[Rover: Where should we et?]
Less than ten seconds after the ssage was sent, Sunny imdiately replied.
[Sunny: The parking basent.]
[Sunny: Section B2, near the western ergency exit.]
[Sunny: I can’t enter your room. You already know the Lamp-Bearer rules.]
[Sunny: Also, don’t make wait too long. I just ran out of a psychiatric hospital that could talk. Right now, I don’t want anything else in the fog paying attention to .]
Rover looked at the ssages. His expression shifted slightly.
Sunny had beco a Lamp-Bearer.
That ant he could move through the fog, access areas that ordinary Survivors couldn’t easily enter. But at the sa ti, he was also bound by the rules. Lamp-Bearers could stand outside, could guide, provide information, or make bets, but couldn’t arbitrarily step into a Survivor’s room.
A room was the absolute territory of its Owner.
Even soone who carried a lantern couldn’t cross that boundary.
Rover closed the ssage panel, then stood up.
Nanoe sat on the sofa, and just from looking at his expression she softly asked: "Sunny?"
"Mm." Rover answered. "He’s waiting in the parking basent."
Morie stood beside the [Titan Soul-Sealing Tower], one hand still on the tower body. The Titan runes on the building’s surface radiated faint silver-gray light, making her aura much heavier than before.
"Do you want to go alone?" Morie asked.
Rover thought for a mont, then shook his head.
"No need."
His gaze swept across everyone in the room, finally resting on Nanoe.
"Nanoe cos with ."
Nanoe smiled and stood up from the sofa. She didn’t ask further, only very naturally walked to stand beside Rover, straightening his slightly crooked collar as if this wasn’t a mysterious eting with a Lamp-Bearer but just an ordinary outing.
"Let’s go."
Sunako, standing behind the sofa, imdiately spoke up: "Great Lord Rover, do you need a backup maid to co along for spiritual support?"
Rover glanced at her.
"No."
Sunako was slightly disappointed.
But she very quickly looked toward Thunder Dragon, then said seriously: "Then I’ll stay behind, and together with Great Lord Thunder Dragon guard the rear. This is also an extrely important position."
Krit!
Thunder Dragon snorted. Purple electric sparks crackled on its horns.
Rover didn’t pay attention to that little cody routine. He opened the room door with his thoughts, bringing Nanoe out of room 2705.
Crack!
The heavy door covered in dark red veining slowly closed behind the two. The blood spikes retracted into the door’s edge, but the silver-gray soul-sealing runes still radiated thin pressure, making the entire corridor a few degrees colder than usual.
Rover headed toward the staircase.
Nanoe walked beside him, neither fast nor slow.
"What are you thinking about?" She asked.
"My father."
Rover didn’t hide it.
"He left sothing in the psychiatric hospital. Sunny retrieved it."
Nanoe slightly narrowed her eyes.
"Sunny didn’t say what the item was?"
"No."
"The professor in the hospital left a ssage?"
"Mm."
Nanoe thought for a few seconds, then said: "Then that item isn’t simple. Sunny has beco a Lamp-Bearer, but still risked going into the psychiatric hospital to retrieve it. Either he was led there, or the hospital deliberately let him enter."
Rover nodded.
"I think so too."
"Be careful." Nanoe softly said. "Lamp-Bearers aren’t completely allies. Sunny was once a Survivor, but after becoming a Lamp-Bearer, he may not be able to act entirely according to his own wishes."
Rover looked at her.
Nanoe smiled gently.
"Don’t look at like that. I’m not saying he wants to harm you."
"I know."
"I’m only reminding you that in this world, even people who don’t want to harm you can unintentionally bring danger."
Rover nodded.
"I understand."
The two continued walking down the staircase.
It didn’t take too long before Rover and Nanoe arrived at the parking basent.
The air here was much colder than above.
Old vehicles sat still in the darkness, most already covered in dust and cobwebs. Only a few ceiling lights were still functioning, alternating between on and off, pulling the dark patches into continuously shifting shapes. In a few deeper positions, fog seeped through ventilation openings and ergency exits, slowly flooding into the basent like a living creature.
Rover wasn’t too surprised.
After the Endless Ga began, the parking basent was no longer an ordinary basent.
It resembled a buffer zone.
Lying between the apartnt complex and the fog.
Also the most suitable place for Lamp-Bearers to et Survivors without violating the rules.
Rover and Nanoe headed toward section B2.
The closer they got to the western ergency exit, the denser the fog. But very quickly, they spotted a small ring of light nestled in the darkness.
That light ca from a lantern.
The lantern was placed on the hood of an old car. Inside it burned a yellow-white fla. The light wasn’t strong, but all the fog within more than ten ters automatically parted, as if an invisible wall prevented it from advancing.
Sunny was sitting on the hood beside the lantern.
His jacket had a large tear at the shoulder. His hair was disheveled. His face looked as exhausted as soone who hadn’t slept for days. On his side hung a smaller lantern, its surface covered in scratches.
The mont he saw Rover and Nanoe, Sunny imdiately breathed out a long sigh.
"You two finally ca."
Rover looked at his miserable state and frowned.
"What happened to you?"
Sunny let out a dry laugh.
"I saw too many things I didn’t want to see."
He raised his hand and pointed toward the fog beyond the ergency exit.
"I was just going around looking for so resources. But my luck seed to find that too boring, so it directly led back to the psychiatric hospital."
Rover slightly narrowed his eyes.
"That hospital still exists?"
"Not just still exists." Sunny answered. "It started waking up after I took what was inside."
Nanoe looked at Sunny.
Her gaze was still gentle, but the sharpness hidden behind her smile made Sunny imdiately sit up a little straighter.
"How did you get into the hospital?" Nanoe asked.
Sunny shrugged.
"Got chased by a monster. Ran blindly. Tripped a few tis. Picked up a key lying right at my feet. Then found the hospital standing right in front of ."
Nanoe was silent for a few seconds.
"Your luck is truly strange."
Sunny sighed.
"I think so too. It’s not the kind of luck that helps live comfortably. It’s more like a lunatic who enjoys throwing into the most dangerous place, then watching to see how I crawl out."
Rover looked at him.
"Where’s the item?"
Sunny didn’t drag it out anymore.
He reached into his backpack and took out an old tal box.
The box wasn’t large, only as wide as two palms. Its surface was covered in scratches and faint symbols, as if worn away by ti over many years.
Sunny placed the box on the hood.
"I found it in a professor’s office."
"Professor Harlan?" Rover asked.
Sunny was slightly surprised.
"You know him?"
"I t him once."
Sunny nodded.
"Then even better. I don’t need to explain too much. He left a recording saying what’s inside doesn’t belong to him."
Sunny looked at Rover.
"It belongs to you."
He paused for a mont.
"More precisely, this is sothing your father left behind."
The surrounding air imdiately went quiet.
Even the sound of the flickering ceiling lights seed to disappear.
Rover looked at that tal box without imdiately touching it.
[Intuition] activated.
No warning.
Then, the shadow beneath Rover’s feet began to move.
A stream of darkness spread like black water, crawling up the hood, covering the entire box. [Shadow] inspected every vein, every small gap, every layer of energy remaining on the surface.
No traps.
No curses.
No killing intent.
Nanoe stood beside Rover and didn’t stop him.
She knew this needed to be opened by Rover himself.
Rover reached out his hand.
The mont his finger touched the box, the lid automatically popped open.
Click!
Inside was no complex chanism, nor any blinding light. Only a silver-black badge lying still on old cloth.
The symbol on the badge was very strange.
A half-open door.
Behind the door, a small lantern.
Above the lantern, an eye looking downward.
Rover picked up the badge.
BOOM!
The entire parking basent shook.
Silver light burst from the badge, quickly covering the area around Rover. The fog outside the ring of light was violently pushed back, like a wave crushed by an invisible hand.
Sunny’s lantern vibrated.
The fla within contracted.
Sunny imdiately stood up. His gaze was full of alertness.
Nanoe didn’t retreat.
She stood pressed close to Rover’s side, her hand lightly placed on his arm. A strand of pale red energy spread from her fingertips, wrapping around Rover’s body like an invisible layer of armor.
But what appeared carried no killing intent.
The silver light gradually stabilized.
Thin fog appeared before Rover, then slowly condensed into a silhouette.
Rover stiffened.
It was a tall man.
The image was very hazy.
His face was invisible.
His clothing was invisible.
Only his back could be seen, standing in the distance, as if between Rover and that person there was a gap far longer than this parking basent.
Not a gap of space.
But of ti.
Rover gripped the badge tightly.
"Father..."
His voice was very soft.
But the silhouette still heard.
The man paused slightly.
A deep voice transmitted over.
"Rover."
Just one call.
Not carrying too much emotion.
But enough to make Rover’s gaze change.
He wanted to step forward, but his body couldn’t move. Not because he was restrained. Only because the image before him didn’t truly exist.
It was a piece of mory.
A ssage preserved from long ago.
"I have many things I want to explain to you." The man said. "But I don’t have much ti."
Rover frowned.
"Where are you?"
The man didn’t answer that question.
"There are so things you shouldn’t know too early. Knowing too much before you’re strong enough isn’t an advantage. It only makes existences that shouldn’t be noticing you see you sooner."
His voice was still very calm.
But Rover could hear a faint urgency hidden beneath.
"Your mother and I have cleared a path."
"But that path isn’t what will carry you to the very end."
"How you walk it, you must walk yourself."
"Where to stop, where to advance, who to trust, who to keep by your side, who to kill when they stand in the way... all of it is your decision."
The silhouette in the fog began to grow hazier.
Rover gritted his teeth.
"At least tell whether you two are still alive."
The man was silent for a mont.
Then he laughed.
The sound was very small.
But very clear.
"We’ll et again later."
The mont that sentence ended, the silhouette in the fog dissolved.
No lengthy farewell.
No explanation.
No further clues of any kind.
The silver light retracted back into the badge, pulling all the fog to vanish in an instant. The basent returned to its original state, but no one spoke imdiately.
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