Chapter 42: Corridor of Broken Dreams. Part-2.

As Zephyr walked through the darkness-filled corridor, he had a sudden feeling in his heart as if his intuition were telling him not to take any wrong decisions.

His instincts were telling him to just keep moving straight and not even think about making any stops or turns.

’What a strange feeling... Xinran also said something about going straight and not making any turns too...’

Zephyr was confused at the start, but soon everything became clear to him.

*UUUUUUUUUUUU!!!* *SOB* *Sob* *Sob*

The voice of a child crying started to echo in the massive and empty dark corridor, and for some reason, just hearing that voice was making Zephyr feel uncomfortable from the very bottom of his heart.

’I need to keep moving forward; I must not stop. There is no way that there’s child in a place like this...’

Zephyr had already seen that snake-like monster mimic the voice of a child back in the sea of ash in order to lure prey, so he was quite sure that whatever was making this noise was likely not a helpless child but something else.

*Sob* *sob* *My pigeon... my pigeon died!* *sob* *sob*

The voice echoes in the corridor loudly, but Zephyr paid it no mind and kept moving forward.

*I wanted to be a bird keeper!* *But my birds keep dying!!* *UUUUUU!!!* *SOB* *SOB!*

The voice of the child carried the deep sorrow of having a dream shattered into pieces before it could even begin.

Just when Zephyr was thinking that things couldn’t possibly get any worse than this, an extremely eerie and horribly distorted voice suddenly whispered in Zephyr’s left ear.

*I want a new bird. The last one... looked too delicious; I ate it... hehe~*

*Ah~ my bird~ a new bird~ How about I turn you into a Bird~*

It seemed as if someone were standing right beside him and whispering these words straight into his left ear; Zephyr could even feel that someone had put a hand on his shoulder and was trying to turn him toward themselves.

’I can’t stop here; I must keep moving.’

With sheer grit and determination, Zephyr refused the force trying to stop him and kept moving forward.

Thankfully, the ’Perfect Combat Sense’ skill gave him the ability to discern what he had to do in order to survive in a battle.

Whatever was trying to gain Rio’s attention, it was likely out for his blood; the other party was initiating a battle of wits with Zephyr, and thus Zephyr instinctively knew what he had to do to survive this battle.

All he had to do was completely ignore everything happening around him and just keep walking forward without thinking anything at all.

Hesitation, panic, and wrong decisions could put him in harm’s way at any moment, so it was crucial to make good decisions in order to survive.

Thankfully, Zephyr didn’t have fear in his heart anymore, or he would not have been able to pass this extraordinary mental trial.

*UUUUUUUU!!!* *NO ONE LISTENS TO ME EVER!!!* *MY BIRD DIED!! YET NO ONE CARES!!!* *MY DREAMS DIED!! YET NO ONE CARES!!!*

*SOB* *SOB* *SOB*

*THIS WORLD IS SO CRUEL... I HATE IT!! I HATE IT!! I HATE YOU ALL!!! CURSE YOU ALL* *CURSE YOU ALLL!!!!*

*SOB* *SOB* *SOB*

As if noticing that fear and panic didn’t work on Zephyr at all, the ’entity’ trying to influence him changed its tactics immediately as it adapted on the spot and started using anger and resentment instead to influence Zephyr!

Zephyr felt an unsettling amount of rage and hatred well up in his heart, and the memories of having been almost defeated by Xinran surged out as if trying to corrode his mind with anger and hatred.

’No, I must keep moving forward; I can’t stop here.’

As the rage and hatred tried to consume him, the voice of reason in his heart gave him a calm reply and told him to keep moving.

Zephyr listened to his voice of reason and kept moving, causing the plan of the entity to fail again.

The tension and pressure in the corridor of darkness became more and more dense and powerful with each step that Zephyr took forward.

It felt as if someone were sitting on his shoulders and were trying to slow him down; the pressure kept rising, and at some point it became so high that with each step the floor cracked a bit.

*UUUHHH!!!* *HELP ME!!!* *HELP ME!!!* *I AM BURNING!!!*

*I WANT TO BE A DOCTOR IN THE FUTURE!! I CAN’T DIE HERE!!! HELP!!!*

As the voice of a child didn’t work on Zephyr, the voice changed and turned into that of a woman asking for help and pleading desperately for salvation.

And despite the fact that the corridor was so massive, Zephyr could sense that the voice was coming from just a few feet away from his left side.

Zephyr could even feel the temperature rising on the left side as if there really was a fire going on in the direction.

The situation seemed so convincing that if it weren’t for the fact that his voice of reason was telling him to keep going, Zephyr might have really stopped in that moment.

’I can’t stop here; I must keep moving.’

With flames of determination burning in his eyes, Zephyr kept moving forward and refused to spare a single glance to the woman who was desperately begging for help.

The darkness in the corridor increased even more, and the pressure became even heavier as the result of ignoring the entity trying to deceive him.

*You are a failure! You are f*cking failure!! There’s nothing you can do in life, Zephyr Reid!*

As if feeling frustrated at Zephyr’s high resistance, the entity used a voice that had caused a lot of trouble to Zephyr in the past.

It was the voice of his middle school teacher, who used to specially target only him in the entire class.

*Where are you going, Zephyr Reid!? I am talking to you!! Bow your head down and accept punishment for what you have done!! You are the worst student I have ever had!*

*I couldn’t get promoted all because of you, Zephyr Reid! You are trash!*

’I can’t stop here; I must keep moving.’

Ignoring the voice that the younger version of him used to fear, Zephyr kept moving forward.