BIOLOGICAL SUPERCOMPUTER SYSTEM-Chapter 1250: Rescue trip (6)

Erik crouched behind a fallen pillar, scanning the overgrown plaza for movement. Thick vines and clusters of ferns provided patchy cover between his position and the hotel's side entrance.

[I don't see movements at the windows,] the system said.

<Does this mean there is no one?>

[No, they can be hidden. You stay alert. Some thaids can mask their presence.]

Erik moved in haste between patches of vegetation, freezing whenever the wind stirred the leaves above.

He pressed himself against a crumbling wall as something rustled in the upper floors of a nearby building. Only after several tense moments did the biological computer confirm it was just debris settling.

[Erik, use Instability to check if anyone is nearby,] the system said. [It would give us a better idea about the situation inside.]

<I had the same thought.>

Erik channeled mana through his neural links and extended his consciousness outward, probing the area with his mana.

The power reached for any mind within range, but there were simply too many for him to be able to make something out of it. It was a jumbled mess of thoughts, urges, and primal desires.

Hunger, lust, and fear—primal emotions and instincts that clouded his mind and made him want to puke.

Yet Erik kept searching, sweeping the area meter by meter.

However, there was no whisper of coherent thought, no trace of self-aware consciousness.

<No one's here,> Erik said. <We're wasting our time. If they were in the area, I would have sensed them.>

[Not necessarily,] the system said. [They could be out hunting. Your friends need to eat, after all. The range of Instability is limited. They might be just beyond its reach. Or they might have already moved on. But that's not the point.]

Erik frowned. <So, what is the point? Waste time?>

[You idiot!] the system said. [We're not just looking for people—we're looking for signs they were here. If we find evidence your companions passed through this area, it means they survived. It means they're out there somewhere.]

Erik's eyes widened. Not because of what the system said—that was obvious enough. He had been too disappointed to see it without the biological supercomputer pointing it out. No, what moved him was the system's thoughtfulness.

True, the others might simply be outside of Instability's range, and Erik could have just waited outside for signs of activity rather than entering a dangerous building. But the system wanted Erik to check inside anyway—just to put his mind at ease, just to cross out the chance they had at least been there.

Erik's hand tightened on the crumbling wall. The system was right. Any proof his friends had been here would mean they made it off Mannard alive. It would have relieved him to no end to know they were safe.

[Even old traces would help,] the system said. [Abandoned camps, supply caches, defensive positions—anything that shows they came this way.]

<And if we find nothing?>

At that point, Erik just wanted to stop feeling disappointed.

[Then we keep searching. But right now, this hotel is our best lead.]

Erik nodded, pushing away from the wall. The system's logic was sound. Even if his friends weren't here now, any evidence of their passage would give him hope—and perhaps a direction to search next.

<You're right,> he said. <We should check inside. But stay alert. Just because I can't sense anyone doesn't mean this place is safe.>

[Of course. There could still be thaids that don't register to Instability. Mur is different from Mannard, so keep your senses sharp.]

Erik moved toward the entrance. Somewhere in this ruined hotel might be the clue he needed—proof that his friends were alive, that they were still fighting. He wouldn't leave until he found it or until he was certain there was nothing to find.

Finally, he arrived at the side entrance. It was a service door with a bent metal frame, but it was still working. Vines grew over it like a curtain, which made it a suitable spot to enter without being seen.

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With one last check of his surroundings, Erik crossed the last stretch and eased the door open just enough to slide through. The rusted hinges remained mercifully silent as he entered the hotel's shadowy interior.

Erik sighed in relief. The last thing he wanted was to alert anything that might have been inside.

He then slipped inside, being careful not to walk on vines and ancient glass shards strewn across the floor.

After getting through a series of corridors and having checked an ungodly amount of rooms for living beings' presence, the hotel's ground level's largest room opened before him. It was a space that time had transformed into a museum of decay.

[The lobby,] the system said.

<Yeah, I guessed.>

Erik went forward, looking at his surroundings in fear. [See the remnants of the reception desk?] The system mentally pointed at them, and Erik turned to look. [Those scattered metal frames must have been the lounge furniture.]

<I don't think that's a relevant information.>

Sunlight came through holes in the ceiling, creating rays of light that Erik used to see his surroundings better and to navigate the room.

The first thing Erik did was to check if the ground was solid. There was marble on the ground, broken and worn out, but aside from that, it looked solid enough for him to move on it.

A huge staircase stood on the northern side of the room, and to its side was what the system assumed was the reception. The metal handrails were gone, leaving only dark stains on the walls where they used to be and a pile of debris on the ground below, but even after hundreds of years, the stairs still looked beautiful.

Then he noticed something.

<Check those marks on the floor,> Erik said, pointing to scratches in the marble.

[They look recent to me,] the system said.

<Any idea what they belong to?>

[No.]

<Do you think someone had been here?>

The system paused. [I can't really tell. Those marks might be from a thaid, but even from humans.] They were rather large and evenly distributed. [If they are from thaids it might have been a large thaid. If they are from humans, the pattern suggests defensive positions were established here and then moved.]

There was no debris on the ground, meaning that whatever was here had been brought away, if it was of human manufacture.

<Could they be my friends?>

[They could,] the system said, [but keep in mind the blackguards likely came here too, and at this point I would rather bet on them than on Amber and the others.]

Erik's shoulders slumped at those words. He had been clinging to the hope that these marks meant his friends were close, but the system's reminder felt like a cold splash of reality, to which he could only clench his fists.

Then he kept checking the area more.

Broken columns created natural cover points around the lobby's perimeter. Many still bore the weight of the floors above, while others had toppled, creating angular barriers made from the collapsed floors from above.

<It's a miracle this place is still standing.>

[Yes. A good tremor might be enough to make it collapse, and with the thaids in the vicinity, that is not an impossible situation.]

Aside from that, there was some water damage on the walls, which had left dark stains on them, and that spread mold and fungi.

These infestations weren't just unsightly; they could literally eat away at the building's integrity, breaking down materials at a microscopic level, which would further reduce their solidity.

The spores had likely penetrated deep into the walls, weakening the structural supports over centuries of unchecked growth.

The system showed Erik where the mold damage was worst, telling him to stay away from those areas since they were the least safe. Even a small explosion could have made entire sections of the weakened walls collapse.

[Based on the layout, there should be multiple escape routes,] the system said, sending Erik a mental image of where the exits should have been. [You better keep this in mind, since something might be here, or at least on the upper floors.]

Erik nodded. In truth, there were multiple things in this building, as he perceived thanks to the Instability brain crystal power, but based on what Erik felt, they were not that strong. The only challenge would be killing them without blowing up the building.

Of course, he would do nothing reckless, since there might still be thaids who could pose danger even without their brain crystal powers.

He then moved around a collapsed section of ceiling, noting how the rubble had been used to make chokepoints.

<At least we have proof someone had thought about defending this space.>

Whether it was his companions or the blackguards was unclear.

Yet the blackguards were the most likely ones to have made something like that. After all, they had been on Mur for years, and they checked every single place on this damned continent in search of the biological supercomputer.