Chapter 816 — Contamination
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
Boundless darkness surged in, like a dreamless sleep.
Yet deep within that darkness, a thread of warm, calm radiance suddenly kindled, carving out a small sanctuary.
Within the illuminated space, the figure of Selina Geer emerged, along with the swaying grass and nameless flowers on a small patch of ground around her.
Selina frowned, studying the grass and blossoms beneath her feet. From this meager light she could not tell where she was—it might be a corner of a courtyard lawn, an empty patch behind some house, or even a vast prairie. The darkness concealed the whole truth, and the Dream Lantern's glow allowed her to glimpse only the narrow space within five meters of her.
The mountain-sized Upper Narrator was gone, the eerie "Duvalt" was gone, the ruined plain was gone—even the Outland Wanderer was gone.
Selina had a faint realization—her mind must be trapped in a cage of deep consciousness.
She only wondered how things stood on Gao Yang's side... As a powerful Upper Narrator, surely He would not be trapped by such a predicament?
Selina raised the lantern in her hand a little higher, trying to see farther, but the darkness hung around her like some tangible curtain, retreating not an inch.
Suddenly, Duvalt's voice came out of the darkness:
"Do you see it... To us, this is what our world looked like at the very beginning..."
Selina held the lantern in one hand, the other instantly tracing runes to shield her mind. She scanned her surroundings warily but saw no one—only the voice continuing to come through—
"A limited truth... a limited world... a limited reality...
"We were born on the stage you had prearranged, and there we multiplied and developed; we tilled the soil and built, we created and studied; we too had our heroes, our stories, our kings and knights, our wise scholars and industrious people...
"So happily did we live upon this stage, faithfully existing according to the script, that we once believed ourselves fortunate and prosperous—but that was only because we were still far from the boundaries of this box.
"Until we touched the fence, none of us realized that we were prisoners of this world.
"Great Creator, do you feel it—do you feel what we felt when we first opened our eyes and saw this world... This little lamp lets you see the grass and flowers at your feet, and so you may optimistically imagine a whole vast prairie beyond, but what is the truth of it?
"The light of civilization spread wider, and beyond the darkness... there was nothing!!"
All at once, the dark curtain shrouding Selina dispersed, and the radiance of the Dream Lantern blazed brighter than ever before. In that suddenly expanded light, the range of Selina's vision grew rapidly; she saw the scene beyond the lawn at her feet, saw what she had not seen before—
A cage. A colossal birdcage, its floor carpeted with a small patch of lawn. She stood at the very center of this birdcage; a few more steps and she would collide with the fine, dense bars.
And beyond the bars lay absolute void.
Selina listened quietly to the voice coming from the darkness, quietly regarded the birdcage that held her imprisoned, and softly broke the silence: "So... you harbor resentment."
"No, we are grateful... because at least it was you who created this world, at least it was you who let us live and multiply here for a thousand years... But great Creator, to step out of the cage is the instinct of every intelligent life—have you ever considered that..."
"Actually, you could have left all along," Selina said suddenly. "This is only a phased test. The test subjects in the sandbox have merely had their memories washed away; you all once had your own lives and identities in the real world. If we had known in advance that being trapped inside would cause such severe psychological problems, this test could have been termin—"