“Ah... my head...”
Bill, recalling that the platform had collapsed and sent him falling, rubbed his forehead and looked up at the sky.
He had no idea how many minutes he’d been unconscious.
But considering everything, it probably hadn’t been that long.
He had already fallen once four days ago when the transport aircraft exploded.
Just like then, his whole body throbbed now.
There was a difference in the ground beneath him—sand and steel plates instead of whatever else—but the gap wasn’t wide enough to call it a meaningful comparison.
“About twice as bad... maybe?”
Was this what it felt like to fall into a well?
Of course, thinking about the usual shape of a well, it was a stretch to call this a similar cylinder.
The cavity overhead, especially the hole he had fallen through, was far too wide.
Bill wondered what on earth it was even for, but...
“Well... at least I’m in one piece.”
Nothing was broken, and none of his joints felt loose.
Still thinking how convenient his body was, he pushed himself up.
“Where am I...”
Bill quickly scanned the surroundings.
He had already checked before, but the entire ceiling hadn’t collapsed.
Light shone down through the scattered holes, but there were few of them, and most of the area was swallowed by darkness.
It was like walking along a dirt road in some dark rural backwater, with only a battered streetlamp far away barely lighting the way.
But.
“The button’s... here.”
His eyes were good for more than just spotting distant things.
They had the ability to adapt even to extreme environments where visibility was almost nonexistent.
The reason Bill had been able to check his surroundings at all was because he had already grown used to pitch-black darkness.
That said, he was clearly not an ordinary person.
Of course, the degree to which his eyes had “adapted” was on a completely different level from that of a normal human.
It was so dark he could barely tell where his own feet were.
And yet Bill’s eyes lit the area up as if it were broad daylight, taking in every landmark and every uneven ripple in the floor.
There were limits, of course.
But they had nothing to do with brightness.
There was only a faint sense of unfamiliarity, the kind that made the colors seem a little different from usual, and even so, the evaluation of this ability remained unchanged.
It was far too much performance for a single human to possess.
Grrr...
Metal scraped against metal on the floor, and then the door in front of Bill opened into the interior.
The corridor that appeared was just as dim as the cavity.
There were lights, but they were spaced far apart, and they flickered.
“Nothing in here, huh...”
The walls and floor were clean.
There were no bloodstains or unidentified chunks of flesh scattered around like in a typical horror movie.
In fact, it looked so well-maintained that nothing seemed to have been left lying around at all.
In other words, it was suspicious.
But he couldn’t exactly stay outside.
There was a path in the corridor, and no path in the cavity.
That alone was enough reason for Bill to move forward.
“Let’s go... this adventure’s a solo run.”
Somehow, his back looked a little lonely.
────────────────────────
Five minutes earlier. Surface.
Right after the massive explosion, Rapi slowly pushed herself upright.
“Ugh...”
The blast had hit her full on, so her whole body ached, but thankfully there were no major visible injuries.
The others were the same, so they could set their immediate worries aside.
But what mattered was what came next.
The one who had set off the bomb.
There was no need to wonder who that was.
Obviously, a Rapture.
Rapi pulled her rifle close and wished her body would move a little faster.
But while her legs were still failing to respond, something unexpected happened.
The wall Bill had been staring at so intently crumbled like a sponge, and with a laugh, something enormous cut across her field of view.
It happened so fast she couldn’t react.
But at the very least, she could tell what had happened.
—A Rapture!
At that moment, Bill’s shout reached her.
“Talkative!!!”
It wasn’t just a yell.
It was a call.
Rapi instinctively realized it was a name.
But that didn’t matter right now.
Bill’s figure, which had been in front of her just moments ago, was already gone.
Rapi hurriedly looked toward the direction where he and the Rapture had disappeared, and soon caught sight of him floating in the air.
Fortunately, he seemed unharmed despite the sudden ambush, and quickly righted himself to try and land.
Seeing him land safely, she let out a breath of relief.
But then, the ground collapsed.
And before long, he vanished beyond the abyss.
“Commander!!!!”
Rapi fixed her gaze on the edge of the crumbling floor.
Just from looking, the scale of the collapse was enormous, and below it was nothing but pitch-black darkness.
The fear that the face she had just seen might be the last one she ever saw slowly swallowed her, and that feeling soon drove her into action.
“Are you insane!”
As Rapi tried to rush blindly after the falling Commander, Eunhwa grabbed her arm in a panic.
“It’s already too late. We need to worry about ourselves first.”
Rapi clenched her teeth for a moment, then nodded.
Eunhwa wasn’t wrong.
Bill had already gone somewhere beyond their reach.
She was worried about what had happened to him, but just as Eunhwa said, they had to come first.
Rapi slowly loosened Eunhwa’s grip and shifted her gaze forward.
There, a massive Rapture was staring back at them.
It was about five meters tall.
By its size, it was a Lord-class Rapture.
Rapi muttered under her breath before she realized it.
“So that’s Talkative...”
Hearing that, Eunhwa asked her back, “Talkative? You know that unit?”
“I didn’t until just now. The last thing the Commander shouted before he got sent flying was ‘Talkative,’ so I just assumed that was its name.”
If that unit really was a Lord-class, then with their current strength, they could still stand a chance against it.
Even with hundreds of Raptures lined up behind it, their odds could still be around thirty, maybe forty percent.
The name Absolute, standing with them, made that possible.
But that was only if they judged Talkative by its size alone.
“This won’t be easy...”
“Yeah... it’s a little dangerous.”
Eunhwa and Rapi both labeled the situation as dangerous.
Ordinary Raptures didn’t have names.
Like factory-made products, they only had a common unit designation.
But this one had no shared appearance with any Rapture they had seen before, and in that brief moment, Bill had called it by name.
And there was another factor proving that judgment right.
Everyone here had seen Bill get struck and sent flying.
But the important part of that scene wasn’t the Rapture throwing a punch, nor Bill getting hit and launched away.
It was something perhaps lightest, and at the same time the heaviest truth of all.
The fact that it had intelligence.
By default, Raptures didn’t possess a self.
There were exceptions like Heretics, but they were all beings derived from Nikkes.
There had never once been a confirmed case of a pure Rapture possessing self-awareness.
Could such a Rapture even exist?
If the special unit they had fought before had merely shown movements similar to a human, this one was human itself.
“But why isn’t it moving?”
Rapi, and Eunhwa too, were puzzled.
The Rapture that had laughingly blasted the Commander away was now staring at its own hand instead of following up.
It was almost like a human habit, flexing its fingers as if recalling the sensation from just before.
“Rapi, should I shoot?”
Anis, who had been watching, asked Rapi.
What she meant was, since the Rapture that looked like the leader was lost in its own thoughts, maybe they should exploit the opening.
Under normal circumstances, Rapi or Eunhwa would have allowed it.
But for some reason, Eunhwa felt they shouldn’t and raised a hand to stop Anis.
“No, wait. I don’t know what that thing is thinking, but... there has to be a reason it isn’t attacking.”
Eunhwa’s voice was firm, but there was caution in it.
She took a deep breath and clenched her hand tightly.
“Then what are we supposed to do? We’ll end up fighting it anyway, so wouldn’t it be better to strike first?”
Anis shot back at Eunhwa with a dissatisfied look.
The current situation was maddeningly frustrating.
If they were going to fight anyway, then attacking first was the right move, but the two of them were hesitating.
And then, at that moment.
As if mediating their argument, a deep male voice rang out.
“You pseudo-humans, come outside.”
It was an unmistakably commanding tone.
Of course, Nikkes and Raptures were enemies, and there was no reason at all to listen to him.
It would have been enough if they just didn’t answer with a grenade round.
But the current battlefield was clearly stacked against them.
They had no information about the special unit, and hundreds of Raptures were waiting outside.
Even the Commander who should have drawn attention from the center had been left behind.
Since they had no idea how strong Talkative was, they couldn’t recklessly start a fight in a situation that was, for once, almost peaceful.
If there was any good news, it was that Talkative had initiated a conversation.
The fact that it hadn’t taken the chance to massacre them outright meant it must want something.
Something about the Commander.
That was what Rapi thought.
“We should... go out, right?”
Neon asked with an awkward smile, looking at Rapi and Eunhwa.
Eunhwa nodded silently and was the first to walk outside.
Then she met the gaze of the Rapture watching them and asked, “Fine. What do you want to know?”
“Simple. What exactly was that human from earlier?”
“I don’t know.”
Eunhwa answered immediately.
She had no choice.
Nobody standing here knew his identity.
In the first place, wasn’t this an area even he himself couldn’t fully reach the truth of?
There was no way she could give a clear answer to that question.
“I see... then let me change the question. Was that man human?”
“May I ask what your intent is?”
Talkative seemed to think for a moment, then answered as if it didn’t matter.
“Well, fine. Let’s call it a service.”
“How generous.”
“When I observed you a moment ago, I counted seven pseudo-humans. The reason I attacked that one first was simple. He noticed me.”
“So he had already found you.”
Eunhwa’s face twisted in frustration, but he continued without caring.
“But that one took my fist and landed just fine. What kind of human can do that? I was curious. But...”
The Rapture glanced over the Nikkes.
“It seems you know nothing.”
As soon as those words ended, the atmosphere among the Raptures waiting around them changed.
The pressure that they had nothing to gain now, and would return to their original side, enveloped everyone.
“Wait.”
As the situation shifted, Rapi stepped forward, pushing past Eunhwa.
Seeing her bold move, Talkative asked, “What is it? Do you have something to say?”
“Let’s make a deal.”
“Oh? But I have no reason to accept a deal, do I? If I just shoot each of their heads one by one, could you really keep your mouth shut?”
Talkative sneered at Rapi.
Her confident attitude seemed to him like nothing more than a momentary bluff.
But Rapi straightened her back and told him firmly, “I have a secret that only I know. If you’re going to act like that, I’ll have no choice but to keep quiet.”
“A secret only you know... Fine. What’s the condition?”
Rapi answered Talkative’s question without hesitation.
“Let my comrades beside me leave this place.”
“Rapi, wait!”
Anis shouted, grabbing Rapi by the shoulder.
But before Rapi could say anything else, Talkative burst into loud laughter.
“Gahahahaha!! You’re going to stay behind for your comrades?”
“Yes. What’s your answer?”
“I don’t care. If I don’t like it, I can just kill you later.”
At Talkative’s gesture, the Raptures that had shown no movement until now raised their guns and cut Rapi and the others off.
Then, as if telling them to disappear quickly, they threatened them and urged them to leave.
With no choice, the girls were forced back by the Raptures, retreating slowly.
Even then, Anis didn’t miss her chance to say one last thing.
“Don’t die, Rapi!! If you do, I’ll chase you all the way to the afterlife and kill you myself!!!”
Rapi gave a small laugh at Anis’s threat.
With her head slightly lowered, she savored the meaning behind those words, which sounded more like a farewell.
She couldn’t see Anis’s face, but somehow she could imagine exactly what expression she was making.
If it were the Commander, he would have done this.
Rapi silently reaffirmed to herself that her thought had been right.
────────────────────────
After a little time had passed and the Rapture that had gone with them returned, Talkative opened its mouth again.
“Fine. As promised, your comrades have all been expelled from this place. Now you should keep your promise too. Tell me what information you have.”
Rapi swallowed once and answered Talkative calmly.
“From what I personally confirmed... the Commander is definitely human.”
Hearing that, Talkative said nothing.
Not only that.
As if time itself had stopped, it froze in place without a word.
Rapi quietly studied its expression.
That silence only made her more uneasy.
But after a moment, it spoke again as if bursting out a suppressed laugh.
“Gahahahahaha! Human? Human, you say? That thing was really a human?”
“What’s so strange about that?”
“A human... I’ll need to investigate this separately. Pseudo-human, you’re lucky. I’m in a good mood today. So leave this place.”
“What?”
Rapi was flustered by Talkative’s words that it would let her go.
She had naturally assumed it would kill her the moment it heard the answer.
But it seemed its claim about being in a good mood wasn’t a lie.
Truly, the Rapture horde began withdrawing in a different direction, not toward the entrance of the power plant.
“I can’t do that. I have to find the Commander.”
“Do as you please. Down there is a zone even I’ve never been to. If you want to find him, it’ll take quite a while.”
Right after saying that, Talkative vanished from in front of Rapi’s eyes.
Rapi stared at the empty space where it had disappeared and began sorting through her tangled thoughts.
—The Commander is human... what does that mean?
But no matter how much she turned it over, Rapi couldn’t understand the reason for that reaction.
Even after some time passed, and the comrades who had fallen away rejoined them.
That question still remained unanswered.
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