Seeing the wooden lid in the center of the magic circle, the most surprised person wasn't me, but Chang'an.

Before I had the chance to express any thoughts, he let out an involuntary yelp, his eyes glued to the wooden lid.

Moments later, he shouted excitedly, "It appeared... It really appeared! I knew it wasn’t just my imagination... Acheng, you saw it too, didn’t you? You saw it, right?"

"I saw it," I replied simply.

"...You don’t seem very excited?" he asked, calming down slightly and looking puzzled. "Aren’t you usually the most interested in things like this?"

"I am interested, yes, but what I’m seeing right now is just a wooden board," I said matter-of-factly.

Before seeing the basement Chang'an had mentioned with my own eyes, I wasn’t going to "pop the champagne." That said, my calm demeanor was only on the surface. Out of basic trust in my friend, I couldn’t deny that I was feeling a surge of excitement, as if my blood was flowing faster.

I didn’t rashly lift the wooden lid. Instead, I crouched down first to examine the magic circle on the floor.

The magic circle was composed of numerous twisted lines and symbols, yet it contained an unmistakable sense of order that prevented it from being mistaken for random scribbles. As for Western mysticism, my knowledge was scattered and unstructured, making me utterly clueless when it came to analyzing this magic circle. However, there was one thing I managed to discern.

I reached out a hand to gently trace the edge of the magic circle, picking up a bit of the black pigment used to draw the lines. After lightly rubbing my fingertip, I was completely certain. This pigment was dried, oxidized blood.

Considering the clue about the "bizarre murder case that once occurred in this house," could it be that the magic circle was drawn by the murderer, using the victim's blood as paint?

If this assumption holds true, then what was the killer's purpose? And why leave the magic circle in this house?

Is the murderer still keeping an eye on this place?

"Should we open the lid and take a look?" Chang'an asked tentatively from the side, not daring to lift the wooden lid himself.

"Mm." I nodded, stood up, and took the initiative to step into the center of the magic circle.

The wooden lid had no handle or grooves, so I bent down and wedged my fingers into the gap between the lid and the floor.

Then, I lifted the wooden lid high, and the scene beneath it came into view.

At that moment, I instinctively held my breath.

Beneath the wooden lid, just as Chang’an had described, was a pitch-black entrance. Below the opening lay a staircase leading to a basement, descending into unfathomable depths!

But this is the fifteenth floor!

Chang’an seemed to hold his breath as well, and then, with a voice as if afraid of disturbing something, he said, “You see it, don’t you? I wasn’t lying...”

I stared intently at the staircase before me.

The staircase was made of gray-white concrete, unadorned and unfinished. Part of it lay starkly exposed to my view, while the rest disappeared deep into the darkness, as though leading to an unknown and terrifying netherworld. Just a glance was enough to send chills coursing through me.

In that instant, countless chaotic images flashed through my mind.

This bizarre sight was like a meteor crashing into the lake of my heart, setting off waves upon waves. All my past efforts in exploring the strange and the uncanny surfaced one after another in rapid succession.

Even the words Ma Zao had said earlier surfaced in my mind.

— The greatest difference between the current world and the apocalyptic world lies in space and time. In the apocalyptic world, time and space are both distorted, and survivors may encounter strange and bizarre phenomena at any moment.

— The apocalypse doesn’t arrive all of a sudden; it comes with signs and preludes. It’s just that people today haven’t paid enough attention to them.

— Incomprehensible phenomena or grotesque and peculiar creatures... things like these must already be appearing openly in this era.

Could this be what Ma Zao was referring to—the signs and preludes of the apocalypse?

However, judging from the magic circle at the scene, this seems to be an anomaly caused by human factors, not a natural disaster... No, wait. That’s a preconceived notion on my part.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Who says that what brings about the apocalypse must be a natural disaster and not human-caused catastrophe?

Could the strange phenomenon before me be related to the apocalyptic signs Ma Zao mentioned?

Wait, wait, my thoughts are getting ahead of me. I shouldn’t jump to conclusions about things that are far off and lack evidence. What should I be doing right now?

"Chang'an, stay here and wait for me. I’m going downstairs to make a confirmation."

With that, I walked out into the corridor, leaving a "firefly" in the house.

At this critical moment, I realized I was still filled with doubt, afraid that this strange and eerie event might turn out to be a well-planned hoax. So, I didn’t immediately send the "firefly" to explore the space beneath the hole. Instead, I first instructed the "firefly" to keep watch over Chang'an.

I, on the other hand, first leaned against the railing in the corridor, taking in the scenery to calm my racing thoughts. Afterward, I went downstairs, pretending to be a visitor who had knocked on the wrong door.

While the resident was opening the door, I secretly slipped a "firefly" inside and explored the place.

Just as Chang'an had described earlier, there were no visible stairs descending from there, nor was there a hole in the ceiling.

At the same time, I also completed a crucial confirmation by monitoring Chang'an with the "firefly"—Chang'an had not closed the wooden lid during this time, and I was still able to continuously observe the existence of that hole.

Now, I could finally be 100% certain.

That hole indeed led to a "space that doesn't exist in reality."

---

The strange thing I had been dreaming of and searching for, something I had only seen in fantasy stories, was real!

I had imagined countless times what it would be like to finally confirm this. And now, as I verified the existence of this strange phenomenon with my own eyes, I didn’t feel the ecstatic joy I had expected.

It wasn’t because I was scared, or because my enthusiasm for the inexplicable had suddenly waned at such a critical moment. I think the emotion I felt now was likely quite universal.

It’s said that many people, when faced with a sudden, dramatic change, don’t react as exaggeratedly as they do in movies. For example, when someone suddenly learns they've won the lottery or when they receive the tragic news of a family member’s death... they don’t immediately react with extreme joy or sorrow. Instead, it often takes a long time for them to process such overwhelming facts.

It felt like falling into a dream—perhaps this is the most fitting description of my current state of mind.

I couldn’t even tell if my feet were firmly on the ground.

Today was an exceptionally important day in my life, and even this sensation of feeling like I was suspended in midair felt so precious. If I could, I would want to fully immerse myself in this dreamlike experience.

However, I had to quickly regain my normal ability to think. The more bizarre and strange the event, the more I needed a clear mind. Many characters in horror stories meet their end when they lose themselves in the moment; I certainly didn’t want to become one of them.

Besides, there was an important question I needed to seriously face next.

Since what Chang'an said was true, the credibility of Ma Zao's claim that she is a "disaster bringer" also rises. And if Ma Zao really does bring misfortune to those around her, would this negative influence extend to the "people around the people" she knows?

In other words, could Chang'an’s encounter with strange events be because he is my friend?

I met Ma Zao last night, while Chang'an encountered the strange events the night before. Based on the timeline, Chang'an's experience doesn’t seem to have a direct causal relationship with Ma Zao’s disaster-prone nature. However, when it comes to the bizarre, we can’t apply common sense and must consider the possibility of events happening in reverse order.

In other words: Because I met Ma Zao last night, Chang'an experienced the strange events the night before, and the purpose of this might be that he was responding to Ma Zao’s disaster-prone nature, pulling me into the strange events today—this kind of illogical cause-and-effect might still hold in the world of the bizarre.

If that's the case, how should I handle my relationship with Ma Zao?

---

I returned to the house where the hole was located. Chang'an was carefully shining a flashlight into the hole, seemingly afraid that some monster might suddenly emerge from within. When he saw me return, he finally let out a sigh of relief. By now, I had more or less sorted out my state of mind.

"I'm sorry, Chang'an," I sighed. "Maybe I've dragged you into this."

"What’s going on? Why are you saying that all of a sudden?" He was surprised.

"I’ll explain it to you later." I had already come up with some ideas on how to handle the situation. "For now, let’s focus on the problem at hand."

Hearing this, he didn’t ask any further questions and instead redirected his attention to the hole.

Using the light from the flashlight, I could clearly see the scene below the staircase. The space below was only about three meters deep, with a gray concrete floor at the bottom, which did indeed resemble a basement.

I remained silent as I observed the hole.

After realizing the supernatural nature of this hole, it became irresistibly captivating to me. It was as if someone had pulled the plug from a bathtub full of water, and I was silently watching as the water was sucked into the dark hole, almost as if my very heart was being drawn into it as well.

As I savored this mesmerizing feeling in my mind, I took another two steps forward, wanting to get a little closer and see more clearly.

Suddenly, my arm was grabbed from the side. I turned to look, and it was Chang'an. He had caught hold of me and was wearing a rare serious expression.

"Do you want to go down there?"

"Isn’t that obvious?"

It would be impossible for me not to want to go down and take a look.

He was stunned and said, "What kind of nonsense are you talking? I didn’t bring you here to make you go down!"

"You called me here, so how could I not go down and investigate for myself?" I countered, then suddenly realized something.

Right, from my perspective, it would be impossible to encounter something strange and not personally investigate it thoroughly, from the inside out. I believed others would see it the same way. And of course, as my friend, Chang'an was surely well aware of my tendencies.

But this time was different. Probably because Chang'an had already experienced the strange event himself, he had formed the initial impression that "this hole should not be entered." When he shared it with me, he unconsciously projected his own judgment onto me—he hadn’t even considered that someone might want to go down and take a look.

"Don’t worry, I’m not as reckless as you think. Even if I want to go down, I won’t do it right away."

As I said this, I used my body to block his line of sight and sent the "firefly" down into the hole.

However, at that moment, something unbelievable happened.

When the "firefly" entered the hole—entered that "space that doesn’t exist in reality"—the spiritual connection between me and the "firefly" was suddenly cut off. The "firefly" itself vanished, as if blown out like a candle by the wind.