Chapter 490: Sleep'n Tight
The second gateway was much grander than the initial one, also wider, gleaming with an almost whitish sheen, both the pole and the arc.
The lady stopped at the beginning of the black metallic steps and signaled with her hand for Northern to continue up, keeping as straight a face as she could manage.
Northern did as she instructed, walking to the center of the gateway and sincerely hoping that there was going to be no issue this time around.
The reason for the malfunction was very simple.
The gateway counted the quantity of souls and transported them, and in some cases, the quality of souls.
If Northern were to be literal, his soul was a very robust world that now held within it thousands of souls. If this object was as potent as its reputation suggested, then that meant it wasn't counting Northern as just one soul, but rather as thousands of souls.
This was due to all the souls in the Limitless Void.
That was what made the malfunction surprise Northern. He was truly awed at the ability of the gateway and the crystal.
And that made him realize that the Central Plains was a place he had not truly ventured into, even though he grew up there.
He had heard of several things through the news feed and the mouths of travelers, but he had never actually been there.
The thought of finally starting his adventure journey in the Central Plains made his heart leap with a small force of excitement, and Northern actually looked forward to it.
Northern stood in the center of the gateway while the whirring sound built up again. This time, he tried to guess where the mechanism was positioned.
There was no point he could think of, except below the metallic platform he was standing on.
*I'm guessing all of it is part of the gateway,* he thought.
Northern looked down the moment a white circle appeared on the ground, then began to grow brighter. At some point, the circle looked like it was blinking, which had Northern worried, but eventually, a white light purged out of it, enveloping him, and slowly his point of view changed.
What Northern saw, though it was brief, was a blank, white world with flowing flame-like threads.
It was the same thing as the ligatures of reality he was used to observing; the only difference was this blank white world.
Then Northern's perspective became that of another gateway. He looked up at the dark sky of midnight and sighed.
'Was that subspace? They created a subspace?' he thought.
There were several more questions flowing in his head, prompting him to want to study the whole history surrounding the Warp crystal and the gateway engineering.
Anything that had to do with reality, space, time, and gravity concerned him very much because those were laws that could greatly hinder the Void and Chaos of his ability.
How exactly did he know? The more the Void grew in him, the more its memories became his memories.
The only sad part was that Northern was also aware he was losing his sense of self. At the very least, right now, it wasn't so obvious.
As he stepped down from the platform, a male attendant approached him.
"I'm here with the crew led by a tall, black-haired, scarred-face man."
His description of Shin was crude, but the attendant immediately recognized who he was talking about and said:
"Please follow me."
As Shin and the rest arrived, they were immediately escorted to the waiting room, where Northern was taken.
The place, in terms of grandiosity, was on the same level as Fughal, but the themes were different.
The chairs were blue and shiny and were not arranged in lines opposite each other. Instead, each three-seater cushion was placed in a center, with a glass table in the middle.
However, the difference between this place and Fughal was that the moment Northern entered the room, more than five people turned their heads with wary expressions on their faces.
Their gaze was strictly on the white-haired figure who casually walked toward a seating area. The moment Shin saw him, he, along with the rest of them, stood up and slowly began to leave the waiting room.
As they left, Northern asked Shin:
"Aren't you going to ask me what is wrong with me?"
Shin was silent for a few seconds after the question, then he said, "If there's one thing I know, it's that now, you have a lot of secrets. Your gaze is so deep that sometimes, looking at it makes me feel like I am falling into a dark depth with no end. You are unreadable at times. I have no idea what is going on in your mind, and you barely even smile."
"That last part. I don't remember smiling much while growing up," Northern replied.
Shin chuckled. "You smiled every time Eisha held you. I'm sure you'll find your smile again."
Northern's expression became somewhat despondent. 'Don't be so sure...'
After a few moments, as they trekked out of the port, Northern asked again.
"So what do we do from here?"
Shin looked at the others who were behind them before bringing his eyes back to Northern.
"We find a lodge."
"After you."
Shin smiled a little and led them away.
The streets of South Drywall, even at midnight, bubbled with a small crowd of people. But Northern's guess was that they couldn't be the good kind of people.
They were probably the sort who caused crimes under the cover of darkness.
Even their gazes were full of suspicion. Of course, there were still innocent people, such as
other travelers and merchants conducting legitimate business.
Soft light illuminated the walkway of the street. There were dark alleys here and there, from which unpleasant smells and moans emerged.
And dirt littered the ground.
Eventually, Shin stopped in front of an auberge.
The signboard with a blinking neon light read: Sleep'n tight.
Shin looked at it with a smile, "Quite the name isn't it..."