Chapter 148 - The Corridor of Time (IV)

Editors: Humu & Kitty

“Are you a newbie?” Luo Jian spoke in a soft voice, sounding just like a real, cute, and adorable child, and even deliberately pretended to look like an adult. Of course, his appearance was too deceptive, so even in this cruel secret chamber s.p.a.ce, it was very easy for people to let down their guards.

Clown was so amused by his appearance that he could not help rubbing his hand that had been on the child’s head. He said with a smile: “Yes, I’m here for the first time. Are you here for the first time as well?”

Luo Jian blinked his eyes and laughed vaguely: “Yes, it’s really my first time here.”

“Are you looking for teammates?”

Clown thought that such a small child was afraid of being in this secret chamber. Other players were basically adults, and they were all tall and strong, dressed in strange clothes. Maybe he wanted to find a newbie like him to form a team together, and since Clown was only 16 years old, though the makeup on his face appeared strange, his age could be roughly seen.

Luo Jian seemed to vaguely guess what Clown was thinking, but he did not expose his thoughts. He answered the following question Clown asked and answered, “Yes, I heard that you can freely form a team here.”

Clown slyly laughed: “But it’s very risky to form a team with others casually. I don’t want any teammates for the time being.”

Luo Jian looked left and right and saw that many players around were all busy with their errands, and no one paid attention to them. Luo Jian thought for a while and placed his umbrella on his shoulder. He stared at Clown’s eyes. Clowns was in his teenage years. His facial features appeared tender and immature, and he had not yet grown into what he would look like in the future. But the shape of his eyes were very good looking. If he didn’t have a layer of strange white powder on his face, he would definitely be a handsome boy in the future.

Luo Jian once again lowered his voice. Sometimes even if he did not use his weapon, he could still hypnotize others. He found that it was an interesting method to give other cues. With the undulation of his voice, his subtle movements, and the message he sent to others when he looked them in the eye, he could use all of these to give cues to others.

Luo Jian would gradually deepen these cues. When the cues reached the limit, no matter who the person was, the person would be controlled by him. Then, Luo Jian could easily control the other party’s action and use words to control the other person’s behavior. This had become a very easy and simple thing to accomplish for him.

So Luo Jian looked into Clown’s eyes, lowered his voice, and whispered in what was like a gentle and light tone, “Can’t we be teammates?”

Clown gazed at the child for a second. His pupils dilated, and that was a sign that one had been hypnotized. Thereupon, he replied to Luo Jian as Luo Jian expected: “Of course, we can be teammates.”

“What’s your name?” Luo Jian asked him.

Clown slightly smiled: “My name is Hong. That single character only. The ‘Hong’ in ‘CaiHong.’”

Luo Jian was stunned, for he suddenly realized that something was wrong. He felt that the name was familiar to him, and he had seen it somewhere. Luo Jian soon remembered the stone slab billboard that he had just seen. The fellow who was first in the ranking of the strongest individuals seemed to be also named k2018;Hong.’

Was it a coincidence? Or perhaps both of them just had the same name.

Luo Jian tilted his head and asked, “Are you really a newbie?”

“Yes, I have just experienced my fifth secret chamber, and after that, someone told me that I could come here to see the trading grounds. So I came.” While talking, Clown suddenly reached out his hand. This action shocked Luo Jian. It was not within his expectations. Hypnotized people were not supposed to do something out of his expectations!

But Clown did it, and his hands reached over. His hands inched forward to Luo Jian’s cheeks and pinched them hard. He said, “Don’t hypnotize me.”

“You know?” Luo Jian was really terrified.

“I know. I’m conscious inwardly, but if you ask me some questions or ask me to do something, I’ll follow your orders.” Clown stated, and he seemed surprised, “How amazing. I heard that in this place, no players’ weapons can be used, and the means of attack or defense are invalid. How did you do it?”

Luo Jian pursed his lips. “You don’t need to know how I did it. Now, let’s try to sign a team contract. Do you have an invitation letter?”

It was not known where Clown took out a piece of paper from. The printed note with purple patterns was a symbol that represented the secret chamber. Luo Jian thought that he had not seen this thing for a long time, and Luo Jian had a bad impression of this note.

Although Luo Jian had the ident.i.ty of GM, the GM in many games could integrate into the game as a player. Therefore, Luo Jian could form a team with other players, using a player’s status. He wrote a few lines on the note and requested Clown to sign on it.

Clown glanced at the note and said with a smile, “Your words really don’t look like what a child would write, but…… you are called Abyss?”

Luo Jian did not speak. Abyss was obviously not his name, but it was the name of the body, or rather, the name of the game. Originally, the game designed by Ying was known as <>.

The word abyss originated from the word deep abyss. The reason why they named the body Abyss was because once you descended into an abyss, you wouldn’t be able to extricate yourself from it. Ying and his team originally wanted to design a game that the public loved so much that they couldn’t extricate themselves from it. It was not his original intention to design a secret chamber or something akin to it. However, this strange game had developed to a point where it spiraled out of their control.

Luo Jian did not want to clarify this wonderful misunderstanding. Anyway, from now on, he was known as Abyss. His real body was dead, and his soul could only stay in this body. He had nowhere to go and did not have any way to get back. Therefore, he could only use this ident.i.ty to survive, even if he was irked by others or numb to everything.

Clown generously signed the note, and the Hong character was written at the bottom of the note. After writing on it, clearly nothing happened, but both felt wondrously connected at the same time. Clown waved the note in his hand, and the note slowly disappeared.

“Well, now you are my captain. How terrible. I merely wanted to peacefully enter the secret chamber alone.” Clown’s voice seemed to sound a little aggrieved, but he had a smile on his mouth. This caused the clown makeup on his face to also appear to be smiling, but no one could tell he was unhappy.

“I’m so sorry,” Luo Jian said, expressionlessly.

“You should make it up to me. I have made a great sacrifice.”

“How can I make it up to you?”

Clown tilted his head to think about it and excitedly said, “Let me hug you. You look very cute.”

Clown’s strange cravings were satisfied. Luo Jian hesitated for a moment and slowly walked over to let Clown pick him up. His child’s body was so small that he had to raise his head up when he looked at others. When he was held up, his line of sight suddenly levitated quite a lot, and it reminded Luo Jian of the times when he was picked up by his cousin.

Luo Jian wrapped his short arms around Clown’s neck and pasted his face to feel the other party’s temperature. He was recording Clown’s body temperature and body information and, in pa.s.sing, made a mark on Clown’s body so that the next time he leaped, he could come directly to him. However, this method of recording could only take effect for a short while as compared to not having much of a problem when recording the large-scale spatial coordinates of locations, such as A Lone Boat.

However, for an individual such as Clown, it was estimated that Luo Jian would lose Clown’s coordinate signal after a few leaps. Therefore, he should try to leave something on Clown that wouldn’t be found by the secret chamber yet would also not be eliminated by the secret chamber as a meaningless object. This thing could guide Luo Jian and record Clown’s spatial coordinates at any time.

After that, Clown walked around the whole A Lone Boat trading ground with Luo Jian in his arms. At last, he went to the billboard, pointed to the one ranked first in the strongest players on it and said to Luo Jian, “Look! My name is written on it!”

Luo Jian was expressionless: “You merely share the same name and surname with that person.”

Clown scratched his head. “If I were on the list, would there be two ‘Hong’s on the rankings?”

“Let’s wait for the day when you can go up in the rankings.”

There was nothing much to see in the trading grounds. The two people left very quickly. The sole difference was that Clown left the trading ground while Luo Jian leaped through time and s.p.a.ce again and went to the next time s.p.a.ce. Because he had recorded Clown’s information previously, he followed the little signal he left on Clown to leap over. This would cause some errors in Luo Jian’s leaping, but fortunately, because he and Clown had already established a team relationship, no matter whether there were errors in leaping or not, he would enter the same secret chamber Clown was in.

The sole difference was merely time’s sequence.

If you want to know how it felt when someone leaped through s.p.a.ce time, Luo Jian would answer that it felt like you were being decomposed into the smallest and tiniest of units, and generally, you’d feel that you were being decomposed into photon units. His whole body, soul, and consciousness were all transformed into an energy body, which spread through the universe or primal chaos at a terrifying speed. It might be only for a moment, or it might be only for less than a moment.

Luo Jian would appear in another place.

He was in a secret chamber now. He appeared in a stairway-like place, and above and below him were all stairs. Luo Jian checked his belongings. He was still dressed in the same way as he did in A Lone Boat trading ground, but there was a note on his body given to him by the secret chamber. From now on, Luo Jian would be regarded as an ordinary player with intermediary strength. His strength was insufficient for the secret chamber to monitor his coordinates, but the secret chamber might also cla.s.sify him as part of the players who would become stalkers.

As long as Luo Jian does not act out of the ordinary, the secret chamber would also be rendered helpless by Luo Jian.

The following was written on the note, and even his name had changed:

[Esteemed Mr. Abyss:]

[You and your partner are now in a special secret chamber. Due to some illegal machinations, you and your partner will be punished to a certain extent, so the chamber has been enlarged to make it more difficult for both of you.]

[You are located in a never-ending stairway.]

[The time limit is three hours.]

[Hint: Do not touch the red doors. Do not open the black doors.]

There was also a sentence written on the back of the note:

[I’m always being chased by something scary. I ran out of the house. I descended down the stairs. I wanted to get out of here.]

“Very interesting.” Luo Jian glanced at the note and laughed.

T/N: New secret chamber!!

Please welcome my new editor, Humu, who will be editing EIC along with Kitty !