Pick Me Up Infinite Gacha! - P.M.U Chapter 198: The Black Seed (6) (Part 2)

“I’ll go out, so stay still. If something happens, shout.”

“Where are you planning to go?”

“We need to eat.”

The inside of the cave was quite cold.

I would also need firewood.

Pria slightly nodded.

Swoosh.

I drew my sword halfway.

A clear crack was running along the blade.

It was a replica of Bifrost. It seemed quite damaged from the battle.

‘This won’t last long either.’

Clang.

I sheathed the sword and leaped onto the high rock.

I climbed the protruding stones and stalactites and jumped through the hole in the ceiling.

A dense forest appeared right away.

The northwestern region of the floating island.

I decided to think about the aftermath later and tackle what I could do first.

This mission would be a long-term one. To preserve my condition, I needed to set up a camp where I could rest.

‘Find food and firewood.’

It wasn’t too difficult.

I grabbed a handful of stones from the ground.

A rabbit about to jump over a tree root caught my eye.

After a while,

I threw the net to the ground.

The net contained two rabbits, a squirrel, and a sparrow.

All were dead or unconscious.

The stretchy net was a piece of survival equipment I had packed before the mission started.

My left arm was also full of firewood.

I roughly covered the entrance with brush and entered the cave.

I stacked the firewood in a circle and rubbed the wood together to start a fire.

I was about to prepare for butchering when,

“I’ll help too.”

Pria approached.

“I can’t let you do all the work alone. At least this much, I should do.”

“…….”

“Don’t worry. I have plenty of camping experience.”

Pria smiled faintly and opened the net.

If she wanted to do it, fine. I handed her a sharp dagger.

Thunk!

Pria deftly slit the rabbit’s throat.

Blood began to flow from the rabbit’s neck immediately.

‘I should help too.’

I grabbed the sparrow’s wing and pulled it out.

This one hadn’t been killed yet. It was just unconscious.

I decided to cut its throat. I took out the dagger, held it in a reverse grip, and…

“……?”

The sparrow was trembling.

Crackle! Suddenly, the sparrow jumped like a flying fish, and dark red lightning flashed.

‘What is this?’

It was clearly unconscious.

I pressed down on the sparrow’s neck.

Then the dagger…

<Wait! Don’t kill me!>

“…….”

<Don’t kill me, I said! It’s me, me!>

“Who are you?”

<I am the great ancient ruler, Halkion Syraos!>

“What a complicated name.”

I moved the dagger.

“Chirp!”

The sparrow opened its eyes wide and escaped from my grip.

It raised its wings as if to threaten me.

“Han, what’s going on?”

“Nothing.”

“Uhm!”

I grabbed the sparrow’s beak, lifted it up, and tucked the squirming creature under my arm. This didn’t seem like the right place to talk. There were ears listening.

I moved my body to the back of a pillar in the cave.

<You insolent!>

When I placed the sparrow on the ground, it swung its wings fiercely.

“I told you not to act up.”

Thunk!

“Chirp!”

The sparrow, hit by a peanut, rolled on the ground.

<……Your dirty temper is still the same.>

“How did you get here? I didn’t bring you with me.”

I had instructed Iselle to keep a strict watch on him.

Surely, it should have been locked in a chicken coop in the stable.

<Hmph, do you think a shabby cage can stop me?>

“Don’t be cocky and explain.”

<I can transcend.>

“Explain in simple terms.”

This was another anomaly.

This guy should have been stuck in the waiting room.

<The barrier between the Tower and Townia has thinned.>

“……What do you mean?”

<You’ve caused quite a ruckus.>

The sparrow chuckled.

<Originally, there is an insurmountable wall between the Tower and this world. You know that, right? The Mobius Tower is a higher dimension than Townia. That’s why time flows differently, and events repeat several times.>

“…….”

<That difference has been narrowed.>

The difference has narrowed.

“Are you saying we’re physically closer?”

<You could say that. It’s not wrong.>

The sparrow nodded.

“Is that possible?”

<It’s not. Just as you heroes cannot escape the constraints of the mission, monsters cannot escape their fate. This place was designed that way. Normally.>

‘……Normally.’

The sparrow folded its wings and looked up at me.

<Looks like you need my help.>

I couldn’t deny it.

I had no idea what was happening.

<Aren’t you curious why Townia’s difficulty is so messed up, why all sorts of bugs are popping up in the mission, and how boss-level entities are jumping floors?>

“…….”

<Hmph, I came here to tell you about that. I risked the danger to do so.>

“How do you know?”

<I was in the same place as them.>

The sparrow said.

<There is an area called the Prison in the underground of the Tower. Just as the Tower confines you, heroes, the Prison confines the monsters. They are bred there and summoned to the field when needed. After dying, they are regenerated.>

Prison.

It was a term I was hearing for the first time.

There being another space under the waiting room was also new to me.

But on reflection, it made sense.

If monsters were summoned to the field like heroes, they would need a place to stay.

<The Prison is strictly divided by floors. A monster from an upper floor can never go down. The reverse is also true. It is an inescapable prison.>

“…….”

<This is a common feature of the 100 million accounts existing in Mobius.>

I stood up.

Pria was grilling meat behind me.

I walked towards a side path in the cave.

‘A common rule of Pick Me Up.’

Monsters are sacrifices for heroes to grow stronger.

They cannot leave their designated area, and ordinary monsters are resurrected multiple times.

Even special named monsters, if resurrected, are devoured through the descending dungeon.

Thus, most missions in Pick Me Up are structured like extermination battles.

There are some variations, but the goal is to kill monsters and grow stronger.

There are no monsters in the mission that cannot be killed or conquered.

I recalled the list of missions I had experienced in Townia.

Indeed….

‘This is strange.’

Townia was misaligned.

<I’ll tell you an old story.>

“Do I have to listen?”

<Of course. The answer lies within it.>

“Then go ahead.”

I reached a spot where no light entered.

I sat down, and the sparrow began to speak.

<Townia was originally not one place.>

“…….”

<It was merely a chaotic space where the boundaries of four dimensions twisted and met. The four dimensions are….>

“Halkion, Lantia, Assinis, Shutenberg.”

<Correct. I, or rather we, were originally the rulers of each dimension.>

The sparrow, once the ruler of Haklion, Syraos, folded its wings and sat on the ground.

Its eyes looked far away.

<We were all destined for extinction. The boundaries of the dimensions were intertwining, swallowing everything. We were on bad terms as well. If left alone, we would have waged war until one side survived. The surviving side wouldn’t have lasted long, either.>

“…….”

<At that time, a man appeared from the inside of the boundary.>

Syraos continued.

<He was a common, insignificant, weak human man. He didn’t even know where he came from or what he did.>

“…….”

<That man became the first emperor of the Empire.>

The sparrow looked up at me.

<You… you actually smell like him.>

Hyung_Otaku

I'm currently Translating the following novels: Pick Me Up! | A Frontline Soldier Awakened as a Gamer In The War! | The 100th Regression of the Max-Level Player. If you want to support me and read more chapters please subscribe to my Patreon!

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