This Spiritual Energy is Lethal!-Chapter 59 - 0: From the Future

Chapter 59: Chapter 059: From the Future

“Well, Parker, tell me about this place. Where do you think we are?” Chen Ke pointed to the area they were in.

This was a rift basin inside a mountain cliff, with a few walls resembling ancient building ruins and a pile of ash soldiers who could be resurrected, dressed in medieval chainmail. But Chen Ke, ignorant of history, couldn’t tell which period the equipment was from.

“I don’t know, I thought you would. Doesn’t the Administration Bureau have records of this place? Haven’t you guys always been exploring the Great Void?” Parker shook his head.

“This is the Great Void?!” Chen Ke was stunned.

“You didn’t notice this whole time?” Parker could hardly believe it.

Chen Ke excitedly looked around; what had once seemed ordinary to him now appeared rather extraordinary.

...

Just a second ago, he had thought the Teleportation Gate had simply sent him to some remote corner of Earth, and he’d seen the mysterious kingdom below the cliff as an ancient site yet to be discovered by modern society. He had never considered that he might have actually arrived in the Great Void.

“I thought you’d be used to places like this; turns out you’re just like me… For the first few days, I was also surprised, curious, and scared,” Parker said.

“Not every secret agent has the clearance to investigate the Great Void; it’s a state secret,” Chen Ke bluffed.

Parker found Chen Ke’s explanation reasonable and nodded.

Chen Ke then asked Parker about his past few days and the weapon in his hand…

The grenade Parker had thrown earlier was supposed to be a flashbang for use against monsters, almost identical in design to the ones Morgan threw, but clearly more effective.

The difference in effect could partly be due to the monsters’ levels. It was certain that zombie soldiers were not as formidable as contract demons.

But the question was, when Chen Ke first met Parker, if he had had this weapon, he would have used it already.

“Where did you get that grenade?” Chen Ke asked.

“Inside the tent nearby…” Parker pointed to a crumbling wall.

Someone had been here?

Chen Ke didn’t say anything and immediately stood up, heading toward the crumbling wall. When he got to the other side, he discovered a small triangular tent.

The tent was not large, barely enough to accommodate three people resting inside. The zippered door was open, and Chen Ke bent down to look inside, only to see three weapon boxes laid out with a gray sleeping bag beside them.

All the weapon boxes were empty. By the shape of the empty spaces, the three boxes had each contained a very stylish-looking assault rifle, eight grenades, and twelve boxes of ammunition.

On the box lid, there were three large white letters: H.C.P.

The letters were separated by dots, suggesting the abbreviation of three words. Which three words might they be? Could it be Si’s consortium? Or could it be a code name for a team from the Administration Bureau specifically for exploring the Great Void?

“Did you take all the weapons?” Chen Ke turned back and asked.

“There weren’t many actually; I only found a little over thirty .45 caliber bullets and three grenades. I never saw the rifles when I arrived,” replied Parker.

“So, you could have thrown a grenade at the building; why didn’t you?” Chen Ke asked back.

“I didn’t have a rig for carrying grenades on me, and I didn’t bring any grenades with me when I first got here, only bullets,” Parker said.

Chen Ke sighed but was at least able to confirm that the Punishment attribute Spiritual Energy .45 bullets that Parker used were taken from there, and they seemed even more powerful.

The only regret was that the automatic rifle was nowhere to be found, taken by someone else.

Chen Ke searched the tent again but found nothing useful; perhaps the tent had originally contained some food, which could be how Parker had survived.

Chen Ke left the tent disappointed, having hoped to find some clues, but the results were unsatisfactory. He felt as though he was falling into one inexplicable mystery after another, not just conspiracies and trajectories—now a time paradox was also working against him.

Near the tent, a small stone well caught Chen Ke’s attention. He walked to the edge of the well and looked down into the dark abyss, a gust of air rushed toward his face, carrying a putrid smell of decay. It was unclear how deep the well actually was.

“Have you walked around much? After all, there’s an ancient city below us. Maybe you could find some food,” Chen Ke ventured.

“No, no, running around in the Great Void without caution is not a good idea. I’ve been staying around here, except for the first two days when I was searching for you. I haven’t left since,” Parker shook his head.

“You’re an investigator, after all. Don’t you have even the slightest bit of curiosity?” Chen Ke said with a hint of resignation.

“Curiosity can sometimes kill you. I’d rather sit here and wait for the next Teleportation Gate to open,” Parker said noncommittally.

“What if no other gates open? Are you just going to sit here and starve to death?” Chen Ke asked.

“You might not believe this… but I’ve been here so long without ever feeling hungry or thirsty,” Parker said.

Chen Ke was startled.

“It seems like time is at a standstill here. It never gets dark… and there’s no feeling of thirst or hunger, but I do get tired and exhausted. In any case, as long as we don’t court death, we have infinite time to wait for rescue…” Parker explained.

Parker’s reasoning made sense, especially since Chen Ke could open a Teleportation Gate himself. When the time came, he could just find a spot, open a gate, and take Parker out with him. That would be delightful.

“But you need to be careful about these ashes on the ground. They seem to be alive. At any moment, any pile of ashes could turn into undead soldiers. I’ve been switching resting spots these past days, sleeping in shifts…” Parker warned.

“These ashes on the ground… I don’t think they’re ordinary dust…” Chen Ke muttered as he shuffled the ashes with his foot.

It felt like cremation ashes.

Combined with the dust flying through the air, Chen Ke got the impression that a great fire had once raged here, reducing all living beings to ashes.

“Nothing is normal here, Chen Ke. I’ve gotten used to it. By the way, what’s the date? Do you have a phone? Mine’s run out of battery,” Parker said.

Chen Ke took out his Nokia E63 and checked the time—March 23, 2009, 2:27 PM.

This chapter is updated by freēwēbnovel.com.

Regardless of this world, even if there was some issue with time itself, an electronic counter wouldn’t be affected. Indeed, Chen Ke had been in this world for less than 24 hours, to be precise, around fifteen hours.

Talk about a full day…

“March 23, around 2:30 PM,” Chen Ke said as he stuffed the phone back into his trouser pocket.

“So long… it’s already the 23rd…” Parker muttered to himself, but then he revealed a perplexed expression.

“That’s not right, let me see your phone.”

As if to confirm something crucial, Chen Ke handed over the phone. Parker fiddled with the keys, entering the calendar and looking at it for a long time, his eyebrows knotted together.

“March? How is that possible… Is your phone broken?” he handed the phone back to Chen Ke.

“How could it be? I bought it brand new from Walmart! I’ve had it for less than a day!” Chen Ke looked at Parker in surprise, noting Parker’s strange expression—a mix of dismay and something incomprehensible.

“What’s the matter, Parker? What’s wrong?” Chen Ke asked cautiously.

“Listen to me, Chen Ke. I don’t know if there’s something wrong with me or this place, dammit, but please believe me, I didn’t become an investigator until July this year… started my first mission in September… entered the Black Box Space on October 4th, encountered the Permian effect, and then arrived here… Dammit, Chen Ke, what the hell is going on? Tell me, your phone must be broken!” Parker’s voice was trembling, his eyes filled with helplessness and confusion. He fidgeted, interlocking his fingers at times, then placing his hands on his thighs, at a loss for what to do.

“Calm down… just calm down… Parker, listen, maybe you remembered wrong…” Chen Ke was also astonished by Parker’s words.

If Parker was not joking, it meant Chen Ke was conversing with a man from half a year in the future…