Temporary Access Granted

After driving off the White Shriek, Jincheon and his companions set about searching for a way to open the entrance.

Or rather — they were about to.

Vreeeeee—

The moment the party touched down and stepped before the colossal metal doors, a green light began sweeping them from head to toe.

Beep. Beep. Beep!

A rigid mechanical voice followed, speaking in the language of the Calsorn Empire.

At a glance, it looked like they would have to find another way in. But Calsira — who knew exactly what had happened when the Zabalcan Empire first discovered these ruins — was betting everything on one particular outcome.

"Yes!"

Calsorn Empire ruins generally fell into three categories: facilities that attacked everything on sight, facilities where every system had shut down completely, or facilities whose AI judged the situation an emergency and granted entry.

Fortunately, this one had chosen the last option. Calsira let out a cheer before she even realized she was shouting.

Clank! Chiiiiirrrr—

The sound of locks disengaging rang out, and the massive doors began to dissolve apart as if coming to pieces. A space vast enough for mecha to pass through yawned open — yet beyond the threshold, only an abyss of darkness waited.

"Tch. Boring as hell."

Jincheon, who had been hoping to smash through the ruins' defenses by sheer force, wore a look of pure disappointment. He brightened his flame even further and strode inside without hesitation.

Tak!

After they had gone a certain distance in, a sound clicked somewhere and light began to flood the space. Systems that had long sat in power-saving mode had detected living beings and automatically restored illumination.

"Ugh…"

"Kh…!"

Calsira and Heliane, who had been relying solely on Jincheon's firelight, scowled as they forced their eyes to adjust to the sudden brilliance.

Once they could see again, what greeted them was nothing but an enormous empty chamber.

Thud! Woom— woom— woom—

Just as they were wondering whether they needed to press deeper still, a faint vibration ran through the floor, and the entire space began to descend at a diagonal.

"So it was underground. No wonder no one could find it."

Searching every inch of a deep subterranean complex with zero prior information was a problem that had nothing to do with raw ability. The elevator showed no sign of stopping — the depth was considerable.

This isn't some ordinary ruin. It's definitely a military installation!

Heliane cheered inwardly at the sight of what was clearly a military facility. If things went well, she might finally repay every humiliation she had endured to get this far.

A military base would naturally keep weapons stockpiled for emergencies. At present, the overall military technology of the entire galaxy still fell short of even half of what the Calsorn Empire had possessed. Personal firearms had more or less caught up — but Calsorn-made weapons remained vastly superior. Each individual Calsorn firearm was worth a fortune; most only changed hands after the wealthiest collectors had fought vicious bidding wars over them.

I'll play along for now. Somehow get my hands on Calsorn Empire weapons… and kill them both.

Having lost her comrades and her purpose, all that remained in her was a thirst for revenge against the Horned Empress — and pure hatred for Jincheon. What came after killing them was a problem for later. She would think about that when the time came.

Beeeep— Thud!

After some time, a warning tone sounded alongside a mild jolt. Steadying themselves with the help of the alert, they watched the massive steel doors ahead split open to either side.

A barren steel floor and walls stripped of every ornament — bleak enough to feel desolate. The floor itself was a mess, as if some chaos had once torn through the place. And yet, somewhere within, treasures the whole galaxy coveted were surely sleeping.

"Hm?"

That was when Jincheon noticed his Bio Device had returned to normal function.

"Looks like there's no magnetic field in here. Radio waves still can't reach us, though."

When he activated the Bio Device, the screen that had been warping uselessly under magnetic interference resolved into a clean, usable display. As he had said, the lack of signal made network functions impossible — but there was still plenty it could do offline.

"Might as well start by mapping the place."

Jincheon worked the hologram with ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠practiced ease, then—

"Ah!"

—bellowed at the top of his lungs. In response, something resembling a game minimap began assembling itself in the hologram, calculated from the way the sound reflected off the walls. In areas thick with enemies or active security systems he would have used ultrasound, but here — with no immediate danger and a Bio Device already in hand — no special equipment was required. That was the real advantage.

"We're moving."

"Yes."

Unable to hide the excitement in her voice, Calsira headed inward alongside Jincheon.

"This is more than just a simple barracks. Look at all the amenities."

"You're right."

Just as Jincheon said, the broad interior made it clear this was no mere warehouse or billet. Rest chairs, vending machines, even a small garden — now overgrown and disordered from lack of maintenance — were all present. Along one wall, a hologram rendered in startlingly lifelike color displayed natural scenery, a clear effort to care for the mental health of whoever had been stationed here. Living underground with nothing but artificial light, they must have needed something to ease the longing for the surface world.

It would have been nice if the vending machines still held anything, but every product was marked sold out.

After wandering through countless rooms and finding nothing of use, Jincheon frowned.

"This is a problem. Without water or food, we won't last long."

Jincheon himself could endure without eating, but Calsira and Heliane required regular meals and hydration. In the wild, water and game were plentiful enough not to matter — but in a metal tomb with not a single animal in sight, even Jincheon had no way to produce food from nothing.

"Let's drop the small-scale searching for now and find the main computer first."

Calsira proposed connecting to the central system and seeing what they could dig up, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠since food, water, and artifacts were nowhere in sight.

"That makes sense. We'll head for the core."

Jincheon agreed and set off toward the center of the complex, updating the map as they went. It was a one-dimensional assumption — that anything important would be in the middle — but surprisingly often, that assumption held. Or at the very least, the center would have signage pointing them somewhere else.

Fewer weapons than I expected. No — a military facility wouldn't just leave them lying around everywhere. Patience. Stay quiet and wait for now.

Following behind, Heliane fought down the growing restlessness as no weapons appeared. They had only just ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠begun the search; expecting results this early was, even she had to admit, far too impatient. But the state of her body was more than enough to make her feel that urgency.

Zzt— zzt—

Kh… again… I just came from the lightest touch…

The slightest mismatch in her walking rhythm with Jincheon's sent simultaneous jolts through her nipples, her pussy, and her anus. Already marked by the Lust Emperor's touch, her body was being developed into something more lewd by the moment. The thirst for revenge was still there — but her instincts as a woman, regardless of species, were screaming that she had to escape this situation.

Whether he knew her predicament or not, Jincheon strolled along with his hands clasped behind his back, casually tugging the rope. He looked for all the world like a leisurely old man taking his pet out for a walk.

"Ah — there's a directory here."

At that moment they found a holographic display indicating where each corridor led. Calsira, who still knew the most about these ruins, pressed the hologram labeled Central Control Room. An arrow-shaped hologram formed and settled into place in front of her, tracking her movements and always pointing the way.

"This is kind of fun. Feels like a game."

Jincheon smirked at the navigation system that so closely resembled a game's pathfinding UI, and headed in the direction the arrow indicated.

"This is just a navigation system. Everyone still uses these."

"The place I came from didn't have anything like this."

"Ah…"

Calsira had grown up in cities and imperial palaces bristling with the latest systems, so this was second nature to her. To Jincheon — who had come from the Murim world and then lived in a poor district — it was an entirely new experience. Misreading his comment as something negative, Calsira fell silent, and an awkward quiet settled over them for a moment.

Fortunately, the silence ended when the arrow hologram shot toward a particular door and bobbed up and down insistently.

"Good thing the systems are still running. Made this easy to find."

"No kidding. If everything had been dead, it would've taken us half a day just to locate this place."

With every directory, sign, and indicator fully electronic, a stopped or hostile system would have made smooth exploration like this impossible.

Whirrr—

The automatic doors opened, and as they stepped inside, the first thing they noticed was a knee-high machine with a flat top standing at the center of the room. Scattered chairs lay in disarray all around it.

"Can you get it running?"

"One moment. If I press this…"

Calsira worked the knee-high console, and a hologram bloomed above the machine. After some clumsy manipulation of the display, it began sketching out a spatial layout.

"This is the interior map of the ruins."

"Hold on. Let me update the data."

Jincheon enlarged his Bio Device's capture screen and photographed the holographic map. Once he fed the data into his own map, the crude sound-based sketch resolved into a clean, complete layout.

"I'll check the database for what's actually in this place."

If they could determine what kind of military base this had been, they could predict what they might still find. After a short wait, Calsira uncovered something unexpected.

"This was… a training ground. The fog, the magnetic field — all of it was engineered to create specific combat conditions."

The Calsorn Empire had modified the planet's forest, installing machines that generated magnetic fields strong enough to kill all communications, along with fog-producing devices. The purpose: cooperative combat training under extreme conditions where neither radio contact nor visual confirmation was possible. They had also genetically altered the carnivorous animals living in the forest so that, while behaving normally day to day, they would feel intense, instinctive hatred the moment an outsider appeared.

"So that's why they all went full We Are the World the second they saw outsiders."

Jincheon finally understood the unnatural aggression the forest animals had shown toward anything foreign.

But the White Shriek was easy enough to talk to. Maybe it wasn't originally from this forest — or maybe the genetic modifications faded over the centuries.

The question about the White Shriek crossed his mind, but by now it was little more than a minor curiosity.

"It looks like a sudden mobilization order was issued, and they abandoned the base in a hurry. They didn't even have time to shut the systems down."

Left behind, the base had continued executing its programmed commands for over two thousand years: continuously generating the magnetic field, releasing fog once a month, and activating the elevators for training drills the moment the fog went out.

"Hearing all that, there are a lot of suspicious loose ends. Why did the Zabalcan Empire only search this place once? They must have had free time eventually."

"They're a people who love war more than anything. Any other nation would have found this ages ago — but the Zabalcan Empire is primitive in everything except military technology."

These were the people who had tried to kill her. Not a shred of respect colored the crude words that left her mouth.

"Anyway, if they left in that much of a rush, they must have left quite a few things behind."

"Most likely. This section is the food storage, this is the supply depot, and over here is the hangar. It looks ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠like it doubles as an armory as well."

"With a mobilization order, they would have taken the heavy weapons."

"But personal firearms have a decent chance of still being here."

Even a handful of personal firearms would fetch a considerable sum in credits. Weapons were consumables in the end — they could only hope a few spares remained.

"We'll hit the hangar later. Right now, food and water come first."

"Understood. Let's start there, then."

Even if the Zabalcan Empire launched a full-scale search, there was no risk of being discovered while they remained inside this base. Securing food and water was the clear priority, and no one disagreed with Jincheon's direction.

Kh…! Hurry… and just come already…!

Heliane bit back her moans with desperate effort, silently begging for them to reach the hangar — anything to escape a situation several times more humiliating than slavery itself.