Chapter 99
Chapter 99
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 99
Chapter Title: PTSD (3)
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At the end of the passage was an elevator reminiscent of a mechanical parking garage.
A massive door large enough to accommodate a truck came into view. They must use it to load Creatures from the lower levels and send them out to the arena.
The button was half-buried in debris, emitting a red glow.
I took in the sight of the huge button marked with an inverted triangle.
Anyone could tell it was an elevator button....
“Shall we go down?”
Ricardo muttered in relief upon confirming he was unharmed.
“There’s no guarantee going down will improve things.”
“There’s no guarantee staying here will be better either....”
Fortunately, the senior responded.
I nodded to show my agreement, then listened carefully.
A vibration.
It was coming from the debris opposite the elevator, on the arena side. A bomb had definitely gone off there. The shockwave from the explosion earlier had hit my back.
Something seemed to be collapsing further near the epicenter.
Were Barbie and Asil okay?
I suppressed the rising anxiety and spoke up.
“I’ll go down first.”
As soon as I brought up the main point, Ricardo stared at me silently.
His expressionless face was intimidating.
“Sit in the spot least likely to collapse. I’ll be right back.”
“Is this kind of thing stemming from that self-perception of yours too?”
I didn’t think it was the kind of question to ask in this situation.
I wasn’t entirely sure if he understood correctly. He seemed to be pointing out my reckless behavior.
I knelt and slowly walked to the elevator button.
“Probably.”
I muttered as I pressed the button.
“But right now, I’m acting very rationally.”
Ding!
The elevator arrived quickly.
The massive door opened with a heavy thud.
The corridor was bathed in fan-shaped light.
The sudden bright light stung my eyes. I narrowed them and leaned my body forward. Without releasing the button, I peered inside.
The button panel was simple. Only three floors.
A Floor and B Floor, and the arena.
After explaining the situation, I turned to the senior.
“I’ll check A Floor first.”
“No....”
Ricardo, who hadn’t been surprised by my explanation, spoke up.
“Go to B Floor.... Usually, the more vicious Creatures are kept on A Floor....”
“Oh.”
I had forgotten this man had done missions like this often.
I nodded. But I didn’t board the elevator right away.
Was it okay to leave him alone?
I hesitated, then took off my baseball jacket.
“Here, at least take this.”
Ricardo grabbed the baseball jacket I awkwardly offered and tossed it to the floor.
Thud. The jacket that Barbie had chewed me out over but I secretly liked fell into the passage. I knew wearing it wouldn’t make a difference, but it still made me sad.
My baseball jacket....
Looking dejected, I hung my head and entered the elevator.
“I’ll be back....”
“Don’t let your guard down.”
His nagging voice was sharp.
“You know your body isn’t in great shape right now, right?”
I boarded the elevator and pressed B.
Then I frantically mashed the close button. I planned to check B Floor and get back as fast as possible.
The elevator didn’t move as quickly as I hoped.
The door closed slowly. And the elevator moved just as sluggishly.
I chewed my lip until we reached B Floor.
Ding!
[Warning. Cage 27 is open.]
[Warning. Cage 33 is open.]
[Warning. Cage 21 is open.]
Darkness.
As soon as the elevator opened, the AI’s clear voice echoed through the darkness that unfolded before me.
I pressed the open button and furrowed my brow.
Were Cages 21, 27, and 33 the ones holding the Creatures I’d faced?
Or had the explosion’s impact crumpled and opened the cages? If the latter, Creatures were probably roaming the corridor right now. If they were still alive, that is.
Staying inside the elevator, I observed the corridor.
The cool air hitting my body and the smells mixed in with it. This floor seemed relatively intact near the elevator, but the arena side looked blocked by debris.
The end of the corridor was shrouded in darkness, hard to see.
Both sides of the corridor were lined entirely with cages.
I heightened my senses.
“Heh.”
They’d caught a lot.
No, were they alive?
I could sense the Creatures inside the iron bars. Since they were ones civilians could subdue with weapons, they didn’t give off the intimidating presence of the specimens I’d encountered outside the core.
Even so, there were too many to be safe.
And one of them was approaching....
[Specimen 33, ready for boarding.]
“Whoa!”
I raised my voice at the sight of it floating in the darkness.
“That thing!”
A white mask.
A plaster mask with dark hollow eye sockets floated toward me.
A grotesque scene in the dark, eerie corridor, with only the mask drifting.
The moment I saw that familiar movement, a memory exploded somewhere inside me. I had encountered those often in the old world’s fortress city.
Commonly called Death Masks.
“Long time no see!”
Death Masks were easy to capture if you knew how.
“You’re slow, huh?”
Fast ones were hard to catch.
But this one was slow. So slow it was almost cute as it grew larger while approaching. I kept the open button pressed and waited for it to get close enough.
Death Masks latch onto living bodies and suck out nutrients until they wither away. But if you avoided contact with the inside of the mask, capture was possible. They were usually too fast to catch, but this one didn’t seem to be.
You couldn’t kill them by smashing; you had to melt them with heat.
Useless info right now, though.
The moment the mask reached the elevator entrance, I thrust out my arm and jumped.
“Gotcha.”
My chest hurt.
The wound from Arthur’s shockwave throbbed. I winced slightly and looked down at the captured Death Mask.
I had caught it properly.
If I didn’t mess up, it would be useful.
Ignoring the Death Mask trembling in my palm, I stepped into the corridor.
I quickly patrolled B Floor. As expected, the end of the corridor was blocked by debris. Creature 21 seemed buried and dead inside. Creature 27 appeared to be a spider. I saw what looked like spiderlings crawling in an empty cage near the elevator.
I crushed them underfoot and hurried back to the elevator.
“Senior.”
Ding! The elevator opened with a cheerful sound.
Fortunately, Ricardo was still sitting in the same spot.
“We can’t escape through B Floor. The end is blocked like this corridor.”
“What did you bring back?”
Ricardo shot me a look of disbelief as he glanced at my right hand.
I casually lifted the wriggling Death Mask in my palm.
“A Creature.”
“Why’d you bring that?”
“To use as a weapon.”
I spread my hand wide, covering the front of the plaster mask.
Held like this and pressed against a living body, the Death Mask turned into a living vacuum cleaner. The stronger the life form it absorbed, the more powerful the Death Mask itself became, so it wasn’t ideal for prolonged use as a weapon, but we had no choice.
Ignoring the senior’s incredulous stare, I asked.
“I’ll check A Floor next. Is A Floor below B Floor, or is B lower?”
“A is closer to the ground.... It’s hard to move the tricky ones to higher floors....”
“Oh. So they’re more likely to be intact down there.”
The cages would probably be mostly fine too?
His answer gave me a glimmer of hope, lifting my mood a bit.
Having something to do helped me turn away from self-loathing.
“It might take a little longer than last time, but I’ll be quick again.”
I bent down and picked up the nearby baseball jacket.
“If the condition’s okay down there, then....”
KABOOM!
It was a sound that could tear eardrums.
The corridor toward the arena was caving in. The collapsing floor.
Debris and a still faintly breathing mare plummeted downward, vanishing rapidly before my eyes.
I dropped the jacket and ran to the senior.
I grabbed Ricardo as he sprang up like a弹.
Damn it!
“Let go.”
He slid into the elevator.
The moment I felt the solid metal plate, Ricardo spoke. I roughly set him down and mashed the close button.
“You’ll break the buttons....”
A Floor.
I ignored him and pressed the button. B Floor was too close to the arena and out. No guarantee it wouldn’t collapse.
I sighed in relief as the elevator jerked but operated normally.
The descending elevator.
As Ricardo said, it went down for quite a while.
Was this okay?
“Is this alright with you?”
His face had probably taken a hit, and he’d rejected my baseball jacket. With my caution worn thin, I asked while checking his condition.
Ricardo immediately caught my intent.
“It’s not claustrophobia....”
His face actually looked fine.
“The building just collapsed during an air raid and wiped out my family....”
Oh.
I hadn’t expected such a detailed story suddenly.
Flustered, I forgot how to speak for a moment.
“Sorry.”
“For what~?”
He asked back with a smile, so I shut my mouth.
I must have made a weird face. Ricardo looked at me and let out a chuckle.
It was different from the mocking laugh he’d shown before.
His ankle bothering him, he leaned against the wall and rolled his eyes.
“During the First War.... Got caught in an air raid and it collapsed.”
“......”
“Someone must’ve hated it, right~? You heard—Abi was a mafioso....”
His voice dripped with bitterness.
I couldn’t tell if that sharp emotion was directed at himself or his father.
“My mother and siblings had nothing to do with that....”
No.
Listening closely, he seemed angry at both.
“But whatever, my father always favored me, the eldest son. I despised the man, so I was the only one in the family who went astray.”
A cold tone.
“I hardly ever went home. Wandered the streets, looked for ways to leave the area.”
The senior slowly turned his head, averting his gaze.
“Should’ve picked the timing better and quit going astray....”
Ding! The elevator stopped.
While the heavy door slowly opened, I watched him.
A man leaning against the wall, arms crossed, watching the door open.
A bitter smile played on his lips.
“That day too, I stupidly stormed out saying I’d leave for another region....”
[Warning. Cage 1 is open.]
[Warning. Cage 2 is open.]
[Warning. Cage 4 is open.]
[Warning. Cage 10 is open.]
[Warning. Cage 12 is open.]
His words cut off.
The clear voice pulled my mind back to reality.
We had arrived at A Floor.