Hidden Dead Ends-Chapter 58

No finesse.

Just pure strength.

With a dull thud, Li Chengyi swung his greatsword down with raw power.

The blade, nearly two meters long, easily held the advantage over the figure’s short daggers.

His sword clashed with the figure's daggers, the impact sending a shiver through Li Chengyi. The daggers shattered, and his greatsword sliced through the figure.

The towering cloaked creature split in two, from shoulder to waist.

Hiss…

It twisted, releasing thick black smoke from within before collapsing, its body turning into a pile of clothing on the ground.

“Not as strong as that bald cyborg I fought before,” Li Chengyi remarked, sheathing his sword.

This creature was slower, and its strength was even weaker than the bald cyborg. It wasn’t much of a threat.

But he realized that for someone entering a Dead End for the first time, encountering this creature would likely be a death sentence.

Compared to the “Big Face” monster he’d faced in the past, this cloaked figure was at least equivalent to a third encounter with Big Face in terms of intensity. It even surpassed it in raw strength.

Li Chengyi’s dismissive evaluation came from the fact that he had strengthened considerably—his Flower Scale Armor had significantly enhanced his speed, strength, and defense.

As black smoke poured out from the cloaked creature, the surrounding scene began to distort.

Li Chengyi quickly understood—he was about to exit the memory flash.

He deactivated the Flower Scale Armor and stood still, calmly waiting.

In an instant, the scene around him flickered, like a television changing channels. The setting shifted so quickly that even with his eyes wide open, Li Chengyi couldn’t catch what was happening.

He came to his senses.

He was back in the passageway along the storefronts on the right side of the old street.

To his right was a row of closed shop fronts, and to his left, a red sedan was slowly driving by.

A black fly buzzed close to his face, circling once before flying off.

The wind carried the stench from a nearby trash can.

“Where… is everyone?” Li Chengyi quickly scanned his surroundings, looking forward.

Where was the chubby kid?

He still needed the boy to help locate Mist Street’s real-world counterpart.

But the boy was nowhere in sight. Li Chengyi ran forward a bit, reaching a corner and looking around, but the street was empty—no trace of the kid.

‘How long was I in there?’ He pressed a button on his AR glasses to check the recorded time, but the AR display was frozen.

All electronic devices malfunctioned or experienced disturbances within Dead Ends, so this wasn’t the first time.

That’s why even modified humans and tech-oriented cyborg specialists often faced issues when entering Dead Ends.

The best-known example was Sindra’s son, Lien.

After a quick search, Li Chengyi came up empty-handed. He considered retracing his steps and returned to the spot where he’d initially run into the boy. Outside a barbershop, an old man was sitting and cooling himself off.

“Sir, did you happen to see a chubby kid run by here?” Li Chengyi asked, casually pulling out a hundred-yuan bill from his wallet and handing it to the old man.

“A chubby kid?” The old man, wearing an olive-green cap and wrinkled old clothes, rubbed his bleary eyes.

“Yes, a round-faced kid with squinty eyes and a mouth like three horizontal lines,” Li Chengyi nodded.

“Haven't seen any chubby kid around here. Just saw you running by earlier, yelling to yourself. Nobody else passed by,” the old man replied lazily, pocketing the money.

“Haven’t seen him?” Li Chengyi felt irritated. He’d just paid, but the man wasn’t helping at all.

“It’s true, son. You were talking to a pole, shouting, waving your arms. I thought you were recording a video or something. Everyone’s a streamer these days, making all sorts of videos,” the old man chuckled.

“Alone?” Li Chengyi frowned. He’d been chasing the kid from the bakery—how could he have been alone?

“Sir, are you sure? I saw that kid steal something from the bakery and ran after him…”

“Bakery? What bakery? There isn’t a bakery within five kilometers of here,” the old man replied, looking at Li Chengyi with confusion.

“No bakery? It’s just over there…” Li Chengyi straightened up, walking quickly to the corner and pointing at the spot where he’d seen the Zhou Family Bakery.

“!!?”

But as he pointed, he froze in shock.

What had been the Zhou Family Bakery was now just a wall.

A solid, gray wall that looked like it had been sealed up long ago, covered with faded slogans painted in red.

"More births, better births, a life of happiness."

"National birth incentive tripled; 80% free healthcare…”

"Safety above all; fire prevention is key."

"Don't fear infertility—trust your genes, secure your family."

The slogans looked old and faded, some nearly illegible.

Above the wall hung a broken solar-powered light, with a long, thin red ribbon tied around it.

The ribbon had faded from exposure to the sun and rain, turning a pale pink.

“This was… clearly a bakery just moments ago…” Li Chengyi stared at the wall in bewilderment.

“See for yourself—no bakery here,” the old man muttered, shaking his head and giving Li Chengyi a sympathetic look.

“But I just…” Li Chengyi pressed a button on his AR glasses, hoping to view the automatic playback recording.

Nothing.

The AR was empty; even all previous recordings were reduced to static.

The old man patted Li Chengyi’s shoulder with a slow sigh as he walked away, muttering under his breath, “That’s some serious illness…”

Li Chengyi said nothing, thinking back to his encounter with the chubby kid.

He quickly activated the command on his AR glasses.

“Contact the boss.”

“Please wait…” the AR responded.

After over ten seconds, there was no connection—just a rotating white light, signaling it was still attempting to connect.

“Looks like it’s broken.” Li Chengyi took off his glasses. They might’ve gotten damaged during his fight with the masked figures in Mist Street.

He decided to walk back to the location where he’d separated from the others, taking his phone out of his pocket.

Luckily, the phone was still working.

He dialed a number, and soon, Sindra picked up.

“What’s up, Chengyi?”

“Boss, I ran into some trouble here.” Li Chengyi quickly recounted everything that had happened.

He left out the details about the fighting, focusing on the strange events.

Sindra listened and then paused in thought.

“If you remember the exact name, appearance, and layout of the shop, I’ll have our company AI run a quick search. Give me a moment.”

“Alright!” Li Chengyi breathed a sigh of relief. He couldn’t tell if what he’d seen was real or part of the memory flash.

Having Sindra help confirm things was a relief.

After a short wait, a black luxury SUV approached and pulled up beside him.

The door slid open, revealing Sindra and Zhong Ying inside.

“Get in,” Sindra said solemnly. “I’ve found some interesting information. Let’s discuss it on the road.”

Li Chengyi quickly climbed in, sitting in the spacious back row with them.

The back seats of the Mist-Flag SUV were wide enough for four people to sit facing each other.

Once Li Chengyi was inside, the side window turned pitch black, then lit up, forming a large, clear screen.

The car window had transformed into a monitor.

“Based on the details you provided, our AI quickly ran a search and found something quite intriguing,” Sindra said gravely.

“What did it find?” Li Chengyi’s curiosity was piqued. He desperately wanted to know if what he experienced was a memory flash or something else entirely.

“The chubby kid you mentioned didn’t yield much—too many similar profiles—but the location you described, that wall, did have a bakery, the Zhou Family Bakery, over a hundred years ago. The layout you described matches exactly,” Sindra explained.

“Another hundred years ago?!” Li Chengyi’s heart skipped a beat. “Why would I suddenly see a bakery from over a century ago

? What connection does it have with the Dead End?”

“I’m not sure. But it’s very likely you entered a memory flash within a Dead End. I suspect there may be another Dead End here, separate from Mist Street, and you accidentally stumbled into it,” Sindra suggested.

Read latest chapters at freёweɓnovel.com Only.

“Another Dead End?” Li Chengyi narrowed his eyes in thought. It was possible.

But why were two Dead Ends so close together? And why did he encounter Mist Street right after finding this one?

“Dead Ends can have layers of depth, did you know?” Sindra asked.