Chapter 136. Hope of the Abandoned District
“I’m sorry, but there’s nothing I can tell you.”
“Aaaagh! Why does every single bastard I meet say the exact same thing?!”
My irritated scream mixed with the cries of the Void Beasts below and the shouting of the rats, echoing throughout the dark Abandoned District.
“Ah, seriously. I wish they’d all just die.”
“Have you finally made your decision?”
“Please, just shut up…”
Some time had passed since the tag incident.
The arena was still noisy, and Hopeborn was being rebuilt without any major problems.
I had slipped in a few little tricks here and there, but overall, the reconstruction was going smoothly.
Word had even spread among the users, bringing in more visitors than before, and construction of the theme park was also progressing well.
The rat soldiers had all evolved into Dark Rats, and the ones who had been Paladins were also evolving smoothly.
There was only one thing that wasn’t going smoothly.
This Gardener standing here.
After becoming a member of the fanatics, he claimed he had abandoned his name and simply introduced himself as the Gardener.
“Hoho. You certainly have a powerful voice.”
“Please shut up…!”
I had tried all sorts of things.
Persuading him one way.
Pressuring him another.
Nothing worked.
No matter what I did or said, he just laughed.
What was I supposed to do about that?
If he at least lied sometimes, I could read the Flow and tell whether he was lying or not.
But when someone lied from beginning to end, there was nothing left to say.
Scrape—
Feeling frustrated, I rose from my seat and walked blankly toward the collapsed window.
I looked down toward the place where light was shining from below.
“…They’re really working hard.”
Right below me was Aien’s family.
Her father had suddenly developed an absurd sense of responsibility after being given an official position.
Her mother had been inspired by her husband and was now helping him just as enthusiastically.
And their daughter was being dragged around by the two of them, looking utterly confused by their transformation.
These were people who had once clung desperately to the idea of dying as nobles under the sunlight.
And yet here in the Abandoned District, their eyes looked more alive than ever as they cleared the area and developed it.
They were surprisingly competent, too.
So this was why people liked hiring experienced workers?
When Aien learned a little about the Abandoned District and the Black Market, she had looked extremely displeased.
But after seeing how earnestly her parents were living their new lives, even she couldn’t bring herself to complain.
It was honestly impressive.
“…How do you think we should develop this place?”
I asked the Gardener without thinking much about it.
It was a meaningless question.
I just felt like my mind would twist itself apart if I didn’t get some kind of answer out of him.
“…Did you know?”
Unexpectedly, the Gardener gave me an actual answer.
“This Abandoned District was created long ago as a training ground for those who had awakened Mind Power.”
And unlike everything he had said until now, there was a completely different Flow behind those words.
Seeing my reaction, the Gardener gave a bitter smile.
Apparently, he didn’t like the fact that I could tell whether every single thing he said was true or false.
Not my problem.
If anything, I wanted him to become even more nervous and bitter.
Nervous enough that if I poked him once, everything inside him would come spilling out.
“Keep talking.”
Whether I cared about the subject or not, I just wanted to confirm that a normal conversation with him was actually possible.
That way, I could at least cling to some tiny thread of hope.
…Though considering that Jamani, who had been captured by the Empire, ended up leaving without giving any useful information, I doubted this would lead anywhere either.
It wasn’t as though I had absolutely no other methods.
There was one.
But it was a method I wanted to stay far away from.
As far away as I wanted to stay from becoming Grandpa Alo’s enemy.
“A completely isolated space. Monsters appearing without any clear reason. These are things that could only exist through Mind Power, a force that distorts the common sense of this world.”
“Was this made more than four hundred years ago?”
“Ah! You mean before the historical discrepancy that occurred four hundred years ago. Yes. That is correct.”
He continued.
“They say even the Great Hero of Hope from four hundred years ago never discovered this place’s true identity.”
The historical discrepancy.
It was probably caused by Destruction.
The world the Chairman had lived in ended four hundred years ago, and the next four hundred years were probably something recreated inside the game.
That would explain why the Great Hero of Hope, who had probably died fighting Destruction, had still existed deep inside that strange monochrome world, transformed into some kind of monster.
“You know a lot.”
“Hoho. I happen to know many things.”
Did the fanatics know what the Chairman had done?
Did they even know that this entire world was an artificial world created by the Chairman using the Remnants of the World as a base?
How would they know?
Hmm.
Maybe the fanatics also possessed Remnants of the World.
Perhaps they used them to create Roots, who possessed power on the level of Great Heroes.
Pi had ended up in her current state after coming into contact with a Remnant of the World.
If I assumed that her connection to the fanatics, and eventually becoming a Fruit, was also the result of that…
Hmm?
Was that assumption actually right?
Ugh.
My head was already hurting from pretending to be smart when I wasn’t.
Until I had something certain, I should stop making assumptions.
“In any case, the Abandoned District is an incredibly difficult place for anyone without Mind Power to overcome.”
The Gardener continued calmly.
“It was designed as a rather rough method of forcing people to draw out whatever Mind Power they possessed so they could advance to the next stage.”
So that was why the Void Beasts kept appearing endlessly.
Neither the rats nor the Black Market managers were special users of Mind Power.
That must have been why none of them had been able to advance any farther.
Then if Aien or I stayed here and kept killing the Void Beasts, could we eventually clear everything?
No.
This place had existed for well over four hundred years.
Even if we cleared them now, more Void Beasts would probably appear again later.
Still, I was the administrator of this place.
Couldn’t the game have given me a tiny hint about something like this?
Seriously, what a garbage game.
“Those fighting below may not have gained or awakened Mind Power, but the reason they gained power approaching it is probably because of this place.”
He was probably talking about the Paladins.
The rats becoming Dark Rats—rat beastmen—might have been related as well.
But hadn’t the Paladins changed because they absorbed the life force they picked up while fighting the tree?
Huh?
Was this a setting contradiction?
Hmm…
Thinking about it, they had transformed into cocoons not long after extracting the life force.
Jayeon had also been created after consuming both a large amount of the tree’s life force and a huge amount of Mind Power.
So the Gardener’s explanation did make sense.
That’s not the important part.
“Then are those passages on the other side the next stage?”
“Yes. However, I do not know whether those passages necessarily connect directly to the next stage.”
The Gardener stroked his chin.
“I remember seeing a map of this place when I was young, but originally, this area was not directly connected to the Black Market.”
He added,
“I have also heard that rooms can increase in number depending on necessity.”
“…Ugh, enough. My memory isn’t that good. I can’t remember every little detail like that. Let’s move on.”
“Hoho. As you wish.”
So the place guided people to areas appropriate for the level of those entering.
If that was true, why had there been multiple doors in the Black Market?
And why were there several doors here leading toward the next area, as if people were supposed to choose?
Choice.
Was it about choice in the end?
Maybe the direction of one’s growth changed depending on which door they entered.
Anyway, I had to clear this area first before I could learn anything else, right?
“Thanks. That helped a little.”
