He was the only one who knew.
And he had no intention of telling anyone.
He removed his diving gear.
The diving gear was too cumbersome.
It restricted his movements.
After removing his diving gear, he held his breath, then jumped into the pool.
The water was cold, but not too cold.
The pool was deep—but just enough.
Not wearing diving gear wasn't a big deal.
He could breathe normally again after reaching the bottom.
There was no water at the bottom of the pool; only earth and a gate shining with a dim blue light.
"I think that's the place."
He stepped through.
An old city shrouded in fog appeared after he entered.
The tall buildings were almost invisible because of the thick fog.
He walked through the city, looking around.
"So quiet, I'm getting a little goosebumps."
In the novel, the atmosphere in this city wasn't actually that quiet.
Usually, monsters would be easily found near the tall buildings.
But not this time.
There weren't any monsters there.
"What the hell is going on?"
"This is so different compared to the novel."
His curiosity was piqued.
He quickened his pace.
On the way, he walked into an old building.
The inside was dark and dirty, completely unkempt.
"Where is that thing?."
He went deeper and walked towards a room.
An old wardrobe and bed were visible inside.
The walls were cracked and broken. The floor was covered with creeping plants.
The room smelled foul, so foul it made him want to flee.
Holding his nose, he stepped inside.
The smell of the room became even sharper, far different from when he was outside.
"I think I'm going to throw up if I stay here too long."
"But, I have to find that thing first."
He walked towards a large wardrobe in front of him.
"This wardrobe looks suspicious."
He opened the wardrobe.
"!!!"
He flinched, then ran out of the room after seeing a pile of corpses inside.
His stomach churned violently, and without being able to hold it back—
"Ueekkk!"
He emptied his stomach onto the filthy floor.
The sound of his vomit echoed in the corridor. He staggered, clutching his stomach, staring blankly.
"Damn... What the hell was that?."
He didn't run out of fear—it was the stench that drove him away.
The smell was so foul. In fact, the smell was still lingering in his nose even though he was already out of the room.
"Who stored those corpses in the wardrobe?."
That action could only be done by a psychopath.
But, no one knew this place except him, the author.
It was impossible for a psychopath to get in here.
The perpetrator who stored the corpses in the wardrobe remained an unsolved mystery for now.
Staggering, he walked away from the room towards the living room.
"Ugh... my stomach's churning."
He sat on an old chair in front of him.
He leaned back.
"Where did all the monsters in this place go?."
In the novel, this place used to be a city inhabited by humans.
They lived safely and peacefully like humans generally do.
The technology of this place could also be said to be very advanced. Like Eldoria, magic planes, trains, and cars also existed here.
However, this place was destroyed after the dimensional gate disaster occurred.
Monsters from other dimensions invaded this place until it was in chaos.
None of the humans in this place survived.
They all died tragically, not a single one of them remaining.
However, there was one thing that the people in this dimension didn't know.
A grimoire was secretly stored in this dimension.
It certainly wasn't an ordinary grimoire.
It was an extremely powerful and versatile grimoire.
That grimoire was also the key for him to go to the anomaly dimension, Nihility Collapse.
Nihility Collapse itself had become a legend in this place.
Many people believed that the dimension existed, but there were also those who considered the dimension to be just a fairy tale and fiction.
As the author, Hastora was, of course, on the side of those who believed that the dimension truly existed.
The problem now was that he couldn't find the key to obtain the grimoire.
The grimoire was stored in an invisible place, and could only be opened with a special key.
In the novel, he remembered that the key was in the building where he was currently located.
This building was the government building.
The king who ruled this dimension found that special key near the river.
Because of its beautiful shape, he took it and stored it in this government building.
No one knew about it except him, not even the people who worked in this building knew.
Hastora had also never written where exactly the king of this dimension stored the key.
He regretted it.
Now everything became very complicated.
"Damn it, this is so troublesome."
He stood up.
"It looks like today will be a very tiring day."
With a heavy heart, he walked away from there and walked towards a room.
Kriieet...
A desk and a wooden wardrobe were visible after the old wooden door opened.
He stepped inside.
"This... Is this a private room?."
He walked towards the desk in front of him.
"It's so dirty."
He opened the desk drawers one by one.
But, none of the drawers stored any items or objects, they were all empty.
Not only that, he also opened the wardrobe standing next to it.
Unlike before, this time he found many items inside the wardrobe.
But, none of them were useful until he found an old iron safe.
He took the safe and placed it on the desk.
"It seems the key is stored here."
He opened the safe.
The safe wasn't even locked. It opened with a light pull.
"I figured."
A pistol and a gold-colored key were stored inside.
To be continued in the next chapter…
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A/N:
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Over and out, Zalario