NOVEL NEXT WORLD Silence lingers…
Before the two, a small girl appears.
The girl has an incredibly lovely appearance, so pitiful that one might instinctively want to pet her.
However, in that moment, the two had no time to care about the girl’s appearance.
After all, they were inside the Abnormal Phenomena 4891, and they hadn’t found even a single body of the missing humans, let alone any survivors.
In such a dangerous place, encountering a seemingly frail girl suddenly…
They knew far too well that she couldn’t possibly be an ordinary girl.
“…”
In an instant, the girl’s eyes narrow.
With a gaze that seems to pierce through them, the two tense up and grip their guns tighter.
Just as they were about to move a finger to the trigger…
“Ugh…?!”
They drop their guns as someone appears from behind.
“――!”
Eleanor reflexively grabs her sidearm.
Even though they were ambushed, her response was impressively swift.
She instinctively raised her weapon, aiming it at the assailant who had surprised her.
“Drop your weapon.”
Seeing the man who had been next to her now disarmed and taken hostage by the assailant, she couldn’t pull the trigger.
“Right now.”
A thick voice came from the assailant.
As she heard that voice, she realized the assailant was wearing the attire of the Management Office.
Was it a newly deployed special operations team? Or was it another non-human entity like her previous senior’s imitation?
Either way, she had no capacity to distinguish between the two at this moment.
“Who… who are you? State your affiliation first!”
“I won’t say it again. You are unidentified puppets. If you don’t disarm immediately, I’ll have no choice but to execute you according to the security protocol.”
Eleanor asked, but the assailant’s stance remained firm.
She hesitated, contemplating whether to lower her firearm to save the hostage, but when she locked eyes with Cooper, he subtly shook his head side to side, as if to stop her.
“You’re kidding me…! You expect me to trust the words of a guy who suddenly shows up in a situation with less than a day until detonation? Eleanor! If it looks like he’s going to shoot, don’t hesitate—just shoot him down!”
He shouted.
Despite feeling the cold steel near his neck, he couldn’t tell her to disarm.
If he expressed concern for her life, it would lead to a truly irreversible situation.
A short standoff persisted.
Both sides ignored each other’s demands, simply glaring at one another without meaning.
The assailant seemed to determine that she wouldn’t disarm, slowly bringing his weapon closer to the neck of the man he was holding captive.
As the sharp blade pressed against the skin, just about to cut…
“Elijah.”
They heard a softly flowing voice from the side, causing him to freeze as if a pause button had been pressed on a robot.
“Let him go.”
Everyone focused their attention towards the source of the voice.
There stood the small girl, walking slowly towards them.
“…May I ask why?”
It was a strange sight.
After all, the attacker was a large man who didn’t seem to be the warmest of individuals, yet strangely, he spoke to the small girl as if she were a superior.
“But I want to ask you in return, why did you suddenly ambush the people you just encountered?”
“As I mentioned before, everyone who entered this facility in the past six days has gone missing, and communication has been completely severed.”
As the girl asked, the man reiterated what had transpired in the facility during that time.
The large-scale disappearance that occurred unexpectedly and the tale of other members dispatched to resolve it vanishing as well.
“Given the nature of Abnormal Phenomenon 4891, it’s highly probable that these individuals are not human but something mimicking survivors.”
It was an unjust story for the two being treated as fakes despite being survivors. However, when they thought about it calmly, it was not entirely untrue.
After all, the principle was to dispose of suspicious individuals within the facility on the spot.
“In that case, it shouldn’t matter. Let him go.”
But the girl spoke as if she couldn’t care less about such matters.
As if she didn’t know the dangers of this facility, she ordered the man to release him in an indifferent voice.
“Why is that?”
“They are people, that’s why.”
“…You must have a reason for being so certain.”
“Yes.”
The girl replied.
In reality, it was a statement that one typically couldn’t believe.
There was a reason for that. Distinguishing those who imitate humans within this facility wasn’t a simple task at all.
It was nearly impossible to discern beings that perfectly mimic the appearances and voices of humans.
Even if one identified questionable aspects after several questions, the fallibility of human judgment meant it was often far from accurate.
Thus, listening to the words of a girl who had only briefly seen the two posed an enormous risk.
“…”
However, the man, upon hearing the girl’s words, unhesitatingly released his hostage.
He freed Cooper before gently pushing him away. Because of that, he stumbled slightly forward as if about to fall…
—thud!*
In a quick motion, he grabbed the firearm on the floor.
Raising it swiftly, he aimed it at the man who had just captured him.
“So you thought this conversation was over with your little self-justification? I still haven’t heard who you really are, let alone confirm if you’re human.”
He said, his words dripping with annoyance.
From the standpoint of someone who had just been held hostage, his feelings were quite justifiable. However, his gun was still aimed not just out of anger, but from distrust of the sudden appearance of the girl and the man.
Even though he had just been freed, he suspected that the girl and man’s sudden combination was still highly suspicious, and he could easily interpret their release as merely a way to calm them down for an ambush.
To him, they were still untrustworthy entities.
“…Who are you?”
Eleanor similarly did not lower her weapon.
Unlike before, the tables had turned completely.
But the assailant showed no signs of feeling threatened, stowing away the military knife he had been holding just moments ago and responding to their questions in a voice devoid of tremors.
“We were dispatched to solve the large-scale disappearance occurring within this facility. Additionally, we were also sent to address the ‘situation with less than a day until detonation’ that you mentioned earlier.”
He continued.
While details about their identity and specifics were absent, at the very least, it was reasonable to speculate that the man was a member of the Management Office.
Whether one could take his words at face value is another matter entirely, though.
“To be honest, I thought no one would survive… But it seems there were some.”
“So, you’re saying you’re the last resort the Management Office deployed? Just a little girl and a big guy?”
“I can’t disclose that information.”
“Great, that’s really trustworthy.”
Cooper scoffed, a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
Of course, the act of remaining tight-lipped while aimed at with a firearm was also a piece of evidence proving he was human.
Those imitating humans typically scramble to prove their own humanity.
Management Office personnel, on the other hand, are bound by principle not to disclose information carelessly.
Yet, that didn’t mean he could trust him entirely.
As mentioned earlier, human judgment is rarely foolproof.
With just one question, he couldn’t be utterly certain whether the man before him was human or not.
After adjusting his grip on the gun, he was about to ask the man again…
“Hey.”
A thin voice broke through, causing him to swallow his words unconsciously and turn towards the sound.
“We’re busy, so if you have nothing else to say, just step aside.”
The girl remained standing in the same spot.
Upon confirming that Eleanor was still aiming at the man, he redirected his firearm, pointing it toward where the girl stood.
“Don’t move. We’re not done talking yet.”
His words carried a weight of warning.
But the girl regarded his words as if they were nothing.
“What will happen if I move?”
“I’ll shoot.”
He responded to her question.
Whether she understood that he would shoot or not was unclear, but in any case, he had no intention of lowering his firearm.
He knew all too well that a moment of carelessness in this place meant death.
“Then go ahead and shoot. I don’t mind.”
However, she wasn’t swayed by his threats.
With nonchalance, she began to walk, her feet lightly tapping the ground.
“Hey, you’re not joking right now.”
“It’s a coincidence. Same goes for me.”
Cooper tightened his aim, yet the girl seemed determined to keep moving forward.
Did she genuinely not understand what it meant to be shot?
No, that couldn’t be it.
Based on her words, it was evident she recognized she was being aimed at with a weapon.
“If you step any closer—”
Unshaken in the slightest, she approached him, seemingly unfazed by the impending threat.
Finally, when only a few steps separated them,
“Come on, Elijah. We don’t have much time.”
She looked up at the man before her, speaking a single phrase, and then started walking fearlessly down the dark hallway without looking back.
“…”
The man briefly stared at them before silently following the girl.
Beyond the visibility, they disappeared into the pitch-black darkness.
Staring blankly at their retreating figures, bewildered by their actions that were tough to comprehend, he eventually uttered in disbelief,
“…What the hell are they?”
Finally, he shook his head in disbelief and hastily began to follow the direction they had headed.