Rhodes Island does not exist.

That's all.

The doctor's approach to that strange thing ended at that moment.

It stopped marching toward the strange creature, and at the same time, the murderous aura that had been overflowing from its body was withdrawn. Although it was still carrying the blood-stained pickaxe, it gave off a much calmer feeling than before.

"Clap."

Seeing the strange doctor suddenly stop, the strange doctor also stopped struggling as if by reflex, and looked at the executioner who had suddenly stopped walking with curious eyes.

Then, the doctor stared at the strange object and slowly spoke.

This is the second time the current PhD student has heard his past self speak.

"You look really strange."

He said so.

"The upper body looks like a human, but the lower body is completely like those sea monsters... Is this the aesthetic of the deep sea?"

The words that came out of his mouth didn't feel like he was talking to a monster; they sounded more like he was talking to himself.

"Gululu."

Unfortunately, the monster itself cannot speak; it can only respond with the sound of its lower body tentacles wriggling.

"Ah, I see, you're afraid of me." Looking at the pickaxe in his hand and then at the strange creature in front of him, the Doctor realized that his current appearance didn't seem very friendly, so he smiled apologetically. "If I scared you, then I apologize."

"He's quite polite, isn't he?" Skadi, a spectator, commented on the doctor's behavior.

However, the doctor in front of the screen only felt strange.

After all, in his own first-person perspective memories of the past, he had ruthlessly killed a monster without using any weapons.

But now he's chosen mercy? Something must have happened.

"What's that in your hand? Is that a map?" On the screen, the doctor, who had noticed the doodle in the strange hand, asked it and slowly took another step forward from where he had stopped.

This action naturally alerted the strange creature, which not only moved back but also hid the piece of paper in the gaps between its body parts.

"Ah, don't be afraid. I apologize for my appearance just now, but I really didn't come here to kill you." Seeing that the strange creature in front of him was still as neurotic as ever, the Doctor couldn't help but chuckle. At the same time, he hid the bloodstained pickaxe behind his back, pretending to be unarmed.

"I just want to know what exactly is drawn on that piece of paper you have. If you could show it to me, that would be great," the doctor said politely, stopping in his tracks.

But the strange creature still didn't seem to trust the doctor at all, and kept retreating while burying the piece of paper even deeper.

“You almost drove that monster to madness before,” Skadi commented from the side. “You were quite an amazing person to be able to drive the subject of fear here to the brink of madness.”

“Well… even if you say that, there’s nothing I can do.” The doctor, who was watching from the sidelines, sighed and shook his head. “After all, as long as the memories haven’t been recovered, the past me and the present me are completely two different people. Actually, after seeing it myself, I felt the same way as you, that it’s quite amazing.”

Meanwhile, while the two were talking offstage, the doctor inside was keeping up with his progress.

Just as the strange creature was retreating due to the lingering fear from before, the doctor suddenly dropped his kind smile and spoke abruptly.

"Ah...it seems I need to explain something here."

He stopped in his tracks, unarmed, and suppressed his murderous aura.

But for some reason, the fear of being projected onto the monster did not dissipate.

His language continues to flow between him and it.

"The reason I laid down my weapon and did not choose to attack you is not because I am afraid of you or because I am merciful—neither."

The strange limbs and bones were trembling.

"You need to understand that if I really wanted to take that piece of paper from your hand, you wouldn't even have a chance to back down, let alone have the time to talk to me like this."

"I didn't choose to harm you simply because I didn't want to, or rather, I didn't think it was necessary."

-

Thank you segment.

Thank you othuyegmostmaa冴月冷辉 for the monthly pass and the razor blade, thank you.

Chapter 245, Part 243: A Corner of Peace

The perspective returns to the past.

safe.

safe.

safe.

Rooms 404, 405, 406... all the way to the last room, 410, the doctor wrote the same words with strange blood.

At this point, the entire fourth floor had been completely cleared out by him.

The only remaining valuable thing here is the staircase, which is separated from us by a heavy fire door.

"The doors are still the same as before. I don't know if it's because the quality is too good or because the managers here know how to maintain them... No, the latter is obviously impossible."

The doctor muttered to himself, casually smearing the brown blood and viscous fluid from his hands onto the wall, then pushed open the door in front of him.

"call."

The air seemed to freeze in the stairwell. The professor stood at the doorway on the fourth floor and took a deep breath.

A unique, murky smell, mixed with a slight fishy odor, lingered in the air, flowing down his nasal cavity into his trachea.

He had smelled this kind of scent before, so he had some memory of it.

"The sea breeze in Iberia must smell like this too," he thought to himself as he stepped onto the stairs leading to the fifth floor.

However, just as he was connecting the smells here with his past memories, he suddenly felt a small and inexplicable tremor in his ear.

Undoubtedly, the tremors originated from the staircase, from this vertical space that connects the upper and lower floors, and even the entire building.

There is only one source of this tremor—someone is running up the stairs.

Moreover, the direction of the sound and vibration was directly below his location.

"……I see."

Feeling the vibrations beneath his feet, the doctor nodded slightly.

"Like those strange creatures we just saw, this kind of creature probably exists in every corner of Rhodes Island, and there are probably differences between individuals depending on the region and their duties."

The sound, like rushing waves, approached from afar at a speed perceptible to both ears.

But the doctor remained standing at a distance, simply listening quietly.

"It's about this big, um... and it's extremely aggressive. It can even sense every target that steps onto the stairs. It's a shame that such a characteristic isn't used as a predator in nature. It's a waste of its talents to live in this small space."

The doctor understood detailed information about the object that caused the tremors even before he saw it.

The stairwell itself is inhabited by a creature that devours anyone who enters it, and it began feeding after noticing the doctor's entry.

Even knowing this, the doctor's body still did not move.

He simply stood there, motionless.

The trembling sound grew louder and louder.

"Hmm... Judging from this echo, it seems that this strange creature has not eaten for a long time, and must be extremely hungry now... perhaps even to the point of pica."

His eyes, hidden beneath the hood, shimmered with a vibrant green light.

That's the sign that Originium Arts is activated.

“But even if someone has pica, they can’t use a pickaxe as a weapon.” The Doctor shook his head with a wry smile. “And why is that pickaxe here? It can’t be that Kroos was unlucky enough to have it eaten by this guy.”

"Oh no, no, that pickaxe was given to me by Kroos, it shouldn't be in her hands, it should be in mine." Recalling some past events, the Doctor couldn't help but shrug. "But if that's the case... then why did it end up inside its belly?"

"I'll have to ask the manager, Specter Shark, about that." He sighed, thinking of the silver-haired woman in the room. "But talking to her is exhausting, so maybe next time."

At this moment, the thunderous sound had already passed over the first and second floors and was getting closer and closer to the doctor.

The murky air currents floating in the air began to become disordered and restless, and were gradually replaced by a new smell.

"I was supposed to leave."

As he felt the scenery around him gradually change, the professor looked up at the stairs leading upwards.

"However, considering that my things have inexplicably ended up inside the monster's belly, I still have to settle this matter."

"--Roar!"

Just as the doctor finished speaking, a colossal beast, entirely composed of blood and flesh, leaped over the barrier between the stairs in an absolutely predatory manner and appeared before the doctor.

Its gaping maw expanded, covering the doctor's entire field of vision. From that exaggerated angle, the doctor could see countless filth churning inside its mouth.

But that's it.

It can do nothing but appear before the doctor and open its huge mouth.

Rather than appearing before the doctor in a predatory posture, it would be more accurate to say that it suddenly braked just before making a predatory move.

The enormous monster was forcibly stopped by the doctor.

Although it appears from the outside that the doctor did nothing.

"Hey, hey, hey..."

A sound like hard objects rubbing together came from the huge, strange mouth.

That was probably the sound of its jawbone.

“We were all once living beings on Terra, and our fate of being stranded here after death is the same tragic one.” The doctor took a step closer to the monster and reached out to gently stroke its teeth. “I came here only for my own purpose, and achieving that purpose does not require harming you.”

"Ah-"

The strange creature couldn't speak, so it naturally couldn't respond and could only watch the doctor mutter to himself.

“However, considering some unavoidable situations, I will still choose to use violence.” The doctor smiled. “After all, non-violent measures can not solve many problems, and the ultimate solution to all problems can only be violence.”

"Like now, if I told you that my weapon somehow ended up in your stomach, would you hand it back to me? Or would you let me go in and get it back?"

“You won’t say anything, after all, you can’t speak or think.” The doctor shook his head, and the hand that was stroking his teeth slowly fell down. “It’s useless for me to say anything to you. As a creature here, your only thought about me is to eat me and turn me into your own energy.”

"There's nothing we can do about it, since you've already come to Rhodes Island."

With that, the doctor stepped forward and entered the huge, bizarre mouth.

The stench of decay rose up, completely suppressing the previous murky, fishy smell.

"But don't worry."

The doctor took another step forward and went deeper into his mouth.

"I will not take your life, I will only take back what is rightfully mine."

Chapter 246, Fragments of the Past

A warm aura permeated the strange body.

The price of this warmth is an unbearable stench.

However, the doctor had no opinion on this; to him, the smell seemed no different from the outside world.

He simply strode forward silently, heading deeper into the strange creature's body, and the deeper he went, the more he understood the true nature of this oddity.

This oddity itself has actually become one with the stairwell of Rhodes Island.

It is not a monster wandering in the stairwell, but rather an image that the stairwell has evolved into after absorbing countless monster corpses.

Therefore, it is enormous in size, therefore it has no ability to think or speak, therefore its movement is simply the movement of the stairwell itself.

“This part over here looks like a Liboli.”

As he walked, the doctor did not forget to observe its internal structure, and even examined the body parts that made up the body.

"Speaking of which, how many floors does this stairwell actually have?"

During his observation, the doctor suddenly had a new question, and the green light began to flicker in his eyes once again.

However, this time the green light came and went quickly, disappearing from the doctor's sight in less than a second.

After all, it's not too slow to find the answer to such a simple question.

"What a pity. I thought I could go straight down to the first floor." Thinking of this, he couldn't help but shake his head. "But going down to the first floor doesn't seem to be of much use to me, since I didn't come here to leave."

He came for a purpose, or rather, a mission.

He absolutely cannot leave this place before completing this mission.

"Hmm, it seems to be here."