Chapter 154 - The Corridor of Time (X)

Chapter 154 - The Corridor of Time (X)

Thank you so much ChrysAmans for your kind support–Bonus Chapter (2/2)

Editors: Humu & Kitty

Luo Jian and Clown exchanged moves briefly in order for Luo Jian to test his strength. Because the space here was relatively small, big moves couldn’t be used, so the two people simply made a casual demonstration of their abilities. However, despite it being a casual demonstration, the small narrow room was still destroyed, and everything was strewn messily. They could not decide who was victorious. Of course, it wasn’t important who won or lost.

What was important was that Luo Jian merely wanted to experience Clown’s strength.

Later, Luo Jian found that Clown’s strength was mainly reflected in his strong ability to recover that seemed to go against the heavens. No matter if one chopped him into several slices or even broke him into pieces, Clown would quickly recover in a short time. This was especially prominent when he found that his strength was not as great as Luo Jian’s. Clown would then insert a knife into himself again. According to him, this was to transform his body structure. Clown could turn himself into any shape he wanted. He could even transform himself to have the wings of a bird.

Clown could transform without limits. Especially when he attacked others with a scalpel, he was also transforming the bodies of others. He would weaken the enemy and make himself stronger. He used this knife to read the enemy’s bodily information, skills, and even memories. He imitated, learned, and reconstructed.

“This ability is a little against the heavens.” After a preliminary understanding of Clown’s ability, Luo Jian always felt that this fool’s outer appearance wasn’t a reliable reflection of himself. No wonder the number one on the ranking was really Clown, who had just entered the secret chamber space and had merely experienced escaping from the secret chamber five times.

“I can only use my skills in the state of ‘death.’ When I’m living normally, I am a complete slag. When I’m alive, I can throw my scalpel out like a flying knife. Although the blade is sharp, the blade’s edge is too small.” One could hear the distress in Clown’s tone, though he was still expressionless.

Luo Jian thought about it carefully. He said, “Clown, don’t use this skill frequently, alright? Only use this skill if you are in danger and at the risk of losing your life. Other than that, don’t use this skill.”

Luo Jian’s words made Clown puzzled. He asked, “Why?”

Luo Jian said: “Let me briefly summarize what your ability is. After committing suicide, you will be in a ‘state of death.’ When you’re fighting in this state, you can transform the enemy’s body, learn what advantages the enemy possesses, and even learn the other party’s skills. Then you can transform yourself through learning, and that’s one of your skills to become more powerful. Is that right?”

“Yes, that’s basically it.” Clown nodded.

“And it’s hard for you to die in this state. As long as you are still holding onto your scalpel, you can transform and reorganize your body infinitely, right?” Luo Jian continued to speak.

Clown nodded: “Yes, yes.”

Luo Jian frowned and said, “Dear Mr. Hong, you have to understand that after you escape through five secret chambers, the secret chamber will determine that you have officially entered the ranks of the senior players. After that, you will be forced to join a certain team directly by the secret chamber in order to join team battles. The more outstanding you are in battle, the higher the secret chamber’s evaluation of you will be. And it will bestow upon you an inexplicable title of an &#k2018;Oracle,’ which will enable you to successfully launch the ultimate secret chamber’s final test.”

“The final test?” Clown knew nothing about it, so he was naturally curious.

“It’s the final test to be able to escape from the chamber forever. You’ll encounter a bunch of stalkers. Every chamber you go through will be incredibly difficult. Moreover, it must be a team battle. The team members with you are either strong players who would be dragged into the team by you unfortunately, or they would also be Oracles like you.”

Hearing this, Clown was shocked and said, “This whatever final test…… is it mandatory for me to join? ”

“Of course not.” Luo Jian spread out his hand and said with a smile.

Clown heaved a sigh of relief and stated: “Then that would be fine for me. I don’t have to deliberately seek death.”

Luo Jian grimly smiled: “Yes, you can choose not to take part in the final test, but the secret chamber will tell you that if you don’t take part in this final test, you will lose the opportunity to leave the room forever. Then the secret chamber will acquiesce that you have signed a lifetime contract with it, and you will have to experience an infinite number of secret chambers and enter into a cycle where you have to wander through the secret chambers again and again, forever.”

When Clown heard this, he seemed to be dumbfounded. He mulled about it for a while, thought for a moment, and said, “Although I like playing the game of escaping from the secret chamber, for me to play it forever, it would really tire me out and I wouldn’t wish for it to happen.”

Luo Jian understood what Clown meant: “So there’s only one way you can stop this.”

“What can I do?”

“Reduce your sense of existence, don’t do anything too eye catching, and don’t perform too well in battles. In every secret chamber, don’t hurry to escape and don’t be too fast in escaping. You need to become an ordinary person, so ordinary that you’ll even seem a little weak, and be a person that everyone around you will not pay attention to.”

Clown ruminated the meaning behind Luo Jian’s words and said, “You’d have me pretend to be dumb to take advantage of others?”

Luo Jian said with a smile, “That’s what it means.”

“Although it’s not very difficult to do, no matter how much I reduce my sense of existence and suppress my ability, I will still grow up slowly. One day I will still have to face all this.” Clown grasped his head in agony and turned his ragged hair into something that appeared like a chicken coop.

Luo Jian also thought for a while. He was thinking whether to formally pull Clown to his side. Luo Jian knew what he wanted to do. He wanted to fight against the entire secret chamber alone. He wanted to find a way to destroy the secret chamber. He wanted to rescue his companions who were still trapped in the punishment chamber. Perhaps he might be a hero, or perhaps he might end up failing while he walked on this path.

But it was impossible to do it without some help. Luo Jian did not think that he could save the world by himself. He was not determined enough to walk down this path alone. Because truthfully speaking, even the current Luo Jian was still very afraid somewhere in his heart. He was afraid to face everything, even in the Asura Realm where blood splashed about everywhere and the sun never sunk. Luo Jian had never been so afraid.

But fear or confusion could never solve the problem.

So Luo Jian raised his head to look at Clown. He did not mean to do it, but he opened his red umbrella and let the handle of the umbrella rest on his shoulder. He talked in a tone as if he was hypnotizing Clown, but he did not do it. Luo Jian simply said to Clown, “Hong, would you like to help me?”

Clown glanced at Luo Jian with his head tilted. The language and actions of the young Clown gave off an effeminate and cute vibe. Although his expressionless face destroyed how lovely and cute his actions appeared, it did not affect Luo Jian’s impression of him. Clown said, “What do you want me to do for you?”

“It will be terrifying, it’ll be hard, and you may even die at any time,” Luo Jian said briefly and humorously, “True death. As long as you make any mistakes in the process, you will be completely wiped out of the world by the secret chamber’s will. However, once we have completed doing this, we can eliminate the secret chamber from this world and become heroes, although no one will remember our feats.”

Unexpectedly, Clown did not worry when he heard this. He was still very excited. Although his terrible-looking face did not show his excitement, his tone exposed it. Clown said excitedly, “Oh! Destroy the secret chamber! This is something truly meaningful! It’d be way more fun than experiencing the final test!”

Luo Jian couldn’t help sighing: “Don’t be too happy. It’s not something that easy to accomplish. You have to abandon a lot of things. You may start to regret the moment you step on this road.”

Clown asked Luo Jian, “Do you regret it?”

Luo Jian was silent for a while, and he replied to Clown: “There had been such a moment where I actually regretted it. But now I am glad that I have already made up my mind to cut off all routes of retreat so I can’t return any more if I regret. Fortunately for me, this way, I can walk down on this black path till the end, and even if I regret, I have to carry on walking.”

“This is how determined you are because you even broke the cauldrons and sank the boats, right?”

Luo Jian smiled: “Yes.”

Clown told Luo Jian, “In fact, when you tell me this, I have not made any mental preparations. But I don’t think I need to prepare. I’m a casual person. If doing it makes me happy, I’ll do it.”

Clown said, “But I don’t like the secret chamber. However, I do admit that in reality, I am really interested in the body of the patients on the operating table. I have many ideas as to how to reform other people’s bodies and I have also had the idea of trying to transform myself before…… This is probably the source of my strange ability.”

However, Clown shook his head and said regretfully, “But I’m not someone like Frankenstein. I’m a medical student now. I want to be a doctor to help the wounded and not to kill people with a scalpel.”

Clown looked at Luo Jian seriously, in a manner he never did before: “If you truly…… are not lying to me, if you really have a way to wipe out the secret chamber from the world, my answer is that I am willing to help you.”

“Even at the price of your life?” Luo Jian emphasized this sentence.

Clown nodded and replied, “Yes, even at the price of my life.”

But Clown could not maintain his suave image for more than three seconds. Within mere moments, he softened his tone, trembling, as he said: “The premise is that you really didn’t lie to me, I don’t want to die inexplicably! Although it feels great being a hero that people won’t know and it feels like I have become a superhero in the movies or some swordsman or the like, I’m still afraid of death… ”

Luo Jian choked on his saliva momentarily and tried to resist the urge to use the rod to hit his head. He sighed: “Don’t be afraid. I’m not in a hurry to send you to death. Moreover, at this point in time, my plan is still in the initial stages. You can live a leisurely life for a while and enhance your strength. However, I think it will take awhile before I can meet you again.”

The duo had finally reached a consensus in their discussion. After a period, Luo Jian felt that time was almost up, so he took Clown as they ascended the stairs. Both of them were quite fit. Because they did not want to waste time, they quickly returned to Basement Floor 1. Luo Jian touched the key in his pocket and looked at Clown, who was covered in dirt and had grime on his face next to him.

The two continued to ascend. Luo Jian’s conjecture was not wrong. This secret chamber did have the interesting setting of ‘the opening of hell gates.’ Anyway, this time, they really walked out of the basement levels, went to the first floor, and continued to climb the stairs.

The levels above ground were quite different from those basement levels. First of all, there were bright lights on the levels above ground. The walls were all newly painted. Although the two doors were still red doors and black doors, the two doors still appeared new. The only bizarre part about this was that there were no windows in the stairway, so one wouldn’t be able to see what was outside.

Of course, he knew that even if there were windows along the stairway, all he would probably see was pitch black darkness, just like what he had experienced—the lone train driving in the dark.

They came to the fourth floor and opened the red door with the key. Behind the door, it was pitch black, and there was nothing but darkness. Luo Jian knew that they had found the exit, but he did not expect that the exit would be so easily and simply found.

Before going out of the exit, Luo Jian deliberately put some dirt and grime on his face. The purpose behind him fighting with Clown was for him to reduce the rise of the secret chamber’s evaluation on their strengths. The secret chamber would not observe each player’s secret chamber’s escape individually. According to Ying, what the chamber did was judge the strength and power level of each player through the various conditions triggered, mechanisms, progress, and final results of each player.

However, occasionally, the secret chamber would observe the entire process of how certain players escaped from the chambers. For example, they would observe players when they tried to escape from punishment chambers or when the players were attempting to challenge the final secret chamber. At that time, the secret chamber would observe every player’s actions throughout the entire process. The purpose behind why the secret chamber did this was to ensure that every player couldn’t escape from the chamber.

Ying’s words occasionally rang out beside Luo Jian’s ears:

“Luo Jian, I heard that you briefly spoke about your experiences in the punishment chamber. The reason why Xing Yan forcibly sent you to this place was to let you escape from the secret chamber and escape from the supervisory control of the transmigration system’s monitoring system. However, your escape will certainly make the secret chamber pay close attention to you. Therefore, if you leave the Asura Realm as ‘Luo Jian,’ you will die the moment you go out, and the secret chamber will mercilessly obliterate you even if it goes against the rules that it consistently abided by.

“And the only way to avoid the secret chamber’s obliteration is to truly die.”