Chapter 154: Unknown Cause
Luxianbei originally intended to briefly explain to the Proxy Player Sister about how she glimpsed images from the past that changed Xia Lianqing’s fate, but she had only introduced the topic when the Proxy Player Sister interrupted her.
“Wait, don’t be so vague. Changing the past can be significant or trivial. You need to let me know all the details so I can analyze how you managed to do it.”
In the Proxy Player Sister’s understanding, “calamity” doesn’t possess the ability to affect the past, at least not currently. The existence of the present situation is definitely influenced by other spiritual ability users, urban legends, or certain special spirit energy items. She needed all the details to find the answers.
Noticing the urgency and seriousness in the Proxy Player Sister’s tone, Luxianbei felt a bit tense herself. She fell silent for a moment and carefully recalled all the details from when she entered Yumen Pass up until now before continuing her narration.
She started from witnessing Huaiyuan Jun being struck away by a giant deep inside Yumen Pass, intending to scavenge for treasures, detailing her journey alongside Huaiyuan Jun as they evaded the Shadow’s attack and temporarily stayed at Dai Mu Institute. Just as she was about to continue, the Proxy Player Sister interrupted her again.
“Wait, you mean you’re currently with Huaiyuan Jun?”
“Yeah!” Luxianbei responded dazedly, “You know… uh, sorry, is there a problem with her? Is she the key to my glimpse and alteration of the past?”
Luxianbei had initially wanted to say, “You know Huaiyuan Jun?” but then realized that Huaiyuan Jun is the guardian of the Siye Society, so it was reasonable for the Proxy Player Sister to know of her existence, and she changed her wording.
If even the guardian of the Siye Society didn’t know about her, then the Proxy Player Sister would be far too unprofessional. It would be like someone claiming to be a professional game proxy but not knowing the common elite monsters in that game.
“Hey…” The Proxy Player Sister displayed a knowing smile and shook her head. “What I meant is, she doesn’t really have anything to do with your changing the past. What I’m saying is, do you think she’s particularly unreliable? Comparing that old man Zhang Hainan to her, she seems like a fake, right?”
“That’s what you said!” Luxianbei emphasized expressionlessly. “I never said that. Personally, I still have a lot of respect for Senior Huaiyuan Jun…”
“But you’ve thought that in your heart, right?”
Luxianbei, “…”.
“Not saying anything means you agree?” The Proxy Player Sister raised an eyebrow and straightened her posture. “As a professional proxy player, I believe it’s necessary to remind you to best hold back that kind of thought…”
As she said that, a scene of battling against Huaiyuan Jun flashed through her mind, almost like a hallucination, and a faint pain arose in her chest.
She had faced most of the guardians of the Siye Society, but the only ones who truly injured her or had the chance to do so were the Black Emperor and Huaiyuan Jun.
Now, looking back, she could almost feel the excruciating pain of several broken ribs from that unstoppable punch delivered by Huaiyuan Jun.
Despite her spirit energy fluctuation not being particularly top-notch, she possessed that level of physical capability, more bizarre than any urban legend, simply a freak.
“Although normally Huaiyuan Jun is the weakest guardian, in special circumstances, she can also be the strongest guardian,” the Proxy Player Sister continued after steadying herself. “How to put it? Berserker, you understand?”
“Like, under normal circumstances, her combat power is mediocre, but each time you hit her, she accumulates some anger value, and when her health is almost gone, her anger value becomes nearly full, and she will instantaneously unleash a rage transformation, turning her combat power into a monstrous level.”
“I understand, I understand!” Luxianbei nodded obediently. “Don’t worry, I’ll cling tightly to this big leg, but… does she really rely on anger value output? Can you elaborate more?”
If it really was based on anger value output, then it wouldn’t necessarily require getting hit to accumulate it, right? Luxianbei pondered secretly.
It was like unstable explosives, which, after being treated by special methods, could be turned into a stably controlled bomb.
She felt that if she could learn more about Huaiyuan Jun’s personal information, she might find a way to push her anger value to the limit while she was at full health.
Isn’t it just about making someone angry? That should be easy, right?
As the Torture King of Huacheng, in a certain sense, she could entirely be seen as a humanoid anger-making machine; provoking someone to the point of complete fury was as easy as breathing.
The Proxy Player Sister, “…”
Though Luxianbei hadn’t voiced her thoughts, could she not guess what Luxianbei was thinking?
After hesitating several times, she finally cautioned, “I know what you’re thinking, but my suggestion is to avoid doing something reckless, unless you want to pay the price of several broken ribs… Alright, let’s continue! Tell me what happened after you and Huaiyuan Jun went to the brothel.”
“Oh, okay.” Luxianbei nodded reluctantly, temporarily putting aside her thoughts of using Huaiyuan Jun as a tool and continued to recall last night’s experiences to recount to the Proxy Player Sister.
This time, the Proxy Player Sister didn’t interrupt again, but when Luxianbei recounted seeing Xia Lianqing hanging herself and instinctively reaching out to help, only to feel her hands “cut” by a suddenly appearing black line, the Proxy Player Sister visibly trembled, her gaze drifting towards Luxianbei’s hands.
Perhaps the Proxy Player Sister had encountered that kind of strange black line herself and knew something about it?
Luxianbei thought, tilting her head and not immediately questioning the Proxy Player Sister, instead finishing her story about her experiences from last night until she was awakened by Huaiyuan Jun.
At present, she was more concerned with clarifying the reason why she could change the past, while the mystery of those strange black lines could wait until later for her to ask.
After listening to Luxianbei’s account, the Proxy Player Sister furrowed her brow and remained silent for a long time, as if replaying the entire incident repeatedly, trying to find any useful information. After a long while, she finally spoke and asked, “Is that it? Are you sure you haven’t missed any details? Haven’t interacted with any strange people?”
Luxianbei thought for a moment, expressionless, shook her head, “No… don’t you know me? If I sensed any important detail or interacted with someone, how could I have missed it?”
“That’s true…” the Proxy Player Sister murmured, nodding thoughtfully.
Given Luxianbei’s exceptional memory and more cautious nature, if she sensed something was amiss, she would definitely not overlook it.
But surely, something important must have been ignored…
Perhaps it was a change that occurred quietly without Luxianbei realizing.
The Proxy Player Sister thought, carefully observing Luxianbei, hoping to glean something from her but found nothing, finally letting out a silent sigh.
At one point during Luxianbei’s narration, she even briefly suspected that Luxianbei had been influenced by the Nightmare’s powers.
Although in this world filled with urban legends, there were various powers that could influence the past, and there were indeed many, the only one that could seem to directly affect the past as Luxianbei described, as though her physical body had traveled through time, was just the Nightmare, no one else.
After all, the Nightmare was a creation of the Elders’ Council of the Solar Eclipse Association, designed to deal with the Solar Eclipse Association President, a legendary being forged from the years of extensive spirit energy research, with powers that were exceptionally unique, incomparable to ordinary urban legends.
However, after listening to all of Luxianbei’s experiences, she found no signs of the Nightmare’s powers having manifested…
“Sorry, I can’t think of the reason that allows you to change the past for now,” the Proxy Player Sister said. “But give me some more time; the next time you enter that state, observe closely. I’m sure you will find some clues.”
“Tch!” Luxianbei expressed her disappointment with a click of her tongue, rolling her eyes. “This Proxy Player Sister is so useless! In the end, isn’t it still all up to me?”
“Alright! Then shall we call it a day? I’m leaving now.”
As Luxianbei moved towards the edge of the rooftop, preparing to leap down and leave, the Proxy Player Sister seemed to recall something and called out softly, “Wait!”
“What is it?” Luxianbei turned back.
“Uh, the thing you mentioned last time…” The Proxy Player Sister hesitated to ask. “About the nightmare of calamity killing people… Did you have a dream about it yesterday?”
“Of course not!” Luxianbei shrugged. “I spent the entire night wandering with that woman Xia Lianqing.”
“…” The Proxy Player Sister pondered for a moment before nodding, “Oh, alright, then you can go.”
“Tch! So neurotic…” Luxianbei scoffed, took a step forward, and let herself fall into the dark red mist that enveloped the entire city.
The fierce wind rushed at her, and soon after, the world ahead fell into darkness.
————
Just as Luxianbei was conversing with the Proxy Player Sister, a figure quietly appeared on the roof of a building not far from the small courtyard.
It was a girl dressed in white, wearing glasses, with shoulder-length hair tied in a ponytail.
She silently observed the backhouse of the small courtyard for a moment, took out a small notebook from her pocket, flipped through it for a while, and landed on the page titled “Calamity”…
