“Memory Space?” Aya Tone savored the words on his tongue. They felt both unfamiliar and strangely intimate. He automatically filtered out the subsequent words. ‘What’s the difference between this and dreaming?’ he wondered. Pondering this, he fixed his gaze on ‘Aya Tone,’ who looked identical to his past self, a profound depth in his eyes.
“‘What foolishness are you up to now?'”
‘Aya Tone’ furrowed his brow slightly, his expression displeased. He sensed something amiss in the way his ‘main body’ was looking at him.
Although he was merely a residual image, he was still a part of Aya Tone’s past. ‘A person shouldn’t, at the very least, not do that.’
‘Could it be that after awakening his ability, some malevolent entity corrupted his mind?’ ‘Has he gone mad?’
“‘Don’t move, brother. I have a bold idea.'”
Aya Tone’s gaze burned into ‘Aya Tone,’ silently willing a transformation.
He had once seen a question online: ‘What do you do if you watch too many horror movies at night and have nightmares?’ One reply suggested, ‘In your dreams, you’re invincible! Even male ghosts can turn into female ghosts!’
Now, what he wanted to do was transform the ‘self’ before him into a white-haired version of himself. And then, and then… *Cough, cough*. The subsequent actions were best left unsaid.
‘Aya Tone’ was speechless. ‘He really has gone mad.’
‘I told him I’m just a residual image, and he’s still thinking about… that.’ Impatiently, he interrupted Aya Tone’s ‘spell-casting.’ “‘If you want to see it, transform yourself and look in a mirror. Only people from your memories appear here, and they are all illusory. Even if I did turn into that form, you still wouldn’t be able to touch me.'”
Upon hearing that he could look but not touch, Aya Tone’s enthusiasm immediately deflated. ‘Tsk, what a pity.’
‘Aya Tone’: ‘What are you pitying, you idiot!’
“‘So, how did I get in here, or rather, why did you summon me?'”
“‘What do you mean ‘I summoned you’? I’m just a residual image; how could I have such an ability?'”
Watching his former self act so awkwardly, Aya Tone nearly gagged. ‘Can’t you at least save me some face?’
‘At least don’t make me feel disgusted by how I used to be…’
“‘No more jokes.'”
‘Aya Tone’ abruptly dropped the affected expression, raising a hand to disperse the surrounding figures.
Instantly!
Only the two of them remained, standing face-to-face in the Memory Space.
Aya Tone: “‘Holy hell! Didn’t you say this was *my* Memory Space? How can a residual image like you control it?'”
‘If I believe you’re just a residual image again, I really will be a clown!’
“‘Don’t worry about such details,'” ‘Aya Tone’ waved his hand. “‘You still remember how I appeared, right?'”
‘Of course I remember. How could I forget?’ ‘It’s deeply ingrained, alright.’
Suddenly!
Aya Tone’s eyes narrowed. “‘Are you saying you brought me in here for the dungeons?'”
Most of Yan’an City’s dangerous dungeons had been cleared by him, leaving mostly those of lower levels. ‘What did he mean by bringing this up?’
“‘No! More precisely, it’s about the incredibly powerful world behind the dungeons.'”
Aya Tone: “‘???'”
For a moment, he couldn’t grasp what ‘Aya Tone’ was saying. He understood every individual word and could perfectly interpret them.
Yet, when combined, their meaning became incomprehensible. Although he hadn’t fully studied this world’s history, people had been researching dungeons for over a century.
This meant!
Dungeons had appeared at least a century ago. If a great world truly lay behind these dungeons, then why had it been sending them for over a hundred years? ‘Was it simply bored?’
‘If it were an invasion, wouldn’t it be better to just unleash its strongest hand from the start?’
“‘Because that world shattered.'”
“‘Huh?'” Aya Tone blinked, utterly bewildered.
This answer caught him completely off guard, a result he had never anticipated. ‘Aya Tone’ held nothing back, recounting every piece of information he had extracted from the dungeon’s consciousness.
Throughout the explanation, Aya Tone listened in a daze. ‘Ah… this…’
‘A world, shattered?’ ‘World fragments falling, then transforming into dungeons???’
‘What kind of fantastical tale was this!?’ He had expected some conspiracy theory, but it turned out to be akin to meteorites falling onto Blue Star.
The only difference was that one was a physical phenomenon, while the other involved an ethereal spatial dimension.
“‘Are you telling me all this because you want to imply that the original owner of this body of mine was from that world?'” Aya Tone quipped, half-joking.
Though he spoke lightly, he already had an answer in his heart. ‘Aya Tone’ had only pulled him into this never-before-seen Memory Space after he had finished discussing identities with Liu Yanyun.
Not earlier, not later, but precisely at this moment. It was hard not to be suspicious.
“‘No, more precisely, many people in this world are. Whether *you* are, I don’t know.'”
The memories ‘Aya Tone’ had analyzed from the dungeon consciousness were incomplete. To be precise, the dungeon consciousness itself was fragmented.
They were all fragments of another world; their so-called consciousness was, in fact, a shard of the Heavenly Dao. The moment the world shattered, the Heavenly Dao perished, its remnants falling onto the larger fragments.
These were what were known as S-rank dungeons. The memories contained within this consciousness were disjointed, requiring a significant amount of time for perfect interpretation.
“‘But that still doesn’t make sense!'”
“‘Even if dungeons are products of a shattered world falling onto Blue Star, what about the monsters and resources within them? How do they regenerate at regular intervals!?'”
‘Aya Tone’ rubbed his brow. “‘I don’t know.'”
The memories he had plundered contained no records concerning this aspect. It could be a new law born after the fusion of the two worlds, or an instinctive method of invasion from that world into this one.
Which it was would depend on how the people of this world interpreted it.
“‘What good are you then!'” Aya Tone shot him a disdainful look. He had more or less grasped the specifics.
He was likely not a native human of this world, so it was perfectly normal that he couldn’t find his parents. And, if no surprises arose, Aya Jiu was probably the same.
‘But then why did he and Aya Jiu share a blood relation?’ ‘Who knows?’ He didn’t want to delve too deeply into it; knowing that Aya Jiu was now his daughter was enough.
****
**Vermillion Bird Guild**
Fire Finch’s brows were tightly knit as she gazed at the report in her hand. What was recorded within was precisely the memories extracted from Qian Mian…
No!
More accurately, they were memories extracted from Hu Peng’s mind. From his initial recruitment into the cult, his gradual establishment of the guild, to his recent planning of attacks and everything in between, every detail was laid bare.
After reading through the entire report, Fire Finch realized she had been terribly mistaken. In her understanding, Qian Mian referred to Hu Peng’s codename.
But the truth was!
Qian Mian had never been a single individual, but rather the organization behind him! Anyone could become Qian Mian.
What shocked her even more was that among the Qian Mian, there were individuals with ‘memory revival,’ those who were not from this world. And Hu Peng was one such person.
As for the true nature of the dungeons, Fire Finch wasn’t surprised. Dungeons had existed for so many years; one shouldn’t underestimate the capable individuals in the world.
However, to maintain social stability, these critical secrets had been kept hidden.