I laid out the corpses and food I had brought in the center of the lobby.
I had not taken everything out.
Even so, it seemed enough to leave everyone greatly astonished.
David was no exception.
“This should be enough, right?”
“Th-there’s more than I expected.”
At my words, David stammered slightly.
“It’s what I’ve gathered until now.”
“The box must have been far larger than I thought.”
“Yes.”
There was no need to pretend otherwise anymore.
Ever since they had seen the scout with their own eyes, the way people looked at me had changed.
At my answer, David, too, looked at me with different eyes.
I ignored his gaze and chose an empty room, filling it with everything except the food.
I could have kept them in the box, but I did not.
“This is everything I brought from Earth. You can manage it the same way as before.”
Of course, I had set aside the supplies for the exploration team that Magreta had picked out.
At my words, Kim Huiwon, who had become the supply manager, nodded.
After checking the documents and the piled-up goods, she spoke cautiously.
“Every time I see you, it feels like you’ve become a different person.”
I shook my head at her words.
I had not changed. What had changed was the way people looked at me after learning of my ability.
After handing out the food and stepping out of the room, I found everyone moving busily.
They were all preparing a meal.
Not only the exploration team members, but even Magreta was helping.
“A lot of people haven’t eaten for more than a day. Everyone must be hungry.”
When I looked at the people, Hannah, who had stuck close beside me, spoke.
I looked at her, then took something out of the box and tossed it to her.
“This is……”
“It’s a hamburger. Eat it in secret.”
What I had given her was a hamburger I had brought from the department store.
There were more things to give the team members besides that.
But I could not hand them out here.
I watched her eat the hamburger inside the room and waited for everyone to finish their meal.
After everyone had finished eating, I took two cups and went to David.
Perhaps because of his position as commander, he was sitting apart from the others.
I handed a paper cup to him as he smacked his lips.
“What is this?”
“Coffee.”
At my words, he stared in surprise at the black liquid in the cup.
“How did you……”
“I had enough leeway to bring some coffee.”
“Now this is truly enviable.”
He gazed at the coffee with a moved expression, then slowly took sip after sip.
“This is really good.”
David’s expression softened completely.
“Do you have any kind of plan?”
His expression darkened again.
He shook his head.
“I haven’t found a way yet. I think it would be best to withdraw, but we can’t do that either……”
“I heard about that too.”
At my answer, he nodded.
“With that level of achievement, I suppose it was about time. Then you must know why we can’t back down.”
“Yes.”
“That’s the problem. We were lucky enough to avoid it, but we can’t keep hiding here forever.”
He looked at the sandstorm raging beyond the hole.
“That sandstorm is hiding us, but conversely, it also means we can’t go outside. And simply consuming food in here would be utterly pointless.”
“Whether we take back the base or remain here, in the end we have to eliminate the one that attacked the base.”
In truth, what had to be eliminated was not the scout, but the control entity. However, I could not bring that up in front of someone already overwhelmed by the scout.
Having confirmed David’s intentions, I rose from my seat.
“Then I’ll go scout the base with the exploration team first. We need to assess the situation before we can find any kind of solution.”
Depending on the circumstances, I intended to take it down, but there was no need to say that now.
“Will you be all right?”
“It’s what I’ve always done.”
“I’m counting on you.”
After receiving David’s approval, I called the exploration team members.
Magreta, Hannah, Tom, and Sergeant Woo.
Perhaps because they had eaten, the team members’ expressions were bright.
To the people who had come to me with welcoming faces, I brought up work.
“Please prepare to depart. We need to go scout the base. As you know, the passage to the surface from the underground ruins over there has been blocked. We have to walk to the forward base.”
The expressions of the team members did not change after hearing my words.
They looked as if they had expected it.
“As expected, we’re the ones doing it.”
“I said I would do it.”
“Then there’s no helping it.”
Tom, who had slightly shaken his head, immediately changed his words at mine.
Sergeant Woo, checking both his own equipment and the others’, asked me.
“Is it only reconnaissance?”
“For now.”
At my words, he nodded.
“For now, is it. I’ll keep that in mind.”
I could not tell whether he had understood correctly.
“A lot of things have happened that differed from the plan until now. If you say ‘for now,’ it’s only right to think about what comes after too.”
At Magreta’s following words, all the team members nodded.
[It seems you’ve lost the team members’ trust.]
[……Just think of it in a positive light.]
At my words, Soph replied in a pathetic voice.
Whatever the case, we were able to depart immediately.
We left through the great hole, seen off by the people.
After we went out, Soph raised an earthen wall over the hole again.
Kwa-gwa-gwa-gwa!
The sandstorm raged so fiercely that we could not see ahead.
At any other time, I would have stopped the storm and moved, but I could not do that now.
I led the team members into the sandstorm.
It was a terrifying sandstorm, but with Soph as our guide and with me there, we could escape it easily enough.
***
Perhaps because we had passed through it several times by now, we were able to get out of the sandy desert more easily than before.
However, I could not say that to the team members, who were diligently brushing sand off themselves.
Instead, I handed them something else.
They were the items I had been unable to give them because others were watching.
The things Magreta had bought at the department store.
Tom was delighted to receive a proper first-aid kit, and Hannah was pleased with the arm guards and gloves she received.
Lastly, I handed Sergeant Woo a military vest.
Magreta also took a packaged item, but I did not know what it was.
In any case, after handing over the items, we rested there for a short while.
A brief rest.
As she drank water from a leather canteen, Magreta asked,
“We have enough water, right?”
“We have enough for us to drink. But why?”
At my question, Magreta looked toward the terraforming ruins.
“It seemed like they didn’t bring any water when they escaped from the base.”
“That’s right. Even drinking water was in short supply.”
Hannah chimed in at her words.
“I heard they’ve survived until now on the water inside the basement of the base, but now we’ll have to find water too.”
At Tom’s words, everyone’s expressions turned grim.
“Let’s go to the base first. There might be a way.”
As I said that and stood up, the team members followed suit.
We started walking again.
On the way to the base, we saw no monsters.
“Do you think they all ran away because of that scout monster?”
Hannah asked, but no one knew the answer.
Continuing along the quiet road, we were able to reach a place where the base came into view around afternoon.
The defensive wall we had worked so hard to build had half collapsed.
Both inside and outside the wall were a mess.
The monster that had laid waste to the base was nowhere to be seen.
It was the same even when I expanded my senses.
Still, we could not simply approach.
I spoke to the team members.
“Everyone wait by the rocky hill. I’ll go check and come back.”
Going all together just because it was not visible would be idiotic.
Besides, there was no one who could go and come back more quietly than I could, nor anyone who could escape better.
I had the group make a wide detour toward the rocky hill.
The forward base had a small rocky hill at its back.
The defensive wall had also been built around the rocky hill, and all the caves had been dug beneath it.
If they went toward the rocky hill, they would not immediately be caught in the scout’s sight.
After hearing my instructions, Magreta narrowed her eyes.
“You’re not trying to do something alone again, are you?”
At her words, the other team members also looked at me.
“Have I really lost their trust?”
I quickly turned my mind.
I had to come up with some plausible reason.
That was when I was searching for what to say in response.
Hannah spoke first.
“The captain gave the order, didn’t he? We should all follow it.”
At the words of the youngest among them, everyone looked at one another, and Magreta apologized to me.
“I’m sorry. I took the joke too far.”
Magreta stepped forward and led the group toward the rocky hill.
At the very back of the group, Hannah bowed her head to me.
I did not know why, but thanks to Hannah, it seemed I had been able to catch my breath.
After sending the team members off like that and waiting for quite some time, I headed to the base alone.
Seeing it up close, the devastation wrought by the monster was even worse.
The collapsed defensive wall had been smashed so badly that repairs were impossible.
The base beyond the wall was the same.
The laundry that had been hung out, the hides that had been drying, all lay scattered across the ground, and weapons and armor were rolling about in shattered pieces.
The cave entrances were also a mess.
The entrance to the blacksmith cave had collapsed entirely. It seemed smoke would no longer be coming out of that cave entrance.
I moved carefully.
Fortunately, my senses did not deceive me.
Even as I passed the collapsed defensive wall, and even after I entered the base, the scout monster was nowhere to be seen.
Instead, a small sound reached me.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
I stood in place and listened closely.
A faint vibration was felt through the soles of my feet.
Through the air, I could determine the direction of the sound.
This sound was coming from a cave.
It came from the cave with the collapsed passage, the cave leading to the ruins.
This was the sound I had heard underground earlier.
“That’s right, isn’t it?”
It was an abrupt question without context, but Soph gave me the answer I wanted.
[That is the sound of tentacles striking the wall. It’s inside the cave.]
As expected, this was the sound made by the scout monster.
The monster that had destroyed the base had not gone elsewhere.
It had followed the people into the cave.
“I expected it, but I didn’t think it would still be trying to break through the wall. Is it dumber than I thought?”
[It simply does not know about spatial movement. It must think the people who fled are still hiding inside the cave.
Their way of thinking differs from ours. If it were a native creature or a human, it would have grown tired and given up or thought of another method, but that thing is simply, stubbornly breaking the wall, is it not?]
Soph once again said that the Akzar were likely not living beings, and this time, I agreed with him.
The monster now breaking the wall inside the cave felt like a machine with a single purpose, stripped of desire.
“I don’t hear any other sounds from here.”
[What sounds?]
“The sound of flowing water.”
[You heard water?]
It seemed Soph had not heard it.
But I had definitely heard it.
In front of the collapsed passage, together with the sound of that wall being struck, I had heard the sound of water flowing.
“If I collapse the entrance with earth magic, will it be buried inside?”
[There is no way that would work. It may take time, but it will break through with those tentacles just as it is doing now.]
“But if I block this side too, it’ll run out of air.”
[It is a monster that needs no air as long as it has energy. You must not think of it like other living creatures.]
As expected, even if it was dangerous, I would have to proceed according to my original plan.
Without calling the team members, I headed to the cave alone.
I was going to confirm the monster’s presence and kill it.
From the beginning, I had never intended to take it down with the team members.
I had only brought them along to divert people’s attention.