Chapter 42: Future

In the nano-world within the Pot, the passenger sitting on the Bus was less than one percent the size of a normal human. At that scale, it was difficult to make out his face.

But going by the clothes and facial contours, Gao Tian felt a strong sense of familiarity—he wasn't so blind he couldn't recognize himself.

He couldn't be wrong. The passenger sitting behind the mummified corpse on the projected Bus inside the Pot was Gao Tian himself.

What was going on? How did a projection of Gao Tian end up inside the Pot? What was this Pot trying to convey?

The mummified corpse in the seat ahead wore sunglasses and a tattered black leather jacket. It was dressed in modern clothing. He had no idea why it had died on this Bus.

Judging by the corpse's level of decay, neither the driver nor the surrounding passengers paid any attention to it. They treated it as if it didn't exist at all.

The male corpse still gripped a Rusted Longblade in its hands. The blade had long lost its cold gleam, left with nothing but bumpy, uneven rust. Because the body had been decaying for so long, its wrist had melted into thick pus, fusing with a section of the hilt.

One thing was certain: the Pot was definitely not replaying a fragment of the past. Gao Tian was entirely sure he had never sat behind a corpse.

In fact, whenever Gao Tian went out, he mostly took the subway. He hadn't taken a bus in years. Not to mention, if he saw a corpse on a vehicle, he certainly wouldn't voluntarily sit right behind it.

If something that terrifying had actually happened, there was no way he wouldn't remember it.

If this hadn't happened in the past, there was only one possibility...

Was this something that would happen in the future?

Was the Pot displaying a prophecy through this projection?

It was just a guess. Gao Tian wasn't entirely sure. He could only continue watching to see what other tricks this mirage inside the Pot could pull off.

If he were outside, he really wouldn't dare risk watching any further. Who knew if this was some sort of curse from the Pot? For example, if the Gao Tian inside the Pot died, would the Gao Tian in reality suffer the same fate?

But he was currently inside the Living Apartment. Although it wasn't guaranteed to be one hundred percent safe, the safety factor was definitely much higher than outside.

As Gao Tian watched, the Bus in the Pot continued to drive along the dark road toward a boundless distance. In the unlit areas beyond the headlights, strange silhouettes—some large, some small—flashed by from time to time. He had no idea what they were. The Bus never stopped, leaving them far behind.

Inside the Bus, the four passengers, including Gao Tian, sat motionless in their seats, their muscles pulled taut. They looked... extremely tense, as if they were anticipating something, or perhaps fearing something.

Amid this unbearable silence, Gao Tian suddenly moved—the miniature Gao Tian sitting on the Bus. He abruptly drew a sharp weapon from inside his coat. It was the Ghost Transformation Spear. Aiming at the decaying corpse in front of him, he thrust the spear squarely into the back of its head.

The spear tip pierced several inches into the corpse. Even so, the other Gao Tian didn't seem satisfied. He stabbed the male corpse once each in the left shoulder, right shoulder, and back. Then, he withdrew the Ghost Transformation Spear, pressed his palms together, and bowed to the body that was now riddled with four holes.

After completing this baffling routine, the other Gao Tian slowly stood up from his seat and did something even more outrageous.

He reached toward the seat in front, extending his arm over the corpse's shoulder to grab the Rusted Longblade. It looked like he was trying to forcefully pry it from the corpse's hands.

The other Gao Tian strained against it a few times. He was visibly sweating, fighting for the blade as if snatching food from the jaws of a tiger.

After the fifth attempt, the Rusted Longblade still wouldn't budge. Just when the Gao Tian outside the Pot thought his counterpart would have to give up, on the sixth heave, the rotting corpse actually loosened its grip, allowing the passenger behind it to pull the blade from its hands.

Like its original owner, the blade was completely rusted.

After securing the Rusted Longblade, the other Gao Tian immediately sat back down. He wiped away his cold sweat, looking extremely pleased. He fondled the blade, treating it as if he had just acquired a precious treasure.

From outside the Pot, Gao Tian simply couldn't see what was so great about a rusty blade snatched from a corpse.

Just then, the Gao Tian on the Bus rested the longblade across his knees and, without warning, glanced upward—toward the roof of the Bus, looking out of the Pot.

He cast a profoundly meaningful look.

The Gao Tian inside the Pot and the Gao Tian outside made brief eye contact.

Gao Tian shivered. Could the Gao Tian inside the Pot sense that he was being watched?

All this time, he had been watching everything unfold inside the Pot with the mindset of someone watching a documentary. But Gao Tian had never considered the possibility that the "Gao Tian" inside was also a living, breathing person with his own consciousness, thoughts, and independence.

What exactly was going on?

Was this "Gao Tian" inside the Pot the real him from some future timeline, or a mere replica created by the Pot?

Fortunately, the Gao Tian inside the Pot didn't linger on it. He glanced outside, seemingly saw nothing, and withdrew his gaze. It was obvious that the vast majority of his attention was now focused on the rusted longblade he had narrowly snatched from the corpse.

The more Gao Tian watched, the more the mysteries piled up, completely devoid of explanation.

The Bus occasionally stopped at certain stations to let passengers on and off. Whenever this happened, the darkness within the Pot's world would swarm forward like endless maggots, making it impossible to see what was boarding the Bus.

Gradually, the initially translucent shell of the Bus solidified, preventing him from seeing inside the cabin anymore. There was no way to confirm if the "Gao Tian" who secured the longblade was even still alive.

The story within the Pot ended in an abrupt, disjointed manner.

The Bus came to a halt at a stop. Although most of the scenery off the road was shrouded in that nameless black fog, a corner of a school building could still be seen poking through. The signboard at the school gates read "Pagoda Primary School" in four golden characters.

As the doors opened, a bloodstained "Gao Tian" limped off the Bus, his hand still clamped tightly around the rusted blade he had wrested from the corpse.

There was no telling what had happened on the vehicle during the ride.

Behind him, a female passenger followed him off. Her clothes were tidy, and she didn't seem to have suffered any major injuries.

Was this female passenger... Su Jiu?

Gao Tian's attention had initially been entirely focused on the "Gao Tian" on the Bus, so he hadn't noticed the other tiny figures. Right now, only two people had gotten off at the stop. With a quick glance, he felt her clothing and hairstyle looked a bit like Su Jiu's.

Su Jiu was the new girl from the second Green Text Mission. She didn't have much of a presence, but she was quite obedient. Whatever seniors like Jiang Yang and Xia Ta told her to do, she did.

The miniature figures in the Pot weren't very clear, so Gao Tian could only make a rough guess from her silhouette and clothing that the person getting off was Su Jiu. He couldn't be a hundred percent certain.

Just as he leaned closer to the mouth of the Pot, wanting a better look, all the projected illusions within vanished into thin air. The Pot reverted to the previous scene of the cave dwelling and the skeleton.

The Pot's prophecy had dissipated.

Gao Tian slowly stood up, his thoughts returning to the room he was currently in.

Now, he was about seventy percent sure that the scene inside the Pot was a fragment extracted from the future.

There was no way he would willingly get on a Bus carrying a corpse, let alone with Su Jiu present. There was only one scenario where these two things would happen at the same time: they were executing a Green Text Mission.

If they were on a Green Text Mission, then everything the other Gao Tian did on that Bus would make perfect sense.

If this Pot's ability truly was "prophesying the future," that would explain why Xu Yuan valued it so highly even after his ghost transformation.

How to tap into the Pot's abilities, how to make it prophesy, how to more accurately prophesy a desired future, and how to interpret the scenes in those prophecies... If his understanding of this Pot deepened further, he might actually be able to rely on its power to successfully survive ten Apartment missions.

Deep down, Gao Tian faintly sensed that the Pot's true capabilities went even beyond that.

Master Yunshan had sought immortality and clearly failed in the end. Otherwise, he wouldn't have died, his cultivation fading into nothing, only to be turned into a figurine placed here. In later generations, supernatural phenomena hadn't been suppressed; instead, they had grown increasingly intense.

Just as he was immersed in his studies, his mobile phone vibrated again. Two messages arrived at the same time.

Opening his phone to check, he saw one was from Xia Ta, and the other was from the Galan Society Chat Group.

Gao Tian hesitated for a moment before first clicking on the Galan Society's message tab. Only after confirming that someone had sent another Black Envelope and that there wasn't anything particularly important did he switch over to Xia Ta's chat box.

[Rabbit King]:

Classmate Gao Tian, are you in your room right now?

[Gao Tian]:

I'm on the Third Floor.

[Rabbit King]:

Please come downstairs. Your third Green Text Mission has appeared.

Even though the interval between these two Green Text Missions is a bit short, completing the third one earlier means you can come back sooner to join our Upstairs Team.

[Gao Tian]:

Wait a moment. I'll change my shoes and come right down.

...

Gao Tian's heart skipped a beat. This mission had come at just the right time.

He would soon find out whether the scenes in the Pot were truly prophecies of the future.

...

Once he completed this mission, he could join the Upstairs Team. But what if he failed?

Xia Ta didn't say, and Gao Tian didn't ask.

Inside this Apartment, everyone was desperately struggling to survive. If a mere third mission claimed Gao Tian's life, it would prove that Xia Ta had misjudged him—that he lacked the ability to investigate the fourth floor with the other administrators, and that bringing him along would just make him a burden.

Completing at least three missions was also Zhao Zhenjia and the others' test of his abilities.