565 Dark room [2]

'It's bright.'

Squinting, Melissa covered her face with her hand to block the light coming from above. It was really bright. Bright enough to make her eyes feel sore.

"Ugh."

Her mind was rather groggy at the moment and she wanted nothing more than to sleep at the moment.

She felt tired. Extremely so.

But…

"The fuck!?"

With a sharp snap of her eyelids, Melissa stirred out of her slumber.

After her mind sobered up a bit and she recalled the events leading up to her finding herself in this state, she immediately felt uneasy.

"Shit, where are my glasses?"

In search of her glasses, Melissa tapped the ground with her hands.

It was difficult for Melissa to see anything without her glasses, as everything around her was extremely blurry.

"Where are they?"

Touching around her and only feeling what felt like thick hard grass, Melissa's brows knit tightly.

"I knew it."

Melissa muttered to herself as her face twisted in displeasure.

"…I knew that I shouldn't have agreed with Ren's deal. Whenever I do something with him, I'm always hit with the worst of luck. Now I probably lost my glasses and will never find them ag—"

Right at that moment, Melissa felt something in her hand. Carefully touching it and recognizing its shape, she grabbed the item and put them on her face.

"Nevermind."

She mumbled to herself as she got up and took a look at her surroundings.

"Still doesn't change what I previo—huh?"

Melissa's jaw grew slack as gazed into the distance.

She was left in awe by what she saw as she struggled to comprehend the scene in front of her at that moment..

"…Where in the world am I?"

The scenery…

It looked like nothing like she had ever seen before.

A majestic forest of thick canopy trees bent at different angles covered the northwest part of the landscape. A vivid palette of rose, amber, and violet feathers shaped leaved replaced the regular looking ones to create a breathtaking spectacle.

The air was thin and easy to breathe as Melissa had no trouble breathing.

But…

"This is not earth."

Melissa was quick to guess that something was wrong with this place. It had no semblance of the earth she knew.

"How is this possible?"

Rather than being flustered, Melissa's eyes twinkled with an uncommon excitement.

"It can't be right?"

By tapping her bracelet, she took a tiny device out of her dimensional space and pressed the small button that sat atop of it.

Beep—! Beep—!

A beeping sound echoed out.

"61% nitrogen, and 30%% oxygen…"

Melissa's eyes opened wide in surprise as she read the measurements displayed on the machine. Her excitement soon reached an all-time high.

"Holy shit. I'm really on a different planet."

On earth, the percentage of nitrogen to exygen was around 78% to 21%. On rare occasions would it differ, but it was only by a small percentage. Compared to this place, the air was a lot more rich in oxygen.

This level of oxygen levels were the same as back when earth was in its infancy stages, and it could only mean one thing.

This place was filled with enormous bugs, and forest fires.

"Shit."

The thought made Melissa cringe. If there was one thing she despised the most, it was bugs...and the idea of possibly finding bugs that were the size of whales, made her face contort into weird angles.

Even then, putting that aside, Melissa was still excited about her current situation.

After all, if there where shes could collect data for her research, it was none other than this place! A place filled with prehistoric beasts.

"Wait a second..."

Malissa's excitement, however, didn't last long. Her eyebrows knitted together.

"Right, I might be on a different planet, but how exactly am I supposed to go back to earth now?"

She didn't even know how she got here in the first place. In fact, she was extremely confused as to why she suddenly appeared here out of nowhere.

She was quietly minding her own business in her lab when suddenly, out of nowhere, bam! She found herself stranded in this unknown place.

...Just what was going on?

"Hmm…"

Melissa's excitement faded as reality dawned on her. She pinched the middle of her brows in annoyance as she quietly mumbled to herself.

"I'm fucked, aren't I?"

***

Several kilometers away from Melissa, in a different location.

"What's that?"

Squinting, Amanda peered through the thick canopy of trees and glanced to the distance where she saw a tall black pyramid.

The moment Amanda saw the pyramid in the distance, her heart tightened as she felt a sense of existential doom. There was this suffocating feeling rising from the pyramid in the distance that set her off.

Suddenly, a bright purple light also shot into the sky as she stared at the top of the pyramid.

Slowly, the clouds in the sky darkened and the sky turned red.

"This phenomenon..."

Taking note of what was happening, Amanda tensed her legs and leapt up as she took her eyes off of the pyramid-like structure.

She landed perfectly on a taller branch of a larger tree. As she once again leaped toward the top of another branch, she eventually reached the top of the tree and was then able to see the pyramid in its entirety.

Observing the structure in the distance, Amanda quietly mumbled to herself.

"A mana compressor."

Previously, she wasn't quite sure what the pyramid was, but now that she could see it better, she was certain.

It was a mana compressor.

A large scaled mana compressor.

And a device used by demons to convert the mana in the air into demonic energy.

Looking into the distance, Amanda knew one thing for sure; the mana compressor in the distance wasn't just any mana compressor. It was one designed to completely swallow up planets.

From that point on she was able to figure something out.

"I'm not on earth."

In the event that a mana compressor of this size had been built on earth, humanity or other races would've discovered it long ago. It was simply impossible for it to be on earth, and she knew that.

The same could be said for the unfamiliar environment, as Amanda marvelled at the various plants and vegetation that she had never seen before.

'The size of the plants look to be far bigger than anything I've seen on earth...'

Amanda was quick to snap out of her thoughts as her attention was once again drawn toward the pyramid in the distance.

"...How did this happen?"

It all happened so abruptly that she had no idea how she found herself in such a situation.

At the moment, she was only here to get an idea of where she was. Little did she think she was on another planet.

...At least until now.

***

"I can finally move."

With the help of the rocky wall beside me, I supported my body as I stumbled weakly.

Clenching my hand as I felt something soft on the side of the wall. I ripped whatever it was from the wall and brought it closer to me.

"Is this moss?"

Squeezing my hand to feel the texture of the lump on my hand, I brought it closer to my nose and sniffed it.

"It smells like it…"

Not that I knew how moss smelled like.

As I dropped the moss on the ground, I turned my attention to the surroundings.

It was dark.

Looking around, I saw nothing but darkness.

"Huuuu..."

With a deep breath, I placed both hands on the wall and slowly began to move my legs in a sideways motion. At the moment, I was trying to figure out how big the room was.

As soon as my foot touched the corner of the room, I could approximate its size.

"Ten steps vertical, and twelve steps horizontal..."

It was neither too big nor too small. Just about the size of half a basketball court.

'I'm thirsty.'

Smacking my dry lops together, I moved toward the area where the liquid was dripping. The closer I got, the more pronounced the sound became.

Drip— Drip—

Gulp.

I swallowed a mouthful of saliva.

As of now, I had been here over a day and was extremely thirsty.

Smacking my lips together once more, I extended my hand in the direction of where the sound came from.

'Wait.'

I paused just as my finger was about to touch the unknown liquid.

Furrowing my brows, I swallowed what little left saliva I had inside of my mouth and bit my lips.

It was then that I had a sudden thought.

'What if the water is poisonous?'

For me to recklessly drink the water coming out from the side of the walls of a room that I had no idea about…

'Yeah, that would be really stupid and reckless of me.'

I knew I had no choice but to hold back despite the temptation.

Right now, the only thing I could do was try to find a way out of this dark room, whose purpose I knew nothing about.

Given that my visibility was unavailable, my choices were rather limits. Regardless, I was quick to come up with a plan.

'It's definitely risky, but it might just work.'

"Khh…"

Clenching my teeth tightly and taking a deep breath, I suddenly punched the wall with all my light.

Bang—

After punching the wall, I began to experience a terrifying pain emanating from my knuckles as tears started to form on the corner of my eyes.

'Fuck!'

I shouted inside of my mind as I closed my eyes and took a series of deep repeated short breaths.

"Huuu...huu..hu...huuuu..huu."

This weird breathing method continued for a couple of seconds before my eyes snapped open and I repeated the process again.

Bang—!

"Kayak!"

Upon punching the wall a second time, I heard a subtle cracking sound. In the most likely scenario, I had broken by knuckles. Even then, without any regard to the pain, I proceeded to once again punch the walls.

Bang—!

"Urgh!"

I screamed in pain as my lips began to bleed.

While it may appear that I have gone completely insane from the outside, I was currently practicing the [Body Hardening] technique.

Only through repeated pain could one shape their body to be made out of iron.

Realizing just how painful it was for one to practice the art, I also realized something else.

It was that the art was essentially the Gravar style, but a milder version of it.

'What a perfect fit for Han Yufei.'

I thought to myself as I thought of him.

For him to have reached that level of mastery in this martial manual, without a doubt he was an extreme masochist.

Unfortunately.

…I sort of was one too as I once again punched the wall with all my strength.