Chapter 160 - The Corridor of Time (XVI)

Thank you so much, ChrysAmans for your kofis –Bonus Chapter (2/3)

Editor: Humu & Kitty

Duan Li thought that those people might be sending a message to him. They meant to tell Duan Li: You can’t stay in reality, that is, you can’t be here.

Duan Li thought that those people wanted to bring him back to the city of lawlessness because the city of lawlessness was a city that someone could go into but couldn’t get out of. Since Duan Li had been in the city, he couldn’t get out of the city. He must continue to stay in the city and become one of its walking dead.

However, Luo Jian had a different perspective.

He felt that since the secret chamber wanted to build a fortress using the city of lawlessness to protect its heart, some armed forces were needed in the fortress, and these strong and powerful forces would become sharp weapons to protect the heart. But ordinary people obviously couldn’t be good weapons, so the secret chamber would find or set its hand on players.

Now Duan Li was the player who the secret chamber had ‘set its hand on.’

Although Duan Li was quite different from how Luo Jian saw him in the future, the present Duan Li was not strong and mature enough. However, Duan Li still had good qualifications. With cultivation and training, Duan Li could certainly be transformed into a powerful watchdog.

After all, the secret chamber had turned countless players into all sorts of weird things like monsters, stalkers, even NPCs, or some things even more bizarre.

The secret chamber clearly had such power.

But what Luo Jian was worried about now was whether this was a trap specially set by the secret chamber for him?

However, after careful consideration, Luo Jian knew it was impossible.

First, the secret chamber did not know that Luo Jian was ‘Luo Jian’ because he had changed his body and even his weapons had changed. In addition, Ying had dealt with him specially. Therefore, the secret chamber completely would not be able to tell the past ‘Luo Jian’ was the present Luo Jian. At most, the secret chamber only thought that Luo Jian was a special GM.

When Ying designed the game, he did not design too many GMs in the secret chamber; only the GM ‘Abyss’ was designed. The body of the GM ‘Abyss’ had always been in a state of deep sleep. Now when the body suddenly awakened, this would naturally attract the attention of the chamber.

Although a GM had the highest authority so that the secret chamber couldn’t do anything excessive to Luo Jian, it could still monitor, track, and record the GM’s actions. These were all things the secret chamber would be able to do autonomously.

If Luo Jian kept trying to hide and avoid the chamber, dodge the secret chamber’s monitoring, and attempt to reduce his sense of existence, on the contrary, the secret chamber would pay more and more attention to him. This was because sneaky fellows would cause people to pay more attention to them.

However, as long as Luo Jian went out and had a face-to-face conversation with the secret chamber and willingly exposed himself to the secret chamber’s line of sight, he would be able to do much more. The secret chamber would lower its vigilance against Luo Jian. He could let the secret chamber belittle, ignore, and underestimate him.

This way, there would be more opportunities for Luo Jian to act.

So what should the next step in his plan be?

Luo Jian thought as his eyes rested on Duan Li in front of him. Duan Li instinctively stared at the little boy in front of him. The boy’s expression was really not like what a child would have. His expression appeared too gloomy, and it even made others feel that he had gone through many vicissitudes in life. His body was shrouded with the scent of blood. When he was quiet and silent, the boy exuded an especially strong, frightening, and hair-raising aura.

Apart from the child in front of him, Duan Li had only felt the same aura in one person, that type of strong, terrifying aura. When he stood in front of you, it was akin to hundreds and thousands of soldiers with proper gear charging towards you…… that sort of feeling.

Unfortunately, that man was already dead.

“Can you do me a favor?” At this time, the meditative Luo Jian looked up at Duan Li with a smile, which dispelled his gloomy breath. He said, “I really want to go into the city of lawlessness. Can you take me there?”

Duan Li shook his head helplessly: “I can’t do it. I don’t know where the entrance of that city is. It has been completely erased from the map. I know nothing of where the entrance and exit of the city are. We can’t run around like headless flies, right?”

“Of course not. We can let others take us,” Luo Jian said.

“Since those people want to take you back to that city that adamantly, it’s better for you to be taken away by them.”

Duan Li was reluctant. In his impression, every corner of the city seemed to be playing a black-and-white puppet film. Duan Li did not want to be in that place ever again in his life. He said, “This is not a good idea. Do you think I will be able to return?”

Luo Jian opened his mouth to rea.s.sure him, “Don’t worry, I’ll be with you. Even if we can’t come back, it’s both of us that can’t come back.”

“Will you threaten me if I don’t agree?” Duan Li said.

“Don’t make me do that, Duan Li.” Luo Jian’s tone turned gentle. “You have to learn to make the right choice.”

“Oh, I understand. You’re merely making what you consider the right choice for you.”

Although Duan Li was reluctant, he still obediently followed Luo Jian’s command under his coercion and convincing. However, before implementing their plan, Duan Li proposed that he must first go to see little Ah Lan. This was his farewell to Ah Lan.

“Do you like the child very much?” When Luo Jian thought of their strange relationship in the future, it seemed to him that the relationship between them was too tangled up to unravel. But similarly, the relationship they had between them seemed to be devoid of feelings and entanglements. This was especially so because Luo Jian had always thought Duan Li was bullying Feng YuLan.

Duan Li hesitated for a moment. He warily glanced at Luo Jian and replied, “I don’t like him, but just because he helped me, I have to repay him.”

“But you were clearly worried about him just now, when I said that I wished to use the child as a bargaining chip.” Luo Jian smiled strangely.

Duan Li did not speak and did not look at Luo Jian. Instead, he turned his head in silence.

After Duan Li dealt with his wound, he clumsily began to change the bandage for his abdominal wound. Maybe he was injured often, so he would still know how to tie it. But the bandage was tied messily, and it seemed that he was not afraid of pain. The strength he used was great, so his wound soon began to ooze blood.

“It’s a miracle that you’ve lived to this day.”

Luo Jian was rather experienced in his medical treatment techniques because he learned these from his mother. So, he took the initiative to wrap the bandage for Duan Li and said to him, “Don’t move.”

Duan Li obediently remained still and allowed Luo Jian to circle the bandages around his wound.

After changing the bandage, Luo Jian said, “When shall we start?”

Duan Li thought: “It’s too late tonight. If you’re not in a hurry, we can continue our plan tomorrow.”

After discussing the plan, in order to nurse his wounds, Duan Li continued to climb back to the simple bed made of cotton wadded sheets in the sundry room to recuperate. Naturally, Luo Jian would not sleep with him. Because he made a mark on Duan Li’s body when he changed the bandage for Duan Li previously, Luo Jian was not afraid to lose track of him, so while it was still early, Luo Jian decided to head out to visit someone.

Luo Jian felt that he had not been strolling in the modern city at night for a long time.

He had experienced a lot of battles. His body, soul, and even the depths of his consciousness seemed to be muddled with countless battle experiences. For the present Luo Jian, the memories that had the most impression on him were the days he spent in the Crimson Asura Realm. He stayed there for a long time and killed many enemies with his knife. Up to now, Luo Jian’s fingers could still recall the touch and the feeling when his blade cut into delicate skin.

Luo Jian stood on the street in a trance. He opened his red umbrella and let his sense of existence disappear from the world. He tried to make himself recall some better memories, his past memories and his companions. This was the reason he was working towards his goals. He could neither forget these goals, nor forget his original purpose because of his l.u.s.t for killing and blood.

“d.a.m.n it, how terrible.”

Luo Jian stopped walking. He frowned and felt a strange agitation surging through his body. His blood seemed to be boiling. He said to himself, “Is it because I left the battlefield? I urgently need to fight now. d.a.m.n it, I want to fight someone. ”

It felt as if he was addicted to drugs.

Luo Jian walked around irritably. He shuttled through countless ordinary people. In the l.u.s.trous and dazzling street of street lamps and cars whistling by the street, he found a public bench on the road and sat down as he watched people come and go anxiously or hastily, having happy or sad expressions. This day pa.s.sed by so ordinarily that Luo Jian would not be able to imagine it happening.

Luo Jian suddenly realized that he was no longer his original self.

He longed for battle and blood. He began to indulge in the ups and downs in the secret chamber—no matter whether he was in a desperate situation or putting his life on the line, no matter how powerful the enemy was, he was no longer afraid. On the contrary…… he was excited.

After experiencing too much of these emotions, Luo Jian would occasionally think of several questions. If one day he really destroyed the secret chamber, could he still be himself?

Fortunately, Luo Jian, who was so powerful now, had become tough mentally. He was no longer stubborn about this issue. It was better for him to focus on the immediate goal. What would happen after destroying the secret chamber? Luo Jian was too lazy to think about it.

He felt that now, he had to find a place where he could fight with others.

But there was certainly no place in reality to properly fight with others.

So should he simply ‘leap’ and go somewhere else? For example, in the secret chamber, he could jump into a team battle and give himself the ident.i.ty of a stalker? Anyway, the current Luo Jian had the right to do many things. As long as he did not directly interfere with the outcome of the victory or defeat of both parties in the secret chamber of the team battle, the secret chamber’s will couldn’t control Luo Jian.

Luo Jian licked his lips. It was a very tempting idea. Moreover, he had already marked Duan Li’s body, just as he did on Clown previously. Luo Jian could remember Duan Li’s bodily signals and the s.p.a.ce-time coordinates, and he could return to this worldline after fighting.

As he was thinking of doing it, Luo Jian shook his umbrella in his hand, and his entire person disappeared in the endless stream of people on the street.

Although Luo Jian’s s.p.a.ce-time leap was said to be random, there were certain rules to abide by. Usually, he would appear around the places he cared about or was familiar with. However, due to the randomness, there might be differences in time or s.p.a.ce, which also led to the random time points that Luo Jian would appear in if he did not memorize the s.p.a.ce-time coordinates. He might go to the past, and it might also be possible for him to go to the future. But because of the instability of the future, most of the time he went to the past.

Similarly, if Luo Jian did not deliberately recall or remember the place he was going to cross to, the location of his appearance would be random. It might be in a secret chamber, in North America, which was half the world away, or even in a galaxy hundreds and billions of light-years away.

However, what was interesting was that when Luo Jian used his GM authority, he would get all kinds of privileges just like a stalker. For example, he could freely shuttle around any secret chamber to replace the ident.i.ty of any NPC in the secret chamber. He could change his ident.i.ty at will. Depending on his ident.i.ty, he would be covered with a halo of ‘can’t be destroyed in any way.’

Of course, he also had some special rights, such as inquiring about a player’s detailed information and knowing a player’s weapons and props.

He could bestow a player some special props—any props that Luo Jian knew of, he could freely give them in the secret chamber.

He could also force a player into insolation—that was, throw a player into a single player’s instance.

And he could also forbid a player from entering certain special instances—such as prevent players from entering A Lone Boat trading ground in the secret chamber.

Most importantly, he could also force a player out of a secret chamber instance, that was, he could force a player to go offline and ban the player from entering the secret chamber again during a certain time frame.

Although these so-called special rights did sound very tempting to utilize, they couldn’t be easily used by Luo Jian generally because it was easy to destroy the balance of fairness the secret chamber provided the players with in the game, which would cause the secret chamber to take some actions against Luo Jian. Although it would not directly kill Luo Jian, it was better not to take such risks.

Just thinking about having the rights to do something made his heart itch.

Luo Jian remembered the ranking he saw in A Lone Boat trading grounds. He recalled the names of several teams listed there. Although he wanted to contact the team Ghost Shadow, he eventually gave up. Therefore, when he leaped through the next s.p.a.ce-time, as he wished, he appeared in a secret chamber that was hosting a team battle. And he entered the battlefield as a stalker.