Chapter 27
Supreme Evil Spirit : He's holding up better than I expected?? Is he finally moving on to the next area??
ㄴSealed Philosopher : Hmm... this is more troublesome than I thought... maybe a surprisingly tricky opponent has gotten in...
ㄴSealed Conqueror : Escape scrolls aren't infinite, but... Julius that bastard's really got a devilish way of thinking, so he might drag in human slaves or something and experiment on them, yeah.
ㄴRoar-Roar Yeah : For a guy who thinks escape scrolls >>>>>> human lives, he’s basically tailor-made for a newbie dungeon, yeah...
Golem King : Julius has more backbone than I thought. He'll have escape scrolls too... Maybe he'll really break through the other areas later?
ㄴDIP : Are you the newbie? The one who got wrecked by an elf? lol
ㄴGolem King : Ah, this fucking bastard's picking a fight again...
ㄴDIP : lol
Golem King : @DIP Where do you live, you bastard? Want me to really smash your bones to pieces??
ㄴDIP : Could you even come if I told you? You pathetic scrub?
ㄴGolem King : You're fucking dead now.
ㄴAnt Queen : Stop fighting and just have sex and lay eggs;;
Ant Queen : Honestly, if Newbie-nim's dungeon info gets out, it'd be a little nerve-racking...
ㄴSkeleton Bones : If that ever gets out, it'd probably lead to a rulebook being made and affect the next wave, so, tsk...
Magic Hero : Don't freak out so much... Up to now, 23 people have died and they still couldn't even break through the entrance...
ㄴNight Raven : Wow... seeing the number like that really does make it feel unfair if you don't know anything about it...
ㄴTV Head : Yeah, we've only just broken through the entrance.
Orange★ : My guess is Julius probably only has about two escape scrolls left now, and he's not the kind of guy to come in without them. If we block him twice, the newbie wins. Losing information is unavoidable. It's not like supply is bad anyway, so he'll expand it later.
Orange★ : So how's it going?
ㄴI'm the Only One Without Minions : Is it dangerous by any chance?
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I gnawed on the jerky.
I appreciated the concern, but... well.
Newbie : All good, all good. Just keep watching.
I am certain that Julius can't possibly come back alive.
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Hmm.
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Still, nothing is absolute.
His chance of making it out alive is around 5%?
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ㄴShit-Love-Dog : Newbie!
ㄴNewbie : Why???
ㄴShit-Love-Dog : I might have just fallen for you ㅠㅠ
ㄴNewbie : Hieeek
***
6. The Elevator Likes Numbers.
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Through the sacrifice of his companions, Julius had learned 'how not to die in the machinery.'
Then what remained was 'how to use the machinery to move on to the next area.'
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In fact, the latter was much easier than the former.
As long as you followed the rules, you could freely explore the machinery.
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The only parts we can touch are the number buttons that exist from 1 to 10.
Then the answer must be here.
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When you press a number button, a voice says, 'It goes up.' Or, 'It goes down.' At the same time, you feel a sense of floating or falling.
And when you hear that the floor has changed and the door opens, a corridor without lights comes into view.
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From the 1st floor to the 10th, every floor was a corridor without lights.
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Julius stared at the elevator's display panel.
It clearly said 1.
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Even so, pressing 1 in the elevator doesn't make the corridor we're standing in now appear.
A corridor without lights, in other words a fake 1st floor, appears.
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…….
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There are a total of three chances to press a button in the machinery.
In other words, you can change floors up to three times.
After that, you return to this corridor.
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From now on, I'll call this process a cycle.
Within one cycle, you are guaranteed to encounter a corridor without lights, and sometimes an insect-human.
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Julius thought.
Why does pressing 1 take us to a fake 1st floor instead of here?
Why does the cycle exist?
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"…Wait."
Julius set the water bottle down.
Wiping his mouth with his sleeve, he sprang to his feet.
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Elder, what's wrong?
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As Madeleine, having changed pants, asked,
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It feels like a safe.
A safe?
Maybe it's a reset.
A reset?
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Madeleine stared blankly at Julius, looking dumbfounded.
Julius let out a sigh with a frustrated expression.
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There are absolute rules in this dungeon. If you figure them out and follow them, it won't harm us. You know that, of course?
How could I not know that when I just nearly died?
Then there must also be rules in this machinery that let us move to another area, right? Since it's a passageway?
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Madeleine nodded.
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Our chance to use this machinery is three times per cycle. After that, it returns to its original place. I don't think this is a meaningless phenomenon.
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From the 1st floor to the 10th, every floor is a corridor without lights.
Probably a place where something lurks that even he couldn't beat.
Dreamland isn't a place you can just smash your way through like a normal dungeon.
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This Dreamland is the polar opposite of other dungeons.
You could say it's a place made of laws different from the world we live in.
If you try to solve it with magic and brute force, it will end in death immediately.
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You must never try to understand it with an invader's common sense.
If you want to steal magic stones from this place, first you need to understand it.
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If breaking through the corridor without lights isn't the answer... then here's what I think.
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The process of a cycle is as follows.
Press a number button.
The floor changes with the announcement that you're moving.
And then repeat that two more times.
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Julius argued that we needed to focus on the fact that the number buttons could be pressed up to 'three' times.
Right now, since we can't find a floor that leads to another area, the only choice we have is incredibly simple.
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Within one cycle, enter a combination of specific numbers.
Like entering a password to open a safe.
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Of course, you can't move from the same floor to the same floor.
I mean, excluding those cases.
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"For example, 234, 345, and so on... In short, Elder, you're saying that pressing numbers on the machine isn't about moving floors, but about entering a password?"
"That's right."
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Of course, it could be wrong.
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But.
It's not as if it's completely not worth trying.
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The other two nodded as well.
We had already learned quite a lot about this machinery.
There might still be rules we hadn't uncovered yet.
But for now, it wasn't that frightening.
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Assuming Julius was right.
If there were a three-digit password that could take us to the next area, the number of possible combinations would be about 810.
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Doable.
If you ignore the part where an insect-human pops out and licks your face with its antennae, it was really doable.
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***
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Dungeon exploration, day 6.
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Madeleine grumbled about why they had to keep going into the machinery.
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The insect-human was already something Madeleine had gotten used to.
If someone else went in, they might die in some absurd way.
And it's not like they could tell Julius to go in himself, could they?
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This godforsaken elevator.
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He had no choice but to press the buttons.
First, the ones place.
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10 9 1.
10 9 2.
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Then change the tens place.
One by one.
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10 8 1.
10 8 2.
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Once all the tens places had been changed.
Next, change the hundreds place and start again.
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9 10 1.
9 10 2.
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The tedious process repeated itself.
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***
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Dungeon exploration, day 7.
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Madeleine let out a sigh.
At first, the insect-human had been terrifying beyond words.
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Now, they could say they had gotten used to it.
To the point that, if told to give it a kiss, they could do it with their eyes closed.
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-Any problems?
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Of course not. Nothing's wrong.
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Today, he pressed the buttons again.
And.
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4 3 1.
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4 3 10.
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The moment a specific number was entered.
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Clunk!
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The elevator shook.
And then, as if it were plunging at high speed.
He felt the sensation of his body going weightless, as if floating upward.
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Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!
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Madeleine? Madeleine?
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Julius urgently called Madeleine's name.
He wondered if they had died, but...
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-I can hear you. I'm alive.
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Five minutes later.
Despite the scream, the fellow spoke calmly.
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How absurd.
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-Elder. It seems I've crossed into the next area.
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What do you see?
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-I can see corridors and rooms. There are signs hanging in front of the room doors, and they say things like 2-2, 2-3, and so on. I don't see anything else special. At least this area seems safe.
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Julius immediately used detection magic.
Madeleine's words were true.
He had moved to the second area located beyond the long corridor.
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'But.'
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The second area was definitely supposed to be empty space.
Now it was different.
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Starting with a long corridor, there were countless rooms connected to it.
And floors and staircases suddenly appeared.
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It looked like the inside of a huge building.
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Is the Dreamland dungeon master some kind of god?
What kind of magic is he using?
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Julius pondered.
Whether to use communication magic to make his subordinates do the work from afar.
Or to check the second area with his own eyes.
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'Still, it'd be better to confirm it with my own eyes. If it's dangerous, I can use the escape scroll right away.'
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If he could confirm it with his own eyes.
Seeing it with his own eyes was better.
Going into the second area felt different from going inside that machinery to investigate.
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Go in. I'll follow.
Understood.
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For now, he sent a subordinate in first.
You only feel at ease once safety has been verified several times.
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-No problems.
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