Chapter 7: A Comfortable Lie
The monstrous iris convulsed one final time. Its tangled optic nerves lashed against the frozen earth before slowly losing all strength, collapsing into the crimson snow with a wet, heavy slap. The low psychic hum that had filled the cave vanished as abruptly as it had begun. Silence fell over the cavern, and nobody moved. The survivors remained pressed against the stone walls, staring at the entrance as though expecting the creature to rise again, but it didn't.
"...Is it dead?" someone whispered.
No one answered. Leon remained where he had fallen just outside the cave entrance, breathing in ragged, uneven gulps. Every muscle in his body burned as if it had been wrung dry. His vision pulsed faintly with every heartbeat, but despite the exhaustion, the monster no longer radiated any trace of hostility.
Davis was the first to move. He cautiously stepped around Leon, keeping one eye fixed on the massive corpse. A few seconds passed, then another.
"...I think..." Davies swallowed. "...I think he actually killed it."
The sentence broke whatever invisible restraint had gripped the others. A woman burst into tears, another man collapsed onto his knees laughing so hard it almost sounded like sobbing, and someone quietly thanked God. Miller stared blankly at Leon before shaking his head.
"You're actually insane..."
Davies crouched beside Leon and offered him a hand. "Can you stand?"
Leon accepted it without a word. His legs trembled violently as he rose, forcing him to lean against the cave wall until the dizziness settled. "I've been better," he admitted.
Davies let out a nervous laugh. "Could've fooled me."
Leon didn't respond. Something about the victory felt hollow, though he couldn't explain why. Perhaps he was simply too exhausted. The survivors waited another minute before finally gathering the courage to leave the cave. The freezing wind still swept across the wasteland, but somehow it no longer felt quite as oppressive. They gave the eye monster a wide berth, as nobody wanted to get close enough to inspect it.
Leon only spared it a brief glance before looking toward the horizon. "Let's move."
Nobody questioned him, and without discussion, the group naturally fell in behind him.
...
The landscape slowly changed. The endless fields of cracked stone gradually gave way to patches of weathered earth. Jagged cliffs became gentler hills, and before long, faint outlines of wooden buildings appeared in the distance.
"A town..." Someone nearly cried from relief.
Smoke drifted lazily from several chimneys, and warm orange light glowed behind shuttered windows. Compared to the frozen wasteland, it looked almost heavenly. The gates stood open with no guards, no monsters, and no signs of battle. There were only quiet streets dusted with crimson snow.
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The townsfolk welcomed the exhausted survivors without hesitation, offering blankets, hot soup, and beds. For the first time since arriving in this strange world, Leon found himself sitting beside a warm fireplace. The warmth seeped into Leon's stiff muscles, melting away the lingering cold.
Someone clapped him on the shoulder, saying, "Nice work back there," while another smiled and added, "We're lucky you were with us." Leon accepted the bowl of soup in silence as heat spread through his numb fingers. With a bowl of stew resting in his lap, he listened to Davis across the room animatedly retelling the battle.
"I swear his fist just... went through the thing!"
"No, no, that's impossible."
"I'm telling you what I saw!"
Laughter filled the room—real laughter. Leon watched the flames dance inside the fireplace. The warmth felt nice. Someone called his name, and he looked up to see Maya standing in the doorway. For a moment he simply stared.
"...Maya?"
She smiled and said, "I knew you'd make it."
Relief quietly settled over him. Soon afterward, he found several more familiar faces scattered throughout the town. Coworkers, neighbors, and even people he'd briefly spoken to on Earth—somehow, they had all survived.
The following days passed peacefully. They exchanged stories, compared encounters, and organized patrols. Within a day they had begun hunting the monsters around the settlement. Life settled into a rhythm. The group began venturing outside the town walls to hunt wandering monsters, and each hunt became easier than the last. People quickly discovered strange abilities; some could strengthen their bodies, others manipulated fire, and one young woman somehow controlled vines. Humanity adapted astonishingly fast.
...
Leon sat atop the town wall, absentmindedly watching the crimson snowfall. Davies dropped onto the stone beside him.
"You've been quiet."
Leon nodded. "I'm thinking."
"Dangerous hobby."
Normally Leon would have smiled, but this time he didn't. Something bothered him, though he simply couldn't identify it. Life had become comfortable. The realization should have pleased him, but instead it made him uneasy. He had spent nearly twenty years pursuing the impossible. Nothing worthwhile had ever come easily; every breakthrough had demanded sacrifice, pain, failure, and patience. Yet here, everything simply worked. They found shelter, food, allies, and power, as though the world itself wanted them to succeed.
Leon frowned. "...Weird."
"What is?"
"I don't know."
Davies shrugged. "Maybe we're finally getting lucky."
Lucky. The word echoed strangely inside Leon's mind. His gaze drifted toward the streets below. Children played outside despite the monsters, merchants cheerfully sold supplies, and people smiled. Nobody argued, nobody mourned the dead, and nobody spoke about Earth anymore. Even stranger, he couldn't remember the journey between yesterday and today. Individual moments stood out clearly, but everything connecting them felt blurred. His heartbeat slowed. No. Not blurred. Skipped.
His eyes narrowed. The crab—where was the crab? It had been pursuing them. How had it simply disappeared? His breathing became shallower. The eye monster; he remembered killing it, didn't he? Then why couldn't he picture the corpse? His fingers unconsciously clenched. The town—how had they found it so quickly? They had been dropped into an endless wasteland, yet salvation had appeared almost immediately with no searching, no starvation, and no desperate choices. Just comfort.
His pulse quickened as one final thought surfaced: the Universal Vessel. Leon froze. It hadn't reacted once. He had killed a creature overflowing with Qi, and its source should have been irresistible. Yet there was nothing, not even the slightest movement. A cold sensation crawled down his spine as every piece suddenly locked together. The easy victories, the missing memories, the absent corpse, the impossible town, and the silent Universal Vessel.
His expression slowly hardened. "...I see."
Davies blinked. "See what?"
Leon stood, his honey-colored eyes sweeping across the peaceful town one final time. Then he quietly closed them.
"This isn't reality."