Solo Cultivation in The Apocalypse

A cold breeze greeted Hitori's face as he opened the door. Surprisingly, the room was dark. He wondered if sunlight had ever blessed the walls and floor of the room.

Hitori raised his finger and lightened a tiny torch on his finger. He held his finger in front of him as he took a step inside the house.

A thin line of fire erupted in his face out of nowhere. Hitori jumped back and moved his finger away. The fine line disappeared in an instant after producing almost no flame.

Hitori left the key in the hole and advanced into the room. He bent and lifted his finger above the door to see what was caught on fire. He still saw nothing, so he increased the fire.

A sizzling spider fell on his finger, then to the ground. Hitori jumped and banged his back against the door jamb. "Oh, crap."

He got up and crushed the burning spider under his shoes. Hitori sighed, then looked at the room. Right above the door, he had spotted a torch or something.

The floorboard did not creak, thankfully, perhaps it was new. Hitori doubted Kamiya had set further traps in the room, so he decided to light the torches first.

Hitori conjured small balls of fire and threw them into the four torches around the four corners of the room. Then he conjured a medium-sized ball and lightened a pot-like chandelier in the middle of the ceiling.

That light was, maybe, too bright. But when Hitori saw the scene the light had reflected on, he was left speechless.

His eyes first fell on the window straight ahead of him. It was sealed with planks and on those planks were images… hand-drawn images. He moved to the left. Another door was sealed with planks and printed photos were pasted on it.

Hitori found the pictures familiar. It was a man walking with another man down a dark path. Hitori frowned, he leaned closer to the picture on his right. He could not recognize them.

He shifted to the photos behind him, beside the door, where he saw numerous unfamiliar men wearing suits and walking down a dark path. These photos were not clear, neither were the hand-drawn images.

Hitori found a bed in the corner that was missing a mattres and covers. Some documents were nailed on the bed's wood. Not only the pictures were strange, they were connected with webs– or threads. Hitori could not differentiate.

But he guessed it was a timeline. The same they show investigators have in their cabin. Filled with photos, newspaper cut outs, timings, places noted, and some secret photos.

Hitori reached the window, then turned to the right side of the room. The wooden wall was covered from top to bottom with all sorts of paper cut outs, digital photos, phone numbers, and locations.

Below the wall were dozens of markers, pens, and pencils or all sorts of color. It looked like the cabin of a hardcore detective investigating his wife's murderer.

Hitori's eyes caught the photos right next to him, on the wall beside the door jamb. Those photos were not ordinary, the qualitffty was fururistic, the patterns, the images were not drawn by hand, the images were not colored with magic, and the clarity was just the Scientist-Quality.

Hitori was not sure whether Kamiya had clicked those photos with the use of scientific tools such as cameras and high-mega-pixel phone cameras, or he had asked a freelancer detective to get his hands on them.

Since the quality was mindblowing, Hitori recognized the people in the photo at once. His eyes widened, but he was not surprised. He knew Kamiya was spying on them, but never hoped this was the secret he kept from everyone but not Akemi. Perhaps she did not know either, she asked Hitori to find what he was doing in that room.

The photos were taken by the side angle. The first photo displayed a person gave his hair a swift, the marks on his forearms were visible.

Hitori moved the to photo beside it, pinned in the wood. That person had blonde hair and piercing in his ear.

Hitori grabbed his hiar after seeing it. "No wonder he kept it a secret from everyone. If this had come out… crap."

Hitori stepped away from the walls. Without realizing, he had gone near the bed. He realized it when he hit his calf against the bed's corner. He stopped and glanced at the bed, then took a seat.

"This is insane… This is insane, Kamiya." Hitori rubbed his hair, then dropped his head.

He took a deep breath. He raised his head in an instant when he heard someone on the stairs. He was not sure, but he could not risk it. He did hear footsteps.

Hitori jumped off the bed, went to the door, and closed it. He looked up at the chandelier. Hitori raised his hand and sucked the fire out of it. He extinguished the torches near the front door, too.

"Alright. Keep calm, s-sit down." He went to the bed and was about to sit when he found his hands empty. "Key! The key!"

Hitori dashed towards the door. He grabbed the handle, gave it a slight twist, and stopped. On the calm first floor, Hitori heard the stair creak. Someone was near him, someone had climbed the stairs to the first floor.

He released his grip on the handle and took thief-steps back to the bed. He calmly sat on it and drew his wand.

He never heard that person's footsteps again. He could not tell whether the person went back or stayed, so Hitori decided to wait.

He got up and walked to the door, then, without making any noise, he locked the door from inside. He sighed and turned when his eyes fell on a box under the table.

Hitori put his wand in the side and walked up to the box. He bent and took out the box. He sat on the bed, then placed the box over his lap. "Time Capsule?"

Read the front of the metal box: Time Capsule. If you've found it, then please do not open it till I am dead.

'Oh…' Hitori paused. Then he reached for the box's lid. He took off the hook on one side, pulled the latch, and then lifted the lid.

In front of him was a set of papers, a novel's manuscript, or Kamiya's novel's first (or the final) draft.

Hitori kept the lid on the bed and reached for the set of papers. The first page was blank. And when Hitori saw the second page, his heart started racing.

He pulled the first page and kept it at the end of the pages. It was a thick draft. He read the title on the second page.

'The Murder Plans by Kamiya Jigoku.'