Jun and Red Eye were still discussing the missing statue when Red Eye's gaze suddenly shifted toward something lying a little farther away on the floor. She went still for a moment, then narrowed her glowing eye and looked more carefully.
"Master…" she said quietly, "this is it."
Jun immediately turned toward that direction and walked over. As he got closer, he lowered himself and examined the scattered fragments carefully. They were not random stones. They looked exactly like broken carved pieces from a statue.
Some had smooth edges, engraved lines. One fragment even carried what looked like part of a sculpted pattern. It was enough to confirm that whatever had been standing here before… had either been destroyed, or had left behind a fake shell. Jun frowned.
"But how did this break?" he murmured,"And how did it get from there… to here?"
He was still trying to piece that together when Red Eye suddenly said,"Master… shortly before I left last night, the moon's surface shook for a few seconds."
Jun looked at her.
Red Eye continued in her calm, almost analytical tone,"Perhaps the vibration caused it to break. Then, due to the slope or the impact, the pieces were displaced and ended up here."
Jun stayed silent for a few moments. The explanation wasn't perfect. There were too many missing pieces, too many things that still didn't line up. But for now… it was enough.
He straightened up and said,"Fine, Move these fragments aside."
Then his eyes shifted toward the deeper part of the underground structure.
"For now, only one thing matters…"His voice lowered slightly,"...claiming this shelter."
Red Eye nodded without another word. Jun stood fully and began checking the lower floor properly. He moved from one room to another, passing through long corridors, damaged halls, old chambers, broken staircases, sealed sections, and narrow passageways that seemed to branch off deeper underground. The deeper he went, the more unnatural the place felt.
At this point, Jun was certain of one thing that it was not just some abandoned shelter. This place had structure.
After a while, he exhaled in frustration and muttered, "Finding the access room here is way harder than it should be…"
That was when his eyes stopped. At the far edge of the lowest floor, almost hidden in one corner, was a massive side hall. Jun immediately narrowed his eyes. It hadn't been obvious before. In fact, it almost felt as if his eyes had simply been skipping over it until now.
The entrance was there but strangely easy to miss. As if some kind of illusion or perception distortion had been layered around it. Jun slowly began walking toward it. The closer he got, the stronger that strange feeling became. When he finally stood before the giant gate, he paused for a second and glanced at Red Eye.
She was watching the entrance with a warning-filled look. Jun placed his hand against the gate. The metal of the gate was cold. Then slowly he pushed it open. The gate let out a long, heavy sound as it shifted inward. And the moment the inside was revealed Jun's expression froze. What stood beyond was not just another room. It was a hall. A massive, throne-like chamber stretched before him.
On both sides of the hall were rows of thrones many of them shattered, some broken at the base, others cracked and leaning as if they had been abandoned for centuries. The few that still remained upright looked ancient and worn, but even in ruin, they carried an undeniable presence.
This place had not been built for common people. It had been built for rulers. For something above normal rank. And at the very center of it all on a raised platform was the largest throne in the entire chamber.
It dwarfed everything else. Its scale was unnatural, almost too large for an ordinary human body. It looked like it had been made for someone or something far more significant than any normal king. But even that was not the strangest thing. Resting casually on one armrest of that giant throne was a modern wrist device.
Jun stopped walking completely. His eyes locked onto it. It looked clean. The contrast was so absurd that for several seconds, Jun simply stared. This chamber looked ancient enough to belong to a forgotten civilization. And yet that wrist device looked as though someone from a modern era had placed it there yesterday. But even that wasn't the most unsettling thing. Behind the massive throne standing silently like a guardian or witness was a giant statue.
It was completely covered in a white cloth. The cloth draped down over the entire body, hiding every feature beneath it. Only the shape remained visible. It was tall, broad, inhumanly large and on the top of its head a crown. Of something that had once stood above everything in this place.
Jun and Red Eye slowly moved forward. Every step they took echoed through the hall. The silence here was different from the rest of the shelter. It wasn't just quiet. It felt watchful. As if the hall itself had memory. As if it had been waiting for someone to enter. By the time Jun reached the central platform, his attention had completely locked onto the wrist device.
A real physical device, he hesitated for a second. Then slowly reached out and picked it up. The moment it touched his hand The device activated on its own. Jun's eyes widened. He immediately tried to pull away but it was already too late. The device snapped onto his wrist automatically with a precise metallic click.
"What the..."
Jun instantly tried to remove it. But before he could even react further, a red interface flashed into existence in front of him. Its text appeared clean, sharp, and glowing:
WELCOME, JUN.
YOU ARE NOW AUTHORIZED TO SIT UPON THE THRONE AND TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THIS ILLUSION SHELTER.
Jun's eyes widened fully. Even Red Eye went still for a second. The silence in the throne hall grew even heavier. Jun's mind started racing.
"How it knows who I am?"
"Responsibility"
"Illusion Shelter huh"
Suddenly, the text on the red flash card began to shift and transform. New words materialized before your eyes:
Power Level Increase: +6,000 Power Points
Pet Modification: Initiating pet enhancement using accumulated Power Points
Rewards Unlocked:
-6,000 PP
-Pet Evolution/Modification
-Access to the Illusion Shelter
-Soul House Modification
The notification concluded with a binding alert: The wrist attachment is now permanently bound to your Soul House. It is soul-linked and cannot be transferred to any other being.
Finally, a stark warning appeared: You must strengthen your physical vessel to endure this power.
Jun stared at the red interface for several long seconds. Then slowly turned his head toward the throne. With that, the card vanished into thin air. Inside him, two things were clashing violently and it was caution and curiosity. Every instinct told him this was dangerous. Every experience he'd had on Icolis screamed that nothing here came without a price.