Chapter 231

Chapter 231: Them

“…Final report. This is the Deep Dive Team. Operation codename ‘Adulthood’…”

The slightly muffled voice filled his ears, and Yu Sheng froze.

He looked up. The color had drained from this mysterious Control Hall. Foxy and Irene hung motionless like black-and-white phantoms. Even the falling bullet hung in the air a few centimeters above the floor. Only that low voice came through, clear and real.

It was exactly like when he had done a Conversation With The Dead before.

The voice kept going, as if speaking from less than a meter away. Yu Sheng could not see anyone there, but he heard a person talking to a recorder, more like speaking to themselves than to him:

“…No one in the team can move anymore. We fell in this hall. Our bodies are melting like wax. In our minds, all kinds of things are mixing and tangling…

“My name is… is… no. I can’t remember.

“This is our last report. I don’t know if this recording will ever make it back to headquarters, but I have to record what we saw.

“Anka Aila is a ship-at least it was when it first set out. After we touched the device called the Umbilical Cord, we saw many things about it.

“I don’t understand where this ship came from. The memories the Umbilical Cord sent to us were mad and chaotic. It seems to have drifted for a very, very long time, longer than reason can grasp. It comes from a place completely different from the universe we know. Maybe that is what scholars guess as the ‘outside.’

“But now the ship has become something reason can’t explain. I don’t know how to describe what I saw while linked to the Umbilical Cord. I saw steel melt in light. I saw blood running in its fuel lines. I saw it grow flesh. The engine roared with burning heat. It kept talking to me, saying so many things. The humming noise almost destroyed my mind…

“We escaped from the chamber that holds the Umbilical Cord and came back here to die. What it did to us cannot be undone. Our protective gear failed. The change is happening from the inside out. I feel a gaze. Right now, it is watching us-through each of our own eyes.

“I think I understand. We are becoming part of it.”

Heavy breathing filled the air. The nearby voice drifted, as if it moved around the hall, then settled again, no longer where it had been:

“We don’t know what will happen next. Death, or something worse. We were ready before we left. We don’t fear those things. We fear what disaster could follow if ‘it’ breaks free.

“Anka Aila, an otherworldly ark that learned to think, is still stuck for now in a dream called Fairy Tale. But one day it will break out. Something is growing in its depths, a new life, maturing at the far end of the Umbilical Cord. The Umbilical Cord is damaged, and we can’t be sure what it really is. One thing is certain: when it lets out its first newborn cry, many, many people in Borderland will die.

“To whoever receives this recording-whether you are the Support Unit of the Special Affairs Bureau or others who come after-do everything you can to stop that birth.

“Past this hall is a short corridor. At the end is the room that holds the Umbilical Cord. There, a mortal mind can barely link directly with Anka Aila. That may be the only way to fight or at least drive off the Dark Angels. We failed. Our minds could not hold against its attack. But if you are alive and still sane, if you can understand the words we left here, then maybe you can.

“Try. There is no reward. We have nothing to give you. We can’t even offer a noble reason…

“We only beg you, try… before its child is born into our world…”

The bullet that had hung in midair dropped and clicked against the floor. Color rushed back into the world, and everything started moving again.

Yu Sheng looked down. The bullet bounced twice and rolled to his shoe. From a strange machine not far away, a dark red stain like blood stretched across the floor until it reached his feet.

[Is this the blood they left here seventy years ago?]

He lifted his head and saw a figure that had appeared without a sound, staring calmly at him.

It was a hollow Hunter’s Garb floating in the air. Under the hood was a faceless shadow. The whole figure felt unreal, like Illusion Arts.

Yu Sheng glanced at his own arm and saw that his Hunter outfit had vanished without him noticing.

Foxy was hugging Irene, and Irene was hugging Squirrel. All three saw the shadow and cried out together: “Hunter!”

Yu Sheng kept his face steady, centered himself, and walked up to the Hunter.

“It has been many years,” the Hunter’s empty, blurred voice sounded straight in his mind.

“We kept trying to get back to this place, even though we forgot why. Anka Aila turned us into Hunters in the Black Forest. The Hunter’s Garb is like a hard shell that traps us in the angel dream’s looping script. We tried to talk to the Little Red Riding Hood who enters the Forest, but except for shooting and killing the Evil Wolf, we were not allowed to do anything extra. Again and again we tried to recall our mission and goal, but the memories wore away as we remembered.”

The Hunter raised a hand and pointed to the center of the hall.

“Ten bodies fell there, and twelve souls remained. At the last moment, we used everything we had to send two bodies back to the real world, hoping the leftover signals in their brains could carry what happened here to headquarters. After that, we waited for reinforcements, though we had little hope. In those conditions, the bodies we sent back were already badly polluted. It was impossible for them to carry anything sane.

“So when you took out that group photo, we were stunned. We even woke from the ‘roles’ Anka Aila had woven for us.”

“Right, you woke up, and then shot me with a bullet,” Yu Sheng smiled a little, “it hurt.”

“…Sorry. But we were on the Black Forest stage. That was the only ‘out-of-script’ thing we could do. Also, because you had absorbed the wolf’s blood, we could ‘treat’ you as an Evil Wolf,” the Hunter said with a hint of apology, “in the Black Forest, death is only temporary. What is more dangerous is erosion and turning wolfish after dying many times.”

Yu Sheng considered telling them he had come in with his real body and that shot had truly killed him, but he decided against it: [Not the right time to mention that.]

“In any case, the reinforcements are here,” Yu Sheng said as he pointed to himself, then to Foxy, Irene, and Squirrel, “we’re not from the Special Affairs Bureau, but we took their commission. Sorry the help came a bit late.”

The Hunter only shook his head in silence.

Then he pointed toward another Door on the far side of the hall.

“Go out through there to reach the room with the Umbilical Cord.”

“What else is in there?” Yu Sheng’s face turned serious as he asked, “and what should I do?”

“The room is small, like a maintenance platform. The Umbilical Cord is a connector set in the center of a ring platform. It links to a special area below. Back then, we couldn’t find any way down, so we’re not sure what is under it. But we are sure the thing Anka Aila is ‘gestating’ is below.

“Touch the Umbilical Cord to forge the strongest link with Anka Aila. As for what comes after…”

The Hunter stopped. After a long silence, he made a small shake of his head.

“We don’t need to spell out the danger. We cannot promise or guarantee anything. In truth, there has never been a case where a human linked with the Dark Angels and came out safe. If you want to be rational, you can walk away right now.”

“If I wanted to be rational, I wouldn’t have come,” Yu Sheng grinned and waved, “that’s enough. I’ll go take a look. You all should rest here. It’s been years. You deserve a break.”

He turned and headed the way the Hunter had pointed.

Foxy followed without a second thought.

Irene and Squirrel were nervous, but with Foxy carrying Irene and Irene holding Squirrel, they had no choice but to go along.

“Wait…” the Hunter’s voice came from behind.

Yu Sheng didn’t turn, only looked back a little with a smile.

“Don’t worry. I’ll try.”

He opened the unlocked Door. A dim corridor lay beyond.

At the end of the corridor, dark red lights glowed in a slow, circling pulse, like a silent invitation and an ill omen at the same time.

The cry of a baby rose again. This time it wasn’t far away or hazy. It sounded like it was right beyond those dark red lights.

Yu Sheng’s mouth curled up as he stepped forward.