Chapter 319: Seventy-Seventh Floor, Euros’s Flower Forest (7)
[Survive. Time remaining: 46 hours 56 minutes.]
Standing a few steps ahead of me with his back to the primeval forest, the boy turned to face me.
“Spaces like this one are slowly spreading from the forest’s center.”
At some point, he had removed his mask. The way he closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath was undeniably striking. The boy’s chest rose in a smooth, steady swell.
I took off my gas mask as well and drew in the air. It was crisp and immaculate. I couldn’t recall ever breathing anything this pure.
The boy opened his eyes and offered a faint, peaceful smile. “The forest doesn’t intend to kill humans. Its purpose is to restore life. The soil and water outside are still polluted.”
“So that’s why no one’s allowed in. By the forest, and by your people.”
“Yes. It’s still healing.”
Ha Hee-Jeong had warned me not to drink the water outside of the forest due to contamination. That was also why the inhabitants of this world lived on the forest’s edge. Anything that would be consumed—food, water, etc.—had to be gathered from Euros’s Flower Forest.
From what I had gathered, Ha Hee-Jeong had been right that the cause of the collapse, the Ancient Fire, had been something akin to nuclear bombs.
Whether the contamination is radiation or something else, I can’t say.
Regardless, one way or another, it had poisoned the world.