Chapter 158 - The Corridor of Time (XIV)

Editor: Humu & Kitty

According to the senior players in the secret chamber, after they entered the secret chamber and pa.s.sed the newbie’s challenge, they would have a newbie guide to guide them and help them progress in their next game. Most of the newbie guides were senior players, so some people couldn’t help but think…… Who guided the first batch of players that entered the secret chambers?

But in fact, no one paid attention to this issue because whether it was new players or senior players, their focus would always be on how to survive in the secret chambers. They would pay attention to the props, clues, and plots in the secret chamber, and never considered other things.

Then, with the pa.s.sage of time, players gradually formed such a system.

Because the secret chamber would only recruit a fixed number of ordinary people in a city and invite them to join the secret chamber, the number of players in each city was basically fixed at only about 10 to 30 players, and this number would fluctuate up and down. Whenever a poor player died in the chamber permanently, the secret chamber would take the initiative to choose an ordinary person to become a new player in the city to fill the player’s position.

Because the players in each city were fixed, the players in each city had gradually formed such a system. They gathered amongst themselves, discussed, formed teams and shared experiences. Thereafter, they connected with other cities to form a network of their own.

Unknowingly, a large number of players in various countries and even the world had become an established power, although because of the limitations of the secret chamber, these players were generally severely limited in reality. Some of them couldn’t even use one percent of the power they possessed in the secret chamber. Moreover, they couldn’t spread any information about the secret chamber. However, their abnormal actions and language would draw close attention from all sides and forces.

There was no airtight net in the world. What was more, although the secret chamber’s will restricted players from disclosing information, there was no strict punishment for players who did it. Therefore, information about the infinite secret chambers spread in this manner, and every nations’ higher-ups must have obtained relevant intelligence about it, but because they did not want to cause panic among the ma.s.ses, the information had been blocked by relevant departments.

The machine named ‘world’ repeated day after day in the pa.s.sage of time. It was as if people were just living in a dream. They were not willing to face the reality. However, no one could underestimate the threat and risk caused by it.

After that, it was not known when, but amongst the players, such intelligence spread among them. It was not known who released the information or who the source of the information was referring to. They just said—there was a terrifying group in the city of lawlessness.

“Where is the city of lawlessness?” When Luo Jian heard this, he could not help asking Duan Li. Duan Li was squatting in the corner with his tang sword. He stroked the blade with his fingers. Hearing Luo Jian’s question, the young man raised his head slightly. He looked in Luo Jian’s direction. He felt that Luo Jian was there, but he could not see him.

“It’s just a city. Lawlessness seems to be the nickname of this city. It means that there is no law in this city…… Rather, there are no rules there.”

Luo Jian didn’t understand it, “There is a city without…… rules?”

“Yes, this city is the center of that group. The intelligence I have gotten is that the whole city is under the control of that group. There are no moral laws and no rules there, so it is known as k2018;the city of lawlessness.&tjfy;”

When Duan Li said that, Luo Jian already thought a lot more things. He unconsciously turned the handle of his red umbrella with his hand. He thought of the studio that Ying once spoke about.

In order to establish the secret chamber’s system and obtain a large amount of funds, though he had intended to set up the laboratory in a big city, Ying did not do so. At that time, they seemed to be targeted by a certain force. Because Ying made a lot of profits from the superior technology brought about by the core of the reincarnation system, it inevitably attracted the attention of several groups of people who had other motives.

In order to avoid these groups tracking them down and for Ying’s group to establish their transmigration system, Ying changed the location of his studio to the edge of a remote city close to the sea. In that city, it was spring all year round. It had good transportation facilities and good information connectivity. The city could be regarded as a relatively prosperous area.

But thinking about it now, after entering the secret chamber, Ying was trapped in the Asura Realm, and the ‘lock’ of the chamber was still left in the studio. According to Ying, the secret chamber could hide its core, that was, the core of the reincarnation system in the secret chamber created by itself, but it couldn’t hide that lock.

The core of the reincarnation system was a cube which lacked a corner, and the missing corner was the ‘lock.’

The ‘lock’ was a small object similar to a regular triangle. It had a mysterious golden inscription on its surface. The secret chamber couldn’t put this gadget in the secret chamber that it created to hide it, but it would never leave the lock in the studio, so the secret chamber would take some measures.

This lock was the shackle that the human beings in the future put on the secret chamber, no, the transmigration system. It had a self-destruction mechanism. When it was destroyed, the core of the transmigration system would be destroyed.

It couldn’t be affected by any external variables, especially towards the transmigration system’s power, which made it impossible for the system to take action in any case. However, it really had wanted to hide the lock inside a secret chamber created by itself.

Therefore, the secret chamber would certainly try to do something in reality to protect its ‘heart.’ And although the secret chamber’s will could control the players in the secret chamber wantonly, it couldn’t interfere that much with reality. It was obviously not ready to expose its existence to the eyes of all mankind.

But Duan Li’s ‘city of lawlessness’ also gave Luo Jian some ideas.

A city with no rules to speak of, a city completely controlled by a mysterious group, and the information of this city was initially leaked among players. Would this be a trap deliberately set by the secret chamber for Luo Jian or the key to Luo Jian’s breakthrough?

But in any case, he could not give up such intelligence of obvious value.

He continued to ask Duan Li, trying to dig out more information from Duan Li’s mouth, “Do you really not know where the ‘city of lawlessness’ is?”

Duan Li shook his head and said, “I don’t know. I know of the existence of this city because I heard it from many others, but no one has been there. But it’s not known who the intelligence came from as well.”

“So what you said previously, regarding the group within the city of lawlessness—someone in it had asked for help—is that true or false?”

Duan Li thought for a moment, as if he thought of something he was troubled about. He frowned and his voice was somber. “To be exact, it’s not that someone asked me for help, but I’m asking for help from others…”

Luo Jian was slightly surprised. He smoothed the tone of his voice and gently asked, “What’s the meaning of this?”

“Players in the secret chamber will only pay attention to the happenings in the secret chamber. Even if ordinary players have heard the intelligence about the city of lawlessness, they would merely listen to it. For them, the safety of a possible city in reality is far less important than their survivability in the secret chamber.”

Luo Jian narrowed his eyes: “But why do you pay so much attention to this ‘city of lawlessness’?”

In the dim candlelight, Duan Li’s expression seemed a little miserable. His face lost any redness, and he replied to Luo Jian: “Because I found that I had unconsciously become a member of the group in the city of lawlessness.”

Luo Jian was a little confused. He said, “Didn’t you say you haven’t been in the city of lawlessness?”

“It’s not that I haven’t been there, but I didn’t realize it was the city of lawlessness when I went there.” Duan Li paused for a moment and replied to Luo Jian, “After I thought about it, I realized that where I went was not normal. After that, I thought about going there again, but I couldn’t find the entrance to the city again.”

“Well, I don’t quite understand what you said.” In the narrow and cramped sundry room, Luo Jian wandered slowly. He said: “A city may exist or possibly not exist. You have been to the inner areas of the city, but you didn’t realize that you were in the city…… Did this city look like any other city on the surface?”

Duan Li said: “There is no difference. The city looks very ordinary. There are people coming and going in this city. People get up early to work. They work, eat, and sleep. There is not much of a difference.”

“Then how did you perceive that something was wrong?”

Duan Li recalled, “There are several reasons. First, I remember that I was in a certain room, trying to escape from a secret chamber. It was a secret chamber with many doors. The back of the door led to different places. It was like a maze. Only by constantly opening the right door, could I escape smoothly. But I may have opened the wrong door…… Behind the door were s.p.a.cious roads, streets, people, and vehicles.

“I didn’t realize that I had opened the wrong door. I even thought that I had managed to escape from the secret chamber and return to reality. However, every time I returned to reality, I should wake up in bed, and it was only this time when I went through the door and entered a strange city.

“There seemed to be no difference from an ordinary city. There were people walking around the streets, big roads, and alleys. But at that time, what surprised me was that the city was very quiet. Although there was the sound of vehicles, the sound of people walking, and music being played from the radio, I didn’t hear anyone talking to each other. In my impression, the people there were tending to what they were doing expressionlessly…… They were even repeatedly doing what they had done.

“They may communicate with each other, but what they said were the same. It was as if they could only say the same things and do the same things.”

When Luo Jian heard this, he could not help but cut in and said, “Could it be that they would repeat the same thing that they did every day?”

“Yes, that’s it. They repeatedly do the same thing they did everyday.”

Duan Li shook his head again, “But I didn’t feel anything wrong at that time. I just wandered aimlessly in the city. At that time, I needed shelter. I went to look for places like hotels. I talked to those people, but they ignored me.

“They really ignored me. Even if I stood in front of them, their eyes would only look beyond me to other places instead of looking at me. They would not respond to my voice. Even if I reached out to them to stop them, they would just bypa.s.s me and head to the places they intended to head to.

“People in that city ignored me, as if I was someone transparent.”

After Luo Jian heard Duan Li’s words, he shook his umbrella in his hand. Of course, he knew this feeling. He knew how it felt to be ignored by everyone. Because the current Luo Jian was experiencing such a thing.

Duan Li said with a wry smile: “In fact, it was a sort of novel experience. At that time, I only thought it was interesting, but I didn’t think too much about it. So I just wandered around the city. I climbed the high-rise buildings and crossed bridges. I went to the center of the city, where there was a church.”