He watched the secret path that led underground carefully, his eyes trying to see what was inside through the dark.
"Does this room lead to that Indestructible Remain? But what if there are traps inside? Or maybe dreams?" Rayen said.
[There are no dreams inside, knowledge and chaos shouldn't exist in the same place.]
"So you are literate?" Rayen genuinely asked in a curious tone.
[More than you]
The window that appeared was red.
(Why is it red?)
Rayen took out the flashlight from his inventory and slowly walked down the stairs that led inside the hidden room.
The light from his torch was focused on the path he was walking. Suddenly the plank on which he stepped his foot broke, but he jumped forward in time.
He looked back at the broken step and said, "Need to be more careful, one more clumsy move and you are dead." He pressed his forehead and thought.
(Don't think of anything. It doesn't matter even if that system says there is no chaos, I can't trust it.)
Rayen continued going down carefully, but the stairs didn't seem to end. The more he walked, the more they continued. But Rayen's patience didn't wear off. He continued walking without thinking of its end. And eventually the end came.
He stepped his foot on the ground, and the ground wasn't artificial, it was actual land. Rayen looked at the wall beside him with the flashlight. It was made of dirt too.
"They were tight on budget." He said while looking at the dirt wall. Then he turned his head inside the room. It was dark enough to be called unsettling. If there was someone else than Rayen, then their main worry would be whether they were alone or not, or if there was something they called a ghost.
But Rayen was unmoved by the atmosphere around him. He was neither paranoid nor disturbed by anything around him. He was always like this. Nothing was there in this world that could disturb him other than that one single question, what does it mean to be human?
It was something that not only disturbed his mind but also his soul.
"What is this?" Rayen saw a stone in front of him. In that stone he could tell that there was something written. He walked toward it and sat down.
He observed the characters closely, but there was no translation for them. No matter how much he squinted his eyes, "I can't understand a single letter."
He looked down at his hand, it had dust on it, maybe he got it from touching all the previous things. But he once again extended it to touch the stone tablet.
Shissh!
As his fingers touched the stone, all the torches around the room lit up and a window appeared exactly on the stone.
[You have reached the main area for Quest!]
[Uncover the Mysteries of the Indestructible Remain in front of you!]
He lifted his head up at the walls. There were many paintings on the wall. The paintings showed the same humanoid species. On the wall in front of him, they were cooking a huge beast. On the wall beside him, one of them was fighting a huge monster, and there were many more paintings where they slept, when they went to freshen up, when they ate, when they cooked.
"Are they illustrations of their daily routine?" Rayen observed the sun above the figures completing a whole cycle throughout all the paintings except the last one. That was on his left, it was the last painting where they slept, and the things above their heads were three moons.
He stood up and looked carefully at all the paintings. "Was it so important to draw this?" He said in a neutral tone after looking at the paintings where they were pooping.
Rayen walked around the whole room and observed the paintings, but there was nothing special other than a daily routine.
Then Rayen turned back at the stone, the Indestructible Remain.
"Why is this called Indestructible Remain?" He asked himself.
[It's in the name, this thing can't be destroyed even if multiple apocalypses happen.]
[The Order feels bad for your stupidity!]
"I never asked you."
Rayen once again sat down before the stone and observed the characters that were written on the Indestructible Remain.
"What language is this? Shouldn't there be a translation?"
Rayen noticed the symbols and said, "Is it Egyptian?"
But then he remembered something, so he opened his inventory and took out the DataTab. "If only this thing worked."
He opened the DataTab and captured a picture of the stone. The tablet took a while, then it showed only one word.
[Atik]
[Further information is restricted!]
"Atik? Is it the name of this language?"
Then he noticed the second window. "Again? If this is high level information, then why bring me here in the first place? Why did you give me this quest? What is your goal?"
[The Order wanted you to see all this, it will come in handy in the future!]
[You became the first person to find an Indestructible Remain in this century's Dreamers Summit!]
[Alongside being the first person, you have found your purpose!]
"My purpose?"
He asked in a confused tone.
[Loading Main Quest...]
[Revealing the Main Quest 'Self-Discovery'!]
-
[Main Quest]
[Rank]: Personal tier
[Description]:
Rayen had forgotten everything about his past. He thinks his empty personality and being an Error are somehow related to his past. To find out what his past holds and who he really is, this quest is given to him.
[Objectives]:
• Find out about your past.
• Find out why you are an Error.
• Find out how to be a human.
[Additional Objectives]:
• Grow stronger and fight in the Great War of Catastrophe.
• Prevent yourself from dying.
[Rewards]:
• 100,000 Exp
• Rank 9 Honorific, "The One who knows Everything"
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Accept Quest?
[ YES ] [ NO ]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
-
Rayen's eyes widened visibly. His body felt a vibration. Then, for the first time in his life, he felt goosebumps. He felt like the snow mountain in his heart was decreasing in size.
"Is this... my purpose? So I can live like other humans? Have a purpose in my life and fulfill it? Is that true? If I accepted this quest, can I be like others?" Rayen walked toward the window. He held it tightly and asked again, "Can I be like others?"
And The Order's answer?
[Yes, just follow it.]
Rayen pulled back, then took a deep breath and asked, "What about the previous quest? It isn't completed. I haven't solved the mystery behind the Indestructible Remain."
[There is no mystery in that Indestructible Remain, it only explains the things you saw in the paintings on the wall.]
[The true purpose of this Sub-Quest was to give you a purpose!]
"Why do you want to give me a purpose?" Rayen asked.
[Because the firs—]
Shank!
Suddenly lightning came from the sky. It pierced through the ceiling of the temple and struck the window in front of him.
{System 'The Order' has been punished for trying to reveal a very crucial revelation!}
{System 'The Order' has been sent to Black for 3 days as punishment!}
{Until the punishment of system 'The Order' ends, follow the current quests. There will be no new quest given!}
***
Before I could ask anything, all the windows in front of me disappeared.
(The Order got punished, does that mean there is someone even above The Order?)
But I had already accepted the Main Quest before it disappeared, so it wouldn't be a problem for me. Now I have a purpose.
I moved toward the stairs to go back to the main temple floor. This Quest turned out to be useful for me. Now my goal is to go back to the place where Sia and I first met. She would already be there.
"If she is the Sia that was written on my wristband, then she is someone I need. Only with her help, I can find out about my past."
After I reached the main floor, I looked up again at the hyperrealistic painting of Molgrathis. I don't know what this creature is, but it must be a disaster itself.
Then I walked past the pillar interior-like room and reached the first room. I looked around for the last time before opening the temple gate.
As I opened the temple gate, heavy winds hit me. It was morning, bright and early, but heavy winds were blowing. I looked down at the ground, and I could tell if I fell, it would be my end.
But I needed to climb back down. This time it was harder than climbing up. I somehow got a grip on a rock and climbed down slowly.
Fiss!
My foot slipped on the rock and I was about to fall down, but I grabbed onto a snowy place and got a perfect grip on something.
"What is this?" I asked and brushed the snow off that place, then realized that it was a rope ladder connected to the temple. I couldn't see it before because it was hidden in the snow.
"So this is how they reach this temple?"