By Zephyria As Leonardo assessed the situation, he slung Ero around his shoulders and quickly swam towards the hole.
The moment they reached the hole leading into the Surgery Tower, the two were swept away by a sudden current and sucked inside. The water pressure was so strong that they couldn’t even swing their arms. Leonardo, feeling like he would lose consciousness if he resisted, relaxed his body instead and held onto Ero tightly.
Riding the current, they were pushed upwards through the tower, which stretched out like a pipe. They couldn’t see outside, so they couldn’t gauge how high they had risen. Fortunately, they finally reached a pocket of air inside the tower just before they ran out of breath.
Leonardo, who first placed his upper body on the shore, grabbed Ero by the collar and pulled him to the surface.
“Ptooey-, cough, haa-, haa-.”
Ero, who had spat out his breath in an unsightly manner, crawled up the sloping stairs. He then bowed his head and spat water from his nose and mouth for a while. The bag strap he had barely managed to save was hanging from his arm.
Leonardo, who was also coughing and gasping for breath, glanced at Ero’s condition. Perhaps due to the sudden brawl, his breathing was more labored than when they were outside. The air pressure itself seemed to be higher than outside, as his ears were ringing and he felt dizzy.
Leonardo, who had been heaving his shoulders, barely managed to stand up, stepping on the stairs where the lake water was lapping. With a grimace on his flushed golden eyes, he slowly looked up the stairs that followed.
“What… is this place?”
The ceiling wasn’t very high. Or rather, the next floor wasn’t far away. After looking around with hazy eyes for a few seconds, he instantly dried his wet clothes.
After fumbling around his face, which was covered in hazy steam, to make sure his mask was properly attached, he forcibly pulled up Ero, who was lying next to him.
“Hey, hey. Get up.”
“Ugh, haa-.”
Ero, who was groaning, stretched his neck out like a turtle and vomited water.
“Is this really inside the tower?”
“Cough-. Y-yes…?”
Ero wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and barely stood on his feet. Swaying, he looked at the direction Leonardo’s hand was pointing.
He then looked down at the floor he was standing on. The inner walls and stairs, made of light yellow fiber, clearly indicated that this was the inner space of the Surgery Tower.
“…Ah, yes, yes! I think it’s right!”
“Did you know about this and suggest we come here?”
“That’s not it, but I couldn’t find an entrance no matter how hard I looked at the top. So I thought the only way to get inside the tower would be from below…”
“There wasn’t one at the top?”
Leonardo asked back as if he was puzzled. But that was only for a moment, as the ground and walls they were standing on began to shake with a thud. Noticing the unusual signs, Leonardo immediately pulled Ero towards him and ran up the spiral staircase.
“Let’s go for now.”
Ero, who had hurriedly grabbed his bag, quickly followed behind. He was good at running, so even though his clothes were wet, his speed was similar to the person in front. Rather, he seemed to be feeling better than before, as he was still chattering away while breathing heavily.
“Leonardo-hyung, thank you so much for saving me! I didn’t expect you to come so quickly! And to think you took down so many of those guys at once… Kya, did you see the hole in the sky? As expected, I have an eye for people-”
“Quiet, what about the entrance?”
“Ah! I went around the tower along the protrusions, but I didn’t see any passages leading inside. There was a split groove in the very center of the top, but it wasn’t open, and, ha, it was covered in transparent mucus, so it was difficult to approach-”
According to the information Ero had gathered, it seemed that there were currently no holes through which air could pass into this place. So the density inside would have continued to increase, and it was understandable that there was a difference in air pressure between the inside and outside. This tower was the inside of a living plant, after all.
Then the hole in the lake that they had accidentally entered was probably the only passage to reach the ovary.
“Then did the other guys come in like us?”
“Wouldn’t they? No, shouldn’t the difficulty level be like this from the test match? Haa, how are we supposed to find the entrance if it’s hidden in a place like this?”
Ero complained, wringing out his wet clothes with his hands.
“Could it be that the guy causing trouble outside hasn’t found the entrance yet either?”
“Well, he doesn’t seem to have any intention of passing through.”
“Huh? Then why is he taking the crystals from the other participants? He’s a real Sadist.”
“How would I know?”
‘Why did a guy like that rush at me head-on…’
“Ah, but about the mucus that was gathered near the tower. I’ve been thinking about it, and I think it’s made from melted crystals.”
Leonardo, who was walking ahead, turned to look at Ero.
“Crystals?”
“Did you see the guys flying around up there earlier? I don’t know where they got them, but they gathered a bunch of crystals in a swarm…”
The actions of the demon beasts that Ero described were bizarre. The creatures dropped the small Plarinerus crystals they were clutching in their claws onto the mountain of mucus. Then they poured water they had brought in their pelican-like beaks onto it. When they did that, the surface of the crystals that touched the water melted and gradually became mushy.
“Later, bubbles started forming there, and it turned into mucus, didn’t it? It felt warm and sticky when it touched my skin, which was unpleasant… I think it’s one of the devices to prevent passage.”
“……”
Leonardo, who had been climbing the stairs clockwise, stopped abruptly. Ero, who hadn’t expected it, bumped his head hard into his back. The impact added to the shock on his nose, which had been crushed earlier, causing him to cry out.
“Leonardo-hyung! Ugh… Please tell me before you stop!”
“Give me the bag.”
Leonardo, who had suddenly snatched the bag, opened the entrance and checked the inside. He had suddenly become anxious because Ero had said ‘crystals that had touched water’.
Sure enough, some of the crystals stacked on top had absorbed moisture, and their shape was crushed. Ero, who had been groaning in pain, also grasped the situation and looked inside the bag. Soon, the color drained from his face.
“H-hyung, I, I definitely took good care of them…”
“Quiet and take them out quickly. It seems like the inside is still intact.”
Ero, who didn’t know what to do, hurriedly removed the crystals that were on top at Leonardo’s instruction. Then he saw that there were still intact ones left underneath. Fortunately, one of each color was safe.
Whether Ero thought he would have died if he hadn’t kept the crystal safe, it seemed more important for him to check Leonardo’s reaction than whether he had passed. He breathed a sigh of relief only after seeing Leonardo’s relieved expression. Then, his eyes gleaming, he said triumphantly.
“Wow, they said it’s waterproof, and it really works! The staff took the bullets away before the game started and gave this to me as a special item. At first, I wondered what it was for, but it’s a stroke of genius! Other teams must have been in trouble after coming in here?”
Indeed. During the rule explanation, it was said that the Plarinerus’s crystal was made of ‘salt’. If Ero hadn’t received the bag, the crystal might have dissolved in the lake, and he would have lost all the keys to open the Portal.
‘Maybe the mucus floating in the lake too…’
Some of it might have come out when the tower’s protrusions were destroyed, but some might be mucus formed when the crystals collected by the participants dissolved in the water. Thinking about it, it was hard to guess how many opportunities had turned to dust inside. Leonardo continued to climb the stairs, touching the back of his neck.
‘Joker, was it?’
He mulled over Ero’s league name, which he thought didn’t suit him at all. Being a decisive hit at an unexpected moment was indeed like the Joker in a deck of cards. When you think about it, the fact that he fell into the lake was the reason they found this entrance.
‘Is he helpful or not?’
Suddenly, he realized there was one more thing to discuss with him.
“Hey, by the way, did you hear the announcement? Four hours have passed, and 22 people have passed.”
“Ah, yes! That—!”
It was then. A sharp sound cutting through the wind, loud enough to be heard even inside the Surgery Tower, struck the outer wall. The following sound of a whip lashing caught up with the two people climbing the stairs at a terrifying speed.
Kwaaaang—!
Leonardo, who had sensed the sign, stopped walking. He immediately reached out and stopped Ero as well.
“Ugh!”
Ero staggered on the stairs without a railing due to the momentum of running, but thanks to Leonardo grabbing his collar and pulling him, he avoided falling down.
The whip that had pierced through the outer wall of the tower in front of them sliced through the fibers like a blade. The stairs 1m ahead were torn away miserably. Along with it, cool outside air entered the interior. Through the gap, the whip wriggled out leisurely like a snake.