Is Among Us Traditional Wuxia?

"Alright! Time to start exploring!"

With Brigit's rallying cry, the real expedition began.

Gong Ryun and the others set off into the underground complex. The corridors stretched on and on, giving off a vaguely mine-like feel — except the walls, ceiling, and floor were all metal. If anything, it looked more like the interior of a spaceship.

Flashlights on, they pressed into the dim, vaguely damp-feeling interior. Doors to side rooms dotted the corridors here and there, but every one of them was sealed shut. They looked like automatic doors that simply had no power left to open.

"So this is supposed to be an exploration mission. What exactly are we looking for in here?"

"Ah! I've got the mission note right here!"

"Mission note?"

Brigit held up a scrap of paper. Written on it was the following:

"Couldn't they have just sent that to our personal devices? Why paper?"

"That's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the romance of it, isn't it? Ahaha!"

"The paper aside… this is a rather peculiar job composition. First time I've seen a request laid out like this. Did the client hand you this mission note?"

"Yep! Exactly!"

"It looks a little shady. This isn't some illegal private request, is it?"

"You little punk, getting scared already? The guy's trustworthy! He's an acquaintance of our master!"

"Ah. Well, if that's the case, no ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠worries. I was wondering how we landed work the moment we hit this planet — so it was a connection job after all. And here I thought it might be some illegal black-market commission. Haha!"

"It is a private request, but it's not illegal! Probably!"

"…?"

"Oh, quit fretting! You trust this big sis, right? This is a total sweet-spot gig!"

"Uh… well…"

Hearing Brigit put it that way somehow made it less reassuring — but surely an acquaintance wouldn't hand them a genuinely dangerous job. Gong Ryun decided to stop worrying.

And so they explored the underground complex, clearing missions one by one. Facility maps were painted on the walls at every corridor junction, and they used those to find their way.

First stop: the power room. Mission — check the reserve power.

"Looks like a wash," Un-rang said flatly after surveying the room.

"The very first one?"

"There doesn't appear to be any reserve power to speak of. Everything is fully discharged."

"You could tell that at a glance. Android senses, I take it?"

"That has nothing to do with being an android. Anyone can see it, you thick-nosed racist. When I open my inner eye, there is no flow of electrical energy whatsoever. Every device in here is completely down."

"Fair enough. Just looking at it, the place is coughing up dust with nowhere for electricity to come from."

Un-rang and Gong Ryun both turned to stare at Brigit. Is this actually fine?

Brigit scratched her cheek.

"Eh… well… nobody said we had to complete every mission! What's the whole point of exploration, huh? You check things and take notes! Confirming that a mission is impossible is still part of the job."

"So in other words, if a mission itself is impossible, that's not on us?"

"That's right!"

Trusting Brigit's word, they moved on to the next destination.

Next was the control room, right beside the power room. However…

"It says to swipe a card…"

"Hahah! This card right here! A universal ID-hacking card ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I got from the client's acquaintance — our master's friend! It can forge any ID and punch through security! These days every system's got antivirus so the thing's a total fossil that doesn't work anywhere… but this facility is hundreds of years old, so even today's cheap hacking tools would rip it open like wet paper!"

"There's no power. How exactly are we supposed to swipe a card?"

"Ah."

Second mission: also a wash. In a different sense, this was becoming an absurdly cushy gig. There was nothing to do.

"Does that mean we can't do the last mission either — downloading the backup data from the security room?"

"That one should still be fine. Critical facilities that store backup data often maintain independent power. They have to operate regardless of external variables like blackouts."

"Well, that's a relief, at least."

Next facility: the cafeteria. It sat at the far end of the complex, a long walk away. The party trudged down dark corridors by flashlight.

"Hey, Gong Ryun. Doesn't the atmosphere in here feel kinda creepy?"

"You're the one saying that, Brigit?"

"Aren't you scared something might jump out?"

"Not really? Dark underground facilities are familiar territory for me."

"Well, if you're scared… want this big sis to hold your hand?"

"I'm not a child. That won't be necessary."

"Tsk."

"Hm?"

"Nothing. Whatever."

Bickering about nothing in particular, they reached the cafeteria. It was a bleak, gloomy, personality-free space — the kind of staff mess hall you'd expect from a black-hearted corporation. They'd come all the way out to a distant planet to do research; the least they could do was feed people properly.

They passed rows of rigidly efficient rectangular tables and chairs and moved into the storage room beyond. And there…

"What the hell is this…?"

It was a disaster zone. Shelves had been toppled. Canned goods lay scattered everywhere, reduced to nothing but aluminum shells. The surfaces of the cans looked roughly torn open.

It was an extremely suspicious scene — but something else grabbed their attention first.

"The canned-goods collection mission…?"

"This one's a wash too…?"

"More than half of the five missions are washes…?"

"…If we dig around thoroughly, maybe we'll still turn up something."

In the end the party searched from floor to ceiling.

"Ooooh!! Amitabha, yes!! I found something!!!"

"Oh!! Un-rang! What did you find?!"

"An emergency battery can."

"Why is a battery inside a can…?"

"It's another version of the nanobot beverage androids consume. But it was discontinued over a hundred years ago, so you won't find it on the market anymore! Its collector's value is considerable!"

"Un-rang, you little bastard! You scored big! Well done — mwahahaha!! Alright, I'm gonna find one too!! Hup-cha!!!"

"Is that why they wanted the cans collected…? Antique hunting?"

"Very likely. There are plenty of traditionalists who adore the sensibilities of bygone eras."

"Fits someone who hands out missions on paper scraps."

Skiiirrrrrr.

"Well, delivering missions via paper notes is traditional wuxia, at least."

"Did anyone else just hear something?"

"I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠only hear Brigit kicking empty cans around. My hearing is not particularly sharp."

"Must be my imagination. Look at her — she's using proper footwork just to boot tin cans."

"Such passion. Heh heh heh."

They kept ransacking the storage room after that, but nothing else turned up.

Next, Gong Ryun's party headed for the research labs.

"Thankfully, this mission is one we can actually complete. Heh heh heh."

"Just take a photo. The difficulty level is in a whole different league."

The lab mission was simple: use a personal device to photograph the massive corporate logos mounted on the lab walls. Flip on scan mode and snap them like regular pictures.

The captured image looked like this:

Corporate logo at the top, company name and affiliation beneath it, and a small identification code at the bottom, in that order.

"Why photograph company logos?"

"It's less about the logo itself and more about the identification code underneath. It encodes information — which branch, which planetary office, when the logo was printed, and so on."

"Ahh. The note said to scan three of them, though."

"There are three research labs total, remember? We saw it on the map! Lab One, Lab Two, Lab Three! This is Lab One!! The others are further down that way!"

Sure enough, the other labs each had their own logos mounted on the walls. Even the interior design was different from the first lab — as if entirely different groups had made them home.

"This logo says it's from 'Immersion,' an escort bureau under the Investigation Faction. Wait — does every lab belong to a different company?"

"Precisely so. Common enough arrangement. Much like a joint-stock company, multiple organizations pool capital and personnel and dispatch them to a planet. A kind of work collaboration, if you will. One of the systems the Galactic Government refined so that companies short on funds and manpower can freely survey and develop new planets."

"Huh."

They photographed the logo in Lab Three the same way.

Clunk.

"Hm?"

Mid-scan, Gong Ryun thought he heard an odd sound and looked around. Where had that come from?

In a nearby air vent he hadn't quite checked, one of the vent grates rocked loosely up and down for a moment — then settled back into place as if nothing had happened.