Ten Day Ultimatum Chapter 129: Witness

Chapter 129 Witness

"{Penalty Proxy}?" Qi Xia looked at Yun Yao with confusion. Wasn't it supposed to be {Beckoned Calamity}?

Wait a minute… Qi Xia quietly lowered his head.

The first person to trigger their {Reverberation} wasn't Han Yimo, but the one with the strange smile, the {Tenth Person}! He was the one with the {Penalty Proxy} {Reverberation}.

But what could {Penalty Proxy} possibly an?

"The second one is the {Beckoned Calamity} shown on the screen," Yun Yao continued to explain. "It's uncommon to see two {Reverberations} triggered on the first day. Even {Reverberatees} usually wait a few days before activating their abilities."

"The next one, I think it was... {Adversity Shift}?" Yun Yao recalled, "That {Reverberation} only appeared for a very short ti, so I might have been mistaken."

Qi Xia’s expression beca grim as he nodded in acknowledgnt, recognizing it as Xiao Xiao's technique.

"Next was {Boosting Touch}, and then..."

"Hold on!" Qi Xia quickly interrupted Yun Yao.

Boosting Touch? Based on the sequence of events, Qi Xia concluded that the person experiencing this {Reverberation} should be Officer Li. But what did {Boosting Touch} denote? Qi Xia deliberated for a considerable ti, yet he could not discern any connection between {Boosting Touch} and the materialization of objects from nothing.

"Go on, what ca next?" Qi Xia prompted.

"The next {Reverberation} was quite intriguing... I seem to recall it being a part of an idiom," Yun Yao remarked, raising her head as she thought deeply. "What was it again...?"

"Ah! I rembered!" she smiled. "It was {Probing Pocket}!"

"{Probing Pocket}...?"

"Yep," Yun Yao nodded. "It’s {Probing Pocket} from {retrieved through probing pockets[1]}."

Qi Xia silently repeated the two words to himself, a growing unease rising in his chest.

This was Officer Li's {Reverberation}.

But why wasn't it {Creation}? Could it be that Officer Li's power isn't about conjuring items from nothing, but {extracting pre-existing objects}? This is certainly an abstract notion.

In other words, Officer Li could only {take out} items, not {create} them. As he retrieved a tal lighter from {End Point}, the sa lighter in the real world would vanish. This phenonon is referred to as {Probing Pocket}. Therefore, it was impossible for him to have pulled out 3,600 {Dào} before his death… unless he truly had that many.

"It looks like I’ll have to find a chance to tell him this..." Qi Xia muttered to himself. "Otherwise, that man will undoubtedly keep seeking death."

That said...why was there a {Boosting Touch} between Officer Li and Xiao Xiao?

Who triggered this ability?

A sense of perplexity lingered within Qi Xia. Having only just arrived at {End Point}, he found himself particularly attuned to the precise mont each bell tolled. He clearly recalled that after the bell toll following Xiao Xiao, Officer Li had co next.

‘No, that can’t be right…’ Qi Xia furrowed his brow in contemplation. After Xiao Xiao had killed Qiao Jiajin and Tian Tian, he had fainted for a brief period due to an intense headache.

The appearance of a {Reverberatee}, if it were to occur, could only happen during this brief interval.

But who could it be? Qi Xia thought for a mont, then shook his head. It appeared he had stumbled into a misconception. Who ever claid that a {Reverberatee} must be a person familiar to him? There were countless people in the city each playing their own ga, and anyone could potentially hear their {Reverberation}.

"The last toll happens to belong to soone I’m familiar with," Yun Yao gently touched her cheek and said. "It was a mber from {Judgnt’s Domain}, their {Reverberation} is called {Hetu Phala}."

‘Hetu Phala…’ Qi Xia nodded quietly, understanding that this was the {logical relation} Jiang Ruoxue frequently ntioned. Looking at her abilities as a whole, it seems she can establish the {Phala (outco)} first and then construct a {Hetu (cause)} that logically fits.

When she had altered the password on the microwave, she had spoken in a similar manner. The letter in the iron box contains the necessary information to open the door, and since it reads {All Hail Judgnt’s Domain}, it stands to reason that {All Hail Judgnt’s Domain} is the passcode.

In other words, no matter what the original passcode had been, once Jiang Ruoxue activated her ability, whatever was written on the letter would unconditionally beco the password.

These abilities sound increasingly outlandish, but thankfully, Jiang Ruoxue seems to be hindered by a critical weakness—if she cannot fathom the logical bond between two events, {Hetu Phala} cannot be realized. The clearest instance of this was when she wanted to save Qi Xia, but she openly confessed that she could not. Because once soone is gravely injured, death becos inevitable, and she was unable to defy that logical sequence.

"I've never encountered such a dense onset of {Reverberations} before," Yun Yao smiled. "I even thought that {Passage to Heaven} and {Judgnt's Domain} had already begun their full-blown war."

"Have these two organizations ever clashed in a war before?" Qi Xia inquired.

"Probably not," Yun Yao pondered for a mont before answering, "I'm not sure because I too have lost my mories before. Not everyone in a single reincarnation is guaranteed to receive a {Reverberation}. So, aside from Chu Tianqiu, everyone else from {Passage to Heaven} has, at so point, lost their mories. For example, Zhang Shan... He died unexpectedly on the second night last ti and didn’t even have a chance to trigger his {Reverberation}. But it’s fine—so long as soone rembers what happened before, {Passage to Heaven} will remain standing."

Though Yun Yao was smiling, Qi Xia could detect a hint of sorrow in her words. It dawned on him that {Passage to Heaven} must be the saddest place in the entire {End Point}. The majority of its inhabitants retained their mories, fully aware that escape was impossible. The duration of their internal struggle is unknown, but ultimately, they resolved to stand together, courageously accepting their fate.

In contrast, those without {Reverberation} were different. For them, each experience was fresh. They forever believe they’ve just arrived, foolishly convinced there’s a way out.

Perhaps this was why {Passage to Heaven} chose the school as their location—because they needed to pass down the mory {from generation to generation}.

"What, then, is Chu Tianqiu’s {Reverberation}?" Qi Xia questioned.

"I don’t know," Yun Yao replied.

Qi Xia felt as though he had misheard her and asked again, "What did you say?"

"I said I don't know," Yun Yao repeated.

"You don’t know…?" Qi Xia felt a strange discomfort at the answer.

"Not only do I not know, even Chu Tianqiu himself doesn’t know," Yun Yao said with a grin. "His {Reverberation} trigger is very unique. The unfortunate thing is that every ti his {Reverberation} activates, he dies, so even he is oblivious to his own ability."

"Oh?" Suddenly, Qi Xia ca to a realization and asked, "Could it be that the trigger for Chu Tianqiu’s {Reverberation} is also death's edge?"

"It’s far more complicated than that," Yun Yao said with a rueful smile. "Qi Xia, the trigger for Chu Tianqiu’s {Reverberation} is {Witnessing the End}."