Chapter 16: Underground Exploration
[Hazy light mist rises from the soil, like an invisible container carrying colors, forming elusive shapes before your eyes. The colors within the container sway with the distortion of the light mist, reminiscent of the flickering lamp shadows in a bar at midnight] [You seem to be immersed in an ocean of neon lights]
Wang Ran became alert.
He had been exploring the crevice for nearly two days, without water, food, or a way back. His mental state was on the verge of collapse, but now he had finally found a suspicious place.
[You carefully observe the surroundings]
[You don't find any traces of monsters or doomsday apostles' activities]
Wang Ran was immediately disappointed.
The absence of monsters and doomsday apostles' traces meant this place had nothing to do with either of them, perhaps just a peculiar natural landscape.
[You decide to set foot on this strange land]
[You walk into the light mist]
[You discover that the light mist is filled with some kind of fluorescent powder, which is responsible for the spectacle before you. By the time you notice this oddity, you've already inadvertently inhaled some]
Wang Ran was stunned.
Powder...
Once bitten, twice shy. He immediately thought of the pollen that had turned him and Lin Ying into mushrooms.
[Your body undergoes an unknown change]
Wang Ran's heart skipped a beat.
Would mushrooms start growing out of his body next?
[You fall into a coma]
Things were developing in a bad direction.
Wang Ran sighed, "Indeed, the more beautiful things are, the more dangerous they can be. Curiosity killed the cat!"
The text continued to scroll.
[Day 3, you're still in a coma]
[Nothing happens]
[You've been in a coma for an entire day]
At this point, Wang Ran began to feel puzzled.
Because in the simulator, he didn't immediately turn into a mushroom stump, but instead remained safely in a coma for a whole day.
[Day 4, you're still in a coma]
[Nothing happens]
[You've been in a coma for an entire day]
A glimmer of hope arose in Wang Ran's heart.
Back then, it only took a short while for him and Lin Ying to turn into mushroom stumps, but this time he had been in a coma for two full days, and nothing special had happened except for the coma itself.
Could it be that his physical attributes had improved, making him resistant to turning into a mushroom?
"What's really going on?" Wang Ran felt a bit nervous.
The simulator's text continued to scroll.
[Day 5, you wake up from the coma, you feel your mind has changed]
Awake!
Wang Ran breathed a sigh of relief, while also noticing the simulator's description.
His mind had changed?
Had he become stupid from sleeping?
[Your perceptual abilities have greatly improved]
[You've become stronger]
Wang Ran was very surprised.
From the literal description, not only had he not been injured by inhaling the powder and falling into a coma, but he had actually undergone a positive change.
Wang Ran concluded, "This powder is different from the one that turns people into mushrooms. This is a powder that's beneficial to humans."
[It's pitch black all around]
[The gorgeous scenery you saw before falling into a coma has disappeared. You realize that an unknown incident occurred while you were unconscious]
Two days in a coma, and the light mist and powder were gone.
What incident had occurred?
Wang Ran speculated, "Did I absorb it all?"
As is well known, one still breathes while in a coma, and he would have inhaled more after falling unconscious than before.
At this moment, he was filled with intense curiosity.
What was this powder?
Why didn't the monsters absorb this powder?
Wang Ran fell into deep thought.
The former question couldn't be answered for now, but for the latter, he had two uncertain guesses: either they couldn't absorb this powder, or the powder was so common that they didn't care about it.
As for which guess was correct, it would require more exploration to determine.
Wang Ran himself leaned towards the former.
Because he had been groping around underground for two days and only encountered the light mist once, he felt that the light mist wasn't a very common thing.
However, there was another possibility.
Perhaps the light mist appeared randomly, and he was just lucky enough to encounter it, but currently, there was no logic to support this view.
[Your phone has shut down]
[You've tried to turn it on multiple times but failed]
[You've lost your light source]
Losing the light would undoubtedly greatly hinder exploration, but Wang Ran had been underground for five days, and it was already quite impressive that his phone had lasted this long.
Wang Ran sighed, "Just hang in there a bit longer."
Exploring underground was a rash decision made by him in the simulator on a whim.
Due to the lack of preparation beforehand,
There were frequent issues along the way,
He no longer expected to find the doomsday apostles,
It would be enough to gain some more attribute points.
[You decide to explore in the dark]
Wang Ran quickly realized that exploring in the dark in the treacherous underground was like torturing himself!
[You accidentally fall from a high place]
[...]
[You trip over a rock]
[...]
[You hit your head on a hard stone spike when looking up]
[...]
[You tumble for one hundred and fifty-two meters]
[...]
"Ugh!"
Wang Ran looked at his miserable experiences in the simulator, feeling like laughing but also feeling it wasn't quite appropriate, after all, the him in the simulator was still him.
The next line of text made him lose his composure.
[You try to deceive yourself that it's bright all around you]
In the simulator, the repeatedly frustrated Wang Ran made a mind-numbing move – he actually tried to use a street magician's trick to fight against the edifice of physics.
[But you failed]
"Of course it failed!" Wang Ran didn't know whether to laugh or cry, "It's not about not believing in light, there's really no light here. The cave isn't Ultraman Tiga!"
The him in the simulator must have been dejected to a certain degree,
Otherwise, he wouldn't do such an outrageous thing.
At this point, the plot took a turn.
[You catch a glimpse of a flash of light in the distance]
Wang Ran was stunned for a moment.
[You realize it's the light from a flashlight]
Flashlight?
Wang Ran couldn't help but get excited.
Without a doubt,
Monsters wouldn't use flashlights,
So...
What an unexpected joy!
[You try to deceive yourself]
[You succeed]
[You believe no one can see you]
[Your talent 'Covering Ears to Steal Bell' takes effect]
[You rush towards the light]
[You hear a solemn chanting voice]
Wang Ran held his breath in anticipation.
["The world today is suitable for You and Your kin to live in. Let Your soul return from the long night, let Your body break free from the bonds of soil and rock, let Your roar echo through the skies!"]
[You see a mysterious person wearing a black cloak]
[He holds a thick book, mumbling words you don't understand to a small purple-red flower]
Without a doubt, the mysterious person is a doomsday apostle.
"A purple-red small flower?"
Wang Ran thought of the giant strange flower that appeared outside the teaching building on the tenth day, which was also purple-red. There was likely a connection between that flower and this one.
Why was this doomsday apostle talking to a flower?
What did his words mean?
You and Your kin...
Wang Ran made a bold guess.
"You" was the target of the doomsday apostle's awakening ritual, and the kin were those monsters covered in spikes!
Breaking free from the bonds of soil and rock...
Did it mean the big BOSS was sleeping underground?
At this moment, the text in the simulator continued to scroll.
[You walk behind him]
[You lift a boulder the size of a millstone]
[You put on an innocent smile]
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