But could his own world’s Parker have mistakenly hopped into the Great Void and now be sitting here sighing in regret?
That doesn’t add up…
The timing wasn’t right; Parker had only beco an investigator in September and wouldn’t have t his March self…
Moreover, if it was a parallel universe, why was there only one Parker?
Chen Ke grasped his hair, staring at the tips of his shoes, unable to co up with any credible deductions.
If last night’s building was a large-scale single-electron double-slit interference experint, then who made the “observation” that led to Parker’s death?
And what exactly determined that Chen Ke would enter a parallel tiline where “Parker died”?
That night, besides himself and Parker, how many others were in that building?
Chen Ke took out his Nokia E63, opened the notepad, and recorded the related suspicions.
When he first crossed over, Chen Ke had killed a Black Person who had pointed a gun at him; that Black Person had actually co to the office looking for “Miles” ntioned by him.
That made two people.
And there was the “plan” ntioned by the Black Person.
It must be the plan of Si’s consortium. They planned to do sothing in that building. Whatever they sought to achieve, it certainly wasn’t good, and the plan involved his death.
Why?
The Black Person Chen Ke had killed probably didn’t know how to use the Holy Relic, which is why he was caught off guard and killed by the Blasphemous Dagger through the throat.
What did that imply? It was unlikely that assignees of Si’s consortium wouldn’t know about the Holy Relics; thus, that Black Person mustn’t have belonged to Si’s consortium, at least not as one of the core executors of the plan.
And then there was that Blasphemous Dagger.
By now, Chen Ke had beco familiar with the use of Holy Relics. Holy Relics, as cold weapons, could have such a powerful effect on monsters mainly because of the various attributes attached.
Moreover, it was clear that Holy Relics had color classifications; what he had seen so far were white and blue. The Blasphemous Dagger that killed Chen Ke was orange, did that an it was a superior Holy Relic?
Chen Ke still rembered its attributes were two “extracted” and one “used.”
Did “used” an it was “used to open a door”?
With his own heart… No, with his life as the price, he unleashed the power of the dagger to open the door to the Great Void?
Chen Ke seed to have grasped the key point, subconsciously touching his chest. There was no response, for there was no heart. Only an occasionally swirling vortex mark remained.
He thought of the contract demon and its constant refrain, “You owe a soul…”
Chen Ke took a deep breath and stood up, cursing Si’s consortium under his breath. It was just like a damn cult! He might very well have been intended as a sacrifice to the contract demon, to open the door to the Great Void!
As for Lin Mo, the body’s forr owner, he had indeed died. Chen Ke seized the mont of Lin Mo’s death to cross into Lin Mo’s body, creating a paradox!
That was also why the contract demon had completed the contract, yet it had not received a sacrificed soul, which was why the demon had set its sights on him.
Chen Ke couldn’t calm himself for a long ti. He had to find a functioning Blasphemous Dagger to see what those three attributes were, to confirm his suspicions.
“Have you thought of sothing, Chen Ke?” Parker asked, seeing Chen Ke stand up.
Chen Ke shook his head, the timing was not right yet, and he couldn’t be sure if his guesses were correct.
“I think we should go down and see what’s here. Maybe we can find so new clues in this place,” Chen Ke suggested.
He knew that Si’s consortium’s people had also been here, maybe he could find so traces and see what they had gotten out of this place.
“No, I don’t think that’s a good idea. It’s safe here. Those zombies made from ashes won’t revive here, and who knows, there might be more monsters down there. I’m running low on ammo, I don’t want to go down there and get killed,” Parker didn’t respond to Chen Ke’s call, deciding to just squat there and wait for rescue.
Chen Ke sighed, he ejected the magazine from his PPQ.45 and loaded it with regular bullets. The monsters in this place weren’t affected by Fla attribute, so there was no need to waste Fla Bullets.
That being so, he would have to go alone. With his left hand holding the pistol and his right grasping the Fire-igniting Broadsword, he made his way down the only path in this ravine.
Although this place was at a naturally secluded valley bottom, the smooth road and the orderly arrangent of wall-like debris made Chen Ke think it had once been a village.
Scraping away the soil with his foot, he could see the remains of a stone-paved road buried underneath. About a hundred ters ahead, the road had sunk by a hundred ters in a broken descent, and below, he could see more fragnts of houses in what seed like an abyss. Far away, sunlight stread through the cracks in the ravine, casting light over the basin and shaping a scene of desolation.
Chen Ke looked down from the side’s earthen stone platform, on the left side of the road there was a dirt platform about five or six ters high. Next to the mud on the ground, there was a rocky fissure that appeared to be just wide enough to squeeze through. Next to the fissure, there was a weapon box just like the ones in the tent, covered in mud and dust, as if it had been abandoned for a long ti, with H.C.P. marked on it.
Chen Ke looked around, debating sliding down the slope from here, a journey from which he might not easily return. If that fissure turned out to be a dead end, it would be frustrating.
Chen Ke turned around and called out to Parker’s location, “Hey! Parker!”
Parker’s figure erged from a pile of debris and looked towards Chen Ke. Chen Ke waved, and Parker waved back, then went back to where he was sitting.
Parker would hear if he couldn’t get back up and call for help. Thinking this, Chen Ke braced himself on the edge of the mud platform and slid down the slope.
Slap.
Upon landing, Chen Ke walked straight toward the weapon box. It was an intact weapon box that hadn’t been opened yet, the whole box about a ter long and, judging by its thickness, it could probably hold a long rifle.
He peered at the crack, feeling bursts of cold air, indicating that there was an exit on the other side. Whoever had brought this weapon box clearly couldn’t move it through to the other side of the fissure, so they had to leave it here.
Chen Ke tried to open the box but couldn’t find a way to begin. There was no visible locking chanism, nor any gaps. If he hadn’t seen what it looked like opened in the tent, he might have doubted whether it could even be opened.
He lifted and shook the box, unable to hear anything inside, though its weight didn’t feel empty, suggesting that the contents were very well secured inside.
He used the Fire-igniting Broadsword to probe various parts of the box to see if he could wedge it open but to no avail. He fired two shots at the box, and the bullets ricocheted off without even leaving a mark on the surface.
He sighed, giving up, stood up and walked towards the fissure.
The fissure was just wide enough for a person to squeeze through sideways, and with Chen Ke’s build, the space was relatively spacious. However, the fissure wasn’t straight but twisted and turned, which was why the weapon box couldn’t fit through.
The chilly air from the fissure brushed Chen Ke’s face, suggesting that it was very cold on the other side.
His eyes scanned the cliff beside the fissure, and suddenly he spotted a row of English carved with a dagger: “Miles, we went in here.”
Chen Ke’s eyes lit up, he switched his gun to his right hand, and squeezed sideways into the fissure.
Reviews
All reviews (0)