That person seemed to be in bad shape as well, coughing violently more than ten times before finally catching his breath. He said, somewhat discontentedly, “The one who killed your parents is also my enemy! If you want revenge, first, you’re looking for the wrong person, and second, even I wouldn’t be a match for Rocky. You’re just an ordinary person—forget all of this and just live your life.”

I cursed loudly, “Rocky? What, you think this is Norse mythology? Is there a Thor too?”

He shook his head and said, “Maybe this Rocky isn’t as powerful as the Norse god in the legends, but he’s even more terrifying… Oh! Also, if you compare his strength to the god in the myths, then he’s weak, but don’t compare him to that loser from the movies. If it’s the movie version… he’s much stronger than that pathetic excuse for a god.”

“I’m going to kill that bastard! I want him torn to pieces, with no grave for his corpse…”

“Very unfortunate! Young man, you can’t do it!”

I struggled to stand up, glaring at the man with eyes as fierce as a wolf’s, my heart filled with unvented rage and grief. I growled in a low voice, “I want to avenge my parents… I can do it! Or rather, I have to, don’t I?” Seeing the determination in my eyes, the man shook his head and tossed me a bottle of liquor, saying in a low voice, “Drink it all.”

I didn’t hesitate at all. I raised the bottle and downed all the strong liquor in one go. I’d tasted this stuff earlier and knew how strong it was, but even if it were poison, I wouldn’t care. Right now, I was willing to do anything, afraid of nothing, just wanting to find something to vent on—even if it meant killing.

“All right! You did save my life, after all. Since you insist, I’ll tell you the whole story.”

The man smiled faintly, and from who knows where, produced another bottle of the same liquor. He popped the cork off with his thumb and took a big swig before slowly saying, “There are many secrets in this world, secrets known only to a few. Most people have no idea! The vast majority of people in this world live in lies—they live peacefully and happily… well, maybe not happily, but at least happier than people like us.”

“You probably don’t know—oh, that’s nonsense, of course you don’t know. There’s a parallel world intertwined with our main world, which we call the Dark World! Although we discovered the Dark World a long time ago, maybe thousands of years, it wasn’t until 1953 that governments around the world began officially developing the Dark World. This government-level development has been going on for over sixty years now.”

Seeing that I was listening intently, the man couldn’t help but smile and continued, “The trajectory of civilization in the Dark World is completely different from the mechanical and electronic civilization of Earth. It’s a totally different model, filled with all kinds of strange and powerful beings and all sorts of incredible existences, as well as unimaginable wealth and power.”

“There’s even a theory that most of the myths and religious legends in our world are actually descriptions of the Dark World by people in ancient times who entered or came into contact with beings from the Dark World. So we call the civilization model of the Dark World—Ghost-God Civilization. Both Rocky and I are people who have entered the Dark World and gained inhuman abilities there.”

“I want to enter the Dark World!”

For the first time, I interrupted him, my words firm and resolute, without a hint of hesitation.

The man shrugged slightly, looked at me for a long while, then suddenly smiled and said, “All right! Consider it payment for saving my life—I can help you enter the Dark World. But I have to warn you: since 1953, governments, certain super-corporations, and underground forces have sent about three million people into the Dark World, but currently, fewer than a hundred thousand are still active there. Among those hundred thousand are old-timers who entered before large-scale development for various reasons. Excluding the smart ones who voluntarily withdrew, about eighty percent died by accident—in other words, at least two and a half million people died in there.”

“I’m not afraid of dying! I want to kill Rocky!”

But the man just chuckled again and said offhandedly, “In the Dark World, there are at least ten thousand people who want to kill him, including me—I’d love to get rid of that annoying guy. But no one’s ever succeeded; in fact, this time he almost killed me. If you want to take him down, you’d better work on getting stronger. I’ll give you a little gift—maybe it’ll save your life someday!”

He handed me a piece of cloth that looked very much like gold foil, about thirty centimeters long and only as wide as a palm. It was as thin as the finest rice paper, extremely soft and elastic, and felt even smoother than the softest silk. With a gentle pull, it could stretch very long.

I took the thing and played with it for a while, still having no idea what it was for.