Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Episode 815

Hidden Story(7)

The small three-person boat cut violently through the water, boosted by all kinds of buffs from our professional navigator.

「Auyen Roklov has cast [Favorable Wind].」
「Auyen Roklov has cast [Trade Route].」
「Auyen Roklov has cast [Ghost Ship]…」

In terms of speed alone, this boat was not much different from the main ship we used when our entire clan was aboard.

No, if anything, it felt several times faster.

Boom! Splash! Bang!

Maybe it was because the boat was smaller.

From a passenger’s perspective, however, this ride was far worse than the main ship. Each time we crashed into a wave, the boat trembled and lurched, bouncing into the air like a dolphin.

If Ainar had come with us, her seasickness would have flared up again, and she would have vomited all over the place.

Just like I was doing right now.

“Blergh! Ugh!”

Unfortunately, barbarians were weak against the sea.

“Sh, should I slow down a little?”

“N, no…” I groaned. “Don’t slow down. Never slow down.”

How was Auyen perfectly fine in this situation? Wouldn’t an ordinary person be dizzy and nauseous by now? I had never heard of any navigator stats or skills that protected someone from seasickness.

“Blerrrgh!”

“P, please endure it a little longer! We’re almost there!”

Almost there.

I had already heard those words several times. At first, they had given me strength, but now they only made me sink deeper into despair.

Let’s think.

This was just like that first day, when I had crawled across the cave floor after falling into a goblin trap. If I focused my mind on something else, I would eventually reach my destination. The problem was that the seasickness made it almost impossible to think.

The machine monster Arta and the human Arta.

The past, the present, and the future.

The Labyrinth Project.

The empire and the kingdom.

The dimensional collapse…

All the bits and pieces of information I had gathered during this expedition kept swirling around in my head, twisting together into a tangled mess.

It felt like I was on the verge of grasping something huge, but at the same time, I was still too far from the truth to understand anything clearly. Even so, for some reason, I had a feeling that once I managed to untangle these threads of information, everything would fall into place.

That last thing he tried to tell me keeps bothering me too…

Even though my head felt like it might burst from thinking too much, I could not stop remembering his words and the look on his face.

“[Keep this in mind. A being from another dimension normally cannot enter a different dimension. The only way for such a being to enter another is—]”

I could not shake the feeling that he had been about to tell me something incredibly important. The fact that I had failed to hear the rest was frustrating me to no end.

What was this, the second way to make someone angry?

Stop.

My thoughts were running wild like an unleashed bull. I forced them back under control before they crashed into the part of my mind that needed to stay focused on the most urgent problem.

Dimensional collapse…

How were we supposed to get through a disaster that was probably about to happen soon? That was the issue I had to solve first.

The Lord of the Sixth Floor has been summoned too…

Please, let the raid end before the collapse begins. Otherwise, that thing was guaranteed to become a massive headache.

Maybe I shouldn’t have come here. Maybe I should have gone outside and searched for a mage who could use dimensional gates instead.

Despite these doubts, I tried not to dwell on them. On this seemingly endless ocean of a floor, finding a mage capable of using a dimensional gate was practically impossible.

Arta.

On top of that, I could not shake the feeling that Arta’s story contained some deeply buried secret. Before I left, I had to figure out what it was.

“Captain, we’re here!”

I let out a sigh of relief.

We had finally arrived.

“Yeah, good work… Blergh!”

I was already completely worn out.

***

「The character has entered a special area.」

「Field Effect: Arta’s Secret Base has been applied.」

「All hostile actions are prohibited within the field.」

Hatches and pipes covered the walls from end to end. They looked like mana circuits, almost like the electrical wiring of Arta’s Secret Base.

However, even after we entered the base, there was no greeting from a voice.

“[Artaaaaaaa!]” I shouted.

A flustered reply quickly came back.

[Ah? Ah! You finally arrived! I was unable to observe your battle against the beast because some problems came up. But now that the reaction has disappeared, I can tell that you defeated it!]

[How about coming here and thanking me in person?]

[Ah, yes. Of course, I should do that. However, I need to repair the testing site as quickly as possible—]

[Do that later. Come here now. I have something important to talk about.]

[What are you talking about…? Nothing is more important than restoring the testing site. Have you forgotten? The testing site must be restored in order to stop the end of the world—]

What was he going on about?

I took out one of the drops from the Beast and held it up so he could see it.

[Without this, you won’t be able to restore your testing site anyway.]

[Are you… threatening me?]

[Threatening you? No. I’m persuading you. So how about you forget about the testing site for now and talk to me first?]

[I see… Very well. Speak. What is so urgent that you would go this far?]

[At this point, I think we should talk face to face.]

[That would be… difficult.]

[Why? Because you’re not human?]

For a brief moment, silence filled the speakers.

Then his answer came back.

[Do you know what I am?]

Yeah, I do.

***

I had seen this guy several times in the game.

When progressing through the normal storyline, there would eventually come a point where Arta demanded the remains of the Beast. At that moment, the player was given a choice.

Hand them over to Arta, or refuse.

If the player chose the first option, the story ended with Arta giving them the rewards.

After that, if you tried to talk to him, he would repeat lines like, “I am working, so stop bothering me,” or, “I will handle this myself, so leave now.”

Then, once the player left the secret base because of Terminus’s time limit, the entrance would close, and this place would become impossible to enter ever again.

In other words, choosing to take Arta’s rewards meant ending his storyline there.

Not that the second choice led to much more of a story either.

If the player refused to hand over the drops, Arta would reveal his machine monster form, and the battle would begin.

He was as hard to fight as the Lord of the Ninth Floor.

Needless to say, I was completely wiped out on my first attempt. My specs were nowhere near enough.

From what I later figured out, Machine Monster Arta was a raid boss far stronger than even Snictura or the Beast.

In the end, I had to build a team capable of exploring the tenth floor, bring them all the way down to the sixth floor, and challenge the raid again. Even then, it took me dozens of attempts before I finally managed to defeat him.

The problem was that the reward I got after beating him was not particularly special.

It was a single Machine Monster Heart, and I was never fully sure what it was meant to be used for.

Sure, it could be consumed as an elixir to greatly increase a character’s stats. And if used as a material, it was treated as a top-grade mana core, on the same level as a dragon heart. Just based on that, it was definitely a valuable reward.

However…

It did not feel like the kind of reward you should get for defeating a monster on the same level as the Lord of the Ninth Floor.

That was why, after succeeding on my first clear, I began to wonder if there was a proper way to use the heart that I simply did not know about. So I kept digging deeper into Arta’s story. Thanks to those attempts, I managed to learn a few things.

[Answer me. Do you know about me?]

Well…

[At the very least, I know that stopping the end of the world isn’t the real reason you want this,] I replied, throwing out bait.

He bit immediately.

[Are you… Are you a pilgrim?]

Pilgrim.

In the history of this world, that term referred to the traitors of humanity who had fought on the Witch’s side. Arta had asked us the same thing when we first arrived too.

[Who are you? Pilgrims?]

[You still have not answered my question. Who are you? Pilgrims?]

One important thing to note was that I had told him we were not. Arta had a method to confirm that we were not pilgrims, and players had no way to prove that they were pilgrims either.

Then why did he keep asking whether we were pilgrims?

A wave of doubt rose in my chest, but I did not let it show. The moment I asked him that question, he would understand why I was asking and immediately confirm that we really were not pilgrims, ending the conversation there.

So I decided to save that question for later.

[How about showing me your face before we start talking?]

When he did not answer, I pressed him further.

[I really only want to talk. Once our conversation is over, I’ll give you this.]

On the surface, the offer sounded gentle. But from another angle, my words could also mean that I would not hand over what he wanted if he refused. Thankfully, Arta seemed to understand that hidden meaning as well.

In a defeated voice, he said, [Understood…]

Even though the doors had been opening and closing at random because of the damage to the testing site, there had been one door that remained shut the entire time.

That door finally opened with a hiss, and Arta revealed his true form.

Clank! Clank!

He stepped forward with the sound of metal striking metal, a noise no human body should ever make.

[I have revealed myself as you requested. What do you want from me?]

From this point on, I had to stay focused above all else.

Arta stood just a few inches over six feet tall. He looked similar to the humanoid robots often seen in sci-fi movies, the kind designed to resemble humans. However, in this guy’s case, there were some parts of his design that were hard to understand.

It really is disgusting to see him in person.

His arms, legs, and torso were all unmistakably mechanical, with steel frames openly forming his body. And yet, in a disturbing contrast, his face looked far too human, almost as though a real person’s face had been stretched over a machine.

Why is his face an actual human face?

Back when I was playing the game, I had never really understood why Arta had chosen that form.

I had simply assumed everyone had their own preferences and left it at that. Well, he was not exactly a “person,” but a machine. Either way, that was not the important part.

Now that I’m seeing him like this, I can tell. It’s the same face.

The Arta of the secret base and the researcher Arta I had seen not long ago were one and the same.

[Speak already.]

Even though we were standing face to face, he still was not using his vocal cords to speak. Instead, his voice came through the same speaker system he had been using this entire time.

[You do not seem to be a survivor of the destroyed empire. What are you, really?]

[Well, what do you think?] I asked in return.

[I will not answer that.]

[Then it’ll be hard for me to just hand this over to you. Aren’t we here to talk?]

Arta stared silently at me. His faintly red eyes, which looked like camera lenses, sent a chill down my spine for some reason.

It felt as if the computer that served as his mind was calculating which option was more efficient: continuing this conversation, or ignoring my request and taking the drop from me by force.

Eventually, he said, [I lack information. As long as you refuse to reveal your identity, I can only make guesses about who you are.]

[And if you had to guess?]

[A pilgrim… But as I thought, there is not enough evidence to make that judgment. Tell me. What are you?]

Hearing him ask the same question again, I shrugged and replied, [Whether I’m a pilgrim or not isn’t important.]

I had already figured out how to guide this conversation in a way that would stir up his curiosity. More than that, I had thought of a way to gain his favor.

[Then may I take that as a declaration that you are not a pilgrim—]

Alright, this was where I cut him off.

[Arta, researcher of the empire’s First Magic Engineering Research Center. I was sent here by you from the past.]

No person…

No, not even a machine would be able to stay calm after hearing that.

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