The four of them, having sensed something amiss and pieced together various clues, had contacted each other and decided to meet.
However, before their reunion, they had all forgotten many things. Their memories and perceptions were severely muddled, not only completely jumbled but also containing much incorrect information.
For instance, Ye Tiancheng had forgotten that he was a cultivator. He didn't go to work at a company. After some incident, he was left with a small, dilapidated company, entrusted to others for management, and he himself never went to the office.
Let alone working at such a large company.
That was clearly the Hou family's enterprise. Ye Tiancheng was hardly involved. As long as the Hou family members, and Hou Mingzhu, had no demands of him, Ye Tiancheng wouldn't interfere at all, much less work there.
Ye Tiancheng didn't recognize those two secretaries at all.
More importantly, the Hou Mingzhu and Ye Qingcheng that Ye Tiancheng saw today were clearly not real.
Ye Tiancheng had placed Ye Qingcheng in a safe location; she was not by his side at all. As for Hou Mingzhu, not only was she not by Ye Tiancheng's side, but Hou Mingzhu had been missing for a long time, her whereabouts unknown. Despite Ye Tiancheng's worries, no miracle had occurred.
As for Little Fox, in his perception, he had spent most of his time by Ye Tiancheng's side. Wherever Ye Tiancheng went, he followed. This was not unusual, as Ye Tiancheng indeed brought Little Fox with him when he handled matters.
In this bizarre place, perhaps because they didn't know how to arrange for Little Fox, they had crudely told him to go to work with Ye Tiancheng.
But what could Little Fox do after going to the company?
Ye Tiancheng at least knew how to handle company matters, but Little Fox understood nothing about businesses. It wasn't that he wasn't intelligent, but he had never learned or encountered such things. At the company, he would at most be a mascot.
Strangely, Ye Tiancheng and Little Fox, for some reason, hadn't thought of Fatty the entire time. Perhaps it was because Fatty had betrayed them and hadn't been by their side for a long time, and thus wasn't with them this time, missing his chance to appear and being directly overlooked.
As for Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping, they stated that they had woken up that morning in their previous workplaces. They were supposed to be working according to the normal procedures, but they always felt something was off.
They had forgotten about the abnormal situation outside, such as the special operations team. They couldn't recall anything.
Due to the nature of their work, these two were very perceptive. They immediately began investigating the reason for their unease and subsequently discovered the contact numbers of Ye Tiancheng and Little Fox in their phone directories.
This immediately gave them a lead.
Given the nature of Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping's work, how could they casually store contact numbers of strangers in their phones? The people in their directories were definitely those whose identities they knew and needed to store.
As a result, Ye Tiancheng and Little Fox were two people whose identities they couldn't recall, yet they had a vague impression and felt inexplicably familiar.
This was clearly very problematic.
Furthermore, utilizing their work convenience, Nie Chongyang and the others quickly investigated the social identities of Ye Tiancheng and Little Fox. The vast difference in their original statuses was undeniable.
This made things even stranger.
There was no reason for Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping to associate with such people and store their contact information. If they had met by chance and reached the point of exchanging contact details, then Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping wouldn't have forgotten them.
Thus, Nie Chongyang immediately made a decisive move, deciding to try and invite Ye Tiancheng and Little Fox out to meet.
Then, the four of them hit it off and agreed to meet at a hotel.
However, after comparing their experiences, Little Fox couldn't help but frown and suddenly said, "Such strange things have happened. Is it too hasty for us to acknowledge each other like this? How can we prove that we are real?"
Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping were taken aback, "Huh? What do you mean?"
Although they hadn't been entirely unfamiliar with relevant cases, Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping had limited experience in such matters, so they were not as sensitive as Ye Tiancheng and Little Fox.
But once Little Fox brought it up, at least Ye Tiancheng immediately thought of it.
Little Fox explained to Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping, using some past events between him and Ye Tiancheng as examples, to illustrate the seriousness of the situation. Although Little Fox couldn't recall some things himself, he had heard Ye Tiancheng mention them, so he could recount them one by one.
After hearing Little Fox's words, Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping realized the gravity of the situation and understood that they indeed needed to find a way to verify each other's identities.
However, Nie Chongyang said, "Since Little Fox can talk about these things, then at least Little Fox should be fine."
He looked at Ye Tiancheng.
Ye Tiancheng nodded. After thinking for a moment, he also picked out a few things to say, proving that his identity was not problematic.
Then it was Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping's turn. They first verified with each other, and then, together with Ye Tiancheng and Little Fox, they recounted things that only the four of them knew, cross-referencing details and probing each other.
At least they could preliminarily confirm that the four of them were likely fine.
Such a sudden incident had indeed made them nervous.
After confirming that there were no issues, Ye Tiancheng said, "Then let's get down to business."
Nie Chongyang rubbed his chin, thinking as he spoke, "After we all reached the bottom of the lake, we found that shrine, and then Ye Tiancheng, you discovered a hidden compartment. Then we opened that compartment together, and finally, Ye Tiancheng, you took out that brick."
"What happened after that? I don't remember anything. Do you remember?"
Ye Tiancheng shook his head hesitantly, "I don't remember either. I only remember taking out that brick, and then I had no memory. I don't remember if I saw anything in that hidden compartment."
Liang Ping and Little Fox had similar memories. These two hadn't taken action and had been observing from the side the entire time. Their memories ended with Ye Tiancheng taking out the brick.
Little Fox said, "It's clearly the problem with opening that hidden compartment. It's just that we don't know what's going on with us now, and how to leave here to restore everything to normal."
Ye Tiancheng nodded.
Nie Chongyang added, "Although I'd like to be optimistic, I think leaving here won't be a simple matter. I feel that the people active here are very real, with their own logic, no different from normal people. It's too real."
"If I hadn't remembered what happened before, I wouldn't have believed that everything here is fake, that this world is fake."
In such a bizarre place, it was highly likely to be difficult to escape.
After thinking, Ye Tiancheng said, "No matter what kind of bizarre situation we encounter, generally speaking, these places won't be without logic and rules. Perhaps what happens around us can give us clues, but before encountering those things, it's hard to determine where the thread we're looking for is."
"What's more troublesome is that even if we see the thread, we might not realize it's the clue we're looking for."
Little Fox said, "I think we should connect it with the space before we came here and think about it together. I don't believe these two are completely unrelated."
Ye Tiancheng nodded in agreement and said, "There should indeed be a connection between these two, and it will be one of our clues."
Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping were very clumsy in this regard and mostly listened to Ye Tiancheng and Little Fox's opinions. After listening to them talk for a while, Nie Chongyang said, "Then how should we connect it with the previous space to find clues?"
"Do we need to revisit that university in person, in this current spatial world?"
Ye Tiancheng thought about it and said, "Perhaps we can. Moreover, we can also use this to test the boundaries of this space. It's not like this place is as vast as the real world outside. If the entity manipulating all of this has such great ability, then we don't need to struggle anymore; we can just wait to die here."
This space was already real enough to blur the lines between reality and illusion. If the space was also boundless, capable of being like the real world, then an entity with such ability to create this space, what difference would it have from directly creating a world?
And if the other party could truly create worlds, then Ye Tiancheng and the others would indeed have no need to struggle further; they would be unable to resist.
However, Ye Tiancheng didn't believe things were that pessimistic.
The possibility of the other party being that powerful was likely less than one in ten million. The probability was too low; it was truly an unlikely event.
Similarly, Ye Tiancheng explained this point.
This at least made everyone else breathe a sigh of relief. As long as the situation wasn't that dire, everything was manageable.
"I wonder if this space is really that big, and if we can actually go to that place," Little Fox said, then suddenly thought of something else. "But what about the matters here? Our jobs and things like that, how should we handle them?"
Nie Chongyang waved his hand and said, "Since we know this isn't a normal place, are we still going to work as usual? Clearly, there's no need. Don't bother with those trivial things; they're all fake anyway."
Little Fox nodded, "That makes sense. It's fine not to bother."
Ye Tiancheng said, "So, is that settled? We're going to check out that university?"
The other three indicated that it was settled.
Without delay, the four of them sprang into action. They simply went to a car rental agency to rent a car. Although they all had cars, at least Ye Tiancheng and Nie Chongyang did, they didn't want to alert the people "around" them, so they didn't use their own cars. Renting a car was safer.
At the very least, it would make those fake people around them feel something was wrong, and they would have already driven far away.
Moreover, this would also buy them more time.
After renting the car, the four of them got in and started the navigation. Liang Ping helped Nie Chongyang search for the navigation location and route, with Nie Chongyang driving. Ye Tiancheng would also take turns driving.