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# Chapter 164: The Boundary of Darkness
Minjun descended the stairs carefully, each footfall echoing against the stone with a rhythm that matched his racing heartbeat. He clutched a small notebook in his hand, acutely aware of the secrets it contained. His mind remained turbulent—he didn’t fully understand the contract’s contents, yet it felt as though he were sealing his own fate. The building around him lay shrouded in shadow. The air carried a faint mustiness mixed with the scent of aged paper.
As he continued downward, his thoughts grew increasingly tangled. A sliver of light cutting across his path only pulled him deeper into the darkness. The notebook felt heavy in his grip. At the bottom of the stairs, he discovered a small door—one that seemed to hold the notebook’s secrets. When he opened it, he found a room with a weathered desk and stacks of dusty books. Pale sunlight filtered weakly through the window.
He stepped inside, his senses overwhelmed by the musty odor of old books and damp air. His hand still gripped the notebook as his feet carried him forward. A small desk caught his eye. On it sat another notebook. As he opened it, his confusion deepened. The screen displayed a small key—a gateway to hidden truths. He pressed it, and his pulse quickened.
A small door appeared on the screen. He opened it and discovered a narrow staircase descending into darkness. The air grew cooler, carrying hints of moisture and an earthy scent. He descended, his mind spiraling deeper into confusion with each step.
At the bottom lay another room, another desk, another notebook. The pattern repeated—a key, a door, a staircase, another room. Each discovery only amplified his bewilderment. Was this an endless loop? The thought chilled him more than the damp air ever could.
He opened the latest notebook, his hands trembling slightly. “What is this place?” he whispered to himself. “Why does it keep repeating?”
The screen glowed in the darkness, showing the familiar key once more. He pressed it. Another door materialized. He opened it and found himself facing yet another staircase spiraling downward into oblivion.
“Is this an infinite loop?” he wondered aloud, his voice hollow in the oppressive silence. “Will this ever end?”
He descended again, each step taking him further from the world above, deeper into a maze of his own making. The darkness seemed alive, pressing against him with every breath. Yet he continued, driven by a desperate need to understand, to find the center of this labyrinth.
Another room. Another notebook. Another key. Another door.
The cycle persisted, unchanging and relentless. Minjun’s mind fractured with each repetition, reality blurring into a nightmare of endless descent. How many rooms had he passed through? How many times had he opened that same door?
“There has to be an end,” he muttered, though doubt gnawed at him. “There must be a way out.”
But as he reached for the next key, as he opened the next door, as he descended the next staircase, he couldn’t shake the growing certainty that he was trapped—caught between the boundaries of light and shadow, forever searching for an exit that might never come.