Turning point (22)
Nadia, along with Multipurpose Unit 1 and 2, inspected the door. From the moment the sector boundary started, the lights were off, leaving the door in a somewhat gloomy atmosphere, but no matter how much Nadia touched it, there was no reaction.
"No return signal."
"So, if you touch it, the alarm doesn't go off, I see."
Licorice, who could basically be said to be hiding almost behind me, muttered quietly. She had said before that no one knew what could happen, so she would be in the safest possible place. That was before we settled down like we were now.
When I glanced at her, she glared at me straight away, as if asking what I was staring at.
"Try controlling the modifier once."
"That's not the problem. No matter what input I put in, there's absolutely no reaction at all. It's as if energy supply is cut off just here."
"Really? Hmm..."
Licorice folded her arms and worried. Since environmental differences from the surroundings were certainly things to be wary of, I judged that we should just move on to another area. Yet, even after making that decision, it was tricky to actually act on it.
"This isn't good... But still, we have to go in there. Otherwise, the only option is to go back to the place from before."
Exactly. That was the problem. We would have to go back to the door Nadia had blocked with the adhesive launcher. There weren't any other security doors besides here.
"I'm against it! Even listening to it with filters beyond the door, I almost got entranced—if we listen without any filter, we might fall under completely."
Nadia stomped her foot, saying she absolutely couldn't bear to see me end up like that. The urge to say that, out of everyone here, I was the most likely to hold on through that humming came right to the tip of my tongue, but I swallowed it down with effort.
While Nadia was pestering Licorice, asking if she really thought that way or not, I contacted Celestia. After the encryption process, the connection was made.
- Yes, Hyun-woo. What is it?
"Celly, nothing special going on there?"
- Yes, nothing here. All's quiet.
Celestia said she didn't go into the level 3 Stasis Storage, but moved to the next sector via the level 2 Stasis Storage. After the battle with Warden, there were no further encounters, and currently, she was again pursuing clues for the satellite lockdown release code in the data storage sector.
- Unfortunately, no big gains.
Celestia, saying she kept circling around detours, sighed and continued.
- From you contacting me first, I guess something came up over there?
"There are a few things. While moving, have you ever come across a sector that seemed to have lost power? Like a door stained black?"
- I haven't seen a door like that. If I did, I would've told you right away. If it's a door that isn't active, it could be a security door with gimmicks needing certain conditions fulfilled, or if it's simply out of power, that might be affecting things. The Stasis Chamber's seal is released, so what was locked up might've escaped.
"I think it's the latter."
I was about to sigh as a habit but held back. It was because I felt like Celestia was watching my expression. It wasn't that I blamed her or anything, just found it a hassle. So I quickly changed the subject.
"It's not level 4, so don't worry too much. It's level 3, but I don't even get a threatening impression."
- ... Yeah.
Her less-than-cheerful reply made it clear worries hadn't faded. I'd told her not to go into level 3, and yet now I was the one in there, so she was bound to be worried.
"Besides Warden, there could be a real monster in here. I sensed something on my side."
This was also related to the Stasis Chamber's seal, but something that needed to be said.
I briefed her about the humming I'd heard in the level 4 prohibited sector—the sound that seemed to enchant people, and how if it was heard, they should get clear of the area immediately.
- A monster, not a mutant... Archive acting as the Ark... There's a mountain of things we'll need to investigate if we make it back to Earth. First off, we'll have to overturn the Earth government. Who knows what all they've been hiding and where the line is.
Celestia surprisingly didn't seem wary of the Pilgrims. She saw them as potential collaborators. To be fair, considering what the group known as Pilgrims had done and left in the records, they were close to being allies.
- Anyway, we'll keep pressing on too. If we reach the central control room first, don't go right in and wait.
"Of course."
With that, I ended the call. It looked like Nadia had decided; she was signaling at me from in front of the door.
"Just open it like this?"
"Yeah, I just unlocked the mechanism now. Since the power's down, it was easy to switch to manual."
I gently pushed Licorice and Nadia a bit back and drew up my strength. An unseen hand reached out and grabbed the security door with a thud.
Clack– As I pulled the lever down, the mechanism holding the door up was released completely. Just because nothing was detected didn't mean there was nothing at all.
Since it was possible there was something we couldn't detect, opening the door was a cautious affair. Having telekinesis was a relief; I could open the door from a safe distance.
If I didn't have that, I would've had to just yank the lever and be ready to bolt. Soon, the security door slid down, revealing the scene beyond.
"......?"
We all furrowed our brows at almost the same moment. There was only darkness beyond. It was easy to guess from the loss of power that it could be pitch dark inside. We'd already noticed hints like that at the sector boundary.
But the darkness before us was different from those hints. Licorice, keeping a frown, shone her flashlight. The beam vanished as soon as it hit the darkness, going nowhere.
"What is this? The light is being eaten?"
"It's not a black hole, right? ... That's just a random comment, don't look at me like that. It hurts."
I voiced my suspicion, then quickly added the latter, seeing the look I was getting. I died once already from that glare. Licorice snorted and turned her head.
Of course it wasn't a black hole. Equipment inserted and withdrawn came out fine, and no other abnormalities were detected. Internal filming and scanning were done, but it was just dark, nothing more.
Gravity did fluctuate. But that was the effect of the satellite gravity cannon, not any new change happening now.
"There don't seem to be any other effects, so I'll go in first. Follow when I signal."
I volunteered to go first, confident I could handle whatever came up. I had plenty of things to rely on—my body was sturdy, and I had telekinesis as a supernatural power. And I thought of Sprout, tucked into my belt pouch.
Whatever happened, if I died, so would Sprout, so if things got dangerous, it wouldn't just sit still—I was sure of that. Outwardly the lightest, and yet in behavior heavier than anyone else here. Silent now, but if it got truly dangerous, I figured it would move that heavy body.
Nadia looked at me worriedly, then pulled out a long wire and clipped it to my suit.
"If you're not out in 30 seconds, I'll pull you back."
"That's a bit short, isn't it?"
"I almost made it 10 seconds, you know. Remember. 30 seconds. I've even installed a retrieval device. The moment you feel yourself being pulled, get back immediately."
"Got it."
I calmed Nadia, who was up on tiptoes, her face just inches from mine. Taking a light breath, I stepped into the darkness.
When my foot landed, nothing felt odd. Same when my leg followed, my hand, my arm—nothing felt special. Just the same as before. The first change I sensed was in my vision.
When I was fully inside the shimmering, water-like space, I could clearly sense the scenery had changed.
How should I describe it? The flashlight still meant nothing. Even so, the internal structures could be seen. In a distinctly different way.
Structures weren't illuminated by light, but registered in my mind as forms. Every time I moved, the sound I made would ripple out as a wave, and where that wave hit a wall or structure, the form of that object would briefly appear.
As a test, I stomped my foot in place—a stronger wave spread out, leaving longer-lasting traces. The strength of the sound seemed to affect the spread of the waves as well.
'No monsters, no Warden in sight. Seems like there's no other problem, either?'
The sector wasn't small, so the waves couldn't have lit up the entire interior. I couldn't tell what might be in areas that hadn't been revealed. But since nothing immediately threatening showed up, I turned around and left. Thirty seconds were almost up.
As soon as I emerged, Nadia, who'd been pacing nervously in circles, reacted right away. Licorice, arms crossed and drumming her finger against her arm, did likewise.
"If you'd been any later, I would've pulled the wire."
"How many seconds was it?"
"Twenty-seven?"
"Then I made it. Feels like time flows normally in there, too."
I reported what I'd experienced. That you couldn't see with light, but could sense the internal structure in high-contrast, almost black-and-white fashion, and that what you needed for that was sound.
"That's not normal, but if there are no problems, let's go in. We can't waste any more time."
"I'm ready!"
Nadia, who'd been working on some equipment while I was talking, handed out finished devices to everyone.
"What's this?"
"SONAR! ... Well, more like a SONAR imitation! Since you said it felt like being underwater, I tried making one."
Nadia explained that using a detector like this would be more efficient than us making random noises. Judging by her twitching tail and ears flicking as if looking for approval, yeah, she wanted praise.
"Pretty impressive."
"For real. Didn't take you long after we said so, huh. Woof-woof, handling gadgets really suits you better than blowing stuff up."
A rare—nearly unprecedented, actually—praise from Licorice, who usually couldn't be bothered. Maybe she wanted to erase the memory of Nadia's glee at explosions. It was genuinely meant.
Nadia tuned it out, judging by her expression—she only heard what I'd said. Noticing this, Licorice's face twisted in frustration.
"Just hook it up to your suit. The detection range'll register immediately. Normally it'd show up as a hologram, but with the light being absorbed inside, we can't use that. But since you said sound reveals shapes, it should work anyway."
"Nice."
We attached the sonar detectors to our suits, and stepped into the undulating darkness. It didn't make a splash, but the whole place heaved as we entered.
The moment we went in, the first thing we did was check each other's positions. Licorice's and Nadia's presence was as faint as mine.
"Phew—"
Nadia, who'd held her breath before entry, breathed out, relieved to find no issues. The moment her exhale sounded, her presence grew stronger. Sound was what made you show up in here.
"... So this is how it feels? Really strange."
Licorice's voice, too, revealed her movements jerkily. Because the wave spread in pulses, movement didn't look smooth.
"No abnormal readings. Equipment's working fine."
"Turn on the detector. That'll light up everything nearby."
As Nadia said, we activated the detectors. At regular intervals, a pinging sound spread out, and within a set radius, things flashed visible then faded repeatedly.
"... Definitely easier to see than before. Dizziness is a problem, though."
"Just hold out until we get out. If you hear that certain sound, you won't even be able to look away."
"Thanks for the consideration, seriously."
Licorice snapped that she wouldn't puke later anyway. Nadia clapped her hands. As the sound spread thinly and widely, we all briefly lit up and faded again. It grabbed all our focus.
"From now on, let's keep conversation to a minimum. These are makeshift detectors, not the best quality. Any extra noise might interfere, and it'll make the dizziness worse—the biggest problem, really."
We nodded. Just having other noises mix in besides the detector made the rhythm go irregular, and our 'vision' flickered even more.
Having our senses so drastically shifted made it tough for Licorice to adapt. Sometimes the waves revealed her covering her mouth with her hand.
Ping-... Ping-...
In the pitch-black world, objects the sound bounced off revealed their outlines in white, showing us clearly there was something here. Structurally, there wasn't much difference from the previous Stasis Storage.
Instead of shelves made with energy fields, there were mostly special-material shelves. But the shelves were all empty when they should have held stored items.
'It couldn't have been this empty originally.'
Even if this Ark-Archive had outlived its usefulness, I'd never seen a place this void before. Thinking maybe we were entranced, I glared, but nothing changed. I felt no sense of my mind being tampered with—so that was natural.
Multipurpose Units 1 and 2, attached to Nadia's support arms, also seemed fascinated, looking around as if their vision was the same as ours. Perhaps they were collecting data, stretching their legs wide.
Every time that flared briefly into view, I flinched. Honestly, just the silhouette looked monstrous. If I'd seen it while zoning out, I'd have mistaken them for monsters.
I walked between the shelves. It felt like walking the deep sea, where the flashlight didn't penetrate. There was no crushing water pressure or suffocating sense of weight, but the darkness blocking my sight gave that impression.
Then I bumped something at my side. With a ping and the sonar's sound, a web of white lines spread out. The square shelf split apart. Into countless tiny square cubes.
The way it came apart looked pixelated. Nadia, seeing that, opened her eyes wide in surprise.
"... Hyun-woo?"
Judging by her expression, she probably thought I was the cause, so I hurriedly opened my mouth to speak. Or at least, I would have—if it weren't for the sudden change in the sound in my ear.
The sound of the detector abruptly changed. It was like a trumpet, or maybe a beast's howl. What kind of sound was it? What did the change mean?
Even before I could ask, my face had already frozen. Because I knew that sudden changes were usually a bad sign. The sound itself was incredibly ominous.
"... Nadia, what's wrong with this?"
The answer didn't come from Nadia. It came from Licorice, who, like me, was thinking about the cause of the change. She inhaled and muttered.
"... Wolf Call?"
This time, there wasn't even a need to ask what she meant. Because, right then, an attack tore through the space as if it had been sliced.