Embers Ad Infinitum

Behind the reddish-brown wooden door is a spacious hall that takes up all the space.

The entire tower has no layers. When Shang Jianyao stood at the door and looked up, he could directly see the dome rising to the sky.

Large holes were cut into the surrounding walls, inlaid with glass, forming rows of windows.

They extend from bottom to top, all the way to the vicinity of the dome. They are all illuminated by flickering lights, sometimes bright and sometimes dark.

In the center of the hall, there is a huge mass of darkness. In the depths of the darkness, countless lights are looming and constantly alternating.

They shine through the darkness and turn into lights when they shine on the windows.

At this moment, the darkness was like a heart, constantly expanding and contracting. Groups of air with shimmering light erupted from it, or hit the wall, or flew to the dome, or hit the ground directly.

Every collision of these air currents caused violent tremors in the earth, bringing out violent hurricanes, as if they were the source of turmoil.

At this moment, a low and vague voice sounded in the ears of Shang Jianyao, Liu Chuan, Flora and others:

"Go, go to that dark place, destroy it, and you can return to the dust and be free.

"Go, go to that dark place, as long as you destroy it, you can return to the dust and gain freedom..."

This voice was repeated in the minds of Shang Jianyao and others, which quickly strengthened their faith. They no longer had any hesitation, and passed through the door one after another, entered the hall, and walked into the darkness.

In front of their eyes, light flashed, air flowed around, and darkness expanded and contracted, giving people an unreal dreamlike feeling.

One step, two steps, three steps, and suddenly, a ball of shimmering air spurting out from the darkness hit the wall of the tower. It did not disintegrate directly, but rebounded towards the "New World" strongman carrying Flora on his back.

The two of them were unable to react in time and were unable to dodge. They could only use their ability to "interfere with matter" to hurriedly prop up an air wall.

The shimmering air flow silently penetrated the air wall and hit Flora and the "New World" strongman who was carrying her.

Their bodies suddenly became insubstantial, and their expressions instantly became extremely frightened, almost distorted.

In the blink of an eye, the air flow dissipated, and Flora and the "New World" strongman also turned into bubbles, which shattered in the wind without leaving any trace.

Their human consciousness was extinguished.

When Liu Chuan, Barnard and others saw this scene, they were all shocked, and their expressions changed significantly.

"No!" Shang Jianyao's right hand grasped twice in the air.

He tried to rescue but was too late.

Compared to the "New World" strongman who was ignited by the light fragments, Flora, who was known for her kindness and friendliness and was more familiar to everyone, directly collapsed under the impact of the airflow and dissipated on the spot, causing serious consequences to Barnard, Liu Chuan and others. The vibration is stronger.

For a moment, they all felt uncontrollably sad and frightened.

Flora, who was very strong and very intelligent, died like this...

When they looked at the huge darkness again, their eyes were different, filled with deep doubts:

Why should we go near it?

Even if it really is the key to leaving, how can we destroy it when we don’t know anything about it?

Will it bring us disaster?

Including Shang Jianyao, the remaining "New World" powerhouses unconsciously slowed down, getting slower and slower.

…………

The metal door opened in front of Jiang Baimian.

A white-painted wooden wall to the front separates the entry area from the rear space.

In front of the wooden wall was a table with a unique shape like a spindle, which seemed to be prepared for the receptionist.

Jiang Baimian walked over slowly and looked at the surface of the table.

There were no brochures or business cards, and it was so empty that there seemed to be no dust.

No, it wasn't as if, Jiang Baimian reached out and touched it, making sure that it was as clean as if it had just been cleaned.

"Is it the dust removal effect caused by the disordered electromagnetic environment here, or is it an 'unintentional person' who is responsible for cleaning up every day?" Jiang Baimian said silently to himself.

She no longer looked at the various instruments displayed on the mask of the military exoskeleton device. Their pointers were as messed up as if they were possessed by Shang Jianyao.

Bypassing the white wooden wall, the space behind opened up.

But according to Jiang Baimian's visual inspection, the light-colored hall in front of her only occupies one-tenth of the ground floor space of the swirling building, maybe less than that.

After all, this building only has a few floors and is mainly developed horizontally.

Looking at the seven or eight groups of sofas placed randomly, Jiang Baimian judged that this should be a waiting area or a rest area.

At this time, there was a corpse wearing a black uniform sitting on a sofa, which had turned into white bones.

In addition to it, there are nearly ten white bones here, all wearing the same black uniform, with submachine guns and other weapons falling beside them.

Most of them were at the end of the "waiting area," where the silver-gray metal door slid halfway open.

The remaining bones were concentrated where they entered the "waiting area", next to the white wooden wall and in front of Jiang Baimian.

Jiang Baimian relied on his rich knowledge of the old world, frowned slightly, and said to himself:

"Security?"

Those corpses in black uniforms really looked like a team of security personnel who were in charge of the entrance area of ​​this special building.

Another term flashed through Jiang Baimian's mind:

"Second Research Area".

In the office of the dean of the Eighth Research Institute, Du Heng, the dean, once signed a document to transform the second research area.

Are stairs leading to the "god forbidden area" being built here? Jiang Baimian rushed in without haste, squatted down, and examined the three skeletons in front of him that were suspected to be security personnel in the research area.

She glanced around and found a bag of items placed on the round coffee table on the sofa next to her.

The packaging bag of the item is made of harder brown kraft paper, with cute little bears printed on it.

Jiang Baimian's heart moved. He kept one knee on the ground and reached out to take the bag of items.

The packaging bag has long been opened, and there are tempting biscuits inside, with no signs of moisture or mold.

Jiang Baimian looked at the bag of biscuits, frowned and whispered:

"Bear cookies?"

When it comes to bear biscuits, her most recent impression comes from Cornynmis.

In the residence of the executive son named Brooklyn Garland in Cornynmis, there is a bag of bear biscuits produced in 37 New Year next to the inkwell on the desk.

At that time, Jiang Baimian was quite puzzled when he heard Shang Jianyao's report, because Koningmis's situation was not luxurious enough to maintain a dedicated production line of bear biscuits.

Shang Jianyao thinks this may be the childhood memories of Zhi Sui's son. As the savior, he has the privilege to be a little willful.

Therefore, Jiang Baimian was a little surprised and confused after discovering such a bag of bear biscuits in the whirlpool-shaped building with the most chaotic electromagnetic environment in the depths of this real "new world".

She temporarily put down the bag of bear biscuits and examined the three white human bones in front of her.

On the right chest of their black uniforms, there is a black nameplate with a metal base, on which the identity and name of the deceased are written in golden gray script:

"Security Officer: Gilbert Simmons"

"Security Personnel: Fei Yingwu"

"Security Personnel: Winster Garland"

Winster Garland... Jiang Baimian moved his eyebrows and his eyes instantly froze.

…………

"New World", in the high tower, Shang Jianyao and others stopped.

The low and insubstantial voice sounded in their ears again:

"Now is the time when that darkness is most fragile, and it is about to collapse on its own.

“You just need to walk over, combine your forces, give it a fatal blow, and the problem will be solved.

"Don't worry, I will help you."

This voice continued to echo in the minds of Liu Chuan, Barnard and others, making most of the hesitations in their hearts dissipate.

"Yeah, that dark state doesn't look right."

"The turmoil started because of this, and it will also end because of this..."

"It's like a castle on the beach right now, and all it takes is a push from us and it collapses."

"..."

While similar thoughts were going up and down, Barnard and others took another step forward.

"Wait a moment!"

Shang Jianyao, who was walking the fastest, suddenly shouted.