Leaving behind the black egg that had swallowed the Cyclops, I turned my steps back toward the food factory.
The path from the submersible to this place should have felt familiar by now, but my feet felt heavy.
Even though the food factory looked the same as ever, today it was different.
The outer walls looked thicker than before, and darker.
“I’ll turn off the broadcast for a moment.”
Activating the prism the Truth Scholar had gifted me, I walked toward the food factory’s door.
When I pushed open the cold metal door and stepped inside, the smell of old boxes stung my nose.
Cold, heavy air seeped deep into my lungs.
Instinctively, I made my breathing shallow.
Then I turned the broadcast back on, sending out a signal that I was still alive.
I walked forward.
Thud. Thud.
My footsteps echoed through the factory, which was filled with nothing but boxes made of crates.
Wondering if there might be other security machines, I hid myself in the shadows.
I walked slowly into the darkness where the light was gradually fading.
Then I carefully came to a stop.
In front of me was a severed steel door.
Though it was quite thick, the opening was wide enough for a person to pass through easily.
I carefully moved through the hole the security robot had passed through.
Taking care to avoid the sharp cut edges, I slipped past it and saw the interior, faintly glowing green.
Since I had discovered the black egg here, I should be able to obtain information here as well.
Unlike before, I walked a little faster, heading toward the place where the black egg had been.
Relying only on the faint green light on the floor, I pressed on.
“…I’m here.”
The center of the broken hatching chamber and the conveyor belt.
The place that had held the black egg.
Last time, I had left in such a hurry that I hadn’t been able to search properly.
This time, hoping to find anything at all, I slowly walked around the area.
The first place I searched was, of course, the hatching chamber.
As I examined the broken glass and the connected conveyor belt, I found a faintly glowing screen.
A screen set in the center of the steel structure encircling the top of the glass tube.
On it, letters in an ancient language I couldn’t read were glowing.
ㄴTruth Scholar: What does it say?
ㄴHealing Is Violence: Is it an experiment number?
I tried to figure out the intent behind the writing, and I could guess its meaning.
---
Probability of hatching within 10 years: 0.0000027%
Probability of hatching within 100 years: 0.000087%
Probability of hatching within 1000 years: 0.0221%
---
“Looks like a bust.”
It was nothing more than a display listing hatching probabilities.
I immediately turned my attention elsewhere and started rummaging around.
I looked under the conveyor belt, and went behind the hatching chamber to see if there was anything there.
But…
ㄴTruth Scholar: There’s nothing here, is there?
“…When they do hatching experiments like this, don’t they usually keep data nearby?”
There was nothing.
No documents, no records, nothing at all.
Thinking I might have missed something, I looked around again.
But all I found were shards of broken glass.
“Could it be in another section?”
ㄴTruth Scholar: For now, that seems likely.
ㄴDraw-Sword Saint: If you cut everything down, would you not learn something?
ㄴHealing Is Violence: How are you supposed to cut that ancient material?
Since there didn’t seem to be any other method, I turned my steps toward another section.
…No, I tried to.
“…Since when was that over there?”
The black egg had entered the hatching chamber.
And at the same time, the screen that displayed its status began to flicker incessantly.
_-_--_-==
The screen that had been blinking nonstop soon stopped.
Along with an unexpected result.
---
Probability of hatching within 1 year: 89.7%
Probability of hatching within 10 years: 99.8%
Probability of hatching within 100 years: Calculation unnecessary
---
What was this?
Hadn’t the probability been so low just moments ago that it was practically impossible?
‘The ruler inside that thing might hatch within a year?’
For an instant, I felt all the hair on my body stand on end.
If it hatched, I had no confidence I could handle that ruler.
“Haa… What am I supposed to do about this now…?”
It was a situation that drew nothing but sighs.
That creature, which was practically a gamble, was going to hatch.
When I said this on the broadcast, various reactions came back.
If there was one fortunate thing, it was that the comments were all tinged with worry.
If this had been a place like Earth, where human malice gathered, I might not have been able to endure it.
Comforted by the concerned comments, I moved again.
It wasn’t time to give up yet.
I rose from where I was and headed toward another section.
Deeper inside.
Thud. Thud.
My footsteps rang out through the silent space.
As I walked past cold steel structures, the scenery began to change faintly.
Before, it had felt like a research facility made of steel, but now… yes, the form of a factory was beginning to reveal itself.
The surroundings were changing into something befitting the name food factory. Glancing over them, I continued forward.
And soon, a wide open space appeared.
A conveyor belt moving at regular intervals came into view.
Woooong. Woooong.
Something was lined up on the belt at fixed intervals.
Mechanical arms moved, fitting boxes, metal, plants, and the like together, dismantling them, and connecting objects.
I raised my head and cast my gaze toward the ceiling.
It was a dizzyingly high ceiling, dozens of floors tall. And the conveyor belts lined up all the way to the end.
Each time the belts moved, the sound of metal friction filled the space.
The noise was monotonous, but within it, something was being created.
Food, tools, and…
ㄴTruth Scholar: This… makes sense?
ㄴDraw-Sword Saint: So the one we met was but a mere mass-produced model….
The security robot that had dragged me to the brink of death
was being naturally produced.
Watching that robot slowly being assembled, I swallowed my breath.
The moment I faced one head-on, there was no way I would survive.
That instinctive certainty pressed down on my entire body.
My feet naturally moved backward.
The machines being assembled on the conveyor belts.
I knew full well that even one encounter would be the end.
“…I have to go back.”
Muttering that, I retraced the path I had come from.
My footsteps echoed across the steel floor.
Clang. Clang.
The small reflected sounds came to me like footsteps chasing from behind.
I walked while compulsively looking back.
Holding my breath, I hid myself in the shadows, where I would be spotted as late as possible.
The corridor that should have taken only a few minutes felt endlessly stretched out.
After moving like that for a long while, the exit of the food factory appeared before my eyes.
I stayed alert in case there were security machines nearby, but thankfully, I heard none of their sharp metallic sounds.
I turned off the broadcast for a moment and gripped the prism in my hand.
Whoosh.
Mana flowed into the prism, where a faint rainbow could be seen.
Soon, the surroundings rippled, and a thin distortion field formed.
“Phew…”
Once I was out of the tense situation, a breath of relief escaped me.
After taking a moment to catch my breath, I pushed the cold, closed door to the side.
Chirik.
There were a few bloodshot-eyed Cyclopes, but they couldn’t see me through the distortion field.
As I walked past the Cyclopes, the straight path leading to the submersible appeared.
It was a distance that would take only a few minutes on foot, so I released the prism’s distortion field.
If I used it all the way to the submersible, no fight would break out, but…
“There’s a usage time limit…”
The prism was certainly a good item.
It had allowed me to get past the Cyclopes, which were still difficult for me to handle in numbers.
However, as good as its performance was, it had a condition.
Namely, that there was a restriction on its usage time.
According to the Truth Scholar, two hours was about the limit.
They said that if it exceeded the limit, it would start taking damage, so I was using it carefully.
As I walked while rolling the prism around in my hand, I arrived near the submersible.
Eosollujeun was waiting for me in front of the submersible, just like before.
Whirr.
“Yeah, mana, right?”
I held out my hand to Eosollujeun, who was reaching out to me.
Mana slowly flowed into its cold mechanical hand.
After a brief absorption of mana, Eosollujeun hovered around me.
It was simply moving around on its crawler tracks, but for some reason, it looked like a cat following me around.
At that sight, the emotions that had stiffened from fear and pressure seemed to loosen a little.
Together with Eosollujeun, I walked toward the submersible.
Whirr.
Tap. Tap.
…Of course, the black egg came with us too.
I couldn’t chase it away, so I just dragged it along into the submersible.
Creeeak!
The submersible’s hatch closed, and silence settled in.
By now, I had grown used to the quiet inside the submersible, so it actually felt comfortable.
“Before, it scared me because there were no human voices…”
Filling the empty air with a mutter to myself, I opened the Gallery.
There was the matter of announcing that today’s broadcast was over, and there was another reason as well.
-Aurora: Broadcast is over.
Title says it all.
ㄴTruth Scholar: See you the next day!
ㄴMy happiness today has crumbled… You can take my life, so please just broadcast again….
Other comments were posted after that as well, but I didn’t bother reading them.
Most of them were useless posts about hitting themselves in the head so they could wake up the next day, or asking whether I was still alive.
And… right now, I had other business in the Gallery.
The Gallery was a place for conversation, but indirect exchange was possible there too.
The gift function used by the Truth Scholar and the Draw-Sword Saint was a prime example.
But gifts were not the only thing possible in the Gallery.
On the Gallery’s home screen, I clicked the text in the upper right.
[Exchange]
When I clicked those words, an endlessly vast number of items entered my sight.
From food to tools, living creatures, magic scrolls, weapons, and more, things that could help me were lined up in abundance.
I still had no money, but…
This deep sea was overflowing with money.
-Aurora: Selling mana stones.
(Photo of mana stones piled up on one side of the submersible)
Selling to the highest bidder.
It was time to make money in a fantasy world.