After leaving that city, Chara kept walking east, heading towards where the sun rises.
The road became flatter and the broken stones fewer, turning into hard yellow dirt.
There was still nothing around her.
No grass, no trees, no living things.
Only the wind rolling sand and dust past her feet.
● You don’t know what happened, but this world seems a bit different now??
One afternoon, she saw something different.
Some scattered stone blocks in the yellow dirt were piled together, forming the shape of low walls.
Some of the low walls had already collapsed, the stones scattered all over the ground, with dried moss growing in the crevices.
She squatted down and touched them.
The surface of the stones was very smooth, not like they were naturally formed, but rather polished by someone.
She stood up and looked into the distance.
More low walls appeared in her line of sight, stretching far away in connected patches.
There was a small distance between each low wall, and each section enclosed a square area.
Inside the area, the ground was flat and paved with stone slabs, carved with some patterns she couldn’t understand.
Flowey lifted his head from her shoulder and looked at the low walls and stone slabs.
“This is a place where some monsters used to live.”
“Monster architecture is different from humans.
They don’t use bricks; they use this kind of light-colored stone and carve patterns on it.
Look, the things carved on those slabs are the monster language.”
Chara looked down at a stone slab near her feet.
It was carved with winding lines.
It indeed didn’t look like human writing.
The monster writing looked more like a painting.
“Can you read it, Flowey?”
“Some of it…” Flowey said.
“Oh my gosh, it’s been too long.
I forgot some of the words.”
She stood up and walked into the area enclosed by the stone walls.
Some of the stone slabs paved on the ground were already broken, with dead grass growing in the cracks.
She walked past room after room enclosed by stones.
Each one had roughly square walls, with a gap facing south, probably where the door used to be.
The rooms were empty.
There was nothing inside.
Only some traces were left on the stone slab floor: circular grooves and square marks, as if something had been placed there before and later taken away.
She touched those carvings with her hand.
They were deep, and the edges were very smooth, not prickly to the touch.
“No monsters have lived here either?”
“No…
not for a long time.
The stone has weathered badly, and the edges are all rounded off.
It looks like…
no monsters have lived here for at least several years.”
After walking for about ten minutes, she finally reached the middle area.
Squatting in the middle of the liquid were three black-shelled bugs: True Stings.
Flowey lowered his voice.
“Them again.”
She nodded, her hand pressing on her knife hilt.
Hearing the movement, the three bugs opened their compound eyes simultaneously, locking onto her direction, and stood up from the black liquid.
!
● Three of them…
EXP delivered right to us.
Let’s strike before they react =)
● Attack: True Sting
She charged forward.
The first bug had just raised its front claws when her knife was already there.
She cut in directly from the front, thrusting the knife tip into the gap between the compound eyes.
The entire knife sank in, and then she slashed horizontally.
-999999
The second and third pounced at the same time.
She dodged the second bug’s claws by turning her body.
The third bug’s mandibles bit down from above her head.
She squatted, then thrust her knife upward, piercing into the third bug’s lower mandible.
-999999
The second bug turned around, its six legs scraping the ground twice, and charged at her.
She didn’t dodge.
She took the bug’s charge head-on and pushed forward a step, chopping her knife into its neck from the side.
-99999
● You won!
You earned 30000 XP.
The three bugs turned into ash and dust in less than ten seconds.
But the three bugs combined weren’t even enough to level up.
She continued to search this ruin.
Inside the largest stone hut, she found a corner.
Some things were piled there, covered with a worn-out cloth.
She lifted the cloth, and dust puffed up, making her cough twice.
A backpack.
The fabric was very thick, with a few pockets on the outside, and metal zipper pulls.
She lifted it and weighed it in her hand.
It wasn’t heavy, but not light either.
There were things inside.
She put the backpack on the ground and opened it to take a look.
Inside was a water flask.
The cap was screwed on very tightly.
She struggled for a long time before finally unscrewing it.
She brought it close and sniffed.
No strange smell.
She shook it, and there was still half a flask of water inside.
She rummaged some more and found a roll of bandages, a small box of matches, a folding pocket knife, and a flint. You are reading on g.com, the official source.
She also searched the outside pockets of the backpack.
A small pocket contained a few hard candies.
The wrappers had faded, but the candies inside still looked okay.
The other pocket was empty.
She dumped everything from her own bag and packed her things into the new backpack.
The chocolate, dry flatbread, pickled meat, salt, sauce, coat, and that stack of golden wrappers were all stuffed into the main compartment.
The bandages and matches were put into the side small pocket, and the water flask was hung on the buckle ring outside the bag.
● You equipped a backpack.
Storage space increased.
She put the backpack on and tried it out.
It was much more comfortable than stuffing everything into her coat before.
The weight on her shoulders was distributed, and it wouldn’t swing around when she walked.
Chara tightened the backpack straps.
Just as she turned around, ready to leave, she looked up.
There seemed to be something in the sky.
A huge, gray cloud-like thing was moving rapidly.
Its shape didn’t look like a cloud.
It was flying low, brushing the top of a distant hill.
As it moved, it emitted a creaking sound.
It came from far away, and even across the distance, it was heard very clearly.
It kept flying forward, sweeping past the hill in a few seconds, shrinking into a small dot, and then disappearing into the distant horizon.
Chara stood in place, looking up at the direction the thing disappeared, feeling a bit dazed.
Flowey’s vines tightened a bit, his flower head pressing tightly against her head.
“Let’s go.” His voice was much lower than usual, so low that Chara almost didn’t hear him.
“What?”
“Go!
Leave right now.
That thing…
I don’t know what it is, but it’s definitely not a good thing.
We can’t stay here.
The further and faster, the better.”
Chara didn’t ask why.
She took a step and walked in the opposite direction of that cloud.
After walking a few steps, she looked back at the monster ruins one more time.
…
The wind blew from behind, pushing her forward.
She pulled the backpack straps a bit tighter.
The cuffs of her dark green coat fluttered in the wind, slapping against her thighs.
Flowey huddled on her shoulder, his petals completely closed, pressing against the top of her head.
The yellow dirt under her feet was stepped into shallow footprints, which were then quickly smoothed over by the wind.
The ruins in the distance grew smaller and smaller, finally merging with the horizon, unseen any longer.
● You don’t know what that cloud exactly is, but Flowey’s words give you a chill.
You are filled with DETERMINATION.