The piercing sound waves penetrated the eardrums, shaking one's brain... Roy struggled to get up from the ground, saw the sandworm, and his pupils contracted as he remembered something...
This was exactly the same monster that Netero, Linne, and Grandpa Jager encountered when they first set foot on the Dark Continent!
'No wonder it feels familiar.' Roy instinctively turned his head, and beside him stood three figures, none other than... a young Netero, Linne, and Jager!
'So have I regressed into the past, or have I been forcibly pulled into Grandpa Jager's memory?'
Roy couldn't afford to think; the endless sandworm blotted out the sky, and its tail swept over... Then a loud shout came from beside him: "Get down!"
He hurriedly lay on the ground... but while he could dodge the tail, the fierce wind carried an unbelievably strong [Ren] that tore up the ground, uprooting trees and people alike, and it was inescapable.
He could only fight fire with fire, using [Ren] to counter the blast!
Think quickly... race against time to think... imagine opening all his acupoints in an instant, forcibly expelling his "Manifested Nen Amount," Roy just started to get a feel of it, releasing the "Nen Shield" to cover himself, then... he was hit by an uprooted tree and was sent flying.
It felt like every internal organ had shattered.....
Two seconds... Having just arrived in this world not long ago, and now about to leave again?
Roy felt a sweetness in his throat and couldn't control himself from spitting out a mouthful of blood, and then his head tilted, losing consciousness.....
[Warning: Detecting; "Unknown Consciousness" connection...]
[Warning mechanism initiated... "Gate of Cognition" opening...]
A familiar sense of falling attacked... hazily, it seemed he heard familiar voices,
Roy blinked and opened his eyes, seeing the familiar Sea of Cognition and the many wooden doors floating on the water surface...
Unexpectedly he found that he hadn't immediately returned to reality, but came to the cognitive world instead!
Struggling to get up from the beach...
He first checked his body,
Good, no injuries, his internal organs operational, everything showing—
Including that world with tentacles, it was merely a dream.
He thought thus, as usual, rolling up his pants to let the sea water wash away the fatigue of consciousness, and glanced inadvertently, freezing....
He saw next to the Demon Slayer Gate, there was an extra pitch-black door, slightly ajar... faintly hearing the roars of beasts and human screams.
"re: The Game of the Dead"..."Unknown Consciousness Connection"... Jager, Linne, Netero... numerous words interwoven and surged into his mind, forming an incredible speculation—
Roy gradually realized,
that he either passively or accidentally had his Nenryoku "Gate of Cognition" connected to Grandpa Jager's consciousness, or rather, his memory journey on the Dark Continent!
So, this additional door led to the Dark Continent in Jager's memory!
As his thoughts cleared, Roy understood what his great-grandfather meant by "Your Grandpa Jager loves sausages"... Some people remain even after death, their consciousness still not forgotten by the world....
Now the question arises, should he continue?
The young boy regained his senses, hesitated on the spot, gritted his teeth, waded through the shallow waters, and pushed the door open to enter again!
"Get down!" Memory replayed... Roy heard that shout again, instinctively dropped to the ground, called upon [Ren], still the previous sensation, forcefully driving out all of his "Manifested Nen Amount" through his acupoints, forming "Nen Shield", protecting himself from wave after wave of impact...
"Bang!" This time, Roy was hit by a flying rock, thrown away, for two and a half seconds...
"Splash~" The sea slapped against the rocks, and the familiar sense of falling came again, unsurprisingly, Roy awakened once more, whole and complete, back in the familiar cognitive world.
This time he patted his face,
without hesitation, then pushed open the black door, rashly went inside, it was still that shout "Get down!"
Forcing "Manifested Nen Amount" to form a "Nen Shield" to protect himself, this time he lasted three seconds, struck by a piece of plank, lost consciousness.
Then, entering the Dark Continent, returning to the cognitive world, then back to the Dark Continent, then back to the cognitive world, continually cycling....
Finally, after seven or eight round trips, intense drowsiness hit, Roy returned for the tenth time to the Sea of Cognition, struggled to turn his body, collapsed on the beach, knowing in his heart—this was his limit!
Fifteen seconds... This time he lasted a full fifteen seconds....
....
Castle, basement.
Watching Roy push the food cart and enter the passage.
Tsubone took the opportunity, as Scarface shut the security door, and leisurely pulled out a pocket watch, seeing it, her memory drifted back... This was her third time here, previously Zeno and Silva.
She was a housemaid of the Zoldyck clan, taken in by Maha as a child, grew up with Zeno, held back Silva when he urinated, clearly remembering how long each of them had stayed inside.
She had met Jager as well, even served him for a few years, she was present when he died and thus knew what was inside.
Three seconds was Zeno's result, three and a half seconds was Silva's limit, now... the old butler kept a close watch on the passage, released her [En], and at the instant she sensed the "Telekinesis" fluctuating, she pressed the stopwatch to begin timing.
Scarface and the one-eyed stood like door gods at her side, guarding her left and right, not allowing anything or anyone to distract her.
Tsubone silently counted; "One... one point five... two..."
Eyebrows raised: "Two point five... three..."
Pupils widened in surprise, she continued: "Three point five... four... five... six!"
This... impossible... Her two pink pigtails began to flutter messily in the wind... Tsubone furrowed her brows tightly, continued counting: "Eight... nine... ten... eleven... fifteen!"
Suddenly pressing the stopwatch, she noticed... the unique "Telekinesis" fluctuation disappeared... she was frozen in place!
"It seems the master truly likes him." Scarface said in a deep voice at this moment.
"Because he stayed the longest." The one-eyed honestly added.
They were all children adopted by Jager, playmates growing up with Zeno, among them... Scarface was also Tsubone's husband, Hall's father, Yu Yin's grandfather.
Seeing Tsubone in a daze, they reminded her: "You should report it truthfully."
Tsubone snapped back to reality, still holding the pocket watch in her hand, freed her other hand to take out her phone, called Silva, not wasting a single second, even saving the time to walk.
"Squeak... squeak..." Upstairs, the master bedroom,
The soft big bed was shaking, as if unable to withstand the impact, protesting, wailing....
"Ring ring...." A strings of bells chimed, the big bed quieted down...
The man frowned and grabbed the phone, pressed the answer button, unhappily asked: "What?"
"The time the master wanted has come."
"How many seconds?"
"Fifteen seconds."
"Hmm?!"
Silva leaped out of bed, revealing muscles cast like steel!
"You know, this is no joke."
On the other end of the phone, Tsubone vaguely heard a string of footsteps, raised her eyes toward the passage, seeing Roy pushing the food cart leisurely coming out, the chrysanthemum bouquet remained in front of the airtight door, quietly blooming.
"You know, I don't joke."
Silva: "...."
Put down the phone, fell into a long silence.....