The Screamer's Tentacles
High temperatures typically create physical discomfort, while low temperatures cause mental anxiety.
The reasons we avoid going outside in this sweltering heat and don't want to be isolated in the biting cold are fundamentally not that different.
As the temperature drops even further the deeper I go.
Opening the bulkhead and stepping straight into the facility's interior, the rate of temperature drop was faster than expected.
When I was first deployed, the cool temperature of around 15 degrees was maintained, but now it had fallen below 10 degrees.
It wouldn't drop to sub-zero, but the sudden drop made me feel a bit uncomfortable.
The human body is so inconvenient that even a slight warmth or chill makes it stop listening.
Especially humans with illegal implants are more sensitive to rapid temperature changes.
Since I had compromised on safety and cost-effectiveness with the Modular Exo-Suit parts, it was fine, but if any of the prisoners deployed to this Darkzone had received implant surgery, they must be suffering right now.
For now, periodically massage their limbs to prevent muscles and senses from freezing, continuing their self-mapping.
By the way, compared to the previous building, this building has a lot more internal destruction traces.
Looking at the wide corridor with the faint glow of the Glow Stick, half-collapsed walls, broken equipment, overturned transport trays, and spilled contents were quite visible.
I couldn't clearly distinguish whether someone had rushed through and pushed things aside or if something had chased and caused this mess.
After all, the fog covering the entire floor hides most evidence, and more importantly, I'm not a professional detective.
When I bent the second Glow Stick and then the third.
I had already faced another large bulkhead and the space beyond.
The bulkhead leading outside was closed, but the internal one was open, so it was undeniable that some incident had occurred.
This facility had a sufficiently wide passage, but the common area beyond the bulkhead felt not just spacious but vast.
It was probably the start of the serious confidential area inside the facility.
Remaining: 60%
Before exploring the interior, I checked that the oxygen filter remaining had depleted faster than expected.
Only 40 minutes have passed since I started exploring, and the oxygen filter has already consumed 40%?
This is similar to the consumption rate when I deliberately caused a fire to deal with the Growler and produced a large amount of smoke.
That means there is a similar level of 'contaminant' in the air of this space.
I carefully spread my arms so that my clothes wouldn't brush against anything, and threw the Glow Stick.
The Glow Stick flying in an ideal parabola fell with a dull sound.
In the dense fog in the darkness, the faint green fluorescence spread widely, illuminating approximately a 3-meter radius.
Then, the entities in the fog that hadn't been visible before were revealed as shadows.
There were indeed Primordials in hibernation.
If this large facility had been urgently closed, it had to be for this reason: abnormal proliferation of Primordials or large-scale invasion.
Primordials fundamentally have various types per individual, but can be simply classified into three: Always Active, Position Holding, and Reaction Active.
Here, Always Active means Primordials that always look for food whether there are explorers in the Darkzone or not. The Growler I encountered earlier by bad luck is a good example.
In contrast, Position Holding are egg-laying types that never leave their territory, mostly those that can't move or have reasons they can't leave specific areas.
And the Primordials curled up sleeping in the fog of the wide common area I'm facing now are Reaction Active.
Basically, without stimulation, they maintain hibernation, but once stimulated, depending on the individual, they switch to Always Active or Position Holding.
Moreover, these guys have almost no sense of smell unlike the Growler, but instead have both hearing and vision.
The overwhelming advantage of the Glow Stick I mentioned earlier. It's that it can be easily used in situations like this.
First, with the hearing sensitivity of these guys, a light small Glow Stick falling makes a sound that can be lightly ignored, like the environmental sounds heard occasionally.
Instead, the sound of an adult male jumping or speaking loudly with a big voice will almost always wake them.
Next, the visual sensitivity.
These guys don't react to some natural lights like fluorescence, so throwing Glow Sticks around doesn't make them react.
Instead, very strong artificial lights like flashlight, lighter, or laser will almost always react within a 30-meter radius.
If it's a elite squad of 4 people with good chemistry, they could wipe out this level of Primordial horde in an instant and open the way, but I'm not possible right now.
Not 100% impossible, but the risk is too high compared to the return.
I know how terrifying those cute little ghosts curled up in the dense fog are.
To put it bluntly, it's more troublesome and difficult than two Growlers rushing at once.
So, I'll quietly bypass them.
I took out two more Glow Sticks, bent them in order, threw one close, and the other much farther than the first.
Creating a light line like a bridge connecting the lights, and carefully moving between them while sitting.
Ssssss, ggggggg.
Pffff, ssssss.
At best, Primordials with the body size of young children were curled up maintaining body heat, breathing faintly.
Fortunately, the ones in hibernation had dull tentacles, so light brushing wouldn't wake them, but my movements had to be as careful as possible.
If I wake them, it's over.
I pulled out my weapon without making a sound and crawled on the floor with both hands.
The faint light from the Glow Stick, the hazy fog covering most of the view, and the unknown number of Primordials lurking in it.
Among them, only I am the outsider and uninvited guest, and also the prey.
Ssssss.
The foul breath from the Primordial is heard from a distance not even close to touching the nose if lying down, or from a distance where turning the head would touch the nose.
No ASMR broadcast could be more vivid than this.
But I'm a 10-year veteran.
Waking up the sleeping Primordial with a rookie mistake and triggering a Wave? Then I'd have to peel off the veteran sticker and die.
I increased my crawling speed before the Glow Stick's light completely faded.
Due to the fog, the light was dispersed and it was hard to distinguish objects properly, but instead, the shadow of the sleeping Primordial breathing was seen to stir greatly each time.
I judged the number of guys by the size and position of the shadows like mines, and moved while listening to the breath sounds to measure the exact distance.
The temperature was cool to the point of being icy, but with high tension and high concentration, sweat droplets formed on my forehead.
But what was most worrying was separate.
Remaining: 42%
Indeed, this fog was the contaminant.
As I moved in the fog lowering my posture to knee height, a huge load was accumulating on the gas mask filter.
I don't want to imagine what would happen if I breathed this fog without the filter.
"Haah."
After passing through how many Primordials, I gave up counting, and finally reached the opposite side of the wide common area.
As expected, this space beyond was also quite wide. Unlike the common area that was just spacious, this place was filled with 'rooms' separated by separate glass wall partitions.
To put it first, it felt like it was stuffed full of glass prisons where the interior could be seen without hiding from the outside, and there was no privacy for the workers at all.
Even the company I worked for had placed opaque partitions in the office to protect the workers' privacy to some extent.
I wonder what kind of place ■■■ Corporation is that creates such inhumane and immoral working environments. This is worker abuse.
Some rooms have the glass walls completely shattered and free entry, but most rooms have doors tightly closed. Is it automatic isolation due to security measures?
Checking the place where the thick glass wall was shattered, there were red blood-like stains inside the desk.
Given that not even a single bone fragment remained, it seemed they were used as calorie for the Primordials' hibernation in advance.
Seeing that the thick glass wall that wouldn't be easily shattered even by bullets was completely destroyed, I could tell how ferocious the Primordial that rampaged here was.
Nothing worth farming...
Searching drawers or cabinets, all that came out was random document bundles, books whose purpose was unknown, and writing utensils.
It was as if someone had deliberately cleared out only the important things. It was strangely neat for a place that had been swept by Primordials once.
There's no law that I have to be first in the Darkzone.
The person who came in earlier had looted this place and left, or I came at a bad time before items respawn.
Or it might just be this type of Darkzone from the beginning.
In fact, when playing farming-focused hack and slash RPG games or roguelikes, you often encounter unique dungeons.
White junk items don't drop at all, but high-value items with extremely low drop rates drop randomly for veteran-only dungeons.
Considering the vast scale of this place, the large number of sleeping Primordials, and the dense contaminating fog, it's not a bad guess.
Farming and growth element games have the common point that higher difficulty gives better rewards.
"......!"
Just as I was about to turn back from the place with nothing more to see.
I suddenly caught something wriggling at the edge of my vision and my body stiffened.
In the darkness, slowly moving through the fog, the 'thing' that had stretched out had already taken over most of the space.
Damn it, no wonder there were more sleeping Primordials than I thought.
I held my breath as much as possible in the countless tentacle bundles that filled my vision, whose number I didn't know, and rolled my eyeballs left and right with all my might.
This tentacle bundle with cute protrusions sprouting like octopus suckers was the tentacle nerve bundle of the Screamer, the most infamous Position Holding Primordial.
This guy without vision, smell, or hearing relies only on tentacles to wander aimlessly in a specific area, and immediately reacts by screaming horribly if a living being (human) touches it.
The scream it makes boasts a huge volume that can cause severe damage to the eardrum if heard without protection within 50 meters, and of course brings in a huge number of sensitive hearing Primordials.
Even though I barely avoided all those sleeping Primordials to reach here, if I touch that one wrongly, a Wave will be triggered immediately.
Then the game will be over, my clothes will be over, and my life will be over.
Real scam game.
At least, I could have turned on the hazard lights or something to prepare my mind.
I stared at the tentacle bundle that had passed dangerously close to my body as if it would touch it, ready to kill.
The Screamer takes 30 seconds each to extend and retract the tentacles. Also, the maximum length of the tentacle is 30 meters.
Considering that the tentacle bundle spreads widely around the guy, the coverage area is enormous.
Position Holding Primordials that occupy a territory like a boss are mostly these guys.
Tststst...
With the unpleasant sound of the tentacles retracting, they start to retract back the way they came.
Since the guy extends tentacles silently in the darkness, if I get a sudden scare, even veterans can't do anything, but if I avoid detection, the next is not difficult.
When the tentacle bundle completely passed my body, I carefully pulled out the jungle machete from the sheath.
In the Darkzone, you must always be silent.
It's common sense to kill the noisy ones first.