Atlantis-1334

I leaned halfway back against the bed.

A familiar ceiling filled my view.

A faint stain, dust along the corners, the cover of an old fluorescent light.

After Human Ranch, Glass Beach, and the Flesh-Script Corridor, just looking at an ordinary ceiling like this was enough to make me feel safe.

My heart was settling, bit by bit.

Even the rough, heaving breaths I'd been dragging in while clinging to the sink a moment ago had more or less subsided.

I wasn't sure if Mental Protection was actually working, or if a person just got something like adaptation after living through enough horrors. Well, it could have been both.

I closed my eyes.

Just a second... I'll rest for real, just a second, then we'll see.

That was the plan, but my head refused to rest.

The glitter of Glass Beach, the dry rustling of the Flesh-Script Corridor, the colossal forms looking down on people like livestock.

Even with my eyes shut, they rose up sharp and clear.

Aside from the fact that I was lying in my room, I still felt like I was trapped inside some dimension I couldn't name.

The Dimensional Archive.

Without opening my eyes, I simply called up the list in my mind.

Atlantis-1334.

The name alone sounded promising.

Civilization.

Ruins.

A legendary city sunk beneath the sea.

At least it was a more familiar name than Human Ranch or the Flesh-Script Corridor. And even if it was dangerous, it was the kind of danger I could more or less imagine.

Underwater.

The moment that thought landed, the calculations snapped right into place behind it.

I just need to hold my breath.

Even if it was the deep sea, I could go in, take a look at the situation, and get out immediately. If it was truly dangerous, I could return in a few seconds. It was only a few seconds—if I just held my breath, I could manage somehow.

I opened my eyes.

"...Holy shit, am I a genius?"

The words slipped out, then a hollow laugh followed from sheer absurdity.

Still, my thoughts kept rolling that way.

This time, changing clothes was the right call too.

I pushed myself up from the bed.

I peeled off the hoodie and long pants right away. If it was underwater, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠lighter was better.

I pulled on a short-sleeve tee and swapped into shorts that hit above the knee.

I changed my shoes too.

Instead of the sneakers I'd been wearing, I put on rubber-soled sandals. Barefoot was insanity, and sneakers would only get in the way underwater.

In the end, that was the look I settled on. Ridiculous as it looked, at least it felt like I wasn't walking in completely thoughtless.

I tapped the front of the sandals against the floor with my toes.

"Done."

Then I picked up my phone.

I still didn't know how time in other worlds would slip against real time. At the very least, I needed to check the real-world clock right before I went in.

Just glancing at the lock screen didn't feel like enough.

I opened an internet clock.

A screen that ticked up clear to the second.

I stared for a long while at the digital clock at the top of the search results, then propped the phone upright on the bed.

2026.3.26. Thursday 19:37:17

Good. Now let's compare.

I drew in a breath big enough to swell my chest.

Then I fixed my will on Atlantis.

The dimensional gate opened with familiar ease. A thin vertical seam in midair quietly split wider.

By now, even this sight was starting to feel a little less alien. Not that it made it any less terrifying.

I walked up to the gate. Even right in front of it, the silence felt cut off from the world. Inside was nothing but a blue haze so thick I couldn't even tell if it was bright or dark.

To the end, the Dimensional Archive offered no clue at all.

I held my breath.

Just a look.

I told myself that and shoved my body through the gate.

The next instant.

My entire body was crushed.

"Ghk...!"

Even holding my breath, a sound leaked out.

Before cold or wetness, what hit me first was pressure.

Head.

Chest.

Eyes.

Ears.

Joints.

Organs.

It felt like giant hands from every direction had seized my whole body at once.

The deep sea.

The words flashed through my skull like lightning.

Calculations like I just need to hold my breath shattered in a single moment. The problem wasn't air. My entire body simply should not have been here.

The insides of my ears throbbed, and pressure built behind my eyes as if it were trying to push the eyeballs ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠outward. My chest clamped down, and my limbs grew heavy as if they no longer belonged to me.

Only then did the surroundings cut in like a strobe of broken frames.

Deep blue darkness. A faint light falling from very far above. The outlines of massive pillars brushing through the current.

A collapsed tower.

A giant arch.

What looked like the ruins of a city settled on the seafloor.

Somewhere, a blue light burned like civilization.

And something was moving.

It looked human, but it wasn't human.

Long, flowing blue hair.

A pale upper body.

A massive tail continuing from the waist down.

A mermaid...?

But up close, it was nothing like a fairy-tale mermaid.

The scales on its tail were long and sharp. Thin membranes stretched between its arms and flanks, and along the sides of its ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠face, instead of ears, gill-like slits branched in several rows.

It slowly looked this way.

My spine went cold.

Did it... just see me?

In that instant, a red window erupted into the center of my vision as if it might explode.

I didn't even have the margin to finish reading those lines.

I was already at my limit.

My chest was too tight. It wasn't about holding my breath. Existing here at all was wrong.

Even the sensation of water on my skin felt strangely heavy. More than the feeling of being submerged in seawater, it was closer to the entire world pressing down and crushing my body.

"Gh, mmph...!"

The breath I'd been holding shook.

Dangerous. Truly.

Reflexively, I thought only of return.

In that same moment, the mermaid-like thing far off moved.

It swept its tail once in a broad stroke, and even from a distance I felt the current shove this way. Whether it was coming toward me or just turning, I couldn't tell. I had zero interest in finding out.

That being wasn't beautiful. It was a creature perfectly adapted to the environment of the sea.

And that perfection was terrifying.

It was a resident of this place, and I was nothing but a lump of meat too weak for the pressure.

Return... right now, immediately!

As I hauled my will upward, the deep sea twisted first.

The blue darkness folded, the outlines of the ruined city tore like hairline cracks, and the distant mermaid's form scattered like a picture stretched thin on the current.

The next moment.

I came back half-falling onto the bed.

"Ghk, hrrk...!"

The breath I'd been holding burst free.

I collapsed facedown on the bed and coughed like a madman.

My lungs burned as if they were on fire. My ears were clogged, my eyes hot. I couldn't get my breath back, like someone who'd just barely been hauled up from truly deep water.

"Ha, hah... ha..."

I gasped, fists clenched in the bedsheet.

I lived...

That thought came again. And right after it, the thought that I'd almost actually died just now came with it.

For a while I couldn't even push myself up.

My heart was hammering out of control, and a low hum still rang inside my ears as if the pressure hadn't fully left. Even a slight turn of my head made me dizzy.

On one side of my vision, the Archive quietly surfaced.

I read the lines in a daze.

Humanoid underwater lifeform.

It sure had a dry way of putting things.

What I'd just seen wasn't something I could brush off as "looked like a mermaid." That being had definitely looked at me. And I, with the boneheaded calculation that holding my breath would be enough, had dropped myself into the middle of the deep sea and almost gotten my body crushed first.

"Fuck... am I an idiot."

Then my eyes climbed back up the log window.

Real-World Time: 2026-03-26 19:37:17

Dimensional Entry

Real-World Time: 2026-03-26 19:37:17

Real-World Return

"...Huh?"

I narrowed my eyes and looked at those two lines again.

They were identical.

The entry and return times were the same.

At first I thought I'd misread it. Maybe the seconds were short enough that they'd just happened to overlap. But the idea that real-world time had stayed put while I nearly died in the deep sea, came back, coughed my lungs out, caught my breath, and even read the log—that was wrong no matter how I sliced it.

"No, wait..."

I read the two lines one more time.

Then, very briefly, I bit my lip.

I should have noticed from the first record update.

"I really am an idiot..."

I muttered the curse and immediately reached for my phone. The internet clock I'd propped on the bed was still up.

2026.3.26. Thursday 19:37:18

I froze solid.

Looked again.

2026.3.26. Thursday 19:37:19

My hand stopped.

It had already been strange in the record updates, but seeing the internet clock myself made it even clearer.

While I'd nearly died inside a dimension, come back gasping, and even read the log, real-world time had only moved about one second, two seconds.

"...Insane."

The voice leaked out very low.

Real-world time had stopped while I was inside a dimension.

I slowly pushed myself upright.

It felt like one piece of a puzzle in my head had just clicked into place.

I opened the basic screen at the edge of my vision.

I stared at the third line for a long time.

Twenty-two hours, thirty-nine minutes, thirty-four seconds.

This wasn't the cumulative time I'd spent inside dimensions.

It was the time remaining until the dimension list refreshed again.

Looking at that number made it even more certain.

Real-world time, the time I experienced inside dimensions, and the time the Archive itself ran on were all completely separate.

I slowly let out a breath.

"...Alright."

The word that left my mouth was short, but my head was busy.

I'd confirmed what I needed to confirm. Reality stopped. At least while I was inside a dimension.

It felt like good news, and also like very bad news.

For a while I leaned against the bed and did nothing.

More accurately, I couldn't do anything.

At Human Ranch my legs had given out, at Glass Beach my cheek had been sliced, at the Flesh-Script Corridor I'd thrown up, and at Atlantis I'd genuinely almost been crushed to death.

After taking four of those in a row, even the idea of looking at anything else felt like insanity.

I stared blankly at the ceiling, then dragged a hand down my face.

Cold sweat, the briny stink of seawater, the sticky filth of having thrown up—everything was tangled together.

"Fuck, I reek of salt..."

The mutter leaked out.

I was a wreck.

In the end I hauled myself up and went into the bathroom.

I turned on the shower, and a warm stream ran over my shoulders and neck. For a while I just stood there, staring at nothing.

The glitter of Glass Beach, the smell of the Flesh-Script Corridor, the pressure of Atlantis's deep sea—all of it still clung to my skin. Even washing with water, the stickiness didn't come off easily.

Still, I felt myself coming back toward reality, just a little.

I roughly washed my hair, face, and neck, then stepped out and towel-dried.

I glanced down at the short-sleeve and shorts crammed into the laundry basket, and the sandals kicked off carelessly beside them.

The combo I'd so cleverly picked before heading into Atlantis.

Result: absolute dogshit disaster.

I huffed something like a snort and grabbed the long clothes I'd taken off earlier.

Long-sleeve hoodie.

Long pants.

Sneakers.

I put them back on one by one.

Pulled on the hoodie, cinched the drawstring of the pants, and tied the sneaker laces tight. Tied them once, then yanked again to check.

I knew now.

Dimensions did not behave kindly in the ways I imagined. When they were pretty, they were dangerous for being pretty, and when they were underwater, they crushed people for being underwater.

So at the very least, when it came to clothes, I had to go as conservative as possible.

I tapped the toe of my sneaker once against the floor.

"Ready."

Half-sitting against the bed, I called up the Dimensional Archive.

Reality stopped.

Strangely, that fact didn't so much reduce the fear as it grew a stubborn streak of spite in its place.

The world was fine, and only I was staring into this insane list.

That was the feeling.

Black Universe Ranch-9648.

Just from the name, this one's a hard no.

Human Ranch at least had humans at the center of it. Black Universe Ranch's scale started at the cosmos.

And then there was ranch.

From the jump, it clearly wasn't human-scale.

I shouldn't go.

Even thinking that, my eyes were already locked on the name.

Spite.

At this point it was less curiosity than pure spite.

"Short and sharp."

I muttered a resolution no one had asked ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠for.

I checked the phone time one more time.

2026.3.26. Thursday 20:05:53

Good.

I clenched my teeth once and locked my will on Black Universe Ranch.

A vertical door opened. This time, even the color was different.

The inside was black.

Not merely dark. A blackness that had swallowed light entirely. Beyond the seam, nothing was visible.

I paused for a moment in front of the dimensional gate.

Black, and so quiet it felt absolute.

"Let's go..."

After I said it, I felt a little ridiculous.

That this was the best resolve I could muster in a situation like this.

And slowly, I stepped into the dimensional gate.