I followed the man’s words without resistance.

There was nothing else I could do anyway. What could I possibly do here? My weapon had been taken, my communicator taken. If his goal had been to kill me, he would not have gone out of his way to save me from the mold.

Maybe I should have pretended not to notice that he was a deserter.

But well, it was already too late. Pretending ignorance now would not fool him. With time, I would learn his intentions.

We once again walked silently through the subway. I dragged my heavy legs, my eyes fixed on the sword hanging at his waist.

Contrary to Angela’s warning, the subway was quiet. The nameless deserter Badger strode forward as though familiar with this place.

I felt no trace of any other living presence.

We passed through a long passage and went inside a ticket gate that no longer worked.

Going down the stairs, old screen doors spread before my eyes. Of the many, only one lonely door stood open. The nameless man headed for the open one.

Before jumping down beneath the screen door, he looked back at me.

“Obediently following, huh?”

“There’s no other way.”

He stared straight at me.

Looking at his thick beard, I shrugged my shoulders.

“There’s no way I could win in a fight.”

He snorted with laughter.

“Good attitude. Let’s eat first.”

Didn’t we just have lunch not long ago?

I couldn’t refute. I wasn’t clueless enough to say I wasn’t hungry right now. I followed the man and jumped down onto the tracks through the open screen door.

A long tunnel stretched out. There was no electricity in the narrow tunnel, but I could see. Because glowing mushrooms had grown in a line along the tracks.

The mushrooms glowed green.

“Did you plant these?”

“Yeah.”

So he did.

I walked, looking at the beautiful mushrooms lined up.

A strange black corridor filled with green light. A cool breeze flowing through the tunnel.

After walking in silence for a while, something massive appeared ahead.

A giant train, unmoving.

“This station, you see, the entrances are all covered with the mold that tried to eat you. That’s why no creatures come inside.”

“But isn’t it connected to other stations?”

“I blocked them all.”

Faint light leaked out through the train’s windows.

The man walked up beside the stopped train and slid the door open. He slipped into the brightly lit interior. I dragged myself over and climbed inside too.

And recoiled at the sight that unfolded.

“What the hell.”

“Pretty well set up, right?”

The man grinned as he saw my eyes widen.

“Believe it or not, before I deserted they used to call me the Badger’s druid.”

Vegetables.

Neat shelves, and vegetables growing in tidy order within them. Purple LED lamps shining down on the plants. I gaped at the pots filling an entire train car.

The scene filling my vision was surreal. Everything in the pots were vegetables I knew by name. Broccoli. Romaine. Isabel.

Most of them looked fresh enough to eat right away.

...A survival master outside the Core?

The man happily watched me staring in a daze.

“You can’t eat here. Come this way.”

I finally pulled my eyes from the vegetables and went into the next car.

Though I had already been astonished, I continued to marvel at what unfolded.

Each car seemed to have a different use. I passed diverse cars. One filled with peeping chicks and scurrying chickens. Another packed with mushrooms, starting with enoki and others I couldn’t name. Another with rusty weapons, tools, and wooden blocks serving as a workshop.

After those, I reached a car showing signs of habitation.

Unlike the others, this car still had the subway seats intact. The man gestured to the seat opposite, which looked like he used it as a bed.

“Sit there.”

Then he slipped into another car and returned holding a pot.

“Chicken soup.”

“No.”

“Eat up.”

He winked as he handed me a rusty fork and spoon.

I was dumbfounded but did not refuse. I obediently accepted the plate and ladled soup from the pot.

For a while we ate in silence. He seemed genuinely hungry, and I was busy trying to process the situation before my eyes.

Yun had said the most important thing was supplies. And hadn’t I heard that rookies spent time filling the supply depots of F Zone? I recalled what I’d been told before leaving the Core: from D Zone onward, it was survival life.

But this is A Zone.

It was already a mystery how I had ended up in A Zone.

Conversation resumed only after he finished his chicken soup.

“So. Is Yehyeon alive?”

I slowly set down my spoon.

Then I looked for a while at the man covered in hair and beard, and asked back.

“Why did you desert?”

“You shouldn’t answer a question with a question.”

“You can’t expect me to hand information to a deserter so easily.”

“Hey. I’m still a former Badger, and a human.”

The nameless senior raised his eyebrows as if my attitude amused him.

“Safer with me than without me, don’t you think? And what could I do here?”

Than me?

Why did this suddenly turn to me? I stared blankly, not understanding.

As if taking my expression another way, he waved his hands.

“All right, all right. You want me to talk first, right?”

“What? Talk about what.”

“Let’s see. What should I tell you first.”

Maybe because he had lived alone so long, conversation felt off.

The deserter stroked his beard, paying no mind to my expression.

“Since I mentioned Yehyeon, why don’t we start with him?”

“What the hell are you talking about.”

“Ah, listen. It won’t hurt to know. You probably don’t know.”

Don’t know what?

I meant to ask back, but he opened his mouth first.

“You know, he said he grew up in a single-parent household.”

...What?

Caught off guard by the unexpected turn, I blinked. It was ridiculous enough that he was really talking about Yehyeon, but if he was, I thought it would be about his rank or position.

So why this kind of personal story?

Though flustered, the situation didn’t change. Sitting with my sword at his waist, the man went on, his face steeped in memory.

“During the First War, I was in the same unit as him once. That’s when I heard it. He said his mother died giving birth to him. As for his father—never saw his face, didn’t know his name, but the guy must have held a pretty high position.”

“Excuse me.”

“He even came to the unit a few times. Said he wanted to see his son’s face.”

Excuse me?

I was baffled by how he just rambled on. I wondered if I should even keep listening. But despite my discomfort, scraps of info I’d once read floated back.

Hadn’t people grumbled online that Yehyeon’s origins were unclear? That there was no info on either parent.

The pieces didn’t fit. Was the father so prominent that records were erased?

“Whether he was a soldier or politician or whatever... Anyway, Yehyeon kept getting called out at the strangest times. He’d come back pale as a ghost.”

“Pale?”

“He was probably abused.”

No way.

That was too far. This wasn’t something I should be hearing. His casual words jolted me back to my senses.

I raised my palm to stop him, and when he raised his eyebrows, I said firmly:

“I won’t listen further.”

“Why not? Out of respect for Yehyeon? Or because you think it’s useless? If it’s the first, is now really the time to care about that? If it’s the second, you’d be surprised how useful personal stories can be.”

“I don’t see why I should hear you say that. Either way, this isn’t right.”

“I like Yehyeon.”

Bullshit...

Maybe my thoughts showed, because the deserter gave a mocking laugh.

A laugh filled with tangled emotions.

“You think I’m just dragging out people’s dirty laundry for fun, don’t you?”

“Isn’t that what you’re doing?”

“Not only Yehyeon, I’ll tell you about everyone—Jason, Richard, Ami, Yun, Ska, Jonathan, Ricardo, all of them! I’m trying to help you, so why won’t you listen?”

“How does this help me?”

“You need information. That way you can avoid mines and blend into the organization. Hey. You’ve got to be liked by the organization if you want freedom of movement. You need trust to move freely outside the Core, fake rookie.”

“...Why would I need to move freely outside the Core?”

Strange.

At first I thought he’d just forgotten how to converse from living alone. But the more he spoke, the more it felt like we were operating under different assumptions.

As if we were misunderstanding each other.

Or more precisely, as if he knew something about me.

My gut lurched. I pressed down the strange rising feeling.

“What do I gain from moving freely outside the Core?”

He gave me a dumbfounded look.

We sat unmoving for a long time. Neither spoke. A short silence born of misunderstanding. Sitting across from each other on the train’s old seats, we stared.

Only after a long time did he answer, his face showing he didn’t understand my question.

“To kill.”

“...Kill what?”

“The one you betrayed.”

A chill surged.

“The one you cast out of the Core. Your former comrade.”

I forced myself not to retch and stared into his vivid green eyes. I saw him begin rolling up his sleeve.

His arm was turning gray.

“The bastard ordering to drag you into S Zone.”

Thud!

A heavy sound rang out.

The train shook. A shock from the rear rushed through the car we sat in.

The frame quivered. The tunnel echoed with the impact.

I turned my head to the closed door of the train car.

The senior shot up to his feet.

“Shit, they’re here already. Let’s go.”

“Where to?”

“The next station.”

He pulled a small knife from his back pocket and scraped off his beard.

Clumps of hair fell onto the train floor. The face revealed was younger than I expected. Surprising—I’d thought he would look physically older. Though this wasn’t the time to be surprised.

“Gotta stay alive a little longer.”

“What’s out there?”

“What do you think. Your old friends.”

The man quickly gathered the weapons he had set down.

Then suddenly handed my sword back to me. Instead of questioning, I simply thanked him and accepted it.

“Thank you.”

“I wanted to talk a few more minutes in peace. But no chance—once they felt you here, they wouldn’t stay put.”

“Is it possible to escape?”

“Yeah. I’ve got nearly ten years’ worth of desertion under my belt. Keep quiet and follow. And hey—strange for # Nоvеlight # a deserter of ten years to say this, but...”

He pulled his mask back over his face and set out.

I buckled my sword at my waist and followed. I hurried my steps, ears straining. Listening for both the man’s words and the sounds of whatever had rammed the rear of the train.

Without looking back, the deserter spoke.

“I fought in two wars. I’ve no intention of just sitting and watching our side lose.”

He slid open the front car’s door in one motion and jumped down.

I followed, leaping into the green darkness, catching his muttered words.

It sounded less like he was speaking to me than to himself.

A whisper sharp with resolve.

“Like hell I’d hand you over to them.”

We began to run through the dark tracks.