"The next three rules I am about to tell you are also important."
"One. You never die within the staircase... Rather, every time you try to kill yourself, you won’t be able to."
"You will simply wake up the next ’day’ with all your limbs intact, all your organs healed, and all your injuries gone."
"You cannot die here. You cannot even starve here... It has been a long time since I’ve had food... A ’long time’ is so vague... It has been quadrillions of years since I’ve had proper food."
"There are times when I get bored enough that I eat my own flesh."
"I’ve sliced my face to taste it, popped my eyeball out just to crunch it, and tasted every part of myself just to feel as though I am eating food again."
"I have even tasted the hard and crunchy staircases... Although, every time I try to damage the staircases, they simply regenerate the next day."
"I assumed it would be the same for the walls, but there was an absurd rule to the walls as well.
"If you damage a wall beyond three centimeters in depth, it will regenerate. But if you stay within those three centimeters, the damage will remain..."
"It’s almost as though the person who built this place wanted to find a way to make the people inside still be able to communicate despite never seeing each other..."
"Should I say the god that rules this place is cruel, or is he merciful?"
"Second. Time here functions differently... I have seen the writings of people who have spent more days in here than me, however, they don’t seem to come from the far future, nor does it seem like they came from the distant, distant past..."
"There were writings here that were written in other languages as well."
"After spending so much time here, I even encountered people who had carved language lessons into the walls, teaching whoever came after them how to read and understand their language."
"Others carved their interests, their histories, their hobbies... Some wrote down the details of foods they once ate, describing their flavors as carefully as they could so they would not forget them."
"Others left behind stories about the places they came from, the people they knew, and the lives they once lived."
"And yet, when I put all of these writings together, they seemed to come from people who had lived within roughly the same two centuries. Different languages, different people, different lives... but never anything that clearly belonged to some distant future or ancient past."
"Perhaps I have not travelled far enough to meet people who came from a time farther away from my own..."
"But one thing is for sure. Time within this place is distorted."
"The last rule I am about to tell you is more like a hope... It is tradition to say this."
"Every writing you see here will always say this to you... :
[You will escape one day. One day might not be today, but you eventually will. Within the infinite time frame that you will be here, there is an infinite amount of time for you to find a place to escape to as well. Do not lose hope.]
"I do not know if I believe in this, but I still want to say it as well. Please do not lose hope. We are all we have."
The writing ended there abruptly, with a small signature carved right beside it.
After reading it, an absurd amount of thoughts filled Moon’s head.
’On one hand, it’s absurd... but [Arcana] truly does border on absurdity, lunacy, cruelty, and horror. Sigh...’
He sighed, somewhat mortified by the idea of spending an impossible amount of time in here just to find an address that belonged to Earth...
Still, there was one thing that gave him some relief.
The first rule had already been somewhat broken by his encounter with the Response Unit.
That meant some parts of this writing had to be false...
Right?
Elias, however, turned towards Moon and asked.
"Just now... when I asked about whether or not you had seen our supernatural companion... did you not finish your sentence and instead show us this as a response...? Are you trying to say that... we’ll never find F-299 again?"
Moon, listening to Elias’ question, was stunned.
Wasn’t it just a coincidence that the writing on the wall appeared when he had asked that question...?
Moon prevented his lips from sarcastically twitching, instead only letting out a faint smile.
To Elias and the others, they shivered.
Indeed... this entity before them had purposely led them to this wall in order to show them the answer they had asked for.
It was a cruel way of saying, "You’ll never find your supernatural companion again."
Jonathan was the first to break down as he knelt on the floor.
"N-no... please... spare us... I cannot spend that much time here. Please let us out..."
He grovelled on the ground.
The absurdity, the fear, and the complex emotions he had felt as he read what was written on the wall finally reached a breaking point.
He sobbed on the ground, to which Clara immediately tried to help him up.
Elias and the others didn’t judge him.
Jonathan was young and inexperienced, and it would be a lie to say that the others weren’t afraid as well.
"..."
’I can’t even do anything about this situation...’
Moon could not help but lampoon himself once again.
Marcus immediately covered Jonathan’s mouth with a handkerchief.
"We are sorry about him... We are also sorry for our ungrateful behavior. You have already given us a hint about an alternative way to escape, right?"
Marcus paused.
"I think I get what you’re trying to say... It is me that you want, right?"
Moon’s vision darkened.
’What the fuck do you mean by that? Don’t cause a misunderstanding! I meant that since your [Augury] is so strange, it probably means you’ll find a way to escape this place!’
Marcus continued.
"I do not know what it is about my condition that you want or need, but I will let you take or order me as you please."
"Marcus... what are you—"
Clara began, before Marcus intervened once again.
"We are only a Rank F Response Unit, so even if we died here or got lost, the organization A.E.G.I.S. would not care..."
"However, we are also people with our own lives and goals, and we do not wish to lose our minds here... So whatever it is that you want from me... please take it now."
Although it was a rash decision to say this, Marcus was not stupid.
According to the writings on the wall, an absurd amount of time had passed, and the writer had never encountered anyone else.
What if Marcus and the others spent quadrillions of years in this place before they could find this man again?
Marcus did not want to take any chances.
Of course, there was also the possibility that the creature before them was cunning enough to play with the psychology of their humanity, using the sheer complexity of infinity to damage their minds until Marcus eventually gave up his "special condition."
However, Marcus didn’t mind.
Even without his special condition, he would still be able to live.
And if he were being honest, the special condition had brought him blessings, but it had also brought him numerous misfortunes.
Thus, he didn’t mind giving it away.