When they finally emerged from the long corridor and returned to the open cavern beside the lake, Hong Min felt as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. There were no more narrow passages or noisy machines, only the vast space and majestic silence. But his body had reached its absolute limit. He had been awake for more than a day, every muscle in his body was screaming with exhaustion, and his stomach was completely empty after the last of the roasted bat meat had run out.

  He leaned against a rock, ready to collapse. "We have to rest..." he muttered, his eyes nearly closing.

  But at that moment, amidst the faint blue light, he caught a glimpse of quiet movement at the far edge of the lake. It wasn't a monster or a machine. It was a graceful creature drinking from the water.

  Hong Min froze, his eyes widening. It looked like a deer, but it was no ordinary deer. Its fur was a pale grey that nearly blended in with the rocks, and its long, twisted antlers were covered in a thin layer of the same blue moss that lit the cavern, giving them a ghostly glow.

  "404," Hong Min whispered, his voice urgent and filled with unbelievable luck. "Food. Quietly."

  404 didn't utter a word. He simply vanished into the shadows. Moments later, during which Hong Min heard nothing, 404 reappeared a few steps away from him, carrying the body of the massive "Cavern Elk." Its neck was cleanly broken; there wasn't a single drop of blood.

  For the first time in a very long time, Hong Min felt something resembling real hope.

  An hour later, a fire was burning brightly, sending orange sparks up toward the dark cavern ceiling. The sound of crackling wood and the smell of roasting meat filled the air, pushing back the cold and the silence, creating a small, warm circle of life in this dead world. Hong Min demonstrated survival skills he hadn't used since his sharpening days in Chang'an, expertly skinning and butchering the meat. He tossed a large piece toward 404.

  Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

  "Hey, horse! Cut this into squares. At least be useful for something."

  Hong Min sat by the fire and began to devour the first cooked piece of meat. He ate ravenously, with his hands, not caring about the juices running down his chin. The meat was delicious, rich, and unlike anything he had ever tasted before. After he had eaten enough to satisfy his rabid hunger, he lay back, feeling the warmth of the fire and a sense of peace wash over him.

  He looked at 404, who was sitting silently on the other side of the fire, cutting the meat with robotic precision.

  "404," Hong Min said suddenly. "Did I ever tell you what my dream is?"

  404 stopped cutting and looked at him. "What is a 'dream'? I have not found a definition for this word."

  Hong Min laughed. "Ha! I don't know. I got you, didn't I? This time, I'm the one who says 'I don't know'."

  He sighed and looked up at the endless darkness above. His voice became quieter and more serious. "My dream... is to travel this entire world. Every continent, every city, every forgotten island. I imagine seeing everything, and writing everything down. That's my dream."

  He looked at 404 again. "Maybe when you find these 'feelings' you're looking for, you'll know what your dream is, too."

  Hong Min relaxed further, feeling warm and content. He began to talk more to himself than to 404.

  "There's... there's a whole continent that floats in the sky..." he said, then paused for a moment, as if trying to remember something distant. A memory flickered in his mind, not a clear one, but just an echo. The echo of a bright laugh, and a confident girl's voice saying something about magic and other worlds.

  "I don't remember where I heard that..." he muttered. "But I know this story from someone... yes, from someone."

  He smiled a boyish grin. "I want to go there someday... and marry one of the most beautiful women in the world who live there. A continent in the sky... it truly is a world of dreams."

  He continued to eat until he could no longer move, having devoured a huge portion of the elk meat. He noticed that 404 was still staring at him.

  "What are you looking at?" Hong Min said in a sluggish voice. "I was hungry. And the meat would have spoiled anyway. We had to eat it."

  He felt an overwhelming sleepiness come over him, a heaviness in his eyelids he hadn't felt before.

  "Do you..." he asked in a barely audible voice. "Do you sleep?"

  "No," came the quiet reply from the darkness.

  "Figured as much..." Hong Min muttered. Then, for the first time since he had left Chang'an, he completely let go. He closed his eyes, and allowed the exhaustion and the food to pull him into the deepest sleep he had known in weeks, leaving 404 standing in the darkness, a silent guardian over their small, temporary world.