Volume 3 Chapter 4 (1/2)
I couldn't trust anything in the abandoned hospital Even if there was protective clothing in a locker, I could never trust that it was durable and airtight
That said, the radiology department awaited me on the basement floor If the equipment had broken down and just been left like that, who knohat it would be scattering around Going there without any kind of preparation would be reckless
”This should do for now”
”An X-ray screen?” asked Maxwell
Using the light of h the medical office's shelves, found a screen that reacted to X-rays by eht, and pulled it out
”I' caerous in the baseht up on its own This will let e the safety as I continue on”
The situation was different frouidance of the glow sticks on the floor and I wouldn't have the night-vision ability of the garlic body No external light could reach the baseht to rely on
The Class Rep was surprisingly light and soaked with the rose blood as I carried her over a shoulder bandit-style Then I made my way to the stairs down to the basement floor where Erika and Ayumi had vanished
…And if my sisters hadn't come back, then that base to find there?
I spotted a ha with the X-ray screen, but how useful would that actually be? One arm was occupied by the limp Class Rep and the other was occupied by the sht, so I had no way of using the weapon anyway Besides, if those two sisters working together couldn't defeat whoever or whatever it was, I doubted a haood-luck charm to make me feel better
Just to be sure, I stopped by the third-floor pediatric department and rehabilitation room
I aiht inside, but there was no one there Not too surprising, that Just because it was a creepy abandoned building didn'taround
”But that means I don't have the key Maxwell”
”Sure”
”The radiology department entrance uses an IC card That means it's an electronic lock Can you force it open?”
”The virtual reality supplied by the enemy is not the most reliable source of infor with certainty until we see it, but given ”
”Okay”
The door to the all-i lock, but ould open everything we could Not only did I want to reach the coffin, but I orried about Erika and Ayumi
I started down the stairs with the soaked Class Rep overcop saw ht No, I end debut
The place was as covered in trash in actual reality as in the virtual reality, so the stairs were blocked partway down I moved back into the hallway and used the opposite stairs to continue down I had originally coue, so I knew the way
There was no sign of anyone on the way
Not Erika and Ayue Archenemy
…What had happened to theet in the sih power to destroy a city or country if theymove It was hard to believe that both of them could be taken out
I arrived at the deep dark opening of the stairs to the baseht It was denser or stickier or soiant beast Instead of avoiding danger as I continued, it was like I had to leap down the ullet to find any answers at all
Not only was night the time for Archenemies, but the depth of this darkness was not normal This had to be a labyrinth or des and claws as an Archenemy
”What will you do?” inquired Maxwell
”Keep going, obviously”
I couldn't bring the Class Rep back to the city as a Dhampir If this was caused by the Polish Va her path back to the coffin would turn the princess into a huht sit on the coffin lid to get in the way That ht not count as obstruction unless I discovered the coffin's location and directly contacted it
Besides, if I just left with the Class Rep, I wouldn't knohat had happened to my sisters I couldn't just leave them here
I took a deep breath
And I took the first step down the stairs into the darkness
The route was the opposite of before, but this change was not an ilow sticks on the floor at even intervals Thatman had not been here, he had not died in front of the radiology departet back up as a vampire
My sht was all I had to rely on
The baseround floors The air was nant than in the virtual reality and it smelled somewhat mildewy
”…? What is this?”
Plus, the sht toward the wall and saw so was cralish However, it seemed to have some kind of system to it, so it wasn't just random
The darkness likely played a role, but I hadn't noticed it while heading up fros could really change your field of view
”That is Latin, but there is no grammatical structure It is no more than isolated words”
”Latin? As in Latin music?”
”If you are referring to the cultures of Central and South Ae that forlish”
There were also drawings of some kind
A square was drawn inside a large red circle The points of contact between the circle and the square's corners were filled with even
”Fire, water, wind, and earth There are also the occasional terms that correspond to heat and cold I detect traces of someone from before the discovery of atoe they did have to express the structure of all things Although the result is as eocentric theory”
I didn't understand the details, but the creepiness of the drawings allowed ine what this probably was
”So is it soic circle…?”
Whether or not it actually had any effect, sohly cover the wall of this long, long hallway That was enough to send a chill down my spine
This was a different sort of fear frohly calculated everything out using statistics There should have had no basis to it, but I felt the rails shi+fting out of place as if it was judging all of the lives here Kind of like the Salem Witch Trials Whoever had written this, I doubted ould understand each other enough to even talk about the weather
…But had this been in the virtual reality? I low sticks to go on
”Maxwell This rusty smell…is it some kind of blood?”
”I cannot say without an external accessory to analyze the chee or particle observer However, this is a hospital It would depend on when this ritten, but if the hospital was still running, they could have used transfusion blood”
”…I thought as much”
The sht have happened years ago, but it didn't feel like it had been written using blood taken fro person as here now There was just too ic circles covered the entire wall of this baseh Even if the Bright Cross had controlled Kukyou City until recently, I doubted they could gatherthe accidents, suicides, hospital deaths, andpeople over the years would probably make my balls shrivel up, but this was still just too much They could never cover it all up
”This ht be actual rust”
”Soraphy ink out of rusted nails?” asked Maxwell
…I had indeed seen that mentioned on a summer project recommendation site
Living sacrifices were not so easily acquired in this day and age Thatelse instead Just like so dolls instead of people or used soybeans or po ink fro it with a bit of human blood was still insane, but it didn't require mass murder
”Or is it pig or chicken blood? The sy would probably be different than with human blood, but I have no idea what this occult ritual wasanswer here”
Either way, it wasn't exactly pleasant to look at It felt like being thrown in a cage at the zoo in a foreign country and having everyone pointing and laughing at me I didn't knohat exactly it meant, but I could tell there was definite malicious intent
…The wall didn't explain where my sisters were or how to return the Class Rep to nor along with some lunatic's nonsense
I reht from the wall and adjusted the Class Rep's position onher didn't feel like a burden since she was a cute girl It would have been hell if it were a 50kg bag of cement instead It was possible a mysterious Class Rep effect had numbed the exhaustion with endorphins and dopamine
”…Now, then”
I glanced down at the X-ray sheet, but there was no reaction yet My cells were apparently not being roasted by invisible radiation I could continue ation
This hospital was s so they for out, and the basement seey depart a corner
The blood writing(?) covered one of the walls, but not both It only covered one side
Yes
”What is this? Is it only covering the inner wall?”
The abandoned hospital formed a crooked square and the basement did so as well And it turned out only the walls on the inside of that square were covered in this blood writing or ic circles
Alround space below the courtyard
It kind of re neallpaper to hide the human-shaped stain on a wall in a cheap apart haunted
”Maxwell…”
”Sure Whether it has any actual effect or not, it would seem soly That raises the question of what that person thought they were sealing aith this graffiti on the wall Or to put it another way, perhaps there is a space beyond these inner walls that is not on the blueprints and perhaps so slumbers within”
However, that did not ht be a different set of stairs or an elevator accessible from the surface And if whoever it was had truly prioritized for of the consequences, the door ht have drawn the blood writing and ic circles on top of that
Whatever the case, they must have been really afraid of whatever was inside that square Enough so that they had to go this far to rest easy
Who had done it? And to whom?
The crucial subject and object were , but those walls were plenty creepy without that inforn of an eccentric It was a sign of someone's fear Fear could lead to bizarre actions such as chopping up a corpse and burying pieces in different places because you feared having the supposedly dead person come back to life A as several ti home
And at the sa
”The Class Rep's coffin probably isn't here”
As my sisters and I had discussed, if it was the Polish Va the Class Rep, then she would lose her vampiric traits if she could not periodically return to the coffin to sleep Just like the cleaning robots on the top floor, she needed to recharge So it would be pointless to place her coffin in a thoroughly sealed place she could not get in or out of She could not maintain her current state unless she could return there herself
The convalescent hospital's Ghost wanted to track down the valuable sample that happened to turn the Class Rep into a Dha thather, so it would not want to ruin that balance until it could figure out how this worked No idiot would pull out a hair drier while investigating a snow crystal under a microscope I doubted the Ghost would use its unmanned weapons to seal away the coffin
”Maxwell, map out the place, at least as far as you can see while I walk around”
”Sure If possible, could you point out some landmarks?”
Either because thick shi+elding was more easily built in the bases down here much, it contained a lot of creepy facilities: the autopsy rooue I had been inside, the medical waste disposal room, the backup power room, the boiler room, etc I checked each doorplate, opened the door, and shi+ned the backlight inside, but I didn't find Erika or Ayumi collapsed inside any of them
”Odd… They're all unlocked”
”Yes, and yet Miss Erika and Miss Ayu their exploration”
What did this discrepancy mean?
So the doors after my sisters disappeared
My sisters went around unlocking the doors during their exploration before they disappeared
My sisters had lied and the doors were unlocked fro
There were a few different possibilities, but all of the more sinister Possibility 2 seemed to be the most peaceful option, but that would mean so the doors and ”eliminated” those Archenemy sisters while they worked
An unpleasant shudder ran downI wanted to think about
As I walked around the basey department I had not run across anyone on the way here Not Erika or Ayuerous third party
Had they all gone back upstairs?
If not, this deepest area was the most suspect
”…Maxwell”
”No There is nothing for me to do The electronic lock has already been opened”
Here too?
I gulped and pressed ainst it and opened it
The radiology department
I held my breath as I entered and, instead of the room itself, I first looked to the X-ray sheet held between my pants anddangerous was leaking out
I checked around with ht and saw a rusted examination table in the center of the roo equipment waited at the head to surround it like a tunnel I didn't know uessed it was a CT scan That was the thing that had its ily superior MRI They were co like the relationshi+p between ICs and LSI or records and Blu-rays
I had no business in this room
I checked behind the equip man's corpse were there
”…Are they in the storeroom at the back?”
”No You have no basis for thinking that”
Well, it was true that had been simulation data created by the abandoned hospital's Ghost It ht not have all been accurate
”If it was setting a trap for my sisters, that whatever storeroo it look like the goal, the Ghost could set up whatever traps it wanted”
As brazenly as I said that, I had only realized it after Erika and Ayumi failed to return So really, I was no more than an utter moron who had sent his family off to their deaths
”Warning: If we are assu this is a trap that Miss Erika and Miss Ayuerous for you to follow?”
”Of course But I'athered hts ”The convalescent hospital's Ghost pretended to be you to approachht differences from reality That muddled my memories But why?”
”There is too little data to do anything but guess, but I would assume that Ghost concluded that was the best course of action The Ghost is the syste in the Peace Committee Convalescent Hospital, so it would have had an easier tihly dependent on a mobile device And your actions h it eventually, but I think it achieved some results”
”That's true”
Looking at it rationally, this was allup to my mistake
”But if it could adopt your character so perfectly, couldn't it have sent es directly to Erika and Ayu to be y department, I bet they would've fallen for the trap”
”You have a point”
”That meant it wanted to controlErika and Ayu ue locker for about three hours”
”Such as?”
Needless to say, I was only hu braith a zo h If an aun and shoved into an aquariu shark and a killer whale, did they stand any chance of winning? The ansas obvious
But…
”What if the trap up ahead only works on Archene seal or a holy light, but what if it's focused on Archeneive the Ghost a reason to separate an amateur like me from them?”
That would greatly increase my value If my sisters had been captured by holy water or a charain their freedom if I tore it from them
”Those killer uns and gas-operated pile-drivers, so it's possible they weren't ht have beenas holy power If so, then it ed to reconnect to you, Maxwell The occult weapons don't work on me and you can hold back the unmanned physical weapons That leaves the Ghost with no options left …Other than takingI obediently surrender”
”So you want to use every trick in the book to retrieve them as soon as possible?”
”The Ghost hasn't used theine our relationshi+p There are exceptions like Itou Helen and Kuroyama Hinoki, but it's extreether The Ghost is an agent specialized in anti-Archeney research, so it would probably have trouble thinking of hu”
But that would not last forever As it gathered data, it would gain more material hich to arrive at the correct conclusion For example, it could check my captured sisters' phones and analyze the call records and saved photos Or it could intercept the cell signal and access the external storage or home server
So I had to act before then
Once the Ghost took action, it was checks before my opponent learned how to move the pieces…
”Maxwell, let's end this”
”Sure”
I approached the door to the adjacent storeroom I turned the knob and found it was indeed unlocked
Had it been unlocked for the Class Rep? Had my sisters unlocked it? Or had it been some entirely unrelated third party?
I couldn't sit around wondering This was a race against time I used my experiences froht on the floor and open the hidden trapdoor e
I found a far-too-steep stairway It was nearly a ladder and I walked down, step by step
”Maxwell, prepare for a cyber attack I want to avoid being shot by those deadly motocross bikes the instant I step inside”
”Sure”
All I had to do was defend against the ordinary bullets and special steel spikes So like anti-zombie incense was not a problem for me
With that in mind, I stepped from the bottommost step to the floor
And immediately afterwards, that happened
———A stairway led down
I had to get to the bottoround, so I couldn't stand still I had to hurry Hurry as much as possible I had to find and retrieve theht on
———A stairway led down
I felt a slight vibration in my cheek
Without thinking, I caine came froh It was lighter than a car and more like a chainsaw or laer
Or a light motorcycle, such as a scooter or motocross bike?
———A stairway led down
”M-Maxwell!”
I was surrounded by the sound and the unpleasant odor of exhaust faintly reached my nose But I would be fine if my opponent was the deadly motocross bikes Maxwell could neutralize them with a cyber attack
With that in mind, I adjusted the Class Rep on my shoulder and checked my smartphone This is what I saw:
”Warning: Be caref…this is———coustic effe…”
”What, Maxwell!? I can't see! The screen's dark!”
Or was that not it?
Was the screen's light fine and it wasproblems?
———A stairway led down
My sense of balance wavered I tried to resist, but it was no use I fell down the solid stairs along with the Class Rep I couldn't brace for impact, but I couldn't feel the pain either
Where was the Class Rep? I couldn't see the sht either
In fact, I wasn't sure where et up
A corner of