Infinite Realm

Middle region's 10th floor was a wide expanse of land that solely housed a low-levelled large kobold tribe. While the monsters were classified as low levelled creatures, they were the apex predators in their location, being the only existing species on the floor.

From a simple overall view, the 10th floor only consisted of the wide expanse of uneven land, a large kobold settlement and a bunch of tunnels that lead to the other floors. Due to some certain unknown reasons, a majority of these tunnels couldn't be accessed by players while some of the ones that could be, weren't available to the kobolds. Such a contradiction couldn't be explained by anyone, mostly because very few players had actually discovered this situation.

As very few players had reached the 10th floor, none of them knew that there existed a hidden floor that could only be reached by accessing one of the tunnels on the 10th floor. At the end of this tunnel was a large expanse of land rivaling the 10th floor's 'main area'. Within this zone was the vestiges of an unknown ancient civilization. The architectural style and culture of the civilization was unlike any seen either in the entirety of Infinite Realm or the real world. It was a little like the combination of Dwarven architectures, but missing the integrated statues, and medieval structures. At the same time, it had some sci-fi like incorporation into the art. This was very obvious in the design of the tallest building in this region, the central tower located at the middle of the region.

It was this exact place that Sato and Xue Yan ended up and also, it was the central tower that they aimed for.

"Damn. What a huge door..." Xue Yan unconsciously exclaimed as she stood in front of the tower alongside Sato.

From a distance, the door looked average as if it had noting special about it but as they closed in on it, the size steadily began to increase till they had closed in on it. Back when they were still far, Sato had expected the door to be huge. Considering the fact that the door of the two-storied building they went through was at least 3 metres tall, for the central building that looked to be the control centre of the place, it wasn't anything strange for it to be bigger; maybe at around 5 or 6 metres tall. If referring to Sato expecting the door to be bigger, he was right. But if referring to the size estimates he had made, Sato was by far wrong.

The door didn't stand at a height of 5 or 6 metres. Heck, it didn't even stand at 10 metres; it was way taller, reaching at least 25 metres! That's roughly the same as a 4 storey building[1]! Even the width wasn't so simple, averaging at around 3.8 or 4 metres. If the door was already this big, one could only imagine the size of the tower. For it to have been visible throughout the entire zone, a height of 100 metres was barely enough. As for the real height of the building, Sato wasn't bothered to find out.

"There has to be a mechanism for this." Sato said, with hope. Moving the previous 3 metres almost required his entire strength and now he was expected to push open a 25 metre tall building. What was he? Hercules?

Sato presumed that no matter how absurd the ancient civilization was, a 25 metres tall door couldn't be easily pushed by them. This was on the basis that they could easily move a 3 metres tall door since they used such for a majority of their homes. After all, no one would make a do they can't open and for one that would be used in a home, it had to be much easier to open. Of course, Sato didn't forget the thickness of the door which mattered most in respect to its weight. The last one was about 13 centimetres thick so he guessed that this one would either be of the same thickness or larger by 5 cm at most or even smaller, though the chances of being thinner was low. If a 3 metre could easily be pushed open by those guys, a 25 metres door would require at lest 2 or 3 of them using their full strength to do so and they would surely take quite some time at that. In that case, it would be much easier and reasonable for the civilization to have a special mechanism for opening it. As for whether their technological abilities reached such a level, Sato wasn't worried about it. Even his ancestors from the Old and Ancient Era had achieved such, much less an ancient civilization from a magical era. 

"Look around for anything that looks like a clue or a secret key." Sato told Xue Yan as he began feeling the door and scanning it with his eyes.

The silver-coloured 25 metres tall door was a gigantic existence that one wouldn't easily see anywhere. If it weren't for here being a virtual world, it would be impossible to find such a sight elsewhere. On the surface of the door were strange black patterns akin to the mapping of the blood vessels in a humans body. They stretched from the left side of the door to the right side without any specific pattern.

"Over here!" 

Not long after, Xue Yan called out to Sato, pointing at a spot just a few metres by the side of the door.

Sato arrived beside her and glanced at what she was pointing at. It turned out to be a black-steel rectangular plate that was embedded into the wall. In a way, it could be said to be similar to the name-plates back in the real world.

On the black plate were a few indecipherable words that Sato couldn't recognize nor read. It was like the writing of a 4 year old; a total mishmash of symbols and baffling strokes. Surprisingly though, as he focused on the words, the meaning was automatically translated into his head as if he actually understood it.

"These are…Klaman runes!" Sato was stunned.

Back when he registered for a subclass at the Blacksmith guild, he had received his very first lecture from the Blacksmith master, Miss Trevale[Chpt. 19]. At that time, Sato had learnt that runes were divided into two categories; the Racial runes and Ancient runes. Just as its name implied, the Racial runes were specific to different races. There was the Elvish, Draconic and even the kobolds had their own variation. For the humans, it was the Gregorian and Klaman runes. Miss Trevale didn't speak on the Gregorian but did so for Klaman. Apparently, Klaman was the easiest of the two and it also had the special feature of being self-translated. In simple terms, one doesn't need to learn it to know what it means. All you have to do is just stare at it for awhile and the words would automatically be translated within one's head. Sato didn't know why this was so but this special feature made the language very handy as customers could avoid getting cheated when purchasing goods[2].

"'One with heart and mind. Beside the great divide lies the trail to life. Life gives life but with life comes death. Beware of the one who speaks from within.' What the hell is all this jumbo nonsense?" Xue Yan asked with a strange look on her face. She had heard riddles and read dharmic statements but the words displayed on the plaque was like a mixture of different topic that didn't relate.

Sato glanced at the words and re-read the mental translation again. In the end, he couldn't figure out the meaning as the words were too esoteric.

'One with heart and mind…does it mean we should relax and not be worried? Beside the great divide lies the trail to life…what the heck is the 'great divide'?' Sato used a palm to massage his forehead as a frown formed on his face. Of all the things he hated, riddles were at the top.

"Wait a minute. 'Beside the great divide'…" 

Without wasting time, Sato walked towards the centre of the door. There was a long straight line that divided the door into two equal parts. This was the mark that resulted at the points the two doors joined. For a 25 metres high door,this line was equally 25 metres long.

"The great divide…?" Sato stared at the line in thought.

"You think that's what those lines were referring to?" Xue Yan asked, dumbfounded.

Sato half nodded."It's quite possible. There are no instructions to opening the door and the closest we have to such are those words on the plaque. If we presume that they are referring to opening this door then this should be the 'great divide'."

"'Beside the great divide lies the trail to life'. If this is the great divide then what is the meaning of the rest?" Xue Yan placed her hand on the line as she asked what was on her mind.

'One with heart and mind. Beside the great divide lies the trail to life. Life gives life but with life comes death. Beware of the one who speaks from within'.

"'One with heart and mind' probably means we should relax or something. As for the last two sentences, it feels more like a warning." Sato replied.

"A warning?"

"Yes." Sato nodded. "'Beside the great divide lies the trail to life' in other words, behind this door is the supposed 'trail to life'. But at the same time, it says that life gives life yet life comes with death. What confirms this even more is the line 'Beware of the one who speaks from within'. If I'm correct, this tower isn't the political centre of this civilization. It's a seal."

"A seal?!" Xue Yan was shocked. She couldn't get why Sato reached such a conclusion but as she recalled his words alongside the words on the plaque, she felt that Sato's conclusion had some truth to it.

The statement 'Life gives life but life comes with death' was like a warning. Recalling that the plaque mentioned something about the trail of life being behind the door, going past the door and discovering this 'life' would come with its own drastic consequences. In another way, it could be understood that 'life' was sealed behind the door and is quite dangerous because it comes with 'death'. What was even more strange was the line 'Beware of the one who speaks from within'. It was most likely possible that there was something else inside, something that could communicate. In a way, this thing could be the previously mentioned 'life'.

"Are we still going in?" Xue Yan asked with a low voice. She wasn't the gaming type of person nor the horror movie kind of individual. Facing a scenario that looked like one off a horror movie made her feel a little scared. 

"Of course." Sato replied calmly. "Don't tell me you're scared? It's just a game. The worse that could happen would be a small frightful moment. The IR helmet regulates our brainwave pattern at incredible rates. The very second anything harmful is about to happen to us, it would automatically shutdown and disconnect us from the server."

The VR gaming industry had steadily improved in both quality and quantity. In other to be the leading figures, most VR game developers incorporate new aspects into their game, adding a more mysterious plot and new game elements. 

Once before, a company had made a horror game, so scary that it was advised by certain psychological institutions that no one should play it. Even the developers had placed an extreme warning label on the product. But humans being curious refused to do so. With the improvements in VR technology, games became more realistic and this horror game was no different. As such, the game happened to be so scary that 3 players who couldn't handle the scare, had actually died in reality. One, after playing the game 2 days straight, died from a sudden surge of thanatophobia that lead to a cardiogenic shock. Another died from excessive fear and anxiety that lead to both a heart attack and epilepsy. The third one experienced SUDEP(Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy)[2] which was linked to some respiratory conditions the victim had suffered from, which the doctors claimed to have activated due to extreme fear. In summary, all 3 players died from fear. What was even more scary was the fact that 87 other players had suffered minor issues, ranging from a brief heart failure to minor epilepsy, to a simple faint. After that, the game was jointly banned by most states and the company was forced to pay damage fees despite having placed a warning label. Following that period, the VR gaming industry took a big hit as most horror games were rescinded from the market and a majority of games had to redo their plot, eliminating most horror related incidents and even reducing the hideous looks of their monsters.

This went on until a new design for both the VR cabin and helmet was launched, enabling the game's OS(Operating System) to be able to perform a health-related check on the user and automatically shut down the game if the user is experiencing any health-related problems in-game. Compared to the helmet's feature, the cabin's was more advanced, being equipped with even first-aid capabilities both to handle respiratory issue and cardio- and neuro-related problems.

'Sadly, I can't afford it yet.' Sato sighed.

"Let's try and open it first. We can worry about the rest later." Sato said.

"Okay, but how do we do that?"

Moving his hand towards the mark, Sato replied her,"Place your hand on the line and keep a straight mind." 

Xue Yan then did as Sato said, moving closer to him and standing before the line alongside Sato. It was a straight line and Sato had already placed a hand on the line. Because she was shorter than he was, Sato had placed his hand a bit above and left some space for Xue Yan to do the same below. Xue Yan then placed her hand on the line at a point just beneath where Sato placed his and relaxed her mind. The two were infinitely close to each other and thanks to the future of IR's reality impression, they could get a whiff of their scents. This was the closest Xue Yan had stayed with a man that wasn't related to her so she inevitably had a visible reaction on her face. Luckily for her though, Sato's attention was only at the door.

The two went on like this for 5 seconds with Xue Yan getting redder by the second but nothing had changed with the door.

"Nothing's happening." Xue Yan said with an awkward tone.

"One with heart and mind…" Sato frowned as he mumbled those words in thought. 

"Try thinking about opening the door." Sato said with a low voice.

"Okay." Xue Yan nodded then did as Sato asked.

3 seconds in and nothing had happened. 

Xue Yan was about to make a comment when suddenly, a brilliant surge of light burst forth from the straight line, devouring their figures. This went on for 4 seconds before the surge slowly dispersed. As it did so, the spot where Sato and Xue Yan stood was revealed to be empty as silence pervaded the entire area.

Sato and Xue Yan had disappeared.