"{Penalty Proxy}?" Qi Xia looked at Yun Yao with confusion. Wasn't it supposed to be {Beckoned Calamity}?
Wait a minute… Qi Xia quietly lowered his head.
The first person to trigger their {Reverberation} wasn't Han Yimo, but the one with the strange smile, the {Tenth Person}! He was the one with the {Penalty Proxy} {Reverberation}.
But what could {Penalty Proxy} possibly mean?
"The second one is the {Beckoned Calamity} shown on the screen," Yun Yao continued to explain. "It's uncommon to see two {Reverberations} triggered on the first day. Even {Reverberatees} usually wait a few days before activating their abilities."
"The next one, I think it was... {Adversity Shift}?" Yun Yao recalled, "That {Reverberation} only appeared for a very short time, so I might have been mistaken."
Qi Xia’s expression became grim as he nodded in acknowledgment, recognizing it as Xiao Xiao's technique.
"Next was {Boosting Touch}, and then..."
Boosting Touch? Based on the sequence of events, Qi Xia concluded that the person experiencing this {Reverberation} should be Officer Li. But what did {Boosting Touch} denote? Qi Xia deliberated for a considerable time, yet he could not discern any connection between {Boosting Touch} and the materialization of objects from nothing.
"Go on, what came next?" Qi Xia prompted.
"The next {Reverberation} was quite intriguing... I seem to recall it being a part of an idiom," Yun Yao remarked, raising her head as she thought deeply. "What was it again...?"
"Ah! I remembered!" she smiled. "It was {Probing Pocket}!"
"{Probing Pocket}...?"
"Yep," Yun Yao nodded. "It’s {Probing Pocket} from {retrieved through probing pockets[1]}."
Qi Xia silently repeated the two words to himself, a growing unease rising in his chest.
This was Officer Li's {Reverberation}.
But why wasn't it {Creation}? Could it be that Officer Li's power isn't about conjuring items from nothing, but {extracting pre-existing objects}? This is certainly an abstract notion.
In other words, Officer Li could only {take out} items, not {create} them. As he retrieved a metal lighter from {End Point}, the same lighter in the real world would vanish. This phenomenon is referred to as {Probing Pocket}. Therefore, it was impossible for him to have pulled out 3,600 {Dào} before his death… unless he truly had that many.
"It looks like I’ll have to find a chance to tell him this..." Qi Xia muttered to himself. "Otherwise, that man will undoubtedly keep seeking death."
That said...why was there a {Boosting Touch} between Officer Li and Xiao Xiao?
Who triggered this ability?
A sense of perplexity lingered within Qi Xia. Having only just arrived at {End Point}, he found himself particularly attuned to the precise moment each bell tolled. He clearly recalled that after the bell toll following Xiao Xiao, Officer Li had come next.
‘No, that can’t be right…’ Qi Xia furrowed his brow in contemplation. After Xiao Xiao had killed Qiao Jiajin and Tian Tian, he had fainted for a brief period due to an intense headache.
The appearance of a {Reverberatee}, if it were to occur, could only happen during this brief interval.
But who could it be? Qi Xia thought for a moment, then shook his head. It appeared he had stumbled into a misconception. Who ever claimed that a {Reverberatee} must be a person familiar to him? There were countless people in the city each playing their own game, and anyone could potentially hear their {Reverberation}.
"The last toll happens to belong to someone I’m familiar with," Yun Yao gently touched her cheek and said. "It was a member from {Judgment’s Domain}, their {Reverberation} is called {Hetu Phala}."
‘Hetu Phala…’ Qi Xia nodded quietly, understanding that this was the {logical relation} Jiang Ruoxue frequently mentioned. Looking at her abilities as a whole, it seems she can establish the {Phala (outcome)} first and then construct a {Hetu (cause)} that logically fits.
When she had altered the password on the microwave, she had spoken in a similar manner. The letter in the iron box contains the necessary information to open the door, and since it reads {All Hail Judgment’s Domain}, it stands to reason that {All Hail Judgment’s Domain} is the passcode.
In other words, no matter what the original passcode had been, once Jiang Ruoxue activated her ability, whatever was written on the letter would unconditionally become the password.
These abilities sound increasingly outlandish, but thankfully, Jiang Ruoxue seems to be hindered by a critical weakness—if she cannot fathom the logical bond between two events, {Hetu Phala} cannot be realized. The clearest instance of this was when she wanted to save Qi Xia, but she openly confessed that she could not. Because once someone is gravely injured, death becomes inevitable, and she was unable to defy that logical sequence.
"I've never encountered such a dense onset of {Reverberations} before," Yun Yao smiled. "I even thought that {Passage to Heaven} and {Judgment's Domain} had already begun their full-blown war."
"Have these two organizations ever clashed in a war before?" Qi Xia inquired.
"Probably not," Yun Yao pondered for a moment before answering, "I'm not sure because I too have lost my memories before. Not everyone in a single reincarnation is guaranteed to receive a {Reverberation}. So, aside from Chu Tianqiu, everyone else from {Passage to Heaven} has, at some point, lost their memories. For example, Zhang Shan... He died unexpectedly on the second night last time and didn’t even have a chance to trigger his {Reverberation}. But it’s fine—so long as someone remembers what happened before, {Passage to Heaven} will remain standing."
Though Yun Yao was smiling, Qi Xia could detect a hint of sorrow in her words. It dawned on him that {Passage to Heaven} must be the saddest place in the entire {End Point}. The majority of its inhabitants retained their memories, fully aware that escape was impossible. The duration of their internal struggle is unknown, but ultimately, they resolved to stand together, courageously accepting their fate.
In contrast, those without {Reverberation} were different. For them, each experience was fresh. They forever believe they’ve just arrived, foolishly convinced there’s a way out.
Perhaps this was why {Passage to Heaven} chose the school as their location—because they needed to pass down the memory {from generation to generation}.
"What, then, is Chu Tianqiu’s {Reverberation}?" Qi Xia questioned.
"I don’t know," Yun Yao replied.
Qi Xia felt as though he had misheard her and asked again, "What did you say?"
"I said I don't know," Yun Yao repeated.
"You don’t know…?" Qi Xia felt a strange discomfort at the answer.
"Not only do I not know, even Chu Tianqiu himself doesn’t know," Yun Yao said with a grin. "His {Reverberation} trigger is very unique. The unfortunate thing is that every time his {Reverberation} activates, he dies, so even he is oblivious to his own ability."
"Oh?" Suddenly, Qi Xia came to a realization and asked, "Could it be that the trigger for Chu Tianqiu’s {Reverberation} is also death's edge?"
"It’s far more complicated than that," Yun Yao said with a rueful smile. "Qi Xia, the trigger for Chu Tianqiu’s {Reverberation} is {Witnessing the End}."