“Was our joke a little unfunny? Well, I guess there are not many people who have a sense of humor in this town, so we decided to entertain ourselves for a little bit. Our world… you said it's Episode 285, right? No one in that Episode tried to make others laugh. We didn’t really need it. The world itself was funny. Alright, enough with the jokes… tell us how to get back,” San said. 

“Do you want to go back?” 

“Truly…!”

“Don’t you want to know the truth about this world?”

“Truth…? What would be different if we knew the truth?”

“The other humans I’ve come across usually craved it. Don’t your beings sacrifice your life to know the truth? You both don’t want to know?”

“Truth? I wouldn’t want to know even if it was slapping my face!” San adamantly answered. Senun’s expression was subtly distorted.

“Aren’t you wise adventurers? The search for the Absolute Truth, the search for the hidden truth that unlocks the world, and the exhilarating adventures that would follow… Among these pursuits, the dream and goal of all human beings through all ages is to meet the ‘Creator’ of the world in person… isn’t this something that is universally sought amongst your kind? If not, you both are quite the exception. What other reason do you have to come to this dangerous place?” Senun said as he stroked his beard. 

Senun observed the man with a bitter expression on his face and a sense of boredom in his eyes. From the woman, he recognized a sense of sadness. He couldn’t understand their emotional state. He thought, ‘Why is there sadness in her eyes?’

“The things that you state are for people born with a golden spoon up their a.s.ses or those who don’t value their lives. Ordinary people like us don’t wonder about the truth as much as I care to know the weight of rat s.h.i.+t. Right now, there’s only one piece of information I want to obtain here,” San huffed.

“What is it?”

“We want to know whether we can go back to our original world or if we should expect to be stumbling around here for a while… If we can’t go back, then I want to know why we can’t go back… Wouldn’t anyone go crazy if they didn’t know why they were brought to this place? Or is even this not allowed to be explained?”

San’s two shapely eyes stared with vicious intent at Senun.

“I’m sorry. I am not in a position to give you an answer to those questions,” Senun replied as he averted his eyes from San’s piercing gaze.

“Then, the reason for our visit here is over. We will leave. Will you stop us?” San said while shaking his head and getting up slowly from his seat.

“The Original Being can answer your questions,” Senun said as he slowly stood up.

“When is he coming? How long must we wait here?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Yeah? I hope he doesn’t take his sweet time. Also, based on how things are like here, I guess there’s no need to visit that place called Pian.”

“You will have to wait a little longer by human time standards. Is this information all you want?”

Senun looked at San and awaited his next words. San’s face had the most serious expression of desire among the human faces Senun had ever come across. Senun felt a strong sense of duty to hear San’s words.

“Please, continue,” Senun stated.

“Actually, it’s a very realistic request rather than the truth or anything like that. If you accept our request, then we’ll do anything in return. Will you listen?”

“If not universal honor and respect, then what? Do you want wealth and glory in this world?” Senun asked as he smiled. The corners of his lips were slightly raised. He felt that the two would finally act like all the other visitors that had come to him in the past.

“No, we don’t need that. I heard real dragons possessed something. Something that we urgently want.”

“What?” Senun asked with narrowed eyes.

“Give us your race’s medicine. This little girl is sick, so we’ll need a lot… the medicine that can delay ‘termination’.”

***

The group entered a building.

The group members’ eyes flicked around for a variety of reasons. Surprised eyes, fearful eyes, and imploring eyes that tried to find a plausible reason or clue to this enigmatic area. The long-arched tunnel was illuminated in bright, refres.h.i.+ng light. 

The black ceiling was over 10 meters high. It was filled with jewels that were s.h.i.+ning down white light. The light was bright, but not hot, and it didn’t hurt their eyes.

In the left and right cylindrical hallways that extended to the sides from the entrance, mirrors made of steel and gla.s.s reflected their images as they entered, allowing the party to see themselves from various angles.

The floor also seems to be made of black metal, but a dark blue light like water seeped out from the floor.

“Is this a magical palace?”

An Essen crew member, Yuren, muttered to Raron, a fellow Essen crew member. He stared blankly at himself in the mirror…

“I wouldn’t be surprised if something popped out,” Raron responded as he carefully looked around. An expression of fear was plastered on his face.

Rain kept her mouth shut and followed San and Biyeon. The two leisurely followed the old man who San and Byeon referred to as a ‘Sage’.

However, Rain was too overwhelmed by the unfamiliar and mysterious inner landscape to properly focus her thoughts and make sense of the term.

She was accustomed to splendid, lavish styles since she grew up in the imperial court, but this kind of glamorous interior scene was too marvelous and bedazzling. She found it hard to adapt to. 

The merchants Dobel and Doyo gulped as they thought, ‘Almost everything here is novel and original. It’s the first time I’ve ever laid eyes on these things. How is all this light emitted from those jewels? What’s the source?’

After pa.s.sing through the tunnel pa.s.sage, a wide central square spread out in front of the party. The ceiling covering the entire building was made of a translucent material. It was a design decision that considered both the efficiency of using solar cell technology and efficient interior lighting. The octagonal building’s interior was overly large. One side alone was over 300 meters long.

Furthermore, the structure seemed like it was more than twenty stories high, and each floor was designed to widen as one went up, so the upper floors were visible from the first floor. In the center of the building, there was a pentagonal platform that was separated from the central square like an island. The platform seemed similar to an old Greek theater.

“The design of this building is like an octagonal cone that has been flipped upside down…” San murmured.

“It must have cost a lot to build,” Biyeon commented. 

When the group finally arrived at the edge, they observed five bridges that connected the central square to the pentagonal island.

The pentagonal platform had a diameter of sixty meters and was connected to the outer central square by five bridges. The bridges were about four meters wide and about ten meters long, and the material of the bridge was transparent like gla.s.s, so the bottom area was see-through.

The party was just about to pa.s.s over the bridge. Unfortunately, there were no railings on the bridge. What could be under the bridge?

“Ugh…” Gun uttered as his legs gave way before stepping onto the bridge. He slumped and sat down in place. His eyes stared terrifyingly under the bridge in front of him.

“Uh- this is really…”

Even the normally bold and confident Gibin also took a deep breath to calm his nerves. Rain clenched her jaw with a pale white face. The entire party had forgotten what to say as they stood in place in awe.

Their shock was different from the one they felt earlier in the day when seeing the illusions. This place seemed like the area where the G.o.ds dwelled. Was it a divine realm?

The Sage Senun looked at the party’s members with interest. In particular, he carefully observed the reaction of San and Biyeon.

He wondered how they would react after seeing such a wondrous work. San and Biyeon came from the ‘Root Episode’ that the Original Being had used as a template to formulate humankind.

Under the transparent bridge, there was a huge cavity that seemed to stretch down endlessly. The cavity seemed to widen as it went downward, like the walls of a jar. All along the walls, soft lights illuminated every s.p.a.ce and crevice, making everything look like a fantasy of magnificently large scope.

The party saw mountains and valleys of machines working tirelessly underground. The gigantic machines, buildings, and sculptures stretched out beyond their vision.

A magnificent conveyor belt stretched here and there like rivers between structures as large as skysc.r.a.pers. Structures such as Goliath Cranes and large-diameter turrets were densely rising here and there.

Between the various structures, some flying object was constantly transported materials and things from here and there. The sixty-meter pentagonal square where they stood could be seen as the top of a conical structure that rose thousands of meters from the bas.e.m.e.nt floor.

“Awesome! Doesn’t this look like a scene from a sci-fi movie?” San murmured. However, unlike his words of admiration, the expression on his face was not showing any surprise. He strode over the bridge while looking down.

“I know, right. I wonder if the movie Matrix was actually one of the Episodes. Do you think the Wachowski brothers were actually closet dragons?” Biyeon commented as she squatted down on her knees. While responding, Biyeon took out a flute-like thing from her arms and blew on it downwards towards the deep cavity.

No sound came out. She pressed the stopwatch on her wrist.w.a.tch to measure the time. San took out a stick and was measuring something else.

Senun watched this erratic, nonsensical behavior with patience.

[Based on the ultrasonic measurement, the depth is about three kilometers, and the width is about ten kilometers at its widest area. It must be an elliptical s.p.a.ce overall. It is a tremendous structure. I think it’s larger than the Pian we first entered.] Biyeon said to San.

[What do you think it’s used for?]

[If it’s still operating, it must have a purpose in regulating something… It doesn’t seem to be connected to anything in the human world. However, it does seem like a device that maintains or controls some type of system… Anyway, I think we need to look around a little more. Perhaps it’s a dragon’s nest? Or maybe it has something to do with Pian?]

[Well…]

***

San, Biyeon, and Senun were traveling down from the pentagonal platform on the first floor of the building. The downward pa.s.sage was a vertical elevator.

With deep, sunken eyes, San and Biyeon stared at the outside landscape through the transparent elevator walls. In order to obtain the medicine that they sought, Biyeon and San were on their way to get a diagnostic procedure. Senun stated that he needed to conduct diagnostic tests and a.n.a.lysis of their bodies, and the two agreed.

This wasn’t their first time being treated as lab specimens, so they took the procedure in stride. They also felt that they could obtain some newfound knowledge themselves through diagnostics and a.n.a.lysis.

‘A world where all time and history coexist…’

At the same time, the other party members were safely pa.s.sing through the octagonal building. Since it was dark outside, Senun had provided a guide for the party to move towards their sleeping quarters.

The party members were especially anxious because their actual leaders, San and Biyeon were not present, but they calmed themselves after reiterating the commonly known declaration that Sages were beings who did not lie.

The Absolute warrior and the merchants were deeply immersed in their own thoughts. Although they were also at the scene of the conversation between Senun and their leaders, they could not comprehend the conversation.

The only consolation was that they felt they could safely get out of here and that they would have a proper adventure in the future.

Within all of them was a hidden joy of having looked upon a piece of the world’s mystery. It was something that people of this world had dreamed of as a child. To glimpse inside the world of G.o.ds, dragons, and heroes… they felt as if they had stepped into a thrilling tale of legends and myths…

***

“How do you feel?” Senun asked.

“Honestly… I have to admit that I’m very impressed. Indeed, I think the name ‘Sacred Machine Forest’ is a very apt description,” San answered. The landscape San observed outside the elevator was testing the limits of his imagination. It was most similar to a scene from a movie with s.p.a.ce fleets and robots moving around chaotically.

“There are many things in the world that people do not know of. This is one of them.”

“The machines you use are very busy… Why are they moving so busily in such a quiet place? Haven’t you disconnected communication with the outside world?” Biyeon asked.

“What is done here is very important. Would it make sense if I said this was all needed to protect this world? That is the true reason for the existence of Sages.”

“Sages protect this world?” Biyeon asked as her eyes gleamed.

“This is one of the five pillars that maintain the Original Being’s worlds. For over fifty million years, it has never stopped operating. Also, this place is constantly evolving. It’s the Sage’s duty to protect and operate this place.”