Fortune Cookie (6)
- What is it, what's happening! Hyun-woo! Answer me!
Licorice's voice, flustered, came through urgently. It seemed she was truly startled when, after moving fine, I suddenly collapsed.
It wasn't just me—everyone was like this, so it was only natural to be surprised. The high-pitched voice striking my eardrums made my head feel like it was going to split.
"Just... a little... quieter..."
Already feeling dizzy, the sharp voice coming straight at me made it impossible to gather my senses. When I grimaced and spoke, the comms fell silent, and in the meantime, I took care of Nadia, who was also suffering from dizziness—helping her breathe slowly and deeply.
All I was doing was keeping my eyes open, but the world seemed to waver. Even when I tried to stand properly, my sense of balance kept slipping away.
Whoooo-!
The sound of the wind sweeping through the residential area felt dizzying and far away. It was as if I could hear a ringing in my ears, like a scream.
'Carry and Alpha...'
Thankfully, they were unharmed. The robots weren't affected much, but Eric, Nadia, and I experienced severe vertigo. That meant it was the blue crystal causing it.
I decided it was best to head outside the outer wall to recover. Somehow, after helping Nadia over the residential area's outer wall, the dizziness soon subsided.
Eric, who'd crossed with us along with the security robot Alpha, also seemed to recover, letting out a long sigh. White breath dispersed into the air.
It felt like coming back from the dead. I wasn't the only one who felt that way—everyone was wiping cold sweat off their foreheads. Actually, there was hardly any sweat to wipe. Before we could sweat, we just shivered from the cold and pretended to brush it off.
As I took deep breaths repeatedly, my vision gradually sharpened.
"Nadia, are you okay?"
"Yeah..."
Nadia looked like she might vomit at any moment, but it looked like she'd recover quickly. Even though she was small, she was a beastkin—recovery from negative effects was fast for her kind.
"Eric, are you alright?"
"I'm fine too."
"Thank goodness."
Seeing me a bit steadier, Licorice asked worriedly.
- What happened, exactly?
"I didn't see it in detail, but if my guess is right, it was because of the blue crystal. The raw stones were scattered all over the streets."
- ... You must have been exposed to a sudden, strong wave.
"Yes."
It was an unexpected obstacle. I knew ghouls were mutant creatures hosting blue crystals, but what I saw wasn't a ghoul. Something revolting was covering the residential area.
- What do you want to do?
Licorice wasn't telling me what to do—she wanted my opinion.
What should I do?
I knew she wasn't just trying to shift responsibility. Licorice was telling me she trusted our judgment on site and would support us no matter what we chose.
"......"
Instead of answering right away, I turned to cross back into the residential area. Nadia, surprised, reached out to stop me, but at my gentle refusal, she bit her lip and let her hand fall.
I swallowed dryly from the tension. If this time, too, I was hit by dizzying vertigo as I crossed the boundary, it would mean turning back, regardless of whatever shielding devices we might have.
There were tens of thousands of ghouls inside the residential area. Likely even mutants like mimics. Armed with nothing special, even one ghoul would be hard to handle. Moving forward recklessly while unable to control my body would be suicide.
Taking a deep breath, I crossed the outer wall's boundary. Steeling myself for a collapse, all I felt was a subtle sensation—no dizziness. I carefully observed my surroundings.
'... The intensity has lessened.'
Even proceeding a bit further, nothing changed. The snowstorm still raged, striking the residential area full-on now that the shielding was gone.
The ruined city was turning white. Soot and bloodstains had disappeared. The view was so blocked, nothing could be seen clearly.
But there was one thing I was sure of.
'There are no survivors in this residential area.'
I'd already expected it would feel dreadfully desolate. Even the last time I saw this place, I got that sense.
I'd wondered if maybe someone had survived by luck if the system had come back online, but with things as they were, that hope had to be let go.
'I thought I might try to save anyone if they were here.'
But now, this was nothing but a monster's nest.
I signaled to those watching me anxiously that I was okay. Following my signal, they crossed in turn.
Nadia crossed tensely, swishing her tail. She also realized, at least, it was better than before, and Eric did as well.
Seeing there were no movement problems, I watched Nadia run up to me, then messaged over comms, since we were past the wind-blocking outer wall.
– We'll continue the operation.
– Okay.
Licorice accepted my decision without further questions. We proceeded, heading first for the spire.
The shielding device was atop the spire, so normally Carry, carrying Nadia, could check it easily, but that wasn't possible now. The winds were so fierce—they could be blown away and lost if they tried flying.
Fortunately, the spire wasn't that tall. To get out of the worsening hail for a bit, we decided to all go inside.
– Alpha will enter first.
The security robot Alpha, controlled by Licorice, stood at the spire's entrance. A ghoul being inside was unlikely—this place was usually unmanned, and the door was intact without scratches—so the interior should be empty.
Alpha started forcing the door open. As its power rose, the core began to glow and its mono-eye turned red. But that was all.
The spire doors wouldn't budge. The robot, initially so confident, now whined and strained the actuator pitifully.
- ... Maybe it's frozen. Alpha isn't strong enough. It might be hard to get in this way.
Licorice's voice tried to stay calm but couldn't hide her embarrassment. Without a word, I moved past Alpha and took position myself.
Sticking my fingers into the slightly open gap—the effort hadn't been all in vain—I took a deep breath and pushed with my arms. Cracks formed in the ice covering most of the door, and the gap slowly widened.
Before long, with a scraping metallic sound, the door opened halfway. No need to open it fully—just enough to squeeze through was fine, anything more was a waste of energy.
Shaking out my hand, I entered first, ready to wield a plasma cutter at any moment.
– If a door won't open, maybe someone isn't strong enough.
- .......
Nadia, sticking out her tongue, joked as she passed, and Alpha's mono-eye trembled in embarrassment. Alpha followed us in a hurry—as much as it could, if Eric hadn't stopped it with a raised hand.
– Please stay here on standby. We never know when a ghoul could try to get in, so someone should stay at the entrance.
- ... Fine.
Alpha remained guarding the spire's entrance, facing the snowstorm alone.
The interior was as expected—no evidence of anyone or anything. If someone or something had been here, the floor, walls, or ceiling would bear traces, but only frozen metal met our eyes.
Proof that the facility was completely offline. Naturally, the elevator was down too. But there was still a way up—a ladder built into the wall for emergencies.
– Hyun-woo, I'll go up there with Carry. All we have to do is check the shielding device, right?
Nadia said, climbing onto Carry. She explained that with no fierce winds inside, it wouldn't sway dangerously.
I hesitated for a moment but chose to trust Nadia. I shared the file containing the data on the core component Eric needed to find.
– It looks just like the cube inside the array antenna. It's silver, and varies by device, but this one should be no bigger than 20 units.
– Got it. Hyun-woo, I'll be right back.
– No, take your time and be safe. Okay?
– Okay!
Nadia grinned. Only for a moment, though—she quickly composed herself, grabbed the plasma cutter, and switched on her shoulder flashlight. The pitch-dark vertical shaft lit up.
The fanned beam of light moved up and down, showing the elevator controls and icicles on the ladder's end.
'Phew...'
Watching Nadia and Carry rise up, I let out a quiet sigh. That dizzy spell was still vivid in my head.
The blue garden of flowers, the blue glow from the crystal ore, had caused it. If all those bluish glimmers I'd seen in that moment were blue crystal, staying here long wasn't wise.
Dizziness was the precursor to delirium.
This wave didn't build tolerance over repeated exposure. Even Nadia and I, after years of mining and being exposed to these resonances, hadn't adapted. The repeated warning broadcasts outside the tunnel weren't just for show. I could endure a little longer than Eric, but only just.
'It's strange.'
Not even refined ore—the raw blue crystal itself. This residential area categorically forbade raw ore for import. The waves disrupted circuits, so it was impossible to sneak it in undetected.
In other words, the blue crystal-filled landscape I'd all but memorized shouldn't be possible. You can't create something out of nothing—a most basic law. But here that law was denied—the area was covered with raw blue crystal.
Did turning into a ghoul cause the ore to form inside? Was this crystalized matter the blue crystal people spoke of?
Could all the ore we'd ever used have been made that way? But—no, we mined it through legitimate means. We didn't dig it from flesh.
So then, where did these stones come from?
We still didn't know why people turned into ghouls. I felt an urgent need to finish Carrot's lab.
While I was lost in these thoughts, a scratch on my visor caught my eye—it was on the back of Eric's helmet as he searched the shaft.
A deep mark as if punched by something hard. I recalled the conversation we'd had in the waste disposal area.
'Is that an integrated suit?'
'Eh? Yes.'
'It wasn't originally like that.'
'I repaired what was broken.'
He'd fixed something broken. So, if he was attacked on the back of the helmet, it meant he was betrayed by someone behind him.
Yet, Eric had walked in front of me, even before I asked for it. Trusting someone with your back—that meant trust.
Back before its fall, Myosotis had connections to the pureblood supremacists. I didn't know why that thought suddenly popped up in this situation. I shook my head to clear it away.
– Hyun-woo, we made it to the top, but the core component's not here. No, it's broken. I think it shattered from the sudden drop in temperature.
– Okay. Come down. Let's head to the center of the residential area.
Disappointingly, the spire was a bust. After waiting for Nadia to descend, Eric and I descended as well.
Alpha, the security robot on guard, turned at our presence. Not much time had passed, but snow was already piled thick on Alpha's armor. An unintentional natural camouflage.
And as soon as we stepped outside that camouflage vanished without a trace. The wind, as if to claim what was its own, blew all the snow away.
– How are you going to get to sector A? It's quite far.
– Along the tram line. It'll be safer there, at least.
I had no illusion that there'd be a working tram left. Even if there was, I couldn't power it up. Heaven's energy supply had been terminated for some time, and the residential area's systems were down—hacking couldn't get the job done.
To reach the closest tram line, we entered sector D, on the residential area's periphery, and carefully moved on.
Amid the howling blizzard, a faint blue light shimmered. Blue light spread in every direction, swaying like flowers. At first glance, it seemed like a mysterious beauty, but we struggled to hold back our nausea.
And for good reason. On close inspection, strange, flesh-like things were spread thinly, covering the streets. As if alive, throbbing and twitching now and then, pulsing like veins—these seemed to radiate heat, as snow never accumulated near them.
'So that's what it was.'
I now knew what was so revolting. Everyone was keeping quiet, but the trembling hands showed their anxiety. Whatever it was, this was only the outermost layer—between mystery and disgust there was only this one veil.
At that moment—
– Heat source detected.
Alpha's mono-eye turned red. Detecting something, he signaled for us to stop. Licorice's voice followed, turning from puzzled to urgent.
– ... What? Multiple new heat sources approaching!
– ... Approaching? ... Why?
We hadn't triggered anything—so how did they know to come for us?
Before the question could be answered, Licorice shouted in panic.
– Don't ask me! If you want to live, hide! Right now!
We all sucked in our breath—almost at the exact same time.