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墨書 Inktalez
"Where are they?" I gasped as I rushed over to Tang Yumo. "Where did Fatty and Jack go?"
Tang Yumo didn't move or respond, still staring down at the rope that hung into the void.
I quickly shone my flashlight on the rope and noticed it had slightly moved. It seemed like someone was down there.
"Who's down there? Is it Fatty?"
Tang Yumo turned her face towards me and nodded.
"What about Jack?"
Her expression darkened. "He's down there."
"Are they both using the same rope? Isn't that reckless?"
I felt a surge of frustration. These two never got along, and now they were both trying to use the same rope. This wasn't a race; it felt more like a fight for survival. The climbing rope could handle their weight, but the real issue was that they were likely competing with each other, turning the rope into a battleground. However, as I thought about it, something seemed off.
"Did they just leave you behind and go down? Jack doesn't seem like the type to do that."
I wasn't trying to insult Fatty; it was clear from Fatty's attitude towards Tang Yumo that he was very much black-and-white in his thinking. He wouldn't constantly worry about someone he considered an enemy. If he thought about her at all, it would be how to get rid of her.
"The rope Jack used broke when he went down," Tang Yumo said, her tone somewhat unnatural, tinged with guilt.
"Where did that rope come from?" My eyes darted between the Winch and Tang Yumo, and suddenly it clicked. "Was it the rope that originally came with the Winch?"
"Yes, it was. The rope was rotten. Jack hadn't been down long before it snapped."
"Damn it." I kicked the wooden winch in frustration. "Is he dead?"
"We should go down to find out. I don't want to guess."
Does it really require guessing? Of course, my question was redundant.
Although I had cursed the American Guy for abandoning me and Fatty, I believed that if my death could save more lives, then at the moment of death, my heart would be calm. I thought the most terrifying thing was not death itself, but dying with regrets.
I imagined that Jack, in his final moments, must have felt unwilling to accept his fate.
"Is the Eternal Gate down there?"
"It should be. But you know, for us, the Eternal Gate has become a legend. For dozens or even hundreds of generations of Hakka People, no one has seen what the Eternal Gate looks like. The truth has been distorted through countless retellings. All I know is that this is the entrance to the Eternal Gate; beyond that, I have no idea."
"But I remember you said that only those holding the key to the Eternal Gate can enter. They don’t have that iron piece; what will happen if we go down like this?"
Tang Yumo stared at me. "Maybe it will be very bad."
"Very bad? What do you know? What will happen?"
Tang Yumo's gaze shifted away from my face as she lowered her head, looking into the endless abyss. It seemed as if she could see through the thick darkness and endless void, seeing the Eternal Gate and Jack below.
Perhaps influenced by her demeanor, I instinctively pointed my One-Eyed Beast Flashlight downwards, its beam following the taut rope. However, when I adjusted the One-Eyed Beast Flashlight to high beam, it still revealed nothing but emptiness. It wasn't even black; it was a void devoid of color. The flashlight did not dispel darkness; it was engulfed by nothingness.
The green rope was the only color in the flashlight's beam. Its end seemed to vanish into the void or perhaps enter another world.
Fear surged uncontrollably within me. Yet suddenly, I felt that the surroundings brightened a bit. Looking up, I saw Tang Yumo had ignited another torch and was extending it towards the abyss.
"Don't waste your effort. Where my flashlight can't reach, a torch won't illuminate either. By the way, where's your flashlight?"
I suddenly remembered that when she and Jack made their escape, she had a One-Eyed Beast Flashlight in her hand. Yet now, she was relying solely on a torch for illumination.
"Down there," Tang Yumo said, pointing with the torch. "I threw it down."
"Why?" I couldn't help but be taken aback.
"I was going to show you. Jack discovered it; he couldn't explain it either, but he was so excited that he insisted on going down to see. But I have a bad feeling about this. It feels wrong."
With that, Tang Yumo let go of the torch, sending it toward the abyss.
I immediately understood her intention. When Jack had thrown down a Flashlight, it was likely for the same reason. Our Flashlight couldn’t illuminate the bottom of the abyss, so throwing a light source down would at least help us gauge its depth.
Of course, having a flare would have been better; it would allow us to see more of the environment below. Unfortunately, we hadn’t prepared such things for this trip. We thought we were just digging a grave and had brought some weapons for dealing with beasts and tools for digging. Who could have imagined we would enter such a vast underground space?
Moreover, we couldn’t use flares either. The main ingredient of a flare is White Phosphorus, which produces intense brightness through high temperatures. We didn’t know what lay below; although the possibility of an Arms depot was slim, if there were any combustible materials down there, they would ignite the moment they were illuminated by the flare.
However, Tang Yumo's action was quite reckless. Jack had thrown down a Flashlight because he likely considered the risk of igniting any flammable materials. But I felt powerless now; all I could do was watch as the torch fell into the abyss and keep my eyes wide open to see what could possibly attract Jack to risk his life to go down.
Fortunately, the torch was far enough from the rope that it wouldn’t catch fire or hit Fat Man. However, the light from the torch couldn’t reach the rope or anyone on it. As the torch descended, its light grew dimmer and dimmer—perhaps due to distance—the flame flickered, barely providing illumination and only indicating its presence like a firefly drifting away from us.
Suddenly, it felt as if my vision had malfunctioned; two fireflies appeared in my sight. Although they were quite far away, I sensed that they were flying toward each other. It seemed that from the depths of the abyss, another torch was rising to meet the one Tang Yumo had thrown down; they were rapidly approaching each other.
The emergence of another point of light was so abrupt that I had no time to react or even glance at Tang Yumo because everything happened too quickly and fleetingly.
‘Puff,’ I thought I heard a sound in my ears at the moment when the two points of light collided.
Then both lights racing through the abyss vanished simultaneously.
I turned my face toward Tang Yumo in shock. "What just happened?"
Tang Yumo's expression was equally grim. "I feel like there's a huge mirror or ice surface down there. You know the temperature here is very low, so it's quite likely that the water would freeze."
I shook my head. "No."
A huge mirror beneath the abyss? That was purely imaginary.
An ice surface? Whether it was mirror-like or icy, the torch should have shattered upon hitting it, with flames scattering everywhere, rather than extinguishing.
Pavement? That seemed somewhat possible. But it had to be flat, like a mirror-like pavement.
"What about Jack?"
I asked Tang Yumo impatiently. I didn’t believe that the water below would lure Jack into a reckless plunge.
(To Be Continued...)
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