Chapter 169: Operation is a Go (1)

The underground waterway had once been a desperate hope, whispered by those who remembered life before the Mechanical Monsters took control. During the time when nations still fought against the machines, some people attempted to escape the city through the sewers, believing they could avoid detection that way.

However, the poison—a lethal combination of sewage and waste—ensured that there were no survivors. It was not the Mechanical Monsters who stopped them, but the toxic air itself. The complete lack of survivors proved how deadly the sewers truly were.

Hope sat in silence, staring at the floor with eyes wide open, as if she had just awakened from a long, unsettling dream. She was twenty-two years old, too young to have lived through the wars, but old enough to remember the stories. No one of her generation had ever tried to escape, but the idea continued to linger in her mind.

She kept thinking about the underground waterway.

That's why even the Mechanical Monsters don't patrol there...

The city's sewer was a place neither humans nor machines could enter. For humans, the danger was obvious: the wastewater was lethally toxic. For the Mechanical Monsters, it posed a different threat. While the sewers did not cause fatal damage, the wastewater that was mixed with Pastera metal caused significant harm that required immediate repairs. The sewers were effectively a dead zone for both sides.

"

Phew...

I have to believe."

Heroes from another dimension had come to save the Patera Dimension. She hadn't met them, but thanks to the help of a ghost who drew very well, she understood the situation. They came with two goals: the first was to rescue the residents of the Patera Dimension, and the second was to overthrow the Machine Lord in the central castle and stop the Mechanical Monsters.

What will happen after the escape? Will we be able to survive?

Hope let out a small chuckle as she imagined the future. Here she was, worrying about what came after, even though the immediate dangers of the sewer and the escape were much closer.

"Even if the heroes defeat the Machine Lord..." she mumbled, slowly turning her head to look at the people sleeping. "Will we even make it?"

The Mechanical Monsters prioritized efficiency above all else. To maintain the safety and well-being of their human slaves, they provided housing with beds and warm blankets. To minimize physical harm caused by stress, the buildings where humans stayed were constructed without any Pastera mixed in, unlike other structures in the city.

Things had changed since the days when humans were taken by the Mechanical Monsters on a daily basis. The intervals between new prisoners had stretched from a week, to a month, and eventually to half a year. Now, only two or three people were captured occasionally. In the worst-case scenario, the people still trapped in the city might be the last survivors. Escape was one problem, but what came after—surviving even if they managed to defeat the Machine Lord—seemed just as bleak.

"

Hoo...

"

Noticing a few people flinch at her unconscious sigh, Hope gave them a bitter smile. She couldn't tell whether they were thinking the same thing, but one thing was certain. All of them were imagining a future filled with despair.

"Still, isn't it better than continuing to live as a slave, no?" Hope said, emptying her mind and fixing her gaze on the floor.

Although no one had been asked, some people nodded in agreement.

Right then, although faint, she heard what was definitely the thudding sound of human footsteps. The sound echoed through the building where hundreds of people were gathered in a large room, waiting for the heroes.

Hope slowly got up and moved to the door. There was no knock. She looked at the wall next to it, and when a blurry human figure passed through the wall into the room, she carefully opened the door.

"Ah..."

The hero she had seen in the paintings was standing in front of her.

"Nice to meet you. My name is Kim Ki-Rok. You're Hope, right?"

She stood in silence for a moment before finally saying, "Yes. Yes, I'm Hope."

***

DG Guild's Hunter Kim Ji-Hee, the strongest in matters related to the Patera Dimension, focused her mind. Her high skill class allowed her to channel power into spirits with enough mana, regardless of distance. The mana cost for physical interaction increased the farther they were, which made it impractical for combat. However, she could still communicate with spirits and use their vision to observe distant locations.

"They've made contact," Kim Ji-Hee said.

No matter how much mana she borrowed, she couldn't use the power of spirits that had crossed through a Gate into another dimension. That was why she entered the Gate with the rescue team in the first place.

Upon her report, her escorting Hunter relayed the situation over the radio.

"They're asking if the escape has started, Miss Ji-Hee," said Daniel Jackson.

He had hoped to join the rescue team himself, but after failing to meet the requirements, he was assigned to escort Kim Ji-Hee instead.

"Tell them it will take time to prepare for the escape because there are a lot of people," Kim Ji-Hee replied.

"Does the number of people affect the preparations?"

"Taking the Antidote Potion and the Poison Pill isn't everything, is it?"

"Oh, the protective masks and suits," Daniel Jackson said, realizing what she had meant.

The escapees had to apply the antidote on their skin and take the pill to paralyze their sense of smell, then put on protective suits and masks.

"Then I'll report it right away," he said, raising the radio and briefly speaking with the command center. "They said to report as soon as escape preparations are complete."

"Right." Kim Ji-Hee nodded with one eye open.

She then opened both eyes slowly and looked ahead. Through her right eye, she saw people inside the building putting on protective suits and gas masks with help from the Hunters. Through her left one, she saw something like a distant lighthouse, its light source shining from far away.

The plan was to infiltrate the city using the underground waterway and rescue the survivors. If their opponents had been human, striking at dawn would have been ideal. However, they were up against Mechanical Monsters that didn't sleep or eat.

Kim Ji-Hee hugged the stuffed rabbit on her lap, as if trying to steady herself before the mission.

"It's okay," Daniel Jackson reassured.

"Huh?" Kim Ji-Hee said, caught off guard by his unexpected response.

"Mr. Ki-Rok doesn't participate in operations that aren't guaranteed to be safe. No, he doesn't even mention an operation unless safety is assured, so everything will be fine."

"

Hehe.

"

He wasn't wrong. Kim Ki-Rok did whatever it took to minimize damage, no matter how dirty or dangerous, even if it meant acting as bait. If it reduced risk, he would do it to ensure the operation's success. Despite that, he had only been critically injured a few times.

"Mammon was the first and last," Kim Ji-Hee said, recalling a memory from long ago.

Kim Ki-Rok had once fought a Greater Demon to a draw and spent a long time in the hospital afterward. Maybe it was because she had cried so much from worry, but since then, he hadn't suffered any serious injuries that required long-term hospitalization. The longest he had stayed in the hospital since was a week.

Feeling dizzy, Kim Ji-Hee closed her left eye and checked inside the building again. After thirty minutes of preparation, Kim Ki-Rok had sent a signal to the spirit sharing sight with her.

"They've just finished and are heading down to the basement now."

"The command center wants to know the situation with the monsters," Daniel Jackson said.

"Just a moment," Kim Ji-Hee said, relaying the situation to Kim Ki-Rok.

As she began to move, her view slowly rose. The darkness lasted only a moment before the night sky filled her vision. The spirit bowed downward, allowing her to survey the city from above.

There were Animaloid Mechanical Monsters and their Humanoid counterparts roaming the city. The former were presumed to specialize in detecting sound and vibration, while the latter were likely built for combat. They seemed to believe human escape was impossible and were checking production machines in the factories instead of the buildings where the humans were.

A Mechanical Monster that had been moving at a steady pace stopped in front of a production machine, then moved on to check another.

"It's the same as yesterday. They're checking the production machines," Kim Ji-Hee reported.

"Are there any monsters that have detected abnormalities?" Daniel Jackson asked.

"No, there aren't," she said confidently.

"What's the situation with the rescue team?"

"

Phew!

" Kim Ji-Hee let out a small sigh and communicated with the spirits.

At the entrance to the underground waterway, neither the rescue team nor the residents of the Patera Dimension were in sight.

"They've moved to the underground waterway. No one is at the entrance."

"What about the decoy?"

Kim Ji-Hee commanded the spirit to relocate. The Mechanical Monsters monitored the humans inside the building using sound and vibration, so evading their surveillance outside was not difficult.

After checking the decoy on the floor, she answered, "It's working. Nothing has stopped. I don't think the Mechanical Monsters have noticed."

Daniel Jackson immediately relayed the information and waited for the command center's response.

"Uh, Miss Ji-Hee?" he said.

"Yes?"

He hesitated, as if he had just received a very strange request. "They said... the underground waterway."

"Huh?!"

The Mechanical Monsters couldn't detect spirits, which was why Kim Ji-Hee hadn't attached the one she was linked to directly to Kim Ki-Rok. Instead, she had sent it into the city.

"Should I refuse?" he offered.

"Uh..." Kim Ji-Hee hesitated, remembering what Kim Ki-Rok had said. The escape route ran through the sewer, the same one that carried waste from both the Mechanical Monsters and humans.

"Uhhhhh..."

The thought alone made her nauseous, but after shaking off the disgust, she mustered her resolve. "I'll do it."

"What?"

"I'll... do it."

"Mr. Ki-Rok said that place is like a real-life Hell of Boiling Cauldrons."

"Still, w-we have to do it, right?"

She was right. She had to go underground to check on the rescue team and the residents of the Patera Dimension, then return to monitor the Mechanical Monsters' surveillance above. Just before Kim Ji-Hee was about to ask the spirits to move underground, she remembered something and took out a notebook from the bag next to her chair.

"Before he left... ah!" She gasped, remembering that Kim Ki-Rok had given her a notebook.

There must have been something helpful on the first page, because Kim Ji-Hee had just turned to Daniel Jackson with renewed confidence earlier.

"J-Ji-Hee?"

"I just need to block my sight and only pay attention to his voice."

"Oh! Is that advice from Mr. Ki-Rok?"

Kim Ji-Hee nodded. "Yes."

Daniel Jackson gave her a thumbs up, saying the method would spare her any mental trauma. Kim Ji-Hee burst out laughing and asked the spirits to block her vision.

Please take me down to the sewer.

—Hmm. Ji-Hee.

Yes?

—You've blocked your sight.

Yes.

—Hm... good thinking. It's not something a child should see.

Kim Ji-Hee was a child loved by the spirits. Even when she asked them to do something that could cause serious mental strain, the spirit didn't complain. Instead, it seemed more concerned about the harm it might bring to her.