Defy The Earth

Chapter 3

Chanyeol had seen the 'Base' once; just the previous night. However, he had clearly missed out on the large room on the ground floor which he figured was the Training Room. It was light colored with wooden furnishing and not unlike the room he had seen on twelfth floor. It had a map of the whole place that he was itching to see and many books and guides on two huge shelves on one corner. The room had two huge windows, providing a look of the wild beneath. Chanyeol figured that the building was quite high because even from the ground floor, the wild appeared to be far. Looking back around the room which smelt of old books and leather, he noticed some archery stuff and swords and monitors which showed different rooms.

"There are many training rooms – one on each floor." Baekhyun explained, standing next to Chanyeol; his heat near Chanyeol.

"So, the twelfth floor is the highest level?" Chanyeol titled his head to the side before his eyes sparked, "Wait! Twelve branches, twelve floors... twelve levels?"

Before Baekhyun could answer, Sehun who was leaning against the wall, eating the pie with his hands, looking too much out of a fashion magazine said, "You already showed him the Tree?"

Baekhyun shrugged, "The faster, the better."

Sehun still looked sort of incredulous, "You showed me after two months."

Baekhyun set his jaw, "Park here had already run into... uh, nature. Besides, I'm impatient." He shrugged him, "So anyway, Park – the highest level isn't twelfth, it's actually the basement," He pointed downwards, "You saw it already. The Level is cleared after you've almost died-" Chanyeol choked on his spit, "And managed to spend quite a lot of time in that room. Locked. Alone. With nobody and nothing. No food and no water."

Sehun shrugged, "Needless to say, I haven't completed it yet."

Baekhyun sighed as he shook his head sadly, "Sehun's hardly completed Level 8 and he's been here for long," He emphasized 'for long.' Sehun just poked a tongue at him and continued to bite a rather large chunk off the pie threateningly.

"What about you?" Chanyeol asked, looking at Baekhyun curiously, "Which level are you on?"

Sehun suddenly let go of his resting spot on the door and walked towards Chanyeol, "Oh, you don't know, Baekhyun-hyung was the first one to complete all the levels. He'd even repeated them many times, that's why he's the most trusted one around newbies."

Chanyeol turned towards Baekhyun, his jaw hanging in awe, "Wow..."

He wasn't sure but Baekhyun seemed to have a pink tint on his face and his eyes avoided Chanyeol's; choosing to glare hard at the carpet instead, "It's not that hard..."

Sehun snorted, "Only Suho and Baekhyun have completed all the levels. And most of us haven't even crossed the tenth level," He turned around, back to his on-door resting spot, "That's all I have to state." He lifted his hands up dramatically and slid out of the room, leaving Chanyeol and Baekhyun alone. They were accompanied by the heavy silence of awkwardness.

"So... this is the first level?" Chanyeol asked, looking around.

Baekhyun shook his head; finally lifting his head and his eyes were dark, emotionless, with that sort of twisted look in them that made him seem much more distant than he was. He looked like that kind of person- whom everybody can talk to, but nobody knew. He was so close... yet, so distant.

"This isn't the first level," Baekhyun said, "We call it the... zero level. It is more of a helpline of sorts. If you have any doubts or would like some extra knowledge about something, you can come here. It's basically meant for discussions and some sort of peace, so that all of this doesn't seem like it's a big fucking tragedy."