Seeing a softening expression on Ling Yun's face, Xiao Rou immediately knew what he was thinking, so she gently reminded him, "Yun, be careful. This town is strange. We don't know what we might encounter."
Ling Yun nodded. Although this mundane life had stirred up his past memories, he hadn't lost his basic rationality. He naturally knew what it meant for a small town to appear in the palace. Normal mundane life couldn't possibly exist within this ancient barrier. Clearly, this was an illusion from within the palace, or perhaps the work of the summoning voice. But right now, Ling Yun couldn't figure out what the enormous consciousness meant by conjuring up a small town from reality. Was it trying to let the two of them experience real life? Ling Yun was eager to experience it, but now was neither the right time nor the place for peaceful enjoyment.
Since they were already there, they decided to make the best of it. Unable to find a solution, Ling Yun, like Xiao Rou, temporarily set the problem aside and pulled her hand forward. His power remained; his Eye of Illusion instantly swept over everyone and everything in the town, even the vegetables, fruits, and meats sold by each vendor. The Eye of Illusion didn't miss a thing.
If all of this were an illusion, or a scene conjured from a dream, then nothing could hide from the Eye of Illusion. However, what shocked Ling Yun was that the Eye of Illusion found no flaws whatsoever; everything and everyone appeared real. This could only mean either the town itself was real, and the Eye of Illusion was seeing the real thing, so there was no falsehood, or there was a problem with the Eye of Illusion, and some power or illusion could somehow conceal its penetrating power.
From a probabilistic standpoint, the latter possibility is infinitely close to zero. Since Ling Yun obtained the Eye of Illusion, there has never been a person or thing that he couldn't see through. However, there are always exceptions. Since entering this ancient barrier, Ling Yun found himself hitting walls almost everywhere. The effectiveness of the Eye of Illusion was greatly reduced, and it was almost never used. Of course, this is not because the Eye of Illusion has really lost its effectiveness. Ling Yun always felt that a mysterious force was preventing the use of the Eye of Illusion. Although this force was not obvious, it was still inevitably detected by the Eye of Illusion when it was obscuring the Eye of Illusion itself.
Clearly, regarding the town, the latter possibility has increased significantly. Or perhaps the town is real; a real town truly exists within the temple. Since encountering information about the ancient civilization, Ling Yun's previously unwavering belief has weakened. Anything is possible, so why might the town not be real?
If the town is real, then it means the barrier has the ability to create a reality. Thinking of this, Ling Yun's evaluation of the barrier rose to another level. This ancient and mysterious barrier seemed to bring Ling Yun and Xiao Rou huge surprises and delights with every step they took. Without going further, you would never know what its true function was, or what was hidden behind the vanished civilization. Ling Yun couldn't know; he could only proceed cautiously step by step, maximizing his safety.
"Xiao Zhang, Qiaoli, you two are out shopping at the market too? The sun is about to set, what are you planning to eat tonight?" A round-faced old man in his fifties with a goatee and white beard greeted Ling Yun and Xiao Rou with a smile as soon as he saw them approaching, as if he were old acquaintances who had known Ling Yun and Xiao Rou for many years.
"Xiao Zhang?" "Qiao Li?" Ling Yun and Xiao Rou were both taken aback. If the round-faced old man hadn't actually been speaking to them, they would have thought he had mistaken them for someone else. It would have been really hard on the old man, since most people only mistake one person, but he had mistaken two people at once, even mistaking Ling Yun and Xiao Rou for an acquaintance couple.
"Is that so?" Seeing the astonished expressions on Ling Yun and Xiao Rou's faces, the round-faced old man was also taken aback. Then, as if realizing something, his kind-faced old face suddenly showed a look of fear, and his voice became softer. He asked cautiously, even with a hint of panic, "What's wrong, Xiao Zhang, Qiao Li? Don't you recognize this old man, Uncle Li? Has that thing happened again..." When he finished speaking, his face began to twitch with fear, and his teeth even began to chatter uncontrollably. It seemed that a deep-seated terror had penetrated his heart.
Xiao Rou frowned. What was this old man doing? Not only did he mistake her for someone else right away, but he was also acting strangely and erratically. Could he be a homeless man with mental problems? However, the old man who called himself Uncle Li was dressed neatly, and although there was fear in his eyes, he did not look confused at all. He should not have any mental problems.
She was about to ignore the old man and walk past him when she saw Ling Yun suddenly seem to remember something. She grabbed Uncle Li's withered, yellow hand and said in a low voice, "Uncle Li, we know you. We were just thinking about something else with Qiaoli, so we were a little distracted. Please don't mind us. We've been away for several days and are not very familiar with what's happening in our town. Let's chat sometime, okay, Uncle Li?"
His words were so sincere, just like those of a simple, honest young man from a small town. Xiao Rou raised her pretty eyebrows, wondering what Ling Yun was up to, but since her boyfriend was doing this, he must have his reasons. So Xiao Rou obediently played along with Ling Yun's act, standing quietly beside him with her head down.
Uncle Li shook his head repeatedly, the fear on his face gradually easing, but he still said dejectedly, "Alright, alright, this old man is bored all alone at night. If you'd like to stay home with your pretty young wife and have a good chat with your uncle, of course you're welcome. I still have a few ounces of liquor and some cooked food. If you're coming over, just let me know in advance, and we can have a drink together. Sigh, these days, we really just take it one day at a time."
Ling Yun smiled and said, "That's for sure. Qiaoli and I will go home first, and we'll definitely visit Uncle Li once we're settled."
Li Bosong released his hand, a look of fear involuntarily returning to his face: "But it's a promise, Xiao Zhang, I can tell you about that kind of thing, but you absolutely mustn't tell anyone else. It's a taboo in this town. Everyone talks about it like it's some kind of taboo when they're talking about it in private. Just pretend you don't know anything."
Without waiting for Ling Yun's reply, he hurriedly followed the flow of people and headed away. Ling Yun watched his retreating figure, his smile fading, his brows furrowing tightly. His earlier performance was merely an attempt to gather more information, but unexpectedly, after learning some details from Uncle Li, Ling Yun was even more confused.
He looked up and thought for a moment, then began to organize his thoughts. He and Xiaorou had just arrived in the town when they were mistaken for a young couple, Xiao Zhang and Qiaoli. Judging from Uncle Li's attitude, it was clearly not a mistake. This meant that he and Xiaorou were not outsiders in this town, but rather members of this town that seemed to be part of a certain system, and that they already had the identity to play: a married couple, Xiao Zhang and Qiaoli.
The two's appearance seemed accidental, but for the town, it was actually inevitable. Moreover, judging from the attitudes of other people in the market, it was clear that Li Bo was not the only one behind it, because many people greeted them casually, and some even stopped to exchange a few words, calling them by the names Xiao Zhang and Qiaoli without exception. This indirectly confirmed Ling Yun and Xiao Rou's identities in the town.
Ling Yun responded calmly to each question. What he needed was not to destroy this bizarre town that had already assigned him a role, but to integrate into the place according to the assigned role in order to find out what had happened.
"What is that?" Xiao Rou, who had been silent all along, suddenly pointed in shock at the sky behind Ling Yun.
Ling Yun turned around and was suddenly shocked. Under the clear sky, where the sun should have been shining, there was now a huge, classically styled clock of the same size, with a ball of blue flame burning inside the standard Roman numerals.
Chapter 311 The End of the World
Ling Yun stared blankly at the clock in the sky, a deep chill suddenly rising from the bottom of his heart. Although he knew that the existence of the town was not reasonable, he did not expect that the strangeness of the town would exceed his imagination. Before he could see any abnormal changes, Xiao Rou had already noticed something was wrong. A clock could actually replace the sun to illuminate the entire town. If he did not look at the sky, Ling Yun would not even notice anything unusual.
The afterglow of the setting sun transformed into beams of light with iridescent colors, shining straight down through his fingers. From the ground alone, the sunlight appeared to be without any artificial color. Yet, amidst the bustling and noisy crowd, it seemed that no one noticed anything unusual about the sky. This in itself was extremely illogical.
"Hey, Xiao Zhang, Qiaoli, the sun's almost setting, haven't you two bought any groceries yet? The market'll be closing soon." A simple-looking young man with a buzz cut greeted Lingyun and Xiaorou casually. He waved lightly, and in his other hand he carried a net bag containing a cabbage, a few long cucumbers, and several rather red tomatoes.
"Did you see the sun in the sky? Tell me, has the sun changed?" Ling Yun didn't bother to try and get more information from him. Instead, he grabbed the honest-looking young man's arm and asked with a serious expression.
"Ouch, what are you doing? You're hurting me." The good-natured young man pried Ling Yun's hand away in surprise, glanced up at the sky with a puzzled look, and immediately squinted. "Hey Zhang, are you bored out of your mind? You're just standing around in the market looking at the sun. Even if it's about to set, don't you find it too bright? Or have you lost your mind because you've been running a fever for the past few days? Honestly." With that, he flung Ling Yun's hand away and walked away in another direction without looking back.
As Ling Yun was deep in thought, the honest-looking young man took a few steps and then suddenly turned back and said, "Zhang, stop staring at the sun like an idiot. Don't say I didn't warn you, hurry up and buy some groceries and go home to cook. Don't come out tonight, you hear me?"
Ling Yun stared blankly at him, while the honest-looking young man, Diao Ge, gave a mysterious smile and disappeared into the crowd in the blink of an eye.
Xiao Rou watched Diao Ge's retreating figure with him and said softly, "Besides the two of us, what they saw was the real sun. This was deliberately shown to us by the barrier. The clock must represent a certain meaning. We need to find the inconsistencies in the town, but right now there are no questions or tasks to give us, and we don't know how to complete it."
“The clock should represent time,” Ling Yun said, pondering as he analyzed. “I guess the barrier deliberately showed us the clock so that we could effectively control the flow of time in this town. That blue flame doesn’t stay still; it gradually shrinks as time goes by. When it burns to its end, our time will be up.”
Xiao Rou's pupils contracted slightly. She stared intently at the gleaming blue clock hanging in the sky, and after a long while, she said, "Your guess seems to be correct. What will happen to us if the flames are exhausted?"
“I don’t know, everything is unknown.” Ling Yun sighed. “In short, it won’t be anything good. Maybe the sea of lava outside the palace will suddenly surge into this town and swallow us up. Maybe it’s the end of the world, or maybe an invincible force will wipe us out of this world. These things don’t matter. The most important thing is that we don’t know what we are supposed to do within the allotted time. We have to find the right problem and solve it before we have any hope of survival. I don’t like being told what to do, but right now, we have no choice.”
"What should we do now?" Xiaorou asked after a slight silence. The girl's mind was always simple. If she couldn't find the root of the problem, she wouldn't mind destroying the town. After all, no matter how real everyone seemed, in this world, they couldn't possibly be truly real. Killing them wouldn't be a problem. Xiaorou didn't believe that destroying everything wouldn't stop anyone from appearing to stop them. If someone did, that was the crux of the problem. Violence might not solve the problem, but it was the most direct and simplest solution.
Ling Yun knew what his girlfriend was thinking, and he hesitated. Violence was indeed the fastest way to solve the problem, but whether it could solve the problem was still uncertain. Wouldn't it be even worse if the town was destroyed and nothing was found before the root of the problem even emerged? After much consideration, he finally decided to wait and see, and integrate into the town's life first. Violence was the last resort. If the problem really couldn't be found, then destruction could be carried out at the last moment.
"There's nothing we can do," Ling Yun suddenly laughed, pinching Xiao Rou's soft, delicate cheek. "We're husband and wife, so naturally we should buy groceries, cook, and eat at home. We'll just deal with whatever comes our way."
Xiao Rou lightly slapped the back of his hand, seemingly unconcerned. "The problem is, do you even know where our home is?"
Ling Yun looked around. The town was indeed very small. Apart from a dense farmers' market, there were no other buildings. On both sides of the farmers' market were two rows of low bungalows. The houses were different in style, but they were generally the same. Although they were quite old, they were full of life. Judging from the pedestrians who had finished buying vegetables at the market and were returning to their bungalows one after another, it seemed that most of the people living in the town lived behind the market.
He thought for a moment and said, "Since they've assigned us roles in this town, they must have arranged a home for us. Let's go look for it; we're sure to find some clues." With that, he led Xiaorou through the market and slowly walked forward along the houses on the left side of the market.
As Xiaorou walked, she gazed at the end of the market, where it was a dead end. A tall gray wall, stretching from north to south, stood high on the horizon, blocking their view. The gray wall was at least ten meters high, more than twice the height of all the buildings in the town, and looked as striking as a small mountain.
"What's outside the wall?" A glint flashed in Xiao Rou's beautiful eyes. She had already used her clairvoyance and perception, but all she could see with her clairvoyance was a desolate gray, while her perception kept traveling through the wall as if it were endless.
“There is no outside the wall. The high wall is the end of this small town’s world. Perception cannot penetrate it because, from a flat perspective, the wall is infinitely thick.” Ling Yun said softly. The panoramic view that opened in his mind was also a gray world. Obviously, the high wall was the boundary of this town that appeared out of nowhere. The town was only the size of a market street, with the road from east to west ending at both ends.
"Infinitely thick? How is that defined?" Xiaorou's face showed a look of shock. For a girl with such a straightforward way of thinking, the concept of infinity was somewhat difficult to understand. Moreover, living in a world of superpowered individuals, she was unaware of some of the inexplicable phenomena that logic could introduce. She thought for a moment and asked, "If we jump onto the wall, what will we find? An infinitely far-reaching top plane?"
“We can’t jump over the wall.” Ling Yun shook his head and then explained, “This wall looks only ten meters high, but when we jump, the wall will also grow taller as we jump. It’s like a computer game program. We are restricted to the fixed data set by the barrier. The boundaries and height of the town are infinitely looping rational numbers. Unless we are stronger than the creator, we cannot break this constraint.”
Xiao Rou nodded, seemingly understanding, though not quite. While she understood the principles of computers, her grasp of computer games wasn't as thorough as Ling Yun's, a child from a modern city. In most computer games, regardless of the screen's extent, there's a fixed boundary that game characters cannot cross. Clearly, the barrier setting is merely an enhanced version of computer simulation, with some improved intelligence. While the realism is naturally incomparable, the underlying principles are largely the same.
“I think we’ve found our home.” Lingyun suddenly stopped as they walked toward a bungalow on the west side of the market. “This is it.”
Xiao Rou was intrigued and was about to ask him how he knew, but when her gaze followed the direction Ling Yun was pointing, a look of sudden realization immediately appeared on the girl's face. It seemed the barrier's design was quite thoughtful; to prevent the two from getting lost upon arriving in the town, a blue label with white lettering had been specially placed on the double-row iron-studded door of the bungalow: "Xiao Zhang Qiaoli's Home!"
Ling Yun stepped forward gently, carefully examining the label. He couldn't help but cover his mouth and chuckle, "The settings aren't detailed enough. Otherwise, why don't I even have a given name, only a surname, while you only have a first name and no surname? It seems the barrier is really lazy. Come on, wife, let's go home." With that, he opened the door. Ling Yun nodded secretly. Just as he had thought, the doors of the bungalows were all unlocked. This couldn't be said to mean that the town had reached the point where no one would pick up lost items, but rather that the settings weren't detailed enough to require even locks and keys. Otherwise, it would be troublesome not only for Ling Yun and Xiao Rou, but also for the creator of the settings.
Xiao Rou heard him call her "wife" half-jokingly and half-seriously. Although she knew it was just a playful remark, her heart still fluttered with joy. She gently spat at him and said, "Go away, who's your wife? That's such an awful way to address you. Can't you say something nicer like 'darling'?"