Angor slowly climbed in the air. Five seconds, ten seconds, thirty seconds, one minute, two minutes… He had already lost count of how long he had been flying, and yet, he still had not reached the ceiling!
But that’s impossible!
Angor clearly remembered, when there was still light, he saw the stone ceiling above him. It was high but totally reachable.
Or was he inside a building, not the maze? Now he flew outside and could no longer reach the ceiling? Not likely, because Angor could feel the air around him remain unchanged. If he was under the sky, he should not be inside complete darkness.
Angor considered in his mind. Maybe he stumbled into some kind of confusion spells? Was he moving in circles because of some ghost’s trick?
Jon once explained a situation where people would walk within one place. There was no magic or ghost involved. When people could not feel their surroundings clearly, their instinct would make them move in circles.
Was that what happened in the total darkness?
Angor was unsure. He thought his sense of direction worked fine, but he did not have any solid references to confirm anything.
Angor did not exclude the possibility of “walking in circles out of instinct”. The gravity was weak, which allowed him to fly. However, this also meant he could be wrong about his direction. In this situation, where he thought was “down” might actually be left or right, since he could not use gravity to make sure.
According to Jon, there were four approaches to get rid of “walking in circles”: ascertain your direction with the help of a landmark, look at the stars, concentrate and observe the surroundings, or use an item that gave out light. Angor had no way to rely on the first three methods now, so he only considered the fourth option.
However, Angor was not a dedicated smoker like Nausica, thus he did not have a lighter on him.
He could still make light though.
Angor searched in his shirt and took out the pocket watch. He opened up the back cover of the watch skillfully and picked up a thin crystal.
It was the hologram tablet left by Jon. Angor read the manual before, if he remembered right, there was a “flashlight” function on the tablet.
Angor relaxed a little when he took out the tablet. The brief carelessness caused him to overlook a small detail—the pocket watch he just put back into his pocket did not feel “solid”. The object only had its “shape”, but without “weight”…
The hologram tablet was once a smartwatch which came with a wristband. The wristband was damaged, so Angor threaded a string into the holes where the wristband should have been. He quickly found the string to bind the tablet onto his wrist.
After making sure the string was in place, Angor moved onto the buttons on the tablet.
First, the power button…
Nothing happened. The tablet did not show the starting screen as it should, nor was there any hologram at all.
Angor frowned. He clearly remembered recharging the tablet not long ago. When the power was full, the tablet could run for weeks on end.
What was going on? Was it broken? It could not work in the Nightmare Realm?
Angor tried the power button again. Still nothing.
“Damn! Why now?! Come on!” Angor cursed in a small voice.
Those words caused something to happen. If it was bright, he would see the tablet on his wrist changing greatly.
Like the pocket watch, the tablet only had its “shape”, but without its “reality”. It was a mirage. However, when Angor said his curse words out, the mirage tablet gradually took on a solid rim. It quickly turned from fake to real.
However, Angor noticed none of that. He was still sulking to himself.
When he pushed the power button again in a bit of rage, a pale blue hologram suddenly appeared in front of him.
Angor was surprised by the starting screen. It did not work a second ago, why did it suddenly…? He was a little angry at his misfortune just a while ago, and now he was not sure if he should be frustrated or happy.
Never mind. The tablet started, that was what mattered. Angor did not have time to think about random things when he was staying in a place full of unknown danger. The foremost task was to reach one of the coordinates provided by Sunders, safe and sound.
With the help of the pale blue light projected by the hologram, Angor could see a little bit of the environment. He could not see anything clearly, but he was sure there were no monsters around.
Angor quickly found the “flashlight” function and pressed the hologram button. A stream of light pierced the darkness, like a morning star giving birth to another day. The dark mist covering his sight completely vanished.
This was the first time Angor ever tried out the flashlight function. He was not expecting such a strong light, so he was surprised by how much area could be illuminated.
He looked along the light stream and could not see its end.
“Amazing!” Angor brightened up. Ever since he solved Jon’s puzzles and started using the tablet, he had never made any research about the other functions of the tablet. He only knew their names, such as the “flashlight”. It sounded like something to illuminate one’s way during the night, like oil lamps, torches, and candles, so he did not try to use it.
He was shocked to find out that the flashlight lightened up his path like the sun.
Angor felt he had been underestimating the power of science. Simple words could not explain many of the functions, so he had to try them out himself.
With the flashlight, Angor more or less got ahold of his situation.
He was in the air, that was for sure. He pointed his flashlight upward and saw the stone ceiling about a dozen meters away. Maybe he really was moving in circles.
Next, he looked at the ground. When he moved the light stream down, Angor’s heart skipped a beat.
Countless flowers were growing on top of the moist dirt. The flowers looked ordinary at first, but when Angor fixed his flashlight on them to check closely…
They had ordinary petals, branches, and leaves, but their pistils looked like human mouths which opened and closed occasionally, and Angor was sure he saw lips and tongues in there.
Countless flowers, countless mouths.
At first, they were just… chilling, like normal flowers. However, when the light stream went over them, the dormant flowers suddenly changed.
Strange noises came from their mouths. There were laughter, cries, mumble, whispers… The flowers swayed left and right along with the noises, creating an extremely horrifying sight.
Again, those were unimportant.
Most strange of all, Angor realized he could understand the flowers’ speeches.