No30 Ch16

“Exchange of food and information. Sounds good. We’ll leave as soon as we fill our stomachs.”

Despite having five gunshot wounds, Jade moved his mouth nonchalantly. It was clear why his comrades had jumped out in such a panic over his injuries. Aslan quietly observed the blood-covered, grinning madman’s face before saying a word.

“I think you’re misunderstanding the situation.”

“Huh?”

“Why should I exchange anything for information I can obtain through torture?”

“……”

Aslan glanced at the man’s stiff wrist and continued.

“Your gunshot wounds are healing at an abnormal rate. Haven’t you ever been curious since getting that body? Whether severed ears or noses would regenerate too. If a finger heals while bent, whether you’d have to twist it back to use it. I’ve been curious.”

As the low voice continued without inflection, the smile disappeared without a trace from Jade’s cool face. Ignoring Dylan’s resolve not to act rashly, Liella just blinked unfamiliarly.

He seemed like a different person. From the man who smiled faintly at jokes.

“Come on, go easy on the bodily harm. You know, if handsome guys like us lose even one of our pretty eyes, nose, or mouth, it’d be a huge loss for humanity. I haven’t even seen cute little Jade Jr. yet.”

Aslan’s expression remained unchanged. Liella watched the two men tensely, then suddenly turned to look at the people lying face down. Pale faces. Sweat running down their temples. There’s no fish tank on the table behind them. It’s not broken….

“Aslan.”

When she called his name, the expressionless man moved only his gaze without stirring. Liella stared blankly at the fish tank that had been moved to the sink, then turned her head.

“I’ll share my portion of food. Can we hear what kind of information they have to offer? If they lie or anything, I’ll hand them right back over.”

“Cough, hack. Are you crazy?”

Dylan, who had been rotating his previously bound wrists and ankles, grimaced in shock. Liella moistened her dry lips as if gathering courage.

“I felt bad about how that person made me lie face down during the shootout earlier. Of course, if it weren’t for them, we wouldn’t have gotten into a firefight in the first place… But still, they did help in a dangerous situation. I want to try talking at least once.”

Of course, she had no intention of giving them an unconditional chance. She simply believed violence should be a last resort.

If the recording was true, this place was the Abyss. A terra incognita with no government or laws. Morals and convictions would shine brightest amidst chaos.

“And I don’t want to see our team get hurt either.”

Liella hesitantly added in a small voice. Violence leaves an indelible mark on the soul of the one who commits it. She didn’t want blood on Aslan’s hands. Did her meaning get across? The man who had been staring at her with piercing eyes finally lowered his gaze after a long moment.

“Dylan.”

“Huh?”

“Bring the cable ties from the bag in the hallway.”

The luggage the intruders had set down to enter contained everything from cable ties to ropes to tweezers.

While Aslan bound the people’s wrists and ankles and tied them to the bed legs, Liella removed the bullets lodged in Jade’s healed wounds using a medical knife and tweezers. Perhaps because she had seen people shooting at each other earlier, her hands were shaking. Though her mind thought it was fine, her body seemed to disagree. Surprisingly, Jade endured it well without even a groan.

When she came out of the room holding five blood-stained bullets, Dylan was standing guard alone in the living room.

“No, the more I think about it, the more ridiculous it is. Bring this, guard that. Come to think of it, why do you only order me around? What are you, a princess?”

“I’ll take over later, so stop grumbling. Where’s Aslan? Is he still inside?”

“Yeah. Seems like he’s asking this and that about tonight’s dinner.”

Liella had asked him to secure today’s statements in case bullet removal took too long. It was her suggestion to give food only to those who answered, one by one, so they could easily detect lies.

She thought they would keep knocking on the door asking to use the bathroom or something if confined one by one. But surprisingly, it was quiet. It had been since Aslan brought up a bespectacled boy named Theo from the first floor.

The boy, about fourteen or fifteen, was surprisingly the team’s engineer and had encountered Aslan in the control and maintenance room on the first floor. Judging by how they gave him a military cap and bulletproof vest, it seemed he was the only one without regenerative abilities.

“It’s fortunate that the number matches the remaining bedrooms exactly. Isn’t it strange? That exactly four people came in.”

Liella looked around at the tightly closed doors as she began.

“No. The strange thing was when there were three.”

Dylan snorted and muttered as if to himself.

“I thought ice cream was walking in. It’s not even a joke.”

“Ice cream?”

“You know, that chocolate-vanilla-strawberry combination. The one where you always eat the chocolate first, so only vanilla is left.”

Liella, who had been in a daze, recalled the three-flavored ice cream in a tub.

Ah, the hair colors…. Is this guy really crazy?

Laughter burst out uncontrollably at the attack received in an off-guard state. Hahaha, ahahaha. Her body, still in an alert state from the shock, loosened up.

“Ah, you really seem like a crazy person sometimes.”

Liella giggled and murmured. The door next to her opened just as she was smiling the brightest since waking up on the exploration ship. Liella froze mid-smile as her eyes met Aslan’s coming out.

“Ah, was I too loud?”

She quickly covered her mouth and suppressed her laughter. Maybe it was her imagination, but the man who came out massaging his nape seemed to slightly furrow his brow. He stared blankly at the remnants of laughter on her face before slowly answering.

“No, it’s fine. I’ve heard today’s answers.”

“Ah, that was the last room, right? How was it? Did they all speak honestly?”

“There were times when they kept their mouths shut completely, but there didn’t seem to be any lies in the answers they gave. Unless they came in having rehearsed everything they would say.”

“So what kind of team did they say they were?”

Dylan chimed in, rubbing his hands together curiously. Aslan answered dryly.

“Number 28. The miraculous type who survived a major disaster.”

Major disaster. Miracle. So the claim of being Number 31 was a lie after all. Even as she realized this, the provocative words stood out vividly in her mind. Thump, thump, her heart pounded as Liella’s eyes widened. For a moment, several photo-like images flashed across her retina.

A collapsing building. A massive missile. A plane exploding in mid-air. A blonde woman bending over, pointing at a screen with white fingers. Only her face was blurred and invisible.

Beep-

“Major disaster? Miracle? That’s ridiculous. As if people who’ve been through such things would participate in a project like this. No matter how I think about it, this doesn’t make any-”

“You hit the nail on the head. They say they were forcibly recruited.”

“What?”

“They claim that while most other teams participated voluntarily, in the case of certain hard-to-gather types, they were kidnapped. They said something about Andrei Corporation telling them to repay a favor, but I’m not sure what that means.”

“Damn it, the more we dig into this, the more I get the feeling we’re screwed.”

“Wait, wait a minute.”

Liella, who had been holding her forehead from the intense memories that had flashed by, raised one hand.

“I’m asking because something seems odd as I listen, but how do those people know all that?”

“……”

“It’s as if they… have memories.”

An strange silence fell among the three at the fundamental question.

Doubt gradually rose on Dylan’s dumbfounded face as well. It was then that Aslan spoke in a subdued tone.

“Other teams have their memories. It seems we’re the only ones who lost our memories upon entering the Abyss.”

-Team 28, the Miracle Team.

-They have memories.

-They’re searching for a place called Paradise after hearing a radio transmission.

-Monster cells regenerate repeatedly, so if they enter a living human, wounds heal, and if they enter a corpse, the dead body moves. (So we won’t turn into monsters or anything as long as we’re alive! We’re safe!)

She circled “safe” and drew seven stars next to it. No matter how she thought about it, there was too little information. Team 28 provided just enough information for an evening meal, as if by agreement.

What should she ask tomorrow to be known for asking good questions? As Liella tapped the back of her pencil while pondering, she suddenly looked up.

“Come to think of it, aren’t you tired? I feel like I’ve hardly seen you sleep.”

“I’m fine. There are some things on my mind too. If I get really tired, I plan to catch a quick nap here.”

Aslan answered while feeding the fish tank. Liella had just switched shifts with Dylan for keeping watch. It was 10 PM, so she thought Aslan would go to his room to sleep too, but he remained in the living room. Realizing the situation was similar to yesterday, she suddenly felt tense.

“Why. Are you uncomfortable?”

Aslan asked in his characteristic low tone while watching the silver-scaled fish swim. Startled at being hit right on the mark, Liella recalled her previous policy.

Act like it’s no big deal, like you’re not conscious of it.

“Of… course not. I’m too comfortable. I was even going to offer my shoulder for you to take a quick nap on.”

Liella waved her hands shamelessly and even went so far as to pat her shoulder cheerfully. The awkward smile plastered on her face lasted only until her eyes met Aslan’s as he turned his head.

“Of course, you probably don’t need my shoulder…”

“Then I’ll catch a quick nap. Please wake me up in an hour.”

“What?”

Stunned for a moment, the man who plopped down next to her comfortably nestled into the sofa backrest instead of borrowing her shoulder.

Liella, who had been in a daze, only realized it was a misunderstanding when she saw the slight curve of his lips. Despite not seeming the type to joke around, he sometimes teases people bluntly.

“…You surprisingly like to tease people.”

“I’ve put fresh water in the tank, so please check on the fish’s condition occasionally when you think of it.”

Aslan answered as he raised his arm to cover his eyes. He must have been very tired, as his breathing quickly became even beyond his dry tone.

He had reason to be exhausted. The intruders, and even the purification facility. From what she heard, there was a problem with the UV disinfection section. It would have been difficult to handle everything without Aslan.

“Okay. Thank you for today.”

She whispered softly after watching him for a while. The man with his eyes covered didn’t respond. Over his rising and falling chest was an unbuttoned shirt. Above that, his sternocleidomastoid muscle stood out clearly. How much time had passed? Liella, whose gaze had been captivated, suddenly remembered she hadn’t returned his jacket yet. Just as she was carefully trying to get up, her wrist was grabbed with a thud.