198 The Gate

Darkness flooded Li's vision, and he felt an intense sense of disorientation, as if he was falling but he did not know in what direction. It felt exactly like the same sense of loss of control as that which he felt when he first came into this world, when he stepped into that void in what he thought was a game glitch.

He fell. For a long time, or a short time? He could not tell. He did not know how time was passing. He did not know what he was. He tried to move his body, but nothing moved. He did not even know if he even had a body.

There was only an infinitely stretching darkness, and in the midst of this void, there was only the thin speck of his lonely consciousness.

"The gate…"

A voice echoed through the darkness. It was so very faint. A mere whisper. It sounded so faint, so weak, as if uttered an unimaginable distance away.

"The gate…"

It became louder, a little closer, but still so very far away.

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