It was a diary, written by someone he didn't know. Starting from the first page, Rei read it.

December 22, 2026.

I applied for the volunteer military because I need money. My wife is pregnant. It's been two months since I was fired from my old office. Like it or not, I have to earn money as fast as I can to pay for my wife's labor.

By the way, I got this job opportunity from a friend in the United States. We weren't close friends, so I was quite confused when he called me out of the blue. Moreover, he offered me a job with a huge salary. Just for two months, it was equivalent to my salary as a cashier for two years.

I was honestly suspicious, could this be a scam? But when the money was paid right at the beginning, I believed it without a doubt.

Nb: Oh, I got this little notebook from my wife as a birthday present. I don’t know if I will use it again later.

December 28, 2026.

I left my wife at her parents' house. Before I left for the expedition, I kissed her forehead, we hugged, and a lot of kisses again. I truly love her.

It's a pity that I had to leave her for two months, ah maybe longer than that. What a drag.

This little notebook is the only medium I can use to write down my longing. In this place, it is prohibited to bring communication devices. It's a regulation.

Could I be on a confidential site?

January 31, 2027

My dear wife,

I'm sorry I couldn't write anything for a whole month. The training I underwent was harsh, not only physically, we were also trained on how to use firearms, assemble explosives, and guerrilla tactics. What was the purpose of all this, honestly?

What kind of expedition is this really going to be?

When I asked my friend yesterday, he said to explore new places. Does that mean a new continent is emerging? I don't know. There's no internet here at all.

I wrote a letter last week, but the authorities didn't allow me to send it. This place is too strict! I feel like I'm living in a prison right now.

Damn, I miss my wife already. My future child... I wish you good health.

February 27

Again, I didn't write anything for a whole month. Every time I tried to force myself to sit at my desk, I fell asleep.

I wish I could see your face.

March 5

Tomorrow is D-day.

We'll be leaving the hostel tomorrow and our eyes will be tied as we board the plane. That's what the expedition leader said. I felt like I was being kidnapped, hahaha.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a good expedition.

I'll tell all the heroic stories to my wife and my soon-to-be child!

And of course, with a lot of money!

There was nothing but blank paper after that. He kept turning the pages until he got a page full of scribbles. He tried to pay attention to what this guy had scribbled. The pattern looked like another long paragraph with a love symbol.

Next page... he saw a wing. At the bottom was a head like a lion? An animal with wings? Rei wasn't sure because the body part in the picture was crossed out by the writer. Next to it was a similar shape but this time in human form. Rei wasn't sure if it was human, as its face looked hideous enough to call it a demon.

The next ten pages were also filled with different drawings, as if they were characters from a superhero comic. Then the writer crossed them out until any of them were no longer visible for Rei to understand.

Was he interested in reading a fantasy novel? Rei could only guess.

He flipped and finally found a page with another writing.

April, I guess?

I've been here for a month. Or maybe more. I don't know.

Two people from my squad were killed. One fell into a ravine and I couldn't confirm his body. Strange. Why there could be a ravine here... ah, that's not important anymore.

I don't know what to do anymore. I just want to go home.

I want to live.

I want to see my wife.

Ah, my child must have been born.

Damn it.

Why did I agree to his offer? Expedition my ass! My life is at stake here!

Did you hear that? It roared like a lion but its body was shaped like a bulldozer.

Where the hell is this! I need to go home!

Rei turned the page.

I managed to hide. But I have no food. I've run out of water, too.

I never thought my life would be buried here. Damn it.

I hope my wife doesn't curse me.

I hope they can live happily.

A name for my kid? I want to name him Arthur if it's a boy. If it's a girl, Muana.

Rei turned the page and whatever was written there, instantly stopped his breath.

The pages were filled only with one word. Each letter had numerous strokes, as if the writer had written it over and over again in the same spot. Rei could see the letters embossed and some pierced the paper.

From a diary, it turned into a scream.

Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit ShitShit Shit Shit Shit ShitShit Shit Shit Shit ShitShit Shit Shit Shit ShitShit Shit Shit Shit ShitShit Shit Shit Shit ShitShit Shit Shit Shit ShitShit Shit Shit Shit ShitShit Shit Shit Shit ShitShit Shit Shit Shit ShitShit Shit Shit Shit ShitShit Shit Shit Shit ShitShit Shit Shit Shit ShitShit Shit Shit Shit ShitShit Shit Shit Shit ShitShit Shit Shit Shit ShitShit Shit Shit Shit ShitShit Shit Shit Shit ShitShit Shit Shit Shit ShitShit Shit Shit Shit Shit

Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit ShitShit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit ShitShit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit ShitShit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit ShitShit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit ShitShit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit ShitShit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit ShitShit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit ShitShit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit ShitShit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit ShitShit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit ShitShit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit ShitShit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit ShitShit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit

Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit ShitShit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit ShitShit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit ShitShit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit ShitShit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit ShitShit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit ShitShit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit ShitShit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit ShitShit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit ShitShit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit ShitShit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Those contained a deep, helpless rage.

***

Rei's hands were shaking, he only breathed when instinct forced him to. As if he had forgotten how to compose himself.

He stepped out, rested his body against the tree. Taking breath while reorganizing his thoughts. He knew he shouldn't let himself be carried away by that diary. Whatever was in it, was not necessarily the truth.

He went back to flipping through the pages from the beginning. His eyes searched for words or sentences that he might have missed. Again, he started from the cover and there was no change from what he had previously read.

No matter how much he digested the contents of this book, Rei only came to wild conclusions.

Either this man was hallucinating, drugged or he was brainwashed by his employer.

Large animals with wings? Humans with wings? Cut the nonsense. Not even ants or insects or birds lived here. If they existed, there would be traces of them, and it would be impossible for them to just vanish like a bubble.

Rei scratched his head and wondered. Although what he deduced sounded right, doubts still lingered inside his small brain.

Questions like Where was he? Which one was the truth? He didn't know the answer yet. The more he tried to separate the real from the fiction, the dizzier his head became.

His head throbbed again. More than he had before.

Expecting that this dead guy would give him a chance to get out, he instead found a victim of the organization's cruelty.

However, that wasn't true either.

He hadn't been kidnapped. He went in with his own interests. Unlike Rei.

Rei didn't remember anything about that. About the contract or the reason why he needed to take on such a suspicious task in the first place. He had never even heard of a dangerous expedition like that on the internet. If there was, naturally, he wouldn't participate at all.

Yet, if he did agree and willingly go on this expedition, he should have a good reason for it.

Akane and my mom. Apollo? Card game? He tried to list possible reasons for him to take such a high stakes job. However, if it was just friends he couldn't remember, even for Apollo, it seemed hard for Rei to sacrifice himself in a dangerous shit like this.

Could it be that they kidnapped Akane and Mother and then I inevitably joined their program? For both of them, maybe I'll fly without a second thought.

You have no need to worry, Rei. Your family or friends still exist in this world.

...

Rei just remembered what the little robot said in the beginning. A speech that was said after he introduced his name.

Don't tell me that they were really kidnapped? If so, then that little robot knows something!

He punched the ground, hard enough to make it a sound.

"Damn it! I shouldn't have gotten out of the building without interrogating that metal brain first!" His regret came too late.

If he wanted to ask any questions to the iron dwarf, then he had to prepare to be trapped inside that building again. But, Rei didn’t want to put his ass back there.

He let out a long breath. Still braining, but a lot things didn't make sense to him.

If that was the case, then why would they take away my memories? Wouldn't that rob my whole reason to come here in the first place?

He continued to rack his brain. As he reinforced the theory that he was inside the mysterious building, it became increasingly difficult to disprove. The next crucial problem was how could his body regenerate? That was the only thing made Rei firmly believe that the virtual theory was the correct one.

Furthermore, the place of the expedition wasn't necessarily the same building as the one over there, right? Also, why would an expedition take place inside a building? That didn't make any sense at all.

He spun all the clues he had and arrived to the valley of nothing.

He led his eyes to follow where his finger pointed at. Towards the massive, dark-colored building that surrounded his horizon. The place where the answers to all his questions should be lay.

In the end, he had to go back there. But, he wasn’t that stupid. He wouldn't go back there immediately without really preparing himself–physically and mentally. Still … there was something he had to do first.

He looked back at the skeleton lying in the tree hole. He wanted to return the notebook, but after a long thought, he decided to take it with him.

In the note, the poor man said that this notebook was a birthday present from his wife. The name on the cover was illegible, but he guessed it was the owner's name.

Rei wasn't a person who would take care of a stranger's affairs, but the sympathy in his chest overwhelmed him. He could feel the man's great longing in it. That said, they were exactly in the same position. They both wanted to meet their families. For the writer's case, what would be present wouldn't be the person himself, but notes with dried ink.

That was still better than nothing.

He would bring the news of the husband's death to the wife. It sounded like a cruel thing to do, but he knew what it felt like to be left for a long time without news. Although the chance he would be able to give it back was very small–smaller than his chance of escaping from this place–still, he would give his best shot.

Rei hoped he could deliver it safely.

Now, it was the time.

Rei lifted the skeleton out carefully. Each step had to be taken slowly, luckily none of the bones were loose. The fear he had earlier disappeared, replaced by a sense of sympathy that arose after reading the contents of the diary. Perhaps that was the reason he could doing all this gently.

He buried the poor skeleton into the hole he had dug and placed a nameless tombstone on it.

He didn't bury everything. Besides the notebook he already had, he took a knife from the nameless man's waist.

I'll use it, Rei convinced himself. To help me escape. After all, you don't need it anymore in the afterlife, do you?

Instantly the knife materialized into a card.

A new window opened. Displaying information about the knife that was just turned into a card.

[Iron Knife]

[Type: Armament Spell]

[Restriction: None]

[Effect(s): None]

[Description: Unregistered]

[Congratulations! You managed to get the first card in the Outer Plane.]

[Would you like to follow the tutorial for Quick Use of Armament Spell in Outer Plane?] Y/N

It startled him a bit. He remembered the lecture the little robot gave him before. And without delay, he pressed the Y button. Instantly a new screen appeared overwriting the previous one.

[Quick Use of Armament Spell Guide:]

[1. Open Quick Use Menu]

[2. Choose 1 Armament Spell from the Deck]

[3. Put the chosen card into the Finger Slot]

Finger Slot? Rei wondered.

After he opened the Quick-Use Menu, he saw an image of his right hand, including the knuckles. When he gestured to one of the knuckles, the selected segment would glow.

He chose his little knuckle on a whim. He didn't understand what was going on.

[Great Choice! Now, fold the pinky finger until it hits the palm of your hand]

As Rei followed the procedure, a flash of light appeared in a split second, and the knife was already in his grip.

"Wow!" He was stunned. He looked around the knife up and down, and it was really the same weapon he took from the writer.

"Can all armament spells be used like this?" His question left floating in the air, the system seemed to ignore it then added a final explanation.

[For the beginning, You only can store 1 Armament Spell per finger. This is the default configuration. You can modify it after obtaining the renewal license on the Second Floor: Royal Road. Thank you]

All windows shut as thanks were said. Rei didn’t care, he was still chuckling. He repeatedly folded his pinky finger to bring up the knife to his grip and stored the knife into the deck in turn.

I seem to be forgetting something important. The sudden frown on his forehead instantly disappeared. Never mind. And then, he let out a laugh, enjoying himself too much.

Now I can use weapons instantly, he explained. It's like a shortcut key, I can easily summon and store it. Cool. Just like a game. I can use this knife to threaten that little robot... if I see it again. I'll slash its wires. Hehehe.

Time was moving and Rei had to hurry. He saluted the grave and departed.

His destination was clear. To the starting point. He didn't count the time, but the building's tunnel was already clearly visible. The journey back did feel faster, even though the distance traveled was the same.

He looked up at the darkening sky. Suddenly the sensors in his eyes glitched. Rei thought there was a malfunction going on. However, it didn't. His eyes zoomed in on the road ahead. Like a missile locking onto a target. As he tried to follow, a glitchy image appeared with random warnings.

Something? No, it was a human. That human walked, ran, and suddenly jumped. When he blinked, the man was already in front of him. Rei flinched, jumping back to keep his distance. Reflexively he folded his pinky fingers to pull out his knife.

"Who are you?" Unconsciously, Rei screamed. He was shocked, confused, and shrouded in fear. In his entire life, he had never seen someone move faster than a car. Especially without any sound, this was beyond what he could comprehend.

The masked man didn’t answer the question, but said coldly, "Dixon, I have one order for you. Hand over Dragun0va or die."