The Secret Beneath the Porcelain
The Underground Village. When I first heard the term, I was momentarily struck speechless. The idea of mutant creatures forming their own society was a concept that appeared nowhere in the original game's lore. Yet, here I was, having that absurd story explained to me in calm, measured tones by none other than Lyla, the infected girl.
“It’s true! Our village is terrified of androids, so we hide deep beneath the ground to survive!”
“You’re afraid of androids?” Serika asked, her expression one of utter disbelief.
“Yes... I suppose it’s because we’re infected. Androids attack us the moment they see us. That’s why the villagers are too scared to ever go up to the surface.”
There was a strange, persuasive logic to her words. I had assumed that if they were mutant creatures, they would naturally be aggressive and savage, but it turned out they were the ones carefully digging tunnels to avoid the androids.
“So, where is this village?”
“If you go a little further in this direction, you’ll find it! To be precise, there’s an entrance to the passage that leads to the village!”
The direction Lyla pointed with such excitement strangely coincided exactly with the location we had been tracking via the ‘Help Me’ signal.
“...Lyla, by any chance, was that signal... sent by you?”
“Ah, yes! That’s right! It was me!”
“......Really?”
Lyla gave a sheepish laugh and nodded. “That day... I had crossed the village boundary and gone outside. I was looking for food. But suddenly, a swarm of monsters descended, and I barely managed to crawl away.”
“So that’s what happened.”
“Yes. I couldn’t make it back to the village, so I just broadcasted a signal anywhere I could. I thought, just in case someone might hear it...”
“And we just happened to be the ones who received it.”
“...I think I was really lucky. Thanks to you, I survived.”
I fell silent for a moment, looking at Revi and Serika. Both of them were staring at Lyla with complicated expressions.
“...But tell me,” I asked quietly. “Lyla, did you create that signal technology yourself?”
“No! In our village... there’s, um, Placia-unni.”
“Placia?”
“Yes! She’s amazing! The villagers say that if it weren’t for her, we’d all be dead. She can handle old parts, turn on the lights, and even generate electricity!”
Serika’s eyes flickered with surprise. “You mean they are producing their own electricity inside the Underground Village?!”
“Yes! Thanks to her, we can live warmly without ever having to go outside.”
Revi muttered quietly, “...Mutant creatures capable of self-sufficiency underground. This is information I have never heard before.”
They were different from the ‘enemies’ I knew. There was no mindless predation, no maddening shrieks. Creatures that fled, hid, and lived by protecting one another. This was a ‘variant’ I had never seen in the game or in reality. And if it was this variant, it might just fall into our hands.
“Let’s go take a look.”
When I said that, Serika asked back with a panicked look. “What?! Chanwoo, you don’t mean...”
“That’s right. I’m saying we’re going to enter that village.”
“You can’t! No matter how docile this infected girl seems now, no one knows what’s waiting for us in there!”
“True. We’ll have to be careful, of course.” I nodded quietly. “But that engineer, Placia. Just from what Lyla says, she’s the architect who made ‘communal living’ possible underground. If they aren’t hostile toward us, they are worth engaging with.”
What we needed right now was the foundation for a settlement. We had an underground parking garage, but because we lacked the equipment to build, we were struggling without even a workshop. If they possessed the technology, there was surely something we could gain.
“And the communication technology that sent us the message... the fact that it came from the mutant faction, not even R.P.M., is suspicious enough.”
Revi broke the tense air and spoke quietly. “The judgment is yours to make, Chanwoo. Whatever decision you reach, I will follow.”
At those words, Serika sighed softly and opened her mouth. “...I have no choice. Then, for this time, I will follow as well. But on the condition that we retreat the moment something goes wrong.”
Finally, I looked at Lyla. “Lyla. By any chance... can you guide us to that village?”
“What?! Yes!! Of course!” Her eyes sparkled. “Actually, I really wanted to tell the villagers about you all. That you were the ones who saved me... so, please come with me!”
The infected girl led the way, her small body gesturing enthusiastically. Following her, we began a long journey once more. This time, it was a step toward a new world buried in darkness, not the ruins of the surface.
The Underground Village, where intelligent infected beings like Lyla gathered to live. Its entrance was in a place no one could have possibly predicted.
“Here it is! This is the entrance to the Underground Village!”
“......Huh?”
“...This toilet?”
“Are you telling us this tiny toilet bowl is the entrance to the village?”
The place we arrived at following Lyla was an old park, left to rot like a ruin on the outskirts of the city. In one corner stood a lonely public restroom. We were in the last stall of the women’s restroom. Lyla pointed at the toilet as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
“Chanwoo. It feels like a trap. This is a lure, no matter how you look at it,” Serika whispered.
“Exactly! It’s suspicious just by looking at it. Let’s just leave now, consider it a bad day, and get out of here.”
“Hmm, still... it feels a bit wasteful to end our journey at a toilet. Let’s see it through to the end.”
I muttered, feeling like I was swallowing bitter medicine. The two androids were still staring at Lyla, who stood in front of the toilet, their eyes filled with killing intent. Revi’s fingertips were twitching, debating whether to draw her sword, and Serika was ready to retreat at any moment, taking me with her. In that suffocating silence, Lyla rolled up her sleeves and said with a bright face, “Then, I’ll show you! The secret way to open the toilet!”
Click. Lyla confidently turned the handle of the toilet.
Whoosh. The murky water that had been sitting there swirled and was sucked downward, but contrary to expectations, the water didn’t refill. And then—
Whirrr... A low, unfamiliar mechanical sound echoed from inside the toilet. A faint vibration traveled through the floor to the soles of our feet. And then—
Clack-clack-clack! The entire toilet began to shake minutely, and it started to slide to the side as if rotating. In its place, a black hole had opened up.
“...A hole?”
“Hehe, yes! This is the entrance to the Underground Village!”
My jaw dropped. The person who designed it was a genius, but the fact that they operated such a device in practice without a second thought meant they were no ordinary beings.
Revi kept her gaze fixed on the toilet and said firmly, “Chanwoo. It’s a structure that has had too much effort put into hiding it. There is a high probability that something is inside.”
Beside her, Serika muttered with a scoff, a bitter smile playing on her lips. “This is suspicious no matter how you look at it. If they were normal, they wouldn’t make a toilet the entrance to their village, absolutely not.”
I took a small breath and nodded. The water was already gone, and the toilet lid was opening slowly with an absurd mechanical sound.
“...But the lid is already open,” I said, lifting the corners of my mouth. “Since we’ve come this far, let’s check it out to the end.”
Beneath the toilet, a circular passage that looked as if someone had artificially dug it was slowly revealing itself. The two androids still hadn’t lowered their guard, but eventually, we cautiously approached the entrance step by step.
Swish. Swish. A sloped passage like a slide continued down below the hole. Small lightbulbs were lined up along it.
“Wow, these lights... they’re all working?”
“There seem to be over a hundred just at the entrance of the passage.”
“If it’s this much, it means there’s a much larger power grid down there...”
At first, I had imagined a few shabby mud huts when I heard ‘Underground Village,’ but the current situation far exceeded those expectations.
Crunch. Crunch. As we carefully followed Lyla down the stairs, an exclamation leaked out of me before I knew it.
“...Seriously, who on earth made this?”
“Hehe. Unni did.” Lyla turned back and shrugged. “Placia-unni designs and manages it all by herself. Electricity, communication, she made it all!”
The name ‘Placia’ appeared once again. The existence that had been mentioned several times already. The person who generated power underground, maintained the system, and even made communication possible. An ‘engineer who claims to be a technician among intelligent infected beings.’ That in itself was alien, dangerous, and yet, it piqued my curiosity.
“Here we are!” Lyla, who had been walking in front of the door, stopped quietly. In the darkness, a CCTV camera next to the door slowly raised its head with a creaking mechanical sound. The machine’s eye seemed to scan the three of us in turn. On one wall, a rusted terminal and an electronic intercom were attached, and above them, an old screen began to glow slowly.
[Scanning... Visitors identified.]
[Unidentified biological response. Confirmation of infected companion complete.]
“It recognized us!” Lyla said, her eyes sparkling. “It’s okay. Placia-unni will open it soon.”
“To think a mutant village would have such facilities...” Serika narrowed her amethyst eyes and muttered low. “The information is insufficient. The existence of Placia, the village—nothing is confirmed. It’s dangerous to move based on uncertain data.”
Beside her, Revi was still holding her sword, her gaze fixed on the door. “Whether it’s dangerous or not, if it’s the path you’ve chosen, Chanwoo, I will follow. I am an android tasked with your protection.”
My sweat-drenched palms were trembling coldly. Beyond this door was the unknown. It was a forbidden boundary that neither the ecology of the mutants we knew nor the order of the androids had reached. We were now reaching out into the world of such infected beings. Whether that hand would grasp the key to salvation or the seeds of catastrophe was something no one knew yet.