Escape the Infinite Chambers Chapter 53 - Specter

Chapter 53 - Specter

Editor: Kitty
Luo Jian decided to help his uncle find the real culprit who was secretly spying on his uncle. He put his plan into action the next day. He began to follow his uncle 24 hours a day, from his routine of eating and sleeping and from morning to night. His actions were pretty crazy, but Luo Jian’s parents had not seen their son for a long time and missed him really badly. Therefore, they allowed him to indulge in whatever he was doing and let Luo Jian freely do what he wanted to.
Although his uncle did not like the 24-hour surveillance, he did not refuse it outright. Therefore, after tailing his uncle, Luo Jian actually discovered some problems.
His uncle’s usual work involved looking after his shop. Since he was getting older, his movements were inflexible, so he hired a student who was on holiday to help him look after the shop. When the work was shared, there was not much to do. When he was free, he could read books, raise flowers and plants, and raise canaries. Overall, his life was quite leisurely.
Luo Jian spent most of the day with his uncle in his shop. He walked around for a while and did not find any strange people or objects. Luo Jian was rather trusting of his intuition. Although he had not experienced a great number of battles, people who had experienced life and death always had incredible temperaments. They possessed certain amazing innate characteristics that allowed them to see through some issues, even though they could not tell what exactly the feeling was.
Nothing happened in the morning, but in the afternoon, Luo Jian noticed some abnormalities that no one else had discovered. He found that someone was actually spying on his uncle, or to be exact, on his uncle’s shop, and that the person was rather good at hiding. Although Luo Jian felt someone eyeing him from the dark and knew he was being watched, Luo Jian could not determine the specific location of the other party or find them.
But Luo Jian was not particularly worried because he could not feel malice from the person who was eyeing them secretly.
However, it did not feel good to be constantly watched in this way. Luo Jian thought about it and decided to catch the person that was secretly monitoring them. He raised his hand as a greeting to his uncle and left his uncle’s shop alone. Then, he walked straight down along the street. At first, he still felt someone watching him, but after walking quite a distance from the shop, the feeling vanished.
Subsequently, Luo Jian hopped on a bus and took a trip around the town. After riding around, he went back near his uncle’s shop again. He found a public bench on the side of the road and sat down. He held a book—he did not remember which bookstore he bought it from—to act as if he was reading it, but he was actually observing secretly.
After sitting on the bench for about half an hour, Luo Jian silently counted and found four suspicious targets. There was a restaurant directly opposite his uncle’s shop, and there was a man sitting near the door the entire time. The man looked toward his uncle’s door from time to time, but after observing him for a while, Luo Jian found that he may just be thinking about whether to buy a pack of cigarettes from his uncle’s shop.
Of course, this was just his speculation.
The second suspect was a young woman who had been walking back and forth along the street. Luo Jian saw that she had intermittently been walking around, from here to there, several times. Of course, it was possible that she was just walking back and forth while waiting for someone.
The third one was a little boy with an umbrella. He looked to be the age of eleven or twelve, and he stood under the traffic light on the street corner and stared incessantly at his uncle’s shopfront. Generally speaking, Luo Jian’s vigilance toward the child should have been the lowest, but the child’s eyes looked a little strange. Also, the strangest thing about the child was that he was carrying an umbrella around on such a sunny day, so Luo Jian divided his attention to pay heed to him.
The fourth one was the most suspicious because Luo Jian seemed to have seen him before. His back view was very familiar. The tall man in black seemed to be about the same age as Luo Jian. He kept his head lowered and even wore a hoodie. He carried a big guitar bag and sat on a public bench by the side of the road like Luo Jian. Although he did not glance at his uncle’s shop door from time to time, he always remained seated there, motionless.
After a short moment of consideration, Luo Jian thought that it was not possible to solve the problem by dragging it out this way, so he stood up and walked toward the man with the guitar bag.
The man seemed to notice Luo Jian’s approach, but he did not give any response. He still kept his head down. The hood of his top was wide and covered half of his face. As a whole, the man appeared to be very staid. Only when Luo Jian came to stand in front of him did the man then give a little reaction—he raised his head slightly.
However, he merely raised it a little, so Luo Jian still could not see his face completely. All he could see was his thin lips and chin. His face’s outline was as sharp as a knife.
“What’s the matter?” The man took the lead in speaking. To Luo Jian’s surprise, the voice sounded familiar.
“I would like to ask you something.”
“Sure, go ahead.”
Luo Jian thought about it for a long moment and said straightforwardly: “Are you spying on the shop on the corner of the street?”
The man seemed to smile, and his mouth curved: “Why would I want to spy on that shop?”
Luo Jian was unconsciously relieved and replied: “Then, I’m sorry. I made a mistake.”
When he was done speaking, he turned to leave, but just as he took a step forward, the man behind him voiced out, just as Luo Jian had expected: “You actually believed what I said that easily?”
Luo Jian paused, took a deep breath, and turned his head to look at him. “So tell me, who are you actually?”
“Who am I?” The man shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“What do you mean? I don’t understand.,” Luo Jian frowned.
“Looking at you, you are probably one of those secret chamber players.” The man suddenly blurted out something shocking.
Luo Jian was immediately frightened by him and hesitated for a while. “How can you tell?”
“Because you can see me.”
“Ah?” Luo Jian was even more surprised by what he said and asked, “Can’t anyone else see you?”
“Of course they can’t see me because I’m the secret chamber’s specter,” the man said something that Luo Jian could not understand and that made Luo Jian puzzled. He could not help asking, “What is the secret chamber’s specter?”
“Players who have a lifetime contract with the secret chamber,” the man replied to Luo Jian, “The players who wander in the secret chambers forever and are deprived of their right to return to reality are the secret chamber’s so-called specters.
“The specters can’t ‘return to reality’…… Ah, in fact, they can return, but they will be deprived of their sense of existence, and they will become like a real specter. No one can see or hear them. Even if you interfere with others’ movements, no one will notice the abnormality.”
For the first time, Luo Jian felt that the secret chamber was filled with plenty of things that he did not know. This was the first time that he heard of the ‘secret chamber’s specter.’ Prior to this, Uncle Boss did not explain this to him. Luo Jian subconsciously wanted to know more, so he just sat beside the man and asked him, “Can you tell me more?”
“Of course. It’s not as if it’s some valuable information.”
“What happens when you sign a lifetime contract with the secret chamber?”
“A lifetime contract stipulates that the secret chamber will fulfill one wish, any wish you want, but the price is to lose the opportunity to ‘escape.’”
“The opportunity to escape?”
“Yes, to escape. To escape from the secret chamber forever, without needing to go through the suffocating narrow spaces anymore, and truly return to reality.”
Luo Jian was surprised and looked at the man incredulously: “What’s your wish? What made you willing to pay such a huge price?”
The man seemed to smile again and shook his head: “I don’t remember.”
“Don’t remember?” Luo Jian did not quite understand. He wondered: “Such an important wish, shouldn’t you remember it?”
“The lifetime contract will deprive players of their ‘reality.’ What I experienced in the real world will be gradually forgotten by me, and that is what happened when I was younger. I was very young at that time.” The man said, “What kind of wish I had…… It was probably realized a long time ago, but I have stayed in the secret chamber for too long and gradually forgotten many things. I have already lost the opportunity to escape from the secret chamber. Right now, the only thing I want to do is to live on.”
“How long have you been wandering in the secret chambers?”
“Nearly 20 years ago, I first came into contact with the secret chamber when I was about 10 years old, and this year…… I’m in my thirties.” This man’s age did not quite match his appearance. Based on his appearance, Luo Jian thought that at most, he would be a young fellow in his twenties.
However, after staying in the secret chamber for 20 years, what exactly did he go through? Luo Jian had to enter two or three secret chambers in a month, and if he had to experience it for twenty years…… This made Luo Jian exclaim, “Heavens, how many secret chambers have you experienced?”
“That’s why I said that I can’t remember it clearly.”
“Then why are you spying on my uncle’s shop?”
The man paused and turned his head marginally to look at Luo Jian, and the broad hood was slightly pulled down. This time, Luo Jian was able to see the man’s face clearly. The face appeared handsome and dignified, but just by looking at it, it felt even more familiar to him. Luo Jian gazed at him in shock for a long time, and he seemed to come up with some guesses. He could not help but feel a surge in his emotions.
The man merely turned around to look around at his uncle’s shop front and said: “Is that your uncle’s shop?…… It’s nothing, just that your uncle…… Are we familiar with each other before? I can’t recall. I think if I look at people I am more familiar with, I might remember past events, but this seemed to be useless as well.”
Luo Jian’s theory gradually took shape. He suddenly grasped the man’s wrist and interrogated him: “Do you remember your former name? The name you used in the real world!”
The man paused for a moment, gave Luo Jian a glance, and said, “I forgot.”
His speculations could not be confirmed? Luo Jian gnashed his teeth. He was unreconciled and continued questioning: “Do you remember your real world’s home address?”
“I forgot.”
“What about your friends and relatives?”
“I forgot.”
“What about what you’ve done? What about the people important to you? People that you love and like?”
“It’s useless…… I forgot it all. ”
Luo Jian suddenly reached out and pointed to his uncle’s shop front. He pointed to his uncle who was sitting inside: “Then why do you think my uncle is familiar?”
The man was silent for a while. He smiled and said: “He feels familiar, but it does not mean that I remember him.”
The man turned to look at Luo Jian again and said, “You should also forget me too. If he is your uncle, you might be related to me, but I won’t be able to remember who you are. I’m the secret chamber’s specter. Specters are the people who have died. In this world, I am already dead.”
T/N: