Chapter 276: The Timeless Ones

Inside the security room, the three of us quickly looked around for anything that would prove useful. There was a single, wide desk that had dozens of screens showing different images, and a small notebook on the desk. Diane’s first target was the notebook, quickly flipping it open and reading through it.

At the same time, Bella searched through brown boxes on shelves made of thin, lightweight metal. There were black bricks with rolls of thin plastic, but Bella couldn’t make out what they were supposed to be.

As for myself, I was focused on the screens. I was used to splitting my attention while using True Sight, so I could monitor several screens at the same time.

Outside the room, the figures standing in the dark stood still, forming a semicircle around the door. They didn’t try to open it, nor did they pound their hands against it or the wall. They simply stood there, waiting.

On the other screens, I could see people walking down well-lit corridors. They carried clipboards against their chests, and wore white jackets like doctors. Some even had small white hats atop their heads.

However, this confused me even more. If they were like those people outside the room, the lights above their heads should have failed as soon as they stepped under them. If they were in the dark, they should not have been able to move without first absorbing light.

Furthermore, one of the rules at the entrance specifically said that this facility had been abandoned, and that we must not speak with or touch any unfamiliar people. I was just about to ask the others if they had found anything when the building shook. Thunder roared in the distance, and light flashed in the camera showing the ‘people’ outside the room.

As the light faded, the cameras briefly flickered with static. Those screens showing the scenes further in the building went pitch black, only white outlines of eyes and mouths moving slowly down the corridor.

My eyes widened in shock when I saw this, but the scene returned to normal just moments later. “Diane, Bella, did you find anything?”

“Nothing I can make sense of,” Bella muttered, holding up one of those plastic bricks. “A bunch of these, but no descriptions of what they are.”

“I’ve got something,” Diane spoke up, eyes still locked onto the book she had picked up. “This facility was prepared as an experiment for the Sundering ritual being carried out by the New Blood faction. The Traditionalists were looking for a way to preserve their people, but something went wrong.”

“Does the notebook say what it was?” Bella asked, abandoning her boxes to walk over and looking at the notebook over Diane’s shoulder. However, doing so caused her shadow to fall over Diane, so she quickly retreated. “Ah, sorry!”

“It’s fine,” Diane grunted, continuing to read. “From what I can tell, we were right on some parts. There are mentions of some basic skills in the book, but I don’t think they had designations like ‘Player’, ‘Chosen’, or anything like that. Instead, it reads as if everyone was able to learn skills.”

“That doesn’t make sense, though,” I said, eyes narrowing. “The trial of wisdom would be meaningless if everyone had the abilities of Players and could respawn infinitely.”

“Yeah… I don’t think they had a respawn system,” Diane clarified. “There’s talk of patients dying, but no talk of them ever coming back. Also, according to this notebook, this place is stuck in a time loop, resetting every day. That’s why nothing here seems to have aged. However, anyone caught inside when the place resets is considered to have died.”

“Wait, that doesn’t make sense, either!” Bella called out, pointing at the notebook. “How can something be in here that records what happens after the time loop resets? It could only have been written after the fact, but would have then been reset at the end of the loop.”

Diane chuckled at that. “That part’s covered at the end. I just got to it. There is a special skill that they use to nullify time-related effects. According to this notebook, that’s how the rules at the front were written. In addition, there are two other books that can be found. One is in the director’s office, and the other is in Room 404.”

“That’s nice and all,” I began, looking at the security screens. “However, how are we supposed to get there? Those things are outside the door, and more of them are wandering every hall further in.”

My gaze turned towards the nearby ventilation duct, but I shook my head. “I’d normally suggest using that, but stepping outside of the light for even a second will cause you to freeze solid, and I doubt the vents are well-lit.”

“They’re called the Timeless,” Diane corrected, looking at the keyboard in front of the monitor. “Their experiment in this facility involved trying to manipulate the concept of time. If they had succeeded, they would have been able to preserve the facility in perfect condition until a designated time, at which point everyone inside would have been released.”

“However, they failed. They manipulated time, sure, but they tied its very concept with ‘light’. The Timeless are former Traditionalists that lost their minds in the process of being transformed, and now drain the time, or light, from any source. In truth, the lights in the hall are still on, but the Timeless are absorbing the light from them before it even has a chance to shine.”

“The lightning is the same way. According to the notebook, this storm lasts all night. The more the lightning strikes, the more the Timeless absorb the ‘light of the heavens’. Once they’ve absorbed enough, that triggers the reset.”

“If we want to pass through the halls, we need to manipulate the light fixtures. Most of those controls can be found here, we just need to learn how to use them. After that, one of us needs to stay behind and keep the Timeless away from us while the others head to the director’s office and Room 404.”

“Who’s going to stay behind, then?” I asked, but both Bella and Diane were already looking straight at me.

“You’re the biggest of us,” Diane pointed out. “Normally, that makes you ideal as a tank, or even give you an advantage in your stride. However, in this dungeon, size is a disadvantage. One wrong move, and you inadvertently freeze an ally. If one of us has to stay behind to control the cameras, it should naturally be you.”

Bella simply chuckled. “I was just thinking that you’re used to watching the sentry screens, so you’d be the best choice for watching over us like this.”

I let out a long sigh of agreement. “Alright, but you two can’t go anywhere until I figure out how to control the lights,” I said, sitting down at the desk. “Does your book say anything about that?”

Diane shook her head. “No, there’s nothing about the method of controlling the lights, but it shouldn’t be too difficult. This is clearly meant to be a core part of the dungeon. They wouldn’t make it too challenging for Players to figure out.”

After she said that, she leaned over my arm and began to type. Naturally, this caused her to cast a shadow over my arm and leg, leaving them completely frozen in place. Still, I watched her type at the keyboard, and the central screen shifted to show a map of the facility. “Let’s see… it looks like you can control lightning through this menu. However, you’ll need to keep an eye on the other screens to know when to adjust the lights to lead the Timeless away.”

“Right… what about those?” I asked, pointing with my free hand at the screens where the doctors and nurses seemed to be walking around normally.

Diane pursed her lips at this. “It’s likely that these cameras, or maybe the screens themselves, were affected differently. Let me try a few things.”

She typed at the keyboard again, shutting off the lights in one of the areas shown on the screens. However, the lights didn’t go off, and it still showed everyone walking through the corridor normally. “This must be a looping feed,” Diane concluded. “When we get to these areas, we’ll have to stay in contact with you through private messaging. It’d be best if we had some kind of radio to talk, since typing is too slow in situations like this.”

“A radio? Like the thing in our car?” I asked, but Diane shook her head.

“Radios are also handheld devices used to talk with people over short distances. A security office like this should have had some.”

“Oh!” Bella blinked, running over towards one of the boxes. “Is it this thing? I couldn’t make heads or tails of it when I saw it earlier.” She held up a small device with a rod sticking out of the top of it and a pair of buttons at the side. “There were five of them in the box. That should be enough, right?”

Diane’s eyes practically sparkled, running over to grab the radios. “This is perfect. Bella, you and I will each take one, and Drake will take another. Drake, start practicing on how to control the lights while we go over communication rules.”

“Communication rules?” Bella asked skeptically while I worked on learning how to manipulate the controls on the keyboard. “Is there more to know than how to turn it on and use it?”

Diane gave a firm nod. “That’s right. Remember rule three? Do not respond to any unfamiliar voices. The book in this room didn’t mention any effects that could be caused by sound, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t any. It might simply be in one of the books in the other rooms.”

“Regardless, there is a chance that some of the Timeless in this facility have their own radios. If, at any point, any of us hears a voice from the radio that is not ours, we must not respond under any circumstances. No matter what they say, we have to pretend as if we can’t hear them. Whatever mechanism is linked with this rule should be tied with ‘acknowledgement’. If it was just as simple as them hearing us talk, the rule would have been to maintain silence.”

After she said that, she turned to look at me where I was sitting down. “How’s it coming with the lighting? Managed to get it figured out?”

“I think so,” I answered, watching the screens as I controlled the lights. When I turned the lights off directly outside of the security office, the glowing eyes and mouths abruptly went dark. Then, when I turned them back on, the light came to life, only to gradually dim as the Timeless’s features began to glow again.

“Try to corral them into the cafeteria,” Diane suggested. “Turn the lights off from the end of the corridor one by one, and they’ll know that the lights above them will be next. The cafeteria’s door didn’t have a lock on it, so it should open with a small push. Even the Timeless would be able to handle that if they were in a panic.”

“Once they’re inside, you can turn the lights in the cafeteria off to trap them there. But, whatever you do, you can’t turn the lights off in this office. If you do, you’ll instantly freeze yourself and be unable to turn them back on. It’ll be a guaranteed death sentence, and you’ll have to wait until morning to respawn.”

I let out a small grunt of acknowledgement at that, already working to guide the Timeless towards the cafeteria. “Yeah, that doesn’t sound pleasant in the slightest.”