Chapter 739: Knocking on the door

Chapter 739 – Knocking on the Door

An illusory roar suddenly came, the screen in front of him plunged into blackness, and the next second, Zhou Ming felt that all the sounds were far away from him – the fan of the computer’s mainframe quieted down, and the humming of the refrigerator not far away gradually subsided, and the entire room was plunged into a strange dead silence, the atmosphere around him …… was changing.

And all this happened after he entered the words “Inverse Singularity” into the search box.

He blinked, pushed back his chair, and stood up from the computer desk.

The chair slid back silently, and his rise brought no sound. A pen on the edge of the desk was knocked to the floor, and fell silent as it landed.

During these brief seconds, Zhou Ming thought for a moment that he had lost his hearing.

And then, he was able to confirm that it was the surroundings that had gone wrong – the room was darkening.

The lights disappeared, everything in the room was gradually covered with a layer of chaotic shadows, everything losing color in the darkening environment, the patterned curtains first turned into a grayish color, followed by his table, chairs and bed, one by one, the objects in sight turned grayish, and then were gradually swallowed by the thick, upwardly surging darkness… …

As if the various units of a huge system were shutting down one by one, the “room” in Zhou Ming’s eyes turned into a chaotic and obscure space within a dozen seconds or so, and when the walls around him disappeared as well, true darkness filled his vision.

Zhou Ming stood in place, looking around, in this sudden darkness, he felt an inexplicable …… familiarity, as well as a strange sense of peace of mind.

After a while, his “vision” seemed to have adapted to the dim environment here, and in the depths of the chaos, some vague outlines attracted his attention.

Zhou Ming hesitated for a moment, and then immediately realized something from the location and distance of those silhouettes, and immediately took a step towards them.

In the depths of the darkness and chaos, something caught his eye – it was a few exquisite “models” that were floating at what should have been the end of the room.

Lost Country, White Oak, Prendergast, Frost ……

There was also the “World Tree”, Silentis, which was floating in mid-air and slowly spinning.

They are floating in this dark and endless space, as if everything has already been extinguished, seems to have become the only remaining object in this “world”.

Zhou Ming stared blankly at these “collectibles” floating around him, his mind reeling with countless questions and conjectures.

Why? What did this mean? What is this conveying to himself?
Like a floating potted plant, Silentis was spinning in the darkness, as if inadvertently drifting in front of herself, part of her branches slowly spreading out in the void, seemingly sensing the surrounding environment, but also as if it was just growing unconsciously. Zhou Ming looked at this small “World Tree”, hesitated, and stretched out his finger towards her. Zhou Ming looked at this small “World Tree”, hesitated, and extended his finger towards her.

At the moment of reaching out, he noticed that his body had changed shape at some point – the starlight replaced the flesh and blood, the dense river system and bright nebulae such as dense fog filled in their own bodies, and this group of stars in his body stagnant, as if …… the ancient starry sky phantom on the dome of the deep, deep sea.

But the two seemed to be different.

Zhou Ming looked at his arm in surprise, but before he had time to think more, his own fingers had already touched a section of the branch that the World Tree had extended out from.

In an instant, information so vast that it could not be understood by the human mind poured into his “mind”, and amidst the storm of information fragments, he felt as if he had traveled through endless years and endless journeys in the blink of an eye – primordial deities, the original beings, giant trees, forests, rivers, mountains, civilizations, memories ……

Zhou Ming jerked back half a step, and those stormy messages suddenly receded, and he opened his eyes in the darkness to see Silantis still spinning freely in place, the branches extending out from the edges of the tree’s canopy occasionally lashing the White Oak, occasionally lashing the Prender, occasionally lashing the Frost ……

Zhou Ming froze for several seconds before coming back to his senses, he looked at the scene in front of him and muttered in a somewhat strange tone, “Silantis, don’t bully your roommate.”

He then raised his head and looked at the boundless darkness in front of him again.

Before the Room disappeared, this would have been the wall where the shelves had been, the end of his bachelor pad, the barrier that had trapped him here – the shell of the Cocoon.

But now that the whole room had disappeared, the darkness seemed endless.

Zhou Ming hesitated for a moment, slowly got up and walked towards the darkness, raising his hand to feel his way through the darkness in front of him – he walked very cautiously, as if he was afraid that he might run into the wall that he remembered.

Fortunately, he walked cautiously.

For almost instantly he encountered an invisible barrier – something hard and cold in the darkness stood in front of him, and he felt his arm hit that barrier, and then he pushed harder, and found that the barrier didn’t budge.

The room disappeared, but the shell of the cocoon remained, and he was still unable to leave – the seemingly endless darkness was only part of the hard shell.

Zhou Ming stopped in front of the invisible shell, and after a few futile taps, he gave up and turned around to look at the place he came from.

All the furnishings in the room had disappeared, including the computer, and only one door still stood silently in the depths of the darkness, which was the only “exit” from this space.

“Who can explain this?” After an unknown amount of time in silence, Zhou Ming suddenly opened his mouth, asking into the darkness, and even though he knew that this kind of “talking to yourself” might be a bit silly, he still said with extra seriousness, “Is this some kind of ‘answer’? ”

No one in the darkness responded to his voice.

After a moment, he spoke again, “Is this an explanation for the key word ‘inverse singularity’? Or is this merely some sort of ‘demonstration’ of unknown meaning, used to help me understand my nature or what I can do?”

The darkness remained silent.

“Can anyone tell me in detail – what exactly are you sending over a 0.002 second slice of the universe along the timeline for? Where do I go to find the instructions for myself?”

“Don’t you have any aftermarket ones? A civilization at the end of time, and you don’t even have a user guide? Hello? Hello–“

“Here, anyone?”

There was no one, he was alone in the darkness.

In the long void after his home universe had been torn apart by the Great Annihilation, the only remaining mind was still operating in this hard, dark “cocoon”, and the only difference from the past long years was that for the first time, this mind realized how vast the void was around “himself”. The only difference from the past long years is that this mind realized for the first time that the nothingness around “itself” was so vast.

Time passed for an unknown amount of time, and Zhou Ming felt that he might have even stood meaninglessly in this darkness for an entire century before he finally sighed softly.

“There’s nothing here ……”

He muttered, laughing somewhat to himself, and then sat down in place in the darkness, ready to rest – even though his star-filled, incredible body didn’t seem to feel tired.

At this very moment, just as he was about to sit down, Zhou Ming suddenly caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye – he saw a very, very thin “bright edge” that could almost be ignored by the naked eye suddenly float across the edge of his field of vision, flashing past in the darkness.

His eyes widened slightly.

It was a thin line.

In the next second, he had grabbed that thin line without hesitation, and the slight feeling of stagnation coming from his hand told him that this line was real …… not an illusion!
Zhou Ming instantly raised his hand and placed the thin thread in front of his eyes and observed it carefully, then after another moment, he began to try and find the source of the thread.

The thread came from outside the invisible barrier …… of the “cocoon”.

Zhou Ming slowly stood up, holding the thin thread in his hand, and saw that the imperceptible line seemed to have passed through the invisible barrier that he couldn’t break no matter what, floating lightly in the endless darkness outside, with the other end of the thread disappearing into the depths of nothingness, unable to see where it was going, or what it was connected to.

Zhou Ming pulled the thin line this way a few times, only to feel that the line seemed to never end, and the slight resistance that always came from the other side made him not dare to continue to exert himself for fear that he would break the only “connection” with the outside world.

After a while, after some hesitation and thinking, he finally made up his mind, slowly raised his finger, summoned a small ball of green flame, and carefully approached the flame to the thread.

Almost in the blink of an eye, that tiny cluster of flames seemed to be pulled by an invisible force, and all of a sudden, they all disappeared into the depths of the silk thread.

Then, his connection with the flame was broken.

Zhou Ming blinked, this unprecedented situation causing him to be somewhat stunned for a moment.

His connection with the flames was broken! Completely, utterly, without any residue broken!
And before today, even when he was separated by a layer of dimensions like the Profound Deep Sea, his connection with the flames had never been completely broken!
Was it this thread? Or was it because of that invisible barrier’s obstruction?
Zhou Ming couldn’t help but ponder in his mind, but he had only pondered for a few seconds before he suddenly felt an emptiness in his hand – the thin thread had disappeared.

Then, without waiting for him to react, a low humming sound rang out from all directions, and immediately after, all the light and colors suddenly returned to his eyes – as if the various units of a system that had been briefly shut down had come back online, and accompanied by dazzling lights and shadows, the room’s walls, windows, roofs, floors, and all the furnishings, all resurfaced with a bang! !
Zhou Ming was a little confused by this sudden change, and he subconsciously took two steps backward, using his hand to hold onto the lattice of the shelves next to him – the branches of Silantis drooping down and rubbing against his arm.

“Is this a bit of a reminder that you won’t give …… well at least it’s my ‘home’……”

Zhou Ming couldn’t help but mutter, shaking his head as he looked around to confirm the changes in the room, and then, as if he sensed something, he suddenly raised his head to look not far away.

Almost at the same time that he raised his head, a voice rang out, echoing in the quiet bachelor apartment –

“Knock knock knock ……”

Someone was knocking on the door.

(End of chapter)