Reborn One Week Before the Apocalypse

Chapter 280: Chapter 270: City of the Illusion Realm

It was a long time before Tang Mo’s feet touched solid ground again.

During this time, Qin Fen sent her several messages asking for an update, but Tang Mo never responded.

The group had agreed at the tunnel entrance that they would only descend after Tang Mo landed and scouted out the area.

With no word from Tang Mo for so long, those waiting outside the tunnel grew anxious. They couldn’t help but worry that there was something terrible inside and that she had met with some disaster.

Only Qin Fen, however, was certain that even if something happened to anyone else, Tang Mo would be fine. ’She’s probably just cooking up some scheme,’ he thought.

Once her feet touched the ground, Tang Mo didn’t rush to signal the surface. Instead, she took in her surroundings.

She was in what looked like a massive cavern. What was most shocking was that the cavern was completely empty. The outer ring where she stood was bare stone, but in the very center of the cavern floor lay a gigantic mirror.

Calling it a mirror wasn’t entirely accurate, though. It seemed to be displaying a massive image, like a painting.

However, she was too far away to make out what scene was depicted within it.

She placed a hand on the cavern wall, feeling its texture. Then, she pulled Wind Breaker from her backpack and scraped it against the ore in the wall a few times.

Tang Mo finally confirmed it: the cavern was made of nothing but ordinary stone. The Crystal Stones were only found within the tunnel itself. That meant the entire tunnel was the real treasure.

Tang Mo crept toward the enormous mirror, leaning over to get a better look at the scene within.

But when her eyes finally focused on what was inside the mirror, she was filled with utter disbelief.

”How is this possible?!”

In her shock, she lost her footing and fell straight into the mirror. But the impact didn’t bring pain. Instead, it felt like she had fallen into a strange, soft marsh.

When Tang Mo opened her eyes again, she found herself in a world that was incredibly familiar.

It was the world before the apocalypse. A world of wide, paved roads and bustling streets. A world where children played and roughhoused in the open, and people walked around with smiles on their faces.

There wasn’t a trace of fear for their lives on anyone’s face, only a strange sort of tranquility.

They weren’t happy, nor were they unhappy. It was impossible to read any emotion on their faces at all.

’What’s going on? Am I dead? Or have I been reborn again?’

Tang Mo looked down at herself. She was still wearing the same clothes, and her backpack was still securely on her back.

She looked down at her wrist. Her ID watch was still there.

Seeing her ID watch, Tang Mo understood. ’I’m still in my own time. This must all be the work of that bizarre mirror.’

’Strange things really do happen in this cavern.’

’Well, since I’m here, I might as well make the best of it. The mirror must have let me in for a reason, and a cavern like this doesn’t just exist for nothing. I can feel immense energy here, so there must be some kind of treasure.’

’The Crystal Stones at the tunnel entrance must have just been bait. If that was all the treasure this cavern had to offer, it would be a pretty anticlimactic end.’

Now that she was inside, she wasn’t in any hurry to leave. Instead, she began to leisurely explore this pre-apocalyptic world.

Although this world inside the mirror was from before the apocalypse, it wasn’t the city where Tang Mo had lived.

”Don’t run! Little doggy, don’t run!”

Suddenly, Tang Mo heard the voices of children. She looked over and saw a few kids who had just gotten out of school. They were still in their uniforms, carrying backpacks, and chasing a small dog with stones in their hands.

The little dog was clearly a stray. Its fur was matted and filthy, and blood oozed from several spots where the stones had struck its skin. It was clearly in unbearable pain, yet it continued to dodge in terror.

’It hurts... *whimper*... why are they doing this? I just want to play with them... I’m so hungry. Where can I go? Where is my home?’

As the small dog passed by her, Tang Mo thought she heard a voice.

”Jingjing, did you hear that?”

Jingjing had been resting in her backpack the entire time, and had come with Tang Mo into this mirror world.

”I heard it. Those are the dog’s thoughts.”

Jingjing had only appeared after the start of the apocalypse and had never seen the world from before. This was the first time it had seen how pitiful animals were in the pre-apocalyptic world.

”Why doesn’t the dog fight back? Its sharp teeth could easily kill them.”

Jingjing didn’t understand. In its world, all mutant beasts attacked humans. Helpless human cubs like these would be terrified at the mere sight of a mutant beast. How could one allow itself to be put in such a pathetic state?

”This is the world before the apocalypse,” Tang Mo explained. ”Back then, most animals were docile. They wouldn’t fight back against humans, even if they had sharp teeth and claws.”

Tang Mo sighed softly. She didn’t know how to explain to Jingjing that in this world, animals didn’t have the high status they did after the apocalypse.

People weren’t afraid of animals; they bullied them at will.

”I don’t get it. Is this the pre-apocalyptic world you humans are always so nostalgic about?”

Jingjing’s question left Tang Mo speechless.

’It felt like things had started going wrong a long time ago.’

Tang Mo continued walking, her eyes constantly scanning this new world.

This world seemed just a little different from her own.

The roads here seemed wider and smoother, there was a greater variety of cars, and people’s fashion was more chic. They wore styles of clothing Tang Mo had never seen before.

The shops lining the streets sold many products she’d never seen. Some were items using new energy sources and manufacturing processes that, in her time, she had only ever seen in magazines as newly developed concepts.

She thought she understood. This wasn’t the world *right* before the apocalypse. This was what that world would have looked like decades later.

In other words, this is what human society would have become after a few more decades of normal development, if the apocalypse had never happened.

Still, Tang Mo felt there was something strange about this world, something that didn’t sit right with her.

After observing for a long time, she finally realized what was so strange: there wasn’t a speck of green anywhere in this world.

No trees, no flowers, and by extension, no butterflies or bees.

Tang Mo wandered around with Jingjing and entered a large building that turned out to be a shopping mall.

She wanted to see how a shopping mall from decades in the future compared to the ones she knew.