99: Chapter 99 The Light-Keeping Area

When the sound of bus brakes screeched outside the entrance of the Safe House, everyone inside fell silent for a moment.

The sound was too real.

Tires rolling over puddles, the faint screech of brake pads, and the pneumatic hiss of the bus doors opening. Although there was only a narrow alley outside the Safe House where a bus couldn't possibly enter, everyone felt as if they had heard a vehicle stop right at the door.

A patient stood up.

Li Xi rushed over and held him down: "Sit down!"

The patient was surprisingly strong, pushing her back against a cabinet with a backhand shove. Li Xi's arm scraped against the metal edge, the pain bringing tears to her eyes.

"I've reached my stop," the patient said blankly.

"Reached your head!" Li Xi gritted her teeth and got up. "You haven't even settled your hospital bill yet!"

Xu Minglan grabbed him from the side and pressed a purification patch onto his wrist. She didn't have an Ability Seed and couldn't stabilize the contamination like real members of the medical pathway, so she could only rely on procedures and tools to buy time.

"Separate them," she said to Li Xi. "Those with auditory hallucinations on one side, those who received the text message on another, and isolate anyone who touched a ticket. Those who are still clear-headed should go to the inner zone, away from the windows."

Li Xi gasped in pain but still complied, cursing under her breath.

"Did you hear me? Everyone move! Don't just stand there acting like passengers!"

The youth held a box of mineral water, unsure of where to put it. Chen Shi's face was deathly pale, but he actively called out those who had received the text messages one by one. Chen Jue was escorted back to the Safe House by Lin Zhao. The moment he entered, he saw a crowd of people squeezing their way out. The guilt on his face hadn't even faded before he immediately threw down his jacket to block the door.

Lin Zhao grabbed him: "Don't block the door, block the people! Stand to the side, don't face the entrance directly!"

Chen Jue gritted his teeth and complied.

Tang Zhiwei was practically screaming in the logistics channel.

"Block the entrance of the eastern alley, don't let any vehicles in! I don't care who sent you, no one is allowed to drive down this road tonight!"

Someone on the other end of the line tried to explain their authority, but she interrupted them directly.

"I'll take responsibility if anything goes wrong. Do as I say now."

After speaking, she hung up the phone, only to realize her voice had gone hoarse.

Inside the Xinhuo Hall, Lu Chen watched the contamination fluctuations erupting simultaneously inside and outside the Safe House, his expression very cold.

This wasn't an overwhelming high-tier anomaly.

It was much more disgusting.

It mixed ordinary text messages, navigation, patients' fears, relatives' names, and station concepts all together, making everyone hear the exact phrase they were most likely to believe.

Erasing memories wouldn't solve this.

Ordinary people had already seen the darkness and had been dragged to the edge. Wiping their memories would only leave them not even knowing why they should run the next time the bus doors opened.

What Torch needed to do was not make them forget.

It was to let them remember the fear while no longer being led away by it.

"Activate the temporary Lamp-Keeping Zone," Lu Chen said.

Zero prompted: [The stability of Jiangbei First Anchor is insufficient. The temporary Lamp-Keeping Zone's duration is limited.]

"As long as it's enough."

[Requires invoking the residual structure of the Law-Suppressing Bell Shadow to assist with stabilization.]

Lu Chen's finger paused.

The Law-Suppressing Bell Shadow was still very faint, merely a rudimentary form of the bell's law left deep within the Fire Keeper's authority after the Fate-Illuminating Bronze Bell was analyzed. It was not a complete law artifact, and could not even be considered truly formed. Invoking it rashly would increase the load on the Jiangbei First Anchor in the short term.

But now was not the time to hold back.

"Invoke it for a single breath."

Deep within the Xinhuo Hall, an extremely faint shadow of a bell emerged. It had no physical form, its edges burning with tiny Purifying Flames, resembling an uncast bell, or a sun that had not yet risen.

The shadow of the bell did not ring, but merely vibrated gently.

Inside the Jiangbei Safe House, the lights suddenly stabilized.

It wasn't that they grew brighter.

It was that the feeling in everyone's hearts of being pulled by the bus doors was suddenly blocked by something.

The patients were still afraid, the youth still remembered the ringtone, and Chen Shi still saw the text message on his phone. However, they were no longer walking uncontrollably toward the door.

Li Xi sat by the wall, supporting her arm, and took a couple of deep breaths.

"This lamp... is actually quite useful."

Xu Minglan glanced at her. "Can you still move?"

"Yes," Li Xi bared her teeth. "But I request to be equipped with a helmet next time."

Xu Minglan finally couldn't help but chuckle.

In the channel, Bai Ya's voice immediately followed.

"The actual Terminal Station outside the Safe House isn't the entrance."

The Grey Net pulled three threads together: the old monthly bus pass, the express delivery slip that automatically changed addresses, and the iron plate of the Terminal Station.

Their mutual destination was not the entrance of the Safe House.

But in the underground parking level of the old industrial park.

When Lu Chen invoked the Law-Suppressing Bell Shadow, he didn't feel well either.

That shadow of the bell was hidden deep within the Fire Keeper's authority, usually just a blurry outline. The moment he actually touched it, it felt as if he had plunged his hand into an uncooled bronze bell. The Purifying Flame burned upward along his palm; there was no external wound, but a dull reverberation echoed deep within his bones.

He gritted his teeth, not letting any sound escape.

A Fire Keeper could be mysterious and aloof, but Lu Chen knew very well that he was still far from being able to suppress an entire city at will. The Law-Suppressing Bell Shadow was only a prototype, and the Jiangbei First Anchor was only a temporary fire point. Forcibly expanding the Lamp-Keeping Zone was merely gritting his teeth to hold on using source essence and authority stability.

But he couldn't wait.

The people in the Safe House were not numbers.

They were the youth, Li Xi, Chen Shi, Chen Jue who had almost made a mistake, and a group of ordinary people frightened by text messages and bus sounds.

They knew darkness existed, so they deserved to know all the more that the fire would come.

Zero's prompts kept appearing.

[source essence consumption increased.]

[The stability of Jiangbei First Anchor has decreased.]

[Remaining duration of temporary Lamp-Keeping Zone: Five minutes.]

Looking at that line displaying five minutes, Lu Chen suddenly felt like laughing.

When making games, five minutes was just an event countdown, a dungeon timer that players complained was too short. Now, five minutes determined whether dozens of people could sit in the room without being called away by a non-existent bus.

He raised his hand and fixed the Lamp-Keeping Zone to the inner zone of the Safe House, giving up on covering the peripheral alleys.

If resources were insufficient, one couldn't be greedy.

This judgment was cold, but it was a lifesaver.

As a result, the ringing outside the door grew louder again, and the pressure on Lin Zhao and Chen Jue increased sharply. Chen Jue gritted his teeth and held back someone near the door who wanted to rush out. For the first time, he didn't shout or run around wildly. He merely repeated the words Lin Zhao had just taught him.

"You haven't reached your stop."

"You are in the Safe House."

"You have water in your hand, your feet are on the ground, you are still on this side."

Hearing this, Li Xi couldn't help but give him a thumbs-up.

Chen Jue's face flushed, and he pretended not to see it.

Bai Ya recorded all the fluctuations before and after the formation of the Lamp-Keeping Zone into the Grey Net. He wrote in great detail, even marking Li Xi's phrase 'the last bus has been canceled' as an effective soothing technique. The Elf sent a string of question marks after seeing the record. Bai Ya replied: 'Don't laugh, words that can make people sit down are more useful than pretty settings.' When Lu Chen saw this record, he did not delete it. The Torch system needed rules, but it also needed these somewhat unglamorous but life-saving methods.

An unregistered transport vehicle was parked there.

Inside the vehicle, there were also three unopened old items.