He did not answer.

Instead, his cold eyes rolled around, scanning the surroundings. I smiled awkwardly again.

Part of the tower had collapsed. The door was blocked by fallen stone, and both a civilian and I had been struck by the rain of debris. We had nearly ended up flattened like dried fish.

Running under the awning had been the best move. The awning withstood the falling wreckage.

It seemed Kudo had cleared some of the stones piled around the awning. Squinting against the light pouring in, I shoved the man beside me.

This man’s nerves were unbelievably thick. In a situation like this, it would not have been strange if he had gone blank with shock.

“Go outside and stay put quietly.”

I said it to his back as he staggered but still tried to walk firmly toward the seniors.

“Don’t cause trouble.”

“What trouble would I cause? And why are you only showing up now? You lot can lift cars like books, so why not clear all this in a snap!”

Even as he stumbled, he did not stop grumbling.

What a man. I let out a hollow laugh, watching someone complain even after brushing death.

Jonathan Kudo did not even glance at him.

“What is this?”

After staring at me for a long while, Kudo finally broke the silence.

I blinked and met his gaze.

“Pardon?”

“Your back. Look.”

Ah.

He must mean the burn on my back.

The Commander had already told him my regeneration was poor, but the seniors had not realized until they saw it themselves.

Yet Jonathan Kudo did not look worried about me.

It was not worry — it was pure curiosity. Just like John Mühlen’s curiosity about me. As I had heard, he was a difficult man.

My fellow rookies were kind. Their mentors worried about my flawed regeneration. Ami, of course, worried openly, and even Ricardo showed his care while grumbling.

...Choi Yun was a sociopath, so I decided not to think about him.

Anyway, the point was that this senior was somewhat different from the others. He would save me if it was his duty, as part of the mission, just as he would save a civilian. But whether my name was Hildebert Taleb or Hesh Lyle, he would not care.

At the very least, I had to avoid being a burden.

The ankle hit by debris had improved a lot. Dragging my still-aching leg, I forced a smile and stood up.

“My regeneration is a bit weak, that’s all. Thank you for pulling me out, senior.”

“Can you move?”

“Of course.”

Kudo turned his head away.

His attitude said plainly he had confirmed I would not be a hindrance. Without looking back, he left through the path of ruin he had created.

I, too, walked straight toward the pouring light.

Rumble—

“Uwah! What the hell!”

“Urgh.”

The civilian’s urgent cry burst out alongside a heavy rumble that struck my ears. I staggered, barely catching my balance.

Wow. The building was about to collapse any moment.

“No! My building!”

The man screamed up at the trembling structure, his body shaking in fear.

“My masterpiece!”

So that was why he had not left. The building owner.

I gave a weary smile and assessed the situation. The tower shook heavily with deep groaning sounds, then finally stilled.

The suffocating calm before the storm.

I exhaled and looked around.

At a glance, the state was not as bad as expected.

Part of the tower had fallen, burying the entrances. But the central lobby where the creature had been was intact. The tower’s structure left the middle open like a courtyard, with a fountain at the center — so that part had survived.

“Barely open a few years and already...”

The building owner clutched his face in despair.

“It was meant to rival A-Tech...”

Splash.

Water wrapped around my ankle. The floor was filling with water.

Was it from broken pipes? Or from Shu smashing an aquarium tank?

Speaking of which, where was Shu?

A chill spread through me as I turned to the senior.

“Senior, where is Senior Shu?”

“She must have gone out.”

Kudo answered flatly as he examined the floor.

“Her comms are broken, so we can’t reach her.”

“What?”

The building owner lifted his head from his despair.

Looking at the senior’s composed, mixed-featured face, he blurted:

“Comms broken? Then how are we supposed to contact the outside!”

“Don’t you have a phone?”

I pulled mine from my pocket and waved it.

“Is yours broken?”

The building owner stared at me for a long time.

Then slowly reached into his pocket and took his out. He had momentarily forgotten it existed.

Understandable.

Silence settled over the ruined lobby. Silence brought by the building owner hunching over his phone, panting. I exhaled long, absorbing the flood of sensations.

The sound of water flowing. The rain of concrete dust from the broken ruin. The acrid smell of shattered stone.

Should we get out on our own? Or wait for help from outside?

The senior did not look inclined to tell me. Who knew what he was looking for, waving his sword through the water.

Just as I was about to approach him, the building owner yelled.

“Inside, I said!”

His voice was booming.

“Inside the tower! Call people fast! Get me out of here! Didn’t you see the building shaking?”

A fish suddenly flopped down onto his head as he shouted into his phone.

The man jerked, I chuckled, and Kudo gave it no glance.

Pathetic. He threw the poor dead bass down on the floor.

Splash!

“Damn it!”

“Senior, should we just stay put here and wait?”

“They’ll soon tell us the safest exit route.”

Kudo replied evenly, eyes still on the water pooling around our feet.

“A famous man is trapped here. And this is the center of District 1’s main street, dangerous too.”

“A famous man?”

Was he talking about himself?

I blinked in confusion. An awkward silence followed. The building owner, still clinging to his phone, suddenly closed his mouth.

He stared at me, incredulous.

“What the—why do you sound like you put a question mark after that? You don’t know me?”

“No.”

I answered plainly.

How would I know you? He talked like some lunatic calling from a blocked number.

But seeing his jaw drop, and even Kudo raising his head to stare at me, it seemed I had blundered again.

This man was a celebrity?

“You really don’t know me?”

“Sorry. I’m not very tuned into the world.”

“But still. You don’t know me?”

“I don’t. Tower owner?”

“Hey! I’m the president of Cureus Corporation!”

A big company?

Glancing to the side, I met Kudo’s eyes. He was still stirring the water with his blade, staring intently at {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} me, as if to confirm I truly did not know.

Like a cat watching a bug land on wallpaper.

So it was a well-known company.

But was that really important now?

As if to answer my thoughts, the phone rang.

He answered instantly, and a stranger’s voice echoed through the tower.

[You should take the stairs by the south gate and escape through the underground parking lot.]

I raised my head to look at the senior.

Without a change of expression, he came toward me slowly.

Then he took the phone from my hand. The dried blood on his body seemed to be his own. Despite being caught in the explosion and recovering, he was still the most intact of us.

“What’s the tower’s state?”

[It does not seem about to collapse immediately, but you should come out as soon as possible. Be prepared for the ceiling to cave in.]

“Support from outside?”

[Not easy. Any rash move could hasten collapse.]

“The creature’s body isn’t visible.”

Jonathan Kudo dropped the bomb as if it were nothing.

The building owner’s face went pale. I blinked slowly.

So that was why he had been stirring the flooded floor with his blade. He was looking for the creature’s body.

So it did leave a corpse. I had thought it simply fizzled out when drenched.

The voice on the phone paused briefly.

[So you mean its death isn’t confirmed. Then you must leave even faster. Are there any civilians besides the Cureus president?]

“None I can see.”

“Wait.”

I cut in quickly.

Both the despairing owner and the calm senior turned to me.

I met Kudo’s utterly disinterested gaze.

“A woman earlier said her children were missing and tried to enter.”

[Children?]

“What?”

The senior recoiled in shock.

I nodded at his wide eyes.

“She was stopped by Shu before she could come in.”

“They’d be dead if they were inside!”

The building owner shrieked hysterically.

“You don’t even know if the creature’s alive or dead, the building might collapse any second, and you want to risk lives for kids who might not even be alive!”

“Do you have any idea where?”

“I hear faint sounds from upstairs.”

“What?”

The owner shot me a look like I was spouting madness again.

But no matter how much disdain he poured into his glare — even if he looked at me like I was the dumbest creature alive — after facing Yun’s “your intelligence is beneath a chimpanzee’s” stare, I was immune.

I relayed my suspicion to the senior watching the owner coldly.

“I’ve been hearing rustling above for a while. Shu had gathered those inside on the 2nd floor earlier, so I thought to check around there.”

“Alright.”

Kudo answered instantly.

“You can go confirm safely.”

The half-collapsed 2nd floor.

With Kudo’s permission, I climbed the buried escalator precariously and there found a small brother and sister.

***

“What the—”

The building owner was dumbfounded.

“Why are kids here?”

“I set makeshift splints with whatever I found.”

The 7-year-old boy’s foot was in bad shape, struck by falling debris. Carrying the 4-year-old girl in one arm and the boy in the other, I reported:

“The 4-year-old girl is unharmed.”

Kudo strode over in one step and examined the boy’s splint closely.

The cheeky boy only said, “Why are you staring so long,” before Kudo finally lifted his head.

“We have to leave quickly.”

Then he fixed his gaze on me.

“Amazing. Already learning civilian first aid?”