Chapter 63 - Control Room?

At the end of the stairs, there was a door.

Once he got close to the last step, Nathan slowed down.

"Phew~ that was so tiring." He said, wiping the sweating dripping down his face.

After resting for a while, he turned his eyes into the door in front of him.

"Is this already the top of the tower?"

Nathan tilted his head a little to look up at the ceiling and immediately dismissed those thoughts.

"Yeah, how could I possibly reach the top of a tower like this, right?" He chuckled, shaking his head.

When he looked up, he realized that he can't even see the top of the tower from where he is right now.

"Anyway," he stopped thinking about the top and focused on the door in front of him, "Since this is where the stairs end, there's probably something good behind this door, right?"

He smiled, holding the doorknob, Nathan gently pushed the door open.

And what welcomed him was…

A wooden table with a…

"A handprint?" Said Nathan, confused.

Walking near the stop, he curiously looked inside the room.

"There's literally nothing here besides this table, huh?"

Since there's nothing else in this place, Nathan turned his eyes back into the table.

"Hais… and here I was expecting something from behind that door." He shook his head disappointedly, and said, "Too bad, I guess."

Since he was still feeling tired from running all the way up here, Nathan placed his hands on the table and used it to support his body.

Accidentally, his hand fitted on the handprint on the table.

What happened next was something that surprised Nathan.

A synthetic voice sounded inside the room.

[Energy scanning initiated.]

[Energy scanned successfully.]

[Energy type: Nature]

[The presence of the Life Tree has been detected.]

[According to the Rule #101 of the Naeco People, the one who's able to master the power of the Life Tree will directly become the Leader of the Camp.]

"What's happening!? Naeco People? Life Tree? Leader of the Camp!?" Nathan was confused as to what was happening, but he did not panic.

At the end of those words, the room suddenly started shaking and even Nathan found it hard to keep himself standing.

Just as he was losing his balance, the shaking stopped.

Then on the walls, tree roots and branches started intertwining with each other.

After a while, those tree roots and branches started forming into a table.

Besides that, on the wall, roots also formed a rectangle with a hollow middle.

Not long after, everything seemed to be finished and the roots and branches stopped moving.

"Huh?" Looking at the result of what those roots and branches formed into, Nathan was a little surprised, "This, isn't this like those control tables?"

That's right, what's in front of Nathan is very similar to a control table. He won't even be surprised if it is just because of how bizarre things started.

As those thoughts ran through his head, at the hollow part of the rectangle on the wall, a transparent screen suddenly appeared.

And with it's addition, the plain rectangle turned into a monitor screen!

"Wow…" Nathan exclaimed as he looked at the end result.

Nathan has the feeling of looking into a hybrid of fantasy and sci-fi, turning into a very novel sight for him.

Approaching the control table, Nathan scratches his head in wonderment.

"I don't know how to use this. Is there a manual somewhere?"

Nathan looked around but did not notice anything that looked like a manual or guide.

Finding nothing, Nathan sighed and turned his eyes into the monitor.

"Oh, what's this?"

Because he was preoccupied with searching for a manual earlier, Nathan only now noticed that words have appeared on the monitor.

Reading it, what Nathan saw was,

[Control Tower is now back online.]

[Resuming operations…]

[Checking logs…]

[451 corrupted file found. Restoring...]

[1 restoration successful, 450 failed.]

[Playing restored file.]

… 

A man with a solemn look appeared on the screen.

Behind him, the cries for help and a roar sounded.

Seemingly unbothered by everything, the man opened his mouth and started to speak, "This is Luna, 5th Generation Leader of the Camp."

With a downcasted look, he continued, "We have failed to contain [Threat #13] and it has caused large casualties in the Naeco Camp."

The cries behind became louder and louder.

Luna just stared straight on the screen with a pained look, "The Camp has been deemed hopeless and so we have decided to go to v3nsi:#) @&#;;(."

[Video terminated. File is damaged, restoration is impossible.]

… 

Nathan stared in a daze at the monitor.

After a while, he muttered, "... What the hell?"

He was already surprised when the video suddenly started playing

What's more shocking is the content of that said video!

"Naeco People and Threat #13… I wonder what all this is about?" Said Nathan, furrowing his brows.

Turning his eyes back into the monitor, it seems like it started a new set of commands without him noticing.

[New Leader has been assigned.]

[The Ceremony will now begin.]

… 

Once again, Nathan was surprised.

But, he did not even get the time to recover from his shock when he felt a commotion happening inside his independent space.

"Eh? Now what? Everything is happening so fast I'm starting to get dizzy!" Nathan complained with an unpleasant look on his face.

Sighing deeply, Nathan went inside the independent space to see what's going on.

This is the first time this has happened, because of that, it made Nathan a bit worried.

"Huh? What are you guys doing?"

When he got inside, Nathan saw Natura and all the other Tree Spirits staring at something.

Following their line of sight, Nathan's gaze landed on the Miracle Tree near his house.

At this time, the tree has grown to 7 meters in less than half a day. And in the midsection of the tree, there was an opening about 2 meters in diameter.

This sight stunned Nathan, "F*ck!"