Exploration 3

The black archway was only about a dozen meters deep.

Lin Sheng moved forward cautiously, breathing lightly and listening carefully to the sounds around him.

Thud.

Suddenly, a deep, bell-like sound came from inside Black Feather City.

Lin Sheng stopped in his tracks.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

The bell-like sound rang out one after another. It stopped only after five consecutive tolls.

Lin Sheng stood still, listening closely for any changes in the sounds around him.

Several minutes passed, and when nothing happened, he raised his sword again and slowly edged forward.

Soon, he passed through the archway, and the view opened up before him.

Rotten, dilapidated gray-black buildings and streets, scraps of unfamiliar black fabric drifting in the wind, and a lonely direction sign standing by the roadside.

Lin Sheng didn't look at the sign. Without hesitation, he walked straight down a street to the right.

His sneakers stepped off the black soil onto the hard, gravel-covered street, and he immediately felt its rough, uneven surface.

The main road on the right was paved with coarse cobblestones. On either side stood shabby stone buildings as black as if they'd been through a fire.

Most of the buildings were two or three stories tall. They didn't look like shops so much as ordinary homes or small villas.

A stone streetlamp stood along the main road every so often.

To Lin Sheng's surprise, the lamps were still glowing with a faint yellow light. Candle flames flickered inside their square lanterns, dancing in the cold wind.

"They weren't lit before." He recalled what it had been like the last time he entered the city. Back then, none of these streetlamps had been lit.

A sense of foreboding gripped him, and Lin Sheng quickly began looking for somewhere to hide.

He glanced around and soon spotted a row of buildings on the right with broken windows and doors, their openings black and gaping. He could easily climb inside and hide for a while.

But those pitch-black openings also made him uneasy. Who knew what dangerous things might be lurking inside?

Standing in the street, he looked ahead. The road illuminated by the streetlamps was empty, cold, and dead quiet, stretching all the way to the edge of sight.

If I don't hurry, I'll wake up. Lin Sheng steeled himself, gripped his sword, and strode forward along the route he'd planned.

Tap, tap.

Though he tried to tread lightly, his footsteps still echoed through the street.

Hiss.

Suddenly, faint, static-like sounds drifted toward him from ahead, as if someone were whispering in his ear.

Lin Sheng's expression changed. He quickly found a broken window on his right and darted inside.

Then he crouched down, hiding beneath the wall below the window.

Hiss, hiss.

The sound approached rapidly, drawing closer and closer.

In the middle of the street, a huge shadow, as tall as a two-story building, slithered into the district. It moved sluggishly, dragging a long serpentine tail.

Countless black bugs, like ants, crawled all over its body. They covered it completely, making its appearance impossible to discern.

Through the bugs, he could just make out a vaguely human-shaped upper body.

A massive black-red forked tongue flickered from its face, and three pairs of black eyes, like rotting tree hollows, grew across it.

Those eyes were now greedily scanning the area.

Lin Sheng slowly and silently peered outside through a crack in the shattered window frame.

Gulp.

He couldn't help swallowing, not daring to move a muscle.

The monster quickly slithered past. Its upper body was human-shaped, while its lower half belonged to a giant serpent. Its long, thick tail was covered in smooth, pitch-black scales.

Its scales scraped against the cobblestones covering the street, making the hissing sound Lin Sheng had heard earlier.

It effortlessly crushed the debris blocking its path as it passed over it.

Lin Sheng didn't dare even breathe too loudly, afraid of drawing the monster's attention.

With a monster that enormous, charging in to attack was out of the question. Even escaping might be impossible.

The hissing slowly faded into the distance.

Even after the sound had completely disappeared, Lin Sheng still didn't dare move for a long while.

The monster's immense size had utterly terrified him. If he were discovered by something of that caliber, death would probably be his only option.

Only after the hissing had been gone for dozens of seconds did he slowly rise from beneath the window.

"Young man, have you seen my Justin?"

A woman's voice, full of anxious fear, suddenly sounded behind Lin Sheng.

Lin Sheng jolted and sprang to his feet, spinning around.

His Black Sword flashed up, pointing behind him.

Only then did he realize he'd entered a shabby room that looked like a living room.

In the corner, by the doorway leading to another room, stood a pale-faced woman.

She appeared to be in her forties and looked haggard and anxious.

Her eyes were sunken, with heavy dark circles and bags beneath them. Her gaze was vacant and unfocused. She wore a gray cloak like a nun's habit, with the hood pulled over her head.

"Young man, have you seen my Justin?" the woman asked again.

Lin Sheng remained on guard.

Still, he felt some relief. This was the first time he'd met someone in the dream who could speak.

It gave him a faint sense of security, knowing that he could communicate with someone.

The vast dreamscape was empty and silent. After spending so long alone, he often felt a little uneasy.

At least now he'd finally met someone he could talk to.

Lin Sheng narrowed his eyes. Once he was sure the woman's hands hung at her sides and she wasn't obviously hiding a weapon, he cautiously moved a little closer.

"Hello. I don't know who you mean by Justin, but if you can give me some clues, I might be able to help you look for him."

He replied slowly in the accent spoken around Black Feather City, enunciating every word clearly.

The language used in this dream was Guren Language. After absorbing so many Memory Fragments, he'd still felt a little awkward speaking it at first, but he'd quickly grown more fluent.

At his words, the woman's unfocused pupils slowly contracted, fixing on Lin Sheng.

"Can you really help me find him?"

"If you can give me some clues and help me out," Lin Sheng replied cautiously.

"If I help you, can you find Justin?" the woman pressed.

"I think so. It's possible. It might be possible to find him."

"When will you find him? When?! I want him now! I want to find him right now! You'll help me look for him, won't you? Won't you?! I want to find Justin now, right now!!! Right now!!! Right now!!" The woman grew more agitated with every word, drawing closer and closer.

She began flailing, waving her arms wildly. Her eyes grew redder and redder.

Suddenly, her head exploded!

Before Lin Sheng could even reply, he saw her head go pop!

The woman's head burst like a balloon.

A spray of black, sand-like fluid burst out. It gathered on the ground into countless black lines, hissing softly as they rushed toward him.

In an instant, the room was covered with countless black lines. They surged toward him from every direction, above and below, left and right.

"Fuck!!" Lin Sheng had no time to think. His scalp tingling, he spun around and leaped through the window.

The instant he jumped out, countless black lines poured through the window behind him and chased after him.

Lin Sheng rolled across the ground several times, then pushed himself up onto one knee. He looked back, his face turning green, then scrambled to his feet and ran for his life.