Chapter 815: Hidden Story (7)
A three-seater small vessel surged through the current, violently slicing through the water.
All while benefitting from the buffs of a professional navigator.
「Auyen Rockrove has cast [Fair Wind].」
「Auyen Rockrove has cast [Trade Route].」
「Auyen Rockrove has cast [Ghost Shi—].」
In terms of raw speed, it didn’t seem too different from our main ship—the one that could carry our entire clan.
—Swaaaaaaaaah!!
But in terms of perceived speed, this thing was leagues beyond.
And for good reason.
Thud—! Swaaaaaaaah—! Thud—!
Maybe it was the size?
But the ride quality was close to the worst I’d ever experienced.
Every time we hit a wave, the boat didn’t just jolt—it actually launched into the air like a jumping dolphin...
I can say with confidence: if Ainard, who once claimed to have overcome seasickness, were on board, she’d be puking her guts out within a minute.
Just like I was doing now.
“Urk! Uweeeeeegh!!!”
Fucking hell. Barbarians and the sea are a terrible mix.
“...Sh-should I slow down a little?”
“No. Absolutely do not slow down.”
“......”
How is Auyen completely fine through all this?
Even a normal person would be doubled over from nausea in this kind of ride, wouldn’t they?
It’s not like navigators have some skill or stat that prevents seasickness...
“Uweeeeeeeegh!!!!”
“P-please hang on just a little longer! We’re almost there!”
Almost there, huh...
I feel like I’ve heard that same line five times already.
It was encouraging the first time.
Now it’s just despair.
Right, so...
Think.
Just like that first day, crawling along the cave floor after stepping into a goblin trap.
If I can keep my mind on something else, we’ll eventually get there.
Problem is, it’s hard to think straight when your head’s swimming from nausea.
Mechanical beast Arta. Human Arta.
Past, present, and future.
The Labyrinth Project.
The Empire and the Kingdom.
Dimensional collapse...
All the information we’ve gathered on this expedition whirled through my head, jumbled into a chaotic mess.
It felt like I understood it—yet didn’t understand anything.
But still, there was this gut feeling: if I could just untangle this knot, everything would become clear.
“What he was about to say at the end keeps bothering me too...”
Even with my brain feeling like it was about to explode, I couldn’t stop thinking about his words and his expression.
[Remember this. In normal dimensions, beings from other dimensions cannot enter.]
[The only case where a being from another dimension can enter is—]
He was clearly trying to say something incredibly important...
Not being able to hear the rest is driving me insane.
This isn’t even the “second best way to piss someone off.” It’s worse.
“Enough.”
I forcibly twisted the runaway train of thoughts off its tracks.
Because this wasn’t the time for that.
“Dimensional collapse...”
Right now, the top priority is figuring out how to survive this scheduled disaster.
“They said a Floor Lord was summoned to the sixth floor too...”
Please—let the raid end before the collapse hits. Otherwise, that thing becomes a horrific wild card.
“Maybe I should’ve gone out and tried to find a wizard who can use dimensional gates?”
The thought crossed my mind for a moment.
But I decided not to dwell on regrets.
After all, trying to find a wizard who can use dimensional travel magic on this vast, ocean-like floor in half a day is practically impossible...
“Arta.”
This guy—he’s definitely hiding something important in his story.
Which means, before we leave, I have to get it out of him—
“Leader, we’ve arrived...!”
Phew. So we’re finally here.
“Alright, good wor—Uweeeeeeegh—!!”
All strength left my body.
***
「Your character has entered a special area.」
「Field Effect – Arta’s Secret Base is now active.」
「All hostile actions are prohibited within the field.」
***
The walls were covered with pipes and hatch handles.
Magical conduits that looked like wires were aligned throughout the facility—Arta’s secret base.
[...]
But even after entering the base, I didn’t hear any voice.
So...
“ARTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA—!!”
I braced my diaphragm and shouted with all my might, and before long, a slightly disoriented voice responded.
[Ah? Ah...! You’re finally here! I couldn’t see your battle with the beast due to system failure, but I noticed the signals disappeared—so I figured you’d defeated it...!]
“Why don’t you come out and say thanks in person?”
[Ah, yes, that would be proper... but first, I must repair the lab—]
“Do that later. Come out now. I have something important to tell you.”
[What are you talking about...? What could possibly be more important than restoring the lab? Have you already forgotten? Only by repairing the lab can we stop the end of the worl—]
The hell’s he on about?
I pulled out one of the “byproducts” I’d harvested from the beast—something very visually obvious.
“If you don’t have this, then fixing the lab is pointless anyway.”
[Are you threatening me?]
“This isn’t a threat. It’s persuasion. So leave the lab alone for now and let’s talk, alright?”
[...Fine. Speak. What’s so urgent that you had to drag me out?]
“Shouldn’t we be talking face-to-face by now?”
[...That’s... difficult.]
“Why? Because you’re not human?”
There was a pause before a response came through the speaker.
[...Do you know what I am?]
Of course I do.
I’d seen him countless times in the game.
If you just keep progressing the story normally, there comes a point where Arta asks for the byproduct you got from defeating the beast, and you’re given a choice:
Give it to him.
Don’t give it to him.
If you choose option 1, that’s it—you hand it over, get the byproduct reward, and any further conversation just loops back to “I’m busy, don’t bother me.” Once you leave the base (and you have to, because of [Time Limit]), the entrance seals and you can never return.
In other words, take the reward, and the story ends there.
“Well, option 2 doesn’t really expand the story either...”
If you choose not to give it, Arta reveals his true form—the mechanical beast—and a boss fight begins.
“Difficulty: on par with a 9th-floor Floor Lord.”
Naturally, my first attempt ended in a wipeout.
I just didn’t have the stats.
Turns out the mechanical beast Arta is far above monsters like Sniktura or the “Beast.” He’s a full-blown raid boss.
I only managed to beat him by bringing a team built for the 10th floor all the way down to the 6th—and even then, it took dozens of tries.
“Problem is... the reward wasn’t even that great.”
The reward was a single mechanical heart. Hard to say what it was even for.
Sure, you could consume it as a potion and get a massive stat boost, or use it as a material—it was a top-grade mana core, on par with a Dragon Heart.
Still...
“It didn’t feel like the kind of reward you should get for defeating something on Floor Lord level.”
So after my first successful run, I thought maybe I was missing something—maybe there was a proper way to use the heart I hadn’t discovered yet.
That’s when I started digging deeper into the story...
And I did learn some things.
[Well? Do you know what I am?]
Let’s see...
“At the very least, I do know you didn’t want this thing just to stop the apocalypse.”
I tossed the line out subtly, and he bit right down.
[No way... Are you... a Pilgrim?]
Pilgrim.
In the historical glossary, it refers to the traitors to humanity who fought alongside the witches.
He actually asked this question earlier too:
[Who are you? Are you Pilgrims?]
[......You still haven’t answered my question. Who are you? Pilgrims?]
Back then, I answered, “We’re not.”
Because this guy has a method of verification—and as a player, there’s no way to pass that test.
“But why does he keep asking if I’m a Pilgrim?”
I wondered, but didn’t show any outward reaction.
Because the moment I asked, it would confirm it wasn’t true.
Then he’d go, “Hmm, just by asking, I can tell you’re not one,” and drop the subject.
So for now, I shelved the Pilgrim angle.
“How about we talk face-to-face before we go any further?”
[...]
“I’m really only here to talk. Once we’re done, I’ll give this to you.”
It sounded polite on the surface, but the implication was clear: refuse to talk, and I’m not handing it over.
Luckily, Arta seemed to catch the hint.
[Understood...]
His tone softened, and with that, one of the doors opened.
Chiiiiiii—k!
Even amid the malfunctioning lab, where doors were opening and closing on their own, this one had never moved once.
Now, it slid open—and he stepped out.
Clack, clack.
Metallic sounds no human body could make.
[I’ve come out as agreed. Now speak. What is it you want from me?]
...This is where it begins.
***
Height: 190cm.
Think of a robot modeled after a human from an old sci-fi movie—that’s what he looked like.
Though, there was one part that felt especially off...
“...Seeing it in person, it’s really disturbing.”
His arms, legs, and torso were pure machine—metallic frames fully exposed.
But his face was bizarrely human.
Like someone had stretched human skin over a robot’s head.
“Why just the face?”
I couldn’t make sense of it.
Then again, maybe it’s just a matter of taste.
Ah, right. He’s not human.
Anyway, the important part:
“Seeing him in person... it really is the same face.”
The Arta in this secret base and the researcher Arta I met earlier—they were clearly the same person.
[Speak.]
Now that we were face-to-face, the sound still came through a speaker instead of vocal cords.
[You don’t seem like a survivor of the fallen Empire. So what are you, really?]
“Hmm. What do you think I am?”
[...I won’t answer that.]
“Well then, it’s going to be hard for me to give this up, isn’t it? Weren’t we going to talk?”
Arta stared at me.
His slightly red, lens-like pupils gave off a chilling impression.
Like he was running calculations to determine whether brute force or conversation was more efficient in retrieving the object.
[I lack sufficient information. Unless you reveal it yourself, I can only make assumptions about your identity.]
“Still, if you had to guess?”
[Pilgrim... doesn’t quite fit. The evidence is lacking. So tell me. Who are you?]
Once again, he asked.
I shrugged and replied without hesitation.
“Whether or not I’m a Pilgrim doesn’t matter.”
Because I’d already prepared a line for this moment—
Something that would not only spark curiosity, but also win his attention.
[That sounds like you’re denying it—]
Okay. Time to interrupt.
“Arta, Chief Researcher of the Empire’s First Magi-Engineering Institute.”
[......?]
“I was sent here by the you of the past.”
[......!!]
If he were human...
No—even as a machine, that’s something you can’t ignore.