"Why did you kill him, Captain Snake?" asked Kaelen in a hushed voice, staring at Jep's corpse lying on the cold floor.
Snake snorted softly, flicking the remaining blood off the blade of his weapon. "Kaelen, it had to be done!"
Kaelen glanced briefly toward the corridor, which was beginning to clear out. "Then, what about this kid's body?"
"His teammates will be looking for him soon. Fall back, I'm going to hack the surveillance cameras now," Snake commanded sharply, his fingers moving rapidly across a portable panel.
Kaelen nodded rigidly, his eyes sweeping the surroundings with utmost vigilance. "Understood, Captain. Make sure there are no loopholes! We cannot afford to fail."
Time dragged on slowly, accompanied by an unsettling silence that began to permeate the control room.
"Has it been thirty minutes already? Where is Jep?" Wawa muttered anxiously. He got up from his chair, sat back down, and repeatedly checked the surveillance camera monitor. "Before we get punished, I have to go find him. But who will guard the control room? What if that commander comes back?"
Wawa gripped the hem of his uniform tightly. He cast a quick glance at the monitor; the commander appeared to still be at the front post of Sector 03's gate.
A firm decision was made. He grabbed a flashlight, stepped outside, and began traversing the dark corridor Jep had taken earlier. "Jep, where on earth are you?" he asked himself in his mind.
Before long, the sharp, fishy reek of blood stung his senses. Instinctively, his hands moved to activate the automatic mask on his Dominator V1 helmet.
Instantly, his steps halted. The surrounding air suddenly felt frozen. Behind the visor of his advanced helmet, Wawa's eyes widened in sheer horror as he stared at a lifeless body lying on the floor.
Jep...!
His scream was stifled, faint, nearly swallowed by the terrifying silence of the corridor.
And while Wawa remained frozen in fear at the end of the corridor, that window of opportunity was seized by the other party.
Once the control room fell silent, Snake slipped inside without a sound. With trained fingers, he effortlessly manipulated PETERUMMAN's most advanced security systems. The monitor screen before him flickered with rows of passcodes before finally turning green, signaling that full access had been secured.
"Shh... shh... with this, the plan goes smoothly," Snake chuckled softly, his voice rasping in the middle of the cold room.
The blaring sirens screeched deafeningly, reflecting flashing red lights wild against the metal walls. Beside Jep's rigid corpse, Wawa curled up, weeping softly as tears soaked the visor of his helmet. The sudden chaos in Sector 03 sent the entire security staff into a panic, abandoning their respective posts.
"What is going on here? What on earth is happening?" growled Captain Berton, the guard commander of Sector 03, as he and his subordinates rushed back to the main area.
"Captain Berton, the control room is empty! The soldier on duty isn't at his post," one of his men reported via his advanced earpiece.
"Damn it, Sector 07 really sent failure soldiers to guard the most critical sector on this planet," Captain Berton grumbled internally, holding back his annoyance.
The noisy blare of the alarm forced his mind back to reality.
"Stay alert, stay sharp! Someone has most likely infiltrated Sector 03. Immediately check all surveillance footage!" Captain Berton ordered firmly, pushing aside his frustration to deal with the immediate threat at hand.
Meanwhile, behind the shadows of the storage warehouse, Wawa desperately activated an emergency flare. The bright red signal shot sharply into the night sky, piercing the darkness of the frozen world outside.
Far from the burst of the flare lighting up the night, a false peace still wrapped around the cadet dormitory rooms.
A green light blinked lazily, signaling that all activities must cease immediately. The light painted the walls of Room 09 B in a glowing green before finally shutting off fifteen seconds later.
"Will they come home today?" Reyna, the shy girl dressed in floral-patterned pajamas, asked softly. Zilla was combing Reyna's long hair with gentle strokes.
"Yes. Sergeant Jean mentioned earlier that we will return to duty the day after tomorrow," the silver-haired girl replied without turning her gaze. "Ether has been distributed as well; we received a quota of three units per person."
Nugia, lying on the top bunk, stared at the plain white ceiling—as blank as his mind. "Reyna, Zilla, look. The light has stopped blinking. Will they know if we don't sleep?"
Zilla paused her comb for a moment, then let out a long sigh. "Nugia, that light is just an indicator. They don't monitor us inside our room."
"Why?"
"It's privacy."
"In that case, I will try not to fall asleep," Nugia replied earnestly.
"Why are you trying to stay awake?" Zilla asked, bewildered. But the boy went quiet. "Nugia?" Zilla called out again. No response. Silence enveloped the room, broken only by the steady rhythm of breathing from the top bunk. Zilla stood up and found Nugia fast asleep—right after swearing he wouldn't.
The moment Nugia's eyes closed, the peaceful silence in his room was suddenly shattered. His surroundings turned suffocating, as if there were no air left to breathe, and an invisible pressure slammed against his chest.
In the distance, the once calm blue waters suddenly surged into a terrifying black whirlpool—no longer a mesmerizing ripple. At the same time, the sky filled with billions of sand grains violently convulsed, as if about to collapse on everything.
Amidst the horror, a glowing blue figure of a girl approached.
Seeing her, Nugia asked, "You again... why do I always meet you whenever I fall asleep?"
"Nugia, listen to me!" said the cheerful, echoing voice. "My core will cause a catastrophe. You must stop it before the apocalypse happens for the second time," Azure spoke.
"An apocalypse?" Nugia was stunned.
"You must stop it. Someone is trying to steal my core. Be careful, he is not human, he is—"
"Where are you? What is your name?!" Nugia shouted.
Instantly, the sand horizon in that dimension ruptured and collapsed into uncertainty. The Azure entity vanished without a trace, leaving behind an echoing voice swallowed by the void, leaving Nugia in a terrifying vortex of chaos. The once calm floor of water now churned violently, shaking beneath a rain of dust and chunks of sand falling from all directions. Nugia's legs instantly gave way, rendering him unable to support his body as it swayed amidst the dimensional earthquake. He screamed hysterically while clutching his head tightly, feeling a searing burn that seemed to incinerate every nerve inside his brain.
A moment later, he snapped back to consciousness. Long flashes of red light blared, hurting his throbbing head. The hum from his dream dimension still echoed, leaving a sharp ringing that blended with the deafening sirens outside.
"Nugia, what's wrong with you? There's no time to relax, we have to hurry before trouble starts!" Zilla shouted as she reached for the door with Reyna.
The glowing red light made the atmosphere in the Block B Dormitory corridor even more tense. The frantic footsteps of soldiers scattering earlier transformed within seconds into neat, disciplined formations as Sergeant Jean stepped onto the scene.
However, while the military ranks prepared to face the chaos on the surface, the masterminds behind the disaster were savoring their moments of victory.
At the same time, Kaelen and Snake had successfully entered the Azure core safely.
"Alright, what's next, Captain Snake?" Kaelen asked.
Snake did not answer right away. He grinned widely, staring at the blue pillar of energy pulsing violently in front of them. Without hesitation, he plunged a pitch-black device directly into the heart of the crystal core.
"We're going to bring this entire base to its knees in chaos," Snake whispered triumphantly, right as thousands of tons of energy pressure were suddenly siphoned into the object Snake had drawn out.