Chapter 199
Just the fact that they had fallen 1 billion years before human civilization was born made him feel half-mad.
He wondered if there wasn't some strange red number floating above his head too.
He thought he could finally understand the feelings of Amelia, Arndt, and Russel, who had been half out of their minds whenever they saw demonic beasts or monsters.
Fine, he could accept the 1 billion years.
If it came to it, after dying to Yurik, he could return to the hill and tear up the book again.
However, even in that plan, Yurik was an indispensable element.
For him now, the most important thing was Yurik.
Without Yurik, he couldn't regress, nor could he learn the identity of this bizarre giant city, detailed information about the Elder Things, or anything about the local geography.
Retrieving Yurik was the priority, but...
"...Which individual contains Yurik?" There were too many Shoggoths.
Really, really too many. He didn't know if it was because he was in a high place, but there were so many that if the Shoggoths were ants, this would give the illusion of being an anthill.
Moreover, he didn't know where the Shoggoth that had just fled had gone.
He didn't know why they had taken Yurik or what purpose they had. Everything was still unknown.
Should he observe a bit longer?
If he could identify the movement patterns of the Shoggoths and the Elder Things who might be somewhere, infiltration would become easier.
Of course, he was a bit concerned about whether Yurik, captured by the Shoggoth, could survive unharmed.
There seemed to be a separate reason why beings who could crumple hard, thick fruit like paper had only absorbed Yurik without killing him.
The fact that they had ignored him, who had entered with Yurik, was also telling. It didn't seem like they were trying to eliminate intruders.
He hid under leaves with thick veins and watched below the entire time.
As the sun gradually sank below the ground, the sky darkened.
Darkness fell over the giant city, but they didn't light fires or anything.
The Shoggoths and Elder Things possessed senses beyond the human realm. So moving around in darkness without light would be child's play for them.
But as a human, he was struggling because the black Shoggoths became hard to see as it grew dark.
Damn bastards. Please live with some lights on. Were they children of darkness?
While he was restlessly agitated like this, just before the sun completely set, the Shoggoths that had been slowly helping with city construction all gathered together and headed down deep into the cavity.
As soon as the black jelly streams disappeared into the city and hid themselves, he stood up.
Now, when the Shoggoths weren't moving around, was exactly the right time to infiltrate the city.
He walked along the boundary between the forest area where he had been hiding and the city, finding a path to go down.
The place where plants grew abundantly surrounded the city in a circle like fortress walls, and at regular intervals there were paths that could lead up from the city to here.
This forest area was possibly a garden managed by the city's Shoggoths.
Anyway, as soon as he went down the path, suddenly organized roads and giant sculptures greeted him.
The giant sculptures, which seemed to be over 10 meters tall, were impossible to guess the form of, but he could tell they were works that had been labored over extensively.
The stones supporting the sculptures and the stone slabs laid like roads were all individually enormous.
Somehow he felt like he had entered the land of giants from Gulliver's Travels.
At the edge of the city where everything except him was large, he tried to walk without making noise and found the path the Shoggoths had used to enter below the city.
Starting with stark arched pillars, a road that seemed wide enough for five cars to run side by side curved downward.
Going straight down like this, he would directly encounter thousands of Shoggoths. What if he took a different route?
Fortunately, the road connected to several sections. Since the Elder Things had created the slave species Shoggoths, they would have many occasions to receive help from them.
First he followed the road, then chose the largest among the side paths and walked.
Changes occurred as he did so.
The road that had been plain at first gradually became complex and delicate with added decorations and sculptures.
At some point, dense railings were added to the sides of the road, and the floor was densely embedded with unidentifiable ores.
The ores dimly emitted light in the darkness, illuminating the path ahead. It was like seeing dim stars in the dark universe.
When he moved away from the edge of the giant city and entered completely inside, a ceiling appeared.
The ceiling was also abnormally high by human standards. It too was filled with light-emitting ores.
In the interior corridor, there were occasionally passages leading to other rooms, but no doors were attached.
Thanks to this, even he, an intruder, could look inside, and the rooms contained some white, floating devices. He had no idea what they were.
At least it was clear that this wasn't a place where Shoggoths could stay.
The paths the Shoggoths used and the path he had just used to enter inside were too different.
Then this meant these were facilities for the Elder Things,
But for that, all the rooms he had passed so far were uniformly empty.
Could it be that the Elder Things weren't in this city?
If the era he was guessing was correct, by now the Elder Things should be in a period where they had settled on an ownerless planet and were excitedly building cities here and there.
So it wouldn't be particularly strange if they had moved to a different city rather than here.
For him, who had been prepared to run away immediately if he saw Elder Things, this was somewhat deflating news.
"No, maybe this is better."
Now he only had to worry about the Shoggoths.
Now he just needed to know where Yurik was.
As the burden lessened, his heart felt lighter. At the same time, faint curiosity that had been suppressed also arose.
What exactly were those white machines in the rooms for?
In the next room that appeared, white devices were floating in the air just like before.
He slipped into the room, looked around, and approached the device.
The device that was scattering dim light around wasn't made of familiar objects like gears or electrical equipment. But it didn't seem to be made of completely unfamiliar materials either.
If he had to compare, it seemed to use materials close to hard metal or Earth's glass.
But was there glass here too? No, it would be difficult on Earth, but since the Elder Things were an alien species, wasn't it possible they had somehow created something like glass there too...
"How did they make this?"
Elder Thing technology was indeed profound.
As he looked at the device with attention, he suddenly noticed several thick hoses connected to the device.
Hoses out of nowhere? Where were they connected?
When he raised his head following the bundle of hoses, he could see the silhouette of something attached to the ceiling in the dark room.
Before he could identify what it was, he had an ominous premonition that their eyes had met.
Wait. Eyes?
-Thud!
The hoses connected to the device all fell down at once. At the same time, 'it' that landed next to the device writhed its streamlined outline and approached him.
The dim light of the device reflected off the body that could only be imagined as a shadow, showing reality however faintly.
A cylindrical body tapered at both ends. Thin membrane-like wings protruding between thick stems covering the body.
The topmost part of the body was split into five strands like a starfish, gently undulating.
He got goosebumps. This large and bizarre-looking creature was writhing less than 30cm away from him.
From its upper section, long and sharp whistling sounds rang out briefly several times.
[Intruder! Intruder!]
Wait. What did it say?
[Intruder! Intruder!]
A voice heard along with the whistling sound.
At the alarm sound ringing like a warning sensor, a breeze blew from outside the room.
It was an ominous breeze.
When he turned around, what he saw through the open door was...
Life forms silently flying through the air, filling his vision.
All the life forms were exactly the same as the one making warning sounds in front of him. So exactly the same that he couldn't even distinguish between them.
They reacted fiercely to the alarm and all made short, sharp whistling sounds as they flew around.
[Intruder!]
[Intruder!]
[Intruder!]
[Kill!]
[Kill!]
[Kill!]
[Combat!]
[Combat!]
[Combat!]
"W-wait a moment!"
Wasn't killing too much?
He could understand interrogation or questioning, but why did they suddenly reach the conclusion of killing?
"I wasn't trying to infiltrate here on purpose! I got lost nearby and accidentally-"
The fluttering wings all stopped at once.
Those that had been flying outside the doorway began landing in the corridor one by one.
The membranes that served as wings folded small, and except for occasionally making small whistling sounds as if confused among themselves, it was quiet.
Had he made some mistake?
In the extremely tense atmosphere, the one that had been making alarm sounds in front of him made a low whistling sound.
[Accidental intrusion. Mistake?]
"R-right. Accidentally. I was wandering around nearby and got lost."
[Our slave species. Similar characteristics. Curious appearance. Migration from space? Origin?]
"...E-Earth. Republic of Korea."
It wasn't a lie.
That's what would have been written on his Korean passport that had expired three years ago.
But at his answer, small commotion spread among the group behind.
[Earth. Republic of Korea. Information?]
[None. Planet information? Galaxy information?]
[None. Location information? Estimated distance?]
[Cannot estimate. Guess, new planet origin. Guess, highly intelligent individual. Guess, possesses high communication ability.]
[Guess. Non-hostile individual. Guess. Non-combative individual. Guess. Oriented toward good relations.]
What kind of system AI-like conversation was this?
They seemed to be having some kind of discussion, but he couldn't follow it all and just stared blankly.
After discussing guesses and proposals for a long time, they finally seemed to reach an agreement and became quiet.
[......]
The one in front of him remained silent for a long time before finally making a whistling sound.
[Agreement. Proposal accepted. New alien individual approved. We, non-hostile toward said individual. Hope to maintain until expression of aggressive intent. Mutual agreement on peace?]
What was this about?
"A-agreement."
[Considered agreement. Proposal, hope for conversation and information exchange. Proposal, refusal possible. Hope, information collection about unusual alien individual. Objection?]
He shook his head.
Then finally they told him with high, soft whistles.
[Alien individual welcome. Welcome entry to new city.]
The membranes rustled and fluttered.
At a glance, he could tell their attitude wasn't threatening.
Watching the giant cylindrical aliens that filled the space outside the room flutter around claiming to welcome him, he finally exhaled.
The masters of the city and the sole leaders of the civilization currently existing on this planet.
The Elder Things called the First Ones.
He had just barely managed to make a peace agreement with them.