Chapter 1709: Chapter 1707: Ego
Before figuring out some things, Han Dong didn’t plan to squeeze his body into the umbilical cord and delve deeper.
At first, he just wandered aimlessly on the surface.
Thanks to the period of familiarization provided by the Gray Walker, Han Dong had suppressed his fear of ’Absolute Prison’ to the lowest point, and was basically able to move freely without sensing it.
During the long wandering, concerns about external threats gradually faded away.
On the first day, Han Dong was still somewhat cautious, often stopping to sense the surroundings.
On the second day, he was indifferent, perhaps only being mildly cautious or checking for bodily harm every two to three hours.
By the third day,
Han Dong had completely transformed into a solitary wanderer, strolling freely in the surface area.
When concerns about the outside world were reduced to [zero], the world became exceptionally quiet, reaching a state of tranquility never experienced before in life.
The Heart Lake was in a completely still state.
In retrospect,
it seemed there had been a long time without truly settling down to think about some issues or reviewing and sorting through past events... Even transferring thoughts to the moment he had just been reborn, or ascended here from [Primary World].
At that time, he was also in a similar state.
During the Cell Clump state, various senses were absent too.
To choose the best Body, Han Dong wandered in the Mysterious Prison for seven years.
However, compared to finding the best Body, the purpose of this wandering was more ’profound’,
Han Dong sought to understand a concept that already existed but wasn’t fully comprehended - "what is Faceless."
The recollection continues.
After repeatedly discarding prisoners’ corpses and obtaining the warden’s key, he found the Faceless Skull in the prison center.
With this, Han Dong ’started from the beginning’ and formally initiated the journey of a new world, coincidentally brought back to the Holy City by an investigating Knight Squad,
and due to insufficient Load Value,
he chose, by chance, a severely weakened suicidal Body that required no Load Value... Thus gaining his name in the new world.
[Valen. Nicholas]
Since then,
because of human limitations and the need to survive in the Holy City, Han Dong used the mimicry granted by the Skull, constantly disguising himself as ’human’.
Because Han Dong believed he was human, fundamentally belonging to humanity by Soul.
Thus, such mimicry seemed very natural, not at all incongruous.
In the subsequent life, he successfully gained the identity of a Formal Knight in the Holy City, acknowledged by the council and made many friends.
From the start, Han Dong accepted this setup, recognizing himself as belonging to [humanity] from his Soul, never pondering deeper about what species he truly belonged to, or whether he could still be categorized as human.
Now.
In a state of complete tranquility,
wandering here in a Faceless stance, Han Dong suddenly picked up this fundamental question and began to contemplate seriously.
Human? Or should be classified as Demon? Or perhaps both...
Maybe this question seems pointless, but Han Dong’s intuition suggests its answer might be related to ’Faceless’, potentially aiding in pursuing the essence of Faceless.
No longer wandering,
sitting on the spot,
thinking from the most fundamental definition of human, then splitting thoughts in two to debate in his brain.
The Black Vortex Trunk reduces the body’s energy consumption to the lowest, ensuring that even without eating or drinking for a prolonged time, Han Dong can continue his contemplative behavior unaffected by physical needs.
Sitting like this, several days passed again.
Special circumstances also arose.
A Chaos Prisoner carrying a conch structure on his back was inadvertently approaching Han Dong’s position.
He belonged to a Deep Sea visitor, coming to the Center of Chaos centuries ago,
hoping to surpass mythological limits with this most primitive and ancient Chaos Power, as he sensed his potential had reached its limit, almost impossible to break through.
Unfortunately, he was ultimately devoured by Madness, reduced to wandering here as a Chaos Prisoner.
Hundreds of years of imprisonment completely erased his escape desire, accepting his identity as a prisoner, and even slowly adapting to a survival pattern.
The coral tentacles derived from the conch have developed a ’contact sensing’ capability.
The range is limited and sensitivity not high, but at least provides a means of detection,
allowing him to sense and timely avoid Danger, or sense weaker prisoners to secure a tasty and ample meal for longer survival.
Currently.
He was gradually approaching Han Dong’s location, with the coral tentacles swaying in the air.
However, neither knew an unexpected encounter awaited...
For the prisoner who hasn’t eaten in years,
capturing and sensing this ’weakling’ Han Dong who falls short of myth, would cause extreme excitement.
He would cherish Han Dong, bind him, and eat a small piece every day to ensure his own nutritional supply for a long time, fulfilling a still intense appetite.
Three meters,
two meters,
one meter... already within the coral tentacles’ capture range, but immersed in thought, Han Dong was oblivious to the impending Danger.
Pop! One tentacle happened to land on Han Dong’s shoulder.
The expected eruption of desire didn’t happen, nor did the immediate combat break out.
An unexpected tranquility prevailed, even causing the deep-sea prisoner with the conch to freeze,
slightly tilting his head in confusion.
The coral tentacle clearly contacted an external object,
yet oddly, the sensed ’external object’ feedback was ’himself’.
Soon, several more coral tentacles adhered, and whether touching the exterior’s skull, shoulder, or Body, all information feedback was the same, ’himself’.
Utterly bewildering,
why an ’exact duplicate’ appeared before him.
At this moment, Han Dong was in a peculiar state of thought, seemingly unaware of external circumstances.
’Human, Demon, or different races within Fate Space,
or further subdivided like Shoggoth or Black Goat,
or categorized by their regions, Chaos Prisoners detained here, London Residents, or Holy City Knights.
All are merely defined concepts, facilitating classification and recognition between individuals.
What am I? This question never had a fixed answer from the beginning, or perhaps the sole answer lies within my heart.
I am myself,
I can become any existence,
Faceless is formless, Faceless is infinite forms... this is the answer, this is my True Self."
Acknowledging all this, Han Dong altered his unchanged sitting posture of several days and slowly stood up.
This behavioral alteration was viewed as a ’Danger signal’ by the deep-sea prisoner.
Though still unable to comprehend why the detected information from the entity before him replicated ’himself’... considering Danger, he nonetheless launched an attack.
As coral tentacles attempted to tighten and unleash a deep-sea pressure,
Han Dong instinctively rotated in mid-air, evading each tentacle’s entanglement like fluid, sleek as silk,
simultaneously,
a terrifying Faceless visage rotated toward the enemy attempting an assault, fixing a ’stare’ on him.