No30 Ch15

The back of Liella’s neck prickled. She hadn’t expected them to use this weapon. She thought disarming them would be enough.

While Liella was frozen, the fat man grabbed her arm and bound it behind her back. A groan escaped her lips at the merciless, rough handling.

“…You pretended to be injured from the start, planning this all along.”

“No, I was injured. It wasn’t serious, and I recovered quickly.”

“That’s still pretending.”

“Well, if you insist. You wouldn’t have opened the door otherwise. I didn’t want to lie to a pretty lady.”

The blond man grinned and swung the gun, aiming it at Dylan, who was just coming out of the room. Dylan cursed under his breath and raised his hands, causing the first aid kit to fall with a clatter, scattering medicine across the floor.

“Tim, go make him kneel and take his weapon.”

At the blond man’s command, the fat man, called Tim, lumbered over, snatched Dylan’s knife, and tied his wrists.

“Are you going to kill us?”

“Hmm, no. Not if you behave. We’ll just take some food and ammo.”

“You’re part of the Abyss Project, too, aren’t you? Which district are you from?”

The man finally glanced back at them when the words Abyss Project were mentioned.

“Jade.”

The woman, who was redressing, called out sharply at that moment. He raised his eyebrows and smiled gently.

“District 31. A military team.”

District 31?

Liella’s eyes widened. District 31 was the team that had sent the distress call. She had assumed it was a team of teenagers because of the young voice.

“That’s a lie, isn’t it?”

“Why do you think so?”

“Just a feeling. You keep lying. Like that strange distress call before you came in.”

She kept the conversation going while glancing sideways at the others. The fat man had tied Dylan’s ankles tightly, and the red-haired woman had already brought rifles from the hallway and was searching the rooms one by one.

“You said you were from District 1 in the distress call earlier?”

“Ah, that? You heard that, too, missy? Let me offer you a gentlemanly kindness: that distress call wasn’t us.”

“What?”

“To be precise, we’re romantic adventurers who heard that distress call. Of course, these friends of mine don’t believe in the talk about light and paradise. They’re just curious about how District 1 survived here for two years.”

“Two years?!”

She forgot about stalling for time and asked in surprise. Jade wore a gentle expression, as if wondering what was so surprising. As if he were stating the obvious… Could it be that everyone didn’t come down at the same time?

Around that time, the ones who had finished searching came out of Liella’s room with a large box, whistling. It was a box filled with narcotic painkillers and syringes.

“Jade, these guys are a drug team.”

The red-haired woman, her eyes narrowed, shouted mockingly. Jade tilted his head and studied Liella intently.

“Really? That’s disappointing. You looked familiar, like you were someone famous. Well, the guy rolling around on the floor does have that vibe. Missy, what district is District 30?”

At the gentle question, Liella pressed her lips together and pondered. It was foolish to listen to lies and answer honestly. What should she say? What could she say to effectively screw them over while seizing an opportunity… Ah.

“Epidemic.”

“Huh?”

“We’re the epidemic team.”

Her mouth moved on its own before her brain could even process it. Liella stared at the man’s dimples, which were frozen in a smile, and spat out each syllable as if chewing on it.

“I’m HIV positive, and he has tuberculosis.”

“…”

She could feel the people who had been busily opening the cabinets stop moving. A few seconds of silence passed, and then Dylan, who had been lying still, suddenly bent over and began to cough, hacking and wheezing.

…Just stay quiet.

“Aha? HIV. Human Immunodeficiency Virus. So, AIDS?”

“…Yes.”

“Haha. Ahahahaha. This is insane. This is the most blatant lie ever? Missy, and who has tuberculosis these days?”

As expected, Jade burst out laughing, holding his stomach as if to show off. He laughed so hard that the people around him became subdued. Liella looked up at him without batting an eye. The other name for a lie is audacity.

“It’s rare these days, that’s why we were sent. You can check for yourself if you don’t believe me.”

“Hahaha, hahahaha, what?”

“You can check if it’s contagious.”

She smiled as brightly as Jade had earlier. The man’s lips, which had been stretched into a wide grin, gradually straightened as he understood the meaning of her words. The HIV virus that causes AIDS is usually transmitted to others through blood transfusions or sexual contact. Her tone evoked the latter.

“Huh?”

Jade made a blank face and then let out a groan that was a mix of sigh and admiration. He lowered his gun and rubbed his chin like someone making an appraisal. And then, like a saint in a creation myth, he leaned toward her and reached out his arm.

Just before his fingertips touched her pale cheek, two clear gunshots rang out. The man who had been looking at her crumpled to the ground, falling in an unsightly heap.

“Jade!!!”

“The hallway! Shoot through the door!!!”

Jade immediately screamed, making Liella flatten herself on the floor. Liella squeezed her eyes shut as deafening gunshots poured out. It couldn’t even be called an exchange of fire. It was practically just the two people in the kitchen firing at the open doorway. Her heart was pounding. Aslan. Aslan had returned.

She was so relieved that the only thing she was worried about was the fish tank. There were only three fish left. What if they got hit by shrapnel? She hoped the glass wouldn’t break.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, the acrid smell and the ringing in her ears. Heavy breathing. There was no return fire from the hallway. After a long burst of fire, only a deathly silence lingered in the living quarters. Jade gritted his teeth and shouted.

“Don’t come out from behind cover until you’re sure they’re dead! They’re not civilians. They’re aiming precisely for the joints!”

Even as he lay there, he struggled to reach out and aim his gun at the darkness outside the door. In the tense silence, a bullet shot out of the darkness and pierced Jade’s wrist. As he dropped his pistol and screamed, a gun rose up from behind the table to return fire. And Liella saw a gun hit a gun for the first time. No, she didn’t actually see it. All she perceived were two gunshots and two gun barrels jumping up violently. She thought something would explode if you did that. She was surprised by how durable guns were.

While she was idly thinking such things, which was only about three seconds, a boot stepped in from the shadows of the doorway. Aslan, who had entered, mercilessly stomped on Jade’s arm and stood there, pointing the long barrel of his gun at his forehead.

“Drop the gun.”

The cool voice echoed softly in the space. It couldn’t have been directed at Jade, who was groaning in pain. Aslan, wearing a bulletproof vest of unknown origin over his white shirt, glanced dryly around the kitchen.

“Hands on your head and walk out. If you try anything other than surrendering, your comrade will be shot immediately, whatever happens.”

No one moved for a while. There was no answer. As the silence continued, Aslan tilted his head and shot Jade in the shoulder without hesitation. Bang, Liella flinched at the sharp scream. Bang, the other shoulder. And the groans that were squeezed out as he was stepped on.

“Damn it, stop! I’m coming out, I’m coming out!”

The red-haired woman jumped up from behind the table, putting her hands on her head. The fat man, called Tim, also got up with a crumpled face.

“Theo- that’s Theo’s vest.”

“You met our comrade on the first floor? What did you do to him?”

They asked anxiously, looking at the bulletproof vest. It seemed there were other comrades besides the three of them. Aslan gave a wordless command instead of answering.

“Lie down with your hands on your head.”

“Did you kill him? You didn’t kill him, did you? If anything happens to Theo, I’ll haunt you as a ghost.”

Only after making the threat did the woman obey the order. As they lay face down with their hands clasped on their heads, Aslan walked over to Liella and cut her bonds.

“Please release Dylan.”

“He said they’re District 31, a military team.”

Liella relayed the information as he tried to get up. Aslan handed her the knife and replied quietly.

“I don’t know if they’re District 31, but they’re definitely not a military team.”

“What?”

“If a team that doesn’t know that you die if you stand in front of an open door and doesn’t guard the rear looks like a military team to you, I wouldn’t have walked in here so openly in the first place.”

She didn’t understand everything he said, but she understood one thing.

“So, they lied after all?”

What she had learned since coming here was that people who didn’t speak politely from the start were rotten to the core. Liella jumped up and approached Dylan, who was wriggling like an earthworm. She heard Jade’s coughing laughter from behind.

“Haha… Looks like you lied too, missy? You said everyone but you two was dead?”

“That’s because I was in a hurry to check on the injured, so I just said whatever came to mind.”

“Well, I lied because I was in a hurry too. We haven’t eaten in two days. I’m fine, but I have to feed my poor teammates, what else can I do? You understand as the leader of your team, right?”

The words he had been saying to Liella changed direction at the end. Aslan had already picked up the pistol that had fallen on the floor and was aiming it at him. Jade grinned at the expressionless man and continued.

“So, how about this? Let’s share what we need equally. We have the experience and information from the past six months. District 30 just came down, right? Aren’t you curious about the Abyss?”