บท 331: The Mating Room (1)
With the sound of waves hitting the sandbar and breaking into foam.
[It was dirty because we were together? Let's not see each other again ? ]
A fairy's voice echoes in my ears.
-Ding!
[You have left the underground 4th floor 'Island in the Black Sea']
[You have left the underground 5th floor 'Martyr Desert']
[You have left the underground 6th floor 'Flooded Forest Submerged Zone']
[You have left the underground 7th floor 'Snail Slime Ruins']
[You have left the underground 8th floor 'Remains of the Headhunters']
[Entered the underground 9th floor 'Ryu Majin (Demonic Dragon)'s Laboratory']
At the same time, Vikir felt his body slide downward.
'Is this what it feels like to skip four floors at once?'
A chill ran down his spine from the bottom of his groin to the top of his head, the kind of sensation you get when you go down an elevator in a tall castle, or on a ride that drops you from the top down, or when you train to jump off a cliff.
Vikir's vision in front of him changed rapidly, and several bloody scenes passed by like a panorama.
A desert where the temperature is so high and dry that nothing remains except sand and burned trees.
Tall trees rising in dense clusters and swamps that were waist deep.
Ruined cities covered in grotesque slime.
Ancient civilizations overrun by savage cannibals.
After passing through them, Vikir finally fell through a gate into the 9th level of the underground.
From here on out, the area would be controlled not by fairies, but by their superiors.
…Thud!
As soon as Vikir hit the ground, he rolled on the floor to minimize the impact.
When he looked up, he saw something strange.
A rectangular room surrounded by translucent walls.
The large interior space was half-filled with fluffy sawdust.
The wood chips that had been cut to the size of a fingernail were as thin as pieces of paper.
There were so many of them piled up that it felt cozy and fluffy.
There was a large bowl in the corner with several red, green, and blue candies rolling around.
Across from it was a pipe dripping with water, and off to the side was a large hamster wheel that you could run around in.
It looked like...
[It looks like a hamster farm.]
[hack-hack-]
Decarabia and the Madame cub said a word each.
Vikir could only nod.
If it's narrow, it's narrow. If it's wide, it's wide. Sawdust piled up quite high. Waterer in feed trough. Even treadmills.
No matter where you look, it is a hamster breeding farm.
Papapapapak-
Just as a hamster digs sawdust and builds a den, Vikir did the same.
A den on a sawdust hill ramp made by instinct.
When he went inside and laid down, he felt cozy and warm.
'By the way, the floor is called Laboratory.'
An aviary set up by a Ryumajin for experiments.
Presumably a place to grow and breed things for experiments.
Vikir quickly recalled the description of this floor from the records of the heroes he had read before his regression.
'The home of the Ryumajin, the descendants of the dragon kin who joined forces with the demon. An existence that even the lowest levels dare not confront.'
This place is basically a research lab, a laboratory. Run by an absolute being.
Just as humans keep lab rats in cages, there is always a cage in a lab or laboratory.
'...I've heard it before. A place where all Challengers will randomly encounter at some point in time. A place where research is conducted using the precursor creatures that exist on every floor of the tower. A laboratory where boss and normal monsters are bred and breed to create subspecies, subsraces, and variants for the stages.'
This floor doesn't have to be the 9th floor. Someone might enter from the 2nd floor, someone might enter from the 13th floor, and someone might enter from a floor even further down.
But one thing is for sure: the difficulty of the missions on this floor is "all or nothing".
It's either extremely easy or extremely difficult.
Vikir flexed his hands and slammed them against the translucent wall in front of him.
…Boom!
As expected, the wall was solid.
It would be impossible to break it unless you were a master.
[Also. There was a part of me that believed in fairies. They seem to have thought that sending us right here would put the brakes on us.]
Decarabia was right.
If Vikir had just taken his time and broken through the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth floors, he would have gotten a much larger reward, and the fairies would have gone bankrupt.
"The gamblers who were frightened by the newbie's undefeated streak invited him to a game where they would win."
[If that's not it, then I don't know what is. They've laid out the deck very well].
Within this, Bikir was perfectly trapped. He was like a rat in a poisonous trap, or a hamster in a cage.
"...No hurry."
You can't break down this wall even if you go on a rampage.
Vikir, who already knew this from the memoirs of heroes, began to stroll leisurely around the cage.
Over a knee-deep mound of sawdust, past feeders, waterers, and wheelbarrows, he came upon a high wall.
Vikir pressed his face against it.
Then, beyond the translucent wall, the scenery outside the aviary began to be vaguely visible.
"...Is it an ancient language?"
There were signs in the language of the long-extinct Magic Kingdom.
Vikir stumbled over the words on the signs, using what little knowledge he had from his liberal arts classes.
<Incubation Room>
<Gathering Room>
<Spawn Room>
<Blood Collection room>
<Fighting Room>
.
.
And behind the signs were rows of cages, each with translucent walls.
They looked similar to the place where Vikir was currently being held.
In what was labeled an incubation room, numerous unidentified eggs lay.
Under the gloomy lighting, the veins on the outside of the eggshell are pulsing and pulsating as if they are about to hatch at any moment.
In what was labeled the gathering room, creatures that had apparently been captured from each floor scurried about.
Bugs, wild beasts, flying beasts, fish, crustaceans, and more... There were a few Insectking among them, but judging from the fact that they were all sitting in the corner of the Gathering Room with blank expressions, they seemed to have already lost their minds.
In the area labeled as the Spawn Room, a number of seemingly pregnant creatures were taking a breather and preparing to give birth.
Everyone's stomachs were grotesquely swollen, probably because they had been injected with some kind of strange drug.
In a place marked as a blood collection room, numerous monsters were being desiccated like mummies and their blood was being drawn.
They are all subjects who long for death at any moment and are in a situation worse than death.
"...."
But it was the room opposite that caught Vikir's attention the most.
In a place marked as a fighting room, numerous monsters were fighting with their teeth, claws, and horns as if they were going to kill each other.
kwakwang! uleuleung...!
Judging by the amount of echoes generated, it seems that they are not all normal.
They were fighting so desperately, as if they believed that only the last one standing could escape this indestructible space.
Beyond that, there are various other cages with unreadable inscriptions on them.
Vikir's current cell was just one of them.
'So what is this room for?'
Vikir lifted his head and looked up.
Sure enough, there was a sign above the cage.
Vikir stammered over the vague words.
"... Mating Room?"
Mating (交尾). The sexual act of a male and female for the purpose of reproduction.
'I see. A laboratory where monsters captured from the world outside the tower were mated and bred to produce various subspecies, subraces, and variant second generations.'
Humans run these kinds of facilities for their domesticated animals, too.
But it was still a thrill to be dropped into it.
In the other mating room next to his, a few creatures were wandering around nervously.
But there was one difference between the mating room with the other creatures and the one with Vikir.
'Why am I here alone?'
Vikir thought for a moment.
Of course, he couldn't mate alone. There must be a female individual here to mate with.
But Vikir is the only human in this aviary.
'Surely there must be a passenger who was trapped here before me....'
If there is a woman who came here before Vikir, he may be able to get information from her.
About what they need to get out of here.
'But that's a best-case scenario.'
'Worst case scenario, the woman here is already insane or full of malice.'
Who knows what horrible experiences she may have had on her way here.
'It is highly likely that his normal personality and values have already collapsed.'
It would be impossible to stay sane in this tower without a heroic mindset.
So Vikir kept a close eye on his surroundings.
You never know when a sword might come out of hiding.
But.
Vikir soon realized that he was wrong.
Zeeeeeee-ing.
A gate suddenly opened down the hill from where Vikir stood.
And a person jumps out of it, rolling on the ground.
"Ouch- where am I?"
Rubbing her head, the person getting up was clearly a cloaked female student from Colosseo Academy.
Vikir couldn't help but sigh a little as he saw that familiar face looking around with an anxious expression.
'...Was I the passenger?'
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