Chereads / The Eternal Nexus / Chapter 16 - Chapter 16 : Unknown tattoo

Chapter 16 - Chapter 16 : Unknown tattoo

"Are you sure about this–" The masked man, about to say something, stopped mid-sentence as he felt someone arriving in his mysterious space. He was surprised. He checked as to who was this daring, who had the audacity to intrude into his space.

He glanced at the way Bittu was. He was surprised once again when he saw who has arrived in this place. An amusing smile appeared on his face that was blocked by his mask.

The mature version of Bittu saw that the masked man was distracted and followed his gaze to look at what happened to attract the gaze of this man.

The mature Bittu was also surprised to find who has arrived. The mature Bittu then looked at the masked man and said, "Looks like we have a guest; you wait here. I will talk to him. I believe he wouldn't enjoy your company as much as mine."

The masked man nodded but didn't say anything, just seeing the mature Bittu appear in front of the younger Bittu.

A moment later, his gaze shifted from the younger Bittu to the scene in the dungeon. He looked at it and said, "Looks like I also got something to do." with an amusing and exciting smile.

************

In the dungeon:

The Yeti decided to touch him and inspect him more intensely.

As the Yeti's hand moved towards Bittu, the wind that was frozen slowly started to tremble.

The more the hand moved forward and came close to Bittu, the more the wind trembled.

As the hand closed half the distance, the wind element that was trembling broke through the constraints of time and started to get violent. At the same time, the earth element that has frozen also started to tremble.

The Yeti was a little surprised to see this happen but was getting increasingly sure that checking this boy's body was the way to find the problem.

The wind that was getting increasingly violent was so powerful that right now it could have cut through the hardest material on earth.

When the hand reached near Bittu's face, the wind was so powerful that a storm formed that was cutting the very fabric of space. At the same time, the earth element that was initially trembling has broken through the constraints of time and started to generate massive earthquakes.

Even though these two elements were trying their best to destroy the hand that was coming close to Bittu, they couldn't do more than just scratch it.

The Yeti was getting more and more surprised by these interesting turn of events.

He increased the pace of his hand that was being slowed down by the wind while the earth tried to slide him away from Bittu by earthquakes.

The moment the hand of the Yeti was about to touch Bittu's forehead, a power that even made the Yeti feel a chill run down his spine was about to manifest.

At this moment, Bittu's eyes that were frozen had broken the constraints of time. The eyes were still hollow, but in those eyes was something that brought fear to the Yeti.

The unknown element that was about to get violent seeing the disrespect done to its wielder by this white monkey had just manifested in Bittu's eyes to bestow judgment on the Yeti.

A voice echoed in the surroundings that made the unknown element stop and return back into Bittu's eyes.

"...Bittu's not ready yet." The masked man arrived in front of the Yeti with Bittu on his back.

************

At the same time in the masked man's space:

The older Bittu suddenly arrived in front of younger Bittu out of thin air. Bittu was startled to see someone appear in front of him.

But, what had his eyes widen and disbelief fill his eyes was the face of the guy who has just arrived. He was shocked to see the one who arrived had the same face as him. This made Bittu a little cautious even though he got that warm feeling from this space.

The older Bittu just quietly watched the changing expression of Bittu. After Bittu calmed his thoughts, he spoke:

"Why are you here so early?" The older Bittu said with an amiable smile.

"....." Bittu spoke, but no voice came from his mouth. Bittu was annoyed and tried once again but still no change; he couldn't speak. He could hear this man that has taken his face for unknown reasons, but he couldn't speak. Bittu was slightly angry seeing the difference.

"You can't speak..... I understand you are still not strong enough to speak here. So, just listen to me." The older Bittu said.

"You should not come back here in the future till you think you are strong enough. It would be bad for you." said the older Bittu with a doting tone.

"I don't know how you arrived here and I won't ask you this, but this is the only time okay, just don't come here again." said the older Bittu.

He then looked at Bittu and kept on looking at him. Bittu was uncomfortable under his gaze but was surprised when he felt someone hug him. He was baffled as to why this guy hugged him.

Not only that, when he hugged me, I suddenly felt that I have come home and... and I have... become... complete?

Bittu was going through a turmoil of emotions currently.

Unexpectedly, his hand moved automatically and also embraced this man in a loving way. At the same time, one tear escaped from each of his eyes.

Bittu started to feel happy and sad at the same time. Bittu has never experienced such a feeling; he couldn't understand what was going on. All he could understand was that this was an important moment and this guy was someone important to him.

Suddenly, he felt the warm feeling vanish, and he was once again alone.

The older Bittu has returned back to the place he and the masked man were at. He then moved his hand, and Bittu was sent back to his body.

Bittu's vision suddenly went blank once again, and once his vision restored, he saw that he has back in the forest. It was as if what happened in that mysterious space was like a fleeting dream, but Bittu's moist eyes said otherwise.

*************

A while back:

"Why don't you leave, umm, what's your name again?"

"....it's Sampang. You may address me as such." said the Yeti that was currently in a defensive stance as he could feel a huge threat from this masked man.

"Mr. Sampang, then. Why don't you leave?" the masked man once again said in an emotionless voice.

But, the Yeti didn't budge from its place and kept on staring at the masked man.

"...You don't have to worry; he wouldn't do anything that would need your interference, I assure you that. So, why don't you go back, Mr. Sampang." said the masked man while looking in the direction of the Yeti's village.

".... And if... I don't?" said Sampang.

"What...?! Did I hear that correct? You said, 'if I don't?" said the masked man, surprisingly this time with a slight amusement in its tone. But seeing the Yeti just stare at him. The masked man did something strange; he laughed,

"....HAHAHAHHAHAAHAHAAHAHHAHAHAHA" The masked man laughed in a strange way that brought fear to the Yeti's face, and his face became dark.

"... Hahahah... Interesting..... It's been a long time since I heard these words."

"Why don't you stay for a while and see what happens?" said the masked man in a chilling voice.

The Yeti was not sure as to what he should do. He then said,

"Give me a moment I will give you an answer." The Yeti then turned around for a while and talked with an unknown entity.

Right at that moment, Bittu returned to his body. Bittu's consciousness was constrained by time, but Bittu's unknown element acted on its own and made Bittu's subconscious aware of what was happening around him. In his subconsciousness, Bittu saw the masked man's back and the Yeti's back.

The Yeti was as white as snow with its body standing over 10 feet. The masked man was about his height adorned in a black suit with a cane.

He also saw them talk about something and then the Yeti put his hand on his left arm, and then a white light covered Bittu's body after that Bittu saw as the Yeti nodded to the masked man and vanished. He didn't notice that an ice shaped tattoo has appeared on his left arm.

The masked man also looked around for a second, then snapped his fingers and then vanished. A few seconds later the two elements also accepted the constraints of time. Only then a second later did the frozen time of the entire dungeon realm started to work once again.

************

Back to the time when Bittu was conscious again:

Bittu was currently sitting on the tree with hollow eyes. Bittu then suddenly heard the snapping of fingers, and then he forgot everything that happened to him in the masked man's space. His tears also dried automatically.

He was once again looking at his status, trying to gain more knowledge about it in a natural way as if nothing has happened to him.

He continued to read the stats but unknowingly skipped the alias stat and moved forward to equipment stat.

'Equipment... Hmm... will I get equipment like those games that I used to play outside.' Bittu thought, as, he laughed. He then, shook his head and said,

"This is truly a game. "

He then looked ag the last column.

'..Inventory... Inventory?? Wait a minute, is this really the inventory that I think it is. If yes then, I have truly wasted the benefits of the system.' Bittu thought with frustration and annoyance.

Bittu immediately checked his body to search for the bullets that he had kept with himself. But, he didn't found any.

" Where are the bullets? " Bittu thought with surprise. He checked once again. He then had a thought.

'Could it be that those nurses took magazines? 'thought Bittu with an almost crying face.

"Curses.... I left my bag filled with guns now I don't even have the bullets. What bad luck." thought Bittu with great frustration.

Bittu then decided to pick a leaf from the tees and see.

'Nexus, put this into my inventory.'

[ Scanning.... Denied. This object can't be put into the inventory. ]

Bittu was depressed. He couldn't even check what he could put into his inventory. Bittu decided to check with all the things that he had.

He tried with his shirt, his pants, his jacket, some money. The system showed the same message for all these things.

[ Scanning.... Denied. This object can't be put into the inventory. ]

Until, Bittu did the same with his coin.

[ Scanning..... Error...Error... Can't identify the object. ]

Bittu was surprised to see that the system couldn't even identify a simple coin.... Maybe a little unique coin because of its irregular colour.

Bittu was happy to see that he had something unique. He immediately tried to do all shorts of thing to it to make it active but the coins didn't change at all. He thought since this was a game, something unique means treasure. Maybe, he would get an equipment or abilities from the coin so, he did all he could, but the coin rained the same it didn't change at all. Bittu was once again depressed that his thinking was wrong.

He put the coin back and decided to do something fruitful.

He immediately jumped from the tree and decided to do exercise. His thoughts were since he couldn't have more strength from the others at the start why don't he increase it by himself. He immediately started his exercises from the outside world. He did push ups, pull ups, sit ups and some legs exercise for about four hours.

After getting tierd. He took a rest. He then went to the coconut tree and brought some coconuts nad some fruits and ate them. While eating Bittu had a thought," I need to leave this place and head to the village. Let's make some preparation and I will start moving from tomorrow."

Decided, Bittu immediately started to search for some bamboo trees. After taking a while to search for the tress, Bittu found them. He then picked up some sharp rocks and started to break the bamboo tree to make a bottle out of it.

Bittu only managed to make the bottle when the sun was about to set. Bittu was dead tierd after making the bamboo bottle but one could see happiness on his face.

"Now, I don't need to worry about water." Bittu said as he laughed.

He went back to the tree he sat on earlier, put the bottle there and went to the coconut tree. While coming back he brought about seven coconuts. He then cracked them and put them into the bamboo bottle.

He then decided to drink the water as he was thirsty. The moment he opened his mouth to drink he heard the AI talk and a system promt appeared before his eyes. Not just him all the players in the dungeon heard the same thing and saw the same thing with only the number of days varied.

[Main Mission: Survive for six months, 1/183]

[Congratulations, to the player Bittu to have survived your first day of the dungeon. ]

Bittu was shocked by the AI speaking that he chocked. Bittu then said with slight anger in his voice.

"Yeah, I got it. I survived for a day."

Bittu then shrugged his shoulders and ignored the message. The tings that happened to him in the span of a day made it so that Bittu didn't have the intense reaction one would expect him to give.

Bittu ate the fruits, drank the water and slept.

About five hours after Bittu slept, he had a strange dream. In the dream, he saw that a white monstor.... Or maybe an animal and a masked man were standing then they talked and then the white animal touched him on his left arm and the they both vanished.

After seeing the dream, Bittu once again fell into deep sleep. When Bittu woke up the next morning....