"Mom," under the cover of darkness, a figure with long hair was constantly moving ahead, no matter how much I ran, I could never catch up.

"Mom, don't leave me behind, Mom!!"

"......"

Mom was clearly standing not far ahead, but trying to reach her felt so difficult.

I was truly scared, not for myself, but because the existence I shared with Mom was slowly being erased by time.

"Xi, do you like the shop Mom often takes you to?"

A small hand tightly holding a larger one, looking up, that familiar voice bringing warmth to me in waves.

Still unable to see her face clearly, but I wasn't ready to give up.

So, with a forced smile, I said, "Yes, Mom, I want to go back."

The next morning, when I opened my eyes, the old butler was standing straight by my bed.

"Young master, it's time to freshen up."

"Hmm, freshen up... really?!"

Excitedly, I jumped out of bed, scanning the corners of the room, well, I finally had a chance to escape from here!

"Don't get ahead of yourself. The bathroom is here."

The butler, with a plain expression, rubbed his eyes and gestured.

At the same time, a mini room of a few square feet appeared out of nowhere on the right side of my bed, rising slowly from the ground.

"Here you go, your bathroom."

The tension that had just started building up vanished instantly. What a waste of my life!

"Well, your service is quite thoughtful."

"Don't mention it, there's nothing the Elena Group can't do or doesn't know."

"Is that so?"

I replied with a hint of sarcasm in my voice. Maybe it was just the rambling of an old man, but being toyed around like this by him was embarrassing!

"Can your all-knowing and all-seeing great empire Elena," my expression suddenly tensed, "guess the secrets in my mind?"

"Of course we c..."

"Don't joke!" I immediately refuted his conclusion.

When it came to emotions, I was always easily impulsive, so no matter how many memories there were, they didn't matter. Can't there be a feeling of not daring to believe?

I was convinced that my words had left him speechless, as even I didn't know where they came from.

"Grandpa, I don't belong to this world at all, even so... do you have any way to know?"

"Young man, although I don't know what has happened to you, any question will eventually have an answer."

All of my life was destroyed by this so-called "reality!"

I vigorously pulled at my hair, which hadn't been washed for a long time and was still messy, burying my head in the blanket, really wishing to cry my heart out.

I really wanted to go back in time, that way... that way... I would never give up that precious chance!

"Really, if I had known that one day I would disappear, I would have cherished that time!"

"Young man, you...?" The butler may not understand my emotions at the moment.

Perhaps he still thought I was up to some tricks again.

"Enough, I am tired of being manipulated by others, I want to live for myself!"

I was in a complex mix of emotions, my head gradually starting to heat up, one hand trembling behind me, fumbling in an attempt to find a weapon that could make me take a leap of faith!

But at the same time, in my heart, I was thinking that Yukari felt just like a person in a dream to me.

Her slender arms seemed to caress my head, telling me, "From the memories left by Yukari since childhood, only the photo I kept close to me tells me that our past was not a dream, but a reality!"

"Yes, now I am just a ghost, a lost and worthless soul." This might be my only way to escape, so... please!!

"Come closer... closer!" (whispering)

Originally, there was nothing, but they didn't search my clothes. With a touch in the pocket, the pocket watch was still snug in the pocket close to my chest.

I cautiously held it in my hand, peering around through the gap between my fingers.

It seemed like I was the only one living in this huge cell, but it was not as crude and damp as one might imagine a cell to be. Instead, it looked more like a set-up of a chemical laboratory.

"Hey, I think you shouldn't be so sad. Think about your family and everything you have that could make things a little better."

The butler who was monitoring me didn't seem convinced, but a bit of sympathy in him seemed to relax his guard slightly.

"Thank you for your concern, but right now..." My voice suddenly stopped abruptly.

Taking a deep breath, I swiftly drew the pocket watch from beneath me and thrust its sharp end towards his lower body.

If everything went as planned, I thought I could easily take care of him.

However, at that moment, the room began to sway from side to side, causing me to fall heavily from the unprotected bed.

"Anomalies detected in Zone D5. All personnel in Zone D5, evacuate quickly!"

"What?!"

The butler was visibly panicked, mumbling that we were in Zone D5.

But now, I couldn't care less. As he bent down to help me up, I made a sudden thrust, catching him off guard and stabbing him in his abdomen!

"Ah...!"

Beneath my left foot, the ground in contact suddenly collapsed.

"Ah! Ah! Ah...!"

The falling speed was unbelievably fast.

"Oh, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die!"

With a loud crash, a huge underground chamber appeared before my eyes.

The impact tightened my forehead and I vaguely saw the body of a terrifying man rising up, roaring angrily at me.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

Suddenly, a sharp yet dreamlike sound echoed in my head, bloodstains flowing through my shirt, soaking it.

His expression twisted into something frightful, with black-purple spreading across his cheeks.

I gritted my teeth, trying to push away this evil aura, but it repeatedly fought back and invaded my body.

I finally couldn't overcome this presence, slowly losing consciousness while the scene in front of my eyes miraculously disappeared.

"Hey, where the heck am I?"

As the words left my mouth, my eyes, now accustomed to the darkness of the basement, spotted the figure of my junior clearly in front of me.

"Lieutenant?! What are you doing here? Unauthorized entry here results in serious punishment...!"

I felt like I didn't need to ask those lifeless questions anymore.

After my eyes had fully adjusted to the dim light of the basement, I noticed that the place was unbelievably vast, with a total of not less than a hundred rooms spread in all directions.

Right in front of us was a large iron gate, and before it, squeezed a narrow, dark corridor that could only accommodate two people side by side. However, the direction we were in was extraordinarily spacious, big enough to fit ten classrooms full of people playing.

From the damp spots, it was clear that these basements had been around for quite some time. But why wouldn't Edward tell anyone about them? Or perhaps they never wanted others to know about the existence of such a massive underground chamber?

I stood up and looked around, then took a deep breath to savor the unique smell in the air. "Wow, this is amazing! When was this...?" Just as I was about to exclaim, I immediately covered her mouth to stop her and pushed her to the ground.

Hovering over her, I placed a finger on my lips and whispered in a mosquito-like tone, "Shh, something terrible has happened here. Don't let them find us!"

"What are you doing?" She tried to get up, but I grabbed hold of something soft and squishy. "Hey, what are you touching, you fool!" With such a ambiguous incident unfolding, she blushed and was about to slap me before I caught her wrist, warning, "You need to be quiet and listen carefully!"

"Ahh, ahh, buzz..." A horrifying howl echoed through the basement, while the elevator was broken, and the emergency ladder was tightly bound in iron chains.

The sound seemed to be coming from the next room, a voice that sounded like a lunatic mixed with a roaring beast, accompanied by a tool similar to a chainsaw, getting closer and closer.

"Do you hear that? Something is getting close to us." "Something?" Of course it's something. Humans wouldn't make that... the more I thought about it, the scarier it got. If it weren't for my junior next to me, I wouldn't have had the courage to stand here.

"Uh-oh, are we discovered?" Feeling something was amiss, I heard the sound getting closer. "Discovered what?" Ignoring me with a grave expression, he stared in terror at the dark iron gate at the end of the basement corridor as the sound drew nearer... thud!

As the corridor's iron gate suddenly bulged, we couldn't help shivering, feeling a chill run down our spines. Thump! As another sound rang out, the bulge on the gate became even more pronounced.

"Quick, follow me!" I grabbed him by the hand, pulling him forcefully towards a room in the opposite direction of the gate. "Damn, why won't it open?!" Many doors were locked, no matter how hard we tried, we were just wasting our energy, and soon both of us were drenched in sweat.

Under the intense attack, the large door slowly began to crack open, and one could even see the figure on the other side—covered in bandages with muscles slightly decayed, holding an electric saw, constantly ramming the iron gate with his muscular body.

"What... what is that?" Trembling with cold sweat between his face and neck, his legs almost gave way. That guy was a person, or wait, human in form but lacks humanity!

I was getting frustrated, reminding him, "Why are you still standing there dumbstruck?" Acting quickly, I pulled open a room's door on the left, grabbed his shoulder, practically dragged him inside, and swiftly shut the automatic door.

"Hoo...!"

My heart almost leaped out of my throat just now, as the two doors flew across the alley like bullets, scattering in the center of the corridor. From inside the room, both I and my junior gulped nervously - the door had been knocked open!

"Woowoof!"

Heavy footsteps approached the end of the alley, and despite the mixed sound of chainsaw, a deep sigh could still be heard, sending shivers down my spine.

"Cough, cough!"

Unnoticed, a moldy smell started rising in the basement, causing my junior to uncontrollably cough.