Chapter 567 (1/2)

Hank watched as Alana considered the land before them.

“It’s a trap,” Dozer rumbled calmly. Alana chuckled but said nothing.

Before them lay the borderlands. And not just the borderlands, but it was the borderlands that lay directly between the two Zones. The path previously uncovered was a path out of the Northwest of one Zone to the Northeast of the other. But as the surrounding area was slowly pushed back, that path was moving Southward.

At least in theory. As it was, no one had really explored that area, as far as Hank could tell. The people of Zone 32 were too busy, and the people of Zone 1 didn’t even care. They barely put much thought into the diplomacy aspect of Hank’s mission. They seemed content to just keep him and his party there in order to keep an open channel of communication and to watch for any strange movement of troops.

Perhaps that was the reason he went with the group to hunt the Undying Hero that had committed an obvious murder and then fled West. It was the right thing, surely, but also…

Hank had grown restless. There was a wildness in the air that he felt now after his Soul Skill changed. He had a sense of endless adventure in the world around him…

His father had beaten his sense of duty into Hank. But what about his duty to the wider world? Surely, if he owed a debt to his country, he owed a larger debt to his world. Therefore, it made sense that-

His watch beeped, derailing his train of thought and attracting a glance from Alana and Dozer. Hank smiled lightly.

“Pardon me, seems I have a call,”

When he picked up, he was surprised that it was a female voice on the other end of the line. And what she said-

Hank’s eyes widened.

“What the fuck… is Alan….?”

*****

They were numerous, but they were weak. The exosuits gave them almost superhuman strength and reaction time, but compared to Randidly… compared to Tykes… compared to Dinesh…

These were just children.

Even though Randidly wasn’t able to use his spear, for fear of being associated with his actual identity, his fire-based spells were more than enough to destroy clumps, and he was so much more physically dominant than any who came close to him that they were ripped to shreds. Even with numbers, they didn’t possess anything that could damage Randidly’s group.

So they died.

The lumber yard was now pitted and marred and charred to a completely unrecognizable state. His spells had ripped through both the opposition and the outside of the compound. So while the lessor golems, Dinesh, and Tykes mopped up the remnants of the exosuit users, Randidly descended into the darkness.

The innards of this facility were a lot like the one he had visited previously, on a larger scale. Randidly walked down a long hallway and saw living quarters, operating rooms, and gyms. But this time, there were also blank rooms that reminded Randidly of the stereotypical room from an insane asylum. The walls were blank and padded, with simple lines that split the room into squares.

But there were different varieties of these rooms. Some had black squares, some yellow, some pale violet. Other rooms seemed to be surrounded by speakers, large and small. As Randidly was pausing in front of a strange chamber that seemed to be filled with different squares of fabric, the ceiling opened and an insectoid machine dropped out.

His eyes flashed, but then Randidly paused, because the insectoid backed slowly away from Randidly, and then stood on its back legs. It was the size of a full grown dog, so even when it stood it was shorter than him. But it gazed at him with intelligent eyes.

“How… inappropriate that you would be the one to find this place.”