Logan had used [Threshold Shift] to send him through the floor rather than a few feet, but when he materialized in front of the cells, that rush of cold, the numbness in his limbs, wasn’t any worse than the last time.
Holding back a gasp, Logan shifted his grip on his sword and stared, tension like a living thing ready to explode, his stomach tightening. In front of him was an empty hallway; a straight hallway that went on, and on, and on. On either side were the glass cells, just like he’d seen with [Threshold Shift]. He was here. He was really here.
Somewhere within these cells, he’d find Lara and the kids. He would. He would. He would.
Ernie hadn’t bothered crawling into his pouch, but he’d deployed the mirroring effect of [Mimicry] and he was invisible against Logan’s shoulder. Next to Logan, Shoot brimmed with excitement, prancing on her feet, her tail up, but she did her best to not cause unnecessary noise.
All down the hallway, it was empty, not a hint of a guard. Had they really left the cells unguarded? It made no sense, especially since this whole place had been blaring with an alarm less than an hour ago. They knew he was here. That he had a bounty. Unless Logan had managed to kill everyone, there had to be more lying in wait.
It felt like a trap.
But at the same time, maybe his luck was finally paying dividends. He couldn’t increase his luck attribute himself; the score went up only after he overcame a tricky situation. Back when he’d first received his stat sheet, a 100-luck score would have seemed massive.
“So many,” Ernie whispered. “Are we going to save them all?”
Save them all? There were way too many—
Huh. Logan’s overarching goal was to find Lara and the kids, but once he did, [Threshold Shift] could theoretically let him transport as many people as he wanted. Why couldn’t he save them all? This Pied was profiting from some pretty shady shit, and Logan was going to fuck him up. Or at least fuck up his business.
Logan grinned. “We can save them. Save them all. But first, we need to find Lara and the kids.”
Ernie peered into the nearest glass cell. “Are they inside?”
Logan inched his way closer to the cell on his left. At first glance, the wall looked like a regular window, or a massive glass door. Clear, see-through, allowing him to see the people inside as if he weren’t looking through a barrier.
But the closer he inched forward, the more he sensed something off. It reminded him of the black chains he’d stolen from the strength attribute trial. There was an aura radiating from the glass, something that made the fine hairs on the back of his neck stand up.
Even stranger, the people inside the cells couldn’t see him since he’d deployed his camouflage effect, so they were talking amongst themselves. One person in the middle of the group was standing, gesturing with his hands, his face red like a beet, while the others argued. Logan could see it, but he couldn’t hear it. With his high perception, there was no way he shouldn’t hear something when they were right next to him.
There was something up with this glass.
Something that he didn’t like.
Either way, it was still see-through. He could look inside the cells and search for Lara and the kids. Logan scanned from one face to the other, narrowing in on the kids, his heart racing with anticipation, but this one was a dud. No Lara. No kids.
Turning, he walked across the hallway and then peered into the cell on the right. He scanned what had to be another fifty people, coming up with the same result. They were strangers. Logan didn’t know them.
Pumping his legs, he sped to the next cell, then the next, then the next, like a squirrel on steroids.
“No luck?” Ernie said.
Logan grunted. “We’ll just have to keep…” Looking. Staring down the long, long hallway, at what had to be over 500 cells, Logan winced, his mouth going dry. Holy shit, to get so close to finding Lara and yet be stuck with a needle in a haystack search was beyond frustrating! There had to be a more efficient way to find her.
Hesitating, he turned around, back to the elevator. If he were an alien jailer, he’d want to keep track of his prisoners, wouldn’t he? What if just like Logan, the jailers needed to find someone quickly? Jails had prisoner inventories. It would be crazy that they’d just shove everyone into cells without some kind of list.
And for once, his luck might be working. Right next to the elevator door, there was something that reminded him of the lodestone next to his Tree Fridge. Instead of a palm print, there was a small slot, the width of a knife. Right above that was an unlit touchscreen.
Logan threw his sword inside of his spatial collar and then collapsed his talons and the glove on one hand. Wetting his lips, he pressed his index finger against the touchscreen, anticipation brimming in his stomach.
Nothing.
Touching it again, then again, this time pressing down hard, he growled. It had to be a touchscreen! It looked just like it!
Logan crouched and examined the slot inside of the lodestone. It looked like a key slot, but it had an odd shape, more like an opening for something long, like a…
Furrowing his brow, Logan rummaged through the contents of his spatial storage collar until he came across one of the bracelets he’d nabbed when he’d hidden the corpses. One of the assholes had even turned on the alarm with it. Could he use it to turn on the touchscreen?
Logan willed it into his bare hand, then turned it and held it up to the light. It looked like a silver bracelet, flat on one side, solid. It didn’t appear to be anything other than jewelry, but when Logan examined it with [Idiot’s Inspect] he knew it was no simple piece of jewelry.
[Command communication bracelet. D Grade.]
It didn’t tell him anything about what it was; and D grade was crap, but it might just be what he was looking for. Logan held his breath as he slotted one side of the bracelet inside of the lodestone opening.
Just like that, the touchscreen turned on as if he’d flipped on the power switch.
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“Oooh,” crooned Ernie, excited.
Since he was inside of a complex that he was pretty sure was alien in nature, he was expecting a different language, but just like the stones inside of the attribute trial, the words seemed to alter in front of his eyes into English.
Far out.
Logan toggled through the screens, a lightness in his chest as his excitement surged. The System had frustrated him to no end, forcing Logan to guess about everything and not providing an instruction manual. If he’d just stumbled across something that could supplement his knowledge? It was a gold mine.
He sagged. But although he found a POPULATION list, that was all. There was no System encyclopedia. No cheat.
Still, a population list was what he’d wanted in the first place.
Logan toggled through the screens, biting his lip, his breathing speeding up the further he scrolled through the names. The prisoners were listed last name, first name, species, and then level. And fuck, there were thousands of them!
Allen, Brighten, HUMAN, Level 8, Cell 45.
Allen, Candace, HUMAN, Level 3, Cell 45.
Armstrong, Jamil, HUMAN, Level 12, Cell 3.
Armstrong, Henry, HUMAN, Level 9, Cell 10.
Alexander, Leigh-Ann, HUMAN, Level 15, Cell 22.
Consistent with all of them was their low level. This prison consisted of low-level people. As Logan scrolled through the list, he only came across a handful who were above level 50.
Logan kept going, all the way to the Hs. After Lara went through her divorce, she’d gone back to her maiden name. Logan’s name. Hart.
His heart beating out of his chest, he went from Hall, to Halle, to…
Hart, Lara, HUMAN, Level 12, Cell 39.
She was here! She was here! Holy crap, she was here! Swaying, Logan felt his legs go boneless as relief swept through him like the tide. Holding onto the wall, he closed his eyes, breathing out a silent prayer of thanks. All his struggles, all the pain he’d gone through, keeping him sane, all of it had been for Lara and the kids. Throughout this last week, they had been what kept his hope alive. He’d told himself that he’d find them on the other side, but a creeping doubt had begun, a doubt that he’d never admit to himself.
A doubt that all of this had been in vain, and that Lara wouldn’t be there. That he’d been too late. But she was here! Cell 39. One more step, and he could use [Threshold Shift] to take Lara and the kids to safety.
“She’s here, Ernie!” he whispered.
Ernie made a sound of excitement. “Ahah! We’re soon about to triumph and win our noble quest to save your brethren! Yes yes yes!”
Logan walked to the nearest cell. Sure enough, right next to the glass was a huge number, 1, etched into the wall. If they’d labeled the cells in a logical, numerical way, Lara was only 38 cells away.
Hesitating, he glanced at his armour. He didn’t want to scare them.
“Ernie, can you crawl back into your pouch? I’ll introduce you, but I don’t want to shock them. The kids might be scared of animals now, so it’s better if I tell them about you first.”
“Little squishy humans! Little Logans! Of course, Ernie does not want to be scary.” Crawling over his shoulder, Ernie scooted into his pouch.
“Shoot,” Logan said, eyeing her carefully. “You’re about to meet my family. Treat them like you would me, will you?” The vine cat had been nothing but loyal so far. Logan didn’t have concerns that she’d act like the Cursed Rope, but he didn’t know what he was dealing with here. Lara would be Lara, but the kids had to be worried. Scared.
Lastly, Logan collapsed the talons on his other hand and made his armour solid, deactivating the camouflage effect.
He burst into a run, Shoot trailing behind him as he scanned each cell, looking for number 39. Although he still couldn’t hear anything from inside the cells, now that he was visible, people took notice, their gazes jerking towards him as he passed; some getting up from their cots, others jabbing each other in excitement. At least the soundproof effect was one advantage—people shouting would bring attention.
Logan passed cell 31, then…
Wait.
Shit.
Coming to a stop in front of cell 32, he stared.
“What is it?” Ernie asked in his mental voice.
Brooke and Chase. Fuck. He’d assumed they’d gotten away, but the evidence was right in front of his eyes. Every single one of them, even Sarah, were behind the glass walls. That meant that the rat army must have eventually found them. Either that, or the hunter seekers, those shitty contract users. That meant that those fuckers were finding everyone! No wonder the city had been empty.
Just what the hell were they planning to do with these people? The workers maintaining the skill ring factory, he could understand. But what was the purpose of gathering up thousands of slave workers if they had them in cells doing nothing? For that matter, gathering up children? He’d like to think even an alien would have compunctions against forcing children to be slave labourers.
Logan looked down the hallway, then hesitated. He’d tried so hard to save Brooke and Chase’s group that it was beyond frustrating to see them behind the glass wall. But at least Logan was here. There was no reason that once he found Lara and the kids, that he couldn’t come back. Couldn’t come back for them all.
Chase turned his head towards Logan, his eyes widening, just as Logan powered past his cell and kept going. Kept going until he arrived in front of cell 32.
Then he stared and studied each person, scanning faces, bouncing from foot to foot, his chest tightening. After everything, being this close was killing him.
And then as if his legs had been cut, Logan slumped, leaning against the glass wall.
Lara.
She was sitting on one of the cots, her hair in a long brown ponytail, her face streaked with dirt and what looked like splashes of dried blood. She was wearing ripped jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, the sleeves rolled up to her elbows. And next to her…
Logan clenched his hand into a fist, his gloves clattering over the glass.
Sawyer.
Sawyer, his youngest, ten-year-old niece, was curled up on the cot next to Lara. Her face was pale. Way too pale. And against her pink bangs, she looked like a ghost.
Logan remembered the first time he’d seen her pink hair. She’d colored it at a friend’s house and had been so excited to show it to Logan when he came over for a visit. Logan hadn’t had the heart to tell her that he’d hoped pink hair had been a phase that she’d grow out of.
Sawyer was wearing a sweatshirt, the sleeves pulled down over her hands, but even in that, she looked cold.
Logan scanned the room for Hunter, worried for a second before he saw her at the back, talking to a boy her age. Hunter’s blond hair was half out of her ponytail, worrying streaks of dried blood coating the strands. She’d just started her teenage phase—turning her nose at everything that involved her mom, but Logan liked to think that they still got along. Unlike Sawyer, she looked as if she were handling things better and was in a pretty intense discussion with the other boy.
Holy shit, he’d really found them.
Logan was starting to gather the attention of everyone, and soon, although he still couldn’t hear them, word was spreading. They inched closer, some wary, some curious, but there was only three people he cared about.
Logan let his facemask and helmet dissolve, and then grinned at Lara as she clambered off the cot. Lara grabbed Sawyer by the hand and dragged her forward towards the glass.
She gave him a hard glance before she blinked, her mouth dropping open. Looking from Logan’s face to his chest, back to his face, her face slackened with shock as she mouthed, “Logan?”
Embarrassed, Logan waved, his face feeling warm. The last time they’d seen each other had been before the apocalypse. Logan hadn’t been in horrible shape, but he’d hardly made it to the gym at the best of times. Now, the System had transformed him into a new man. Taller, stronger… with no eyebrows.
Chagrined, Logan rubbed the back of his neck and tried to smooth his rat nest of a hairdo. Lara said something while Sawyer’s face transformed with color, her eyes shining as she tugged on Lara’s hand closer to the glass wall.
But no matter how hard he strained, he couldn’t hear them. Well, there was no reason that couldn’t change. First, he’d use [Threshold Shift] to portal into the cell, explain that he was rescuing them, and then take it from there.
Barely holding back a laugh, Logan blew out a massive breath of relief. “We made it, Ernie. We found them.”
Ernie’s voice was bright with pleasure. “For we rival all, Logan.”
“Let’s do this.” Narrowing his eyes, Logan latched onto a space behind everyone and then deployed [Threshold Shift]. He was expecting a rush of cold, a feeling of displacement. Instead, a massive headache slammed into him, as if a hundred needles were drilling into his forehead. A lurching sensation went through him, nausea overwhelming him so strongly that he swallowed bile. It felt like something was tearing him apart, the pain intense. He might as well not have [Idiot’s Paradox]!
A cold sweat breaking out on his body, Logan opened his eyes.
He was still in front of the cell.
The skill had failed.