Too Stubborn to Die

Aaron felt like perhaps he didn’t ask enough questions of Mr. Fake. Unfortunately, he didn’t seem to be able to get the guy to return.

And the power radiating from the orb didn’t get any better. He tried to sense through the giant, metal structure. To see if he could see what lay within. But all he felt was immense power.

Looks like I have no choice.

Something told him he was being played with. But even being able to survive death had its limitations. And if he truly did wander into an arena with a C-grade monster, he wasn’t going to stand a chance.

He had pieced together enough information from the multiverse along his travels to know that with each grade, one’s strength massively increased, and it wasn’t linear. The higher the grade, the bigger the difference. And C-grade, when people normally got their true cores, was the first big jump.

Even a peak D-grade defeating a low C-grade was a massive deal. Something that singled them out as a true elite of the multiverse. In comparison. A peak E-grade defeating a low D-grade was barely even planetary elite.

Of course, Aaron had defeated elite mid D-grades at peak E-grade. That in and of itself made him someone to look out for. But this was one step too far, and he knew that he wasn’t close to being ready for it.

But luckily, it wasn’t hard to find where he needed to go. The giant chamber that held the subterranean city, and the giant orb, had stairs tracing around its walls that descended down.

Of course, Aaron didn’t use the stairs. He just jumped down.

It kind of felt like a cartoon. Black enveloped him, and he fell for a ludicrous amount of time. And then landed with a heavy thud that sent out a powerful shockwave, and he compacted the trash beneath him.

It didn’t take him a second to feel the corruption that infected everything down there. It was thick, suffocatingly so. A red fog hung in the air, choking everything out, and it held an oddly spicy scent.

Dammit, not now, belly!

*Grumble*

*Grumble*

Aaron swallowed, trying to ignore his base instincts.

He had landed in warm sewage, and the thick, sludgy water pooled up to his knees. This was eons of trash from an entire universe, and he was getting closer to the heart of it.

Even though his senses were kind of screwed, it was disturbing.

But it was more than just the gross center of the spatial plane. He could sense something trying to wiggle its way into him. It obviously had to be the corruption trying to take hold of him.

“You’re going to have to try harder than that!” He yelled. “My mind is like a fortress!”

He took a few more steps through the sludgy water, and his belly hit him again with another hungry rumble.

Growling to himself, he punched himself in the gut. Now wasn’t the time to get hungry. And it kind of annoyed him that it was happening down where he was.

Taking a few more steps, he felt the red tendrils of the corruption attempting another fruitless assault. And he wondered how anybody else would be able to finish this quest. It was only the second floor of the dungeon, and it had already gotten so difficult. Sure, the doppelgangers weren’t anything particularly special, but he had multiple buffs strengthening his mental resolve, and so if he could feel the corruption trying to wrestle control of his thoughts. That alone proved that it must have been impressively powerful.

Well, it wouldn’t be any fun if it weren’t powerful, now would it?

He continued trudging through the sunken lower chambers, and the sludgy trash water began soaking through his boots.

Even if his stomach could more than handle the putrid trash water, he wasn’t exactly overjoyed at the thought of how he would smell after this.

But his thoughts were quickly whisked away when his global messenger pinged.

Kim Soohyun:@Aaron Dober, @Talia Rhineheart, Hello? Talia? Aaron? Hey! I met you during the trials briefly. Let’s meet up if we can. P.S. I have been to Dober and spoken with Julius!

“Huh? To Dober?”

Aaron’s brow perked as he read over the message twice. Kim Soohyun? The name sounded familiar… Who… ah, wait, there was a little Korean girl, wasn’t there? Back then…

A lot had happened between the trials and where he currently was, and his memory was a little overburdened with the sheer quantity of details he had to take in. But he did vaguely remember a girl, or rather a young woman with a huge sword that was larger than her own petite form.

That has to be her, right? Who else would it be?

He was fairly certain there were a lot of people who reached the trails that he didn’t know. After all, they had been absolutely pouring in by the hundreds, if not thousands, in the moments before it closed.

However, she did mention that she had met him there.

Talia Rhineheart: @Kim Soohyun, Little busy right now. Hey, you! Get back here and taste my sweet, shadowy embrace! Oh, shit. Since when did I activate talk to text?

Talia Rhineheart: Turn off talk-to-text!

Kim Soohyun:@Talia Rhineheart, Excuse me, Talia. You’re still doing it.

Talia Rhineheart: Oh, really? Frik! Sorry! Um, yeah. I think I remember—argh! Damn you, little man! Stay still and die already!

I should probably say something…

Aaron Dober: @Kim Soohyun, Hello Soohyun. How do you do?

Why’d I say it like that? I made myself sound like a weirdo.

Aaron scratched his head. Perhaps he had gotten a little too comfortable in the multiverse. Normal things like a chat messenger now felt weird and foreign.

Kim Soohyun:Oh, hey, Aaron! I’m doing great, really! What about you?

The author’s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Aaron Dober: Err, good. Just looking for—

Aaron cut himself short. He remembered Soohyun as being a normal person, if she was the same person he was thinking of. He also didn’t remember seeing her do anything evil in the Viewing Room. Then again, he didn’t know her very well. Heck, he wasn’t even sure she was who he thought she was.

I probably shouldn’t give everything away to a stranger. At least not until I confirm a few details.

Ultimately, Sooyhun didn’t need to know where he was. He doubted many people would be able to handle the corruption anyway, and so she was unlikely to be able to help him down here. And there was always a risk she was planning some kind of betrayal.

Aaron Dober: Oh, just questing, you know?

Kim Soohyun:Oh, right. Same here. It would be good to see each other before the next floor. We might be able to help each other. You too, @Talia Rhineheart

Talia Rhineheart: @Kim Soohyun, @Aaron Dober, Yeah, sounds great! Hey! Midget man! Stand still so I can kill you, dammit! You’re starting to piss me off!

Kim Soohyun:Talia sounds busy. Perhaps we should keep this short.

Aaron Dober: Sure thing. Anyway. You probably need to head down to the lower chambers for your quest, anyway. You’ve got the Discover the Fake quest, right?

Kim Soohyun:I do, yes.

Aaron Dober: Well, keep heading down, and I’m sure I’ll see you soon. Then, we can chat. @Zero, wherever you are, you should join us too.

Kim Soohyun: Really? Cool! See you then!

Zero: At your command, Master @Aaron Dober! I will descend to meet you, even if it costs me my life!

Kim Soohyun: …Who’s Zero?

Aaron Dober: A wolf I bonded with. He hasn’t turned the automated reply system off. You can generally ignore what he says.

Kim Soohyun: Oh. I see.

Hegemony Blank: @Aaron Dober, you fool! Now we know where to find you! Prepare to die!

Aaron stared at the message from the ant. For a few minutes, he had forgotten that the chat was global. It didn’t really matter, since “down” wasn’t very specific, but it was something to keep in mind in the future. He studied the message for a few seconds. He had no intention of wasting time talking to the ant, and he didn’t really have anything to say, but now that he had been reminded of the ant, he realized that he had better inform Soohyun before something bad happened.

He opened up the chat again and prepared to send a message, but as he did, he mentally brushed by the automated response prompt, which the System took as acceptance.

“Shit!”

Aaron Dober: @Hegemony Blanc, My pants are off. Come find me.

Hegemony Blanc: @Aaron Dober, your lack of pants will not make a difference! I am already not wearing pants!

Aaron sighed, then deliberately dismissed the automated reply prompt before continuing to type his message.

Aaron Dober: Sorry, that was the automated reply. @Kim Soohyun, Hegemony Blanc and Jigsaw Tyrant are powerful monsters. They evolved from ants, and if you see them, don’t engage. Try to run away. Same with anyone else who might read this.

Kim Soohyun: Oh, they must be the Royal Guards! I understand. Thank you for the warning! I will see you soon.

He dismissed the chat windows, then began pondering on Soohyun.

Okay, well, she has to be a trial taker. But she met Julius and went to Dober? When did all that happen? It’s obviously true, since she knows about them in the first place, and the Royal Guards too, but when.

He realized that he could ask her over chat. But since she had to head down anyway for the Quest, he figured it would be easier to ask in person. And he didn’t really want to keep broadcasting his conversations out to the rest of the Floor. No one else had chimed in yet, but the longer they spent in the Dungeon, the more people would arrive, and the less private their chats would be. As much as he wanted an update on the town, it was better to wait.

He wasn’t overly worried, knowing that the royal guards were here in the Dungeon somewhere with them. But it would still be nice to know how everything was going.

Okay, back to business. Let’s get this thing down so we can move onto the next floor.

Aaron’s resolve was set, but as he kept walking, his stomach started rumbling more and more. And soon, he felt his mouth watering. He was fucking starving.

“So hungry!”

His hands were trembling, and he began to eat from his scabbard, throwing dish after dish into his mouth. But nothing seemed to satiate his endless appetite, and he forced himself to stop after ballooning out and eating a troubling portion of his reserves.

Show some self-control, dammit!

He still had six floors left if he wanted to complete the entire dungeon, and there was a good chance he wasn’t restocking his reserves inside the dungeon. At least, he wasn’t eating humanoid creatures… well, he wouldn’t eat most humanoid creatures. It kind of depended upon how human-like they were. Still, that put the doppelgangers off the menu. They basically looked like skinny, bald, blind, and hunchbacked men with kitty whiskers.

Yeah, fuck that. I have to control myself. Who knows what I’m going to find down here? I’ll need my food for later.

But his determination didn’t make it any easier. The deeper he marched into the blood red fog, the stronger his hunger grew. And soon he was holding his stomach as he walked.

But Aaron wasn’t one to give up easily. Even if his stomach pangs were worse than having his fingers broken. He was one damn stubborn bastard, and he was determined to soldier on, refusing to give in to his growing appetite.

“Wait, there are people down here?”

Silhouettes seemed to fade back and forth through the red fog. Sometimes they were there, sometimes they weren’t.

He rubbed at his eyes and blinked. Nothing. Just mist. But then he saw one. He blinked again, and it was going. But then another appeared only a second later, and disappeared just as fast.

“Who’s out there?!” He shouted. “More doppelgangers? Show your ugly faces!”

He got no response, just an echoing laughter that reverberated through the area as the silhouettes continued to appear and disappear.

He managed to calm himself, despite his rumbling belly, and realized that the figures didn’t have souls. In fact, he couldn’t sense any energy in them at all.

“They’re fake. Illusions.”

The corruption, whatever it was, was damn powerful. He was fairly certain that his mental barriers were intact. Which meant that despite not losing himself, it was still making him see shit.

And as he was rubbing at his eyes, a gust blew through the mist, parting it as a slender, sleek figure stepped through.

It was smiling. Smooth, golden, metallic skin, with a small, androgynous build. And glowing, red eyes that scanned him up and down.

“Wait, a fucking robot? What are you doing here? Are you part of the corruption as well?”

“Impressive,” came its digitalized voice. “The corruption does not work on you. Strong self-control as well. My sensors detected weakness. Your hunger. But you controlled yourself.”

“Excuse me?”

“This area is off limits. I have deployed methods to keep intruders at bay. But you seem to have been able to withstand them. Computing secondary functions.”

“Off limits? Why? My quest brought me down here.”

“Anderline Corporation has directed that none shall enter. This area is off limits.”

“Anderline Corporation? What? No! I need to finish a quest. I need to stop whatever is causing this corruption.”

Aaron didn’t expect to find a talking robot down here. But if it was going to stop him from finishing his quest, he knew what needed to be done.

“Impossible. I am stationed here on behalf of the loss prevention department of the Anderline Corporation. My programming is precise. None can enter this area. Protocols must be maintained. The criminal must not escape. Going against this protocol would make you an enemy of corporate. The Anderline Corporation takes loss prevention seriously.”

“Hang on a moment,” Aaron shook his head. “What are you talking about? Criminal? Like a prisoner? You’re not talking about Mr. Fake, are you?”

“Mr. Fake? Computing… yes, I believe they are one in the same. Nigel S Fake. Attempting to release the criminal is strictly prohibited.”

Aaron sighed. Well, if that was the case, he didn’t have much of an option, did he? His quest was to find the Fake, and to do that, he needed to weaken the beast up in the orb above.

He did momentarily consider going back and attempting to fight the monster first. He didn’t want to risk making enemies with some galactic corporation. But he knew C-grade was on another level entirely. He could feel it. Hell, he could feel how his body still struggled with his true core. That was just normal power for a true C-grade. On the other hand, the core had enough power to tear his soul apart if used to its limits.

Yeah, there was no winning that fight. Not for a while.

Aaron cracked his knuckles. At least it was just a robot. If this Anderline Corporation was in the right, and Mr. Fake really had wronged them, then at least he wasn’t about to kill an innocent. Not that the decision was overly hard to make. After all, Aaron had no love for corpos.

“Alright then, let’s get this over with.”

“Activating combat mode. Due to security reasons, this battle may be recorded and broadcast to corporate headquarters. Please understand that engaging in combat will be considered consent, and your right to privacy will be waived, and you may be held liable for damage to company property.”

“Wait, what?”