Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 340 - 316 Land of Darkness_2

Chapter 340: 316 Land of Darkness_2

However, the basement in this dream still ultimately differs from my memory. Below the stairs is a dark room so pitch black that you cannot see your hand in front of you. I tried summoning a Fireball to illuminate the surroundings, but it couldn’t reveal the landscape from my memory. It remained an impenetrable darkness that even made one doubt if it had an end.

Changan had never entered this basement in the real world before, so naturally, he wouldn’t know what it looked like inside.

I looked up at the entrance I came through. Without notice, the entrance had vanished, with the stairs disappearing as well. Changan and I were standing together in this unsettling, endlessly dark void.

This aspect was somewhat similar to my memory... As I thought this, I remembered something Changan had said before.

Although Changan had never actually been here, he had experienced related nightmares. He said in his nightmare, a giant hand had grabbed him and pulled him into a pitch-black cavern. Afterward, the entrance disappeared, and he couldn’t find any way out.

Changan stopped moving as if saying this was his final destination.

He first looked at the Fireball I had summoned with an inexplicable gaze and then looked at me, saying, "Ah Cheng... are you here to take me out?"

Seeing him address me this way, I said, "Have you finally come to your senses?"

"Senses? Yes... I am very lucid right now."

For some reason, I sensed something off in his tone. Despite my coming to rescue him, he seemed unhappy, even emitting a sense of estrangement.

"Do you know what has happened to yourself?" I asked.

"I’m very aware, Yinyue has awakened within me, right." He spoke calmly, "I’ve been here all along, watching what Yinyue has been doing in the real world. However, I can’t reach the outside, she has Sealed me in this place."

"Sealing... are you talking about this darkness?" I asked.

"The basement on the fifteenth floor was a nightmare I used to escape from, Yinyue turned it into a prison of the spirit, trapping my thoughts. The scenes you saw earlier were just memories produced here in this darkness."

As he spoke these words, I noticed many iron chains that almost blended into the background, tightly binding his wrists and ankles.

These iron chains are merely symbolic items within the dream, what truly binds him is not these, but the Land of Darkness itself.

Seeing his unexpectedly calm demeanor, I continued, "Do you know how to leave this place?"

"I do. To truly leave here, three conditions must be met." He actually answered, "First, you must find an in-existent exit in this dark nightmare that has no exit; second, you must sever the connection between Yinyue and me, separating my memory from hers; third..."

He paused, then said, "You must convince me, persuade me to willingly walk out of here."

"Wait, from what you’re implying... you don’t want to leave this place?" I asked incredulously.

He unexpectedly remained silent.

"Don’t you want to stop Yinyue from dominating your body and forever staying in this darkness?" I asked.

"But... even if I return to the real world, is there anything happy waiting for me? Or rather, does anyone expect me to return?" he said in a low voice, "Grandpa has always disliked me, and Zhu Shiba probably thinks I’m a useless older brother, too. If it weren’t for my unreliability, she wouldn’t have needed to forcibly change herself and sacrifice her life doing things that don’t suit her at all.

"I once wanted to attract my father’s attention. Although he’s never seen in public, whenever I caused trouble outside, he would have someone clean up the mess for me, so I thought he must still love me... but in fact, he just treated me as a vessel for reviving demons. The reason he showed any concern for me at all was probably only because I held an irreplaceable position in his plans.

"And my mother is a demon who devours people, and she too just saw me as a tool to ’revive’ herself, without any affection for me as her son.

"The friends I made outside were all fair-weather friends, only gathering around me smiling because I was rich and often treated them. Once I really got into trouble, they would run faster than anyone.

"Although this place has nothing, correspondingly, there are no sad things either. So, Ah Cheng, tell me... why should I leave this place and return to that unpleasant real world?"

"What about me?" I asked, "Don’t you see me as your friend... Can’t I be the reason for you to return to the real world?"

While speaking, I desperately thought about the "three conditions" he mentioned.

Finding an exit in this empty Land of Darkness—this condition sounds daunting, but it might be the easiest of the three to solve. I’m not completely without a direction to solve it. Even though I haven’t started practicing, I still feel somewhat confident.

As for separating Changan and Yinyue’s memories, that also sounds very difficult, but it’s not entirely hopeless. After becoming Impermanence, I gained a deeper understanding of tangible and intangible things, even burning the abstract concept of "memory" is not impossible for me. At least with the help of Fake Water Moon, I can already access someone else’s Spirit World, and naturally, I can try to directly burn someone else’s spirit.

Since my fire can discern friends from foes, as long as I keep the thought of "targeting only Yinyue" while burning, even though Changan and Yinyue’s spirits are tightly entwined, I can manage to burn only Yinyue’s memories, keeping Changan’s memories intact.

But I can’t act immediately because my inspiration stopped me—don’t do it, that method will definitely cause irreparable terrible results.

"—Why do you think you can be that reason?"

To my words, Little Changan first countered with this question, then continued: "You’ve deceived me after all."

"What have I deceived you about?"

Although I asked this, a possible answer faintly emerged in my mind.

"I admired you because of your relentless pursuit of the bizarre. There is a premise to this matter, which is that I thought you were like me, both marching forward with the difficult perplexity of whether the bizarre truly exists. I thought you were persevering in what I could not persist in." Little Changan stared steadily at me, "But the truth... is not like that at all.

"You have been a supernatural power user for many years, so you could embark on this path without hesitation. The existence of bizarre things has been proven by your very existence, so what’s left is to find the bizarre beyond yourself. Although this may involve many hardships and difficulties unimaginable to ordinary people, I can handle that level of difficulty myself.

"You disappointed me... Ah Cheng, you are not the object of my admiration."