The world turned bright once more.

Scratch~ Scratch~

Hearing the familiar scratching sound, I looked toward the figure that sat on the wooden desk with their backs turned toward me. Just like before, he was seemingly busy writing something.

But compared to that time, the atmosphere wasn't so gloomy.

There was no longer an air of desperation.

But that wasn't what I was focused on.

No.

My attention was focused on the single page before him.

'Finally.'

The page that would lead to me finding the tree's weakness.

At long last, I was going to be free from this nightmare.

Tak--

I took a step forward to get a better look at the page, but just as I took the step, the scribbling sound stopped.

Turning around, two red eyes stared back at me.

"...."

I stopped and looked back at them.

I stood in silence for a short moment before he opened his mouth and broke the silence.

".....My life was no different after all."

From the way he was talking, he seemed to remember everything that had happened between us in the world where the roots had completely taken over.

"I wake up every morning, make breakfast, go to work, come back, make dinner, and go to sleep. It's really not that different."

I frowned listening to his words.

He looked happy to me. A stark contrast to how he was back in the previous illusion.

And yet,

There was something about his words and tone that didn't quite sit well with me.

Why was that...?

"Strangely, I don't hate it."

So he said it.

".....There's nothing wrong with the mundane life that I live with. I would argue there's a beauty to it. Every day may be the same, but there's something about the simplicity that feels strangely peaceful. I--"

That was when I realized, and cut him off.

"You can stop."

I took a step back while gravely staring at the man who stood before me.

"What's wrong?"

He appeared confused by my sudden stance.

"Is there something that I said that you disagree with?"

"....."

I licked my lips.

They were incredibly dry.

No, it wasn't just my lips.

My mouth was also dry.

At the same time, I felt my hands tingle as I tried to keep myself calm and collected.

"There's no need to pretend. You're not him."

"Uh?"

He tilted his head.

He seemed even more confused.

But I knew,

I knew that the man who stood before me wasn't Karl.

Typically, when using the second leaf, I'd be able to feel the emotions of those that I was subjecting my skill.

But at this very moment,

The man that stood before me.

He felt nothing.

He had no emotions.

He was just an empty shell that was pretending to smile right before my very eyes.

Karl...

The man who stood before me wasn't him.

"You're the tree, aren't you?"

The one I was currently speaking to was the tree.

Karl.

He was already dead.

The tree had already taken over him.

"....."

The smile on Karl's face gradually faded, and his red eyes flickered with a certain coldness that sent chills down the back of my spine.

I swallowed my saliva.

"....How could you tell?"

Even his tone changed, suddenly sounding a lot more gravelly. Like a broom scraping broken glass.

"You shouldn't be able to tell. How can you tell?"

I looked around in search of the roots, but nothing appeared.

In fact, 'Karl' didn't seem to make any attempts at attacking me at all.

In fact, it seemed genuinely curious about me.

The way it was looking at me suggested so.

".....You're a peculiar human. From the start, your mental resilience was far greater than those of your age."

As its voice reached my ears, its piercing red eyes continued to stare at me. Feeling its gaze, it felt as though it was looking at the deepest parts of my soul.

I felt naked.

....It was at this moment that I truly felt the massive disparity in our strengths.

And yet, I didn't necessarily feel in any danger.

"It's much easier to turn those that have low mental resilience. You, who is weak, have such high mental resilience. It's intriguing."

"....."

"I knew it from the start. You are the most fearsome. To me, strength is meaningless. I can kill the strongest if they have weak minds."

It pointed at its head.

"....See?"

Pressing its finger against its tempt.

"Strong, but weak."

Then, pointing at me, it said,

"Weak but strong."

I stood quietly while listening to everything that it was saying.

The tree didn't seem to be capable of fully articulating itself.

I had to wrack my brain to properly understand what it was trying to say.

'My mental resilience is what he fears.'

That much I already knew.

Given how Leon had fallen so easily, mental resilience was important. It determined how easily the tree could absorb someone.

The higher the mental resistance, the harder it was for it to reign its influence.

Perhaps, the reason why I could see the roots and others couldn't was because of my high mental resilience.

Then again, Leon also saw a root from what I remembered, so not so sure it was valid.

".....What exactly is your goal? Are you trying to absorb everyone here to grow stronger?"

Such were the words that came out of my mouth when I spoke.

I was merely trying to buy time at this point.

.....I needed to figure something out.

For some reason, the tree wasn't attacking me, but I wasn't sure for how long that'd be true.

At least, such were my thoughts before the tree spoke again.

"You're partially right. I want to grow stronger. Observe humans."

"Hm?"

Observe humans?

The tree looked at me.

"I have observed so many humans. I learned to speak your language after observing for such a long time. You're very peculiar. You all react differently to the same stimulus."

"Like the illusion you showed me?"

The one I had experienced just a few moments prior regarding Karl and his despair.

"Ah, yes, yes."

The tree nodded.

"Isn't it peculiar how certain humans can be so depressed when facing monotonicity while others are happy? Why is it that you're so different despite being the same race? We aren't like that. We are all the same. We want to grow."

By 'we', it was probably talking about the other monsters.

I think I was slowly starting to get a better idea of what was going on.

"..Are you trying to become human?"

"Trying to become human?"

The tree cocked its head.

Then, after a certain while, it shook its head.

"No, you humans are too complicated to understand. I don't want to be human."

"Then...?"

"...."

The tree didn't answer.

Lowering its head, it stared at its hand.

".....I want to learn what it means to think for oneself. Learn for what reason certain stimuli arouse different reactions and for strength. To transcend, I must learn to separate myself from the others."

It raised its head to look at me.

"Such is my reason."

"....."

I stood by the side without saying a word.

'I've read many books, but none of them mention how monsters evolve to the next rank. This is either new information that isn't yet known, or most likely isn't in my current cirriculum.'

This was as far as I could assume.

From my assumption, it seemed like a monster needed to be able to think for itself and develop a consciousness to reach the next rank.

The Destroyer rank.

.....It was for that reason that the tree was absorbing people and casting them in an illusion.

It wasn't just to weaken them so that it could directly swallow their consciousness with time.

No, it was observing them.

Learning from them.

By putting them into different stimuli, the tree was developing its very own consciousness.

"Is that the reason that you've disguised yourself as him?"

I pointed at his face and appearance.

".....So that you could be closer to everyone to understand their thought process?"

"That's correct."

The tree nodded its head.

But as it did, its gaze lowered.

"But it's not enough."

It raised its head.

"I can't understand."

Suddenly, the tree smiled.

"I am happy."

Then, it frowned.

"I am angry."

Then, it cried.

"I am sad."

Then, it winced.

"I am disgusted."

With Karl's face, the tree began to show me all sorts of emotions. It was almost as if it was asking me to judge it.

"....."

The tree's actions were weird.

And yet, I couldn't take my eyes away from it.

His expressions...

They were impeccable.

From where I stood, I could see exactly what he was feeling.

But there was something about it that was missing.

Eventually, it stopped and looked at me.

"I have observed humans very carefully. I can mimic their every action, and think like them. When humans are happy, the muscles on their cheeks tense, and their lips move up. Their eyes squint, and dopamine rushes into the brain. I do exactly that, and yet"

"You can't feel it."

I cut the tree directly.

Blinking its eyes, it cocked its head.

"Yes. I don't understand. Why...?"

"Emotions."

One word.

One troublesome word.

"....They are not easy to understand. I myself struggle to understand them."

Despite having experienced so much, I had yet to fully understand them.

They were extremely troublesome.

Could it be that in order for monsters to evolve into the next rank, they had to learn about emotions?

If so,

"Ha."

I laughed a little.

As if that was easy.

"Yes...?"

"You're going to be stuck where you're at for a very long time."

Again, the tree blinked.

"Why?"

".....Because emotions aren't things that you can just mimic through what you see. You need to directly experience them in order to get a better understanding of them."

Perhaps, the tree only needed a rudimentary understanding of emotions to reach the next level.

But that 'rudimentary' understanding was probably not something that the tree could understand through observation.

It needed to feel them in order to learn about them properly.

"Experience...? How?"

I could tell from its gaze that it was genuinely curious.

I was just about to answer when I stopped.

"...."

I pursed my lips and looked at the tree in front of me. Its gaze was intense, and I could feel my throat clamp up under its gaze.

And yet, despite such pressure, I didn't feel scared.

Rather,

Ba... Thump! Ba... Thump!

I felt excited.

Licking my lips, I opened my mouth to speak.

"....I can show you."

I held out my hand.

"I wouldn't mind showing you if you joined me."