CHAPTER 1447: BIZARRE EARTH

-----

Beatriz quickly manifested a giant map of the world, its continents and even the interior. The amount of knowledge she had about it was amazingly surprising! She even knew the continent positions and the countries?! I guess we could have researched this online, but I never honestly had the time to check my phone, and after it had been two lifetimes since I touched one, it honestly felt really alien and took me a while to get used to them.

All the weird apps in them don’t help either, like they make you think it’s kind of like Earth but not really, there’s no google or youtube but shit called "Doodle" and "Utube" and it is so damn weird, like I’m living in some sort of bizarro world. Also none of the franchises I love exist here. There’s no Fate, Atelier, Nintendo, any of that!

There’s like weird, parallel versions of some companies of mascots, but there isn’t even Sonic! And it’s all very weird and amusing to an extent. Just searching "Lego" in Doodle will never give me any result, it just doesn’t exist.

It’s a world that feels so damn familiar, and yet it isn’t the more you look into it... There’s like a certain uncanny valley to it.

Everyone else though? They’ve been enjoying themselves, unable to feel what I feel because they never were from Earth like I was!

...

Anyways, rant end.

I looked at the map again, the continents... The countries, most of them had the same names as those from Earth though, that was one of the coincidences that connected both as parallels.

Also I’ve noticed a lot of history was the same, prehistory, and the animals, all the same, except for a few things changing a few other things here and there.

For example in the second world war Japan was never bombarded and it wasn’t completely conquered by America either, remaining strong, this created a completely parallel version of Japan where their Imperial Family still remains as governors.

It is an Empire and not just a country too, the Empire of the Rising Sun! They have a surprisingly well-developed military force and all... There’s a lot of things like these across the world too.

Korea for example never separated either, or it has remained as a united country that has slowly grown stronger over time, it is not dominated by Samsung either, it doesn’t exist.

China is also quite different, it is divided into three powerful Kingdoms, as if the Romance of the Three Kingdoms never ended.

Mythology and other things though? They do exist as normally they would do on Earth... Maybe there’s some new mythos here and there but they are mostly all the ones I recognize.

But even then, it feels like someone traveled to Earth in the past, messed up history and then left, and everything just changed into a bizarre Earth where everything is not quite what we remember.

And... Anyway, the center of the planet, yes.

It is as I expected, instead of a molten metal core, there’s a black sphere in there, overflowing with Nightmare Void, generating an endless, spiraling sea.

Surrounding it is... this endless prehistoric jungle that also became a giant Nightmare Field, the Ancient Nightmare Field where Nightmaresaurs roam freely and dominate everywhere.

Giant Kaiju like the guy I hunted must roam everywhere in here, so that’ll give us a lot of sweet EXP and materials for more Dream Weapon Evolutions... or creations.

There’s also three layers to this forest, huh?

"So this is how it looks, it’s pretty amazing!" Emeraldine said. "You did this map on your own, Beatriz? You’re very talented."

"E-Eh? Ah, yeah I did it on my own..." Beatriz nodded. "I’ve been pretty bored lately, so I like to read and learn about knowledge I don’t know about. Learning more about history, creatures, and humans help me transform into other shapes more easily."

"That’s nice!" Emeraldine smiled. "See? Humans are pretty great, right? They provide you with all of this, and even the food you love eating."

"W-What?! I mean yeah..." Beatriz muttered. "Hmmm..."

Ah, I see, Emeraldine is trying to talk with her and help her see that she’s been a bit of a hypocrite if she has been enjoying humanity’s creations and food for so long while still desiring to end them.

I doubt that Nightmare Demons, seeing how they work and how their culture is, would be able to even create a civilization, they’re just too wild in too many areas for that, right?

They’re too aggressive and competitive, that’s what I’m trying to say, much more than humans...

Well, whatever the case, most of my family was curious about the big map and its many detailed areas, especially in the "Hollow Earth" map.

It was way too big, bigger than we could ever explore!

"It has three layers?!" Partner asked angrily. "And each layer seems to change colors..."

"Yeah, right now we are... in the Verdant Jungles, the first Layer of the Hollow Earth Nightmare Labyrinth!" I said.

"Labyrinth?" Arthur glanced at me with a confused look.

"Okay maybe it’s not a labyrinth but it is kind of is at the same time, don’t you think? If we were back home people would call this a mega labyrinth," I said.

"Not wrong..." Arthur nodded. "We Yggdrasil people tend to call everything big and spacious that is underground a dungeon or a labyrinth. Even caves are dungeons to us..."

"What? Do you guys come from some D&D world or something?" Wondered Beatriz while snacking on fruit Emeraldine gave to her, which she created with her magic.

"Isn’t it obvious that it is something similar?" I asked her. "So yeah... Kind- Wait a second, D&D does exist in this world?!"

"Huh? Dungeons & Demons?" Asked Beatriz. "Well yeah it is a very popular role-playing board game-"

"Dammit!" I screamed to the heavens- or well, the ceiling above us, which looked quite like the sky either way.

It wasn’t the Dungeons and Dragons that I know!

Dungeons and Demons?

Seriously?!

This damn knock-off world never stops bringing these amazing bootlegs.

-----