Chapter 24: The Eerie Van

 

"The near-ancient era?"

Lu Xiao looked at Glimmer, his lifeless fish-like eyes making Glimmer's scalp tingle.

Glimmer forced himself to answer. "Yes! The near-ancient era!"

"What era is it now?" A possibility surfaced in Lu Xiao's mind.

Glimmer paused for a moment. "It's the Innovation Era now."

Lu Xiao silently repeated the term in his heart. "What year of the Innovation Era is it now?"

Glimmer answered without hesitation. "This is year 211 of the Innovation Era."

"So 211 years have passed since the Innovation Era began?" 

Glimmer nodded.

Lu Xiao sensed something strange and immediately dismissed his earlier assumption. 

"I only fell into the Dark Prison three years ago! Has over two hundred years passed in the outside world?"

This question swirled in his mind. 

Then another possibility occurred to him. 

"Is time different in the Dark Prison compared to reality?"

Hearing this, everyone shook their heads.

An eerie atmosphere filled the ambulance. Lu Xiao fell silent.

He didn't think the City Fire Squad members were lying to him. That left many possibilities.

"Could this be a parallel world?" 

This was Lu Xiao's guess, and he felt it was highly likely. But he overlooked one issue: even in a parallel world, the timeline wouldn't align.

Seeing Lu Xiao's silence, no one dared to make a sound.

After what felt like an eternity, Dart, who was driving, broke the silence. "We're here!"

As soon as he spoke, he was the first to get out of the vehicle. The other squad members quickly followed.

Just as Lu Xiao was about to step out, Dart said in a deep voice, "Mr. Lu Xiao, please follow my orders. If I don't instruct you to act, just observe from the sidelines."

Lu Xiao didn't refuse. Seeing how cooperative he was, Dart secretly breathed a sigh of relief. 

He had been worried that Lu Xiao would break free from their control. If Lu Xiao insisted on acting on his own, their squad would have no way to stop him. 

And once an anomaly broke free, the consequences would be unpredictable.

But clearly, Lu Xiao had no such intentions.

As soon as he got out, he curiously surveyed his surroundings. In the distance was a brightly lit manor villa.

He turned to Glimmer and asked, "Buddy! What's the containment target?"

Glimmer immediately looked at his captain. After Dart nodded, he replied, "According to the intel, the target is a mirror with omniscient properties."

"Omniscient properties?" Lu Xiao's eyes lit up.

Glimmer nodded. "The mirror is eerie. It's said to know everything, past and future."

"That sinister?" This piqued Lu Xiao's curiosity. He happened to be full of questions, and this was like a pillow appearing just when he was sleepy. 

He suddenly became interested in the containment mission. Originally, he had planned to just go through the motions, but now he was determined to obtain that anomaly.

Meanwhile, Boss Liu sat on his sofa, his face ashen. He had considered fleeing, but the image shown in the magic mirror had foreshadowed his end. 

As the mirror's owner, he knew best that the mirror's answers were unchangeable facts.

Over the past day, he had reflected on his entire life. Originally, he was just a small factory owner in Magic Metropolis. In a city like this, there were thousands of small bosses like him. Although he lived comfortably, he had greater ambitions.

By chance, he discovered the mirror in an antique shop. 

The moment he saw it, he was captivated. 

He paid a high price to bring it home. One day, overwhelmed by stress, he muttered to the mirror, and it responded. From then on, he became obsessed.

With the mirror's help, his business flourished. He learned his competitors' weaknesses one by one. In just ten years, he became the biggest boss in Magic Metropolis, controlling ninety percent of the city's businesses behind the scenes. 

How many lives he had sacrificed to the mirror, he himself might not remember. But he vividly recalled the first life he offered, his wife of many years.

But all that was in the past. He stared blankly at the mirror, his thoughts churning. After learning his outcome, he considered destroying the mirror. But no matter what he tried, he couldn't harm it in the slightest. The mirror never responded to him again.

Regret, frustration, fear, countless emotions surged within him.

Just then, piercing alarm bells rang out. 

The villa was under attack again. 

Gunshots echoed through the night sky.

The roads leading to the manor had long been blocked by the authorities. A police car was parked at every intersection. At one intersection, an older and a younger police officer leaned against their car, taking a break.

The younger officer took out a pack of cigarettes and offered one to the older officer. "Uncle Wang! Why do you think we're only blocking this road without any explanation?"

Uncle Wang, a veteran officer with over a decade of experience, knew more than most. He slowly exhaled a smoke ring. "Kid! Just do what the higher-ups say. Don't dig too deep. Some things aren't for us to know."

The younger officer nodded, though he only half-understood.

As they chatted, a van approached from the distance. Its driving was erratic, swerving in S-shaped curves on the road. The headlights swayed left and right, making their eyes uncomfortable.

Uncle Wang nudged the younger officer. "Probably a drunk driver. Stop them."

The younger officer nodded and walked to the middle of the road, waving at the van. Soon, the van pulled over.

The younger officer knocked on the window. The window rolled down, revealing a soldier in tactical gear behind the wheel. The younger officer was taken aback but quickly saluted.

The driver didn't respond. Instead, he was making bizarre, mechanical movements with his hands, which had long left the steering wheel.

The atmosphere was deeply unsettling. The younger officer felt his scalp crawl. But out of duty, he forced himself to say, "Friend! This road is blocked. No passage without special permission."

Hearing this, the soldier in the driver's seat stopped one hand and pulled out a document from his bag, handing it to the younger officer. Meanwhile, his other hand continued its mechanical movements.

The younger officer took the document and glanced at the rearview mirror. What he saw sent chills down his spine.

Inside the van, six people in special forces uniforms sat, their hands all moving in the same eerie, mechanical way, identical to the driver's.

Previous

Next