The moment Maxwell's gaze fell upon the room, he understood that this settlement was far more mysterious than he had given it credit for. Even though Nova had mentioned it earlier, hearing about it and seeing it for himself were two entirely different things. The sight of an actual farm inside the room, with crops thriving without any sunlight or water, was just too crazy!
A farm with plants growing not just from the ground, but from the walls too. The walls! There were fruits and vegetables, the kind found in the real world, like apples, grapes, and even potatoes, rather than some mutated aberration like the ones he had imagined. The strangest thing of all was that they weren't growing from trees or regular plants. No. Against all logic, they were all growing from vines. Actual vines!
Apples, grapes, potatoes, and many other vegetables sprouted from the countless vines that slithered across the ground, not from trees, roots, or standalone plants of their own.
Maxwell's scalp tingled. "Are these things supposed to look like this?" This was sheer bizarreness; the number of strange things he had seen here today surpassed everything strange he had encountered in his entire life, excluding the obvious manifestations of powers.
From the kneeling, fresh corpses to the actual tools, a real-life underground settlement, a door that opened with someone's fingerprint without conventional technology, lamps that had never gone off, an interior resembling a modern hospital built inside this wasteland, and an actual underground farm where every plant grew from vines, how could all of it not make his scalp tingle? To top it all off, they were in a barren world with no normal life other than himself and Nova, along with countless Neovano creatures. Snowy couldn't even be counted, since he was just a mimic soul.
Nova turned to look at him, pausing a moment before she spoke. "Don't overthink it; the more you think about it, the more confused you get," she said, clearly speaking from experience. "This farm wasn't always like this. It was just a regular storage room for keeping meat obtained from killing Neovano creatures." She sighed softly before continuing, "Until Mr. Tobi came along. He changed everything. He used his powers to plant the vegetables he had on him before he was sent here, just like that strange item you have on you."
"You mean my phone?"
"Yes, the strange box."
Maxwell suddenly felt the urge to laugh, but he managed to swallow it.
"Alright, wait here while I get us something to eat." With that, Nova stepped into the room, navigating the dense, vine-covered ground with great familiarity. A few minutes later, she emerged with a handful of fruit.
"I picked only fruit today because I doubt either of us has the strength to cook, so we'll eat fruit tonight. Tomorrow we can cook, understand?" she asked, not even bothering to wait for Maxwell's reply before turning around and walking on.
"No objections on my end," Maxwell replied as he fell into step behind her.
"That wasn't up for negotiation."
"I know."
Nova spared him a glance over her shoulder before shaking her head. "At least you're adapting."
Adapting? I just don't have the energy to argue, Maxwell protested inwardly.
They walked all the way to the end of the passage and stopped in front of a door. Nova pushed it open, revealing a spiral staircase leading deep down into the ground.
"Like I said earlier, the first floor, the one we're currently on, is the farm for growing and storing food. The second floor is the lounge, the third is for research, and the fourth is used to store dead Neovano creatures and their hides. That used to be Lady Naga's favorite floor because it had everything she could use for her sewing.
"Right now, we're heading to the second floor. We'll pick a room, drop our stuff, and head to the bathroom to take our baths. After that, we go straight to sleep and continue tomorrow."
Having said that, Nova took a step forward and began descending the stairs. A few seconds later, they arrived at the second floor. It looked identical to the one above, with a passage lit by candles, eight doors along each wall, and two more situated directly in front of and behind the long corridor.
They continued in silence until Nova stopped in front of a door. It was also the fifth door on their right, matching the position of the farm room upstairs.
Slightly puzzled, Maxwell asked, "Is there a particular reason you chose the exact same fifth door on the right as the farm room upstairs?"
Nova looked at him, then slowly lowered her gaze to her clenched fist. She sighed, a fleeting, sad smile gracing her face. "Believe it or not, this used to be my room."
"Your room?"
"Yes. This was my room before I was sealed and this place became the graveyard that it is."
"I understand," Maxwell said with a nod. "Sorry if I made you recall painful memories."
"No worries."
"Actually, I'm quite curious what your old room looks like. But considering the unknown amount of time that has passed for the settlement since you were sealed, I doubt anything is still left inside. No offense," Maxwell said, anticipation and doubt evident in his voice.
"None taken. Let's go in." With that, Nova pushed the door open.
Creak!
The door groaned softly as it swung inward, revealing a large, white room with two pink-colored beds against the far wall. A bookshelf stood to the right, a wardrobe to the left, and a small cupboard with a table beside it. On the table next to the bookshelf sat a medium-sized mirror with a silver lining and intricate patterns. It looked breathtakingly beautiful.
"A mirror? Why is it here? The First One really thought of everything," Maxwell remarked, cocking his head. "Is this how your room is supposed to look?"
"That mirror was a gift," Nova said as she stepped inside. "It was one of the items I had on me when I entered this place."
"Oh, I see. Just like my phone."
"Yes," Nova agreed, then hesitated before adding, "You probably wouldn't understand, but something is not quite right. I can't shake the feeling that something odd is going on, but I can't seem to grasp it." She exhaled sharply, irritation bleeding into her voice.
She looked around the room with a puzzled expression and continued, "The room is exactly the way I left it, which could mean no one entered while I was sealed. That begs the question: how long was I sealed for, and how long have those corpses been out there?" She knitted her brow. "There is certainly something powerful at play here, so whether we are walking straight into our own doom or helping ourselves, it all depends on the whims of whatever force is manipulating things."
"Hmm, I see your point," Maxwell said, nodding. "I may not know exactly how long you were sealed or how much time has passed for you, but I'm pretty confident it's been more than thirty years."
"How so?"
"Simple. You didn't know what my phone was."
"You used that strange box to determine that?"
"The so-called strange box is a smartphone. It was invented about fifty years ago, but now it's something everyone has."
Nova nodded; it made sense when he put it that way. "Anyway, let's drop off our things and go."
They set down the gear they were carrying, which included his sword, bag, food, and all the other miscellaneous items, then left the room and made their way toward the seventh door on the left. As they stood before it, Nova suddenly stopped. "Sorry, I forgot to change my clothes. Wait here."
With that, she turned and headed back toward the room. Maxwell, now alone, sank down in front of the door with his back against the wall while Snowy snuggled close beside him.
He closed his eyes, his head tilted back against the wall as he rested.
Then, in the stillness, he heard a sound.
It was not coming from the direction Nova had gone.
It was not coming from Snowy.
Instead, it was coming from the door at the very end of the passage, the door with the spiral staircase leading downward into the dark.