All the memories, like children who had been away from home for far too long, rushed madly into Chen Junnan’s embrace.
They carried with them nearly every emotion this world had to offer, making Chen Junnan feel as though he had lived a long and despairing lifetime in an instant.
This was no so-called “Heavenly Moment” that could kill a man—it was clearly the key to plunging someone into the deepest despair.
It had opened a terrifying Pandora’s box, unleashing all the lost emotions at once, forcing a person to experience joy, anger, sorrow, and every human desire in the span of a single second.
By the time Chen Junnan opened his eyes again, he could no longer quite remember the names of the two people standing before him—people he had been separated from for seventy years.
In the corridor, after several minutes of silence, everyone began opening their eyes one after another.
Their gazes had all changed.
The corridor was eerily silent now. Whether they were “Zodiacs” or “Participants,” they exchanged complicated glances, devoid of hostility or the will to fight—just silence.
As dawn approached, a long-lost sunrise dawned in everyone’s eyes.
“What kind of… joke is this…?” Chen Junnan trembled, muttering under his breath. “Qi Xia… you set me up…?”
His mind was in chaos, countless memories scrambling to resurface.
He remembered how every teammate in his room had been forcibly driven away by some unstoppable force, leaving him alone in that empty room for an entire year. The next time he opened his eyes, he had become Qi Xia’s teammate.
“Damn it…” Chen Junnan didn’t know what he was feeling now, only that his body wouldn’t stop shaking. Qin Dindong and Jin Yuanxun in front of him still stood with their heads bowed in silence. If they were like him, would they soon remember everything too?
“This isn’t right… damn it… just damn it…” Chen Junnan gritted his teeth. “What kind of madness got into me… making me so hell-bent on helping Qi Xia escape this place…? But what about my innocent teammates? My old friends… who’s going to pay for their lives?”
With fury twisting his face, Chen Junnan turned to survey the room.
“Qi Xia… you’ve played us all for fools… I was willing to die for you, and in return, you killed everyone who mattered to me…”
Taking advantage of Qin Dindong and Jin Yuanxun’s immobility, Chen Junnan grabbed a femur from a corpse on the ground and began smashing it against the wall.
**Thud—**
**Thud—**
His emotions were a tangled mess at this moment.
He knew that in the seventy-odd years he’d spent in the “Land of the End,” only the last decade had been with Qi Xia.
So then… why had he abandoned all the friends from those sixty years to help Qi Xia escape without hesitation?
How were those people supposed to escape? Where were they supposed to go?
Qi Xia had claimed he wanted to take everyone with him, but he’d long since begun slaughtering countless lives.
**Thud—**
**Thud—**
Why him?
Why him, the “scapegoat”?
“You knew from the start I wasn’t your teammate… Qi Xia… You hid too much from me… You played me and Old Qiao like fools…”
**Thud—**
**Thud—**
If he wasn’t from this room, and Qi Xia hadn’t originally been from this room either…
Then what the hell was this room?
Soon, the wall gave way under Chen Junnan’s assault. He tossed the femur aside and pried open the broken boards with his hands.
What lay beyond left him speechless once more.
It wasn’t the dark expanse of space, nor was it the neighboring room…
Instead, it was a vast, yellowish-white substance, quivering like gelatin.
The “gelatin” pulsed faintly, as if alive.
With the hole in the wall now open, the sounds of fighting outside grew clearer.
Just what was this room encased in? And who was fighting out there?
Chen Junnan knew that no matter the truth, there was nothing he could do to change Qi Xia’s grand design. Even if he were to die here, he at least wanted to die with clarity.
He widened the hole and looked up toward the source of the fighting. Through the “gelatin,” he could just barely make out a few shadowy figures.
What the hell was this? Were people fighting inside the “gelatin”?
“I can go take a look.” A voice spoke up behind him, startling Chen Junnan.
When he turned, he saw that Jin Yuanxun had also awakened from his silence. His eyes no longer held the innocence of a teenager but the weariness of an old man.
The two exchanged a long, wordless glance.
“Fine.” Chen Junnan knew no explanation was needed. He simply nodded.
Jin Yuanxun sighed, then vanished in the next instant, reappearing inside the “gelatin.” It seemed that recovering his memories had made his “Echo” even more effortless to wield.
About a minute later, Jin Yuanxun returned, dragging one person with his left hand, another with his right, and carrying a third on his back.
“Familiar faces, bro.”
Chen Junnan looked over and saw Jiang Ruoxue in Jin Yuanxun’s left hand, Lin Qin in his right, and Yan Zhichun slumped over his back. All three were unconscious, their condition unclear.
“What the hell is that ‘gelatin’?” Chen Junnan asked. “And what were these three doing in there?”
Jin Yuanxun laid the three down before answering, “Bro, I’m not sure, but they weren’t inside the ‘gelatin.’ They were on its surface—a huge, yellowish-white, faintly glowing ground. A ‘Ground Dog’ was fighting someone else up there. Both were injured. It’ll probably be over soon.”
“The outside must be the ‘Land of the End’…” Chen Junnan mused. Since they could hear the bell in this room, they couldn’t be far from it. But had there ever been a vast, glowing yellowish-white ground in the “Land of the End”?
“Wait a second—” Chen Junnan’s eyes widened as he whipped his head back toward the “gelatin” exposed through the broken wall. In an instant, everything clicked. “Damn it… this can’t be that absurd…”
No matter how long he thought, he couldn’t make sense of it.
Not only were people fighting on the “sun” of the “Land of the End,” but their interview room had also been hidden inside it.
Combined with the flickering memories flooding his mind, Chen Junnan’s thoughts grew even more chaotic. He had no choice but to cut his train of thought short.
Dawn was coming. This was all about to end.
He turned and gave the three girls a heavy look. Invisible threads of something brushed against their hair and brows.
It wouldn’t be long before they, too, lived through that fleeting lifetime.
“Bro…” Jin Yuanxun glanced at him. “Why are you so angry? Isn’t recovering memories a good thing?”
Chen Junnan opened his mouth, then shook his head. “Xiao Jin… my anger has nothing to do with you. It’s just some… personal grudges.”
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