I changed the world.

Page 243

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Chadwick didn't know how long he had slept, but he groggily opened his eyes. It was still pitch black outside the window, so it seemed that it was not yet dawn. Chadwick stretched, rubbed his slightly sore shoulders, and propped himself up.

How did he fall asleep... Chadwick sat on the bed for a while, then picked up his phone to check the time. It was a little past 1 a.m.

At this moment, he felt a little sticky, so he rubbed his face vigorously and decided to wash up first before continuing to rest.

Chadwick's room was simply furnished, similar to most hotel rooms of this caliber, with a bedroom and a bathroom. The bedroom contained a bed and a desk, two small sofas, a coffee table, and a clothes rack. He went into the bathroom and saw a toilet, a white bathtub, and a shower next to the bathtub; the shower and bathing were separate.

Satisfied after a quick glance, Chadwick turned on the bathtub faucet, quickly adjusted the water temperature, and prepared to take a bath. He had been trekking through the rainforest for the past few days, and especially after those last series of "encounters," he inevitably had some bruises from bumps and falls. While not serious, a hot bath would certainly help with his recovery.

Thinking this to himself, Chadwick felt a little better. He hummed a tune, quickly brushed his teeth at the sink in the bathroom, then took off his clothes, turned on the hot water, and started showering. He planned to wash his body first, and by the time he finished, the bathtub would be almost full of hot water, just enough for a bath.

Warm water flowed over my body, and wisps of steam rose from the washroom, fogging up the mirror next to me.

Chadwick stood under the showerhead, enjoying the pleasant sensation of the hot water washing over his body for a while, before starting to rub his skin...

A moment later, he picked up the shampoo from the washstand, squeezed it into his hand, closed his eyes, and began to apply it to his head, then started to rub it in, quickly creating white foam...

Just as Chadwick was washing his hair, a few steps away in the bathtub, the hot water tap was running, and the water level was slowly rising as hot water was poured in.

What Chadwick didn't notice was that, as the water level rose, a thin stream of red liquid began to spread throughout the bathtub...

It was as if someone had spilled a can of red ink in the bathtub; in no time, the entire tub of water had turned a deep red, and at the same time, strands of black hair began to appear in the water.

The hair, like seaweed, spread out from the bathtub. Soon, a head silently rose from the water, its black hair flowing freely. Then, on its shoulders, a figure appeared, sitting up out of thin air in the bathtub…

Hmm... What's that smell? Chadwick, who was rubbing his hair with his eyes closed, smelled an increasingly strong, sweet and fishy odor. This smell carried a sense of horror. Some kind of instinct engraved in his genes made him feel uncomfortable and wary the moment he smelled it.

After a moment, he realized that it was the smell of blood...

A bad feeling welled up inside him. He quickly lifted his face and rinsed it under the showerhead to wash away the foam. Chadwick opened his eyes, and then, almost immediately, he discovered something that made his heart stop!

Chapter 453 Don't alarm them...

The bathtub, which had been empty just moments before, had turned bright red the moment he applied shampoo. Sitting silently in the tub was a woman with disheveled hair. Judging from her skin and hair color, she resembled the locals. Most of the locals were of mixed race, descendants of Gasol colonists and local natives, gradually forming a new ethnic group. Their hair was black and slightly curly, their skin more like that of East Asians, yet their facial features bore the characteristics of Western Caucasians.

The exposed upper body appeared to belong to a woman; aside from slightly sagging breasts, the overall shape seemed quite attractive. However, that wasn't the main point. The main point was: how did this strange person end up sitting in the bathtub, and why was the bathtub filled with blood?!

Chadwick stood naked under the showerhead, the warm water washing over him, yet he felt no warmth. Instead, after the initial shock, his heart pounded, and adrenaline surged. Suppressing the scream that almost escaped his lips, Chadwick quickly realized he had encountered something "unclean" again…

Don't disturb her... Don't disturb her...

Chadwick had already grasped the key point from his previous experience: these ghosts seemed to only attack him if he pretended not to see them...

Chadwick felt his legs go weak and goosebumps rose on his skin. He suppressed the urge to rush out the door and relied almost on the momentum of his body to keep washing himself. He dared not look directly at the figure sitting in the bathtub, afraid that his gaze would agitate her.

Chadwick stared intently at a poster of an exposed woman on the back of the bathroom door, his eyes almost crossing. If anyone else were present, they might mistake him for a perverted maniac who had never seen a woman before.

And so, Chadwick quickened his scrubbing pace while glancing once more at the figure in the bathtub out of the corner of his eye.

Then, wisps of black energy rose from her body and dissipated into the air. This strange phenomenon further confirmed Chadwick's earlier understanding.

Sure enough, with Chadwick seemingly ignoring her, the woman in the bathtub also remained motionless. The two, though in the same room, acted as if they lived in separate parallel universes, keeping to themselves and their own worlds…

Chadwick swallowed hard, hastily rubbing the foam off his hair. He had originally planned to apply shower gel and wash his body, but at this moment, who cared about washing?! Getting out of here was the priority!

However, he couldn't make any sudden moves right away, as he was worried that abruptly leaving the bathtub would disturb the ghost in the tub. So he could only proceed step by step according to the normal bathing routine...

But then, a new change occurred. The woman who had been sitting quietly in the bathtub suddenly changed. Grotesque scars appeared on her body, as if her skin had been cut open with a knife. They were ugly and cruel. Then, her left hand fell into the bathtub as if it had been severed by some invisible blade.

Immediately afterwards, her head was severed abruptly from her neck and rolled into the bathtub, followed by the right half of her body...

Right before Chadwick's eyes, the woman's body, like a shattered doll, slid piece by piece into the bathtub. Chadwick just watched helplessly as a person "disintegrated" right before his eyes...

The blood in the bathtub suddenly thickened to the point of resembling blood plasma, bubbling and frothing...

The next moment, the blood-like liquid began to churn, and then chunks of flesh began to wriggle and gather together, like living worms, and actually pieced themselves back together!

"Da da……"

"Da da da……"

Faced with this horrifying scene, Chadwick was stunned. After a long while, he heard what sounded like continuous knocking coming from somewhere.

He quickly realized that the sound was actually the clicking of his own teeth chattering uncontrollably. Not only were his teeth chattering, but his legs were also trembling; his knees were weak, and he almost collapsed to the ground…

When Chadwick saw the woman made up of a pile of flesh, her hands groping in the blood to lift a head, he couldn't help but feel a wave of nausea rising in his throat. However, he knew he absolutely couldn't vomit now. He tried his best to suppress the urge to vomit, and with trembling hands, he turned off the showerhead. Then he reached for the towel hanging nearby, but his hands trembled, and he couldn't grab the white towel even after two attempts.

Perhaps his movements were a bit too forceful, for the woman in the bathtub, who was about to place the severed head on her own head, suddenly stopped. The severed head she held in her hands, and her pair of dark eyes, stared directly at Chadwick…

In that instant, Chadwick's heart almost stopped beating, but a tremendous sense of crisis welled up inside him.

However, at this moment, he resisted the urge to rush out of the bathroom, reason telling him that it was not the best choice.

His past experience told him that as long as he pretended not to see them, these ghosts wouldn't do anything to him...

I can't see, I can't see...

Chadwick chanted to himself almost hypnotically, while deliberately glancing to the other side, staring intently at the poster of an exposed woman pasted behind the bathroom door. At the same time, he finally took down the towel hanging nearby and began to wipe his body gently but quickly...

To appear "normal," Chadwick even started humming a tune, though he himself didn't know what he was humming...

Those few dozen seconds of wiping felt like an eternity. Chadwick even felt dizzy from the excessive tension. Finally, after wiping his legs, Chadwick maintained a normal posture, walked out of the bathroom, and closed the door behind him...

He paused briefly at the door, listening stiffly to the sounds coming from the washroom. Only after finding nothing unusual did he breathe a sigh of relief.

At this moment, he didn't care that his back and head weren't completely dry, so he quickly put on his clothes, grabbed his backpack, and stumbled out of the guest room...

Inside the bathroom, after Chadwick left the room, the woman in the bathtub put the severed head back on her head, then sat there stunned for a moment before it disintegrated into pieces of flesh once more…

Chapter 454 I Want to Be a Wizard!

After paying the room fee at the front desk, Chadwick practically fled out the door, as if a ghost was chasing him. He jogged along the road for at least a hundred meters, looked back, and saw no sign of the hotel or anything "unclean" following him. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief and slow his pace.

Slightly relieved, Chadwick began to process what he had just witnessed. Based on his guess, the so-called "unclean" things he had seen these past few days were quite similar to the ghosts of people who had died in accidents. This was a guess he had not yet verified, because he had discovered that the cause of death seemed to be visible in these ghosts.

For example, bullet holes, a shattered skull, or, like the woman just now, a body torn into pieces—perhaps she was dismembered…

In other words, perhaps not long ago, in the bathroom of the room he stayed in, a woman was murdered, dismembered, and her body taken away?!

Hmm, that makes sense. It's highly likely that the person drowned in the bathtub and was dismembered afterward, which explains why I didn't see the ghost before, only after the water was turned on...

Whether this conjecture is true or not still needs to be verified.

However, whether it is true or not, Chadwick now feels that a world he has never been in contact with before seems to be slowly opening its doors to him.

Originally, he had two purposes for this expedition to the New World: first, to see if he could discover any treasures, which would undoubtedly bring him substantial financial rewards; second, the archaeological discoveries he made, once published, would undoubtedly enhance his reputation, making it a win-win situation.

However, so far, a series of unimaginable events have made him waver in his previous beliefs.

As a Rune, his upbringing made him familiar with legends about wizards and ghosts. In fact, during his childhood, his elders would use legends with such elements to scare disobedient children.

As an adult, the developed entertainment industry in modern society, including film, novels, and games, amplifies these subcultures, allowing him to access more of this kind of information.

However, before this, he had only regarded these elements as historical misinformation, fantasy stories that deceived children, and unfounded ancient ramblings. After all, this was the scientifically advanced 21st century, not the ignorant and backward Middle Ages.

In this era, even the church and religion, which once occupied a major place in the lives of Westerners, have retreated into the part of folk culture. The new generation of young people have no respect for religion and regard it more as a remnant of the feudal era. According to a newly released survey, the number of people under 25 years old going to church to pray each year has hit a record low. In fact, most young people only go to church on religious holidays or major events.

Chadwick was once such a young man, more concerned with tangible things like future development, personal wealth, and career prospects than with vague legends. However, after that experience, he suddenly understood some questions that had been lingering in his mind ever since he returned from that magical realm.

He understood that something must have happened to him that allowed him to see things that seemed nonexistent to others. This change was inextricably linked to his past experiences. He recalled the last words the "Wizard" had left him: "One last piece of advice: your journey has already been rewarded..."

Perhaps, the wizard was referring to the changes happening to him, which, judging from the wizard's words, didn't seem to be a bad thing. After all, he said "reward" rather than "punishment."

Deep down, despite the immense fear he felt about what had just happened, Chadwick discovered, after the fear subsided, that a complex mix of emotions—desire, excitement, and agitation—had arisen within him.

It turns out that this world isn't so rigid and boring after all!

It turns out that there are many unknowns and mysteries hidden behind this world!

So, those myths and legends might actually exist!

Elements from numerous adventure stories, novels, movies, and games he had read before surged through his mind, and Chadwick suddenly realized that what he truly desired was not financial freedom or fame and fortune...

He wanted to become an extraordinary person!

He hoped to possess real "power" like the protagonists in those novels!

He wants to become a wizard!

However, although he still doesn't know how to achieve his ideal, even a fool could tell that it wouldn't be easy. Chadwick is a smart man; he can see the clues simply from the current social atmosphere where mystery has vanished. He doesn't know why mainstream public opinion is in this atmosphere of "rejecting mysticism," and why, with the development of technology, many people have become complete atheists and materialists.

However, it is easy to imagine that to achieve the current global public opinion atmosphere, there must be some powerful force operating behind the scenes, whether it is control, guidance, or some other means. The terror of this force is beyond doubt!

There is a very high probability that even governments around the world are involved...

Thinking of this, Chadwick couldn't help but feel alarmed. There must be a huge, unfathomable secret behind this!

Following this line of thought, it becomes even more terrifying to think about. If I were to release information about these supernatural events, there is a very high probability that it would provoke a reaction from those behind-the-scenes forces. What would I then encounter?

A complete internet ban? A hefty bribe to silence them? Murder to cover it up? Vanishing without a trace...

In an instant, Chadwick had already thought of a series of possibilities and couldn't help but swallow hard.

Even assuming we disregard the actions of the mastermind behind the scenes, simply revealing one's discovery, while generating a social response, would transform it from a private secret into public information. This would inevitably lead to a large influx of people with ulterior motives visiting the ruins. Regardless of the outcome, the subsequent events would likely become impossible to keep secret. Furthermore, for a considerable period afterward, one would be under the scrutiny of academia and the media as a public figure, leaving no room for privacy in whatever one chooses to do.

Chapter 455 Waiting for the Right Opportunity (Part 1)

Not to mention, Chadwick still doesn't truly understand what happened to him, and he's equally worried that if these abnormalities are exposed, he'll become the subject of dissection in some laboratory...

After all, in this world where royalty and nobility still occupy the top of social power, certain conspiracy theories have a much wider market than in Zhang Jing's previous life.