Chapter 1537: Not A Time To Be Slacking Here

Grant shuddered as he spoke in a low voice, "I’ve seen them before... There were people who say that these... Things... Used to be people who were also trapped in here but ended up losing their mind or... They died and came back as these things. No one knows for sure. We just call them Faceless Ones since they don’t have faces. Not all of them are hostile though... Sometimes they are quite docile."

We moved towards the place where the Faceless One had been crushed into pieces, keeping an eye out for that radar head creature that had already walked off earlier.

Grant continued, "I personally think they might be former people who were trapped here, because I met a guy who was wearing this specific plaid shirt before I separated from him and... There was one time I met a Faceless One that was wearing the same plaid shirt... But it might have just been a coincidence."

I’d like to think that there aren’t any coincidences in a place like this and at best, it probably might just be the Faceless Ones being copies of people who have wandered in here instead.

I then watched as Grant moved over to flip the corpse of the Faceless One on its stomach so that the bag that it was carrying was now in view.

"What are you doing?" I whispered.

He unzipped the bag, revealing several supplies inside that included water and food.

"No reason to leave this to waste, right?" He whispered back, already taking out a few of the items to transfer them to his bag. "You want any of them?"

Looking at what was in the bag... It was basically just water and preserved food... None of which interest me and they definitely did not look sumptuous.

I shook my head, "No need. I have... More than enough for myself."

He shrugged, "Suit yourself then."

I waited for him to loot the bag until it was empty before we continued, stepping over the corpse of the Faceless One.

We were still careful to remain silent as we moved within the library while we looked for a way out, which despite the earlier event, I was still getting quite bored since we must have been wandering around for at least an hour or more by now without any results to show for it.

I guess my boredom must have been especially noticeable because Grant eventually turned back to whisper, "Should we look for a place to rest? I think it would be good for our mental health. Otherwise going insane from this place would not do us well either."

I considered his offer for a moment before deciding to just ask him, "Grant? You’re from Earth, right?"

He blinked at me, "What kind of question is that? Of course I am?"

"You don’t know how long you’ve been in here?"

He shook his head, "No? Why?"

"Because... Well... Earth was destroyed... Like... I think more than twenty years ago at this point."

He stared at me for a good few seconds before snorting, "You have a very interesting sense of humour, Ast."

I almost wondered why he called me that before I remembered that was the fake name I gave him earlier.

I sighed, "I’m not joking... I believe you and... Maybe everyone else that is stuck here... You guys were pulled into this space before our World got destroyed. Maybe time flows differently in-- Oh..."

I just realised a very big problem that I should have realised before this.

Like I said, our old World was destroyed for at least twenty years at this point and I doubt Grant has aged twenty years being in here... Which means time might flow differently here and I might spend only a day in here only for an entire year to pass outside.

That means I can’t just fool around like this!!

I stand up fully and turn to Grant, "Change of plans... We’re rushing through this level. Or at least, I am going to rush through this place now. Do you still want to follow me?"

He blinked at me, "What... What do you mean?"

"I mean that I’m not actually from Earth... Well, not anymore. I’m from another World and... Ok, it’s complicated but just know that I don’t have time to be wasting here and I’m going to start rushing through the levels now. It might get a little dangerous so you’re either in or out."

"Dan... Dangerous? How dangerous?"

Instead of explaining to him, I decided to show him instead.

I turned in the direction of where the creature had disappeared to and let out a shout, "Hey!! I’m over here!!"

Grant gaped at me before quickly scrambling back, looking at me like I had just gone insane.

Maybe he thought that my idea of rushing through the level was just to kill myself or something and he didn’t want a part in that.

I simply stood there until I heard the radar headed creature stomping its way towards me, clearly intent on attacking me.

To drive home the fact that what I said was true, I went ahead to show off my wings and tail, letting both of them appear before I did a forward spin and whipped my tail downwards to smash into the creature’s head.

The impact made a loud ’crack’ sound before it was smashed into the ground.

I land on my feet gracefully, my heels tapping on the ground with an audible clack as I look down at the creature I had just tail whipped.

It made what could have been a groaning sound despite the fact that it shouldn’t have a mouth to even speak from before it tried to lift itself up.

I then went ahead to stomp my foot on its back and push it back down on the ground, the creature clawing at the floor tiles as it tried to push me off but unable to even lift itself up an inch.

Grant was just staring up at me, his eyes wide with fear.

I made a soothing sound at him, "It’s ok. See? I can fight them no problem. There’s no need to be scared of them."

He looked at my tail, then my wings, then back to my face as his eyes went wide as saucers, "What... What are you?"

I frowned at him, my foot still stepping on the entity under me while I remained hugging my egg, "Now that’s not nice. I’m not a ’what’, I’m a ’who’, ok? Now as I--"

I didn’t get to finish my words as Grant immediately scrambled up to his feet and sprinted away from me, running to get away from me as fast as he could.

What? Really? I thought if you saw that there’s someone who could beat these monsters, you would want to stay near them, not run away from them?

I watched as he ran between the bookshelves, his footsteps echoing around the hall as he ran off, not even caring about keeping quiet anymore.

Just as I was wondering if he was going to just run off and disappear amongst the bookshelves when another one of those radar head creatures slammed into him from the side, flinging him towards another bookshelf to crash against it with a loud thump.

Ok... I’m going to be honest... I thought there was only one of these things... I didn’t know there were more than one...

Grant barely had time to push himself up before the creature grabbed him by the head and started slamming him against the bookshelf.

I winced as he was repeatedly slammed over and over again until his head cracked open and his blood splattered over the bookshelf, yet the creature still continued to slam the bloodied and battered head on the edge of a shelf a few more times before finally letting go.

Damn... Poor guy... If only he didn’t go crazy like he did...

Oh well, anyway...

I looked back down at the creature that was still trying to crawl out from under me, "Hey you. I’m in a bit of a rush so show me where the exit is and I won’t beat you up. Fair?"

The creature showed no signs of hearing me so I pressed down on its back harder, feeling a crack coming from the creature.

"I asked you a question."

The other radar head creature heard me and started running straight towards me as well, its arms flailing around.

The creature under my foot must have thought the other one would save it so it remained defiant, which was why I showed how helpless it was by lifting up my foot and kicking at it the moment it got close.

I did not hold back with this one so the creature ended up being sent flying up towards the third floor, crashing against the roof of that floor and bouncing off one of the shelves before crashing somewhere there with a loud thud.

The entity under my foot immediately went still, no longer trying to break free anymore.

Good. Now show me where the damned exit is.