Chapter 220

Passing through the hollow of the giant tree, for the first time since arriving here, the scenery finally changed.

It was the end of autumn, under an overcast sky. Up until now, this dungeon had been filled with landscapes that evoked melancholy and loneliness, but once beyond the hollow, the scene transformed into one where the sky was gradually being dyed a deep crimson.

Just as before, there was an open space carpeted with fallen leaves, surrounded by forest stretching all around.

Even those trees looked forlorn, with only sparse remnants of autumn foliage clinging to them.

And yet, the glow of dusk intensified the loneliness, the wistfulness, the sense of melancholy even further.

“Looks like we’ve arrived at the next floor—”

I turned back toward where the other two should have been following.

But there was nothing there—no giant tree, no hollow—only forest spreading endlessly behind me.

“…So you make us head in separately, and then teleport us apart this time too, huh. What a truly nasty dungeon.”

It seemed I would have to act alone from here on.

Now then… what should I do…?

There was no wind, not even the sound of leaves rustling.

A lonely space, wrapped in absolute silence.

Fortunately, however, this floor didn’t seem to exert that kind of mental contamination—an effect that makes you unbearably lonely and anxious when you’re alone.

Within the crimson forest where dusk seemed destined to last forever, I began walking aimlessly, without worrying about which direction was correct.

Just in case, I dropped breadcrumbs as I went, moving straight ahead.

A solitary exploration where the only sounds were the crunch and crackle of dead leaves and fallen foliage beneath my feet.

How much time had passed since then?

The menu screen did have a clock function, but it only showed Earth time from when I’d lived there, so it was only useful for checking beforehand and then later seeing how much time had elapsed.

Even so, that alone would have been a great help—and I should’ve checked it as soon as I arrived on this floor.

“I’ve walked about thirty minutes by feel. No sign of exiting the forest. And it doesn’t seem like the forest is looping strangely either…”

When I looked back, the breadcrumbs I had dropped dotted the ground in a straight line.

At the very least, the forest itself didn’t seem to be some kind of bizarre terrain.

Though that was only within what I could see from here.

Was this really just a case of being teleported separately?

Or was I already caught in some sort of gimmick, requiring me to fulfill a condition alone from this point on?

Personally, I suspected the latter. Simply teleporting us apart would be far too unimaginative.

This dungeon gave the impression that it was packed full of rather malicious gimmicks.

Just in case, I decided to proceed under the assumption that I’d be required to solve things on my own from here on out.

“Even if I try to reunite with them, it might be set up so that we can’t meet at all…”

If that was the case, then somewhere in this twilight forest, I’d need to find something out of place and unravel the mystery.

As a first step, I turned back to check the path I’d come along, making sure the markers I’d dropped hadn’t broken off or taken any unnatural turns.

Even if I thought I was walking straight, I might have been forced to turn right by some gimmick, or prevented from approaching a specific point.

So I retraced my breadcrumbs to confirm.

“…So far, it’s mostly straight, even if there’s a little deviation.”

As I confirmed that, I followed the trail.

Yellow, red, and brown—foreign objects scattered across a naturally colored carpet that evoked autumn.

Walking while looking down dampened my mood a little.

Then I suddenly lifted my gaze and looked at the breadcrumb trail continuing ahead—and felt a slight sense of unease.

It was something faint, something that might have been mere imagination.

But there it was: a small discomfort that finally suggested a clear pattern.

“…It’s forming a wide arc. Which means there’s something in the opposite direction of where the arc leads…?”

There might be some kind of answer there.

I decided to head in the opposite direction of the arc, dropping new breadcrumbs as I went.

Good thing I’d brought plenty of food.

Turning back, changing direction, and redrawing new breadcrumb lines five times—

At last, I was able to identify the spot they consistently didn’t want me to head toward.

Checking where each arc began, all five lines pointed away from the same direction.

Fixing my gaze on that direction, I started walking straight toward it.

This time, to make sure I didn’t get forced to turn again, I walked backward, dropping breadcrumbs while checking as I went.

Carefully proceeding straight in the direction the dungeon clearly didn’t want me to go—

At last—

“I see… so there was an entrance here. Or rather, in this case, an exit.”

The familiar giant tree appeared—the same massive tree that always served as a gate.

If I passed through this and cleared the floor, I might be able to reunite with the other two.

For a moment, the option of waiting for them here crossed my mind, but I chose to move on instead.

And as I passed through the hollow of the giant tree—

In an instant, I understood that the dungeon’s very nature had finally, decisively changed.

The sky had turned to night.

But it wasn’t just any night—it was a scene so strange, so impossible, that it made it unmistakably clear this was another world.

And yet, despite everything, it was overwhelmingly—beautiful.

“…I hope the other two get here soon.”

Those words slipped out of my mouth without thinking.

I wanted to show them this sky.

Stars, moons, planets that shouldn’t have been visible—phenomena I’d only ever seen in images—were all spread across the heavens.

“…Since it’s night now, maybe I’ll at least prepare for camping.”

Even on this floor, some strange and vicious gimmick might bare its fangs.

Even so, I found myself wanting to spend time here—lighting a campfire, having a meal, talking while gazing at the stars.

A cliché, yet deeply longed-for moment.

After gathering dead leaves and branches suitable for a fire and setting up the camping gear, Sheele emerged from the hollow of the tree.

Like me, she seemed utterly speechless at the overwhelming scale and sheer information density of the star-filled sky spreading across this floor.

The look of astonishment on her face—the way she gazed up at the night sky in awe—left a strong impression.

“Welcome back, Sheele.”

“Shizuma, are you all right? It seems we were each made to solve puzzles individually… has Melt not arrived yet?”

“Yeah, not yet. What kind of puzzle did you have to solve, Sheele?”

Apparently, we had each been sent to different floors.

But the mechanisms of the floors we challenged seemed to be the same, and she too had searched for the giant tree entrance within a forest that distorted her sense of direction.

“In my case, I simply fired powerful attacks with my bow, clearing everything in a straight line and repeating that process so there was no room for my sense of direction to be distorted.”

“That’s… way too brute-force! But it worked, huh? Guess the gimmick was pretty flexible.”

“How did you get through it, Shizuma?”

I explained how I used a Hansel-and-Gretel-style method to identify the location, eventually proceeding straight while walking backward to confirm my path.

“…I’m a little jealous you cleared it with a smarter method than mine.”

“Haha, I actually had a dream about doing something like that.”

When I told her about the dream where Melt picked up the breadcrumbs as she went ahead, Sheele let out a quiet giggle.

Lighting the gathered firewood and fallen leaves, we sat down on chairs and waited for Melt.

“I hope Melt arrives soon. I wonder what she’ll think when she sees this sky.”

“It’s like a planetarium… or maybe an all-you-can-see buffet. It’s amazing. Could this be some kind of aurora?”

“Most likely a type of aurora. But the way it appears isn’t quite natural… and planets that large shouldn’t be visible from this distance. It’s almost as if this place is very close to outer space. In any case, it’s a precious sight.”

“Yeah, it really is. And since it’s night, I thought this would be a good place to camp. Sitting around the fire, drinking coffee, and gazing at the sky.”

“That’s romantic, isn’t it? I feel the same way. I just hope Melt can make it through safely.”

In some ways, she seemed like the least suited to puzzle-solving.

But in terms of knowledge and dealing with forests, she was second to none.

I believed she’d make it here—

“Wow! Wow! Wow! There are so many stars! Are the two of you here yet?!”

At that moment, Melt burst out from the giant tree right beside us.

The sight of her overflowing with excitement at the starry sky was so adorable that Shīre and I couldn’t help but laugh.

Standing right next to the giant tree, we called out to her.

“Melt—over here, over here.”

“Ah! Shizuma! Sheele! You’re already here!”

“Come join us, Melt. Let’s camp here tonight.”

“Yay! What an incredible starry sky! I’ve never seen anything like this before!”

I felt the same way.

I had only ever known landscapes like this in artificial creations, in dreams or images.

But now, it was actually spreading out above me.

A huge full moon that even seemed almost blue.

A haze of light, probably some kind of aurora, glowing blue and occasionally flickering violet.

A sky so densely packed with stars it seemed it could overflow.

And planets, large and small, faintly visible, though I didn’t know their names.

Each of these sights was so surreal it felt unreal.

It wasn’t a sky that drew you in like some cosmic whirlpool. This was simply a sky overwhelming in the sheer amount of information it contained.

“Do you want some coffee, Melt?”

“Bitter black water! I can’t handle that!”

“If you add milk and sugar, it’ll taste better, you know?”

“Really? Then… maybe I’ll try it?”

We boiled water over the campfire and added crushed coffee beans directly to brew it.

Unfortunately, we hadn’t brought any proper coffee-making equipment as part of our camping gear.

After boiling, we strained the coffee through a cloth and a sieve back into the pot.

Then we poured it into mugs and added extras according to each person’s taste.

For Sheele, three sugar cubes.

For Melt, four sugar cubes and milk.

For me, a single piece of brown sugar.

People at home always found it strange that I added brown sugar.

I think someone had recommended it in an MMO once… I can’t even remember who.

They had said something like, “I like to drink coffee with low-acidity beans, deliberately using brown sugar instead of refined sugar.”

I don’t remember their name, but I remember they were a new player.

“Ah… that’s nostalgic… I think they were a player in an MMO that ended, right?”

MMOs eventually end. Some players retire entirely, while others migrate to new worlds.

When that happens, all the characters you’ve nurtured, all the memories, vanish.

I used to feel sad and lonely, fearing those inevitable goodbyes.

“Hmm, maybe I’ll try brown sugar coffee too next time.”

“Sweet! This is really tasty!”

“Ha, I’m glad you like it. Sheele, want a refill?”

“No, just this one. I don’t want to become too awake to sleep.”

But now, in this world, my characters were here.

Many companions existed within me. Sheele was in front of me. And although apart for now, Same, who protects our home, was also out there.

I must be fortunate.

I wonder what the person who suggested brown sugar coffee in that MMO thought about in that ending world.

A thought crossed my mind.

“Shall we sleep after drinking? I can still summon a bath if you want.”

“Let’s use the tent tonight, okay? I’ll create a detection field to cover the surroundings.”

“Oh, then maybe we should set the tent up inside the hollow of the tree?”

Makes sense. Probably the safest place would be inside the hollow.

At least, it seemed unlikely monsters from the previous floor would attack here.

So, we pitched the tent in this enormous hollow, and while having Sheele protect all directions with her abilities just in case, we ended the first day of dungeon exploration, sleeping side by side.

…Though, I wonder if being in the middle is really the best spot for me!

The next morning—or at least, I suppose it could be called that—I woke inside the tent.

I couldn’t move. My body, my arms, completely immobilized.

…Could it be that the reason the sky was night was actually a trap to make us sleep?

Had some gimmick been triggered to restrict movement by sleeping?

“…Nope.”

I was being held tightly. Sheele’s leg was entwined with mine.

And the same on the other side—Melt had my body trapped in exactly the same position.

I was effectively a body pillow.

“Everyone, wake up! Come on, come on.”

As I shook my body, the two of them were pulled along and shook as well.

Finally waking, they sluggishly rose.

“Ugh… it’s still dark outside…”

“It’s still night…”

“Yesterday we set up the tent in the hollow, right? That’s why it’s dark. We’ve already slept for six hours, you know?”

This time, I’d checked the in-game time before sleeping, so I was certain. Six hours of sleep—more than enough.

“I see… that’s right.”

“Yeah… oh, it’s true. Outside the hollow, it’s getting bright—shall we go out?”

“Huh?”

Hmm? Even though it should still be night outside, through the tent I could see light.

Following Melt outside, the mysterious starry sky from yesterday was gone.

Instead, an entirely clear, deep blue sky stretched high above.

“Could it be… we’ve reached the next floor…?”

“Maybe spending the night inside the hollow was the correct choice…”

“Oh, so that’s why it was night! I see… it was a mysterious night sky! That must have been the trick, the puzzle!”

I see. That’s certainly possible.

I had thought this dungeon was packed with malicious gimmicks, but this one—honestly—I would call a good one.

It felt almost like the dungeon was rewarding us for making it this far.

…Though, of course, after these kinds of “rest spots,” the final boss usually awaits just beyond.