Chapter 18: 4.3 Sequence Break?

Great, now I'm imagining Guidance looking like Shizu, which I highly doubt given her chosen profession and interests.

Still, even as the dark-lit rock of [Yagokoro] hung over my head, the pleasant feeling of being held by a living breathing female was just as hard to shake off. And I should already be used to this too.

"Here we are, Stranger!"

Blinking at her words, I recalibrated my eyeballs as I focused my gaze on what Shizu was supposed to be showing me. Well, the keyword was 'supposed' here, seeing as I wasn't seeing anything.

"Uhm... Am I supposed to be looking at empty space, Shizu?" I hesitantly asked, my eyes still struggling to piece together the nothingness in front of me.

Shizu turned to me, adorably tilting her head as she flashed me a confused look, "Huh? You mean you can't see it?"

I blinked at her words. Way to state the obvious there... "The only thing I see is an empty alley with two bare walls on each side."

And I wasn't even lying. We were currently staring at a blank alleyway with nothing in it. Then again, when compared to the rest of the streets and alleyways I was passing through, it looked barebones in comparison.

"Exactly!" she beamed at me, her hand pointing towards the so-called mystery alleyway. "It's eerily empty! And no matter how much we try to put stuff in it, it disappears!"

I almost did a double-take, "Wait, seriously?"

"Yup!" she beamed, as if the anomaly in front of us wasn't even scary. "It kind of messes with reality too. The researchers say that one of the [Eld] probably used this place as its home once."

Ookay?

I found myself giving the alley another scrutinizing look. It really didn't look like anything, but if what Shizu said was true, then what was the case here then?

"Can we walk through it?"

"We can, but it might give you a headache afterward," Shizu shook her head in mirth. "I suggest you let me take the lead, Stranger."

"Got it."

Falling behind my tour guide, I trailed behind her as she approached the mysterious alleyway. Sure enough, something happened the first thing she set foot inside the boundary of the weird space. I honestly even thought I was still wearing glasses when I saw it.

"Uhh... Shizu?"

"Y-Ye-Es?"

Oh my lord... I can't believe what I was seeing...

"Are you okay?"

"w-W-hATt? i cCa-Nt hEa-0r Yyou8 sSt=angeR!"

My jaw almost dropped to my chest as I witnessed the horror taking place in front of me. Shizu was currently halfway through entering the alleyway when her body suddenly became fuzzy and unrecognizable. It was as if I was looking at multiple glitch filters stacked on top of each other made by an amateur using photoshop, and it wasn't even funny with how hard it was making my brain work in recognizing her shape.

"C90mE1 OnN!!"

To my surprise, the girl's hand suddenly latched onto mine, pulling me with her as we entered the glitched-out alleyway. I couldn't even see or focus as the world around me seemingly flipped itself over its head, the dark purple sky of [Kattleyna] being replaced with various shades of violet and white as the alleyway expanded in on itself.

"You okay, Stranger?"

I blinked at Shizu's clear tone. As opposed to earlier, she was back to being the hot woman that she was instead of being a glitch-hidden monstrosity. I guess the effect was only visible from the outside? "Yeah... I'm fine, I think."

"Good!" she beamed. "Now you can see for yourself!"

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes as I got my bearings straight. Sure enough, we were inside the alleyway. Now it was the outside world's turn to look unnaturally clean as the alley looked downright dirty. Or at least, I think it was dirt that I was looking at. The entire place looked kind of blurry in comparison to the world outside.

"We call this place [Eld's Alley]. We're pretty sure it wasn't supposed to be this way, but that's the way the [Eld] just works," Shizu cheerfully explained. "We probably shouldn't venture deeper though."

Huh? Deeper? "Why? Doesn't it just end on the other side of the street?"

"Well, that's the thing. It doesn't seem to end." Say what now?! "Everyone that tried to walk deeper into the alley never came back. The researchers don't know why, so in the end we just closed it off!"

That's so careless! Wait... Closed off? "But I didn't see any signs that tell anyone to not come near here earlier?"

If this place was so dangerous, then why wasn't it protected or even cordoned off? Common sense would dictate putting up at least a sign telling people to not walk into the dangerous alleyway, and I didn't see any even while we stood in front of the damn thing.

"Well, that's because everyone knows not to go here."

I froze at Shizu's radiant smile; a smile so innocent that one would probably even forget that she just pulled me into a forbidden area. Well, Guidance probably wouldn't code something so dangerous in the middle of what was obviously the hub city in the area, so I guess it should-

{CHIME!}

What the hell! That startled me!

"Stranger?"

"It's nothing," I waved my guide off as I waited for the inevitable update on this side quest's status.

[Side Quest Accepted: Princess Escort!]

[Quest Progress: Oddities Observed: 2/10]

I couldn't help but shrug at the whopping one point of progress I made in this nonsensical side quest. I didn't even know this princess person, and I doubt it'd be Shizu here seeing as she had her own NPC name displayed front and center above her head. Well, even if this was optional, at least I had it unlocked for my future convenience.

{CHIME!}

Another notification? Well, I might as well see what it was.

[Dungeon Unlocked!: [Eld Alley] is now available!]

What...

[Minimum Level Required: Level 60]

What the hell?!

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