Chapter 150 ‒ Where It All Began
Chapter 150 ‒ Where It All Began
“What?”
The elder quickly covered his mouth with his paw, his eyes crinkling with mischief. “Ah — never mind that. Tell me, [Player]… what did you truly come here for?”
Tyler hesitated, then took out the parchment again. “I came… to ask about this message. About the answer.”
The elder tilted his head, reading the shifting letters. Then he smiled, eyes bright with an unspoken warmth.
“This… is a puzzle only you can solve. It is not about the words on the paper… but the words within yourself. Search inside — that is where your true answer lies.”
Tyler stood silent, the wind tugging gently at his cloak. Finally, he bowed his head low. “Thank you.”
Tyler stepped back from the elder, the words still echoing in his mind like ripples across a quiet pond. He felt as though he stood at the edge of an answer, a shape almost taking form beyond the fog — but not quite.
A restless uncertainty gnawed at him, urging him forward. If not Miho’s father… then perhaps Doctor Frank? Tyler thought. Frank was once a scholar and a seeker of deeper truths — if anyone else might help him piece together this final puzzle, it would be him. With that faint hope flickering in his chest, Tyler turned toward Ashborough, his steps quickening beneath the shifting morning light.
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As he approached Ashborough, the sun now hovered like a soft lantern above the green fields. He found Frank kneeling among rows of pink clover, a simple watering can in his hands. Droplets glimmered like tiny stars as they fell.
“Doctor Frank… you’re gardening now?” Tyler called out softly.
Frank looked up, his face marked by deep shadows under his eyes, yet peaceful. “I am no longer a scientist,” he said simply, a serene smile blooming across his face. “I tend plants now. Before all this… I loved flowers. Sometimes… we must step back. Return to where it all began. That is when we remember… who we really are.”
Tyler’s breath caught in his throat. Return to where it all began… what we seek lies hidden in plain sight…
His fingers curled instinctively around the wooden medallion at his chest, his pulse hammering. His thoughts spiralled, twisting rapidly through half-forgotten corridors of memory. The first time he opened his eyes in this world… the spawning square… Noobia.
“The very beginning…” he murmured, his eyes wide and glistening.
Frank’s eyes softened as he studied Tyler, noticing the restless tremor in his fingers clutching the wooden medallion — a silent storm barely contained. A quiet understanding passed through Frank’s gaze just before he tilted his head.
“Should I… call Anne for you?”
But Tyler didn’t seem to hear. His voice shook as he bowed deeply. “Thank you, Doctor Frank. I… I must go! Right now!”
Frank blinked, utterly baffled. “Uh… you’re welcome… I guess? But… what did I do?”
Tyler turned on his heel, sprinting off with a renewed energy that left dust swirling in his wake. Frank watched, scratching his head, a puzzled smile on his lips.
From the corner of the field, Anne stood with a bundle of lavenders in her arms. She had just rounded the corner, her eyes catching a glimpse of Tyler’s vanishing silhouette. Her mouth opened slightly, then snapped shut. Her cheeks puffed in frustration as she tightened her grip on the flowers.
“After hearing that he came, I even picked these… for that idiot and he didn’t even bother to greet me,” she muttered, her voice small and sharp all at once.
A single petal fluttered to the ground. She stared at it, her cheeks puffing out. “Next time… if there even is a next time… he better say hi… or I— I’ll shove these flowers right up his—”
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Her words broke off as her eyes shimmered. She turned, hiding her face in the flowers. “Dumbass…”
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Tyler vanished into the horizon beyond Ashborough, the breeze carrying his promise forward. The final puzzle now danced at the edge of his mind — the beginning, Noobia, the place where it had all started.
Tyler’s fingers danced across his interface as he ran, flicking open the teleport menu in frantic, stuttering motions. His pulse thundered in his ears.
Light flooded his vision in a brilliant, all-consuming white. When it faded, he stood once again on the weathered stones of Noobia — the place where everything had begun.
He sucked in a sharp breath. The spawning square loomed before him, a simple platform ringed with low, moss-covered walls. Overhead, the morning sun cut through drifting clouds, draping the stones in a soft golden veil.
Tyler’s steps echoed as he approached, each footfall slow, reverent. The words from the parchment rang in his mind, a gentle echo: Sometimes the answers we seek are hidden in plain sight.
He knelt beside the platform, his hands brushing over the cold stone surface. A shiver crawled up his spine. He flicked open his inventory, his eyes locking onto the divine keys.
[Divine Key — Zephryn’s Gale is resonating]
[Divine Key — Myrrak’s Hollow is resonating]
[Divine Key — Volkrayne’s Volt is resonating]
[Divine Key — Shindeon’s Ember is resonating]
[Divine Key — Thamutekh’s Hourglass is resonating]
As he stared, each icon pulsed, glowing white with a luminous, almost living radiance. His breath hitched.
“So this is it… I was right.”
Slowly, he stood and stepped forward. The spawning square shuddered beneath his boots. Hairline cracks slithered across its surface, tiny fractures that glowed from within like lightning trapped under glass. A low, humming sound filled the air — ancient, resonant, vibrating against his bones.
Chunks of the stone exterior began to slough away, cascading in slow, deliberate fragments. Beneath it all, five narrow keyholes emerged, each rimmed in delicate golden etchings that shimmered in the sunlight.
Tyler reached into his inventory. The Divine Keys lifted from his palms as though drawn by an invisible breath. One by one, they twisted in the air, reshaping themselves into sleek, ethereal keys.
Myrrak’s Hollow moved first, sliding into its slot with a sharp, sibilant hiss. A green glow rippled across the pedestal’s upper edge, illuminating glyphs that danced and shifted like wind-blown leaves.
Next came Shindeon’s Ember, crackling red as it entered its slot. The glow deepened, veins of crimson branching out like molten rivers across the surface.
Thamutekh’s Hourglass followed, its golden light spilling out in gentle pulses that felt like the measured beat of a giant heart.
Then Volkrayne’s Volt slid into place, sparking a blue-white surge that snapped and sizzled across the remaining stone.
Finally, Zephryn’s Gale hovered above its slot, radiant white, before dropping in with a soft, ringing chime. The pedestal flared, white light exploding upward like a geyser. Tyler shielded his eyes, the brilliance searing against his skin.
The keys turned in unison. With a rumbling sigh, the entire pedestal began to transform. Stone plates folded back and down, gears within grinding and hissing with jets of steam. As the final mechanism clicked into place, Tyler squinted through the glow — and froze.
Instead of an ornate staircase or some grand portal, all that remained was a small, humble patch of grass. Fresh, lush green, swaying gently as though touched by an unseen breeze.
Tyler’s mouth fell open. “What… the hell…?” His gaze shot upward, scanning the sky desperately. “Was this it? Did I… just lose the keys?”
As he stared, a shape drifted across the sky — a cloud, oddly shaped. Something about it gnawed at his memory, familiar in a way he couldn’t explain. He narrowed his eyes, activating [Eagle Eye].
Even with the enhanced vision, he could only make out faint, shifting outlines — too high, too distant. He clenched his fists. “If only I could… get above it.”
His mind stumbled, then jolted as realization slammed into him like a thunderclap. His eyes widened, whipping toward his inventory.
“Wait… the bean. The magic bean!”
With shaking hands, he retrieved the small, radiant purple bean — the one Cupcake Crab had given him so long ago, with that mischievous glint in his eyes. Tyler’s breath caught, a strangled laugh rising in his throat. He knew… that crab bastard knew!
His gaze swept across Noobia’s quiet square. Pineapple Pig tended his forge absentmindedly, Petunia and Octokitty chatted at the flower stall, and Gumpy Pug dozed in his hammock. But of the sly merchant, there was no sign.
Tyler knelt, placing the bean gently on the lush grass patch. It shuddered once, then burrowed deep into the soil as though inhaled by the earth itself.
Silence.
Then, an eruption.
A colossal beanstalk burst upward in an explosion of leaves and shimmering green tendrils, spiralling into the sky with a roar like a thousand rushing rivers. The ground quaked beneath Tyler’s feet. Pineapple Pig dropped his hammer in shock, Petunia shrieked and dropped her flowers, and Octokitty scurried back into her shop, tentacles flailing.
Tyler felt his pulse surge as the beanstalk soared ever higher, twisting into the clouds like a living bridge to the unknown. He clenched his fists, eyes glinting with fierce resolve.
“Now or never,” he muttered under his breath. With a single powerful leap, he launched himself upward, catching hold of a thick, glowing vine as the wind roared past his ears.