Chapter Nine: Shadows
“This one?”
Cen Xiangyun pulled out the photograph, only to see Eve’s face drain of color. The situation seemed to be escalating.
Luo Ling and the others still couldn’t see anything particularly different about this photo compared to the previous ones, but it was clearly causing Eve excruciating pain.
“This one… is at least… ninety years in the future…”
Eve slowly raised her head, forcing out the truth with every ounce of strength. Immediately, even more intense pain washed over her.
“Quick, knock me unconscious…”
Eve could no longer bear it, pleading with Luo Ling and the others.
Finally, Luo Ling understood. Eve hadn’t encountered an Authority before, nor was she from another Boundary. Therefore, when she touched upon this piece of the truth, she suffered from the correction of a cognitive error. She was now lacking that correction, having glimpsed knowledge she shouldn’t have. This “headache” was actually another protective mechanism, preventing her from falling into endless madness.
“But…”
Before Cen Xiangyun could process this, she saw Luo Ling rolling up her sleeves and stepping forward.
“Huh?”
Miss Luo Ling, you don’t need to take revenge now, do you? They were still inside an unknown Incubation Barrier…
“I’ll make it as quick as possible.”
Luo Ling cracked her knuckles.
“Thank you…”
Eve closed her eyes, struggling against the encroaching madness.
“Miss Luo Ling!”
Cen Xiangyun panicked, worried that the Incubation Barrier was influencing Luo Ling.
“It’s fine, she’ll thank me later.”
Luo Ling reassured Cen Xiangyun while casually delivering a punch to Eve’s temple.
Like a kite with its string cut, Eve flew several meters back, landing with a thud.
“Tsk, she’s pretty tough.”
Luo Ling rubbed her fingers. Her punch could pierce steel, but for Eve, it only resulted in unconsciousness, a temporary reprieve from the torment.
“Miss Lu, please heal Miss Eve.”
Seeing Cen Xiangyun’s burning curiosity, Luo Ling calmly turned to the team’s healer.
“Oh.”
Lu Manqing also rolled up her sleeves, aimed at Eve’s head, and delivered several punches. Cen Xiangyun nearly had a heart attack.
However, before she could intervene, she heard Lu Manqing shout,
“Hiya! My Pretty Pretty Punch!”
Cen Xiangyun: “…”
She felt like her teammates were on a completely different wavelength.
However, this was indeed how Lu Manqing used her ability. Soon, Eve stirred.
Meanwhile, Luo Ling picked up the photo that had caused Eve so much pain, pondering for a moment.
“I see…”
The others were all from different Boundaries and unfamiliar with the details of Victoria’s timeline, so they couldn’t see the discrepancies. But Eve, a local, immediately noticed something amiss, triggering the cognitive error.
Eve slowly regained consciousness. The first thing she did was swallow a capsule from her pocket, then sighed in relief.
“Phew, almost had to meet the Big Guy…”
“Who’s the Big Guy?” Lu Manqing asked curiously.
“Similar to your Heavenly Lord or something.”
“Oh, I get it, like Lord Li Jing and the Daoist Patriarch.”
“Something like that.”
Cen Xiangyun had fallen silent. She couldn’t fathom how these two people, clearly talking about different things, were even having a conversation…
Seeing Eve awake, Luo Ling was about to put away the photo when Eve gestured for her to hand it over.
“It’s fine, I’ve taken my medicine. I can stay sane for at least two hours. Just knock me out again when the time comes.” Eve said, then added with a sigh, “Damn, Miss Luo Ling, you hit hard. It’s been ages since I met someone who could knock me out with one punch…”
“Just tell me if it’s okay or not.”
“It’s very okay. If you were any slower, none of you would have survived this newbie mission, because you’d have to face a completely insane me.” Eve casually mentioned a terrifying prospect.
On paper, Luo Ling and the others combined were no match for Eve. But in reality, it was hard to say.
“Hey…”
Cen Xiangyun couldn’t listen anymore.
“Back to the topic, Miss Eve, tell us what you know.”
Seeing Cen Xiangyun’s exasperation, Luo Ling steered the conversation back on track.
“Actually, there’s not much. I just know that this Incubation Barrier is supposed to be located ninety years in the future, or rather, it’s simulating an environment from ninety years in the future.”
Eve compared the photo in her hand with the later ones.
“From here on, almost everything is something that would only appear ninety years later…”
“But obviously, the photos and what we see with our eyes don’t match.”
Luo Ling looked around. Everything she saw belonged to their current era. She wasn’t sure whether they were shielded from the Incubation Barrier’s influence or completely under its spell. Given her own situation, Luo Ling leaned towards the former possibility.
The Incubation Barrier was essentially meant to protect the “egg” during its incubation. In this case, making stronger Awakened Ones ignore its existence was also a form of protection.
In the Baiyan Village incident, Performer had to resort to certain methods to find the village, even knowing it existed beforehand. Otherwise, she likely would have overlooked it entirely, never discovering the Incubation Barrier.
Now, it was the same situation.
“You’re all from other ‘Boundaries,’ right?” Eve suddenly asked.
“Yes.”
Luo Ling and the others had nothing to hide and nodded.
“No wonder you weren’t even surprised when I told you all this.”
Eve shrugged, sounding slightly disappointed. She had wanted to show off her shocking worldview to the newbies.
“…Aren’t you afraid we’ll react like you did earlier?”
Cen Xiangyun twitched her lips. Unreliable, so unreliable. Why were her teammates so unreliable?
“Not afraid. Because you’re all newbies. Do you think normal people would go crazy just hearing about an environment from ninety years in the future?” Eve glanced at Cen Xiangyun as if asking if she was stupid. “There’s a reason why I reacted this way.”
Her tone then turned serious.
“I… experienced a ‘Boundary’ collapse. I experienced it firsthand and comprehended it.”
A Boundary collapse.
This term was familiar to anyone who had come into contact with the concept of Boundaries. It was a disaster second only to annihilation within a Boundary.
Needless to say, such an event would be an unimaginable catastrophe.
Even worse, Eve had comprehended it.
It was undoubtedly a misfortune for Eve, who was considerably weaker back then. Even with her current strength, experiencing the same event again would likely not end well.
“The ‘Company’ sealed that part of my memory, waiting until I was strong enough to unlock it. Unfortunately, I ran into this today.” Eve’s usually expressionless face showed a rare hint of annoyance. “This medicine that suppresses cognitive dissonance is expensive. One dose costs me half a month’s salary…”
“That expensive?” Knowing the general salary range, Cen Xiangyun was shocked. “And it only lasts two hours?”
“Yeah, because the raw material is Sacred Relic from High-Risk Grotesqueries.” Eve nodded.
Besides Awakened One advancement, Sacred Relics could be used to create Sacred Medicines with corresponding effects based on their abilities, but this required a high level of skill from the pharmacist.
“There’s more bad news. Even if the Incubation Barrier isn’t affecting our cognition, the influence is still there.” Luo Ling said gravely.
She pointed to a small puddle left by the recent rain.
Everyone curiously peered into it, then gasped.
Reflected in the puddle were several elderly women.
“Could it be that our current appearance is fake?” Cen Xiangyun panicked. “Has the Incubation Barrier turned us into old ladies?”
“Not me.”
Luo Ling stared at the grey figures in the puddle, falling silent.
She seemed to have seen them somewhere before…
Or perhaps, was this her true nature?
“That’s not the case. I can confirm that.” Lu Manqing shook her head. “As a doctor, I’m very familiar with my own condition. There’s no sign of aging.”
“Perhaps it’s the Incubation Barrier itself distorting our perception.”
Eve stared at the puddle, her gaze not on the old ladies but on the surrounding environment reflected in the water.
She could even see figures passing by…
These figures hurried along, but some paused, seemingly curious about the old ladies staring at the puddle.
Eve straightened up. Their surroundings were empty, only a few tumbleweeds blown across the road.
Were the people reflected in the puddle trapped within the Incubation Barrier, simulated by it, or… not even human?
“Everyone, I’m afraid this isn’t a commission a newbie team can handle.” Eve said gravely. “Since we know where the edge of the Incubation Barrier is, let’s leave as soon as possible. I’ll request a formal team from the office to deal with this strange Incubation Barrier.”
The Wellington office’s operating principle was fight or flight.
Now was the time to flee.
Luo Ling felt a sense of déjà vu hearing this, but Eve was right. Even if Luo Ling wanted to investigate the Incubation Barrier, the others couldn’t handle it. Besides, it was best to keep her trump card hidden. Revealing her identity would lead to unnecessary complications.
However…
“Still not done?”
Luo Ling glanced at Elsa, who was slumped on her back, half-asleep since earlier.
Something similar had happened in Baiyan Village, but Elsa had recovered after her consciousness processed the Grotesquery’s cognition.
Now, however, she hadn’t fully awakened. Luo Ling felt a vague unease.
What kind of being was being incubated in this Incubation Barrier?
At the very least, it should be stronger than the White Reishi Mushroom…
Having decided to retreat, they didn’t waste any time.
Cen Xiangyun also checked on Elsa and was relieved to hear she was alright.
Although Eve was nominally the leader, Cen Xiangyun acted more like the captain. She was just not as powerful, but… relatively speaking, much more reliable.
Of course, her lack of power was only relative to the freaks on this team. Among Company employees of the same level, Cen Xiangyun was considered one of the best.
They walked back along the road in the photos, comparing them to their surroundings. Only then could they see the discrepancies, which were difficult for those unfamiliar with Victoria, like Luo Ling, to discern.
However…
When they reached the supposed boundary in the photo, they found that nothing had changed.
Elsa, the Incubation Barrier detector, was still unconscious, and Luo Ling still felt the disorienting sense of being in an illusion.
More importantly…
This area should be bustling, but it was eerily deserted.
Looking up, time was still frozen at dawn, the first light of day on the horizon like a painting hung high in the sky.
“Haven’t we reached the boundary yet?” Cen Xiangyun frowned, comparing their location to the photo. They should have arrived.
“Let’s go back a bit further.”
Eve’s face darkened.
So, they headed back towards their starting point, Wellington Manor.
Even upon entering the manor grounds, there were still no signs of life, and a dreadful atmosphere enveloped them.
…They still hadn’t left the Incubation Barrier.
Eve remained silent for a moment, then continued walking, her pace quickening.
Luo Ling and the others followed.
However, even after an hour, nothing changed.
Eve paused, took the camera hanging around Lu Manqing’s neck, and snapped a photo.
Moments later, the Polaroid slowly ejected the picture.
Even in black and white, they could clearly see the afternoon sun shining down, the streets teeming with elegantly dressed nobles.
In front of Luo Ling and the others was just an ordinary house, but the photo showed a lavishly decorated café, where couples could be seen sitting together.
“Bad news, everyone.” Eve’s voice trembled with the fear of being trapped. “I’m afraid this isn’t an ordinary Incubation Barrier…
“In the worst-case scenario, its owner… might be a High-Risk Grotesquery.”
Luo Ling: “…”
See? Newbie missions always had problems!
However, Luo Ling was still puzzled. Why did she always encounter these situations?
…It couldn’t be her fault, could it?
“I don’t even know any other High-Risk Grotesqueries…”
Luo Ling muttered, but the others weren’t paying attention to her. They were staring at Eve in shock.
“How can you be so brazen about taking my camera?”
“A High-Risk Grotesquery? The White Witch?”
Right, still not on the same page.
“I’m not sure.” Eve looked bewildered. “But I might not have enough Sacred Medicine. Who’s going to carry me later?”
“Is now the time to worry about that?!”
“Sorry, Miss Cen.” Eve nodded apologetically, then turned to Lu Manqing. “Miss Lu, I’ll give you a brand new photography manual and a set of film after we get back. Will you help me out?”
“Really? Okay, okay.”
“Seriously, you guys…”
A heavy sense of helplessness washed over Cen Xiangyun. She felt utterly exhausted.
Fortunately, Luo Ling salvaged the situation. She looked at the photo and said softly,
“Perhaps our situation isn’t so dire…”
“Don’t jinx it, sis. That kind of talk usually leads to worse things happening.” Cen Xiangyun said with a weary sigh.
What was wrong? Where did things go wrong? Why was she on this team?
“Miss Eve, you think this is a High-Risk Grotesquery’s Incubation Barrier because it covers the entire Victoria, right?” Luo Ling asked.
“Yeah, that’s pretty much it.” Eve nodded. “Even if it’s not the entire area, even just a tenth would be the scale of a High-Risk Grotesquery.
“However… that’s the worst-case scenario. It’s probably a dangerous Grotesquery, or the avatar of a High-Risk Grotesquery.”
Victoria wasn’t a city but a region, encompassing eighteen districts, vast wilderness, and towns, not to mention other locations within the current Boundary.
In other words, a tenth of Victoria was already larger than Jiangcheng County.
From just now until now, Luo Ling and the others had traversed most of the district and still hadn’t found the boundary.
“Maybe we’re thinking about this the wrong way.” Luo Ling said. “My theory might be wrong, but hear me out.
“The place we’re in isn’t actually an Incubation Barrier, nor is it Victoria. It’s just… in our memories?”
The frozen dawn, the unchanging skyline, the deserted streets.
As a wielder of an Authority that could manipulate memories, Luo Ling was sensitive to these things imprinted in her mind.
Layers of memories were the most deceptive. Even if they searched the entire Victoria, they might still be trapped in this cage of memories.
But…
“If that’s the case, this Grotesquery shouldn’t be very strong. Otherwise… it wouldn’t just be trapping us.” Luo Ling said.
She had another guess.
This might not be a Grotesquery’s Incubation Barrier at all, because she could clearly sense the difference between their current location and the reflected world. They couldn’t possibly originate from the same Grotesquery.
“…This is the Apostle’s domain, isn’t it…” Luo Ling murmured to herself.
As the most significant and chaotic force on the Grotesque side, the Apostles were humanity’s common enemy, including the Harbingers of Calamity.
Because the so-called Apostles were, in fact… traitors to humanity.
Leave a Reply