Embers Ad Infinitum

Chapter 549: First Exploration

Outside Room 1215, in the Mind Corridor.

Unlike in the past, not only were the items held by the ten Shang Jianyaos different—either his hands were full or empty—but there were also differences in their dressing, making them appear more distinct.

The Shang Jianyao wearing a deer-hunting hat stroked his chin and looked around. “Everyone, let’s vote. We are a democratic team; the minority shall give into the majority.”

“This is the tyranny of the majority!” The Shang Jianyao that continued wearing the gray camouflage uniform said whatever he wanted.

He was honest and liked to retort; he never held back.

The Shang Jianyao wearing a deer-hunting hat took out a pipe from somewhere and sniffed it. “Certain sacrifices are in order for efficiency.”

He then said, “Alright, those who agree to enter this room to explore, raise their hands.”

With a whoosh, five Shang Jianyaos raised their right hands.

This included the rashest and boldest one, the one who always habitually echoed ‘yeah, yeah,’ the one who liked to joke, the one who abhorred evil and couldn’t stand seeing injustice, and the one who sought ty and loved singing and dancing.

“Five against five—we are at an impasse.” The Shang Jianyao wearing a deer-hunting hat with a pipe in his mouth wore a troubled expression. “It’s better if there were only nine like before.”

He was the convener and host of the Shang Jianyao Democratic Association.

The honest Shang Jianyao immediately retorted, “The others can forfeit, so even nine can also come to a tie.”

“That’s right, that’s right.” The Shang Jianyao that agreed had a mechanical arm installed for himself. The small speaker and portable recording device he used to hold now belonged to the one who loved to sing and dance.

“Patrons, stop arguing,” advised the Shang Jianyao that was spinning the Six Senses Beads. He wore a yellow monk robe and a red kasaya. His face was iron-black in color, and his eyes even emitted a red glow. He looked like a mechanical monk.

The weak Shang Jianyao—who was also wearing a gray camouflage—sneered. “Who knows what’s behind the door? It’s very dangerous to rashly explore. It wasn’t easy for us to advance to the Mind Corridor. We can now truly protect ourselves in the Ashlands, so how can we take such a risk?”

“No, that’s not right,” retorted the honest Shang Jianyao. “There might be danger behind every door. Are we never to explore and come to a standstill?”

With that said, he seemed to make up his mind and raised his right hand. “I’ve seriously considered it and agree.”

The Shang Jianyao wearing a deer-hunting hat and a black coat let out a long sigh. “The results of the Shang Jianyao referendum are: Enter and explore!”

Just as he said that, the ten Shang Jianyaos returned to one—he wore a gray camouflage uniform.

After taking a few steps forward, Shang Jianyao gripped the door handle of 1215.

The rooms in the Mind Corridor couldn’t really be locked. He only exerted a little strength, twisted the knob, and pushed before the vermilion door opened.

It was dark inside, and there was only a faint light, preventing the people outside the door from seeing what was inside.

Shang Jianyao—who had already made a decision—walked in without hesitation. His eyes gradually adapted to the light here, and he saw that this was still a short corridor and not a meticulously arranged room that had some meaning.

Shang Jianyao wasn’t surprised by this. With his current knowledge of the Mind Corridor, he could basically come to a conclusion: The corresponding ‘room’ for everyone seemed small, but it actually included an entire mind world, including the Sea of Origins.

Therefore, only the owner or a visitor who had obtained the owner’s permission could see and make contact with the results of the Mind Room’s modifications. Rushing in rashly was equivalent to directly landing in the other party’s Sea of Origins.

There was a certain difference between entering via knowing the address and an invasion. If one compared everyone’s mind world to a computer on a network, the former was equivalent to triggering a firewall and was about to undergo repeated tests. One could encounter danger at any moment and be eliminated by the corresponding powers subsequently. The latter almost bypassed all defense mechanisms and faced the core.

In other words, if Shang Jianyao did everything smoothly in Room 1215 and explored the deepest depths, it was equivalent to invading the room owner’s Sea of Origins completely, just like what DiMarco had done.

From this, it was also obvious that Destiny Connection was very strong.

Shang Jianyao’s exploration of Room 1215 definitely wouldn’t go smoothly. Here, he would definitely experience the scenes created by the room owner’s various fears and nightmares. Once he was trapped in them and couldn’t escape, the outcome would range from mental damage due to psychological trauma—an additional weakness—to losing their self-awareness and suffering from different degrees of mental problems. The severe outcome would be having their consciousness collapse or be trapped in a ‘certain place.’ It would make the explorer become a vegetable in the real world or fall into a slumber like Yama Tiger. The worst outcome would undoubtedly result in them losing their lives.

As for contracting the Heartless disease like the Clam Dragon Church’s Dream Protector, Jiang Baimian suspected that such an encounter might only happen if one broke into a few special rooms.

Of course, for Awakened, there was no need to explore the deepest depths of many rooms or face the other party’s consciousness directly. After confirming that there was no door leading to the New World, they often chose to exit.

Shang Jianyao didn’t know if the corridor in front of him belonged to the room owner’s island of fear or one of their nightmares. He curiously removed the flashlight hanging from his waist and flicked it on.

A bright beam of light shot out, but it was swallowed by the surrounding darkness, preventing it from producing any effects.

Shang Jianyao stroked his chin and muttered to himself, “Without using an Awakened’s powers, it’s impossible to directly change the environment of another person’s mind world? That is, unless one has completely invaded?”

He was seriously taking note of these details.

After confirming that the flashlight he had conjured was useless, he gave up on such attempts. He used the faint light in the corridor to size up his surroundings.

The tiles here and the decorations on the walls on both sides were abnormally warped. Many of the details appeared messy as if they directly highlighted the fear of the person who originally experienced it.

Light came from the ceiling. Daylight lamps hung high in the sky, but they were dim as if they lacked electricity.

Shang Jianyao didn’t immediately advance; instead, he took two steps back. He left Room 1215 and returned to the Mind Corridor.

After confirming that there was only one way forward, Shang Jianyao didn’t waste any more time. He passed through the door and walked along the corridor, venturing deeper one step at a time.

Before long, a silver-white metal wall appeared in front of him. The wall blocked the way, preventing anyone from moving forward.

In the middle of it was a door that slid open to the side. There was an exquisite electronic device beside the door.

At this moment, the door slid open a little, revealing a wide gap.

On the other side of the gap were darkness and silence.

Standing not far from the door, Shang Jianyao directly felt intense fear. He was influenced by the environment here and the mind world of others. For no reason, he felt indescribable horror, terror, and unease.

Shang Jianyao then muttered to himself, “The room owner encountered something extremely terrifying behind such a door? Was this something they experienced before they became an Awakened or before they cleared the Sea of Origins, and it corresponds to a certain island of fear? Or did it happen after they entered the Mind Corridor, leaving them with a lingering nightmare?”

The danger levels of these two situations clearly weren’t on the same level. If it were the former, Shang Jianyao had a high chance of successfully exploring it. If it were the latter, it was definitely not a simple matter if it was capable of scaring an Awakened at the Mind Corridor level.

As he looked at the silent darkness behind the door, Shang Jianyao split out his other nine selves and voted to determine if he was to venture deeper. This time, the cautious group won with an absolute advantage of eight to two.

Respecting the results of the vote, Shang Jianyao pressed his palms together and left Room 1215 before closing the vermilion door. He then assumed a 100-meter sprint posture.

The next second, Shang Jianyao rushed out and ran as if he wanted to determine where the end of the corridor was.

After running for an unknown period of time, he stopped, panting.

Most of the rooms around him no longer had golden door numbers. The old brass locks seemed to be blocked by something.

They were ordinary people and Awakened who hadn’t cleared the Sea of Origins. They couldn’t be opened from the corridor.

The end was still unknown and unseen.

After testing his limits, Shang Jianyao raised his hand to rub his temples and chose to retreat.

Having expended a lot of energy, he couldn’t be bothered to listen to everyone’s conversations at the Rec Center and fell asleep.

Early the next morning, Shang Jianyao went to the small canteen for breakfast and entered the Old Task Force’s Room 14 on the 647th floor.

Jiang Baimian was in the office before him. She was already typing on the keyboard and rushing out a report.

Upon seeing Shang Jianyao enter, she frowned and said, “Last night, I wrote about the sleeping Buddha’s Nirmanakaya and how he occasionally wakes up when I thought of something.”

“What is it?” Shang Jianyao asked excitedly.

Jiang Baimian deliberated and said, “According to the intelligence we previously obtained and the verification we obtained this time, we can preliminarily determine that Awakened who enter the New World have either abandoned their bodies or fallen asleep. They rarely wake up to deal with matters. If we were to transpose the latter situation onto the company, who would you associate it with?”

Shang Jianyao stroked his chin, and his expression gradually turned serious. “Big Boss.”