Embers Ad Infinitum

Chapter 884: Clues

For more than 20 seconds, the words on the screen didn’t change.

It wasn’t long, but Lawton felt like several minutes had passed. This was mainly because he couldn’t stay in Room 131 for too long. After all, the effects of Divine Mirror Connection had a time limit.

This was also the reason why he didn’t use such a method to explore Room 131’s psychological trauma previously. This time, he forcefully split his consciousness because he wanted to make contact with the room owner and communicate with him to a certain extent, something he didn’t feel would take long.

Finally, the words on the screen changed. “When did Qin Ke go crazy?”

“Seven years ago, after the year-end Mass,” Lawton replied frankly, not believing that this information would harm End Year City’s safety.

“He fled End Year City a few days later?” the owner of Room 131 asked in text.

“Yes.” Lawton nodded.

After another moment of silence, the words on the screen raised another question. “What do you think of Truth?”

“Truth has great power, almost like a deity.” Lawton’s expression unconsciously became serious. “In End Year City, those who believe in ‘Her’ will receive a response or two every year.”

“How professional!” The words on the screen used exclamation marks again.

“Indeed.” Lawton had deep feelings about this.

Truth was nothing like the Arbiter of Fate, who always ignored ‘Her’ believers. ‘She’ would only occasionally bestow them with gifts during the year-end Mass.

Room 131’s owner then asked about the Truth Church through text. The information he obtained was about the same as what the Old Task Force had obtained from End Year City’s caravan outside Cliff Village.

“Last question: What do the Truth believers think of Last Man?” The information revealed by the words on the screen made Lawton heave a sigh of relief.

He replied without hesitation, “They believe that Last Man is a fake god and not a real Kalendaria.”

Clap! Clap! Clap!?

Two hands appeared on the screen. They clapped together with the words: “That’s all to the questions. You are free to explore my psychological trauma at any time. I hope you find the New World’s door soon.”

Lawton was delighted and rubbed his temples. “Thank you very much.”

He planned on coming back to explore in a few days because he needed a certain amount of time to ease the residual effects of Divine Mirror Connection. If this wasn’t resolved well, he might very well end up with a split personality.

This didn’t help him explore the Mind Corridor. After all, without Divine Mirror Connection, it was impossible to have a portion of his consciousness outside and a portion of his consciousness enter.

Several lines of words appeared on the screen: “What you need to pay attention to is not entering the school when you see it and choosing to take a detour when you encounter a door that slides open to the side…”

It sounds dangerous… But if I don’t enter or take a detour, will I miss the New World’s door??Lawton thought with a solemn expression.

The words on the screen continued jumping out. “These have nothing to do with my psychological trauma; they come from certain memories. It’s impossible for me to control my thoughts and not have any related thoughts flash across my mind at all times.”

“I understand.” Lawton clearly heaved a sigh of relief.

Since it had nothing to do with the psychological trauma, it wouldn’t involve the New World’s door.

The words on the screen disappeared, and the light dimmed.

Upon seeing this, Lawton turned around and walked toward the dark exit.

…

“Du Heng? The End Year City’s Grand Elder who went mad thinks he’s Du Heng?” Long Yuehong was stunned.

This completely exceeded his expectations.

Bai Chen nodded thoughtfully. “Teacher Du Heng has always been mysterious.”

It wasn’t surprising that such a person was involved with the Kalendaria.

“Could it be that you think Qin Ke is Teacher Du Heng?” Shang Jianyao had a look of shock. “But they look completely different; their heights are also different. Could it be that he increased his height while undergoing plastic surgery?”

At this point, he looked at Long Yuehong and asked in concern, “If there are really no side effects, you can give it a try. Otherwise, you won’t be able to escape that curse for the rest of your life. Sigh, you’re only 1.75 meters tall after genetic enhancement. Your looks are average, and your grades are only average…”

“Stop!” Long Yuehong interrupted this fellow’s recital. “Let’s discuss the main topic.”

“Yes.” Shang Jianyao nodded and made a guess. “Did Teacher Du Heng wear height insoles? But I’ve observed his shoes—they don’t look like it. Old Ge, what do you think?”

“There’s nothing wrong with his height, and there are no traces of plastic surgery.” Genava made a scientific judgment.

Jiang Baimian—who had been silent—looked around and said, “Could there be more than one person named Du Heng?”

Bai Chen voiced her opinion. “There should only be one person that’s related to mystery and strangeness.”

Jiang Baimian nodded slightly. “I mean, Teacher Du Heng might not have been called Du Heng in the past. Didn’t he lose many memories?”

“I don’t quite understand.” Long Yuehong didn’t get it. “Why do you think Teacher Du Heng wasn’t called Du Heng in the past?”

Jiang Baimian looked around and said, “Here’s my line of thought. In the Ashlands, there are some people. They used to have different identities and names, but they later encountered something and became lunatics. They began to call themselves Du Heng. It’s how it was for Qin Ke, and it might be the same for the Teacher Du Heng we encountered.”

“But Teacher Du Heng isn’t crazy.” Shang Jianyao disagreed with this guess.

Bai Chen had already completely understood her team leader’s meaning and helped make up for the flaws in her inference. “Maybe they’re crazy because they aren’t used to their identity as Du Heng. When they get used to it, they will become normal and become the real Du Heng.”

“Sounds terrifying. It’s even more terrifying than the parasitic phenomenon created by Destiny Connection.” Shang Jianyao trembled. “But the two Grand Elders who went crazy never called themselves that. Only Qin Ke did.”

Jiang Baimian nodded. “This is only a preliminary guess. It might be overturned in the future. What we need to do now is confirm if Qin Ke is still alive and find him to see if the reason for his madness involves the mystery of the Kalendarium rearing humans.”

“But he has already fled End Year City,” Long Yuehong reminded his team leader. “Ignoring the fact that he hasn’t frozen to death in Icefield, it’s no different from searching for a needle in a haystack even if he’s still alive.”

Jiang Baimian revealed a complicated smile. “Hey just hung the sign ‘Home of the Awakened in End Year City.’ Isn’t it too much of a coincidence that an Elder-level figure from End Year City came to ‘visit’ today? Since it’s already so coincidental, we might discover Qin Ke’s traces very coincidentally in the near future.”

Clap! Clap! Clap!?

Shang Jianyao clapped and praised sincerely, “This is fate’s arrangement.”

Then, what’s the price??Long Yuehong muttered silently.

Jiang Baimian then said, “Let’s ask Gitis later and see if she has seen anyone suspected to be Qin Ke in the past three years.”

At this point, Jiang Baimian exhaled and said, “Things have progressed faster and more ‘successfully’ than I expected. This way, we don’t have to worry about the company discovering that we are investigating the mystery of the Kalendarium rearing humans.”

She emphasized the word ‘successfully.’

As the problem with Ceningmis might’ve been resolved by Big Boss, Jiang Baimian didn’t believe that the information regarding their completed mission could escape Big Boss’s notice. She only felt that Big Boss rarely paid attention to her believers and didn’t communicate with the company’s board of directors that often. This resulted in a time lag between information gathering.

To put it simply, she had previously wanted to hide from the company, figure out the truth, and return to the underground building before Big Boss communicated with the board of directors. For this reason, she even got Shang Jianyao to wrap the Life Angel necklace in layers and place it in Genava’s backpack.

“That’s right.” Long Yuehong didn’t know if he was happy or worried.

…

The next day, the Old Task Force went straight to Gitis’s house to visit the intelligence peddler whose shift was at night.

“What do you want to know?” Gitis asked skillfully.

Shang Jianyao nodded with a heavy expression. “Name a price.”

Gitis said in embarrassment, “It’s free this time, and it will be free from now on.”

The information provided by the Old Task Force was priceless.

Shang Jianyao immediately perked up. He took out a piece of paper and handed it over. “Have you seen this person?”

Gitis fell silent as she looked at the stick figure that appeared to be drawn by a child.

Jiang Baimian facepalmed and signaled for Genava to help.

Genava took out his printed portrait and handed it to Gitis. This was a portrait he had produced using the criminal sketching methods that the Old World employed through Shang Jianyao’s description, choice, and confirmation.

According to Shang Jianyao, he resembled Qin Ke.

Gitis took it and looked at it. She didn’t say anything for a while as if she were recalling something.

A few minutes later, she hesitantly said, “I’ve never seen him. However, I once controlled an avatar six years ago. The avatar had a certain impression of him when I flipped through his memories.”

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