Captain Kim did not immediately accept what we said.
He was stubborn by nature, after all.
But when it comes to stubbornness, we do not lose either.
If the stubbornness of people walking into hell to save their families is weak, then whose stubbornness could be called strong?
And in situations like this, the side with greater numbers always wins.
Unfortunately—no. It is not unfortunate. We are trying to save someone here.
At any rate, since Captain Kim was the only soldier here, he had no choice but to yield.
“…Then first, I’ll tell you the information I know. We can postpone any judgment until after that.”
Captain Kim caught his breath and continued.
“As I already told you, my wife was scheduled for surgery that day. Whether I should call it fortunate or not, there was only one C-section scheduled at that time that day. Operating Room 2.”
“Even so, that shouldn’t be enough information to be certain of her location.”
The orc man said as much.
He was not wrong. Even if she had been attacked there, a great deal of time had passed by now.
Just as the mimic beast wearing my previous wife’s skin had been on the second floor… it meant she might be somewhere else by now.
As if he had expected that, Captain Kim nodded and said,
“Do you remember the briefing? It wasn’t information important to the operation, so it was mentioned only in passing… but I mean the door on the third floor.”
Inside the blackout zone, there are two special doors.
One was the exit guarded by the unique entity designated the Incubator.
It had been our initial operational objective, and the other one was…
“The door to the next area is on the third floor. And the identification name of the unique entity guarding that door is…”
“The Mother, was it not.”
The old owlbear said in a gloomy voice.
“Yes, that’s right. That being… is probably my wife.”
Captain Kim said, his fingers twitching.
“If you truly intend to save my wife, we will have to face another unique entity.”
Now I understood why Captain Kim had been reluctant to say it.
At present, we did not have the combat strength to deal with another unique entity.
For starters, we had used up every last grenade, calling it the final battle, and the old owlbear’s shield had been crumpled by the Land Leviathan.
On top of that, we still had not managed to repair the orc man’s K3…
‘It’s true that our combat power has fallen considerably.’
We are not the protagonists of some RPG who kill monsters and level up.
Since we operate strictly on the basis of modern weapons, we are in a position where we must fight against consumption and breakdowns.
Facing another unique entity in a situation like this… would certainly be an enormous burden.
That must be why Captain Kim said he would give us the information first, and then we should make our judgment.
Because the best plan is to avoid a fight that will not be easy.
Captain Kim said, his fingers twitching,
“For now, let’s find a way to go up. This isn’t our only chance, is it? When we come next time, if you can just promise you’ll save her then, I’ll be more than…”
“Captain Kim.”
I cut him off.
“You know, don’t you? That a next chance doesn’t always come just because we want it to.”
“If you are here, that chance can come at any time. As long as you are here…”
“What if one day, I suddenly disappear? Or if I end up turning into a danger even I can’t resolve?”
Contrary to Captain Kim’s hopes, I will eventually walk into danger.
Even if it is not necessarily to save my family, I will eventually have to take danger upon myself.
Since entering this place, how much had my ability grown?
While the world spins busily around me, I am no different from a pebble on the roadside.
I have presence, but only enough to be kicked underfoot.
In the end, for my own sake and for my family’s, I have to seek growth even if it means shouldering risk.
“Even so, the chance may come. Even if we take risks, if we choose only the safe options…”
“Then we’ll end up being too late.”
Unfortunately, the time given to us is not all that abundant.
The Incubator is proof of that.
A mountain of flesh made of countless newborns had been trying to tangle together and pupate into a single existence.
Fortunately, before it became completely one, we succeeded in purifying it… but we were left with one question.
If the Incubator had truly unified from a colony into a single being… would my miracle have worked even then?
Even if I succeeded in purifying it, would we have been able to recover an intact corpse, as we had before?
‘No one knows.’
There is no one who can guarantee that.
Even if that person is me, the one who wields that power.
“……”
Only then did Captain Kim’s twitching hand stop.
Captain Kim wore his beret pulled low and said nothing, but his body trembled.
He was silent for a long while, then finally spat out his words.
“I have already turned my back on my family. I couldn’t step forward like all of you. I gave up. So how… how could I have the nerve to ask you to save my family?”
That question was steeped deeply in self-loathing.
‘Now he’s finally being honest.’
Only then did I smile.
I knew this was not exactly a situation where I should be smiling, but in any case, the people here were all in similar circumstances.
Of course, before answering Captain Kim’s question, there was something I had to do.
We are a team, after all. I have to hear the others’ opinions too.
“All right. Is there anyone here who wants to say we should turn back?”
“……”
“No one, right?”
Of course, this was not exactly the kind of atmosphere where anyone could step forward.
In effect, it was no different from me ignoring everyone else’s opinions.
It was shameless of me, but…
“Everyone gathered here is shameless. If we weren’t, we never would have ignored the barricade of soldiers with guns in the first place and crawled into a hellhole like this.”
At my words, Captain Kim’s face went blank.
Words slipped dazedly from his mouth.
“That’s sophistry… sophistry…”
“So what if it is?”
I chuckled and continued.
“Betting other people’s lives to save your family is always selfish and shameless. You have to be brazen if you want to save them. We’ll rescue your wife, Captain, and you can open the way so we can protect our families.”
“……”
“So, Captain. Say it. Say you want to live.”
At my words, Captain Kim jerked his head up.
His face, which had been hidden beneath the shadow of his beret, was finally revealed.
Even as a polite lie, it was not a pleasant sight.
His face was a mess of tears and snot.
And on top of that, after hearing my words, he looked utterly dumbfounded…
“Is this… really the time for jokes like that?”
“If not now, then when would I get to make one? Since it seemed you couldn’t throw away your shame, I decided I’d be even more shameless instead.”
Only then did Captain Kim speak with difficulty.
“Please… help me.”
*
Captain Kim asked us for help like that.
And we decided to accept.
Some might say it was a stupid choice and criticize us for it.
I admit it. It was a stupid choice.
Just as Captain Kim had said, we certainly had the option to go back safely.
But the truth was…
‘I’m not confident.’
I had lost confidence that I could get out of here with my younger sister alive.
As I entered the blackout zone and obtained more information, I gradually lost my certainty.
Could a person truly survive in a hell like this?
That girl, who probably had no equipment at all?
There was actually one more reason I had decided to take this on myself.
Certainty, for my own sake.
That even in this mad hell, salvation could still exist in the end.
I desperately needed a precedent that proved a person could survive and return to their family’s arms.
‘A lot of it is my own selfish desire.’
So that it could give me certainty.
So that I could keep… moving forward.
With a faint smile on my lips, I pulled back the slide of my Glock.
Click. The clear metallic sound split through the heavy air.
“Only if we grab your wife and drag her back will we find the courage to grab our own families by the hair too, won’t we?”
At my words, Captain Kim let out a faint chuckle.
He roughly wiped his face with his sleeve, then picked up the K2 rifle lying on the floor.
“…Understood. I’ll shamelessly lean on that shameless stubbornness of yours, then.”
Captain Kim adjusted his beret and turned toward us.
His eyes sank coldly once more into those of an operations controller. Not eyes that had excluded emotion, but eyes that seemed to have used emotion as fuel to temper reason.
“As of this moment, we will reset our objective.”
Captain Kim’s firm voice echoed through the corridor.
“Our primary objective is to subdue the unique entity occupying the central corridor on the third floor, the Mother. And…”
Captain Kim bit hard on his trembling lip, then released it and said,
“To rescue my wife, who has become the main body of that horrible monster.”