"There's no one left?"
After walking for who knew how long, Wu Jia noticed that people had gradually disappeared from the rooms on either side. Farther along, more and more doors were shut.
He continued deeper inside.
The rooms began to grow sparse as well.
Originally, the rooms on either side had been three meters apart. Now the gaps had grown to six meters, seven meters, or even farther.
Every sign pointed to one thing.
The corridor was changing. Wu Jia guessed he might soon reach its end.
But...
As the rooms along the corridor changed...
His surroundings also grew darker.
And it wasn't merely the light dimming. It felt as though everything around him was fading into nothingness. The walls, the ceiling, the decorations on the walls, even the doors...
Everything.
It all gave Wu Jia the impression that it was becoming increasingly crude, rendered with fewer and fewer lines.
It was like...
A painter gradually shifting from careful, intricate brushwork to a few impatient strokes, eager to hastily finish up and go out drinking.
"I can't keep going."
Wu Jia stopped.
There was nothing in the darkness farther down the corridor, yet it filled him with an inexplicable dread.
"You made the right choice."
"If you keep going, you'll lose yourself in this corridor."
"And never find your way back."
Suddenly...
Wu Jia heard a voice behind him.
"Who's there?!"
Wu Jia was startled.
He spun around, only to discover that someone had appeared in the previously empty corridor without him noticing.
And...
"Hefu? What are you doing here?"
Wu Jia exclaimed.
Then wariness crossed his face!
The newcomer was none other than Hefu, the third mate of the Dauntless—a Demon Port native who had once worked aboard an Exploration Ship and whom Wu Jia had recruited for