The interior of the food factory, where only a faint light lingered.
I turned on the broadcast and slowly walked forward.
The inside of the food factory looked closer to a warehouse than a factory.
Shelves rising all the way to the ceiling, and rows of boxes filling the spaces between them.
I didn’t know what dangers might be lurking.
The moment that thought passed through my mind, I took out the scanner.
“Let’s examine just one box.”
ㄴTruth Scholar: What’s inside? If it’s not dangerous, let’s take a look just once!
ㄴSword Saint of Drawing: It would be good if there were at least something that could help you grow stronger.
Before touching the box, I tried scanning it first.
In a situation where I didn’t know what the box contained or what dangers it might hold, acting rashly was unfit for survival in the deep sea.
A blue light seeped out from the front of the white scanner.
The blue light passed over the box right in front of me and displayed information.
-Food produced by E███s Co., Ltd.
-This item is food that has not yet been designated for distribution. Remember that all undistributed goods are the property of E███s Co., Ltd.
“…What is this?”
An unidentified sentence came from the scanner.
It felt more like a warning than information, and it left me with an uneasy feeling.
The text that came from the scanner was basically translated, so the people watching the broadcast could read it as well.
Of course, things like the map Assoluzn had given me were exceptions.
ㄴTruth Scholar: …I feel like something bad will happen if you touch it.
ㄴSword Saint of Drawing: Who would be guarding it in a ruined city? That company seems to have gone under as well.
ㄴEducation Master: The way it speaks… could that scanner belong to that company?
As I watched the comments while staying alert to my surroundings, one comment caught my eye.
Soon, I looked over the side of the scanner.
Letters were engraved on the side of the scanner.
I didn’t know how to pronounce them, but I could understand only their meaning.
‘The meaning is… efficiency?’
Efficiency. It was the same meaning as the company before me.
The scanner belonged to that company.
“It seems… the scanner was made by the same company.”
The scanner, and perhaps even the production machine, had been made by this company.
A machine that contained vast amounts of information, a machine that could make anything as long as it was given materials.
A company with technology so transcendent it could create things like this had been destroyed.
What kind of calamity had swept through this place for it to disappear?
Questions like that made me feel as though the pressure of the deep sea were crushing me.
‘No, now isn’t the time to be asking questions like this.’
That was something to worry about once I became stronger and had the luxury to spare.
Right now, it was time to face the problem before me.
For now, taking the food seemed likely to be highly dangerous.
I had never seen these so-called companies let people take their goods as they pleased.
In that sense, I focused on investigation rather than collection.
As I walked around scanning my surroundings with the scanner, I got a rough idea of what kind of goods this place handled.
It produced all the food supplied to this city, while also serving as a kind of port that facilitated exchanges with other cities.
That was why this place was so vast.
ㄴTruth Scholar: To think you can’t take even a single item from a place like this….
ㄴCapitalism: Just one of those would easily be worth tens of thousands of gold.
I wanted to take the goods here as well, but since I didn’t know what might happen, I refrained from touching them.
Then, just as wandering through this silent place was beginning to grow tedious.
Thud.
The sound of something bumping somewhere rang out.
I hurriedly looked around near me, but my body hadn’t touched anything.
Then where had the sound come from?
The place where the sound had come from was an unseen darkness.
Within it, a red light turned on.
Blink. Blink.
The fiery light flickered.
And then.
Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!
The yellow lights of the food warehouse forced their way into my corneas.
Only then did I clearly see what the red light was.
A steel frame that looked like only a human skeleton had been left behind.
In the places where its hands should have been were a circular saw blade and a four-pronged pincer hand that looked capable of easily gripping a watermelon.
!#!@$!!@#$%
An incomprehensible sound leaked from the machine.
But I could understand its meaning.
-Unauthorized organic entity discovered inside the factory.
The machine’s next words followed.
!%%#@#!@@!
-In accordance with the policy of E███s Co., Ltd., the following disposition will be carried out.
Whirrr!! Bang! Bang!
The saw blade spun fiercely, and the pincer hand clamped against itself, producing a tremendous noise.
The machine’s declaration fell.
!$$$@%!#!!
-Executing annihilation disposition.
Before the machine had even finished speaking, I was already running, eyes fixed ahead.
I sprinted with all my strength toward where the exit should be.
But.
ㄴTruth Scholar: It’s sealed off! Run somewhere else!
A firmly shut door.
The moment I saw it, I turned away without hesitation.
Whirrr!!
The sound of the saw blade came from behind me.
At the chilling sensation of terror, I hurriedly ducked my head.
Whoosh!
Kakakakak!
The saw blade passed by, cutting the ends of my hair, and sliced through a thin support of the shelf.
And then.
Creeeak!
The shelf failed to withstand the weight of the boxes and collapsed.
But this created a wall of piled boxes between me and the machine.
Kiiing!
Thud. Kwaaang!
I could hear the pincer hand and saw blade moving.
It wouldn’t be long before the machine reached this place.
At that thought, I immediately moved my legs.
Toward a space I hadn’t yet explored, filled with darkness.
The machine had the advantage in both speed and strength.
In that situation, circling around near the entrance carried far too high a chance of death.
“Hah, hah….”
My breath rose all the way to my throat, and the taste of blood lingered there.
But the fact that the sound of boxes being cleared away, which had been ringing out until just now, had disappeared forced me to set the pain aside.
An area where the lights had not turned on.
The moment I stepped into that place.
Whir! Whir!
A red light rose above my head.
The feeling that I was doomed wrapped around my body.
But didn’t they say that even if the sky collapsed, there would be a hole to escape through?
A thick iron door closed behind me.
And then came an ancient voice.
!@#@$@!
-Authorized entry.
When those words ended, a green light came on.
The light on the floor led somewhere like a guide marker.
“…Is it okay to go?”
Honestly, I couldn’t understand the current situation.
Until just moments ago, it said I was unauthorized, and now I was authorized.
It was a situation that looked like a trap no matter who saw it.
But there was nowhere to go back to.
Behind me stood a cold wall of steel.
Even if I stood still here, it didn’t seem like the situation would improve.
Most of the comments were filled with worry, but I carefully took a step.
With every step, I examined my surroundings closely, then took another step.
Because I walked with such caution, my pace was painfully slow.
But the tension was higher than ever.
I took one step and looked to both sides.
I took another step and looked ahead and behind.
As I walked like that, the appearance of this place gradually came into view.
This seemed to be the main building of the food factory.
Long rails stretching onward, mechanical arms made of steel and magic stones.
ㄴTruth Scholar: It looks like this is where they move the boxes?
ㄴSword Saint of Drawing: It seems that place was only being used as a warehouse.
ㄴEducation Master: To use such a vast place only as a warehouse… I wonder how prosperous they must have been before they vanished.
The green light on the floor was the only source of illumination, making it an eerie place.
Even so, I was able to endure it by watching the gallery chat.
After following it for a while, I arrived at one place.
Beside the door there, all the rails I had seen until now led into the room.
What were they making here for all the rails to begin from this place?
Thinking that, I placed my hand on the doorknob.
Clack.
When I pulled down the cold silver handle, the door opened smoothly.
It was peculiar, unlike the other places that had not been maintained.
And so, the world beyond the black door was a landscape clearly different from both Earth and the other world.
This was… yes, it was like a future world.
At the center where all the rails converged, there was a massive cylindrical glass tank filled with blue liquid.
Inside that place, from which light seeped out, a single black egg floated.
For a brief moment, my gaze was stolen by that wondrous sight.
But I immediately looked around and stayed alert.
Around the cylinder were mechanical arms holding blades, cylindrical saw-blade mechanical arms, and mechanical arms with round gun barrels that looked like they might shoot something.
They hung from the walls with the enormous cylinder at their center.
However, unlike the scale of the setup, the egg itself was about the size of a basketball.
To the point where I wondered if they were overestimating it.
For now, while staying wary of danger, I decided to approach the egg.
The green light on the floor was guiding me all the way to it.
I approached the cylinder with every nerve on edge.
The blue light began to wrap around my face.
But even when I came close enough that my hand could touch the cylinder, nothing happened.
The only thing that changed was the chat window rising rapidly.
ㄴTruth Scholar: What is this now!? An ancient creature? It looks like a dragon egg!
ㄴSword Saint of Drawing: Its appearance is certainly similar to that lizard’s egg.
ㄴEducation Master: It definitely resembles a dragon’s, but the thickness and color of the scales are a bit different, aren’t they?
‘A dragon egg, huh….’
In the chat window, they speculated that it belonged to a dragon.
But, well, it didn’t feel like that.
Wouldn’t it be closer to something similar to a dragon?
The deep sea had a characteristic of evolving things into something indescribable, like the cyclops or the jellyfish.
As I was pondering the true identity of this egg.
Creak. Creeeak.
An unpleasant noise drifted through the air.
A sound like metal being scraped.
And that sound came from the firmly closed door.
“No… way….”
I had a bad feeling.
And that feeling.
Whirrr!!
Was exactly right.
A red light flickered through a horizontally cut hole.