"Can I ask why?"
"...No."
Just in case, I asked Manu whether I could ask why she was refusing, but all I got back was another refusal.
She said she did not even want me to ask for the reason.
I had no choice but to stop prying and give her enough time to think, so I stepped back.
"All right. Come find me anytime if you change your mind."
It had been my mistake to arbitrarily decide that Manu would be fine.
After seeing her attitude yesterday, I thought she would head out on an operation as soon as this morning. Apparently, I had been completely wrong.
Quiet people like her were even more worrying.
Someone like Sati could clearly say what was upsetting her, so all I had to do was take her anger head-on. But people like Manu tended to give up or bottle it all up inside.
Watching Manu's back as she walked away without a word, a scene from the Stage 10 event suddenly came to mind, and I spoke up.
"If you want, you can use the cafeteria however you like."
At that, Manu's footsteps abruptly came to a halt.
Her momentary hesitation soon gave way to another step, but I could clearly tell that she had heard me.
As I walked away from Manu...
Screech, squeak—
Before long, the grating sound of noisy gears began to ring sharply through the underground.
Ariel and Sati were probably heading up to the surface.
I had intended to have Manu work alone and lighten their burden, but things had gotten a little tangled.
Then, after the two returned that afternoon...
"Um, by any chance... where is Manu?"
Once the operation report was over and Sati left first, Ariel hesitated before asking, apparently unable to stop worrying.
When I closed my eyes and slowly shook my head at her question, Ariel lowered her head as well, looking just as concerned.
"It's okay. Don't worry about it, and get some rest."
I waved my hand as if telling the dejected Ariel to go rest, assuring her it was okay without any basis whatsoever.
The Leader of all people could not show signs of unease in a situation like this.
In any case, given how difficult things were, I believed Manu would make the right choice once she had sorted out her thoughts.
"Was there anything unusual during the operation?"
There was nothing I could do about Manu's uncooperative attitude for the moment, so I asked Ariel once more, just in case.
"Pardon? Oh, actually... there was one thing that bothered me."
"Something that bothered you?"
Contrary to my expectation that she would say there had been nothing, as usual, Ariel said there was something troubling her.
The fact that there had been something unusual enough to mention during the operation made my eyes widen as I asked again.
"Yes. A Contaminated Zone appeared at this location."
"A Contaminated Zone?"
Ariel pointed at a set of coordinates on the map and said that something called a Contaminated Zone had appeared there.
A Contaminated Zone? What was that?
At the very least, it was not a term I had ever heard while playing the game.
"What is it?"
"Pardon? Ah, I suppose you might not know, Leader."
When I asked what it was in response to the string of questions, Ariel parted her lips slightly, then began explaining as though she had realized something.
"Purple zones appear and disappear repeatedly on the surface. They began appearing about half a year after you vanished, Leader."
These areas had apparently begun appearing from time to time roughly half a year after I disappeared.
[Contaminated Zone Appeared!]
[Replica Normal Damage -50%]
[Enemy Level Adjustment]
[Enemy HP and Attack Power +30%]
Wondering what exactly that was, I checked the map on the panel. The stage at the coordinates Ariel had just mentioned was dyed purple, displaying an unusual UI.
It was a stage packed with penalties: our characters' damage was reduced, while the enemies' HP and attack power simply increased.
I had never seen a special stage like this before.
And I had cleared just about all the PvE content, too.
'Could this be new content added in an update?'
An ominous thought suddenly flashed through my mind.
That was the only thing I could immediately guess.
"What should we do?"
As I rapidly turned the matter over in my mind and considered what course to take, Ariel asked a short question.
I did not know how powerful this 'mutated stage' was, but with a phrase like level adjustment attached to it, we could not respond carelessly.
For me, this was completely uncharted territory.
"Have you ever gone there yourselves while I was gone?"
I asked Ariel that on the off chance, but she firmly shook her head.
"No. After we found out that there were no resources on the surface, we only went up occasionally."
It seemed the Replicas had never considered trying to do anything about the Contaminated Zones themselves.
Judging from the words level adjustment, this was probably content where you had to form the optimal team based on the monster placement in each stage.
If so, it was far too early to challenge it.
The reason Ariel and Sati could return from the surface without a scratch right now was because their equipment and levels were absurdly high compared to the stages' difficulty.
If they entered content that adjusted levels, one of those growth factors, it was easy to imagine what would happen.
It was a tremendous relief that there had not been any casualties.
"You said it disappears on its own after some time, right?"
"Yes."
As though confirming what I had just heard, I asked again. The brief answer made me think for a moment.
These Contaminated Zones had begun appearing consistently half a year after I vanished.
But since nothing else had changed on the surface even when they were left alone, they were probably special stages where the contamination moved to a specific stage according to a fixed cycle.
"Then let's avoid them as much as possible."
I had no idea what rewards warranted piling on so many penalties, but for now, we would not worry about it.
If leaving them alone caused something terrible to happen, that would be one thing. But judging by the state of the surface, that did not seem to be the case.
"Yes. I'll let Sati know too."
"Could you?"
Once I decided on our policy regarding the Contaminated Zones, Ariel eagerly said she would inform Sati as well.
I smiled at Ariel's devoted willingness to heed anything I said and answered brightly.
With Ariel gone, the room became silent.
How much time passed in that stillness?
True night came to the underground city, where it always seemed to be nighttime.
Our city, seen beyond the corridor, was still dark.
The only facility with its lights on was the cafeteria.
Star Plaza was active as well, but it was a little far away, so it was not clearly visible from the Leader's room.
As I listlessly watched the few lights scattered throughout the city, something caught my eye.
'Huh? That...'
I suddenly opened my eyes wide at the figure casting a shadow against the bright light of the cafeteria.
Red hair, clearly visible even from a distance.
A girl whose rather short bob stood out next to the comparatively longer hair of the other two.
Manu stood blankly in front of the cafeteria, then finally sat down at one of the seats outside it and remained there for a long time.
The awning that jutted out like the roof of a street stall obscured what Manu was doing, but since it was the cafeteria, she was naturally eating something, right?
Relieved that she seemed to remember what I had said, I stopped paying attention.
The next morning came.
In the morning darkness of the underground city, Ariel suddenly came to the Leader's room and asked me a question.
"Do you have any plans to activate other facilities?"
"I'm not sure. There aren't that many people here anyway."
Ariel abruptly asked whether I had any plans to activate other facilities.
They had brought back a considerable amount of resources, so perhaps she wanted to rapidly develop the city a little more...
Our resource situation had improved thanks to the two of them, but there were not many Replicas to use additional facilities even if we activated them.
And waking more Replicas just to justify running more facilities would be completely backwards.
"Is there a facility you especially want to activate?"
"Pardon? Ah, no, it's not that..."
When I asked because of her strangely proactive attitude, Ariel trailed off, saying it was not that.
Looking at her, it seemed she genuinely just wanted to develop the city a little more given our current circumstances.
If there was a facility they wanted to use, I wanted to just approve it, since they were the ones gathering the resources anyway.
But since that was not the case, I could not, as the Leader here, simply say, "Activate whatever you want."
Given the situation, conserving resources had to be the basic principle.
"If there's a facility you especially want to run, tell me. We can prioritize activating that one first."
"Ah... I see. All right."
Reassured that I would listen if she offered an opinion, Ariel nodded deeply and withdrew.
As Ariel disappeared from the room...
I got up and headed to the cafeteria, clutching my stomach to put something into the body that had not eaten anything since waking.
Then I remembered Manu sitting in the cafeteria yesterday, and wondered whether she had eaten anything, so I checked the canned-food inventory.
But there was not a single sign that anything had been used yesterday among the cans in the storage room or on the shelves.
'It hasn't gone down.'
Only then did I realize that Manu had merely sat in the cafeteria yesterday and had not eaten anything.
If she was not going to eat anything, why had she gone to the cafeteria...?
As Manu's behavior became more incomprehensible with every passing day, I tilted my head but decided to let her do as she pleased for now.
Four days passed like that.
"Shouldn't we do something about her by now?"
Perhaps Manu's continued refusal to participate in operations had begun bothering Sati as well. Looking dissatisfied, she jerked her chin toward the outside of the door and asked me.
Even if she asked what we should do, it was not as if there was anything we could do.
Forcing her through strength would be absurd.
"I woke her up because I needed her, so I can't really say anything even if she doesn't participate in operations."
"Hmph. How frustrating."
When I explained my position and considered Manu's feelings in response to Sati's complaint, Sati snorted and called it frustrating.
"Should I go visit her in the maintenance room...?"
"Forget it. Who cares about a bitch like that?"
Kindhearted Ariel said she would go see Manu, looking concerned, but Sati sharply turned her head and said to forget someone like her.
"I heard she alone was faster than both of us, so it hurt my pride... but if she's going to act like that, she's not worth caring about."
She brought up something she had said days ago and disparaged Manu as though her attitude itself were the problem.
So she had still been holding on to that.
"Still, I'll go check on her."
Blinking at this story I was hearing for the first time, Ariel nevertheless started walking toward the door, apparently unable to stop worrying.
Because Ariel had rushed out in the middle of the operation briefing, Sati was left waiting in the room, tapping her leg.
How much time passed like that?
Urgent footsteps began rapidly approaching the room from far away.
"S-Something's wrong!"
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