Chapter 150: Forty-Second Floor, Secrets of the Ant Nest (1)
I had deliberated for a short while before jumping, coming to the conclusion that entering the hole wouldn’t be dangerous. Unfortunately, once I was in motion, descending turned out to be more troublesome than expected.
The sinkhole, spanning three meters in diameter, had initially seemed spacious. However, the hole didn’t maintain a consistent width. Before I could descend far, the tunnel began to narrow. Coming close to colliding into the wall, I kicked off the side nearest to me, only to be sent careening toward the opposite side at an alarming rate.
This vicious cycle repeated, naturally slowing my descent. At this rate, I wouldn’t even need to use Kashatum’s Sky Shoes to safely land.
Roughly thirty seconds later, my expanded senses finally detected ground below. Just as I prepared to land, the downward force of gravity on my body abruptly vanished, before reversing momentarily.
For an instant, I was weightless, fleetingly suspended in a state of zero gravity. Then, the air around me shifted entirely.
A dense, humid air clung to my nostrils, its clammy, oppressive, and heavy feeling invading my senses. It felt as though I had stepped into an entirely different world.
As the reversed gravity dissipated, I landed softly on the ground.
“Su-Yeok! This is strange!”
Doppy leaped from my arms, glancing around tensely. He had hunched his shoulders uneasily, his neck barely visible between his contracted shoulders.
A reddish, sulfuric glow faintly illuminated the dim corridor ahead. Unlike the rough, natural tunnels of the ant nest above, this passage had been neatly carved into a rectangular shape. Its polished lines starkly contrasted the chaotic burrows above, causing the new space to seem foreign and unnatural.
At that moment, a notification window appeared.