Soulless Soul

Chapter 36: The Living Room

The heavy, iron-bound wooden chest in the exact center of the blood-stained arena burst open with a loud, mechanical pop. The sudden release of internal pressure triggered a miniature fountain of glowing blue gems, jagged iron shards, and a singular, tightly rolled scroll that hovered inches above the velvet-lined interior, radiating a faint crimson luminescence.

Vesper didn’t spare the raw materials or the currency a second glance. She swept the floating blue gems into her personal inventory with a lazy, elegant wave of her hand, completely ignoring the scrap metal and timber pieces left behind for Sky to claim.

"Take the timber and iron," she said, her voice dropping back into that cool, detached cadence that made her feel more like a part of the dungeon’s programming than a human ally. "You’ll need them to reinforce your gear if you truly intend to survive the lower floors. I have no use for common-grade refuse."

Sky didn’t complain. He stepped forward and scooped up the remaining components, his fingers brushing against the cold, dense materials. The Array interface flickered instantly in his peripheral vision, cataloging his meager haul and updating his inventory counters.

[GEAR OBTAINED: 45 GEMS, 2 IRON ORE, 1 TIMBER]

[BLUEPRINT FRAGMENT: BOUNCER RIFLE (1/4)]

"A quarter of a blueprint," Sky muttered, wiping a mixture of sweat and dark goblin residue from his forehead with the back of his hand. "At this rate, I’ll be fighting with this rusted kitchen knife until the real raid begins. The drop rates in this unmapped sector are absolute garbage."

He glanced over at the singular scroll she had left behind, realizing it was the blueprint fragment itself. He stowed it away securely, knowing that a ranged option like a Bouncer Rifle could drastically change his tactical approach on the upcoming floors.

In the center of the damp, mossy clearing, a massive, swirling blue portal manifested out of thin air, humming with a low-frequency energy that vibrated right through the soles of Sky’s boots. It was the only available exit from the cleared arena. Stepping into it wouldn’t take them to Floor 1-2 immediately; instead, it offered a brief, mandated respite in the only true safe zone the mechanical dungeon array provided to its victims.

Crazy Hope didn’t hesitate for a single second. She stepped straight into the swirling vortex, her white robes and silver staff dissolving into pixels of bright light as the teleportation sequence claimed her. Sky took a deep, steadying breath to settle his racing pulse, adjusted the fit of his leather tunic and his crimson scarf, and followed her directly into the shifting blue mass.

The sensation of reality reassembling itself was always incredibly jarring. It felt like being torn apart at a molecular level and slammed back together a mile away. Sky blinked away the sharp, static distortion in his vision and found himself standing on a highly polished, dark hardwood floor. The damp, suffocating air of the subterranean forest biome was gone instantly, replaced by the warm, comforting scent of freshly brewing coffee, old library paper, and dry firewood burning in a hearth.

This was the Living Room.

It looked like a massive, sprawling tavern or a cozy alpine lodge, completely detached from the hostile geometry of the surrounding dungeons. Large, multi-paned glass windows lined the outer walls, showing nothing but a swirling, silent, starry void outside—a stark reminder that they were entirely separated from the real world. Inside, however, the atmosphere was thick with a strange, almost surreal domestic normalcy. It was said among the survivors that the Living Room was built by the ancient, powerful awakened who had been dragged here decades before, leaving it behind as a sanctuary for the newer generations that would inevitably come. Oh, and also, the literal geographical location of the dungeon realm they were currently trapped in was called the Living Room by the system itself. Although it was called a living room to evoke a sense of safety, there were actually dozens of deadly dungeons and hostile dungeon creatures completely surrounding its perimeter walls, waiting just outside the threshold.

Around the massive room, other Awakened—people who had been forcefully dragged by the soul array into this twisted dungeon world—were scattered across various chairs and benches in various states of profound physical and mental exhaustion.

In the far corner, a massive man clad in heavy, pristine silver armor sat quietly on a low wooden bench. He was entirely focused on his task, meticulously polishing a massive tower shield that bore the deep gouges of a high-tier beast’s claws. He didn’t even look up as the portal flared.

Near the crackling stone fireplace, another bizarre figure clad in a bulky, bright green hazard suit was meticulously mixing bubbling, glowing green liquids into a row of glass test tubes. The individual completely ignored the rest of the room, entirely absorbed in the volatile alchemy of the zone.

And finally, they meet her.

"You made it back in one piece," a soft, cheerful voice chimed from the immediate right, breaking through the low murmur of the tavern.

Sky turned his head toward the sound. Sitting on a plush, faded rug near a massive, metallic refrigerator that glowed with a strange blue interior light was a young woman. She wore a simple, light-purple tunic that stood out against the grim armor of the other residents. She had short, vibrant purple hair that immediately identified her as possessing an Engineer-type soul archetype. But what really caught Sky’s attention was the ridiculously heavy leather tool belt strapped around her slender waist, packed with specialized wrenches and gears, and the bizarre, semi-translucent digital visor covering her eyes.

Her name tag hovered clearly above her shoulder in a pale, friendly green text: [Chloe].

"Barely," Sky responded, his voice still carrying the gravelly fatigue of the fight with the Chieftain. He walked over, the polished wood creaking slightly beneath his boots, while Vesper drifted toward a quiet corner of the room to tend to her own gear. "The first floor of the array is already throwing anomalies at us. We just had to clear an unmapped fifth-floor variant before we could even get back here."

Chloe tilted her head, her digital visor flickering with a sequence of rapid data streams as she analyzed Sky’s current status and equipment. A soft, sympathetic smile touched her lips.

"Ah, the unmapped sectors," Chloe said, tapping the side of her visor to reset the display. "The system has been mutating a lot lately. You’re lucky you ran into someone who can carry their weight, or you would’ve ended up as scrap metal outside. Speaking of scrap, I see you managed to salvage some iron and timber from the cleared room."

She patted the heavy leather tool belt at her waist, the tools clinking together musically.

"If you ever manage to find the rest of that Bouncer Rifle blueprint, bring the pieces to me," she continued, her tone shifting into something more professional. "The standard weapons the array provides won’t do you any good once you transition to Floor 1-2. I can forge the chassis for you, assuming you have enough soul gems to cover the cost of the energy reserves."

Sky looked down at his Blood Blade, the crimson hilt still humming faintly with the residual energy of his combat attribute. He knew she was right. Survival here was a progressive ladder, and if he didn’t constantly upgrade his arsenal, his five points of health wouldn’t protect him for long. He glanced back at Vesper, who had already isolated herself near a window, staring out into the starry void as if searching for something lost.

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