image [https://i.imgur.com/ZeTcsYN.jpeg]
"The best pizza I've ever had was from a tiny shop in Maltepe. Every ingredient buried in the cheese melted in my mouth with a surprise."
"The best stuffed grape leaves and baklava were made by my grandmother. Though, she couldn't make baklava anymore as she got older. Oh, how I miss it!"
"And once, my dad and I ate a whole loaf of chicken döner when I was a kid. The taste of the finely sliced onion rings with the delicious döner still lingers on my palate."
Matt continued to follow the metal cable, making himself hungrier by thinking of food. He tried to fill his growling stomach with imagined meals.
He thought about using his new healer class ability to heal his hunger a couple of times. But healing didn’t work that way. The “Minor Heal” ability was only effective if he was actually injured.
Matt had actually found two tokens. However, due to his previous experiences, he wanted to be cautious.
“First, I should find a place to shelter and secure myself, then I’ll use them immediately.”
He tried to follow the iron cable while talking about the recipes he knew, his favorite movies, and his collection of cars.
Who knows what mysterious adventure this iron cable was leading Matt to, but all Matt cared about was where the cable ended. It must lead to a safe and hidden place, he was sure of it.
At least, he wanted to be sure.
Matt was slowly descending the dangerous slope, clinging tightly to the cable. "In my opinion, the best is especially the 2004 model Subaru Impreza. A four-wheel-drive beast with perfect balance."
Matt started crossing the cable that stretched across the chasm, squeezing it between his legs and arms, trying not to look down. "Y-yes, every brand has its unique beauty, but the Subaru Impreza is something else. Ah—don't look down!"
Matt was swinging from branch to branch, gripping the iron cable in the labyrinthine tangle of branches, hoping his journey would soon be over.
"Not to mention the car's rims—where am I? WHERE AM I?"
image [https://i.imgur.com/8B5QP6c.jpeg]
Matt felt lucky as the air grew darker and he was perched on one of the massive, sprawling trees. Down on the forest floor, countless shadows pursued each other with no end to their cries.
Rattled to his core by the sounds of creatures he had never heard before, Matt pulled out the vending machine from his pocket and pressed what he assumed was the button.
After a few small rattles, the vending machine returned to its original size, and once Matt was sure it was steady on the solid branch, he said, "I have no other choice! I'm too hungry and defenseless. Whatever happens, I'm using one of the tokens!"
At this stage, he thought he could always cling to the iron cable and slide further into the forest to escape. The iron cable sloped downward, leading who knows where and into who knows what unknown.
When the vending machine finished its final rattle and settled, Matt noticed an interesting change. Inside the vending machine, there was now an additional, different, purple-colored chip. When he examined the "Octopus Noodle and Pea" chip, it reminded him of his adventure with the Gorguceks. The chip design featured noodles resembling the Gorguceks' webs and pea-shaped green eyes.
“I wonder if new chips unlock as I defeat new bosses? It must be! Despite having defeated a boss, the hologram didn’t give me an item. I only gained a few features, nothing too useful.”
“Normally, a boss would drop a treasure chest full of items.” “Wait a minute, I defeated the Gorgucek, didn’t I? Doesn’t that count as defeating a boss?”
Matt whispered all of this to himself and continued, "Hey! Hologram. Hey! I defeated the boss. Send me back home!"
image [https://i.imgur.com/1FL17ZY.jpeg]
Matt tried to whisper-shout:
“So, you're saying I haven’t defeated the main boss yet! Did I risk my life for nothing?”
Actually, it wasn’t Matt who defeated the boss but the vending machine that fell on the creature’s head. Matt knew this but didn’t want to admit it.
The shadows on the forest floor seemed to have heard his whispers, slowing down as if listening to him. "What if they catch my scent?"
In fact, the light from the hologram that Matt had unconsciously opened momentarily caught their attention. In a forest that remains dark even during the day due to the density of the branches, opening an LED-lit hologram is one of the most obvious causes of death.
Luckily, a mysterious bird distracted the creatures on the forest floor, saving Matt’s life.
Unaware of this, Matt, immersed in his troubles, inserted one of his tokens into the vending machine to get the “Octopus Noodle and Pea” chips.
Matt, who knew how to move very slowly to avoid making noise while opening his last packaged snack without alerting his brother, was now using the same method. Any sound could lead to him being eaten by the creatures.
Chewing slowly and savoring the taste, Matt thought, "It tastes just like pea and chicken soup. This could become my new favorite. Oh, if only I had a cold drink."
“You really feel the flavor when you’re hungry.” He ate every chip slowly without touching the mysterious token in the package.
Then, cautiously, he took out the mysterious token and examined the front.
"Portable Gorgucek Bed," read the token, which Matt examined with great happiness.
image [https://i.imgur.com/9O2gHPI.jpeg]
Matt said, "I was right! As I defeat bigger monsters, new chips appear, and something related to the monster comes out."
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
When the token disappeared, leaving a small bundle of threads in Matt's hand, he quickly attached it to the iron cable. The bundle automatically unfolded into a hammock. It looked like a Gorgucek had wrapped up a victim to save for later.
Despite a slight shiver, Matt, very tired, quickly shrank the vending machine and climbed into the hammock. "Incredibly comfortable," he said, "and this is an amazing feeling." Two seconds later, he was asleep.
Although there was no breeze, the hammock swayed gently with Matt’s snoring, moving along the iron cable.
The iron cable, sloping downward, and Matt in his portable bed were heading toward who knows what mystery.
The sunlight flickered through Matt's eyes. He had slept well and then some. “What’s happening?” he thought as he realized he was speeding along.
Sliding rapidly along the iron cable in his portable bed, Matt was terrified. Amid his screams, he saw a silhouette of a strange flying creature and couldn’t see the end of the path he was about to crash into.
Matt collided with a mysterious square box at the end of the iron cable and was thrown into the air. Fortunately, his flexible bed and legendary helmet saved his life again. Moreover, his search had come to an end.
As he gathered himself, he noticed that the square box connected to the iron cable was a sort of motor. The massive structure behind it resembled a ship. It was like a warship, sunken into the ground and forgotten for years. Symbols, unlike any language he had ever seen, were arranged in a pattern on the ship.
“This is a wreck, and a very old one at that. I can definitely make a shelter inside and surely find something to fight with.” “Let’s have a look.”
Putting his portable bed back in his pocket, Matt muttered, "I need a bag to carry these items. These trouser pockets are too small!" as he headed toward the mysterious structure.
However, he shouldn’t have proceeded. Matt was on an entirely unexpected course.
His whole life had been like this. He wanted to be a comic book artist but studied science. He had spent five years studying space sciences due to a low entrance score because he was sick during the university exam.
Matt entered the mysterious structure through a door or window-like opening covered in rust and moss and began to move cautiously.
The cables, pistons, and a ton of material he couldn’t name were all in a certain order, making the structure look like a spaceship to Matt.
“It’s as if this very old spaceship crashed on this planet.”
“Ugh, I need time to understand this world. Meanwhile, this will be my hideout.”
“First, I need to make sure the inside of the ship is empty,” he said and began examining room by room. Some rooms were filled with bunk beds and closets. Almost everything was destroyed and unusable.
Matt found a room he was sure was a toilet. “Yes, this must be the toilet. So let it be.”
All the armories seemed to have been emptied. He saw a few posters in the rooms and corridors that he couldn’t understand. Probably, because the ship was completely turned over, Matt couldn’t grasp that the poster depicted a lost army fighting a giant boss.
After climbing and descending a few sturdy ladders, Matt realized that the structure had many different levels. The lower floors were buried in the ground and extremely dark. Matt decided not to mess with the lower parts for now.
“I need to choose a place as high as possible,” he thought as he moved forward.
The metal sound from the floor he walked on gave him an unnecessary sense of security until he saw the vast void inside the ship. This void stretched across several rooms, letting daylight inside. “It’s like someone stabbed a giant spear into the ship and pulled it out,” Matt thought.
Of course, that’s impossible. “I mean, right? It can’t be possible! It shouldn’t be!”
Looking up, he examined the ship’s keel and how far it stretched. He thought the command center or something similar would be at the very top of this keel.
Leaping to the opposite floor, he struggled but eventually pulled down a valve on the ceiling, and another ladder opened up.
After a few tough climbs, Matt found what he was looking for. He was in a high place, with a large hole allowing him to see outside whenever he wanted, in a spacious room.
Examining the structure in the ceiling’s center, filled with various buttons, pistons, cables, levers, and many other things, he noticed a very interesting design of interlocking “metal tools” hanging upside down.
If the signs that read “Do Not Disturb” or “Do Not Wake the Lost Army” hadn’t been thrown off in the last battle, they would have been hanging right next to the “metal tool” Matt was looking at.
Matt stacked a few items to climb up and removed the metal tool from its place.
“This would be great for cooking!” A small “click” was heard as he separated the tool from its holder. Then, various mechanical sounds started coming from different parts of the ship. Something that shouldn’t have been activated had been activated.
With his legendary helmet still on, Matt couldn’t hear these tiny sounds. Moreover, the helmet contributed:
Should it be or you should not be?
Or should it never change for me?
But if i , do not change here
How a Hero can be?
Matt responded, “Yeah, right! It’s as if becoming a hero is that easy!”
After arranging a table from a few fallen plaques, chairs from ammunition boxes, and a corner suitable for the “Portable Gorgucek Bed,” Matt already began to feel at home here.
Compared to the apartment he had rented, this place was much more spacious, with high ceilings and a view. Apart from the growls of various monsters at night, it was quite peaceful and a bit damp.
For Matt, the “portable bed” was incredibly comfortable and almost more valuable than the legendary helmet.
After a calm night, Matt welcomed the new day with high spirits.
Collecting a few branches and dry firewood from outside through what he called a window, he carried them to the kitchen he had set up in the middle of the room. He placed the metal tool right in the center, intending to use it as a stove.
He managed to gather a few mushrooms that he planned to cook. For drinking water, he used the dew drops that collected on the tree leaves, but he now craved a hot meal. No matter how much he rubbed the damp firewood together in the moist forest, he couldn’t even get them to warm up.
“I need something to start a fire. I wish I were a fire mage!”
He placed the small vending machine on the ground, pressing the button. “I have no other choice but to use the other token.”
Actually, he had looked out a few times from his high window, considering using his dive attack ability to hunt. However, none of the creatures he saw below seemed weak enough to be defeated in a single strike. He didn’t need the hologram to understand that the creatures were much higher level than he was.
You know how sometimes you leave the main quest and end up among high-level monsters you shouldn’t be around. Matt was experiencing something very similar.
With his last token, he took a gamble and got another of his new favorite “Octopus Noodle and Pea Chips.” This time, he excitedly pulled out the token first. “Please, don’t let me down!”
image [https://i.imgur.com/m36jaAY.jpeg]
“If only it were sunscreen! At least it could be sunscreen! How can a drying cream be an item in a dungeon!!!!”
After about ten minutes of a nervous breakdown, Matt’s deep thinking ability activated.
After applying the cream to the wood pieces, they immediately dried up with crackling sounds. “Wonderful!”
Ten minutes of rubbing dry wood together finally allowed Matt to start a fire. Matt was crying. “I did it! Do you see? I’m winning!”
For a moment, Matt felt like the master of the world.
Gathering whatever he could find into a metal pot, he placed it on the mysterious “metal tool,” now Matt’s new stove. He put the fire he had started in the compartment inside the metal tool. The “metal tool,” though not designed for this purpose, was functioning as a perfect stove thanks to its pipes and heat conduction.
Actually, the metal tool was a kind of horn designed to awaken the lost army. The owners of the Giant Robot Warship “Metal Tree House,” the “Metal Dwarf Army,” could hear the steam sound from the horn even from far away. The black smoke rising from the pipes of the tool with wood burning inside was enough to make it an easy target.
“HAH! HAH! HAH! You have no idea what you’re doing, do you, kid!”
“GUARKH!” (Matt felt like he had heard this sound in a dream.)
Matt’s appetite was abruptly interrupted by this unexpected voice, and he was terrified. Looking at the view from his panoramic window, he saw the giant hero in front of him.
As Matt turned around, he saw the “giant Fersah bird” that had devoured his cooking. Matt was utterly terrified.
Just then, the ground began to shake.
It was a rhythmic earthquake, sounding like thousands of footsteps in unison.
Matt exclaimed, “But I wasn’t ready!....”
image [https://i.imgur.com/XaW8zD5.jpeg]