Chapter 2 of 100
Chapter 2. What floor is this?
8 min read1,965 words
Chapter 2. What floor is this?
Creak.
My body is so stiff from sleeping on the floor. At least, the good thing is that there is no night here. So, I can sleep in a place where the sun shines just right, and it’s a comfortable temperature.
Squish! Squish!
Sejun washed his face in the pond.
And
Squish. Squish.
He washed the sweet potatoes and cherry tomatoes he would eat today.
“Why does it feel strange to wash my face with the water I used to wipe my face?”
Snap.
Sejun bit into the sweet potato, ignoring the discomfort.
Chomp chomp.
The sweeter it gets, the more he chewed.
‘I’m happy.’
I don’t need to go to work, and I’ve never had the leisure to chew until all the sweetness comes out.
Snap.
Chomp chomp.
He sat on the dry ground under the sun, chewing the sweet potato endlessly. The silence was absolute except for the sound of chewing. His heart slowed down, and he felt calm.
I’m definitely stranded, and my food will run out in a few days. I might starve to death.
‘Strange.’
Sejun tilted his head, finding his own calmness surprising. Still, it was better than feeling anxious.
“Whenever Manager Ko said, ‘Sejun, can I see you for a moment?’ my heart would race. Ah, it’s peaceful.”
Sejun savored the peace he rarely felt before, eating the sweet potato leisurely.
“Should I try the next dish?”
After finishing the sweet potato, Sejun put a cherry tomato in his mouth and chewed.
Snap.
The skin of the cherry tomato couldn’t withstand the pressure of Sejun’s teeth and burst, filling his mouth with a tangy flavor.
“Delicious...”
It was so delicious that he doubted it was the same cherry tomato he usually ate. Perhaps his taste buds had become extremely sensitive due to hunger.
Chew chew.
Sejun focused on the taste of the cherry tomato and chewed diligently. However, the taste didn’t improve with prolonged chewing, so the five cherry tomatoes quickly disappeared into his mouth.
After finishing his meal, Sejun started his day’s work.
Looking at the hole in the ceiling.
“...”
Sejun stared blankly at the hole in the ceiling.
“Oh... I’m bored.”
Of course, he occasionally shouted, “Is anyone there?” But that was also done while looking at the ceiling. After a few hours of staring at the ceiling, he felt like he was going to go crazy.
“Is there anything to do?”
Sejun looked around for something to do.
‘Maybe I should water the crops.’
Sejun filled a water bottle and watered the parsley, cherry tomatoes, and sweet potatoes.
Drip drip drip.
“Grow fast. Grow big. Dad is hungry.”
He made three trips to the pond to thoroughly water the crops.
Then
Rumble.
His stomach growled, signaling a lack of fuel. He felt hungry after just a little movement. Sejun drank the remaining water from the bottle he had used to water the crops.
Gulp. Gulp.
He felt his stomach fill a little. Sejun returned to his spot and stared at the hole in the ceiling again.
A few hours later.
“...”
While Sejun was staring blankly at the ceiling,
Beep beep.
The alarm went off.
[May 12, 10:00 PM]
There is no night here, so he set the alarm to remind him when it’s time to sleep.
“It’s time to sleep.”
Sejun got up and prepared for bed. The preparation was simple.
Tap tap.
He smoothed out the dirt where he would sleep and put the bag on his head to block out the sun, completing his bedtime routine.
Surprisingly, he fell asleep easily.
***
Midnight by Sejun’s standards.
Rumble...
Rumble...
Rumble...!
Sejun woke up to the vibration shaking the ground.
“Ugh... What is it?”
Then
Rumble!
Another strong vibration was felt, this time closer.
“...!”
Sejun quickly took off the bag from his face and got up.
And he witnessed a strange scene.
“Is... Is this?!”
The light coming from the ceiling of the cave had turned blue.
And
Squeak!
Roar!
Bizarre and threatening sounds echoed.
Then
Roar!
A giant black dragon appeared in the sky and roared. Its majestic flight through the blue light was incredibly beautiful.
The black dragon roared and then disappeared gracefully. The ground became quiet, perhaps out of fear from the dragon’s roar.
However, Sejun’s mind was more chaotic than ever.
“Monsters... This can’t be...”
Sejun thought something was wrong. He had assumed he was on the first floor of the tower. He wanted to believe that the light illuminating the cave all day was from the chandelier on the first floor. However, there are no monsters on the first floor of the tower.
In other words, Sejun was not on the first floor.
Moreover, the blue moon.
Every floor is illuminated by the sun all day, but each floor has a period when the sun turns blue. Hunters call this phenomenon the blue moon.
During the blue moon, monsters become more aggressive and stronger, so hunters avoid floors where the blue moon occurs.
‘The blue moon only appears on floors 10 and above...’
This means Sejun is on a floor above the 10th. There was still a chance of rescue.
But
‘There’s something off.’
It was the dragon.
Ten years after the tower appeared, the Phoenix Guild, the most powerful guild on Earth, recently cleared the 37th floor.
From the 31st to the 37th floor, guilds were competing and not sharing information, but there were many clear videos below the 30th floor uploaded to the internet for money or publicity.
According to the known information, floors 2-10 have skeletons, floors 11-20 have goblins, floors 20-30 have orcs, and from the 31st floor, spider monsters appear, though no videos were released.
This information was consistent across multiple hunter interviews and was reliable.
There were no dragons mentioned. He hadn’t even heard of dragon-like lizard monsters in the tower.
‘What floor am I on?!’
Sejun clutched his head and screamed. He might be stranded on a floor that even top hunters haven’t reached.
‘Why me?’
Sejun looked at the hole in the ceiling, now illuminated by blue light, with a complex heart.
But the purpose had changed. Previously, he hoped someone would pass by, but now he hoped no one would. After seeing the dragon, Sejun realized there were monsters here.
Beep beep.
[May 13, 6:00 AM]
The alarm went off.
Sejun, who had been on guard all night, greeted the fourth day of his ordeal with wide-open eyes. Fortunately, the blue moon turned back to its usual yellow light around 4:00 AM.
Five hours later.
“...”
Sejun’s head, which had been on guard, gradually lowered, and he fell into a deep sleep. He had been staring at the ceiling all night, so it was understandable that he was tired.
“Ugh... Water...”
As soon as he woke up, Sejun felt a burning thirst. He fumbled for the water bottle he had left beside him.
And
Gulp. Gulp.
He drank it in one go.
“Phew! Now I feel like I can survive.”
Rumble.
As his thirst was quenched, hunger rose.
Chew. Chew.
He washed his face at the pond and then washed five sweet potatoes and cherry tomatoes.
Chomp chomp.
Sejun chewed the sweet potato while looking at the hole in the ceiling.
‘I don’t know where I am, but if it’s above the 41st floor, the chances of anyone coming here are almost 0%.’
If so, he had to survive on his own.
Sejun looked at the field where he had planted the crops.
‘Maybe I should water them.’
Thinking he had to survive on his own, the crops seemed even more precious.
Drip drip drip.
“You need to grow strong.”
“Sweet potatoes, grow big.”
“Cherry tomatoes, bear lots of fruit.”
“Parsley... um... just grow well.”
He watered the crops and spoke encouraging words to them. He had heard that plants are played music on the news, so he thought it was worth giving them some encouragement.
After watering, Sejun sat down and looked at the hole in the ceiling again.
But boredom soon set in.
“Should I eat this?”
Sejun saw the leaves of the parsley he had planted on the first day.
“Ouch... It’s spicy.”
When he put the parsley in his mouth and chewed, the spicy taste quickly spread, along with the parsley’s aroma. The leaves had dried in the sun for two days, intensifying the flavor.
Chew chew.
Sejun kept chewing without swallowing.
‘There’s sweetness in parsley too.’
As he continued to chew, the spiciness subsided, and the hidden sweetness in the parsley gradually emerged.
‘Great!’
Chew chew.
Sejun endured the lazy afternoon by eating the parsley.
Then
Beep beep.
[May 13, 10:00 PM]
The fourth night of his ordeal began.
“Will it be okay today?”
Sejun couldn’t fall asleep easily.
The monsters’ activity at dawn was due to the blue moon. But that didn’t mean they were friendly when the blue moon wasn’t active.
Sejun decided to set up his bed in a place where the light couldn’t reach. It would be cold, but it was more important than his life.
Since he didn’t need to sleep under the sun, he folded his bag and used it as a pillow.
And
Snore.
Sejun started snoring as soon as his head hit the bag.
While Sejun was asleep,
Creak.
The parsley, which had taken root in the ground, began to grow rapidly.
***
Beep beep.
The alarm went off.
[May 14, 6:00 AM]
The fifth day of survival began.
Sejun’s eyes snapped open.
“Ah! Why do I feel so light?”
Sejun stretched and said. He always felt heavy when he woke up, but today his body felt incredibly light. Moreover, he thought it would be cold without the sun, but it wasn’t.
“Is it because the fatigue from work has been relieved?”
Sejun, finding it strange, went to the pond.
Squish! Squish!
He washed his face and picked up the sweet potatoes and cherry tomatoes he would eat today.
“Hmm...”
When he picked up the sweet potatoes and cherry tomatoes, half of the food in the plastic container was gone. The food was running low.
‘Maybe I should only eat half from today.’
Sejun pondered while washing the sweet potatoes and cherry tomatoes he had picked.
Chew. Chew.
And
Snap.
He cut the sweet potato in half and put half of the sweet potato and three cherry tomatoes back into the plastic container. The thought of reducing his food intake made him feel drained.
“Sigh.”
Sejun sighed and moved to his spot with a flat rock where the sun shone well and sat down.
But something felt off. He was in the shade.
“Huh? What’s this?”
The parsley, which should have been illuminated by the sun, had grown to Sejun’s height.
He had checked the parsley when he watered it yesterday, and there was no significant difference from when he planted it. There were no changes before he went to sleep. The parsley had grown enormously overnight.
“When did it grow like this?”
Sejun approached and examined it closely. The white part of the parsley, where the roots were, had thickened to the size of his wrist. Sejun grabbed one of the newly grown leaves and tried to tear it.
“Huh?!”
The leaf was so weak that it swayed in the wind, but it was incredibly tough.
“Ah!”
Creak.
Sejun used force to tear the leaf.
“What? Why is it like this all of a sudden?”
He had heard that plants can change their appearance depending on the climate and habitat, and this seemed to be the case.
“What does it taste like?”
He hoped the taste had changed along with the appearance.
Sejun put the parsley leaf in his mouth and chewed.