Webnovel Author In The Apocalypse World

Like his beloved cat, Fuzzball, Kim Haru wasn't fond of crowds.

So, once the introductions were done, he made up an excuse and returned to his assigned room.

The villagers, however, stayed at the central gathering area, celebrating with joyful songs.

The room prepared for Kim Haru was in the only building made with a significant amount of stone.

It wasn't large—just a small space with a single table and a simple straw mat for a bed.

Even the restroom was a communal one outside.

Kim Haru quickly tidied up and didn't complain about the conditions.

He had already prepared for this journey and hadn't planned on returning too soon.

Although he couldn't conjure a house out of thin air, he had packed everything he needed—bedding, spare clothes, and other necessities—all neatly stored in his system backpack.

Since the items inside the storage only occupied a single slot, he simply retrieved the entire chest, laid the bedding on the bed, and placed a thick piece of clothing near the pillow to create a simple nest.

"Fuzzball, you can sleep here tonight." Kim Haru patted the makeshift nest, finding it rather comfortable.

Fuzzball glanced at the setup.

Perhaps out of consideration, he circled the nest twice and sniffed around.

Since there weren't any unpleasant scents, he finally stepped onto the soft fabric.

When he came across an embellishment on the clothing that poked at his paws, Fuzzball casually clawed at it a few times, adjusting it into a more comfortable shape before curling up into a ball, satisfied.

"Meow~"

Fuzzball let out a soft purr.

After settling the feline lord, Kim Haru made a similar nest for the Cryo Wolf.

However, their sleeping area couldn't be too close to Fuzzball's.

With Fuzzball's domineering nature, the moment Kim Haru fell asleep, he would definitely kick the dogs under the bed.

How did Kim Haru know this so well?

Well… you get the idea.

He placed the Cryo Wolf' nest against the inner wall, so when he slept, his body would block them from view.

If someone were to barge in unexpectedly, they wouldn't notice the Cryo Wolf right away, giving them enough time to hide.

As for the owl, Kim Haru left it to its own devices.

That enormous creature could just find a spot big enough to fit itself, tuck in its wings, lower its head, and it would be fine.

In fact, it didn't even need to sleep.

Kim Haru, however, had no intention of going to bed this early.

The noise from the bonfire party outside made it difficult to sleep—that was one thing.

However, having just arrived in a new place, no matter how big-hearted he was, it was absolutely impossible for Kim Haru to fall asleep so easily.

Kim Haru opened the system map.

During the day, when he had followed Koko around the area, it had seemed like he was merely comparing the village chief's map with the actual terrain.

However, in reality, most of his attention had been focused on the system.

The outer Biryong Plains and this Biryong Cliff had already been explored by Kim Haru, and both areas had been unlocked in the system map.

When viewed separately, the plains and the canyon didn't seem particularly unusual, just a little strange.

But the moment he combined them on the system map, the secret of this place became crystal clear!

This Biryong Cliff was actually an entirely separate space!

When Kim Haru first discovered this, he was surprised.

But the more he thought about it, the more it made sense.

If the cliff weren't an independent space, then given how vast it appeared inside, there was no way it could have looked like just a thin strip on the plains above.

Even if he imagined it as a triangular prism structure, there should have been some signs of its true scale on the upper plains.

Only the explanation of it being another space made everything logically consistent.

To be precise, this wasn't another space in the traditional sense, as in a separate dimension reached by breaking through time and space.

Kim Haru recalled that when he had descended on the owl, there had been a brief moment where it felt like he had pierced through a thin barrier.

At the time, he had found it odd.

Now, he realized that this barrier was actually the outer shell of this enclosed space.

That's right—the entire space beneath Biryong Cliff was actually inside a bubble.

Looking at the map, this bubble wasn't overwhelmingly large compared to the Biryong Plains.

However, given how vast it was inside, Kim Haru had no idea how it worked—probably some mix of science and mystical forces.

Now, here was the key point.

Kim Haru noticed something on the map—this "bubble" was actually the fruit of a plant!

Yes, it wasn't some kind of formation or a dimensional portal—it was a fruit.

At least, that was how Kim Haru's system map had labeled it.

[ Void Rift Grass Fruit ].

As for what kind of plant Void Rift Grass was, Kim Haru had no recollection of it from his incomplete knowledge of the post-apocalypse world.

Even in the Safe Zone's Mutated Plant Ranking, which was displayed in the center of the ability user center, he had never seen this name before.

It was either a newly emerged plant, or one that humans had never discovered.

There was no doubt—it had to be the latter.

If it were a newly emerged species, then the people in this village would practically be characters from a horror story.

Of course, without absolute confirmation, Kim Haru didn't entirely rule out the first possibility.

Who knew what kinds of bizarre properties these strange plants might have?

Kim Haru tried using the system's search function to look up information on this so-called Void Rift Grass, but all his reference books were in the study of his farmhouse in the small farming system—he couldn't access them from here.

For now, all he knew was that the place he was in was the fruit of a plant.