Chapter 163: Awakening
As Derrick swung his "Hurricane Axe," the young boy Jack lunged forward, moving so quickly he left afterimages. Fortunately, Jack didn't have the misfortune of leaping directly into the axe's path. With an impossibly fluid motion, the pale-haired figure adjusted his trajectory mid-air, using the force of the "Hurricane Axe" to propel himself even further and more forcefully.
This gave Joshua time to react. He leapt backwards abruptly, causing Jack's fierce attack to miss its mark. Jack rolled on the ground once before scrambling back up, intending to try the same move again, but it was too late.
Behind him, Derrick swung the "Hurricane Axe" once more. But before that, the "Monster Hunter" Colin had already dropped to one knee and plunged his silver-coated sword into the ground.
The entire altar area instantly brightened, as if bathed in the purest dawn light. Derrick looked towards the source of the light as Colin pulled his sword from the ground. Colin's figure split eerily, creating overlapping afterimages around the altar.
Each of these images simultaneously raised their swords, merging with the surrounding dawn light to emit a brilliant radiance. Sword after sword, carrying the dazzling light of dawn, surrounded the young Jack.
In the blinding light, the black and red silhouette rapidly evaporated, annihilated by the storm-like attack, leaving only the brightly illuminated hall. Derrick closed his eyes against the intense glare.
Derrick shook his head to clear his mind and opened his eyes to find a quietly burning fire before him. He heard the calm voice of the "Monster Hunter" Colin: "We leave after 50 lightning flashes."
...
In the underground area of the temple, Derrick was running and fleeing like everyone else. The hall shook violently, with debris of various sizes falling intermittently.
Suddenly, he stopped in disappointment. A massive stone slab had fallen, completely blocking their exit from the underground.
Unsure if he could escape, Derrick hesitated for a moment. Then, he was yanked away by a tremendous force—someone had pulled him out from under a falling stone slab just in time.
"Stay focused," Colin's voice sounded in his ear.
...
Evelyn and Alice sat side by side in the living room. They looked at each other's hands, faces, and clothes, finally bursting into laughter.
As they laughed, their bodies shook, causing flour to float off them.
"So, is this why you told me making 'jiaozi' only had three steps?" Evelyn asked while shaking flour off herself.
"Obviously," Alice shrugged, mimicking Evelyn's movements to dust herself off. "I guess your mom won't want to see us in the kitchen today."
"I think you're right," Evelyn nodded in agreement.
They glanced at each other and burst into laughter again, flour floating off them onto the sofa and floor.
After their laughter subsided, Evelyn looked down, examining the sofa and floor for a moment before turning to Alice and saying:
"I guess Mom won't want to see us in the living room either in a bit."
...
Derrick Berg leaned against a stone pillar, sleeping to recover his strength.
Just then, he dreamed of endless gray-white mist, an ancient chair at the highest central point, and an indifferent figure sitting on the chair, overlooking everything.
"Mr. Fool..." Derrick called out this name in his heart through a chant.
Immediately after, he heard the Fool's voice: "Prepare for the gathering."
Yes, Mr. Fool. Derrick silently responded, beginning to count his heartbeats.
His eyes remained closed, as if everything that had just happened was merely an interlude in a dream.
There was still plenty of time before departure, enough to attend the gathering... he thought with relief.
He had originally thought that joining the exploration team would cause him to miss this gathering.
After 1000 heartbeats, Derrick waited a little longer before feeling himself enter that silent and peaceful temple.
He had just opened his eyes when suddenly, scenes flashed through his mind. Those images repeated over and over, a total of five times.
He finally remembered that he had completed the exploration of the temple, and had done so five times, each time starting from resting at the camp and ending when the "Monster Hunter" Colin killed the young boy Jack.
Derrick suddenly felt a chill run down his spine.
Audrey, sitting opposite him, was about to greet the others as usual when she noticed something was off about Derrick's mood.
She immediately asked, "Mr. 'Sun', what happened? Did the exploration of the real, uh, Fallen Creator's temple not go well?"
This question drew Alice's attention back from pondering how to properly wrap dumplings.
Alice looked at Derrick, then at Mr. Fool in the gray fog, and finally thought of a solution.
Hmm, Klein should know how to make dumplings...
Alice decided to ask him later.
Hearing "Justice" Audrey's question, "Sun" Derrick, as if grasping onto hope, briefly described his experience and concluded by saying:
"If Mr. Fool hadn't reminded me, I wouldn't have even known that I've been living the same life over and over again this whole time."
No, I suspect your Mr. Fool just found out about this too... Alice glanced at the silent Mr. Fool and silently quipped.
The silent Mr. Fool seemed to give Derrick confidence. He calmed down and looked at the others, asking, "Do you know the root of the problem? How can it be solved?"
The enthusiastic Miss "Justice" felt helpless.
"Magician" Fors thought seriously for a moment before concluding: This kind of plot would be suitable for a novel.
"The World" maintained silence along with Mr. Fool, while Alice furrowed her brow, feeling an inexplicable sense of familiarity.
Loop... repeated life...
She pursed her lips slightly in frustration, unconsciously tapping the table twice with one hand, drawing Alger's attention: "Miss 'Fate', does this ring a bell?"
"...Can't remember," Alice said, glancing at Alger.
Alger looked at Alice before carefully saying to the little Sun:
"I can only think of two possibilities.
"One is that you encountered a nightmare or illusion ability beyond the demigod level. After regaining your memories with Mr. Fool's help, you should immediately notice something wrong upon returning to the real world. This way, the problem would be easy to solve.
"The second is that at some point, you were forced or voluntarily entered a peculiar space or state where time maintains a certain degree of flow, but is fixed within a certain range, repeating over and over..."
"Say that again," Alice suddenly interrupted Alger.