Episode 321 Under Dogma (1)
-Gee-Ring!
[Leaving the ‘familiar land’ on the 3rd basement floor]
[Entering the ‘Island of the Black Sea’ on the 4th basement floor]
The ecliptic area on the 3rd basement floor gradually fades away.
Even the huge tsunami that soaked me right up to my heels couldn’t follow me anymore.
All 68 survivors were scattered through the single-person gate.
……And the place where Bikir opened his eyes was the world of the 4th floor underground.
“Hmm. The sea.”
Bikir swept the dry sand from his face.
Where the humid sea breeze blows.
Bikir was on an island in the middle of the vast, dark sea.
It looked like an earthen mound sprouting from the sea.
Bony dead trees appear and disappear like bones in the gray mist.
Splash-
Bikir went to the beach and dipped his hand in the water.
The water was generally a black color.
Even if you submerge your elbows in water, you will soon lose sight of the back of your hand.
There was almost no buoyancy, so even hair and clothes did not rise to the surface and sank.
Splash- Splash-
When I waved my hands, my movements became extremely dull.
The water itself also feels much heavier than normal water.
“…Is this the ‘black water’?”
Bikir nodded.
The end of the world is a sea that is somewhere in the distant ocean.
It is said that the seawater there is black and heavy and does not float anything.
Whatever falls into this black seawater, thick and heavy like melted lead, does not float and sinks.
That’s why it’s a taboo area that sailors should never enter.
“Well. The ship that was sailing fine will suddenly sink for no reason.”
Looking up, I saw a fierce storm raging beyond the black horizon.
A storm raging around the island as if it were enclosing it.
Bikir shook off the water and returned to the beach.
After passing the sandy beach made of black sand and returning to the forest of dead trees, now you can see white soil.
“This is hyphae.”
Between grains of soil, sticky white threads like chungkukjang hang down.
Half of the island is black sand and the other half is white soil.
It was indeed a strange ecosystem. It is as if the pieces were taken from a completely different world and forcibly sewn together.
“…The soil dried up and the trees died. Is it the result of the forcible mixing of two terrains with different properties?”
It’s obvious who created this strange world.
[Amdusias is an absorber of the worldview.]
Dekarabia on the chest opened its mouth.
[It travels all over the world, taking off parts of the world that it likes and storing them in the Naraksu. There are various rag spaces in it, and this is one of them.]
Considering the Colosseo Academy seen from upstairs or the city of the ecliptic, this was definitely understandable.
“So what happens to the creatures that inhabit it when it absorbs parts of the world?”
[It will be dragged along. To the position of a challenger who challenges the tower.]
That means that there may be former owners and guests who entered this tower before Vikir.
Whether it be a human or a monster.
at that time.
“……!”
Bikir found a strange thing near the center of the island.
It was a tall tree standing tall in the middle of a world of black and white where everything withered.
“Is it the root of Naraksu?”
It was just a gigantic twist, with no branches, no stem, no leaves, rising from the ground.
It seems that it probably grew out of Naraksu’s main body, then lost its way and sprouted to this place.
Bikir climbed up the tree roots and tried.
After climbing the black hard bark for a while, I saw a knothole.
There, blood-red sap gushed out and formed a pool.
Bikir tried to eat it with his finger.
“I can eat it.”
In terms of taste, it was slightly sweet.
Although the concentration of the sap was thin and the amount was not much because it was at the tip of the root, it was enough for one person to live on.
Even in the memoirs of the great heroes I read before returning, I could often find records of surviving by eating the sap from the root of the Naraksu, so it would be good to take it.
Bikir put his head into the knothole and sucked the sap. I felt like a bug, but that doesn’t matter in survival.
Moderately sweet and moderately bland liquid quenched Bikir’s dry throat.
The intestines, which seemed to have dried up, swelled up moist and tight after a while.
however.
“……That’s enough.”
Bikir drank moderately and cleared his mouth of the sap.
There was still quite a bit of sap still dripping from the knothole, but Bikir didn’t take any more of it.
Decarabia said.
[Thought well, human. There is a fixed amount of Naraksu’s sap that can be drunk at one time. If you pass that, it’s easy to become a monster.]
“I know.”
When Bikir is just coming down from the tree roots.
“Hey! What are you!?”
A sharp cry was heard from below.
From the direction of the hill on the other side, several students were sending wary glances.
The faces I couldn’t see on the 3rd basement floor.
However, since they were students of the same Colosseo Academy, they all knew each other.
They continued to shout at Bikir.
“Whoever drank the sap at will!”
“It was our turn this time!”
“Someone who came from somewhere to eat steals our food!”
They seemed to have landed on this floor before Bikir did.
Originally, Vikir should have landed here after spending more than 68 days, but the fairy spontaneously ended the mission, so it seemed like she was mixed with the others.
‘Hmm. Then, did these guys clear the mission on the 3rd basement level before me?’
In the tower, the concept of time is arbitrary for each floor, so I thought it might be like that.
Bikir looked around at the students below.
Of course they weren’t all.
“What? What’s up?”
“Huh? A new guy has arrived.”
“Who’s here? Are you from a noble family? Or a baron?”
Students appear one by one from the top of the hill.
All of them were skinny, and their eyes were bloodshot.
Even though they encountered a daylily of blood on the 3rd basement floor, they must have been poisoned as much as they survived.
At that time, one of the students who seemed to be the leader stepped forward.
“I am a 3rd year dogma of the Colosseo Academy Fever Donation Club. I am the vice president of the student council.
It was a line that felt strangely conceited.
Of course Bikir knew his face and name.
‘Dogma. commons. From Underdog City. He is a third-year student of the Fever Army Club and is second in grade. He must have been the one who lost to Dolores in the final exam.’
He is a male student who has a sense of inferiority because he is from a commoner, and has a great sense of competition and admiration for Dolores, who is the president of the student council, the top of the grade, and also from a noble family.
Dogma said to Bikir.
“I know who you are. You’re Vikiru, a freshman in the Cold Weapons Donation? It looks like you’ve joined ‘our floor’ belatedly.”
He continued speaking in an overbearing manner as if the entire floor were theirs.
“There is a rule here. The amount of sap from Ongdalsaem is not large, so set a time and eat the sap one by one. You broke that rule.”
“……Who made those rules?”
When Bikir asked, Dogma said it was natural.
“That’s right, we ‘common people’.”
“……Commoners?”
Bikir tilted his head.
There are three factions in the Colosseo Academy.
The official organization, the Student Council. And the aristocratic faction and the noble faction, which are informal organizations.
However, there was no organization called the commoners. There was no way they could form a faction based on their status as commoners in the first place.
‘Right. Is it a newly created concept within the tower?’
Outside the world, rich and powerful people rule. nobles, barons and elites.
This governance structure, which had been passed down for a long time, would not change forever, and it was gradually recognized that movement between classes was impossible.
Although there were extreme cases such as the 47-man unrest, all such attempts were brutally and completely suppressed.
In other words, beings of a lower hierarchy can never ascend to a higher hierarchy.
“…But it’s different here.”
Dogma grinned.
The logic of the power that rules the outside world The system that seemed to last forever has no power here.
zero base. A world where everything is perfectly fair.
Rich, pretty, handsome, high-status, well-studyed, strong… All the standards that made us stand on top in the world are all returning to zero and a fair starting point here.
perfect equality of opportunity. A world where anyone can rise to the top if they try.
The low status he has had to carry since he was born, his ugly appearance, his weak body, his poor talent, his poor family… he can overturn all of these things.
You have your first and last chance to rise higher than those that always looked down on you!
“We have been disadvantaged since birth due to the original sin of meeting poor and helpless commoner parents. But what about now? Everything is level and stats! that it has come!”
Dogma spread his arms around him.
All of these twenty or so people gathered were commoners.
Dogma held out her hand to Bikir in a strangely warm voice.
“Are you a commoner too? I know everything. You must have been sad all along.”
“…”
“Me too. Noble nobles just can’t pass up when a commoner is good at something. Even though I’ve never been able to get the top spot because of Dolores, I’ve never missed a second place until now. even became the vice-president of the student council. In the meantime, I have suffered countless times of contempt and humiliation.”
“…”
“Yeah. Even if you don’t say anything, everyone knows. You’re the one who watered the aristocrats and barons at the auction, right? I’ve been paying attention to you ever since. Those idiots who only sat there after meeting their parents, slander you. I always felt sorry for what I was doing. I wanted to help in my own way, but at that time, I too had a hard time taking care of myself. But now it’s different!”
“…”
“I can help you, Bikir. Let’s hold hands. How long will only blood be sucked under the exploitation structure created by the older generations?”
After hearing Dogma’s speech, all the students around him nodded and brought tears to their eyes.
There was an unusually warm atmosphere on the island.
“……What about the rest of the survivors?”
That is, until Bikir splashed cold water on her.
At least 50 people must have survived and fell from the 2nd basement level to the 3rd basement level.
Having luckily avoided the hellhound, they would have encountered a dried bloodstained daylily and would have had to make a choice.
And the twenty or so commoners gathered here are those who survived that choice.
Bikir asked again.
“What did you do with your non-commoner classmates?”
Then Dogma answered.
“That’s obvious. You must have come through the 3rd basement floor. They all became prey.”
“Whose?”
“…”
Dogma didn’t answer Bikir’s repeated questions, just grinned.
“Don’t argue too much. This is the land of a reversal of social order. This is perfect for the fate of aristocrats who are worse than pigs and dogs.” Soon after
, the students split left and right
at Dogma’s gesture.
He pulled the chain,
and then several humans appeared from beyond the pile of dead black fire,
a dog collar tied around his neck, a long chain collar, and signs of beatings and abuse all over his face and
body .
I narrowed my eyes,
they were all familiar faces.
