pjbooks Chapter 355 The Familiar Barrier
Chapter 355 The Familiar Barrier
A bleak world.
Yes, it's a bleak world.
Lin Fan vaguely felt that the vegetation on both sides was somewhat familiar. A flash of inspiration struck him, and he thought of the dark world he often entered.
These plants are not exactly the same as the colors of that world, but they are almost identical.
They all share the same hue, giving off a deathly gray that feels out of place in the normal world.
The car continued driving forward, its color becoming increasingly darker.
From bluish-gray to dark gray, and from dark gray to almost pure black.
An indescribable smell began to fill the air; it wasn't rotten or chemical, but a very dry, "old" odor.
Lin Fan stopped the car.
He sat in the driver's seat, looking ahead through the windshield.
Two hundred meters ahead lies the end of the entire dilapidated road.
Of course, it's not the kind of road closure, but rather... how should I describe it?
It's like a dividing line between darkness and brilliance, separating the two sides into two worlds.
One side was gray and dilapidated, while the other side was pitch black.
All the trees in that forest died.
No, he's not dead.
Instead, it looked as if it had been drained of its contents and then coated with a layer of black paint.
Each tree retains its original posture, with intact branches and trunks, but all the moisture, color, and vitality... have vanished.
A layer of gray mist permeated the air among these dark, withered trees.
The concentration isn't too high, but it's definitely not normal.
Because these mists are moving.
It's not the kind of movement caused by the wind, but a regular, spontaneous flow.
All the gray mist was slowly rotating in the same direction.
It's like a giant vortex surrounding something.
"..."
Lin Fan stared at this scene and remained silent for about ten seconds.
"Turn back?"
After thinking for a moment, he shook his head again:
"Never mind, we're all here."
Open the car door and get out.
The moment his foot touched the ground, he sensed something new and unusual.
The ground temperature is very low.
It wasn't the kind of cold you get in winter, but an unnatural chill. The kind that penetrates the sole of your shoe and seeps into the soles of your feet.
He looked up and glanced around.
The surroundings were unnaturally quiet.
There were no insect chirps, no bird calls, and no sounds of any living creature.
This place is dead.
But it wasn't a natural death; rather, some force "drained" all their vitality.
Lin Fan took a few steps forward, reached the edge of the black forest, and stopped.
The gray mist was just three meters away, slowly swirling.
It's much clearer when you look at it up close.
The color, texture, and even the oppressive feeling that makes one's heart sink... of this fog are exactly the same as the fog in a gloomy world.
"Have things from the bleak world come into reality?"
He muttered something to himself, his brow furrowing.
If that's the case, then it's not good news.
Even now, he still doesn't understand what the Dark World is.
But he knew better than anyone else about the eeriness of that place.
Whether it's Shoggoth or that giant black shadow that we never actually see...
If the two worlds are truly connected, those things will come to Earth...
The consequences are chilling to even think about.
But at this moment, the scene before him made him unable to help but think in that direction.
As he thought about it, he focused on sensing the radiation levels around him.
For him, radiation that requires equipment to detect is as simple as eating and drinking.
Soon, he felt the radiation around him.
And it's not low either.
The radiation levels in this area are much higher than in normal environments, but unlike the "artificially accumulated" radiation in the wastewater areas of nuclear power plants, the radiation here has a very peculiar fluctuation frequency.
It was intermittent, but very rhythmic.
It's like a heartbeat.
"..."
Lin Fan took a step back, not rushing in, but instead searching around the edge for the traces of the battle he had seen on the tablet.
After walking for about ten minutes, he found the signs of the battle.
The scene on the ground was far more shocking than what was shown on the tablet.
Deep ravines, two to three meters deep, crisscross the forest, like the tracks left by a giant body dragging across the ground.
The uprooted trees lay scattered about, some with their thick trunks broken into several sections.
He walked to the edge of a particularly deep pit and looked down.
There was liquid residue at the bottom of the pit.
It's neither water nor blood.
It is a dark gray, slightly fluorescent viscous liquid.
He squatted down, hesitated for a moment, and did not touch it with his hand.
I stared at the puddle of slime for a while.
The color and texture reminded him of the fleshy ball Shoggoth that had last appeared in the valley.
Since they are both slimy monsters, is it possible that they are related?
"What exactly did Little Wu fight...?"
After observing for a while, he stood up and continued walking deeper into the area.
After walking for about ten more minutes, he began to sense a change in the atmosphere around him.
It became quieter and more eerie.
Although the environment on the previous path was eerie, at least there were sounds of wind and rustling leaves.
But from a certain point onward, all sound disappeared.
The wind stopped. The leaves fell still. Even the sound of his own footsteps on the withered branches and fallen leaves sounded abnormally muffled, as if sucked away by something.
Lin Fan stopped in his tracks.
He looked up and gazed ahead.
About a hundred meters ahead of him, the color of the entire forest became even deeper.
Some parts even became vaguely blurry.
Whether it's the numbers or the sky, it all feels unrealistically vague, as if separated by a barrier.
No, not like.
It's just a membrane.
Lin Fan's pupils contracted slightly.
He knows this thing all too well.
Every time he entered the gloomy world and went to the cemetery, there was also a layer of something invisible and intangible between the cemetery and that gloomy world.
Now, it has appeared in the real world?
Standing outside this strange boundary, Lin Fan could clearly sense that the rules on that side were different from those of the real world.
Miller mentioned signal interference earlier...
Could it be related to this membrane?
He stood there and observed for a while.
He quickly noticed a detail: the mist inside the membrane was rotating faster.
It's not the kind of random drifting caused by the wind, but rather a very regular rotation centered around a certain point.
"What exactly is it about? Creatures from a dark world? Or something else?"
Previously, when he entered the Dark World, all he saw were tombstones. But now, after seeing the raccoon that Shoggoth had created for him and that giant black shadow, he no longer believed that there were no living beings in that world.
The thought that it was possible that creatures from the dark world had infiltrated the real world made his expression turn grim.
Lin Fan couldn't resist his curiosity and moved closer...
however,
The moment he silently stepped through the barrier, a strange feeling suddenly welled up in his heart.
That feeling wasn't something you could hear or see.
It was as if it were an instinctive perception that made him instantly realize there was something in there.
And there's more than one!