Moonlight still seeped into this floor.

The distant corridor was tinted blue. It was clear this place had collapsed in spots too, but unlike the other areas it was not entirely blocked.

We might be able to escape through a window.

I needed to get out quickly and check whether Bobby and Asil were alive.

I gripped the Deathmask tightly and glanced at my senior.

“Get in the elevator.”

Ricardo ignored me.

He stepped out of the elevator at a leisurely pace. I rolled my eyes and followed him.

Part of me wanted to grab him and shove him back into the elevator.

But he was a senior — and he was having the worst day imaginable. If I acted on impulse and then returned to HQ, who knew what would happen....

I swallowed my tears and followed.

Ricardo walked into the corridor and began checking the wall where the elevator buttons were.

“Looking for something?”

He was feeling along an uncollapsed section of wall as if he were searching for something.

I did not expect much of an answer.

Sure enough, none came. I kept my senses on the senior’s movements while watching ahead.

I reviewed the warning that had been sounded. Five cages had been reported open.

I must have killed three of them in the arena.

The remaining two were not immediately obvious. I studied the A floor in the moonlight. This area was far larger than B floor and the cages were bigger.

The weight of presence exhaled by whatever was inside the cages felt different.

Things buried in the darkness fixed their gaze on us without moving.

Clang!

I whipped my head toward the sound.

“Senior?”

“You know how to fire a gun~?”

Where did a gun come from?

My eyes widened in surprise and I noticed that a tile in the wall had been opened. The senior had pulled out a pistol about the size of an elbow from that tile.

How did he know there was something there?

This mission-experienced senior’s habit paid off. It seemed the mafia kept spare weapons stashed just in case things went wrong.

I nodded, relieved that at least we had a weapon now.

“No.”

Ricardo blinked at my confident answer.

“Hm~?”

“I’m training, but I’m still very inexperienced.”

Who doesn’t know how to pull a trigger.

It was just that my hit rate was poor. And even though memory returned gradually from training every day with Yun, I did not use guns much before the war.

I told the senior, who was deftly loading the magazine, the truth.

Ricardo approached slowly and arched an eyebrow.

“How badly can’t you shoot?”

“If I relate Yun’s words, I’m at the skill level of an ordinary trainee in their second month.”

“Oh my....”

I still could not sense any Creatures.

I glanced at the senior’s ankle. Given this person’s temperament, he would be keeping the pain to himself. The swollen, reddened flesh looked painful just to see.

But if I offered to support him, he would refuse.

If things got bad, I had to stay close enough to use myself as his meat shield.

When I insisted I would walk three or four steps ahead, Ricardo nodded slowly.

“There’s probably an elevator at the end of this corridor that connects down to the first floor.... They always renovate buildings in that layout....”

“Understood.”

I looked toward the end of the corridor bathed in bluish night light.

Debris lay piled where an arena might sit, but the passage was not completely barricaded. Beyond that rubble would be an elevator.

There might be stairs too. Most likely locked, but we could probably pry them open with force.

Of course, two loose Creatures were probably behind that rubble.

Either way, those two would have to be confronted at some point whether they were here now or elsewhere.

I focused my senses to gauge distance from the Creatures, when my senior’s voice reached me.

“Think you can improve your skill before the exam~?”

“Huh?”

What are you talking about?

I shot him an odd look, and Ricardo’s expression matched mine.

“You have a promotion exam sometime around mid-next year.... Didn’t you know~?”

“Huh?”

What did you say?

“Yeah?”

An exam? A promotion?

The shock made my thoughts stall for a moment. I almost forgot that two unknown Creatures were loitering nearby.

Yun never once mentioned that.

Ricardo gave a long laugh as if he could read my expression.

“Guess Yun didn’t tell you....”

“No.”

That crazy man.

Ricardo snorted at my face.

“Calm down.... There’s still time. You can ask your marksman later once we get out~.”

“Badgers take promotion exams too?”

“You’ve got to lose the rookie tag.”

The senior walked on, maintaining front-line watch as he spoke slowly.

“If you pass the exam, you’ll get a duty schedule, a posting, your own weapon and all that....”

“What happens if I don’t pass?”

“You’ll be thoroughly humiliated~.”

His answer sounded terribly cheerful.

“Ninety percent of rookies pass; if you fail, people will gossip about it for years-.”

Yun!

He should have at least told me something this basic! I tightened my grip on the Deathmask and walked on, quietly furious.

I would march straight to him and complain as soon as we got out. He’d had plenty on his plate, but this wasn’t the kind of thing he couldn’t have mentioned.

Why didn’t he tell me earlier? Why not?

As I seethed, I turned toward the Creature that had spotted us and was coming our way.

Thud!

An arm, swollen like an overinflated balloon and asymmetrically huge, slammed into the floor.

I faintly remembered this Creature. It had lived in a forest so dense that sight was obscured by trees — one of those cursed specimens.

An arm swollen far larger than its own body.

A fist at the end of that arm hurtled toward a face.

“Help?”

“No.”

I raised the Deathmask.

“Got it.”

Paang!

The fist struck square into the inside of the mask.

A tremendous shock traveled up my hand holding the mask. Had my stance been off, my arm would have been broken.

But I held steady.

“That actually works?”

“Of course.”

I watched, starting from the fist that had contacted the mask, as the Creature began to shrivel.

“These things are always....”

The Deathmask was always hungry.

They devoured everything. Anything with life.

The withering accelerated. I watched moisture leech from the cursed ape’s body — whatever Badgers called them — while keeping a firm hold on the Deathmask as it greedily consumed the unhappy life before it.

Ricardo let out a hollow laugh.

“Looks like you study the Creature compendium diligently, huh?”

He glanced at the Deathmask in my hand as he spoke.

“This specimen is practically extinct; you wouldn’t encounter it outside like this....”

“Is that so?”

Well, it wasn’t hard to take down.

A flamethrower would neutralize this Creature without much fuss. Still, the disaster would start the ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) moment you touched the back of that mask, and anyone who wanted to survive would have to cut off the contacted part.

Maybe that’s why they eradicated them.

Ricardo murmured softly.

“Veterans hated it because it resembled a Stage 10.”

My body stiffened.

I widened my eyes and stared at Ricardo.

Even as the Creature, dried out and apple-core-like, collapsed to the floor, he paid it no mind.

Why bring up Rei here?

“Where...?”

I tried to ask properly but my voice cut off; the question came out short.

The senior did not notice. His cold green eyes were fixed on the corpse of the Creature, no longer recognizable.

“They said it fed the same way....”

“Fed the same way?”

“You must’ve only seen that last footage left by an unlucky reporter, right?”

That video.

Thinking of it choked me. I forced myself to keep my expression neutral.

I had tried hard not to think in detail about that short recording since my memories had returned thanks to Yehyeon. The footage clearly showed my cowardice and mistakes.

“Yes.”

My squeezed-out voice, fortunately, did not tremble.

Ricardo did not catch my odd reaction.

“Did you hear why Stage 10 was lethal~?”

“Yes, that too.”

I had heard how Rei — Ray — had halted when he saw a sword.

I knew he had slaughtered countless humans. Among the Badgers who fought in the First War, there was hardly anyone who had not been swept up by Rei’s power.

Ricardo slowly tore his gaze away from the Creature’s body.

“They say it resurrected itself while eating surrounding Creatures.”

Ah.

I did not want to hear more.

“At least that’s what Richard and Yehyeon say~. They say it killed and killed again, sucking the life from surrounding Creatures and coming back to life.... Like it took on thick, black tree roots and fed on nutrients~. I’ve never faced a Stage 10 myself, so I don’t know where the truth ends and rumor begins....”

Jin Silver’s greyed arm flashed before my eyes.

Bile rose in my throat. I clamped a hand — not holding the Deathmask — over my mouth and bowed my head.

Ricardo, watching ahead, snapped his head around.

“What’s wrong?”

I could not answer.

I staggered toward a corner and retched.

Uwehk....

A Creature that looked like a goat with four legs gave me a disbelieving look from inside its barred cage when I slammed my forehead against the iron.

Sorry about that....

As I heaved, the senior grabbed the nape of my neck and hauled me up from behind.

“What’s the matter with you?”

His voice was rigid with tension.

I turned to Ricardo slowly. The pale bluish moonlight streaming through the wide window painted his stern face.

“I think it’s a drug side effect.”

I offered a flimsy excuse and gave a weak smile.

“After puking I feel a bit better.”

“Just like that?”

“You heard me.”

I moved a little away from him; I must smell.

Ricardo frowned and watched me intently. He seemed to bite back some further remark.

I was grateful he kept his mouth shut. Pretending to be fine was already exhausting.

Don’t think about it until we get out of here.

One more step and I’d recall another fragment of the past; I resolved not to take that step. This was not the time.

There would be a mountain of things to tell Yun when I grabbed him outside!

I sighed, still holding the Deathmask that felt increasingly difficult to bear.

“Sorry. I’m okay now. Let’s go.”

“Tell me right away if your condition worsens....”

Ricardo said, displeased.

“If you hide a bad state, people around you will bleed during combat....”

“Yes. Understood—.”

Ding!

Huh?

Ricardo and I snapped our heads toward the sound of the elevator stopping.

The place we had planned to go.

The sound came from the elevator that connected down to the first floor.

[Warning. Cage 1 is open.]

[Warning. Cage 2 is open.]

[Warning. Cage 4 is open.]

[Warning. Cage 10 is open.]

[Warning. Cage 12 is open.]

The AI broadcast the same warnings it had when we arrived at the elevator behind us.

Ricardo grabbed me and I followed him wordlessly, crouching, muffling our steps and slipping behind debris to hide.

We listened as people poured out of the elevator.

“Fuck!”

Is that Jaeyeon?

“It’s dark! Turn on the light!”

No.

The voice belonged to Mick.