Rescue Fantasy (29)
"Level 6... Are we already inside it?"
"That's what we need to check now. Put on your respirator and stand back."
I inspected the metal door from side to side, loosening up my body as I moved forward. There was no panel for the control device that handled opening and closing. It seemed it would have to be opened manually.
A hatch embedded in the center of the door. When I grabbed it and pulled forward, with a *creak* a handle formed. I gripped that handle and twisted it with all my strength.
The *creak creak* sound grew louder as a gap in the door started to open. As air suddenly rushed in, mysterious fragments of debris rained down beneath us.
The screech of metal pierced my eardrums. A sharpness hidden beneath the dull heaviness stabbed through the space.
At last, the control device was fully turned, and the door opened. Even though the respirator filtered the air, a thick dusty smell rushed at me.
"Every time I see it, Hyun-woo, you're unbelievably strong. It looked impossible to open alone."
"That's why I survived."
Celestia and I shone our flashlights beyond the door. The first place we checked was the wall beside the door. We needed to find out where we were.
We waved the flashlights around for a moment before we found what we were looking for near the ceiling.
SB-LV6.
Upon confirming that sign, we realized that the zone with the lake was Level 5, the lowest level of the commonly known sewage treatment facility, and beyond this point was the Level 6 sector.
I angled the flashlight down. A portion of the rectangular passage was revealed. It must have been a long time since the power was cut—darkness filled the corridor.
"Everything from here forward is Level 6."
Looking back conveyed the message that if we planned to escape, we'd have to turn around now. Celestia hesitated. It was only a brief moment, but I definitely saw it.
I thought I knew why. No, I knew. It was the Level 6 sector that was thought to be nonexistent.
Hidden spaces could be considered abandoned, but sometimes they're secret places you want to hide from others. In this case, it was obviously the latter.
What did SSTC, which valued security so highly, want to hide? The probability that it was related to clone incubation chambers was extremely high. We had just discovered that there were more of those facilities, after all.
Celestia believed there would be traces of her brother there. For her, simply turning back would be unbearably frustrating.
'Frustrating' wasn't a strong enough word.
I saw in Celestia an iron will to save her brother, even at the cost of her own life. So I gently asked,
"Do you want to go in? If you want to check together, that's fine."
"What?"
Celestia snapped her head around. She tried, with effort, to say she was all right but closed her mouth. She couldn't bring herself to ask if I'd really do that for her.
"You're thinking there might be information you want on the other side."
"That's true, but..."
"Then let's go."
"But we don't know how long it'll take."
"The urgent situation is under control. I told the town to strengthen security before heading out, and Carry got the biocell, so as long as we do our jobs, it'll be fine."
I didn't just say it—I took a step inside first. Celestia still hesitated.
"You found our reference point, but if we go in farther, Hyun-woo, won't the schematics you have become meaningless?"
"If we keep heading in, another path might show up. Who knows? We might suddenly find a passage that leads right to the surface. Even if not, it might still help us get out."
It wasn't simply for finding Celestia's brother that I was doing this. I remembered very clearly Lobelia's words as she watched us fall.
That if we survived, we might attain what we desired. If I considered those words, perhaps our reaching Level 6 wasn't a coincidence. I didn't know exactly what she wanted, but maybe she wanted us to see this place.
Though I didn't feel any special presence, Lobelia could be watching us. If we didn't act as she wished, she might try something else.
I told this to Celestia and extended my hand.
"You said you wanted to find your brother. Let's look, why not. So you won't regret it. They say things like this haunt you until the day you die."
"... Who says?"
"Some drunk who quit mining after four days and ran off. Can't recall his name."
Celestia burst out laughing and took my hand. Holding that hand, she stepped over to where I was.
"... Thank you."
She said it as she looked at the boundary she'd just crossed. I only shrugged silently. I hadn't really done anything special anyway.
"Should I close the door? Just in case the water behind us overflows, that could be trouble."
"Hmm... Hyun-woo, could you force this door open later if needed?"
"If you mean can I get out if it's locked, it would be hard, but I could probably manage somehow."
I gauged the door's thickness. Even without a plasma cutter, I could probably do it if I invested the time.
We decided to close the Level 6 door and move ahead. As I pulled on the wide open door with force, the thick bulkhead slowly slid shut.
*Creak, thud.* When the door was completely closed, the air that had been drifting in from outside abruptly stopped. It didn't make the air feel stuffy.
Even though the lights didn't come on, the air kept circulating inside. It seemed the mutated roots were replacing the original machinery.
The passage beyond the door wasn't much different from before. The only significant difference was that there was a feeling of descending.
"..."
"..."
Celestia and I walked quietly, maintaining silence. The beat of our hearts and our footsteps echoed in our ears, along with the sound of our breathing through the respirators.
'This smell—dust? Or is it ash?'
It was faint, but there was a scent reminiscent of ash. Oddly, it felt familiar.
As we followed the scent, debris from a collapsed ceiling, caused by roots, blocked our way. Judging by its condition, it didn't look like a section we could easily get past.
"Is our journey already over...?"
I muttered without realizing it. Celestia flinched and looked at me. Her look asked if I was serious. Of course, I shook my head.
Relieved, Celestia stepped forward.
"Looks like it's my turn now!"
"You have a way? If the tools were working, clearing this would be easy, but as you can see, they're all busted."
I held up the broken polar impactor. The tip of its spike was split wide open—it might even explode if I charged it now. That's why I didn't suggest trying it.
"I have a way. You just have to think simple when you're in a hurry. What if I crawl through that crack over there?"
"Crack?"
I followed her gaze. There actually was a gap, hidden in the shadow. The problem was, it seemed much narrower than expected.
I unconsciously looked Celestia up and down. Despite the suit's bulk, her frame itself was actually quite slender.
"I can make it through."
"Uh... I could say a lot, but let's go with that for now. After you go through, then what?"
"Oh, I see how you might misunderstand. I'm not saying I'll go through and do everything by myself. I know my limits—I wouldn't stubbornly insist otherwise."
Celestia's point was as follows:
The gap, though deep and slightly bent, made it impossible to see the other side even with a flashlight. Without a mini-camera, someone would have to crawl in and check. Cutting in from the outside with the plasma cutter was possible, but if the debris shifted, more could fall. So it was less risky to check the situation first.
Celestia thumped her chest.
"Even if it collapses suddenly, this suit will keep me safe. I may have passed out when we fell in the water earlier, but I'm actually pretty sturdy."
That was because I took most of the shock. I kept that remark to myself. I had more to say but swallowed it back.
In the end, I could only nod. She wasn't entirely wrong.
Celestia's face brightened considerably. She told me to trust her and moved to the crack.
'Will she really be able to do it?'
I watched from behind as Celestia crawled into the gap. Starting with her arms, she pushed in her upper body. It went smoother than I expected.
But not for long. She moved in steadily, then suddenly jerked and stopped. For a moment I thought she'd just paused, but it looked like she was actually stuck. She kept jolting—my own heart skipped in anxiety.
"...?"
I furrowed my brow in confusion; faint sounds of crawling reached me. With her body blocking the gap, the sound was muffled.
"... Hyun-woo."
"Yes?"
"I'm stuck. Please help."
"... What?"
I was so dumbfounded I couldn't reply; Celestia, tense, started wiggling her legs. I was reminded of a certain mage caught by a mimic.
"You told me to trust you."
"..."
She muttered—it's narrower than expected, there are rebars poking out—and so forth. Somehow, this felt like something we'd dealt with before. I sighed inwardly.
"What should I do? Should I pull you out?"
"... Yes. No, wait! Please push instead! I think I can get through to the other side!"
"Push you? ... Where?"
"Anywhere! Just push!"
Easier said than done—there wasn't a good spot to push. I awkwardly lifted my hand then lowered it.
'Push her legs? Will brute force really help?'
As I hesitated, Celestia urged me again. She must have spotted something important on the other side. The real challenge started now.
I didn't push this because I wanted to—I almost muttered in excuse, but just silently placed my hand on the upper thigh of her suit. The curves were less embarrassing thanks to the suit.
Celestia flinched but then braced herself, determined now that the situation had come this far.
"...."
Ignoring my embarrassment at the pronounced curves, I helped push Celestia forward.
She began to make progress again as the blockage loosened. When her knees went through the gap, the debris above wobbled a bit, shifting the structure, but it held. The pillar I'd jammed with the polar impactor spike propped it up.
In no time, Celestia reported that she was clear. She told me to wait a moment, then scurried off somewhere. Faint grunts followed, as if she was dragging something heavy.
"Hyun-woo, stand back a bit. This is my first time using one of these, so there might be output issues."
"... What did you find?"
"What used to be a security robot."
As she said that, a *whir*-ing sound followed, and the debris in front of me glowed red. A heat beam was slicing through.
The output was so strong, the debris collapsed quickly despite how little time had passed—even thick rebar was cut through, glowing orange.
Soon, Celestia appeared holding an arm that was larger than expected for a security robot. She flashed a proud smile as if she'd accomplished something great.
"It's so satisfying to break through. Now just turn it—"
The instant she started to speak, the nozzle melted from output overload and a bit of the heat beam splashed toward me. Reflexively, I ducked, and the beam narrowly grazed past. I felt a burst of searing heat that instantly faded.
If not for my quick reflexes, I'd have lost a valuable glove. An assassination attempt out of nowhere?
As I stood there flabbergasted, Celestia shouted,
"Ahhh! I'm sorry!"
She looked as shocked as I was. Despite disconnecting the robot arm, too much energy was already released and the laser show did not end. I quickly moved out of the danger zone.
Her unintended destruction continued until the laser emitter's arm completely broke down. I stared at the marks of her rampage, eyes wide.
"... What was that?"
"... The suit has an emergency function that supplies energy for things like this, but sometimes—just sometimes—there's an output control problem..."
Celestia muttered weakly, blaming the accident on impact from the fall. She nearly ended up making it a double achievement.
"Still, thanks to you, we got through easi—well, yeah. It was easy enough."
As I politely muttered in a hollow voice, Celestia could not lift her head for a while.
-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】