CHAPTER 39

-Yes. Said to be. It’s been eons since someone reached the eighth floor. You need to get a pass for that and the materials you need are five. Each one is controlled by one of the continent’s nations. And while we’re at peace, we are not friendly either and those treasures could very well affect the power balance in the continent. Whoever gets their hands on it first would change our world! So, we’re at a stalemate and it has been this way since forever.

-Is that so? It doesn’t really matter then. Oka, it seems like we won’t need to work too hard trying to go higher. Let’s hire people to work for us on the sixth floor later.

-Alright, young boss.

-Wait, little brother Mir.

-Yes, elder sis Liuya?

-Aren’t you interested in those treasures?

-No. I have enough treasures as it is and would rather focus on mastering their uses. And more than anything, I do not wish to risk my life if I don’t need to. Even more so when benefits are not assured.”

Why should Mir waste his time Why should he invests time, sweat and money in something that might be useless and unattainable? Who would bet on a possibility when there were many bets with sure wins available? The first six levels were more than enough to reach a stable power level.

Then, Mir would graduate and live his life in luxury, surrounded by delicious dishes and delicious girls. Why should he try to gamble his life on some uncertainty? He should not. As a businessman, you must limit the unknowns. And this was a full-blown unknown of unknowns. There was no way he would try his hand at that. None.

But the sisters seemed surprised at this. Ma Liuya asked him:

“But, little brother Mir, do you not wish for your name to go down in history? To live a life of fame and grandeur?

-No! I want to live lazily surrounded by beauties and delicious feasts. I’ll become strong and rich so I can laze around!”

At that, Oka applauded. And the sisters looked a bit rebuked. Ma Huang said:

“Do you not thrive for honor? Don’t you want to honor your family and clan?

-My family is only my mother and my father. They were no-named farmers and are now living a lavish lifestyle in the city. There is also Oka and he’s the only one bearing the surname Mea alongside me. I do not want honor, nor fame. I want happiness.”

Happiness. A single word full of meaning. People have different views on what happiness is but one thing remains: all want it but none succeeds. This is the paradox of humanity. One can never reach happiness. Why? Because there is always more to earn, more to experience, more to discover…More of everything.

In Mir’s view, happiness has changed vastly. In his previous life, he did his best to reach it and failed. He thrived for more and more and ended up with less. In this second life, he would not waste his time chasing after more and he will find happiness.

That was his plan, at least. Obviously, it is not something those two little girls coming from a rich place could ever comprehend. They do not know about the cruelty of the world. Not yet. They are still too innocent to get it. Basically, they still had dreams.

That’s exactly what made Oka so convenient and easy to be with for Mir. Oka did not have dreams anymore. His dream was to get revenge and he did. Now, Oka is free to enjoy life. It’s only once you let go of everything that you can find it all. Strange, right? But true enough.

Still, it did not matter. Not now. There was still so much to do before his goal was reached. In the end, Mir’s dream was to not have any.

He was brought out of his thoughts by a group of gold-plated armored men. The one leading was a man in his far-forties. Though he no doubt was older. He was rank three realm four. And since one stops aging once reaching the third rank…Well, that’s that.

The man had dark long hair in a ponytail and his redeeming feature was a scar under his right eye that looked like a bullet had passed through his skin. The men with him, ten, also had similar scars here and there on their faces. One thing they had in common, a badge on their chest. It looked like a forest and was made from emerald, no doubts. Valuable jewelries were some of the things Mir knew very well. He could only gasp in awe at the magnificent craftsmanship.

The man spoke:

“Ma Huang, are they the ones we have to escort? That club ROI?

-Yes, elder brother Zhi. This is little brother Mea Mir and little brother Mea Oka. Little brothers, this our elder brother, Ma Zhi. He is also the leader of the forest crossing squad and will be the one to help us cross to the sixth level.”

Ma Zhi looked displeased. Mir got up and clasped his hands as he said:

“It is an honor to meet elder brother Zhi. I am Mea Mir, founder of the Club ROI. I will be under your care for this journey.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

-Hmph, you better do as we say if you want to survive kid. This forest is not a playground.

-Of course, elder brother Zhi!”

Ma Zhi was now smiling. Mir was smart. Flattery always works. It is the greatest tool ever made and works wonders on fools. Even if Ma Zhi might be strong, there had to be a reason why he was tasked only to deal with the forest crossing between the fifth and sixth levels. And that reason was obvious to Mir: this guy was dumb. Strength without wits is useless so it is better to leave a simple task to someone like that.

Also, the ten members of his squad were only rank two realm five. Compared to him, they would be garbage. So, why would he oversee such a useless group and have such a small-level task? This screamed dumbass. But, no. It was not and Mir would soon understand why.

A day later, they were ready to depart. There were more than ten people in the forest-crossing group. They were twenty-five plus their leader. And Mir would not be the only one escorted this time. Five caravans full of goods and three outsiders that payed a fee. Ma Liuya was discussing battle techniques with Oka behind while Mir was sitting in the front next to Ma Huang. She told him:

“Elder brother Zhi is not the smartest. You must have already discovered this truth. But do not think his position as the leader of the forest crossing is something degrading or such. It is one of the highest positions.

-How so?!

-He bears the weight of the whole alliance on his shoulders. See those caravans? They contain all the goods we bought and everything we need to reinforce our forces. Without those, we would suffer great losses on the eighth level. By the way, no one under the third rank seventh realm is authorized to cross to the eighth floor.

-Are you serious? No one under third rank, seventh realm?

-Yes… It’s mostly the oldest that can go up there. When you’re in the first rank, it is not unheard of for geniuses to beat people of higher realms. Even in the second rank, it can happen. But in the third rank? Impossible. The gap between realms is as vast as a world. That’s why, there is no use in sending someone under the third rank seventh realm there. They would just be killed. So, for those who still don’t meet the requirements to go there, which positions are the highest?

-I understand. There is at least someone tasked to overview everything. But in the end, the core position truly does belong to your elder brother. A battle can’t be fought on empty stomachs, was it?

-*giggle* That’s an interesting analogy. But, yes. His duty is of utmost importance.

-Still, why would it be needed? Is it not just about crossing one forest?

-The forest itself is not the problem. It’s what lives inside that poses a threat. Originally, the fifth and sixth levels did not exist. You won’t see something like this anywhere else in the continent. It was made after the rest. Shall elder sister teach you some history?

-Please, elder sister Huang~

-The very first floor created is as vast as a dimension. It was not made to help but imprison. It is said that the worst and most dangerous of monsters and men were sent there. However, as time passed, the way to enter and exit it was lost. So, the wise men decided to create a new way. But it was far from easy since it had been created by their ancestors to trap. In the end, they succeeded by creating a second dimension under it. The entrance restrictions on the first dimension was towards reality, not towards a second dimension, you see. The men lacked knowledge and the dimension they created had a flow. No one older than his first century could access it. That’s when the wise men decided to create schools and impart their knowledge to their descendants so that, one day, someone could be strong and young enough to get to the first dimension from the second and get back with all the treasures left from the corpses of the prisoners.

-So, I guess, no treasures remained?

-Unfortunately, though the treasures were there, some prisoners were still there too. And a single man came back. He said but one thing: ‘You fools, close this dimension right away for you made them an exit”.

-Ah…

-We do not really know what happened next. History was lost in parts. We know, however, that the dimension could not be closed. Only restricted. Then, they began to create more and more dimensions with even more restrictions, one after another. Just to keep the prisoners from escaping. After the sixth dimensions were made, it became impossible to reach the first one. Near impossible, to be exact. But still, the strongest tried, blinded by greed. Thousands and thousands of expeditions were sent with none coming back. And the question left was, where did they go? And, how much wealth and relics were left behind?

-I see, so that is why everyone wants to reach the ninth level and so on?

-Yes. But there is a reason.

-Please, go on elder sister. Don’t leave this younger brother in the mist.

-Sure. They built more and more entrances to the sixth dimension which is our eighth floor. They built them all over the continent and schools were founded around them. Both to guard and protect them as well as to explore them. The sixth dimension was emptied of treasures very quickly but infightings began in the dimension as to who would get what. In the end, schools began to oppose each other. To reach the fifth dimension, one needed to form a relic using five materials, growing solely at one different place in the sixth one. The five strongest alliances of schools took over those five places and safeguarded them. It became impossible to reach the fifth dimension.

-What a tragic depicture of human greed.

-Indeed. But it does not end there. After a time, the continent became fragmented into five. But do you know how it happened?

-No.

-Someone cheated. He manipulated his way into the five zones and made the pass to the fifth dimension. He entered it and came back with one single thing. An item. An armor. A rank five armor. This changed everything. The whole continent was turned upside down by this single man. He united the schools and forbid anyone from entering the dimensions. Before his death, he made a kid enter the fifth dimension again with this armor and the kid never got out. It is said that he died there. From then on, the continent crumbled again. The schools fought to the death between themselves sending heaps of talented young men to hell. A few wise and strong young men found it foolish and once they graduated, they made countries. There were fluctuations along the way so that we could reach our standing today with five countries. The true battles being fought inside the sixth dimension. But obviously, the reason everyone fights to get to the fifth dimension is solely to get that legendary item and maybe more of those.

-But no one really knows anything, right?

-Exactly.

-…This is useless greed. I don’t need none of that.

-Maybe not right now, but who knows about later? Things change quickly, little brother. Once you grow up, you might see things differently.”

Mir began laughing. He could just not help it. when he grows up? What a joke, he was older by a whole life. He is this way precisely because he grew up and lived already once. Ma Huang did not know how silly her sentence was. And she could not understand Mir’s laughing except to attribute it to a child tantrum. Stubbornness of the young.