Chapter 243 “Zhou Ming”

Chapter 243: “Zhou Ming”

He was now on the “opposite” side of the door.

After confirming this fact, Duncan couldn’t help but move closer to the crack in the door and scrutinize the scene on the opposite side.

This caused him to recall his previous experience after exploring the bilge, recalling the first time he returned to his bachelor apartment to confirm the situation on the opposite side of the doorway – a déjà vu mindset, a déjà vu scene.

But just like last time, there wasn’t another “Duncan” with a sword poking through the door.

Duncan frowned slightly.

He had been on this side of the door now, and had witnessed this side first hand, he had even searched the entire ship, and in doing so, had found nothing out of place.

So …… what the hell was that guy …… who had tried to disguise himself in the doorway at the bottom of the ship in the Reality Dimension that he had seen in the first place?

Duncan slightly frowned, turned around and looked around the empty and dim cabin, seemingly trying to find the thing that was disguised as “Zhou Ming” – he remembered that he had given the opposite side a sword, but if this side was really a sub-space, that simple sword should not be enough to kill the other side, here from the sub-space to the sub-space, the sword should not be enough to kill the other side. He remembered that he had given the other side a sword at that time, but if this was really subspace, then a simple sword would not be enough to kill the other side.

However, no, there were no traces.

After carefully searching around, Duncan finally began to doubt his judgment at that time.

The things he saw in the doorway …… may just be an illusion presented by subspace, a phantom that only the self can see at that time, which is also in line with the characteristic of “subspace will present the reflection of the mind”.

Only …… can not explain why that phantom did not have the slightest effect on his own mind, and was even easily solved.

Duncan gently shook his head, put these puzzles aside for the time being, but in his heart he couldn’t help but sigh – subspace ah, really a place full of mysteries.

His gaze then returned to the door.

On this side, the door was slightly open towards the inside of the doorframe, while in the bilge of the Lost Country in the Reality Dimension, that door was open to the outside with a slit, and the two corresponded to each other.

On the other side was the real world, the “Lost Country” that he was familiar with.

He seemed to have found the entrance and exit of the ship that connected the subspace and reality dimensions, and theoretically, he should be able to return to the real world by pushing the door out from here.

Duncan placed his hand on the door handle, a small smile on his face.

Then with a gentle tug, he closed the door behind him.

It was surprisingly easy – he remembered that he had also tried to close the door when he and Alice had seen it in the reality dimension, only to find that the whole door seemed to be as solid as if it had been cast with space, and could not be pushed the slightest bit no matter how much force was used, and yet, on this side of the door, closing it surprisingly only required a gentle pull.

The door closed with a soft click, Duncan silently watched the closed door, and after a few seconds, his complexion was tense for a moment, and then gradually relaxed, while his heart seemed to react half a beat slower, and then suddenly began to thump.

In those two seconds when the door was closed, he emptied his mind, not thinking about anything, not thinking about returning to the real world, not thinking about being trapped here, not thinking about all the consequences, he only gave himself a strong hint that “this door is dangerous”, and then completed the execution without hesitation… -And it was not until the door was completely closed that he let the emotional turmoil that he had forcibly suppressed be released, and let out a deep breath.

This might really be an “exit” from the real world, but it must not be pushed open!

Although there was no clear evidence, a strong intuition was reminding Duncan, reminding him that the way to return to reality was not simply to push the door from here – this was a lure, a trap, he had already experienced a lure in the bilge of the Lost Country in the Reality Dimension, and this was the second time, which was even more subtle than the first time, even more indefensible.

Duncan gazed at the door with a deep look in his eyes, then slashed across its panel with the sword in his hand, which was burning with psychic flames, and the ghostly green flames burst into the air, engulfing the entire door in almost an instant, yet after a burst of burning, the door stood still, as if unaffected by it in the slightest.

Duncan frowned gradually.

For the first time, the auric flame had failed against something that clearly belonged to the realm of the transcendent, yet it was not because of how strong the door was – quite the contrary, he had not sensed the slightest resistance from the feedback of the flame.

He didn’t even feel the door’s presence.

Just like the ship, the door did not exist in his perception!

However, it was impossible for this door not to exist – even if the ship really “didn’t exist”, this door must have existed, because it could even exert such a complex influence on himself as “luring himself to open the door”! Even if the ship did not exist, the door must still exist, because it could even exert such a complex influence on itself as “luring itself to open the door”, and possessed extraordinary power!

Duncan’s mind was filled with a great deal of confusion, but it was difficult for him to organize his thoughts. He checked around the door and the entire cabin, but he could not find any clues that could answer his doubts, and as time passed, he could only give up for the time being.

He couldn’t waste all his time in this weird place – since the “exit” at the bottom of the cabin was a huge danger, he should find another way out.

In the middle of thinking, Duncan suddenly remembered something.

He immediately turned toward the staircase leading to the upper cabins, and flew through the dark, empty cargo hold and the upper crew cabins, through the gloomy wooden door connecting the upper deck and the ship’s cabin, and onto the deck.

The dilapidated and obsolete Lost Country was still drifting in a chaotic darkness that resembled cosmic space, and the occasional turbulence of light and shadow that surrounded it occasionally reflected the shadows of huge, horrifying pieces of debris that drifted slowly by from far or near, some of which looked like broken land, some of which were huge, twisted creatures, and some of which were simply unrecognizable at all, just a pile of simplicity that had lost its color and form “Pile”, looking at it is doubly horrifying.

But Duncan’s attention was not on these huge floating objects, he went straight across the empty deck and back to the captain’s cabin door.

The door to the captain’s cabin stood silently, kept in the same form as he had left it.

Duncan’s eyes shifted upward, and on the frame of that door, dimly visible, were a few familiar words – the

Gate of the Lost Countrymen. As he had expected, the special markings on the door were still there!
Deng affirms his concentration and presses his hand on the door handle.

If there was anything on this ship that meant the most to him, it was this door.

The door connected him to everything he knew, and brought him his first and greatest mystery in the world.

With a slight push in his hand, Duncan pushed the door inward, and with a slight rotation of the shaft, the Gate of the Lost Ones was pushed open with the ease he had come to know, and across the door was the same fog he had come to know so well.

After a moment’s hesitation, Duncan took a step forward.

The sensation of penetrating the fog hit him, followed by a short period of weightlessness and confused dizziness, but this feeling soon faded away, and Zhou Ming slowly opened his eyes.

He hadn’t returned to his single apartment that he had lived in for a long time.

He stood in a darkness.

Zhou Ming lowered his head and saw that it was indeed his own body as a “human being on Earth”, and he turned around and saw that the door he had come through was quietly standing there, standing out of nowhere in the darkness, remaining open.

Looking around, he could only see endless darkness, the ultimate pure blackness, as if everything had been silenced, as if the universe had disappeared.

Zhou Ming immediately summarized a new experience: on the “old and dilapidated Lost Country”, after pushing open the door of the Lost Country, he didn’t return to his familiar bachelor pad, but entered a strange, pitch-black space.

This kind of extremely dark space is enough to make ordinary people feel greatly depressed and even fearful, Zhou Ming also knows this, but for some reason, he stood here but did not have the slightest bit of resistance, on the contrary, …… produced a kind of inexplicable relaxation and relief.

He didn’t know what this bizarre sense of relaxation was all about, but rationally, he knew that his state wasn’t quite right, and this clash between his reasoning and his senses caused him to be doubly cautious and try to take a step forward.

Despite the fact that it was pitch black, as if there was nothing here, there was ground under his feet – and the feeling of solid ground when he took a step out.

Zhou Ming lowered his head and looked at the place where he had landed, and it was at this moment that he suddenly saw some ripples seemingly ripple open underneath his feet, and colors other than darkness actually appeared in this pitch-black place – what emerged from those ripples, were words.

He was familiar with Chinese.

“His age?”

“Thirty-five or so.”

It’s two lines of text like that, and it looks like a question and an answer.

Zhou Ming’s eyes shifted slightly, followed by another tentative step forward, and sure enough, the moment he landed, a new ripple surfaced in the darkness, still in Chinese, still a question and answer sentence:

“His occupation?”

“A high school teacher, teaches languages, and usually loves to read.”

Zhou Ming felt his heart thumping as he subconsciously changed direction and took another step in the darkness.

“His height?”

“Around one meter eight – not very strong, but physically healthy.”

Zhou Ming paused, quietly watching the ripples under his feet gradually spreading, the grayish-white Chinese handwriting becoming clearer and clearer in the ripples, and then returning to darkness and dissipating as the ripples spread.

After an unknown amount of time, he took a deep breath and slowly but firmly took another step forward.

Words swirled and floated in his footsteps:

“What does he look like?”

“Looks like this.”

In the darkness, a bright light suddenly appeared, and something seemed to instantly coalesce and take shape in the bright light, and Zhou Ming snapped to see a figure appear on the opposite side of the room, a figure that was exactly like himself!

His heartbeat almost missed half a beat, and he subconsciously took half a step back, and it was this backward movement that made him realize that that was actually a mirror on the opposite side.

That figure was his own reflection in the mirror.

Immediately after that, he lowered his head and looked at the new ripples that had been induced by his half-step backward, and saw the words that had surfaced in those ripples-

“What is his name?”

“Zhou Ming.”

(End of chapter)