Chapter 439 - 383: Chaisi: Deep in the Downpour Is Home

Chapter 439: Chapter 383: Chaisi: Deep in the Downpour Is Home

The moment Han Liuyue steadied herself, she whipped her head around, as if afraid the elevator behind her would vanish. Only when she met Chaisi’s gaze did she let out a small sigh of relief.

Chaisi was still standing inside the elevator. He smiled at her. "Are you sure this is the right floor?"

"Ah, it isn’t?"

Han Liuyue was agreeable and looked like she was about to turn back, but Chaisi stopped her with a raised hand. "First off, we can rule out the dry second and fourth floors."

’She’s definitely the one I chose. She’s sharp.’

"The first floor and the basement the elevator took us to aren’t our normal world, and they aren’t a Nest... In that ’space,’ there’s a third will and many Observers."

Han Liuyue glanced at Chaisi. She seemed a little confused that he hadn’t stepped out of the elevator yet, but she continued anyway. "I was just thinking, if the first floor is an Alternate Space, does that mean every other floor is our normal world? The elevator announcement never guaranteed that, right?"

"Exactly," Chaisi said with a snap of his fingers, still not moving from his spot.

The strangest part of the rules and information was that "the dry floors are a safe refuge."

The "danger" they needed refuge from was clearly the "dampness," or in other words, the downpour in Blackmoor City.

Just from that one message, it sounded like they’d be safe as long as they chose a dry floor. Of course, that might not have been a lie. They could very well survive, safe and sound, on a dry floor.

"But no matter how you look at it, that makes no sense," Han Liuyue said, spreading her hands. "My room is on the fifth floor, and on the fifth floor, I met a group of people seeking shelter in the hospital. They were all soaked to the bone, and there was even a strange person scuttling sideways like a crab among them... They ran in from outside, went all the way up to the fifth floor, and then headed for the roof. That means they passed through every floor. And they were just a small fraction of all the people taking shelter."

She paused and glanced at Chaisi before adding emphatically, "Blackmoor City has had continuous downpours and massive flooding. Tonight, the entire hospital is filled with soaked people seeking shelter... In the hospital—*our* hospital—how could there possibly be any dry floors?"

"Right. The message only said, ’The dry floors are safe.’"

Chaisi smiled, tilting his head back to look around the elevator. "But it never said we could get home from a dry floor."

Blackmoor City, their "home"—the real Blackmoor City that belonged to them—had long since been washed away by floods teeming with the aura of a Nest. How could it be considered safe?

If they chose the dry shore, how could they ever return to a home drowning in torrential waves?

An Illusion Hunter never seeks comfort and dryness.

Besides, there was another message that told them loud and clear: *Please discard what is unnecessary.*

For them, "seeking refuge on a dry floor" was unnecessary information.

The only place they wanted to return to was Blackmoor City—a city under a torrential downpour, already showing strange signs, slowly becoming twisted and distorted.

Han Liuyue instinctively lifted her wrist, only to remember she’d been hospitalized and wasn’t wearing a watch. "Brother Chaisi, how much time do we have left? What if the elevator starts descending? Are you worried that..."

It was obvious what she was about to say.

The dry floors were ruled out, but that still left three wet floors: the sixth, fifth, and third.

If the "incorrect floors" led to another "space," then which of the three wet floors led to the real Blackmoor City?

"Did I guess wrong?" Han Liuyue asked, suddenly on high alert. If she were a rabbit, she’d have shot up onto her hind legs.

"No, I agree with you. I also think the sixth floor is the right answer." Chaisi paused to think, then tentatively took a step out of the elevator—but he didn’t exit completely.

He stood in the doorway, his back pressed against the space where the elevator doors should have been, and waited attentively for a few seconds.

The elevator remained silent; no announcement played.

"The situation has changed significantly. We don’t have to worry about the elevator descending anymore. We have enough time to talk." He wasn’t speaking to her, however, but to the elevator itself. "The sixth floor is the Blackmoor City we came from, but what are the other floors? What is this elevator? And what are the Observers?"

Even knowing that "the sixth floor" was Blackmoor City, Chaisi was still plagued by endless, intense questions that reason and logic couldn’t answer. Even if Blackmoor City was undergoing some bizarre transformation, it was still part of the human world. Things like this "elevator" and the "Observers" had no place in it.

It would be more understandable if the city was simply bordering a Nest, but this elevator didn’t seem to have any connection to Nests at all.

’Then what exactly are we experiencing?’

Han Liuyue took a sharp breath, a flicker of understanding in her eyes. "Brother Chaisi, you’re not planning to hold the elevator here until it gives you answers, are you?"

Chaisi slowly lifted his gaze and gave the interior of the elevator a faint smile.

"If you’ve got the guts, go ahead and slice me in half and take this part of me with you," he said, crossing his arms. "If not, then give me some answers."

The elevator remained silent.

Han Liuyue glanced over her shoulder. In the waiting area not far away, they seemed to have attracted some attention. A few people had looked up and were now staring in their direction.

Even though they were damp and their clothes weren’t fully dry, none of them had faces covered in "beads of sweat." They were just pale from being soaked.

"Want me to get the ball rolling?" Chaisi said with a smile, gesturing outside the elevator with a wave of his hand. "The third floor is a cafeteria where you can restore your stamina, and you need enough stamina to keep riding the elevator. The people on the fifth floor were all like Han Liuyue was before, their heads covered in ’beads of sweat’."

"Was?" Han Liuyue froze, reaching up to touch her forehead.

Indoors, a person’s normal state is to be dry. It’s hard to notice anything unusual about being dry, especially when you’re distracted and deep in thought.

"The ’stamina’ on the third floor and the ’beads of sweat’ on the fifth are rules and information that shouldn’t exist in the real Blackmoor City, just like the ’dryness’ on the second and fourth floors."

Chaisi finished, then shot a glance at Han Liuyue. "After you were nearly deleted and then brought back, the sweat on your forehead vanished."

"Why?"

"I don’t know," Chaisi answered. "But my guess is that the elevator brought back just ’Han Liuyue,’ not ’a Han Liuyue soaked in vapor and covered in sweat.’"

"...Huh?"

Han Liuyue’s mouth hung open. After thinking for a moment, she said, "So... does that mean it could have brought back a ’super-strong, fully-fed’ Han Liuyue?"

’What, is she disappointed I didn’t take the opportunity to make that demand?’

"Please exit the elevator."

After what felt like ten-odd minutes, the elevator’s flat, mechanical voice finally spoke again. "Please do not occupy the elevator or obstruct its operation."

"What the hell are you?" Chaisi ignored the announcement and repeated his questions. "What are the Observers? The other floors? Why are you targeting us? What’s happened to Blackmoor City?"

These few questions were just loose threads. To pull on them would be to unravel a tangled, dense ball of confusion.

"You have so many questions. Good. Good," the elevator announcement suddenly became choppy. "So many questions... so many ques... so many ques... ques... ques... ques... Fine..."

Like a dying battery, the announcement faded until it was completely inaudible.

Chaisi had just roared, "Get back here!" when a BEEP BEEP sounded from inside the elevator. The doors, which had been absent until now, suddenly materialized against his back and began to forcibly slide shut.

"Brother Chaisi," Han Liuyue cried out, grabbing his wrist. "Get out!"

There was no point in resisting any further; even the elevator’s announcement had already gone offline.

In the end, after a harrowing ordeal and half an hour of torment for nothing, Chaisi and Han Liuyue were left with nothing but countless questions.

When they turned around, they were still facing a frantic, unsettled hospital floor slick with puddles. Outside the pitch-black windows, the torrential rain was endless, its roar washing over the world.

「They were home.」

"Brother Chaisi, what now...?"

Chaisi took a deep breath and pulled out his phone.

"Uncle Kai returned to his apartment in Blackmoor City this morning. He should be trapped by the storm, too," he said in a low voice. "I’ll contact him now. Once we pick him up, we’re leaving Blackmoor City immediately."