Step by step, Lin traversed countless ters within the dark cave, hoping to find a way out of this place. He didn’t know exactly how much ti had passed on the surface, but he suspected it had been about three days since he was transported to the Magic World, after that incident in the academy’s dining hall.
Along the way, Lin mostly encountered various insects that were infected by the Distortion. He suspected that the insects which bit him on his first day here also ca from this place and had simply been distorted by Shot.
That explained many things Lin hadn’t understood.
Slowly climbing up the rocky slope, Lin looked upward and realized he was very close to reaching a new level of the cave.
"I’m climbing higher and higher... Just how deep was I inside? I don’t know how many ters or kiloters I’ve ascended, but the number certainly isn’t small..." he sighed and continued climbing.
After several minutes, he pulled himself up and looked around, seeing that he was in a small round tunnel, and ahead of him was pitch-black darkness that exerted imnse pressure on any human.
Lin scoffed coldly and calmly walked forward. He had spent so much ti in darkness that he had created a personal "darkness rating system," from 1 to 10, to asure how frightening and oppressive the darkness felt. The current darkness surrounding him rated about a 3-4, because it didn’t give him that "abyssal" feeling he experienced when he looked down into the chasm.
"The bottom of the canyon — that was at least a 7 or 8. I really didn’t want to think about what would happen to if I fell down there... But this place feels different. It’s not scary, because it’s the only path I can take. And because of that, I’m fully ready to face any creatures, phenona, or events..."
Lin’s footsteps were the only sounds in this place filled with darkness. He walked forward with full confidence, and when he had covered a significant distance, Lin found himself in an enormous cylindrical cave, standing at its very bottom!
"T-this..." Lin stared in shock at the surrounding cylindrical cave.
It was so massive that Lin could only describe it with a comparison: if in the canyon he felt like an average-sized worm, then here, he felt like an ant!
"These dinsions are terrifying," Lin frowned and examined the cylindrical cave, realizing that it had countless holes from small caves, which resembled honeycombs!
And he was lucky enough to be at the very bottom!
Lin sighed and walked toward the wall of the cylindrical cave to begin climbing up again. No matter how majestic this place looked, he wasn’t going to change his goal and knew that the exit had to be close.
He just had to reach it.
Drinking the last of his water from the sheath, Lin began his climb. He found so stable footholds and placed his hands there, then his feet, and started ascending, remaining constantly focused so he wouldn’t fall by accident.
Minutes passed, then hours in silence, with only Lin’s heavy breathing to be heard — it was clear he was exhausted. At last, reaching a large ledge where he could properly rest, Lin sat down and smiled.
"Ordinary climbing is so difficult for ... Yet another reminder that I’m still ignorant in many areas and actions."
After resting there for several dozen minutes, Lin continued climbing upward, occasionally stopping at similar ledges to catch his breath before resuming the ascent.
It was a monotonous action that brought no joy, but Lin kept doing it — because it might lead him out of this damned cave.
Lin looked down and saw no trace of the surface he had started from. There was only darkness — the sa kind that filled the canyon below.
"Just how high have I climbed..."
Lin sighed and continued climbing upward — it was the only thing he had to do.
One minute...
Ten minutes... Rest...
An hour...
Two hours...
Five hours...
And Lin kept climbing upward...
When he reached another ledge, he was so exhausted that he collapsed onto his back and imdiately fell asleep, unable to form even a single thought.
He slept deeply.
...
"Where am I?" Lin looked around and realized he was in a completely white space.
"Am I dreaming? Is this a dream?"
"If this is a lucid dream, then..." Lin instantly realized he was in a lucid dream. He imdiately wished to see his parents and spend one more "happy" day...
The scene instantly changed to his parents’ apartnt — where he lived with them before that situation happened.
"Mom, Dad, where are you?" Lin imdiately began searching the apartnt, but saw no one.
"Why can’t I see them even in my dreams?!" Lin shouted with all his might, but in this dream world, his voice ant nothing.
"If I can’t see my parents, then at least I’ll get revenge!"
Lin instantly wished to appear in the Matrix family’s house and summoned all mbers of the family.
But no one appeared.
He was alone.
"Where are you bastards?! Show yourselves! Now that I finally have strength, you all hide like pathetic cockroaches?!"
But no answer ca.
There were no sounds.
Lin was alone in silence.
His expression twisted, and he wished to appear in the center of the tropolis!
"No... Where are all the people?!" Lin looked at the completely silent city, where there wasn’t a single living soul.
"I want to see people!"
No response.
"Why! Why won’t you appear?!"
Still no answer.
"But... But... Why..." Lin sat on the ground and muttered:
"This is my dream... And even in my dream, I’m not worthy of even a sliver of happiness..."
"Ha-ha... Ha-ha. Yeah. Happiness must be earned. If it were so easy... I wouldn’t be sitting here..."
Lin lay down in the center of the intersection and looked at the sky.
"Everything has a price. Even for a tiny grain of happiness — I must pay. If even in a dream I couldn’t experience joy — that ans I still don’t have the ans to pay for it... But what should I pay with? Determination? Dignity? Pride? Or... purpose? Ha-ha. Pay with a purpose, only to fulfill it through ... How pathetic..."
Yes.
I am a pathetic person.
...
Lin slowly opened his violet eyes and looked at the cylindrical cave. He said nothing, thought nothing, decided nothing — he stood up and looked toward the dark surface above.
He turned away from it and began climbing the stone wall again.
Silently.
He continued using his body to rise upward.
And no one knows how much ti passed — he reached the top.
Lin looked down and smiled, and for the first ti, thought:
"You don’t have to lose sothing in order to achieve sothing. The most important thing is to have the strength to forge your own path forward."
He turned and stepped into a new darkness...
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