Everyone was panting hard after the third wave of monsters was eliminated. Clear exhaustion was seen on their faces, as they quietly ate their rations. None of them had the energy to light up a fire and cook the drops from the monsters.

Close by was a large pile of meat from the monsters, left behind when they disappeared after being killed.

"What are we going to do about all of that?" Han indicated with his head at the large pile of meat.

Looking up at Han, Jackie put down her ration pouch. "Do we even have the ability to take all that with us?"

"Don't worry about it," Ji-Min said. She was leaning against a large rock that was formerly a part of a wall or ceiling. Unlike the rest of them, Ji-Min, Liz, and Venessa still had their helmets on as they relaxed and tried to regain their stamina.

To elaborate on Ji-Min's words, Liz, who hadn't talked that much, explained, "After a certain time has passed, the items seem to disappear if no one has claimed them."

"It's a strange place, this dungeon," Venessa quietly said.

After hearing the explanation, everyone became quiet just thinking about the implications. Though this place was a simulation, some of them had begun thinking that the dungeon was a real place a person could travel to.

Taking a sip from her pouch, his mother said, "I guess this is the reason why some people are able to spend all their time inside of the simulation and not come out."

"You know how the display panel next to the door keeps track of the time used?" Jae-Hwa randomly asked as she sat on top of a crumbling slab of rock, which littered the large interior. With the way she was swinging her feet, it gave her a childish appearance.

"Are you talking about the ones where the people have been inside for than a month?" Jackie asked.

Pointing to Jackie, she nodded as she sipped on her food. Swallowing, Jae-Hwa exclaimed excitedly, "Yeah! Those ones! For such a long time, I've been wondering how they're able to stay inside of the training rooms for so long."

Closing his eyes, Han leaned against a rock similar to the one Ji-Min was resting against though he didn't have his helmet on. It was relaxing, resting and listening to everyone talk about random things that occur in their new reality. It didn't take long before he felt footsteps as someone approached him.

The individual sat down next to him, causing him to open his eyes to see who it was.

"How are you doing, little brother?" Jennifer asked.

Smiling, Han answered, "Just enjoying this moment before we have to move deeper into this floor." Moving to nudge Jennifer with his shoulder, bumping against her's, he said, "You seemed to be doing pretty decent with the handling all the monsters."

Jennifer lifted up her hand and clenched it into a fist. She was quiet as she opened and closed her hand a couple of more times as if trying to figure out the right words to say.

Not wanting to hurry her, he just leaned back against the stone and closed his eyes.

"Sometimes... I wonder if we're the same people we were back before all of this happened." Jennifer commented, her voice light and filled with wonder.

Waiting for her to continue, Han was silent.

Breathing in slowly and exhaling, Jennifer continued. "After each wave was finished, I felt like dealing with the next one became marginally easier. Once I sat down, I thought about how much I've changed compared to the days where I would walk you to your school before going to morning practice. I feel stronger as if I'm no longer the same person."

"It's likely part of what makes this place so unusual, like how the monsters disappear and the dropped items. Which makes sense for it to be called a training simulation. Just like how you guys would go to the gym and lift weights, this place is likely making all of you stronger with each monster that's defeated." Han explained looking at Jennifer and saw her grinning.

"Are we finished? I'm ready to fight against more monsters!" Lulu whined.

Han grinned, seeing how impatient Lulu was, with getting back to the fighting. Jackie rolled her eyes at how Lulu was chomping at the bit to return to the fray.

Upon hearing Lulu's demanding tone, everyone began getting up, including Ji-Min and her group who acted in their apathetic manner about the whole situation.

When seeing how Ji-Min and her two comrades acted, he was aware that their apathy was something that confused the others. But instead of confronting the issue, the others just took Ji-Min group's behavior as something they just had to deal with.

As the three got up, they walked over to where many of them were congregating.

Ivy and Ruby both curiously looked at the three, considering they never seemed to remove their helmets, and how they were cold to everyone though if a question was asked then Ji-Min generally answered it.

As Han got up, he looked back at his sister to see that she had returned to her usual demeanor. He offered her a hand, getting a smile from her.

"If we were still in school, I could keep bragging to my classmates on how lucky I am," Jennifer winked as she patted her butt of the dirt and dust on her suit from sitting down.

Rolling his eyes, he turned and walked next to her as they headed over to where everyone was standing.

For the most part, they looked ready to head to deeper into the level. Grace was helping Harmony with putting away her food pouch. Off to the side, his mother was looking around the camp, making sure nothing was left behind. Though it was a simulated environment, they tried to keep a small footprint. This time was his mother's turn to make sure the site was clean.

Jackie noticed him and Jennifer walking towards them. "How many waves do you think we're going to be facing this time?"

"I'm not sure. This area is like an underground field, so it feels a little random how we're encountering the monsters." Han said as he raised both hands and shrugged his shoulders.

Harmony looked up at the ceiling of the underground landscape. "It's hard to think of this place as being underground, considering the glowing lights up there." As if entranced by something, she asked, "Don't you feel like all of this is part an actual place? With the ruins here and others scattered about, part of me wonders if those townspeople are real."

"I can agree with feeling like that, the artwork and other signs of life we've been seeing more often the deeper we're going. With us never being this deep before, I'm sure that we'll be seeing more stuff we can't explain." Lacy commented.

Once they were ready, all of them activated their helmets. The world for them returned to the slightly sterile view through the monitor inside.

With the help of the map creating tool in the helmet, they were able to walk to areas that were still unexplored to help locate the stairs to the level below. Not having this ability would be difficult with some areas having grass that was taller than a person.

Han looked at the tall grass and vegetation, thinking this place was magical. Though they had never seen any animals, typically seen in nature, a feeling of critters existing didn't leave his mind.

The frequent discussion of whether this place was a simulation or not was understandable, with how tangible and alive it felt.

As he was walking through the brush, Han soon found himself on a dirt path. Just like the others they had found through their adventure inside the dungeon, he was reminded of how unusual everything seemed.

"Another one?" Jae-Hwa asked to no one in particular.

As each member of their party stepped onto the path, their reaction was just as uninterested as Jae-Hwa's.

"Want to try following this one?" Lacy asked.

"It'll likely be like all the other and not lead to anything," Hina remarked.

Instead of discussing the matter any further, people just followed the path. Their feet crunching on the gravel as they looked around for any monsters.

A rustling noise was heard and a trail of parting tall grass could be seen heading towards them, though it was difficult with only seeing the top of the grass parting away.

Jennifer stepped up with her spear in hand. "I got this one," She announced, sounding happy to have something to do instead of just walking in silence.

Looking at the trail heading in their direction, Han thought something was off. He didn't have the same feeling as he got from being targeted as on previous floors.

"Jennifer...," He paused, trying to understand the feeling he was having.

As he was about to stop Jennifer, multiple trails popped up behind the initial one. But instead of following the first one, the others appeared to be converging on the first.

Jennifer also appeared to have caught sight of what was happening, due to the way she paused in her steps. She still raised up her spear, when it looked like whatever was approaching them was about to crash out of the grass.

Feeling it be unusual, several others, like Ruby and Ivy, took out their weapons. It wasn't out of nervousness but more of caution.

Bursting out and onto the road, Han and everyone else was startled by what they saw.

A woman tumbled out and onto the road, blood was covering her face and running down her armor. She gave off the appearance of someone who had been engaging in a hellish battle. At some point, she seemed to realize that she had fallen and was struggling to get back up though with only with one arm.

When Han looked down, he noticed that the woman was clutching at her stomach. Han was confused by the appearance of this woman and judging by the reactions from the others, they too were thinking it was a strange incident.

"Where did this woman come from?" Lulu asked.

"Quiet! I think she's saying something," His mother sternly yelled. She walked over to the woman and his

mother got down onto her knees. With gentle hands, his mother rolled the woman so that the woman was on her back.

When the woman was on her back, it was easier to see that the woman's mouth was moving. With the help of the suit, Han was soon able to hear what the woman was saying.

"I left them behind... Please... Please... Help them... I'm sorry for leaving all of you...," The woman kept whispering feverishly.