Chapter 69 Can’t Get Out of 1601 (5) This Dungeon Ends…

Chapter 69: The Inescapable 1601 (Part 5) – This Instance Concludes...

Seeing this, Yu Xing shot to her feet.

Wang Kunyu was startled. "What's happening? Why is the Bull Warrior suddenly so agitated?"

Yu Xing rushed straight to the door and flung it open. A corpse lay outside—a man, emaciated and skeletal.

It was dark outside, the living room lights turned off. Yu Xing kicked the corpse aside with her foot, but halfway through, she encountered resistance. She turned on her terminal's light and saw another corpse not far away.

Afraid of being left behind by the Bull Warrior, Wang Kunyu hurried after her. Frowning at the two corpses, he muttered, “Did they... starve to death?”

It was entirely possible. With no food and no way out, starvation would be inevitable.

“But…” Wang Kunyu couldn’t help glancing back at the distraught Edward. “He’s been here for two weeks. Why does he still look… in decent shape?”

This “decent shape” didn’t refer to his mental state but his physical condition.

Edward, sitting on the floor, suddenly lifted his head and looked outside. A warped grin spread across his face. “What do you mean no food? Isn’t that food right there?”

Wang Kunyu fell silent.

In that instant, Wang Kunyu’s skin crawled. He felt nauseous, completely disgusted. But having eaten nothing all day, he had nothing to vomit.

“You're supposed to be a Moon God Chosen!” Wang Kunyu nearly jumped in agitation. “How could you do something like this?!”

Edward’s expression turned blank. “Am I… still a Moon God Chosen?”

He raised his hands, palms stained with blood and filth. “I’m contaminated.”

Suddenly, tears streamed down his face. “Why won’t the Moon God save me? Why can’t He hear my cries for help? I’m His most devout believer…”

Wang Kunyu had been ready to curse him, but seeing him like this, the venomous words died in his throat. A wave of despair welled up in his heart—what if he, too, ended up trapped here? He couldn’t even be sure whether he’d turn to cannibalism if he were starving…

At this thought, he turned his gaze to the Bull Warrior in front of him. She still wore that mask, her expression impossible to read.

Yet that cold, unfeeling mask gave him a strange sense of security. If the gods couldn’t save them, could the Bull Warrior lead them out?

As his thoughts wandered, the Bull Warrior had already moved into the hallway.

Yu Xing walked into the living room and turned on the lights.

The blinding overhead light illuminated the scene clearly.

A large pool of dark red blood pooled in the center of the living room, and near the bedroom lay two corpses. It had been too dark earlier for Yu Xing to see clearly, but now she could. The two corpses—a man and a woman—were still tightly clasping hands despite being dead.

Their clothes matched Edward’s in style.

After Yu Xing and Wang Kunyu stepped out, Edward slowly pulled himself upright, leaning against the wall as he shuffled forward.

When he saw the two corpses clasping hands, he went quiet for several beats before crouching down and staring at them intently.

Seeing this, Wang Kunyu asked, “You know them?”

Edward reached out and touched the sunken, lifeless faces of the corpses. He murmured, “I always knew they liked each other… but they refused to admit it. I knew all along.”

Yu Xing searched the entryway but found no bag, so she turned and headed for the master bedroom.

Opening the door, she immediately spotted a body lying on the bed. Upon closer inspection, it was a woman—already dead. A knife was plunged into her chest, and blood had soaked half the bed.

It looked fresh; she must have died recently.

Noticing her clothes matched Edward’s, Yu Xing stepped aside and said to Wang Kunyu, “Ask him if he knows her.”

Wang Kunyu turned, yanked Edward by the shirtfront, and dragged him into the room. Pointing at the corpse on the bed, he demanded, “You know her?”

Edward took one look and began trembling.

What kind of reaction was this? Yu Xing wasn't interested in probing, but as she turned, she noticed something clutched in the corpse’s hand. Peeling back the fingers, she found a terminal.

Yu Xing pulled the terminal free. At first, she figured it was useless—without the owner’s password, she couldn’t unlock it. But the moment she touched it, the terminal activated.

“Huh?” Wang Kunyu glanced over. “She set it to unlock without a password. Maybe she wanted someone to see something?”

Yu Xing opened the last app used—video recording.

“Let me see.” Wang Kunyu took the terminal and tapped the last video.

The moment it played, a holographic projection appeared before them—a pale woman.

Her pallor came from blood loss. Propped against the bed, blood still seeped from her chest. She was at death's door.

“I’m Pei Yu, a member of the Divine Chosen Team Two from Seven Cities.” Her voice was weak.

Hearing this, Yu Xing and Wang Kunyu automatically glanced at Edward.

Edward stood motionless, as if turned to stone.

“I’m handling a pollution incident… This place is bizarre. The timeline's distorted, and the pollution source can’t be found. Current situation: my team's gone missing, and this place seems to affect people’s minds… including the Moon God Chosen…”

In her final moments, Pei Yu briefly laid out what she'd learned about the pollution incident before lying back down peacefully.

Just as Yu Xing thought the video had ended, Pei Yu suddenly spoke again. “If the pollution source is dealt with… if someone finds my terminal… please give it to my captain. He was the one who found me in the junkyard… *cough*… I’ll always love… respect him.”

The video ended, and silence returned to the room.

Wang Kunyu still held the terminal. He spun around, fixing Edward with a bloodshot glare.

Edward kept his head down, his expression unreadable. Seething with anger and frustration, Wang Kunyu turned to the Bull Warrior—only to find her rifling through the female owner’s bags.

“…” What’s going on? She can't be looting at a time like this?

He flung the terminal toward Edward and moved closer. “What are you looking for?”

“Don’t know.” Yu Xing showed him the diary entry where Cui Anan mentioned a man giving her mother something, which her mother casually tossed it in one of her bags. But Cui Anan’s mother had many bags, and Yu Xing had no idea which one it was.

“Help me search,” Yu Xing assigned him the task. “If anything seems odd, tell me.”

Without another word, Wang Kunyu started digging through the bags.

After searching for a long time and turning each bag inside out, they still found nothing unusual.

“What exactly are you trying to find?” Wang Kunyu asked.

“No clue what we're looking for.” Yu Xing shook her head and flipped the diary open to the relevant page. “No idea what it is. The girl’s mother just tossed it in one of her bags.”

Wang Kunyu scowled at the diary in frustration. “This… How can we possibly find something when we don’t even know what it is?”

He held up a lipstick from the pile of items they’d gone through. “Maybe what that person gave her was nothing but a lipstick.”

"Seriously?" Yu Xing was very skeptical. "Does Cui Anan not even recognize lipstick?"

"But what exactly was that thing?"

Just as the two were at a loss, Edward, who had been standing silently by the door for a long time, suddenly spoke up: "The Mistress of 1601 must know. We can ask her directly."

According to Edward, time in each space within 1601 was independent. That is, the time in the living room and the bedroom was inconsistent and completely messed up. Every time a door was opened, it could randomly reveal a scene from any point in time within that space, including the people present in that moment.

It was known that the Mistress of 1601 had once appeared in the master bedroom. Therefore, as long as they refreshed the door enough times, statistically speaking, they would eventually encounter her.

Upon hearing Edward’s words, Yu Xing remained calm, but the barrage of comments couldn’t hold back.

[Damn, are they grinding for a boss here?]

[More like refreshing an NPC.]

[Exactly. After spawning the NPC, you ask them a question, then use the answer to complete a quest.]

[Now I finally understand why the Heartthrob said those people weren’t alive. They’re like… well, I can’t quite put it into words.]

[This is pretty interesting. With this setup, others could farm the Heartthrob too.]

[Yeah, if someone needs clues in the future, they can just refresh the Heartthrob here. Summon one, and the reward is getting laid.]

[Holy shit!]

[Definitely ABC! ABC, shut up if you’ve got nothing better to say!]

[Teehee, I like this…]

[Speaking of which, the Heartthrob’s world is truly bizarre. Time can actually go backwards. In our world, the most we can do is contact people from the past.]

[You guys are really dense, aren’t you? Haven’t you realized? This isn’t time reversal at all. It’s more like micro-sliced parallel worlds. It’s not time chaos—it’s that these parallel worlds have different time flows, and they keep switching, which makes everything seem chaotic.]

[Holy shit! Who the hell are you? Got the balls to show yourself?]

[Guess~ If you guess right, I’ll let you hehehe~]

[Damn, who was that? Why do you say it’s parallel worlds?]

[Let me see who’s pretending to be smart again.]

[You morons. Still asking why? The evidence is the pile of douchebag corpses downstairs!]

[I think I get it… If it were just simple time chaos, everyone’s path would be a single line, meaning there’d only be one corpse in theory.]

[Holy shit, I see now! The Heartthrob is looking for the real world!]

[Can someone explain this to me? Isn’t this a world with gods? Why are you making it sound so scientific?]

[The end of science is theology, after all…]

Thankfully, Yu Xing was wearing a mask, or else Wang Kunyu and Edward would’ve seen her struggling to keep a straight face. These people’s minds were even wilder than hers, an actual mental patient. No matter the situation, they could always find a way to ramble on.

Yu Xing thought the comments were partially right but not entirely.

This wasn’t a true parallel space. In a real parallel space, every world would be genuinely existent, and the people in them would be real. But her Broomstick Star Skill had no effect on Edward, meaning these parallel spaces were actually illusions.

Like… projections. Extremely realistic projections.

Thinking about it, it made sense. If a corruption source could reverse time or create countless parallel spaces, that would be completely broken. With such power, no number of Divine Chosen would matter—the world would’ve fallen long ago.

"You take the door," Yu Xing said to Wang Kunyu after the three of them exited the room.

Wang Kunyu rubbed his hands together and stepped forward, placing his hand on the doorknob.

With a forceful twist, he opened the door. Yu Xing peeked inside—the room was quiet and tidy, completely empty. She gestured for Wang Kunyu to continue.

Another door opened, and Yu Xing maintained her stance. This time, there was someone lying on the bed.

"Another corpse?" Wang Kunyu sounded disappointed.

As soon as he spoke, the person on the bed suddenly jerked upright.

The three of them were startled, and Wang Kunyu instinctively tried to close the door.

"Don’t shut it!" The person on the bed sprang up like a fish. Only then did they realize this person was wearing a police uniform.

The man in the uniform had an ordinary face, but his eyes were large and bright. He rushed to the door, first startled by the Bull Warrior Mask, then noticing Edward’s attire.

"You’re… from the Divine Chosen Team?" The man’s eyes lit up with hope. "Are you here to save us?"

Yu Xing recalled the records about this pollutant incident—several police officers had indeed gone missing in 1601 at the beginning.

Five years had passed. If even the Divine Chosen had died, there was no way the police could’ve survived. This officer before them was just a projection of the past. Wang Kunyu still didn’t fully grasp the situation and was about to speak when Yu Xing cut him off, addressing the officer: "Yes, we’re here to rescue people. Just stay behind us."

The officer teared up. He’d been trapped here for days, thinking he’d die alone in this terrifying place. Never had he imagined he’d be saved in the end.

He quickly stood behind the group. Edward watched him silently, his gaze filled with a knowing pity.

Wang Kunyu opened the door again. This time, someone burst out the moment it opened. Caught off guard, Wang Kunyu was knocked to the ground, his neck grabbed.

Yu Xing and the officer hurried to pull the attacker away. Yu Xing found this person somewhat familiar—the buzzcut hairstyle… wasn’t this the Divine Chosen corpse she’d seen earlier in the living room? What was his name again?

Before she could recall, the buzzcut Divine Chosen flailed violently. "I’ll kill you all! Every last one of you…"

"Cough, cough, cough!" Wang Kunyu clutched his throat on the ground, wheezing in pain. "He’s snapped. Another one lost his mind."

Edward, who had been standing aside, finally acted. He clasped his hands, and a holy light glowed from his hands, descending onto the buzzcut Divine Chosen.

The moment the light touched him, the man calmed down. Whether the light truly had an effect or he instinctively trusted the Moon God Chosen was hard to say.

Seeing him finally quiet, the officer reassured him, "Calm down. They’re from the Divine Chosen Team, sent to rescue us. Trust them—we’ll get out soon."

"Get up," Yu Xing said to Wang Kunyu, still on the floor. "Keep opening the door."

Wang Kunyu rubbed his neck and stood up, pouting. Seriously, even after being attacked, the Bull Warrior was still ordering him around. But then again, why did the Bull Warrior only order him around and not the others? It must be because the Bull Warrior trusted him the most.

With renewed motivation, Wang Kunyu opened the door several more times. The room was either empty or contained corpses. Finally, after countless attempts, the next door revealed two people inside.

Two women—one in a police uniform, the other none other than the Mistress of 1601.

The door opened, making the two inside jump.

The policewoman went on alert at first, but then she spotted the officer behind Yu Xing.

"Captain Yang!" she cried out happily.

The officer, Captain Yang, was just as thrilled. "Xiao Liu! Thank God you’re alive."

Xiao Liu happily reunited with Team Leader Yang, who excitedly explained, "Xiao Liu came with me, but we got separated along the way."

Tears welled up in Xiao Liu's eyes as she said, "Team Leader Yang, I thought I'd never see you again."

Team Leader Yang patted her shoulder with a smile. "How could that be? They're specialists sent by the higher-ups to rescue us. We'll be out of here soon."

Standing alone by the window, the Mistress of 1601 nervously asked, "Really? Can we really leave?"

At this moment, the Mistress of 1601 was dressed neatly. Though her eyes were red and her face pale, she seemed composed.

Yu Xing marched straight over and asked, "Last time you were at the park with your daughter, someone gave you something, claiming it could grant your wish. Give it to me."

Yu Xing's direct demand stunned the mistress.

Wang Kunyu impatiently added, "Hurry up! That thing might be why your home ended up like this!"

The mistress panicked and hurriedly searched through a drawer, muttering, "How could this be? It was just a piece of paper..."

Finally, she pulled out a crumpled sheet from her bag and handed it to Yu Xing. Unfolding it, Yu Xing's eyes narrowed at the sight of the pattern on the paper.

[Hey! This thing again!]

[Is this some kind of cult ritual from the World of Admirers?]

[Nonsense! It's just a summoning magic circle!]

[The Admirers always run into this stuff.]

[Something feels off...]

[Will this help locate the pollution source?]

Staring at the magic circle, Yu Xing finally understood. It must have been Cui Anan who used it, turning 1601 into this state.

"This!" Wang Kunyu blurted out in shock. "Isn't this the same as the one from Sister Xiu’s barbershop last time—"

He abruptly stopped, goosebumps rising. Why would the same eerie pattern appear in two completely unrelated polluted spaces?

Wang Kunyu looked pleadingly at the Bull Warrior, hoping for an explanation.

The Bull Warrior didn't even glance his way, focusing instead on the Mistress of 1601. After hesitating, she asked, "Did you never actually plan to divorce your husband?"

The mistress froze, caught off guard by the question.

Her hesitation was evident, so Yu Xing pressed further, "Since he betrayed you and there’s no love left, why not divorce?"

Offended, the mistress replied defensively, "We have a child. I can’t let her grow up in a broken home just because of adult selfishness."

"Have you ever asked your daughter what she thinks?" Yu Xing countered.

The mistress faltered, flustered.

Yu Xing said nothing more and handed over a diary. "Read your daughter’s true feelings."

Confused, the mistress took the diary and flipped it open. "This is my daughter’s diary. She always kept it locked—how did you get it? Have you seen her? Why didn’t you bring her? Is she okay? Is she scared?"

"She’s always been scared," Yu Xing said. "Especially when you and your husband fought."

Yu Xing turned to the page dated with the couple’s first recorded argument. As the mistress read, her brows furrowed, then she shook her head in disbelief. Soon, her hands trembled, and tears dripped onto the floor.

The pages revealed her daughter’s hidden sorrows—things she’d never known. Her little girl had been so afraid, so tormented.

"How could this be..." The mistress’s vision blurred with tears. "Why didn’t she ever tell me?"

"Why didn’t she say anything?" Sobbing, she clutched the diary. "If she had, I’d never have complained in front of her again. She’s so young—how could she carry so much pain alone...?"

The comments flooded in.

[Because she loves you!!!]

[You’re her whole world!!]

[Parents never realize how much they mean to their kids... I miss my parents now...]

[She really wanted to help you.]

[I hate parents who dump their pain on kids! The child didn’t cause it!]

[This little girl truly wanted to save her mom. So sad...]

[It's complicated. Maybe her mom thought kids don’t internalize things.]

"Because she loves you," Yu Xing said, thinking of her own grandmother. Despite their hardships, her grandmother had always faced Yu Xing and her siblings with a smile, never burdening them with complaints.

"She wanted to help you, to make you happy." Yu Xing waved the paper with the magic circle. "She stole this—for you. That’s why 1601 became like this."

The mistress broke down, clutching Yu Xing’s wrist. "Where’s my daughter? Take me to her! Please, I need to see her now...!"

The group left the master bedroom. According to their theory, repeatedly refreshing the scene in the guest bedroom would eventually reveal the girl, Cui Anan.

But this time, the moment Wang Kunyu opened the door, warm lamplight spilled out. A small figure sat at the desk, her back to them.

Hearing the door, Cui Anan turned and asked curiously, "Mommy? Who are these aunts and uncles?"

The Mistress of 1601 stepped softly into the room, entering the circle of light. Gently, she pulled her daughter into her arms.

"Sweetheart," she murmured, kissing the girl’s cheek. "Mommy loves you most. As long as you’re happy, nothing else matters."

Cui Anan nestled into her mother’s embrace, tears falling.

"Mommy’s decided to divorce Daddy," her mother said, holding her close. "No more fighting. From now on, I’ll smile more—with you."

Yu Xing approached the desk. On it lay the diary and a small bowl filled with crimson liquid.

Picking up the diary, she turned to the previously missing page.

There, drawn meticulously in blood, was a tiny magic circle. Beneath it, Cui Anan’s words:

*"I wish Mommy’s dreams come true. That Daddy stops seeing other women, never leaves home, and stays with her forever. I wish Mommy is always happy. If she’s happy, I’ll be happy too."*

Yu Xing gently touched Cui Anan’s head. "Anan, Mommy wants to leave here with you—to start a happy life. Can you tell me where this page is?"

Cui Anan tilted her head up, her wide, shining eyes fixed on Yu Xing.

She looked between Yu Xing and her mother.

Her mother hugged her and said, "Sweetie An'an, tell the lady. Mommy's always here for you."

Cui An'an blinked her eyes when suddenly, Wang Kunyu's cry of alarm came from behind, "What's going on?!"

Yu Xing straightened up as everything around them became hazy, like a sketch being slowly erased from a sketchbook.

The lights, the desk, the mother and daughter—even the captain, the police officers, and the Divine Chosen behind them—all were gone.

In the end, only a thick darkness remained.

But the darkness didn’t last forever. Yu Xing saw the distant lights from the residential buildings outside the window.

A light flickered beside her—it was the glow from Wang Kunyu's device.

"Where is everyone?" Wang Kunyu whipped his head around. "Where did they go?"

When he looked down, he almost shrieked. "What are these?!"

Yu Xing lowered her gaze. The floor was piled with corpses. Some had completely decayed into skeletons, while others were partially decayed.

These bodies crammed together, littering the floor of 1601, were the remains of all those who had died there over the years—the source of 1601's foul stench.

Wang Kunyu stared at the corpses, his hair standing on end. "Where are they? Where’s Edward? And those two police officers?"

"They're all dead," Yu Xing said, pointing her light toward a corner of the room.

Two skeletons in police uniforms lay side by side—one tall and broad, the other with remnants of long hair.

Wang Kunyu went quiet, realizing that the people who had seemed so alive just moments ago had actually been dead for a long time.

Yu Xing searched for a while before finally finding the pair of skeletons embracing each other in the living room.

A larger skeleton held a smaller one in its arms. Yu Xing crouched down, studying them for a moment before gently opened the smaller skeleton’s right hand.

Clutched in its palm was a wadded-up piece of paper. Unfolding it, she saw that it was the torn-out diary page—now yellowed and stained, but still bearing the blood-drawn magic circle and the wish Cui An'an had written.

Yu Xing placed the diary page on the ground, raised her wand, and shouted, "Avada Kendagua!"

A bolt of lightning struck, turning the page to ash. From the ashes, a purple orb of light emerged.

Wang Kunyu was stunned. "The source of corruption… was just a page from a diary?"

Yu Xing collected the corruption source without hesitation, showing no intention of sharing it with Wang Kunyu, and turned to leave.

Lost in inexplicable grief, Wang Kunyu barely reacted in time. By the time he snapped out of it, Bull Warrior was already at the door.

"Bull Warrior, wait for me!"

Chasing her out of Building 73, Wang Kunyu tagged along pathetically behind Yu Xing and pleaded, "Bull Warrior, can you friend me? I swear I won’t tell anyone."