Light burst open above.
At first, it was a thin line. As the structure rose, it thickened, spread, and split apart. The metal plate beneath his feet slowly pushed upward, and the old rails embedded in the walls on all sides meshed with a screech, screech, as if grinding their teeth.
The sounds from above spilled down first.
Mechanical vibrations. The sound of metal being struck. Someone cursing. An incomprehensible advertisement. The smell of food soaked in oil forced its way down between them.
There was a lot of human scent.
Too much.
His stomach was quiet. The strength drawn in from the last feeding was still circulating inside, and the tug beneath his teeth had settled as well. For the time being, he had room to spare.
His golden eyes narrowed on their own.
A city?
It did not feel clean.
— Wooow.
— It’s a city! A real city! Snake, did you see this?
I’m looking.
— Oh, right. You have eyes. I got more excited than you did.
— I’m only half on right now. If I go too deep into sleep, you won’t be able to wake me again. So I’ve put myself in power-saving mode and only overlaying when needed.
That was convenient enough.
Then its tone suddenly dropped.
— ......Wait.
What is it?
— This doesn’t match my records. No identity verification signal. No contamination inspection procedure. No quarantine gate response.
— This isn’t a passage for people. It’s logistics. Waste, unauthorized life-forms, record bypasses.
Waste.
— Yeah. You’re entering the city through the waste line, Snake.
It seemed to have enough leisure to tease him.
The light above widened, but the open space was not an orderly entrance. Rusted pipes, waste transport rails, and a path between iron plates that had been patched over again and again. It did not look like a passage meant to welcome people, but closer to a crack through which things that would be troublesome if discovered came and went.
He could not be certain.
But that was what it smelled like.
— Oh, and there are a lot of cameras.
I saw that there were many.
— But what I’m seeing and what you’re seeing are different. There are some mixed in that are outside the district’s public network. Eyes watching without leaving records.
A private network?
— Yeah.
He flicked his finger.
Snap.
The two wolf-types lowered their bodies at the same time.
“Stick to the shadows.”
He was looking up, but the meaning reached this side.
White scales. They stand out. Keep the sound down too.
He slid toward the edge of the metal plate. The side where less light reached. The shadows of the pipes sliced thin lines over his scales.
The man’s gaze followed him for a moment.
“I know you’re intelligent.”
His voice was low.
“There are a lot of eyes here. Don’t show it. Act like a beast.”
Small lenses were embedded in the cracks of the walls. Among those that looked dead, a few swallowed light very faintly. Blink. Blink.
— Two on the lower right are alive. Upper left is pretending to be dead.
— Don’t look at the second one, Snake. You’ll hurt its pride.
Do cameras have pride?
— Apparently.
— Kidding, kidding. But honestly, that one’s a low-end model, so it is a little sad.
Thud.
The structure stopped.
Chiiik. The iron plate slid sideways.
Light poured in all at once.
Neon stabbed his eyes. Pipes tangled in layers without distinguishing ceiling from wall, and bundles of cables and illegal signs hung between them. A half-broken billboard stuttered in midair.
[With NEX-LIFE, Tomorrow Will Come. Sign Up Today, Lifetime Guaranteed.]
Beneath it, someone was leaning against a wall, coughing up blood.
[AERO-PURE Certified Purification Filters — Half-Price Blowout. 99% Genuine Guaranteed.]
Directly below the advertisement, black filters were being sold at half price.
Beyond that, a wire-mesh gate came into view. An old scanner sat atop the rusted frame, and humans with different markings stood on either side. One holding a gun, one fiddling with the wires wrapped around a prosthetic arm, one flipping through a terminal with half-drowsy eyes.
Beep.
The scanner trembled in front of the two wolf-types.
[Biological reaction. Registration confirmed.]
[Unregistered biological reaction.]
Their gazes gathered on me.
At that moment, a man walked out from the shadows inside the wire mesh. A thin body. A black metal receiver where one ear should have been. One eye cloudy gray, the other a prosthetic eye through which numbers and waveforms flowed faintly.
A small burst of static leaked from inside the receiver.
Crackle.
He first looked at Blackbeak’s left arm. The place where blood had dried.
“Boss.”
“Later.”
That one word ended it.
“Noise.”
Blackbeak called in a low voice.
“Handle it.”
Noise’s prosthetic eye moved briefly. The wound, the two wolf-types, and finally me.
“A new specimen?”
“Merchandise.”
“I’ll ask in a way that leaves no record.”
His fingers moved quickly over the terminal.
[Temporary passage.]
[Biological reaction unclassified.]
[No ownership record.]
“Good.”
“Open the gate.”
Clang.
The wire mesh was pushed open.
The woman beside the checkpoint swallowed a breath.
“Fuck, did you see that white thing just now?”
“Even if you saw it, you didn’t, you dumb bitch.”
“What the hell is that?”
“It’s with Blackbeak. If you’re curious, go ask him yourself.”
“Are you insane?”
Low laughter mixed in from the other side.
“Looks like the keeper filled a new cage.”
“Keep your voice down, crazy bitch. If it hears you, you wanna become feed?”
Whispers flowed along between the pipes.
Blackbeak.
It seemed that was what they called him here.
Blackbeak did not act as if he had heard. With his low, round body, he passed between the people. Judging only by his appearance, he seemed like he would be shoved aside, but the people stepped away first.
— Wow, that guy’s popular.
Is it that kind of popularity?
— No, seriously. Everyone automatically gets out of his way. I wish I could try that just once.
You don’t have a body.
— ......Hey, that’s a cruel fact-check, Snake.
Noise had, at some point, attached himself half a step behind.
“The southern rail is blocked. A waste carrier overturned, and both drivers got shredded.”
“East.”
“The Red Pine Society raised the toll again.”
“Again today?”
“Yes. Those bastards have a damn good nose for money.”
“We pass under my name.”
“They’ll pick a fight. What will you do?”
“Let them.”
“......I’ll open the northeast detour. If blood spills, the cleanup fee is even more fucked.”
Blackbeak glanced sideways at me. He had seen my gaze linger briefly on the terminal.
“You look like you have a lot of questions.”
He said.
I did not answer. The AI was quiet this time as well.
The road widened.
The floor was a tangle of waste transport rails and human foot traffic. Hole-like shops lined both sides. Illegal prosthetic repair shops. Scrap chip exchanges. Contaminated creature byproduct processing plants. Inside a space patched with iron plates, someone was having an arm replaced, and low groans leaked out as if the anesthesia had not fully taken. Beside him, a child held a mechanical eye in his palm and haggled over the price.
[Same-Day Prosthetic Implant Procedure — BIO-ARC. Up to Two Arms at Once.]
Overhead, a waste container rattled past along the rail. No one looked up.
Above it, an advertisement floated.
[Is Breathing a Luxury? VITALIS Monthly Plan. Subscribe to Your Lungs.]
Most of the humans in the reality below were wearing masks.
As he passed through that scenery, something inside him suddenly sank.
He was being hunted.
And not by one.
Someone might be digging through the aftermath of the fight he had touched last. Someone might be searching for the ones who had fallen in that fight. If anyone knew about the thing embedded in his body beneath the ruins, then perhaps that side as well.
Staying outside meant waiting. Was the place where one waited for whoever came first not the place of prey?
What he needed was information.
And time before this body became hungry again.
How this world worked. Upon what system the things chasing him stood. If he ran without knowing that, would he not eventually return to the same place?
Under the lamp.
Whether this city was the lamp, or a beast with its jaws open, he did not yet know. Still, the inside might be better than remaining outside.
Blackbeak pointed into the distance with the tip of his chin.
“District 30.”
“The City. Humanity’s last bastion and last city of hope.”
He spat the words as if chewing them.
“That’s what the ones inside call it. Fucking bastards.”
“This is the edge of that last city. Flesh pressed against the outside. The first to be bitten off, and the trash can where the garbage from the inside gets dumped.”
A low rumble continued from far away.
Thud.
Thud.
It was the barrier wall. He could not see it directly. It was too far. Even so, it caught on his senses. Metal, barriers, turrets, the smell of old blood. A massive boundary line, patched over in multiple layers, blocked the outside of the city.
Its scale was not easy to grasp. Rather than a wall, it was closer to a structure embedded into the horizon.
“That divides them.”
Blackbeak said.
“What’s inside that is human. What’s outside that is monster. A line the bastards inside decided on.”
He laughed briefly.
“Because once they push out things that were human, they call them monsters after they’re outside.”
They turned into a narrow alley. The buildings on both sides leaned as if about to collapse against each other. Dozens of cables and pipes crossed between them like a spiderweb.
Blackbeak did not hesitate. There was someone at every corner. Men wearing masks. Men whose bodies were half machine. Men with different markings attached to their collars. The moment they saw Blackbeak, they opened the way.
Their eyes were not those of complete loyalty. They smelled of calculation and caution, displeasure and necessity, all tangled together.
He stopped beside a waste compactor. There was an abandoned maintenance garage. An old warning remained on the iron door.
[No Biological Waste Admitted.]
Beneath it, someone had painted over it in black.
[Anything Goes If the Price Is Right.]
Snap. Snap.
Blackbeak snapped his fingers twice.
Creeeeak.
When the door opened, the smells of oil, chemicals, wet fur, blood, and old metal pushed out all at once. Beneath them, the presence of contaminated creatures.
The two wolf-types reacted first. It was less wariness than a loosening of tension.
There were several more people inside. They seemed to have taken positions along the walls. They were subordinates guarding the maintenance garage.
Broken equipment hung on the inner wall of the garage, and thick wire mesh and old mats covered the floor. In one corner were two small, twisted contaminated creatures. Near the ceiling, on a pipe, something like a winged rat hung upside down.
It was closer to a nest.
Blackbeak first grasped the scruffs of the two wolf-types. He checked the flesh around their collars and felt with his fingertips over the places where the black tubes had dug in.
“You overdid it.”
One of the wolf-types made a wet sound deep in its throat.
Grrrk.
“I know. But I told you not to run.”
There was no lie in those fingertips. At least when he dealt with those creatures.
— Hm. This isn’t in the records.
Don’t say anything.
— Got it. It’s just interesting.
“Come in.”
The two wolf-types moved aside to either side. He slid low past the threshold. The contaminated creatures inside all looked at me at once. Teeth, eyes, twisted joints, embedded metal fragments. They did not attack.
Blackbeak was there, and I was there. Between the two of us, they hesitated.
“Good.”
He said.
“You’re not just a beast. Not a common contaminated creature either. And yet you understand words.”
The eyes looking at me began appraising my value again.
“That’ll make you even more useful.”
Displeasure rose thinly beneath my scales.
I pushed my will outward.
A deal. Nothing more.
“Fine. A deal.”
He sat on the old workbench. As his low, round body sank into the shadows, only his long nose stood out with unusual clarity.
“You need a place to hide and information, and I need to find out what you are.”
“No need to pretend you can’t speak. You can send meaning, can’t you?”
The city. Information. A safe gap.
“Greedy, aren’t you?”
— He says you’re greedy, Snake.
I ignored it.
“If you’re going to stay in my nest, there’s one rule.”
Blackbeak said.
“Never touch my kids.”
There was no mockery in his voice.
The two wolf-types. The small contaminated creatures in the corner. The winged thing hanging from the pipe. All of them reacted to a single gesture from him.
Kids.
There was no way he meant humans.
Fine. I won’t touch them first.
“Good.”
He pulled up the corner of his mouth.
“First time I’ve met a snake I can talk to.”
— Hey, same here.
It was then.
Beeep—
A siren sounded briefly outside the maintenance garage.
[Warning. District 30 outer barrier erosion grade C-2.]
[Civilian passage restricted in the relevant area.]
Beeep—
No one reacted strongly. The noise from the alley remained the same. It seemed to be a common occurrence.
Noise flipped through his terminal and muttered.
“This shit again.”
Blackbeak did not answer.
The siren sounded again.
Beep-beep-beep— beep-beep-beep—
[Alert. Erosion Grade C-3.]
[Contact confirmed in Sections 17 and 18. Do not approach the designated areas.]
[Civilian passage fully restricted.]
Beep-beep-beep—
This time, the noise from the alley grew a little quieter.
— It went up a level.
The AI said.
— This pattern isn’t in the general category, is it?
I tried to broaden my spiritual sense, then immediately narrowed it. There were too many humans. Heat, currents, machine signals, traces like mana, the presence of contamination, drugs, blood, disinfectant. Everything was tangled together.
I narrowed it only toward the barrier.
It was far. Even so, the low reverberation continued.
Thud.
Thud.
It was as if the wall were breathing.
Wiiiiiiiiing—
The tone of the siren changed. What had been short and sharp sank into something low and drawn-out. The air inside the maintenance bay was pressed down by that sound.
[Alert. Erosion Grade C-4.]
[Erosion in progress in Section 17.]
[Confirm nearby evacuation levels.]
[Entering higher-level response procedure.]
Wiiiiiiiiing—
The air inside the maintenance bay went still.
The static at Noise’s ear grew rougher.
Bzzzt.
“……Union guard squad response delayed, response delayed……”
“……Six lower-level gun batteries confirmed silent, repeating……”
His fingers froze over the terminal.
One of the subordinates outside spat out a curse.
“Six batteries went quiet? Fuck.”
“The Union bastards are screwed again.”
“If it’s Section 17, is that far from here?”
“What’re you gonna do if it is far? If they break through, we’re fucked too.”
“Then shouldn’t we run?”
“Run where? You think the guys inside are gonna open the door for us? Like hell they will, fuck.”
Noise’s expression hardened first.
Blackbeak said nothing either. His face was slowly stiffening.
The alert kept repeating. The muttering outside continued as well. But the reason his face was hardening did not seem to be either of those.
That reaction was not simple vigilance.
It seemed Blackbeak had not known this would happen in advance either.
The siren cut off, then burst out again.
Wiiiiiiiiing—
[Repeating. Erosion Grade C-4.]
[Erosion in progress at the outer barrier.]
[Awaiting approval for higher-level response.]
“Awaiting approval, my ass.”
Another voice spat.
“The suit bastards aren’t coming, I’m telling you. Fuck.”
Blackbeak stepped down from the workbench. The two wolf-types straightened at the same time. The contaminated entities in the corner also moved. When he raised one finger, they all stopped.
Wait.
He looked at me.
“We’ll have to postpone the deal.”
I narrowed my senses toward the barrier again. It was far, and murky. From this distance, among all these humans, I couldn’t catch anything clearly.
Still, I caught one thing.
Something was gathered outside the barrier.
No, it wasn’t merely gathered.
The entire flow outside was pressing this way.
— Snake. This is kind of scaring me.
The AI’s voice had sunk low.
It feels fear, that thing?
The question passed through my mind for a moment. I wasn’t mocking it. It was pure curiosity.
Then the siren burst out again.
Wiiiiiiiiing—
Wiiiiiiiiing—
It was not just once. From the alley, from between buildings, from the upper floors, they poured out all at once. Before one ended, the next began. The entire city was ringing with the same tone.