aircannonsinc Chapter 203, Trial 1
Chapter 203, Trial 1
Stepping into the Chaos Star Gate, Lu Yan had expected to see mountains of corpses and seas of blood, or to fight some kind of god.
There was nothing.
The floor felt hard underfoot, not dirt, but the kind of cheap, cold flooring.
A familiar sour smell wafted over—the musty smell of leftover instant noodles mixed with clothes that hadn't dried completely.
Lu Yan's view became clear. It was a small, cramped rented room of less than ten square meters. A little light shone through the dirty window, and you could see that the air was full of dust.
In the corner, there was a pile of instant noodle bowls and beverage bottles that were half a person high, and a faded and curled game poster was pasted on the wall.
Lu Yan wanted to use the black lotus.
Useless.
He couldn't sense anything; it was as if the lotus flower had never existed. He tried the storage space again, but there was no response.
He looked down at his hands; they were pale and thin, without a single callus, the result of long hours of typing.
"Click".
The door lock clicked.
The sound made Lu Yan tense up.
The door opened, and a woman with exquisite makeup walked in, looking impatient.
It's Li Qian.
His ex-girlfriend.
When she saw Lu Yan inside the room, her handsome eyebrows furrowed, and she looked at him as if he were a piece of trash.
"Lu Yan, you haven't gone out to look for a job again?"
Her voice was very high-pitched.
"Did you ask about the warehouse manager job I told you about yesterday?"
Lu Yan looked at the woman who was now an illusion, too lazy to say anything.
Lu Yan remained silent, but Li Qian felt that he was provoking her.
"What do you mean?"
"Are you mute?"
"I'm talking to you, what kind of look is that?"
Li Qian got angry and slammed her designer handbag onto the table.
Do you find me annoying? Do you think it's unnecessary for me to care about you?
"Lu Yan, let me tell you, if it weren't for your pitiful state, do you think I would have willingly stepped into your doghouse?"
"Look at you! You're in your mid-twenties, no job, no savings, all you do is play your stupid video games all day! What kind of future do you have?!"
"You dare look down on me?!"
The screams were so loud they hurt my ears.
Li Qian rushed forward and slapped him across the face.
Lu Yan thought he should dodge, but his body just wouldn't obey him.
My legs felt like they were filled with lead, and I couldn't move.
He could only watch as the hand with bright red nail polish grew larger and larger in front of him.
"Snapped!"
A crisp sound.
Lu Yan's head was knocked to one side, and half of his face burned with pain.
A metallic taste filled my mouth.
He was stunned.
It wasn't just the pain; it was a long-forgotten anger that suddenly welled up from the bottom of my heart.
He wanted to fight back.
He wanted to strangle the woman.
But when he turned around and saw Li Qian's disdainful and angry eyes, his body went out of control again.
When he saw that look in his eyes, his legs went weak.
This is a reaction ingrained in one's very being.
He is Lu Yan. He is the man who dared to confront the Angel Legion at an altitude of ten thousand meters, the Black Lotus Zen Master who could kill a twelve-winged angel.
Now, I'm actually scared so badly by a woman's gaze that my legs go weak.
"You dare glare at me?!"
Seeing his cowardly appearance, where he dared not speak out, Li Qian became even angrier.
Anger consumed her reason.
She went crazy, punching and kicking Lu Yan.
"waste!"
He kicked him in the shinbone.
A sharp pain shot through him, and Lu Yan lost his balance, staggering as his knee struck the cold floor.
"Useless thing!"
Another kick landed squarely on his chest.
He fell backward, his head hitting the pile of garbage in the corner with a dull thud.
My vision started to blur.
Lu Yan curled up on the floor, his body aching all over.
Fists and high heels landed repeatedly on his back and head.
He could only use his arms to protect his head, curling up into a ball.
He knew the illusion wasn't very powerful, but he just couldn't resist it.
He dare not.
This body, subjected to years of oppression and humiliation, had developed an unconscious fear. His will struggled, but his body was like a lump of mud, only able to tremble and shrink back.
Li Qian got tired and stopped.
She gasped for breath, looking down at Lu Yan curled up on the ground, her eyes filled with disgust.
"You're a piece of trash."
"If I rely on you, I'll never be able to live in a big house or drive a nice car in my lifetime."
"Lu Yan, did you hear me clearly?"
She crouched down, leaned close to his ear, and spoke, word by word, in a cold tone:
"We're fucked."
"From today onwards, don't contact me again."
"You might as well rot away in your doghouse."
After saying that, she stood up, grabbed the designer bag from the table without looking back, and walked out of the room that disgusted her, wearing high heels.
"Bang!"
The door was slammed shut.
The world has fallen silent again.
Lu Yan lay motionless on the cold floor. The pain in his body reminded him how real everything that had just happened had been.
He lost.
I lost to my own past.
He lost to that cowardly version of himself that he had long ago discarded.
Lu Yan's vision began to blur.
I could almost hear Li Qian's last words echoing in my ears.
"You're a piece of trash, and you always will be!"
"lifetime……"
Yes.
Perhaps, this is the real me.
He twitched his lips, trying to laugh, but all he tasted was the metallic rust.
Black Lotus Zen Master? First Squad? What a ridiculous dream.
He tried to focus his mind and search for the black lotus that should have been connected to his soul.
Empty.
There was nothing there.
Memories are like old newspapers soaked in water, the words blurred, crumbling at the slightest touch. Zhao Leiguang's憨笑 (simple and honest smile), Xiao Qianyu's cold face... those vivid images are fading rapidly, turning into meaningless black and white silhouettes.
That all-powerful Black Lotus Zen Master was nothing but a dream.
wake up.
I'm still that same piece of trash, rotting in the mud.
Just as his consciousness was about to sink into darkness, a cool sensation suddenly emerged from the depths of his soul.
It was a very faint, yet very pure aura.
It's Xiao Qi.
It was calling him.
Deep within my soul, a cool sensation emerged.
It smelled like sun-drenched grass, or like something gently calling his name.
Very thin, very weak.
But only once.
The self that resided deep within him, the self called "Waste," was like a lazy beast disturbed from its slumber. It was too lazy to even open its eyes, but impatiently rolled over, opened its huge mouth, and swallowed the pitiful glimmer of light that was trying to wake it, along with the scent of grass.
He even smacked his lips.
As if savoring the taste of that glimmer of light, it yawned contentedly and continued to sleep.
Giving up, it turns out, can be addictive.
The Black Lotus Zen Master, the First Squad... they're all fake.
It's so tiring to get up.
It's still more comfortable to lie in the mud.
The darkness closed in again, even thicker and more...comfortable than before.