Chapter 77

Chapter 77, Exhibition (3)

We wandered around for several more minutes afterward, but we still couldn't find any Association members.

The situation was becoming seriously suspicious.

Apparently, we weren't the only ones who sensed something was wrong.

Disturbances began breaking out throughout the exhibition hall.

And they were quite large.

Thunderous noises echoed as the ground shook.

If someone had only heard the sounds without knowing what was happening, they might have thought there were several hundred people here.

In reality, there weren't even fifty.

The qualifications required to enter the exhibition were simply that strict.

There were only around twenty or thirty visitors inside the exhibition hall at most.

However, each of them possessed an average of at least three Mysteries.

The disturbance caused by people like that couldn't be measured simply by counting heads.

Rumble!

The ground shook.

Caw, caw!

A flock of dozens of crows gathered together and pecked at the ceiling of the exhibition hall.

The number of Mysteries being newly recorded in Lucy was increasing in real time.

As time passed, the disturbance grew so large that there was no possible way the exhibition organizers could fail to notice it.

And yet, there was no attempt to stop anyone.

No intervention.

Not even a warning.

No one tried to prevent the chaos.

For the Mystery Protection Association to show absolutely no reaction even after things had escalated this far, something had definitely happened.

Feeling increasingly urgent, I grabbed a passing visitor.

He was an unusual person who traveled while riding a snake.

The visitor sat atop an enormous snake nearly three times my height.

When I stopped him, he shot me an irritated glare.

That only lasted until we actually saw each other's faces.

The moment our eyes met, the irritation completely disappeared from his face.

Fear replaced it instead.

Come to think of it, he seemed to have been one of the people standing behind me when I was inspected at the entrance.

That makes things easier.

“...What do you need?”

“Sorry for stopping you, but do you know how to leave this place? I mean how to leave False Utopia and return to reality.”

“You can return by dying.”

After answering, perhaps realizing that his explanation had been too brief, he added more.

“Well, normally when you die in a dream, you wake up, don't you? It's the same here. If you die inside this place, you wake up in reality.”

“I see. Then one last question. Do you know what's happening right now?”

He shook his head.

Then, with a stiff expression, he looked at the snake he was riding.

The enormous, elongated snake flicked its tongue while making strange cries.

The sounds grew louder and louder.

The man's expression became more rigid in proportion.

Now visibly tense, he spoke hurriedly.

“I don't know what's happening, but it definitely isn't anything good. I'll be leaving now.”

With those final words, he departed.

Judging from his direction, he was heading toward the exhibition hall containing the Eye of Ra.

Is he planning to steal a Mystery while everything's in chaos?

It wasn't really my concern, so I had no intention of stopping him.

I just wanted to leave this place as quickly as possible.

From now on, I should never think things like I'm bored or I wish something interesting would happen again.

Peace really was the best.

I opened Lucy and cross-checked the information one last time.

Then I amplified the flame quietly burning in my right hand.

The fire expanded instantly.

The surrounding marble began melting from the heat.

At the moment, it was under my control and couldn't harm my companions.

But if I wanted, I could make it swallow all of us in an instant.

“Let's escape now. Does everyone agree?”

According to what the man had told us, and what I had confirmed through Lucy, the fastest way to escape was suicide.

Using a blade like a dagger would hurt too much, and more importantly, it would feel unpleasant.

So I planned to use fire instead.

People said burning pain was among the worst forms of pain, but that statement was meaningless before flames reaching nearly 4,000 degrees Celsius.

With this, we should be able to return to reality instantly without feeling any pain.

At my question, my companions nodded with serious expressions.

That was the signal.

The flames blooming from my fingertips opened their jaws wide and swallowed my companions and me whole.

The entire process happened in an instant.

The last thing I saw was my vision being completely filled with purple flames.

Then I died.

And when I opened my eyes again...

I immediately realized that something had gone terribly wrong.

A beautifully decorated space of pure white marble spread before me.

The scenery was beautiful.

The atmosphere wasn't.

The ground kept trembling with heavy impacts, and all kinds of bizarre supernatural phenomena that ignored the laws of physics were occurring.

It was an extremely familiar sight.

Of course it was.

It looked exactly like the exhibition hall I had been standing inside only moments ago.

“...”

I blankly raised my right hand.

Flames ignited.

The fire erupted and swallowed me.

By the time I felt something resembling warmth, I was already dead.

Then I opened my eyes again.

The same scenery was still there.

The familiar exhibition hall.

“...I think we're in serious trouble.”

I startled at the voice behind me and turned around.

Arlin was standing there.

Bias was beside her as well.

Both of them looked completely bewildered.

We had definitely died.

Because of that, we should have opened our eyes outside False Utopia and the exhibition hall, back in reality.

Or, failing that, I should have regressed.

At the very least, none of us should have awakened here again.

Then what the hell is happening?

Confused beyond words, I exploded myself with fire once more.

Nothing changed.

The situation remained exactly the same.

I knew instinctively.

We're fucked.

“The part where we don't truly die is still the same... but we're waking up here instead of outside. Did that man deceive us earlier?”

“...No. Lucy also says that dying should send us outside. This seems like something else is interfering.”

With a stiff expression, I opened Lucy and checked again.

Nothing in the information had changed.

If you died inside False Utopia, you would naturally wake up outside.

That was the escape method recorded in Lucy.

There were other methods of leaving as well, but something much more important occupied my thoughts right now.

I was seriously screwed.

I felt all my composure disappear.

The reason was simple.

This situation was extremely dangerous for me.

It wasn't merely because we were trapped here.

It was because even after dying, I woke up inside the exhibition hall again.

What did that mean?

My regression had been blocked.

My safety mechanism was gone.

My insurance had broken.

The single final option I relied on if everything went wrong had been shattered.

The fact that death still wasn't permanent remained true.

But losing my emergency exit from this situation was a massive blow.

Arlin was smart enough to reach the same conclusion quickly.

Her expression stiffened completely.

Only Bias seemed confused, wondering why Arlin and I had suddenly become so tense.

I couldn't answer her curiosity.

I simply sank into thought.

My survival instincts flared to life.

My mind worked faster than ever.

Several times, I opened Lucy and carefully checked every newly registered Mystery one by one.

Eventually, I found one that seemed capable of blocking my regression.

The conclusion I reached was this.

“Let's go see the Eye of Ra.”

At my words, we headed toward the Mythology-themed hall.

Soon, we entered the beautifully decorated exhibition space that resembled a temple.

Once we arrived, we were able to properly see the chaos that had broken out throughout the exhibition.

All kinds of Mysteries were rampaging wildly.

Flocks of crows pecked at everything around them.

A burning puppy breathed fire from its mouth.

A gigantic snowman moved around while scattering freezing air.

Naturally, there was no way the surroundings could remain intact in a situation like this.

[Scq224, Pegasus]

[Scq198, Pure Holy Water]

[Scq131, Divinely Blessed Wine]

Every display area had been smashed apart.

Strangely enough, however, none of the Mysteries themselves had disappeared.

Apparently, even while causing chaos, the visitors were still worried about retaliation from the Mystery Protection Association or other factions.

That made sense.

Taking low-utility Mysteries like these while knowing the retaliation you would face simply wasn't worth it.

It would be a foolish choice.

But if the Mystery in question was a 900-series...

Then the risk could be worth it.

Before long, we arrived at the place where Scq909, the Eye of Ra, had been displayed.

That area was particularly devastated.

One part was frozen solid.

Another had melted.

Elsewhere, deep bite marks remained as though some enormous creature had torn into the structure.

They were probably traces left behind by Mysteries colliding with one another.

And at the center of that collision...

The Eye of Ra was gone, just as expected.

“Yuhyeon. Did you come here because you're trying to obtain the Eye of Ra?”

“No. If that were my goal, we would've rushed here much sooner. I came here simply to confirm something.”

I stood in front of the destroyed display and opened Lucy so my companions could see.

The page contained the description of a single Mystery.

It was the Mystery that had prevented us from escaping False Utopia.

And it was most likely a Mystery used by an outside faction.