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Season 2: Chapter 183. The Final Floor (2)

The leaves, flowers, fruits, and other luxuries of the earth were merely byproducts of a struggle underground. 

Then, what about the abyss? Beyond the fruit, layers of leaves, stems, and finally reaching the roots. The abyss engulfed one in this order to convey the truth. Here, too, the essence was the roots. The most complex and intense part closest to the essence was also the least known. No, it could not be known at all.

[Extracted from the book "Advice for Those Who Dream of Becoming Legends" by sanctuary explorer Wilberg Wagner]

*** 

A text appeared while moving to the next floor.

[You have stepped one foot onto the last floor (★).]

The conditions for the last floor were about to be cleared. Surviving meant he would clear it. To achieve a three star clear, he had to do more than just survive. 

— Wowowow.

— So, just leaving is a 2-star clear??

— So this is the last floor.

— We\'ll see the ending today.

"Finally, it\'s the last floor. Let\'s see the ending today. Although I can\'t see anything."

— LOLOL.

— Haha, Manager A! You\'re too funny!

— LOL.

It wasn’t a joke. The view was pitch black and nothing could be properly seen.

\'Is this the root…?\'

Beyond the fruit, past the leaves and stem, now he had arrived at the layer of roots. This place was truly dark and he could hardly tell from the chaos if this level had upright trees neatly standing. The roots seemed to stretch in all directions like a spiderweb and were barely visible by a very faint light.

"Luna," Almond called out to Luna. 

"I\'m here," Luna responded from a corner in the dark.

Almond slowly crawled toward her. As he grew closer, he saw Luna hiding among the roots. Why was she hiding when nothing had happened yet?

"What are you doing?"

"Hide first. You too," Luna said and pulled Almond in.

Suddenly, they squeezed into a doghole.

Luna didn\'t care and whispered, "We don\'t know what rules will be given here, or if any rules will be given at all."

"... Why? You\'ve been here before."

"Sigh."

Luna took a moment for a deep breath. Then, she lifted the end of her top as if she was about to undress.

— ???

— omg.

— 500 times zoom on Luna.

— What is this?

— Ah, this! Haha.

Of course, she didn’t undress completely. She was just pointing to the characters written on the upper part of her abdomen.

"See? These are rune characters."

Why did Luna have runes written on her too? They looked a bit different. 

\'What\'s this?\'

Almond was confused.

Regardless, Luna continued her explanation.

"These runes have a special power."

"Power?"

"Because of these runes, I can continue to be aware even when time reverses. However, they lost their light when I came to the last floor. They\'re not shining much now."

The characters shone with a light. 

\'Come to think of it, my characters shone too when accessing the memories.\'

The runes etched on Almond’s body also shone when it showed him the memories. Runes shone when they were in use. It was the same when Swift threw the rune of explosion, but those continuously shone. Did that mean they were continuously operating?

\'What do they mean?\'

Almond couldn\'t decipher them even though he converted almost all the rune characters to the alphabet. He couldn\'t interpret the meaning of these rune characters.

\'It’s just one character.\'

Moreover, the problem was only one character. Did that mean it was an ideogram rather than a phonogram like Chinese characters? Were there various types of rune characters?

Regardless, he continued listening to Luna.

"The runes lose their power as the light of the sanctuary grows closer. This floor is the closest place to the sanctuary." 

"Then..."

"I don\'t know much about this floor. All I know is it\'s different every time I come here..."

How could this be? Luna didn\'t have any memories of this place.

\'That was why she said she didn\'t know the reason for the repetition.\'

Luna still thought she was going back to the past. This perception had to be corrected. It wasn\'t a method of going back to the past at all. They were all merely losing their memories.

"Luna."

Almond decided to tell her the truth.

"... Yes?"

"You said you keep going back to the past?"

"Yes. How many times do I have to—?"

"It\'s not that."

"What?"

"It\'s not going back to the past. If it was, why would I be a different person every time?"

"..."

Luna briefly closed her mouth.

"How many times have you repeated? Weren\'t there changes in participants? If it\'s going back to the past, that would be impossible."

"I told you. Even if I go back to the past, variables arise so the participants slightly change each time."

"Isn\'t that too big of a variable for simply going back to the past?"

"The abyss is such a place."

"No. We\'re just losing our memories."

"What...?"

"Time stays the same. We\'re just losing our memories. I have evidence of that."

Almond slightly undressed to show her.

"!"

Luna\'s eyes widened and the next words she uttered were unexpected.

"You... really trust me now?"

"What?"

Luna spoke with a big sigh of relief.

"In fact, since you first refused my proposal... I thought you wouldn\'t trust me. The moment you show me this tattoo is the moment you truly trust me. Every time."

"..."

Then, she also knew it wasn’t a regression. Thinking about it, his predecessors would have shown her these tattoos several times. It would make even less sense if she didn’t know. 

"I knew it wasn\'t regression. Or rather, I came to know that thanks to you dozens of times ago." 

"So, you just said that to test me?" 

"Yeah. I can\'t always trust you, after all. Plus, if I start explaining that we\'re losing our memories and repeating this cycle, most wouldn’t understand. If I say we\'re going back to the past, they get it right away," Luna mumbled while avoiding eye contact. 

To Almond, it seemed like the first reason was the real one. The latter was just an excuse. It was a filter to weed out unsuitable players. 

— Filtering out the trolls, huh lol.

— Well, trusting companions in the abyss isn\'t easy, lol.

— Agreed.

Almond decided to change the subject. Since she already knew, he had nothing to lose by speaking more freely. 

"Anyway, then you know that Swift is also retaining his memories?" 

Did Swift retain his memories? Almond wasn’t sure, but he had a suspicion. The tattoos engraved on this body, Luna\'s testimony, and Swift\'s behavior in the recent battle. It was only a suspicion. 

Almond shook his head at Luna\'s question. 

"No, I’m not exactly sure yet. It’s just a suspicion." 

"Really?" 

"Do you think so?" 

Luna nodded and shared her story. 

"I also somewhat have a suspicion. Swift called someone by the wrong name once by mistake." 

"He called someone by the wrong name?" 

"Yeah. There was this guy, Jake. He died like in the previous cycle, but there was someone who looked like him and Swift called that person Jake." 

"He called someone by the name of a person he shouldn\'t know?" 

"Yeah. Moreover, Swift had also confused those two in the previous cycle. Their names are entirely different. The other one was named Brad. It makes no sense to suddenly call him Jake. Their names are totally different." 

If Swift didn’t retain his memories, he wouldn’t get confused like that. Jake didn’t exist in that cycle. 

"Of course, he never made that mistake again after that. That one time is all the evidence I have." 

Did Swift simply make a mistake or was it a slip of the tongue? It was ambiguous. Based on this, deciding to kill Swift became even more complicated. 

"What do you think, Almond?" 

"Swift... he\'s suspicious of you. He’s been killing the people you’re connected to." 

"That\'s your suspicion?" 

"If he was just suspicious for one cycle, he wouldn\'t need to kill the people connected to you." 

"Ah ha." 

It was also a vague suspicion. 

"Let\'s assume for now that Swift is retaining his memories." 

"Alright." 

The problem was Swift\'s motive. In a crime investigation, a motive had to be found to conclusively declare someone guilty.  If Swift retained his memories, what exactly was his goal? If he was behind this repeating abyss, what would his motive be? What could he gain from this repeating hell? Did he simply want to escape too? 

"So, what is Swift\'s motive if he’s retaining his memories?" 

"I don\'t know that either." 

"Could it be to escape like you?" 

"... It wouldn\'t be that." 

"Why?" 

"I\'ve tried all sorts of things to escape like deliberately guiding them down the wrong path so we reach the edge of the forest and end up digging through the wall... or climbing up a tree to the very top..." 

"And?" 

"Swift never took any other path except toward the sanctuary." 

Swift was obsessed with the sanctuary while Luna was obsessed with escaping. 

"Actually, heading to the sanctuary is the most standard way to escape the abyss. It\'s the best method, but I looked for other ways since I know it doesn\'t work." 

"And Swift keeps trying for the sanctuary even though he knows that?" 

"Yeah. Well... maybe he thinks at least he should survive even if he can\'t reach the sanctuary. What\'s the point of just surviving though? You should at least try something." 

The abyss was structured in such a way that only those who reached the sanctuary survived. This was the same in any abyss. 

\'Then Swift and Luna never failed to reach the sanctuary.\' 

Luna reaching the sanctuary made sense since she was always with the player, but Swift... How could he reach the sanctuary every time if he didn\'t retain his memories? 

\'I’m 100% sure then.\' 

Almond was certain that Swift retained his memories. Swift’s success rate kept increasing and had now reached one hundred percent.  

\'But what\'s his goal?\' 

He still couldn\'t figure out Swift\'s goal. Why was Swift hiding the fact that he retained his memories? If he wasn’t trying to escape, then what? 

[Deathspatch has donated 10,000 won.] 

[Why did I come to watch story mode, and you guys are dating again?] 

— LOL.

— Men and women hiding in dark bushes whispering, haha.

— If this isn\'t dating, what is!!?

— Hahaha.

"Thank you Deathspatch for the donation. We should get a move on." 

They had been hiding for too long in this place. 

"How long are we going to hide here?" Almond asked Luna. 

"Ah... yes, right. We should go out, but no rules have been given yet..." 

Luna looked visibly anxious, which was understandable because she had no significant combat abilities. She relied mostly on her knowledge to survive until now. Now, she was being as cautious as possible on an unfamiliar level. 

"What’s with that look? Are you saying I still don\'t know how to fight after all this time? I can fight, okay? I\'m not scared." 

"Really?" 

"..." 

Almond didn\'t believe her. Given what she had shown so far, her survival seemed mostly due to luck. 

— LOL.

— Really? 

— PTSD from blind dates~

— Really, so true.

Luna became silent, seemingly hurt. 

\'Should the player take the lead?\' 

Almond reluctantly stood up. 

"I\'ll lead the way. Follow me." 

Thump. 

Luna grabbed him as he tried to leave the bush.

"Since you trusted me, I\'ll show you too." 

"?" 

"I have my own combat skills too, but it\'s not something I can easily use. There\'s usually only one chance." 

Just as Luna was about to show him… 

Whir— 

Ruck! 

Giant wings unfolded. 

"The... rules!?" 

Luna instantly stood up. Contrary to her expectations, the rules hadn’t been given. 

Beep!

[1 surviving contractor]

[The competition has ended] 

It was a notification. 

[Winner: Swift] 

— ??? 

— What\'s this nonsense? 

— Huh? 

— Suddenly? 

— Why?

Ding.