New Beginning (17)
In life, things rarely flow according to one's desires. It was inevitable that good times were often followed by bad times. If everything went according to plan, there would be no problems in this world.
However, since that wasn't the case, this world was filled with all sorts of issues.
'I wished that wouldn't be the case this time!'
I saw the ghoul reaching for the lift and pierced through its hand with a plasma cutter. With a shattering sound, the ghoul lost its hand along with its wrist. It desperately tried to hang onto the lift with its remaining hand, but I wasn't going to let that happen. I immediately swung my tool, completely knocking it off.
Clang-clang!
The lift swayed as if it were about to crash down any moment. It wasn't just a couple of ghouls clinging to it. The sight of dozens of ghouls swarming toward my movable booth was dizzying just to witness.
I couldn't even begin to grasp how to handle this. While I was desperately trying to fend them off, Nadia, who was on top of Carry, stepped in to help me.
She was attempting to shake the ghouls off the lift, but their resistance was so fierce that she couldn't inflict any significant damage.
I saw the tool Nadia was holding get snatched by a ghoul and fall below. I quickly shouted,
"Move back!"
"But...!"
"Nadia!"
As I shouted again, demanding she listen, Nadia flinched and had a tearful expression. Her tail drooped, but what's wrong is wrong. Once caught and fallen, it would've been truly over.
I thought perhaps hiding in the lift might drop the ghouls' attention, so I crouched down. However, that only incited the ghouls to become more frantic.
Even unseen, those creatures filled with murderous intent began to direct their fury at Carry and Nadia, hovering in the air. Their shrill cries competing to grab them first were truly nightmarish.
The urge to escape immediately consumed my mind, as if ringing alarms continuously. The pressure from all directions and the tension sharpened my mind and senses to their limits.
The lift was still ascending normally. More time would be needed to reach Port 12, and mere time wasn't sufficient to get to the opposite side.
I needed another method.
"Celestia! Help! Help...!"
Biting my lip so hard, my mouth became stiff and words didn't come out well. Yet, the urgency must have been conveyed as the offline communication was quickly switched online, almost simultaneously.
- What's happening!
"I'm isolated right now! At the maintenance area repair platform!"
- Isolated?! How on earth...! Hang in there for a bit!
"Is there any way? Please tell me there is!"
- Sorry, but there isn't! But I'll try something...!
Celestia shouted that she hadn't yet unlocked the lock on the area system. Both Nadia and I could only hear that, but the ghouls seemed to respond by getting even more frenzied. Their rampage began damaging the port.
【Kyaaaaaaah!】
"Get off, I said!"
As I constantly warded off the ghastly ghouls, at some point, the lift received a surge of power and lurched upward. With the shake, some ghouls fell off, and I managed to get on top of Port 12.
When I was about to move to the next lift, Nadia urgently stopped me.
"Hyun-woo, don't jump over! It seems like we can make it in one go!"
【Notice. The central rail has been opened. Port 12 lift is connecting to the rail. Workers, brace for shaking.】
Nadia, who wasn't idle, picked up a PDA from somewhere and manipulated it, making the control room announcement echo. The rail across the center of the repair platform also revealed itself.
【Kieeeeh!】
【Aaaaah!】
The shrill cries made my ears ache. Already suffering a headache due to the blue crystal core the creatures carried, I barely swallowed the urge to scream at them to shut up, knowing it wouldn't make a difference.
- I have one piece of good news and two pieces of bad news!
Celestia resumed communication.
- The good news is the system itself wasn't locked, but the bad news is that the system is overloaded!
It wasn't what we wanted to hear, and in the midst of crisis, annoyance surged over my face. We were facing death, and why was there hesitation in telling this? A curse involuntarily escaped.
"Get to the point! We're about to die...!"
"Hyun-woo, watch out!"
"Ugh!"
A ghoul's hand pierced through the metal floor of the lift. The grotesquely transformed hand twisted at unnatural angles as if trying to grasp me, but instead of stomping it, I redirected my plasma cutter for an attack.
- I discovered that the energy produced in the base's central reactor chamber is concentrated in the maintenance area. The system detected this and forced a power outage in the maintenance area to prevent a rampage!
Celestia explained someone had intentionally fixed the energy flow to disable the maintenance area. She added that countless system logs were piling up, causing the system and equipment to break in real time, which was why her control hadn't worked until now.
Her proposal was to break the overloaded system entirely, essentially breaching the floodgate. She suggested releasing all the energy being accumulated to combat the ghouls in one swoop.
- It could ignite a fire as all the cables burn, and above all, if the timing is off, you'll die. No, you'll be electrocuted to death.
"We'll die if we do nothing! So, tell me! What should we do!"
It didn't matter. Without action, nothing could be achieved. What we needed was a method to overcome this crisis. We had to move. To live.
- Break the circuit breakers, Hyun-woo. I've sent the locations. Remember, there are five circuit breakers controlling the energy flow in the repair platform. Breaking them all is the only chance you have.
The broker's voice, not Celestia's, interrupted the communication. Since I could still hear Celestia's voice, it seemed they were nearby. Though initially startled, I realized that wasn't important as I looked over at Nadia.
She had already begun moving before making eye contact with me. The communication wasn't just audible to me.
Breaking the circuit breakers to allow the abnormal energy flow. This was something Nadia had tried once at the residential area tram control room. Having tried it once, she was confident in what could happen and wasted no time in her actions.
While the circuit breakers were scattered around and located in hard-to-reach places, that wasn't too much of an issue. Nadia was aboard Carry.
She couldn't break them all at once but could break them safely. While Nadia and Carry were destroying the circuit breakers, my task was clear.
Stay alive. Prevent the lift from crashing.
Rumble-
The entire area shook again with the lights flickering wildly. As Nadia destroyed a circuit breaker, the metallic cries grew louder.
【Kiiiiieee—!】
Snap!
The continuous flashing lights were dizzying, and I felt a strange vertigo. Even though my eyes were open, it felt like the world was blinking from bright to dark rapidly, causing a weird sense of nausea.
I forced myself to ignore my body's unusual sensations, swung the plasma cutter. The blue flame blade pierced through bubbling flesh, spraying blood into the air. The amount was considerable. Carrot's words about ghouls being living creatures echoed in my head. Did my body hold that much blood too?
The ghoul that had been reaching for me, tumbled down. Despite the height that would seriously injure a normal person, the creature shook it off and got back up as if it were nothing, shoving aside the ghouls it landed on.
Deciding that catching me was futile, it began to soar towards Nadia, who was breaking the circuit breakers. Witnessing this, my body reacted instinctively, slamming my fist against the lift's railing.
The loud metallic clang turned the ghoul's gaze towards me, rather than Nadia. Yes, look at me. I'm right here. I couldn't let it interfere with Nadia as her failure to destroy the circuit breakers would mean my own doom too.
A stray gleam of light caught on the blood staining the railing, reflecting my face. Gasping for air, my expression was one of utter exhaustion. My eyes, half-open and heavy-lidded with fatigue, refused to close despite the chaos.
Though tired, the will to live still burned fiercely within me. Even the bluish glow from the plasma cutter seemed to embody that spirit.
The number of ghouls hadn't decreased, and the lift was just now passing through the middle section of the platform. Nadia had destroyed three circuit breakers. Only two remained. Neither Celestia nor the broker could predict exactly what would happen once we destroyed them all.
But we knew very well something bad was bound to happen; it would become a very dangerous situation. The increasing intensity of the tremors as the circuit breakers were destroyed hinted at that.
Seeing the ghouls' relentless hands reaching out, I wondered if I was crossing the River Styx. Driven by blind, unilateral murderous intent and hatred, they obsessively pursued the moving lift.
Just then.
Thunk!
A ghoul managed to climb atop the repair platform, severing a wire securing one side of the lift. The wire, taut from all the tension, lost it all at once and whipped around like a lash, sweeping below as ghoul blood splattered and burned onto the floor.
Despite suffering a severe blow, they didn't die. Regenerating in real-time, the floor pooled with blood and they were mutating into a more hideous form, ghouls that were once human now evolved grotesquely, lapping up the pooled blood with voracious greed.
"Damn it...!"
As the wire that swept below rebounded toward me, I ducked my head quickly. The sensation of it whizzing by was chilling.
Though still connected to the central rail, preventing a full crash, one side of the lift was leaning. Unable to bear the extra weight, the lift screeched and twisted in agony.
The ghouls ignored their bodies colliding with each other, focusing solely on reaching me. Their relentless approach stacked and intertwined them as one.
The sound of footsteps pounding on the metal floor drew closer, pressuring me. The eerie, mocking laughter followed, as if jeering at the imminent end. I inhaled sharply—chilled to the bone by their malicious intent.
Carrot once said:
- It's unclear whether ghouls have any emotions besides murderous intent.
When I heard those words, I wasn't sure either, but now I could confidently say otherwise. They did possess other feelings in addition to their murderous intent.
Contained within their gaze was joy. Primitive delight at the thought of drinking my blood and gnawing my flesh.
Even as I drove the blue plasma blade into the lead ghoul's neck, severing it, they continued snickering. The shadow of death drew closer still.
When I was nearly strangled by their overwhelming malice.
- Hyun-woo, jump!
Having successfully completed her task, Nadia sent a communication to me. Seizing the opportunity as the monsters fixated solely on me, she flew over and reached out her hand. Though her posture resembled the ghouls', the feeling it gave off was entirely different.
Unknowingly grinning in immense relief, I trusted Nadia and flung myself out of the lift. As I landed on Carry following Nadia's lead, it flashed countless exclamation marks, thrusting its propellers to their limit.
Carry wavered under the strain, the weight it could bear during flight drastically diminished, pushing it to its threshold. Yet, despite the stench and unnerving sounds indicating impending burnout, Carry didn't reduce its output. Instead, it increased further.
【Warning! An abnormal energy flow has been detected. All circuit breakers are destroyed. All workers in the repair platform should evacuate immediately.】
Following the emergency broadcast from the control room, the rumbling across the area intensified once more. And it didn't stop at mere shaking. Intense sparks exploded from energy cables installed on the floors and walls, immediately igniting into flames.
【Kyaaaaaaah!】
【Kraaaaaaah—!】
Ghouls lunged too late, swiping their talons at me, but they only barely brushed against my boots.
Their motions—swaying in unison following our direction—resembled a wave. A wave composed of death.
"Hyun-woo, there! Get in and move away from the door immediately! As far as possible!"
As we slid through the entrance to the maintenance area's storage, Nadia hurriedly scrambled up and kicked off the wall. With that, the door commenced emergency closure procedures, and just before completely sealing, a blinding white flash appeared.
The thudding sound behind the closing door, ghouls arriving a step too late, soon filled the air with pounding bangs. Furious roars gradually transformed into fear-laden, desperate death throes in no time.
The wave of death couldn't touch us.
-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=【(；☉_☉)】
That was intense.