Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo

The cave appeared again!

Now, I still hadn't grasped the pattern of the cave's appearances and disappearances, so it wasn't surprising when the cave appeared or vanished. I had prepared for the worst, planning to spend a great deal of time investigating how to make the cave reappear, yet now it emerged on its own—how could I not feel surprised?

If Changan and Mazao were here, they might view the cave as an extremely ominous sign. But in my eyes, it was nothing but a stroke of good luck.

I lifted the wooden cover, and the dark, profound entrance presented itself before me once more.

Unlike the last time, I was observing this cave at night, alone, with a completely different state of mind. Changan once worried whether "filthy things" might crawl out from beneath the cave, something I couldn't empathize with at the time. In my view, during the daytime, and in Changan's company, this space seemed filled with the breath of worldly life—the spirits would definitely not come here.

But now, I felt this space had transformed into a realm not of this reality, the Devil Realm. The clamor of the distant city faded from my consciousness entirely. Anything that happened here was my own "ghost story," with no second witness—no matter how I recounted it to others, it wouldn't gain their trust. In other words, it had become a domain where evil spirits and monsters could act recklessly without restraint.

And this time, there was no Changan to stop me, nor was there Agent Kong to knock on my door and interfere.

What would happen if I went downstairs and drilled a hole in the ceiling directly beneath the cave? I excitedly imagined the possibility. However, that would be problematic if it caused the cave to never appear again—not to mention that the room below had tenants. I didn't want to destroy this mysterious feeling that came with solitude, fearing that if I disturbed others, the cave might be startled and hide away again.

My backpack was unloaded onto the floor and from it, I took out the wired camera and a selfie stick. I connected the wired camera to my phone, affixed it to the selfie stick, and extended it into the cave. Then I turned to my phone.

Unlike what I had envisioned, the phone's screen didn't display any image.

It seemed the wired camera was ineffective; the signal-blocking mechanism of the cave made no distinction between wired and wireless. If so, why wasn't the human body blocked by the electronic signal? Was it truly because the human body holds a special status in the midst of supernatural events?

A scientist might seek a more rigorous conclusion, but I was content to accept this mystical interpretation. Next, I retracted the camera and selfie stick, switched my phone to video mode, and turned on the flashlight function, then lowered it into the cave once more.

After about a minute of filming, I retrieved my phone and looked down at the recording.

Truthfully, I had also set my expectation that "electronic devices fail to operate normally in a supernatural space," as many horror stories tell. But to my surprise, the phone successfully captured the scenery beneath the cave.

The scene conformed to Changan's and my first impression of the cave, that it indeed was a basement.

And it was a rather spacious basement. At a glance, it appeared to be about two-thirds the size of a classroom. Naturally, there were no doors or windows installed on the walls. Inside, it was completely unrenovated, with bare concrete floors and walls, and the area was filled with lonely, gray shelves akin to a closed-down convenience store.

Most of the shelves were empty, covered with dust. The few with items merely had some yellow cardboard boxes with open flaps. There were virtually no places to hide; no monsters, spirits, or other oddities were in sight.

But it's hard to say—what if electronic devices couldn't capture spirits? Or suppose there were tiny monsters, the size of insects or rodents? One mustn't assume the paranormal follows common sense.

Suddenly, I noticed something strange in the video.

At the basement's far end, near the wall's base, something seemed to be reflecting light.

I pressed my eyes close to the screen, trying to make out what it was. But clarity eluded me. Not because of an issue with the filming angle, but because the object was too small and too far from the camera, making its true nature indiscernible from this distance.

I could barely surmise that it likely wasn't a piece of glass or anything like that. Besides, there were no other glass objects or any reflective items in that basement.

The object was strikingly out of place in this basement.

Unnoticed, it was one thing, but once I saw it, I felt an indescribable presence from this unknown thing. Even though it was just a "small, unclear object in a dimly lit basement," it stood out like a splash of black ink on a white piece of paper. When I came to, my attention was entirely captivated by it.

What was it?

I mulled over this inexplicable feeling, pocketing my phone.

Now that I'd seen it, it was about time to head home, right—Impossible.

That was merely an appetizer, only whetting my appetite. To think I'd walk away now with my mouth watering—unthinkable.

Next, I would delve deeper into this cave.

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-

I had imagined the dangers I might face in the future.

For me, the least threatening scenario would be physical dangers.

To put it exaggeratedly, even if ten Godzillas suddenly appeared in this basement, I had my "second form" as a killing move, granting me an inherently invincible position.

But if what appeared were ghosts with mysterious and unpredictable powers, that would be a different story. If the opponent could inflict spiritual attacks or curse attacks on me, I couldn't guarantee whether I would withstand them. After all, I had never been subjected to that kind of metaphysical attack.

And the most threatening situation was undoubtedly if, after I went down, the entrance suddenly disappeared and never opened again, trapping me completely inside.

Perhaps there were other more subtle and clever ways to investigate the interior without putting myself in danger. But was there really a better way to experience this cave than by entering it with my own flesh and blood? Words, drawings, videos... I didn't want to perceive another mysterious and unpredictable space through such boring means. I wanted to measure the space beneath the cave with my own feet, to breathe the air of this non-real space with my own mouth. That was why I came here.

To be blunt, I was well aware that my rationality was significantly compromised at this moment. In my pursuit of an "adventure beyond reality," the cave held an irresistible allure, and I could not resist it with reason alone. Come what may, I was determined to explore.

I stared at the staircase beneath the cave and then took a step forward, my right foot landing on the first step.

It felt as if I had stepped into an obscure and turbid swamp; my foot had entered a space-time that did not exist in reality, and my whole body tingled with numbness. I took a deep breath and lifted my other foot, continuing downward.

One step, one step, one step... I descended slowly along the staircase, while the floor around me gradually rose until it was higher than my head.

Unable to help myself, I looked up, only to see that the space of reality had now become a square opening above my head. I forced myself to look away and extended my right hand to summon "Firefly."

Orange-red dots appeared in the air, emitting a bright light. As expected, "Firefly" was not impossible to summon beneath the cave; it simply couldn't exist here when I was outside the cave.

The "Fireflies" appeared one after another, rapidly increasing in number to two or three dozen, then spread throughout the basement under my direction and emitted an even more dazzling light, illuminating the place as if it was daylight.

My feet reached the floor of the basement, and then I observed my surroundings. There were no monsters, no ghosts, and for the moment, no other strange phenomena. This space was now entirely within my perceptual grasp; it was devoid of life, to the point that I couldn't even find a single insect, truly a land where life had ceased to exist.

After a brief pause, I moved straight toward the end of the basement.

Soon, I saw clearly what the reflective unknown object was in the video.

The object that had fallen at the base of the wall was a hard material with an irregular shape, completely black, and about the size of a table tennis ball. Although the color was black, the material looked like jade, which is why it reflected a faint glimmer when light shone upon it.

I picked it up and examined it closely in my hand. This black jade not only looked like jade but also felt smooth and cool to the touch like jade, except the edges were a bit sharp and could easily cut my hand if I wasn't careful.

In my judgment, this piece of black jade did not seem to be a complete object; it was more as if it had broken off from a larger jade piece.

So, I took another look around, but found no object that might be the main body, nor did I find a second fragment.

I refocused my attention on the black jade. Although even the floor felt cold to the touch, this piece of black jade did not convey any hint of coolness, nor a sense of warmth; it was as if the concept of temperature had never existed for it.

What in the world was this?

I scrutinized it even more carefully.

And just then, something incredible happened.

The moment I focused all my attention on the black jade, its darkness seemed to capture my gaze like a black hole capturing light.

When I realized something was wrong, I could no longer move my eyes away, and I couldn't even turn my eyeballs the slightest bit. The black jade began to grow larger in my field of vision; I couldn't tell if it was actually getting bigger, or if my face was uncontrollably moving closer to it.

In an instant, the black jade filled my entire field of vision, and my spirit felt like it was falling and crashed into the black jade.

Then, in the pitch darkness where I couldn't see my hand in front of me, a grey mist began to emerge.

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