“Where is it?” Aleen asked himself while looking at his surroundings.
The place after the two gigantic doors was a metallic corridor. It extended far away in a straight line.
Unfortunately, the place was completely dark, so the group could not see how long it was. The only place with a bit of light was after the gigantic doors, but it only illuminated a few meters ahead.
Aleen frowned and took a lantern from his ring. It was a normal lantern he bought back on earth, but it was good enough in this situation.
Aleen tried to illuminate the dark tunnel, but the lantern was far from enough. He, however, wasn’t too disappointed about it.
With a thought, he took another lantern from the ring and gave one to the college girl and another to the stubble guy. They accepted them with startled expressions while Aleen explained to them the situation.
“We are in the underground levels of the building. The two bodyguards found a map before that showed another exit through an escape passage connected to the underground levels. We don’t have more choice but use it.”
The others nodded in understating.
“I will take the front and Aya will go behind me. You two,” Aleen gestured to the stubble guy and the brown-haired college girl. “You will carry the lanterns, and the two bodyguards will take the rear. Any questions?”
They shook their heads.
“Very well, we need to hurry. It would be bad if the spiders find another way to come here.”
Aleen then began to walk. He walked pretty quickly despite being able to see only a few meters ahead.
The walk through the dark corridor was completely silent and wrapped in nervousness. Aleen was a bit used to dark places after the experience on the brooders’ nest, but the others, especially the college girl and the stubble guy, were visibly nervous.
Strangely, though, Aya was pretty calm.
From the fight against the huge zombie, Aleen had realized that Aya wasn’t so simple as he thought. After all, she was able to fight face to face against the level two zombie and endure for a while.
Of course, she counted with the help of the two bodyguards; but Aleen knew that they were mostly useless in that situation.
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But even more surprising was the cat.
Aleen was astonished when he found that the silver cat helped them to kill zombies on the way to the tower, and it also gave the last blow to the level two zombie.
‘Is it because of her skill…? But then, why are her senses so sharp…’
Aleen estimated that Aya’s hearing and reflexes were a bit higher than his; however, his body had been enhanced twice. How could her reflexes be higher than his?
Aleen thought that it was due to her skill, but now he wasn’t so sure.
Unfortunately, not even Aya was sure about the true effects of her skill.
While he was lost in his thoughts, he felt Aya pulling the corner of his shirt.
“Aleen, Lily and I heard noises ahead…” She said softly.
“Hm?” Aleen frowned. “Guys, stop!”
Everybody stopped immediately.
Aleen looked towards Aya and asked. “Do you know what it is?”
Aya hesitated for a moment before answering. “It sounds like human steps, but I’m not sure.”
‘A zombie?’ Aleen thought while using a hand to hold his chin.
“How far?” He asked.
“… Fifty meters, maybe.” She said after thinking for a moment.
Aleen nodded and fell into thoughts briefly.
“We are going to advance slowly. Big guys, walk behind me. If something happens, try to protect the others.”
The two bodyguards nodded and stood behind Aleen and Aya. Aleen thought about sending Aya to the back, but when he thought about her performance until now, he decided that she could be more useful with him.
The group advanced slowly, trying to make the least noise possible. They didn’t want to alert the monster ahead of them.
Fortunately, it didn’t seem to notice them.
After walking around thirty meters, the light of the lanterns finally illuminated the creature making the noises.
As they thought, it was a zombie.
But Aleen quickly noticed that it wasn’t a normal zombie.
‘A child?’ Aleen thought surprised.
Until now, all the zombies Aleen had seen were adults. Aleen didn’t know if it was because the administrators didn’t want to use children in the games, but none of the zombies had been a child.
This one, however, was clearly a child.
The zombie was completely naked, and most of its flesh was rotten, but Aleen could identify the corpse as an eight or nine years old child.
“Why is a child here?” One of the bodyguards asked.
Aleen didn’t answer and simply killed it with one blow.
The group continued advancing.
But they meet more zombies after the child.
Some zombies were dead adults, but most were children or youths. However, Aleen noticed that all the zombies they meet on the corridor were naked.
When Aleen thought about the reason behind it, a chill ran through his back.
‘It could not be that, right?’
If his thoughts were right, then the path ahead will be filled with difficulties.
Aleen shook his head and concentrated on the current task.
After walking another two minutes, they finally reached the end of the tunnel.
A door made of glass appeared before them, but it was mostly broken. Aleen used his sword to break it completely so they could pass.
Aleen felt the texture of the ground to change once they went through the door, but he could not see anything due to the darkness. When he was going to indicate the group to be careful, the stubble guy said something.
“… It’s a switch, right?”
Before Aleen could speak, he pressed on it.
Instantly, all the lights in the underground level were turned on.