At the boundary with magma, the city on Planet Commander had been built underground. Seven centuries had passed since humanity migrated to Commander, and people continued their lives while repairing the aging subterranean city and supporting its dome-shaped ceiling.
A young man named Beck lived a gloomy life in this underground world.
His job was as a worker at a purification facility, collecting water that seeped into the underground and treating it for the city.
There were no people in this city except laborers. They lived on meager wages paid in their own currency, Oetta, each alone in a worn-down room surrounded by rusted steel walls.
According to history, seven centuries ago humanity had repeatedly expanded across space through colonization, extending the reach of its civilization.
Now, those technologies had been lost, and they were protected only by old machines.
One day, Beck headed to the surface.
It wasn't that going above ground was strictly forbidden. People were allowed to go freely.
However, there were restrictions: if one failed to return before the designated time, the lift connecting to the surface would stop and the gates would close, locking them out.
Additionally, there was a time limit for surface access. If exceeded, the government committee would impose imprisonment. Because of this, few chose to go to the surface. Only survey teams went periodically under the name of investigation, though they had produced no meaningful results.
Beck made a decision—to live on the surface. He had grown sick of the underground. He wanted to step into a new world.
He had gone to the surface many times before. Living there would be easy, he thought.
To go above ground required a protective suit and a palm-sized contamination detector. Other than that, one could bring whatever belongings they wished.
There were no restrictions on taking items to the surface. However, bringing surface items back without placing them in proper quarantine containers was prohibited.
On the day he went up, Beck told no one—not his parents living in another sector, nor his coworkers or acquaintances from school. He attached a small AI device to his helmet, packed the contamination detector, food packs, and medical supplies into the storage unit on his back, and boarded the lift to the surface.
This rust-covered lift—this would be his last time riding it. From here on, it would be his world. His alone.
The excitement wouldn't fade.
The steel tunnel leading to the surface, built seven centuries ago, was not a short trip. The distance from the surface to the city spanned dozens of kilometers, and even with a high-speed lift, it took several hours.
He spent the time checking his equipment and reviewing the AI's systems. Before he knew it, he had arrived.
The last time he had come to the surface was half a year ago. Just like then, the thick rust-covered gate slowly opened upon the lift's arrival, revealing the way outside.
The underground air was automatically circulated and purified. So each time, the outside air flowing in felt strangely unfamiliar.
The lift connected to a large concrete structure built in the middle of a vast wasteland.
Red soil and rocky hills stretched endlessly. It was a landscape where human life seemed impossible.
But Beck already had a location in mind. The results of past survey teams had been made public, and a map of the surface was available to civilians. It appeared as a luminous display on his helmet visor.
With his gloved fingers, he selected a destination.
"To reach that location on foot will take thirty minutes," the AI whispered inside his helmet.
"Any vehicles nearby?"
There should be a buggy left behind by a survey team. Looking around, he spotted something covered in sand, wrapped in a protective sheet.
"You have not submitted a request for use. Is that acceptable?" the AI asked skeptically.
"I told you all week. I'm not going back underground. From here on, I'm free."
The AI had spent the week preparing with him. It had heard this many times, but as a logical artificial mind, it couldn't help but sigh at his recklessness.
Ignoring it, Beck removed the sheet, brushed off the sand, started the buggy, and sped across the barren land.
His destination lay beyond the rocky hills—a ruin of a city built by a previous civilization.
After climbing the hill, he stopped the buggy and wiped sand from his visor. From there, he looked down into a valley filled with buildings.
"That's my new home."
Beck said it cheerfully, but the AI warned him.
"We do not know what may be waiting. Please proceed with caution."
No biological activity had ever been detected on the surface. Surveys indicated there was no life.
Ignoring the warning, Beck drove down the slope and entered the ruins.
The city appeared to have been constructed during the era when humanity still traveled through space.
Inside, the sandy ground became smoother—it was sand laid over steel.
Suddenly, Beck slammed the brakes.
"What the hell is that…?"
At the entrance of the city, something clung to a building.
It looked like a grotesque mass—like an inside-out organ, shapeless, indescribable, something that may or may not have had form. It was clearly the corpse of some unknown creature.
"There's no data on this. Nothing like it is recorded in the survey reports," the AI said, its voice shaken.
"Do you know what it is?"
The AI possessed all accumulated data from the underground city. Beck assumed it would know.
But it had no answer.
Judging the corpse to be non-threatening, Beck continued forward.
But the corpses were everywhere—large and small, scattered throughout the city.
They had torn through buildings, roads, and structures, now fossilized in place.
At the center of the ruins stood what appeared to be a central administrative building—a spherical structure. Even there, the creatures had swarmed it like insects around food, now frozen into grotesque formations.
"What happened here…?"
Beck muttered in disbelief.
The AI searched through its data.
"According to records, this site was inhabited by your ancestors seven centuries ago. However, it was abandoned shortly afterward."
"Are these surface organisms?"
Beck could not know the truth. But it was clear that something extraordinary had occurred here long ago.
For the first time, he felt he was facing the true reality of this world—and what it meant to live here.
"Well… what will happen now, I wonder."
The AI let out a quiet sigh, yet also found itself curious about the young man's future.
"Corpse" End