Simply put, the cube WAS the treasure. And it seemed like that was right from Emmanoel's reaction.
"So, how do I make that work?"
"You can't."
"What?" Dohyuk frowned.
"Tell me how advanced your world was."
"Why is that necessary…"
"Think about a device like this: one that holds a lot of information. A large amount that can't even be written down on a big piece of paper that might fill this tent."
"…"
Dohyuk opened his eyes in shock. There were some objects he could think of.
"…USB?"
Or CD, DVD, or tapes. There were plenty of objects that fit Emma's explanation.
"Oh, so your world was a bit advanced after all?"
Emma then flicked her empty hand and something flew right at her, which she grabbed. It was also a hexagonal cube that was about the same size. However, the color was brown and it had red lines.
"Mepamians. People of Mepam. The people from Kezinkey's world had those objects. These two are the same."
"And the difference between those two?"
"Amount of information. The size is the same, but the information that it can hold differs per color, and the value that follows."
There was a total of five colors.
White, Green, Brown, Purple, and Black, and these colors grew in respect to each other in terms of value and limitations.
"I have white, brown, and purple. The Mepamians were illuminated long before our world started. I am what I am, but even then, I only have one of those three colors."
"…So, what's stored in there?"
"Information, mostly."
It was then that Emma's man came in with a large panel. It had dials and engravings on the side to control it.
"They contain traces of Mepam civilization that the Mepamians who resisted illumination had left. Poem, songs, cooking recipes, architectural designs, history… oh, and you know that these people even built a city on their moon?"
"….!"
"I am not sure how they managed to do that though. Maybe I mixed up a legend with history."
Emma smiled as she couldn't quite believe it, but Dohyuk could've guessed that it was probably real. Building cities outside of Earth was the dream that the humans of Earth had once.
Dohyuk was shocked in another way.
Other world.
He knew that there were countless worlds that existed, but he never thought that there were other civilizations that were more advanced than human civilization, or the one he belonged to.
Every traces of the other worlds he had faced until now was full of savagery and they weren't advanced.
"Anyway, let's see what's hidden inside."
Emma then placed the cube on the panel. With large sound, the surface of the panel began to churn.
"…!"
Dohyuk then saw a 'tree' like figure growing up from the panel with sprouting branches and fruit.
"Whoa." Emma became astonished and gasped.
"Can you tell me what you're fussing about?"
"Remember that the best cube I had was purple? There was a blueprint of the five largest cities of the Mepamians in that thing. It had a record of everything, from the largest building to the sewers."
"And?"
"But this… it has 14 times more than that. At least from what's been pulled up right now."
The speed of the growing 'tree' began to slow down and Emma quickly managed the few controls.
"So…"
Then, everything except the hieroglyphs on top of the tree disappeared. Remaining glyph was then pulled down toward the panel to zoom in.
"…What I'm seeing is the table of contents… but what is this? The content… seems too simple compared to how much it holds."
Emma then slowly began to translate what she read.
"Hatred… enemy… decimation…"
"Can you sort it out and translate what you're saying?"
"Gosh, can you be patient for once? It's been centuries since I've read the Mepamian language. Be quiet!"
Dohyuk closed his mouth, and after a minute, Emmanoel began to speak in complete sentences.
"At last, we have finished the plans that we cost a lot of our time."
It started it as if it was some kind of a story.
"The spear is ready to decimate the long hated demon's very existence from all dimensions."
It wasn't only Dohyuk who was shocked.
"…"
"…"
Both of these god-haters gave some thought to the meaning of what they just had read.
"R…read more." Dohyuk stuttered.
"Y-yeah…" Emmanoel also answered with a shaky voice.
She began to read, but after she uttered a few words, the panel started dying.
"…!"
And in the next instant, Dohyuk moved to jump backward and covered himself as best he could with his arms and legs. It was a wise choice as he would have gotten injured from the explosion.
The explosion left the tent in ruins.
"…At least."
Dohyuk spoke as he coughed through dense smoke.
"Machines don't explode when something goes wrong in my world."
Dohyuk stood up. Emma was still sitting in the same place. The huge explosion would've injured Dohyuk if he didn't act fast, but she didn't even have soot on her clothing.
Instead-
"It's same with this one."
Her face grimaced.
"The sound before the explosion… I've heard it before."
"And it didn't explode then?"
"It needed some repair, but as you said, these kinds of machines don't explode when they're broken."
It was a machine to read information that was stored in the other devices, not to explode like this. The smoke began to thin out, and Dohyuk saw the red cube shining in front of Emma.
"It was probably made to do this if it's not read by the designated machine or by an inferior machine."
The color itself didn't change, but it had intense heat, hot enough for Dohyuk to feel it from the distance.
"It's either to protect the security…"
"Or figured it was useless for one to see when one might die from the explosion."
He then walked over to the cube and picked it up. It was enough heat to melt human flesh at once. Even for Dohyuk who had powerful heat resistance felt like if he was holding a boiling metal pot.
They became silent. It wasn't because they had nothing to say.
It was because they had the same thing to say.
Dohyuk who spoke first.
Chapter end
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