Han Su seriously replied: 【Yes, when I escaped last time, I didn’t injure my eye.】
【This time, one of my eyes was blinded, and my mind has accumulated many inconvenient memories because of having a blind eye.】
【However, this segment of life isn’t all that different from the standard life path I previously went through in person; I’m still a student at Qinggang University, with the same classmates and friends—that life line is the one I know best.】
【On that life line, you and I are most familiar.】
【For example, I remember talking with you about this, and I recall you once analyzed it from an occultist’s angle and gave me suggestions to try solving the problem.】
After a moment, the Black Rose avatar replied: 【Yes, from the perspective of a mysticism enthusiast, I think that if you are repeatedly kidnapped by monsters that don’t exist in reality and taken back in time, then there must be some kind of surreal logic enabling them to consistently locate you.】
【For instance: when you were kidnapped together ten years ago, a mystical spell must have been performed.】
【You or they might have been sacrifices, or experimental subjects chosen by the monsters—that doesn’t matter. What matters is that in terms of identity, you are one.】
【So your escaping alone is useless.】
【Mystical powers are sometimes not bound by time and space.】
【Based on this, I believe the only way you can be free from this nightmare is to bring out all the children—without leaving a single one behind.】
The message she sent gave Han Su an indescribable sense of frustration.
He sat on the empty subway, holding his phone, frozen for a long time.
Escaping that dark ancient castle—isn’t that supposed to be easy?
At first, he managed to escape because the castle was so dilapidated and the monsters so arrogant. If the children were braver and hid in a corner, they could escape.
But now that dark castle has been continuously self-repairing, and the exploitable loopholes for escape are becoming fewer.
Although the monsters don’t retain memories from all the times they’ve been, the longer this drags out, the more brutal and rageful they become, and the lives of the children seem to matter increasingly less to them.
If not for that strange door, perhaps escaping would have already become a fantasy.
Moreover, because the key changes, every time he escapes he has to choose a new route, and also take along those bewildered, frightened children.
As he pondered, the Black Rose avatar suddenly lit up again. Her tone sounded strange: 【Of course, I still hold that you’re actually crazy.】
【After all, I’m an amateur mysticism enthusiast, but a professional psychologist.】
【In my eyes, you didn’t lose your life line and blind an eye now because you failed at rescuing them this time. You already had one blind eye when the Public Security Bureau found you ten years ago.】
【The evidence is in our chat records: you have occasionally reached out to me to talk about being kidnapped, and you mentioned that the experience in the castle caused your life to diverge.】
【But what’s the fact?】
【Every time you talk to me, you’ve been disfigured, not with a broken leg—the full you and the one‑eyed you are distinguished!】
She paused briefly, then the message scrolled: 【From my perspective, what’s more consistent with your current situation is that ten years ago you escaped alone, and misled the Public Security Bureau and rescue teams with an incorrect abduction location, delaying precious rescue time.】
【At that time, the media said that because of a childish lie you cost the lives of more than twenty children. The Public Security Bureau repeatedly questioned you, and the victims’ families grilled you, leading to serious psychological trauma.】
【Over the years, though you appeared normal, your mental issues grew worse, until one day you started delusional thoughts, believing you had again been abducted back in time.】
【In your delusion, you wanted to save the other children—to ease your guilt, and so someone could burden.】
【And even at the psychological level, that’s why I still support your rescuing the other kids.】
Han Su read her reply, understanding what she was trying to persuade him of. He didn’t argue; instead, he gave a wry laugh.
Ten years ago, when he first recounted being kidnapped by monsters, no one at the Public Security Bureau or any experts or newspapers believed him.
Now that he speaks of being abducted again into the past, how could he expect someone to believe?
He previously discussed it with her—not hoping she’d believe, but trusting that as an occult enthusiast she could offer reasonable advice.
But if scrutinized closely, he couldn’t argue with her.
Every time he’s taken back to the past, it’s a massive upheaval for him. But to those around, it seems like he just dozed off.
Maybe, in her eyes, everything he’s told her is just him taking a nap, having a nightmare, then coming to her with delirium?
But what could he say?
The changes are real: his right eye no longer works.
Even if this is truly a bizarre dream or hallucination, those dreams are already bleeding real into reality and twisting his entire life.
【Perhaps you can persist in saying I’m mad—there’s no conflict in that.】
Han Su thought as he typed, correcting only the one issue he cared about: 【But I still want to tell you that I feel no guilt toward the other kidnapped children.】
【When we were abducted back then, since I had the chance to escape, I certainly had to seize it.】
【Whether the others escape or not, or what suffering their families endure, has nothing at all to do with me.】
His words left Black Rose silent for a while, then she replied: 【But you didn’t seem so indifferent before. You were very attentive to bringing out the other kids.】
Han Su answered: 【That’s because a few of those children helped me.】
【They helped me, so I felt indebted and, if given the chance, I saved them—that’s my duty as a person.】
【But I don’t feel guilty for wanting to live!】
【Only after I ensure my own survival would I consider saving others. If it comes to it, I don’t mind sacrificing someone to create an opportunity for myself and other children who still might survive.】
【Now, I just want to ask: is it really true that only by rescuing every other child can I break this curse?】
This time Black Rose replied quickly: 【We talked about this from the start. From an occult perspective, you only have two ways to break this curse:】
【One is to kill all those monsters.】
【The other is to investigate exactly where these monsters come from, exactly what happened in the kidnappings, and find clues from the source to resolve the issue.】
【But you’ve determined both paths are actually impassable, haven’t you?】
Han Su could only nod.
To kill those surreal monsters in the castle—he wasn’t unwilling to try. During his latest escape, he even tried to stab the pale‑skinned monster’s heart.
But unfortunately, he couldn’t do it—not even injure them, let alone kill them.
As for investigating where the monsters come from and the kidnapping's true nature?
He’s been investigating constantly, even borrowing different life paths in attempts, but all that only made him feel more lost, with no clue.
Maybe the only hope is to rescue the children one by one?
After all, that’s the only thing that has ever worked for him.
During the second time he was kidnapped, he casually rescued one of the children.
But things didn’t turn out as he expected; rescuing that kid didn’t mean two people escaped the castle and both faced questioning by the Public Security Bureau.
In fact, after he rescued that kid, the child completely forgot about it—or rather, society as a whole no longer remembered that he had been kidnapped.
Only he and that kid became friends.
In the bunker, one less kidnapped child remained, and then there was that door that could appear anywhere.
That door has become his only hope of escaping the castle now.
This time, he’d hoped to rescue another child—just one more would be enough. .
At least he could see what useful changes might reappear in that despairing castle.
Unfortunately, it’s too hard.
Rescuing Xu Ji by accident seemed easy, but whenever he deliberately sets out to rescue a specific child, however thorough his plan or careful his actions, it always fails.
Wanting to rescue even one more is so difficult—how then could he rescue all the rest?
The helpless pressure in his heart is indescribable.
Unable to discuss it using these strange, incomprehensible issues, Han Su could only silently think on his own.
But as he thought, the Black Rose avatar lit up again:
【Of course, as an amateur mysticism expert, I must remind you of another important issue:】
【That is, the time intervals between your abductions back in time are getting shorter.】
【From once every half‑year at first, then three months, then one month, and now almost once every fifteen days…】
【That perhaps indicates that the spell on you is becoming stronger.】
【Sometime soon, the interval will reach zero.】
【At that point, forget about investigating the truth or rescuing the other kids, or making different life choices—you won’t even have the present anymore…】