“Wuwuwu… I’m sorry… I am guilty. This is…”
Qu Le stood off to the side, completely at a loss.
“Ah… tsk, I don’t even know what happened… Ever since we finished that task that day, after she downed ten cups of milk tea, she suddenly hugged me, started bawling her eyes out, mumbling about how she shouldn’t be so greedy, shouldn’t spend my money…”
“That crying—honestly, it was enough to shake the heavens and make ghosts weep… And it just kept going like this.”
Lu Xiu tried to force a smile, but seeing me clinging to his leg, rubbing tears and snot all over him, that smile looked especially strained.
“Wuwuwu… I shouldn’t have made you worry, please punish me, wuwu…”
I cried out loud, and pulled a sticky thorn whip out of the gaping mouth on my abdomen.
“…Let go! I don’t have any weird fetishes like that!” Lu Xiu tugged, but still couldn’t pry me off as if I’d grown roots into his leg.
“People on the street probably thought I was abusing a child or something the whole way here…”
He gritted his teeth, veins bulging on his forehead.
“The task… That Devil Task that was classified as a pseudo-disaster level?” Qu Le interjected.
“Yeah. I’m starting to wonder if she’s been knocked silly or affected by something, so I came to find you, hoping you could help me figure out what to do.”
“Hmm…” Qu Le stroked his chin. “I could help you get approval for a White Tower diagnosis, but lately they probably don’t have anyone to spare.”
“What’s going on?” Lu Xiu ignored my wailing.
Qu Le said, “Yanluo City has fallen.”
“Fallen? Wasn’t everything fine just a few days ago?”
“That’s the strangest part. It’s like overnight, the whole city suddenly lost all contact with the outside world. Every investigator sent in—none came back.”
“The higher-ups are at their wits’ end, pulling White Tower staff from all over to study what happened. Right now, Bian Du’s White Tower only has a few gatekeepers left.”
“This is just… as unlucky as always…” Lu Xiu sighed, lifting me up off the ground.
“Wuwuwu… I shouldn’t even breathe, wasting air, burdening others… I shouldn’t speak, I’m bothering you…”
“Then shut up…”
Lu Xiu’s head throbbed, but there was nothing he could do.
“Or… is it possible that Sui devoured the Hanged Man demon and that’s causing this?”
Qu Le eyed the thorn-like red markings on my cheek, a sudden thought crossing his mind.
“Devoured and caused this?” Lu Xiu pondered for a moment. “But that’s never happened before.”
“Maybe the level was too low, so it couldn’t affect Sui before?”
“Wuwu… Kuyan Fire Village, I shouldn’t have drunk you, you must hurt so much…”
Lu Xiu let out a long sigh. “So is there any way to ease this?”
“Fight poison with poison,” Qu Le stood up and tossed a card to Lu Xiu. “Here’s the Black Box Pass for Bian Du’s branch. You can select three containment objects, but only level two or below. Try feeding them to her, see if you can neutralize it.”
Lu Xiu pinched the thin card between two fingers, brushing it up and down, eyeing the uniquely textured black card. In the end, he could only nod. “Guess we’ll treat the dead horse as if it’s alive. Anything’s better than people thinking I’m some kind of pervert right now.”
“Aren’t you, though?”
Get lost.
Lu Xiu kicked Qu Le.
After leaving the Response Division, I sat in the car, sipping Kuyan Fire Village.
“Wuwuwu… I’m sorry… but you really are so tasty… I’m sorry… but I can’t help it…”
*glug glug*
“What are you babbling about?”
Lu Xiu sat beside me, slouched against the seat.
“I’m atoning for my sins…”
“Your biggest crime is bothering my ears.”
“Alright, alright, enough crying… I forgive you already…”
“You’re so kind, but I disturbed such a kind person like you, wuwuwu… I am guilty…”
“Oh my god…” Lu Xiu gave up completely, shutting his eyes in despair.
To shut me up, he had no choice but to buy a heap of food to stuff my mouth.
“Wuwu… apples… sorry…”
“Wuwu… cake… so delicious… sorry…”
“Mm-mm…”
Trailing after him, a small cake in my left hand, an apple pie in my right.
Still chewing on Kuyan Fire Village’s black pearls.
So happy… so sad…
Two entirely opposite emotions rippled through me.
This sadness came out of nowhere, overwhelming and fierce.
It was as if all the world’s sorrow was gathering into a river inside my heart.
I swear I’ll never eat recklessly again.
I took a big bite of the apple pie.
The Black Box was different from the White Tower. It sat a hundred meters beneath the Response Division, a humanoid, sealed containment chamber crafted from special materials.
Reaching the Black Box meant passing through layer after layer of verification—far more complicated than the White Tower.
There were at least ten checkpoints just to get through.
Maybe it was the cold, silent atmosphere, but even my crying gradually quieted down.
I watched as the staff, faces hidden behind metal masks, stood silently on either side of the corridor.
Simply existing.
Like walls, floor, and ceiling, as if they were fused with the very building itself.
“These are the staff of the Black Box. We call them Tomb Keepers.”
Tomb Keepers…
Now that I think about it, the whole Black Box did feel like a giant coffin.
Inside, sealed away, were the omens that the world was supposed to forget.
I probably should stay in there too, to pay for my sins.
Sniffling, I almost started to cry again.
With the last alloy gate spinning open, a jet-black cubic structure appeared before us, built inside an empty cavern, its top touching the dome above, every inch carved with strange runes. Even a glance made the heart uneasy.
A glass corridor linked us to the black structure.
There seemed to be words engraved above:
“The Ignorance is Bliss.”
Just one line, repeated endlessly, as if warning, or perhaps mocking.
We stopped before the black cube’s door.
“Identity verification in progress—verification successful. World Dyke under Dark Currents. Welcome, Agent Lu. Please strictly adhere to Black Box regulations. Maintain silence. The Ignorance is Bliss.”
The Black Box’s electronic voice, unlike the White Tower’s, was even more stifling, like the grinding of metal on metal—extraordinarily unsettling.
As I stepped inside with Lu Xiu, a strange sensation swept over me.
All my guilt and sorrow were replaced by some absolute, icy command.
My emotions were suppressed, stripped away—only reason remained.
Even the apple’s sweetness in my mouth faded.
Lu Xiu, seemingly used to this, headed straight for the wall facing us, a pitch-black wall made of countless square blocks.
*Beep—Verification successful. The following containment objects can be retrieved…*
Standing behind Lu Xiu, I watched him operate the dark screen.
Tap tap tap.
Tap tap.
Click.
The black blocks retracted inward, revealing a hollow space.
“Serial number SS-35564, Silent Key, level three containment. Supporting documentation has been removed.”
“Serial number SS-38554, Laughing Mask, level three containment. Supporting documentation has been removed.”
“Serial number SE-26765, Simmering Stone Buddha, level two containment. Supporting documentation has been removed.”
I watched as Lu Xiu took the three pitch-black little boxes and hugged them to his chest. “Let’s go.”
“Okay.”
We headed back outside.