The Red Queen Hypothesis
Hugo staggered backward from the blow to his face, reeling from the impact. But it only lasted a moment. He clutched his nose and immediately counterattacked. The two of us became tangled in a brutal fistfight inside the cramped elevator.
“Hup!”
The elevator was so narrow that our range of movement was severely limited. We had no choice but to watch each other’s motions closely and exchange blows with careful timing. Hugo’s fist slammed into my raised guard with vicious force.
BOOM!
My back slammed against the wall, and the elevator shook violently with a deafening crash. The impact echoed throughout the entire car, vibrating along the solid steel. There was nowhere left to retreat.
I dodged Hugo’s relentless barrage of attacks and charged straight into his guard. Grabbing his waist in a firm clinch, I drove him backward until he crashed into the opposite wall.
THUD.
This time it was Hugo who took the heavy hit. Even while gasping for breath from the massive impact, he drove his knee hard into my stomach.
“Ugh…!”
We both took a single step back, breathing hard in short bursts. Then we rushed at each other again.
The elevator shook nonstop, producing violent crashes every time we slammed into the walls. Not a single word passed between us. Sometimes actions speak louder than a thousand words. Right now, the only thing standing before us was a clear enemy. Neither of us was truly evil—we were simply obstacles that had to be overcome.
I seized Hugo by the side of his head and repeatedly smashed it against the elevator wall. At one point, he thrust his arm between the walls to brace himself with raw strength. The moment I faltered under the pressure, Hugo didn’t miss the opening. He planted his foot against the wall, shoved off, and used the momentum to throw me down.
I quickly pushed his body away and scrambled free, but another attack came flying in immediately. I couldn’t dodge the fist in time and took a brutal blow to the jaw.
“…!”
For a split second, I nearly blacked out. But I clenched my teeth and held on. My senses floated away, yet I refused to fall. I snapped my head forward from its snapped-back position and delivered a headbutt with everything I had.
“Gah!”
This was a mindless, ruleless brawl—pure chaos. The only thought driving me was to knock the opponent down before I went down myself.
We spent the entire descent smashing each other into walls and the floor, and in no time at all, both of us were battered wrecks. In an elevator with nowhere to hide, we couldn’t help but keep taking damage. There wasn’t even time to reach for anything inside our coats.
Our pistols had already slipped out during the struggle and were now sliding and clattering across the vibrating floor. They must have fallen from our inner pockets while we were yanking and throwing each other around. This was bad.
I caught my breath and glanced at the floor indicator. Time’s almost up… Hugo’s intended floor was nearly here. I couldn’t let him reach it peacefully. He would obviously call for reinforcements.
I lunged for the buttons in the corner. But just as expected, Hugo immediately moved to stop me before I could get there. He clearly had no intention of letting me go easily.
With only two floors left until arrival, I had no choice but to rip off my jacket and throw it at him. As Hugo reached out to swat away the large shadow flying toward him, I charged forward at the same time. While his vision was momentarily blocked by the jacket, I slipped past him and pressed the button for the floor he had originally selected again.
Vrrr.
The lights dimmed. The elevator didn’t stop. Instead, it continued descending straight toward the lowest level. For now, I had bought some time. But I couldn’t let Hugo press any buttons again. If it stopped midway, everything would be ruined. This time, protecting the panel was my job.
But before I could even turn to face him, the jacket wrapped around my neck. The thin fabric tightened mercilessly around my throat.
“Ghk—cough!”
Hugo had already grabbed the jacket and was using it as a weapon. This was exactly why you should never hand someone even an ordinary object without thinking. He strangled me with the jacket while stretching his body forward. From the direction his hand was reaching, it looked like he planned to mash every button he could.
With my airway cut off, I kept choking and gasping. Then I planted my feet against the wall with all my strength—just like Hugo had done earlier—and launched myself forward. This time Hugo ended up on the bottom as we tumbled across the floor again.
I pinned down the struggling Hugo and held on as long as I could. But it didn’t last. He hooked his leg between my thighs, twisted, and instantly reversed our positions. My body spun once and my skull slammed against the floor.
Hugo drove his fist into my face with full power, then turned back toward the elevator buttons. I grabbed his arm as he tried to get up and refused to let go.
“You son of a bitch…!”
I clung desperately to the handrail and his sleeve, refusing to budge. Hugo kicked wildly, trying to shake me off with everything he had. I timed it perfectly—knocking aside his flailing leg to disrupt his balance before charging in again.
In the end, Hugo fell backward from the surprise attack. The force of my charge added to the impact.
CRASH!
This collision was far more violent than the last. As Hugo gasped harshly, my eyes suddenly caught the pistol rolling across the floor. I reached for it.
But Hugo wasn’t about to let me have it easily. Despite the heavy hit, he shoved me aside and lunged for the gun. The fight devolved back into the same frantic brawl as before. We read each other’s moves, pulling, pushing, kicking, and stretching desperately for the pistol. The wounds accumulating across our bodies no longer even registered. Even as we spat out pained breaths, our bodies refused to react to the agony.
This stubborn dogfight finally ended with a single moment of carelessness.
The instant Hugo let his guard down and tried to throw me backward as I reached for the pistol, I suddenly reversed the direction of force and slammed him straight into the wall. The abrupt shift in power lasted only a moment, but that made it all the more effective.
One moment of carelessness. Hugo, caught by both his own strength and mine, lost his grip on me and was hurled into the opposite wall. I quickly ran for the pistol, but then I turned around instead. While Hugo was still reeling from the impact and rolling on the floor beneath the wall, I kicked his head with everything I had.
“Guhk!”
Hugo’s head slammed into the wall again with a tremendous sound. His skull bounced back like a ball. Even I could tell it was a devastating blow. Oof. I hope it didn’t crack.
“Hoo…”
But whatever. It wasn’t my concern. Since his thick skull was still intact, it probably hadn’t been enough to kill him. In the end, Hugo simply lost consciousness.
It wouldn’t threaten his life, but he wouldn’t be getting up anytime soon. In the now-silent elevator, I took a moment to catch my breath and calmly picked up the pistol that had been rolling across the floor.
A short while later, the elevator’s cheerful arrival chime rang out. It felt like we had been fighting for ages, yet we had only just reached the lowest floor.
My whole body aches…
Just how fiercely had we fought? There wasn’t a single part of me that didn’t hurt. I wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth and stood in front of the elevator doors.
Soon, with a loud mechanical scrape, the doors opened. A corridor lined so densely with harsh white LEDs that it could drive someone insane came into view.
I glanced back at Hugo one last time before stepping out.
Should I kill him here?
I frowned for a moment, considering it. I had a pistol in my hand. Hugo was completely defenseless. If I wanted to kill him, it would be laughably easy compared to the fight we had just endured.
But I snorted and stepped outside.
Maybe it’s better to leave him owing me one.
You never knew when our paths might cross again. Besides, killing him while he was defenseless didn’t feel like proper respect between fellow Hounds.
It should be fine. That’s what I told myself.
I hurried onward to continue my mission.
The security had grown even tighter, probably because of the emergency alarm. I moved through the passages with extreme caution, careful not to run into any researchers. As expected of an underground research facility, the layout was incredibly complex. Even after memorizing several patterns, I still couldn’t sketch out the full schematic.
After dragging my exhausted body around for a long time, I finally found a clue.
‘Translucent Horizon’?
It was a document that seemed to have been accidentally dropped in someone’s haste. It looked like the first page of a report. The only notable word on it was that one, but something about it felt strangely familiar.
This looks exactly like the photo the client showed me.
Was this the codename of the weapon we were supposed to find? Translucent Horizon. Just how powerful a weapon were they building that they would construct a massive secret facility this deep underground to develop it in total secrecy?
Now that I had the weapon’s name, I continued exploring the lower levels. Security hadn’t reached this area yet. After wandering for some time, I came across a section where the researchers’ voices grew noticeably louder. Continuous loud mechanical sounds echoed as well. From the scale of the noise, it seemed larger than a decent-sized shipyard.
I avoided the noisy area and moved to a vantage point where I could observe it safely. Eventually, I found a suitable location—an elevated room with blackout curtains. The owner appeared to be out at the moment. The loud metallic scraping from outside carried clearly into the room.
I still hadn’t seen what was down there. I had been too busy looking for a hiding spot. I slowly approached the window, grabbed the blackout curtain, and yanked it open.
“…?”
I couldn’t help tilting my head at what I saw beyond the curtain. What the hell was that?
I doubted my own eyes. Surely this wasn’t some bluff—a fake metal decoy prepared for situations like this? But no matter how I looked at it, it didn’t seem like one.
I pulled up the photo the client had provided. It was the image they had shown me, claiming it was an optical weapon intended for personal use. At the time, I had agreed with their assessment.
I looked out the window again. An object identical to the one in the photo was being “assembled” at a scale of nearly fifty meters.
Personal weapon my ass.
There was no way anyone could carry that thing around. It was essentially a fixed battery emplacement. Overwhelmed by its sheer presence, I unconsciously let out a sigh of admiration and took a photo to send to the client.
Unfortunately, I wouldn’t be able to fulfill the client’s request exactly. There was no chance of moving something that enormous. All I could do was report that it was a colossal superweapon.
Just what the hell are they planning to use something like that for?
These so-called new weapons seemed to be getting more and more excessive. Just how far were they going to push this monstrosity, and what exactly did they hope to achieve? It had already far surpassed the level of a mere optical weapon. Were they trying to recreate the same shock that nuclear weapons brought in the twentieth century?
I stared at the Translucent Horizon in a brief trance before turning away. My answer had always been the same.
Do whatever you want.
Yes. Whether they revived that horror or not, they could do as they pleased. The request was complete. There was nothing left for me to do here.