Chapter 49 - Return Home
Editor: Kitty
Thank you, Kiya for the Ko-Fis—Bonus chapter (2/3)
“Hey, brother, why are you back so soon?” Ying was still sitting in the same place, dazedly looking at a close-by corpse of a monster, which he could not identify. Momentarily, he felt the s.p.a.ce behind him waver. Looking back, he saw Xing Yan breaking open the s.p.a.ce’s door and coming in.
The sky of the Crimson Asura Realm still remained the same shade of blood-red. The fighting and mourning here never stopped. Day by day, the tragic process repeated, regardless of whether you were dead or alive, whether you were sad or happy. If you came in here, you would never leave.
Ying himself could not remember how long he had stayed in this s.p.a.ce. He had long lost the concept of time. He had also forgotten the appearance of the real world. He had forgotten his relatives, friends, and lovers. He had once struggled in order to leave. Now, he could only lament and gaze at the skies depressingly since he had chosen to give up.
“The secret chamber gave me an urgent task, so I came back ahead of time.” Xing Yan went to Ying’s side and looked down at the dagger in his hand. The blade became very flexible in his hands, and he swung beautifully in an arc. Noticing Xing Yan’s action, Ying suddenly frowned and said, “This is not your knife.”
“Yes, it is not.” It seemed that Xing Yan was a little fascinated as he touched the blade. The black body of the knife was very beautiful. Under the bright red sky of the Crimson Asura Realm, a b.l.o.o.d.y light reflected off it. Evil, yet ever so stunning.
“Although it looks similar to your knife, this is not your original weapon. Xing Yan, have you lost your weapon?”
“No, I just gave it away.”
At once, Ying was a little surprised. He raised his unkempt head and glanced at Xing Yan: “Gave it away? You can give your weapons to someone else? ”
“Of course you can.”
“How is it possible? How can you give your weapons to someone else?” Ying did not understand. It was normal that he does not understand. This was a rule of the secret chamber: Personal weapons were unique. Regardless of how close two people were to each other or how blood relations bound them such that their lives were connected as one, weapons could not be shared.
However, Xing Yan did not answer Ying’s question. He thought for a long time and stared at the blade in his hand. He suddenly smiled and said something difficult to understand: “Of course I can’t use other people"s weapons.”
Ying did not understand what he had said very well and did not bother to get entangled in this issue. Whomever Xing Yan wanted to give the weapon to was his own business, so he asked Xing Yan, “What task has the secret chamber given you?”
“The oracle has appeared, and the secret chamber told me to extinguish his life.” Xing Yan seemed to sneer. He put the knife away, turned his head to look at Ying, and continued: “By the way, is what I placed by your side still here?”
“Why? You want me to return it? ” Ying seemed to be confused and said, “But this thing is useless to you now.”
“I just want to know if it’s still there,” Xing Yan replied.
“It’s gone.” Ying shook his head. “Since it was broken so thoroughly, it quickly dissipated. The soul is such an ethereal thing that I don’t know where it would have floated to.”
“Is that so? That’s terrible.”
“Why would you think about this suddenly?”
“No reason, but I suddenly thought of those dark days.” Xing Yan did not seem to want to say more, nodded to Ying, and said, “I’m leaving.”
Ying did not say much and just smiled at Xing Yan, “Come back alive.”
—
How fortunate. I am still alive.
The sky outside the window had turned a little grey.
Luo Jian opened his eyes ignorantly. It seemed that the fact that he could return alive to his world made him feel happy and amazed. After a long time, Luo Jian confirmed that he was indeed in his room, not in the silent cla.s.sroom full of corpses. There were no terrifying slips of d.a.m.n paper, and there were no ghosts floating around all the time.
Luo Jian was lying on his bed. Any discomfort or b.l.o.o.d.y wounds on his body had disappeared. His knife appeared the same. He held it in the palm of his hand and placed it by his side. However, if one looked at it carefully, they could see that it was not his original knife.
Luo Jian felt dizzy as he got up from his bed. He was still wearing the dark blue combat suit. The quality of the suit was very good, the material was thick and comfortable, and he did not feel any discomfort wearing it to sleep on his bed. However, it was summer now, so he would naturally feel hot and stuffy wearing this type of clothes. Luo Jian undressed and went into the bathroom in a hurry. By the time he came out, the sky had brightened.
Although he spent a night risking his life escaping from the secret chamber, he was unexpectedly in good spirits. He went to the fridge, dug out a jar of icy water, and gulped it down. Then, he pulled down the printed, patterned note on the door of the fridge and lowered his head to look it over. The contents of the note were as follows:
[Dear Mr. Luo Jian:]
[The single-player secret chamber experience has ended. This was yet another thrilling experience, but your journey has not ended. After about four days, you and your partner will enter a grand and glamorous secret chamber again. Please make ample preparations and keep up your good mental state. In addition, your reward is in your desk.]
[With that, good luck.]
Luo Jian tore up the paper and threw it into the garbage can. He spent a while in the kitchen and had breakfast. Then, he went back to his room and searched through his desk. There were indeed several things in the drawer: a cross and two books that appeared a little aged. What was written on the books’ covers were: The Basic Sabre Techniques of a Disguiser and The Basic Mental Techniques of a Disguiser.
He did not have much to say about the books on sabre techniques and mental techniques. Luo Jian picked up the cross and said, “What’s the use of this d.a.m.ned thing?”
The pendant was metallic silver in colour. It looked like those common ornaments sold at the market. For a while, Luo Jian could not figure out what it was used for. He did not think much about it and took the pendant to wear it on his neck. The two books were stuffed into the drawer. He still had to go to work today, so he did not have much time to think about these things.
Before going out, Luo Jian put away the blue combat suit. He thought about it and decided to throw it into the washing machine to let it spin in the wash. In the secret chamber, Luo Jian had stained all of his clothes with corpse water and blood. Although after returning from the secret chamber, all the traces had disappeared, Luo Jian still felt uncomfortable thinking about it. He also looked at his bed, pulled off the bed sheets, and decided to throw those things inside the washing machine as well.
But after pulling off the bed sheets, Luo Jian’s face suddenly turned red. He thought for a moment, and with his mind filled with doubts, he said to himself: “In other words, after escaping from the secret chamber, all the wounds on my body will be healed, even that place…… It doesn’t seem to hurt…”
After that, Luo Jian started to think in a strange manner: ‘Am I still a virgin now? This is so strange. After escaping from the secret chamber, all the scars on my body have disappeared. It feels like I have not done that thing at all. Do I really need to try it in the real world? Or rather……’
Luo Jian shook his head with all his might. Doing this kind of thing would be too unruly. It was better not to think so much and let nature take its course……
So Luo Jian took his clothes and bedsheets and went into the bathroom. The washing machine was quite big, and everything could be stuffed in. After putting the combat suit into the washing machine, Luo Jian paused for a while. He took the clothes back out and searched through its pockets. Some special props could be taken out of the secret chamber. Although Luo Jian did not think he could be lucky every time, his luck was still clearly very good.
There was one object present in the pockets of his combat suit.
“Mirror…” Luo Jian’s complexion did not look too good. What he managed to find in his pockets was the cracked mirror used for “transmission.” Currently, the mirror remained in its cracked state. The surface had been put together with transparent glue, and it clearly reflected Luo Jian’s face.
After experiencing this bizarre secret chamber known as Flowers In The River And The Moon’s Reflection In The Lake, Luo Jian held a deep feeling of resentment towards mirrors. He thought that it represented a dangerous omen, especially in the case of broken mirrors. Wasn’t there an old saying? ‘A broken mirror is hard to be pieced together again.’ It usually meant that the relationship between husband and wife or relatives and friends was broken.
Although he did not think such a prop was very useful, Luo Jian still placed it on his body and walked out while holding his company’s information in his hands. Luo Jian started his ordinary day as per usual, but when he arrived at the company, he found that today’s atmosphere was slightly different.
Luo Jian worked in a small enterprise, and it was a chain hotel. The scale was not large, but the performance of the company had been steadily improving. Luo Jian was not a high-ranking employee. When there was not enough staff and a certain hotel lacked manpower, the boss of the managers overseeing the hotel would always call Luo Jian and tell him to go to a particular branch in order to work as a temporary store manager, manager, waiter, cleaner…… etc. Of course, in fact, Luo Jian always felt that it did not matter what his job was as long as it could allow him to eat his fill.
But now, Luo Jian met with the worst situation he had ever been in. As soon as Luo Jian’s boss called him to the office, he smacked the table, handed over an attendance sheet, and said solemnly: “Your attendance rate is unbelievably low this month.”
Luo Jian replied, also with a serious face: “Sir, my rheumatism recurred again.”
“F*ck your sister, how old are you to have rheumatism? Who are you trying to lie to! ” The boss, who had a beer belly, smacked the table again. The cups, computers, and other objects on the desk kept shaking with his smacking. Luo Jian shivered to fit the atmosphere. At this, the boss coughed twice, squinted at Luo Jian, and said, “You are fired.”
“What?” Luo Jian was immediately dumbfounded. “Boss, I’ve only been absent for two days. Are you going to dismiss me because of this?”
“Attendance is very important!” The boss with a beer belly immediately opened his mouth, and his saliva flew out like shooting stars. Luo Jian subtly backed away a little bit to escape the area of attack of the boss’s saliva. At last, he shook his head regretfully and went to the finance department to get the final salary of this month and left the company suavely.
In fact, it was common for Luo Jian to lose his job. He often changed jobs; he was either dismissed or left of his own accord. Luo Jian felt that this was a little strange. Generally, he could not stay in the same working environment for more than one year. After working there for one year, he would be dismissed in various strange ways, or he would feel like he did not want to work there anymore. Hence, he would quit the job.
Up to now, Luo Jian had changed jobs three or four times. At the beginning, he worked as a supermarket delivery man, driving a pickup truck around. Later, he worked as a librarian in the library for another year, then as a courier, and then he came to this company. Actually, these jobs were totally different from Luo Jian’s area of study in his major.
Luo Jian’s university had a super unpopular major, criminal psychology.
“I might be more suitable to be a detective.” Luo Jian flipped through his resume and smiled helplessly. In particular, he also knew an arms enthusiast who seemed to know many high-ranking figures in the police force. Through this connection, Luo Jian stood a real chance at being a detective.
But it was just a matter of imagination. He calculated how much money he had in his account and thought that it would last a long time. It would be enough until he found his next job.
Luo Jian was used to saving money. He had started to work odd jobs in high school and took various part-time jobs when he was in university. Therefore, he was more comfortable when he entered society. Even if he almost broke off ties with his family, it would not have an extreme impact on him.
“That’s right, I should go pay a visit to Father and Mother.” It just so happened that he’d lost his job now. He had not contacted his family for so many years. Luo Jian thought that it was time and his parents’ anger would probably have cooled down. Now was the right time to return.
T/N: I would like to ask…do you guys feel that LJ is still a virgin or not a virgin??
Or…is he a virgin in the real world, but not a virgin in the secret chambers? Hoho, sorry, your unreliable translator here was wondering this as she was translating this chapter.