Chapter 4 Reflections of the Past
“The truth of the Night World is difficult to grasp, even for the most learned sages.”
“However, according to current mainstream understanding, the Night World is not a singular realm, but a conglomeration of countless illusory worlds.”
“It is the remnants and echoes left in history after the demise of innumerable ancient civilizations.”
It seemed that Hiltina had noticed Rast’s bewilderment was genuine.
After a moment’s hesitation, Hiltina took the initiative to explain.
“Some scholars believe that the power sustaining the existence of the Night World may come from one of the primordial pillars of legend…”
“The master of eternal night’s authority, the witness and recorder of all civilizations and historical past— the Lord of Silence.”
“Thus, a small number of people who hold special credentials, capable of freely entering and exiting the Night World, refer to themselves as ‘Travelers in the Night.’”
“The illusory worlds that travelers enter are echoes of history that reappear in an instant when eternal night descends, like shattered memories resembling bubbles.”
Rast had already guessed Hiltina’s next words.
“And the Deep Blue Harbor where we currently find ourselves is one of the countless historical echoes gathered in the Night World.”
“In real history, the Deep Blue Harbor has already perished amidst a secret divine descent.”
…
Listening to Hiltina’s explanation, Rast’s sealed memories surged back like the tide.
He was a traveler.
To be more precise, Rast recalled his memories from his past life on Blue Star around fifty thousand resets ago.
Having the memories and perspective of a traveler… this was undoubtedly a cheat granted by the heavens to anyone.
Yet it was useless to Rast.
In his earliest memories that he still recalled clearly, Rast was already trapped in this Deep Blue Harbor.
No matter what he did in this small port town, when dusk arrived the next day, the entire world would revert to the state it was in at seven o’clock the previous evening.
And this situation had not changed at all after Rast awakened his past life’s memories.
Traveling was indeed a powerful cheat.
Travelers could easily accumulate wealth by writing literature inspired by their past lives, or by creating commercial ideas.
Even relying on their superior perspectives as travelers to advance the entire world’s technological level and push forward the course of civilization and become saints admired by all wasn’t difficult.
But all of this required time.
Whether it was getting rich through literary imitation or advancing technological progress and civilization development, none of these things happen overnight.
Even in the butterfly effect, the butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon rainforest… needs several days to brew a storm on the other side of the sea.
Yet Rast had less than a day.
In that short span, he seemed omnipotent, yet could do nothing and leave nothing behind.
Moreover, simply raising his social status, becoming an admired saint, and thus gaining power, wealth, and beauty…
Rast could have achieved all this even without awakening his past life memories in the Deep Blue Harbor.
In the tens of thousands of repetitions of today, he had long since grown weary of it all.
But at this moment, with Hiltina’s appearance, everything finally had a turning point.
“Night World”
This term felt somewhat familiar to him.
After much contemplation, Rast recalled some fragments of memories buried deep within him from his past life.
Before his transmigration, he was an employee at a game development team, working on a fantasy game called “Snow Moon Crest.”
And the Night World was the main content in a planned paid DLC called “Shadows of the Past,” expected to launch alongside the main game.
In the design drafts, the Night World was a place similar to a dungeon entry.
It allowed players to have something to do after completing the main story, with the option to grind in the Night World to extend game time and daily engagement.
Additionally, the multiplayer functionality could also be realized through the Night World.
Even the multiplayer feature could be sold separately, which just goes to show the strategies of the planners were not without justification.
Unfortunately, in his memories, Rast never had the chance to see the game he had worked on go live before he was reborn into another world the day before the first closed beta of “Snow Moon Crest” after a night of intense programming.
Since the game hadn’t officially launched, and Rast was not responsible for the narrative or illustrations, but merely a struggling programmer, he only had a vague impression of the narrative from the concept drafts discussed during the project initiation meeting, and he didn’t understand many details.
However, just these fragmented impressions, combined with Hiltina’s description, were enough for Rast to understand his current predicament.
Those long-lost civilizations, the historical echoes that reappear when night falls, fragments of memories.
The so-called “reflections of the past,” or in the words of his previous life— an infinitely resettable, cyclic game dungeon.
This was what had constrained Rast for over a hundred years.
The truth of the Deep Blue Harbor.
…
Such thoughts were brief.
Soon, Rast spoke again.
“So, the Sequence Long Tier you mentioned earlier.”
“The Tower and Shadows, are those the special abilities that you, as a Night Traveler able to move freely in the Night World, possess?”
Hiltina nodded: “Exactly.”
“To be more precise, only by stepping onto the Sequence Long Tier can one qualify to enter the Night World.”
“There are currently known to be a total of seventeen Sequence Long Tiers; for example, she is a dancer of the ‘Shadows’ sequence and has already reached the Third Tier.”
“Some people also refer to this Long Tier as ‘Mental Demons.’”
Hiltina squatted down and moved aside the cracked black iron mask that had split in two over the corpse’s face.
“If I’m not mistaken, she should belong to a secret force in reality that opposes me, using special tools to track me and enter the Night World alongside me.”
“The abilities of the Shadows sequence are quite suppressive against me; if it weren’t for your mental backlash from my carelessness, it would have definitely been a grueling battle.”
Hiltina rummaged through the Masked Woman’s corpse for a moment, then stood up again.
“The ability you manifested earlier, one that can counteract the dancer’s Word Spirit deceit, if I’m not mistaken, should belong to an extraordinarily rare Sequence Long Tier.”
“‘Tower’— the Lantern Bearer.”
Hiltina gazed at Rast: “I originally thought you were a historical figure projected by the Night World, a native of the echoes.”
“But it seems I misjudged.”
Within the Night World, there existed hidden rules.
If an external Night Traveler reveals any information about the Night World to a projection in the historical echoes, then not only will the information itself be distorted, but the revealer will also face severe punishment.
However, at this moment, Hiltina had not suffered any backlash from the rules.
“You are not a fleeting reflection of the past in the Night World’s echoes.”
“But a genuine human being.”
(End of Chapter)
