From the weapon rack, Danan grabbed an assault rifle and a combat shotgun, slinging them into the holsters on his back and hip. Rummaging through a cabinet, he found a pristine pair of goggles and swapped them for his damaged ones.
“Danan,” Eve called.
“What?” he replied.
“You ready?”
“Give me a sec.”
Eve’s gaze pierced him, her arms crossed, fingers tapping impatiently. Unfazed, Danan pulled the connect cable from the goggles, plugging it into the socket of his mechanical arm. The device projected equipment data into his field of vision.
His mechanical arm—a new model—was prone to malfunctions, often causing unexpected trouble. The built-in blade might suddenly deploy, piercing his own foot, or the terminal control system could spit out error codes for faulty operation.
Given time, he could adjust the joints and connections to mitigate these issues, but they were deep within the ruins, where unknown dangers lurked. No time for complacency. Danan projected the equipment data onto his goggles to detect any anomalies in the arm as quickly as possible.
“…I’m good,” he said.
“Alright, let’s move,” Eve replied.
“Where to?”
“Where else? Up.”
Eve pointed at the ceiling. Danan glanced at her, then scanned the surroundings. Spotting a door illuminated by an emergency light, he brushed the dust off its control panel and inserted the hack cable from his mechanical arm into the socket.
“What are you doing?” Eve asked.
“Unlocking it.”
“Huh.”
“…Got a problem with that?”
“Nope. Just think you’re wasting your time.”
“…”
Reading the logs streaming across his goggles, Danan ran the hacking program embedded in his arm, shooting Eve a glare.
“That Heres blade on your hip—is it just for show? Why not pry it open with that?”
“…You know about Heres?”
“Of course. Its full name is… what was it? Assault Blade for Dismantling and Cutting, right? Didn’t know those were still around.”
Eve’s gaze drifted to the blade on Danan’s hip, as if peering into the distant past. With an impatient flick, she brushed her silver wings over the control panel, effortlessly disabling the electronic lock.
“Eve,” Danan said.
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“What? Let’s go.”
“What do you know?”
“More than you.”
“You’re from the mid-level streets… modified for ruin exploration?”
“Nope.”
“Then… a gene-modded human from the upper streets?”
“Wrong again.”
“Then who are you?”
“If you’ve got time to talk, move your feet. What’s this? After all that suspicion, you’re suddenly so curious?”
Her sly, seductive smile gleamed as she slid a silver wing across Danan’s cheek, its touch cold and inorganic, like white glass. Through his goggles, he saw fine streams of electrons flowing endlessly within her wings.
“Ignorance is a sin, Danan, but knowing too much is a trap. Don’t you think it’s foolish to charge into the fog without certainty or prior knowledge?”
“…”
“Exactly. Your best choice is silence. Focus on escaping these ruins. Arguing here is pointless, you know that, right?”
“…That’s logical. I agree.”
“Good. Glad you’re reasonable.”
“But.”
“…”
“Once we’re out, you’re telling me everything. About the ruins. Got it?”
“Fine.”
Climbing the stairs, Danan kept Eve in the corner of his vision, her footsteps echoing in sync with his. He readied his rifle, kicking up dust from the steps.
How long had these walls been sealed? The emergency staircase, cloaked in dust and silence, seemed frozen in time. What even were these ruins?
Relics far surpassing the tower’s technology, weapons with absurdly high lethality, armor built to withstand them, skeletal remains leaning against walls…
Many ruin divers had perished here, their bodies indistinguishable from ancient bones, devoured by scavengers or experimental creatures. Genetic analysis was impossible. Yet, Danan couldn’t shake a thought.
It bordered on conspiracy, the kind of apocalyptic nonsense Lilith would dismiss as absurd. But trudging through these ruins, fighting and exploring, Danan arrived at a hypothesis—no, a suspicion.
What if the ruins were a massive trap? A man-eating box, luring fools with glittering treasures. A mechanism for population control, dangling relics like bait, akin to ancient tales of Pandora’s box.
Ridiculous. Paranoid drivel. In the lower streets, where death and birth were daily routines, what purpose would such malice serve? Shaking his head, Danan stopped at a landing, hearing a faint electronic beep. He aimed his rifle at the iron door.
“Someone’s trying to unlock the electronic lock. Get ready for a fight,” he said.
“You think another diver made it this far?” Eve asked.
“If not human, then an abandoned android. Either way, we kill it.”
“Barbaric, aren’t you?”
“Say what you want.” As a short beep sounded, four ruin divers appeared beyond the door, aiming their guns at Danan and Eve.
“Who are you?” Danan demanded.
His mechanical arm pulled the trigger without hesitation, spent casings flying. His bullets turned one diver into a sieve, and Eve’s silver wings severed the necks of two others in the chaos.
“Eve, leave one alive,” Danan ordered.
“Why?”
“Information. That’s their only value.”
Approaching the trembling man on the ground, Danan flashed his blade.
“What’s it like up there?”
“H-huh?”
“Who hired you? Speak.”
The man, panting heavily, reached for the pistol at his hip, but Danan’s blade severed his wrist before he could draw.
“W-what the hell?! We didn’t do anything—”
“Exactly.”
“What?”
“You should’ve been killed first. Didn’t they teach you that anyone you meet in the ruins is an enemy? Whatever. Why are you here? Who sent you? Talk, or die.”
Artificial blood pooled on the floor, staining it crimson. “B-Brigands…! They hired us to find weapons!” the man stammered, only for Danan’s blade to pierce his forehead.
Wiping the blood from his mechanical arm, Danan pried the magazine from the dead man’s gun, clicking his tongue.
“Brigands? An organization or a person?” Eve asked.
“An organization,” Danan replied. “Eve, where does it lead if we go up?”
“Well… to the information archive where we fell. Why?”
“…”
If they pressed toward the gate, they’d likely face more Brigand-hired divers. Combat was inevitable. After a moment’s thought, Danan nodded slightly, turning to Eve. “We’ll hit the archive, grab the data, then take another route back to the tower.” He resumed climbing.
“Do what you want,” Eve said. “But… why so cautious? Something wrong?”
“…Just more trouble.”
“What? Speak clearly, Danan.”
“Let’s just say the enemy’s bad news.”
Eve sighed at the sharp, needle-like aura Danan exuded, following him as he pressed forward.
