*beep, beep, beep, beep*

Dai tried dozens of times to press the numbers on the dial. All she got was a refusal.

*beep, beep, beep, beep, beep*

She tried again and then again. She sighed. How is she supposed to get through this damn door?!

She looked at the door. There were holes in the wall all around them. Yes, she had actually tried to get around the whole door and code thing. Well, it didn't work. There was also steel behind the wood. Dai scratched her head and thought. Dai had already used up everything she had on her, but even if she strengthened herself with Blizzard or used the Stone Eater, which had a bonus to cutting, she didn't think she could get through.

She looked for the last place where she could see the beast. It wasn't particularly difficult to follow them because they left an obvious trail.

Dai began to walk more carefully, trying to take in her surroundings.

The herd hadn't gone far, thankfully. This area seemed to be quite rich in berries. Soon Dai could hear the pigs grunting, and a moment later, she could smell them.

She lay down on her belly and began to crawl forward. Cautiously she went further until she found a spot where she could see the herd. Dai immediately used the Camouflage on herself.

There were eight wild boar beasts in total. Two of the beasts were much larger than the other six, and the difference in tusk size was also significant. They seemed to be a family.

The beasts fed on berries and left behind stinky puddles of liquid that dripped from them.

Dai considered how to do this. She didn't want to go after the big boars; they seemed the most resilient and certainly the most experienced. So she focused on the smaller boars.

Dai pondered, then pulled Stone Eater out of her inventory. She gripped the Chakram tightly, and a plan formed in her mind.

She took a deep breath; her first kill! At least the real one...

She looked at Stone Eater and activated the Chakram's second ability using the insertion of her spiritual energy. Mind control of the weapon.

A small light streak of energy appeared around Chakram, and Dai released it. Stone Eater began to spin on its own, and Dai used her eyes and mind to attack the nearest wild boar.

Stone Eater flew to the unaware beast and sliced into Dai's side.

The beast let out a pained roar and turned toward the attack, but despite the pain, it was confused that it saw nothing and no one.

Dai watched it and continued to move the Chakram with her mind, which was ripped from the beast's body in a spray of blood and green liquid.

Chakram moved in a way resembling a hummingbird and again sent it after the beast, now standing so that she had a better view of it.

*shrink*

With a metallic sound, Stone Eater slashed at the beast's throat. It roared again, and by then, the rest of the herd was rushing towards it, distracted by its sudden cry.

But try as they might, they could not find the enemy. Dai continued to use Camouflage, so they couldn't find her.

Dai was now glad she had bought Stone Eater even though she didn't like the weapon much. This method of fighting suited her the most at the moment.

Dai had to hit the beast twice more before it finally fell. The rest of the herd was confused and scared. Usually, boars were pretty aggressive beasts, but instincts took over when they didn't have an enemy to fight, and something was killing them anyway. They started to flee.

Dai waited a moment. Stone Eater's ability ended, and he fell to the ground, but she didn't care. After not hearing the beast for a while, she finally stood up and approached the beast.

She picked up the chakram, which she wiped on the grass before hiding it in her inventory. She pulled out an empty can and carefully scoped the goo from the fallen beast's body.

When it was full, she was hesitant to process the beast, but she didn't exactly have the time, and she really wasn't sure if she would even get anything useful out of this beast.

If this was her first kill... she didn't feel very pleased. She expected to feel better that she had finally managed to kill the beast herself.

She began to go back, considering why she didn't feel satisfied. When she fought the Armadillo, she had a very different feeling. Dai felt proud. Now she felt more disappointed. Could these sneak attacks just bother her?

It was true that when she imagined she was strong, Dai usually just fought with her body. She never imagined she was a silent killer.

Dai bit her lip. But until she was stronger, did she have a choice?

She remembered the ecstasy Leonid had shown when he fought. She wanted to feel that way too!

She returned to the ruin; everything was already sinking into deep shadows. Dai checked the map. Stigma was getting closer, but now it seemed zigzagging a bit? The beast wasn't still on her trail, was it?

She'd better hurry while she still had some light. Dai padded over to the steel door and almost had another heart attack when she saw the dead body of the beast.

While she crushed the curses between her lips, walked over to the door, and began pouring the green goo, she had gotten from the boar over the hinges.

She watched the hinges intently, thought she heard a hissing sound, and soon white smoke began to appear.

"Yes!" Dai clenched her fists in triumph.

But the smoke quickly disappeared again, and nothing happened.

Dai's heart dropped in disappointment. "Shit!" She groaned and grabbed her head with both hands. What was she gonna do now? She couldn't think of anything else! It was supposed to work!

"Damn, annoying door-woa!" she kicked the door and fell forward because as Dai hit it, the door opened inward a little.

She lost her balance and ended up on all fours, lifting her head and staring at the open door.

Dai couldn't believe it. Don't tell me it was open the whole time!

She was deeply ashamed. The only thing she hadn't tested was if it was open! Who the hell would have even thought of that?!

Dai could only be glad no one saw this.

System: "I saw it, boss."

Dai froze. "Not a word." She hissed. "You didn't see anything!"

Dai stood up and walked to the door. She pushed it open, and it silently opened wide.

The iron stairs led down into the darkness; this was another problem. Dai had no light. Should she have made a torch?

But as soon as she crossed the threshold, there was a click, and a white light came on above her. Dai crouched in alarm.

She looked up and sighed. Okay, never mind.

Dai began to slowly descend the stairs. Each step made a soft metallic sound, and the lights above her head gradually turned on by themselves. The sound of the lights turning on was loud and carried far away, making Dai's heart pound with anxiety. It didn't seem scary at all.

She would never have come here if she didn't need that teleport back home!

It felt like she walked forever before finally reaching the staircase's end.

Ahead of her was a short, narrow hallway and another door. She looked back up the staircase and found that the lights had turned themselves off again. It was as if a dark maw was staring at her from above.

She shivered and decided to keep walking. Since she was here, she'd have to finish the deal.

Another steel door opened in front of her as she approached and found herself in a small room. An identical door across from her.

As she reached the middle of the room, the door behind her closed again, and the white light suddenly turned red.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"Wh-what?" she freaked out.

"Please wait. The cleansing is in progress." There was a voice that sounded similar to the Systems. If Dai wasn't scared now, she'd probably be joking about finding a lost relative.

Dai was not at ease. She ran around the room, trying to open the first and second doors, but they didn't budge.

"I knew this was a stupid idea!"

System: "Boss, calm down. It'll just get rid of your pests."

Dai paused, hesitating whether to believe it or not. "I don't have any pest!" She protested.

There was a loud hiss before she could say anything else, and Dai threw herself to the floor to shield herself from whatever was to come.

But nothing happened. Dai didn't feel anything. The hissing stopped after a while, and the light turned white again.

"Cleansing complete. Have a nice day."

She slowly raised her head and then stood up again. She was breathing a little fast. Dai thought she was done for!

System: "I told you."

Dai growled. "Shut up. If you explained things properly, I wouldn't be so stressed."

System: "Sure. It's all my fault, boss."

She snorted and walked towards the other door, finally letting her out of the claustrophobic place.

She found herself in a large room that gradually lit itself up. Out of the darkness, several dozen desks gradually emerged, with dusty instruments resting on them. Some she recognized, screens and computers, but others she didn't. The walls were adorned with screens as big as the wall itself. They came to life independently, and complex calculations rapidly ran over them. She could tell they were calculations just by the large numbers they contained, but Dai had no idea what they meant otherwise.

There was an unpleasant noise of running electricity that she wasn't used to, and it sounded like some sort of quiet chatter in her ears.

It was messy. Things were strewn everywhere; some tables were overturned. Dai couldn't tell if it was caused by the fight or the quick escape.

She walked over to one of the tables and examined the items. She recognized the microscope, but next to it was a smaller device with small vials stuck in it, and whatever had once been inside them was now blackened or had grown new life. Ugh.

On the side of the table was some kind of glass under which she could see a long fluorescent lamp, but she had no idea what it was used for.

"So strange." She muttered to herself before Dai moved on.

She strolled through the middle of the room, looking from side to side as technology surrounded her. This was too much treasure for her hoarder's soul. Even if she wanted to collect everything, she had nowhere to put it. Even her inventory wouldn't hold it. She might have to make a few trips here... sometime later.

Nothing she found here had a sensible text. She tried looking through the scattered papers, but while some still went read, she couldn't understand the meaning. She only understood a few words like 'Experiment, Results, Failure, Change formulas,' and the like. It was like they were writing it in some kind of code, but Dai had no problem admitting that this was something only really smart people understood.

She might find something sensible among all the papers but didn't want to dwell on it. There was a lot of paper.

She tried to get one of the computers to work, pressing everything she could see, about to give up when she found a large box with more buttons under the desk. Ah, the joy. More buttons!

Dai sighed and tried them too. She wasn't even expecting it anymore, but she saw the box suddenly light up. She looked up and saw that the screen had lit up.

"Oh! It worked." She smiled and picked up the chair, which was black and leather, from the floor before she moved it over to the table and sat down. She watched the screen.

The logo appeared on the screen.

'Atersta Corp'

She stared at the logo briefly before it disappeared and then looked at the screen, which had a picture of puppies? Dai blinked and then saw the side of the folder. She lifted her hand and tried tapping on them, but nothing happened. Dai frowned.

System: "This is too outdated. Use the mouse on the side of the keyboard. The round thing." The system advised her.

Dai found the alleged mouse; ah, yes! She had seen it in the pictures too. She picked it up, slapped it on the monitor screen, and tried tapping the icons with it.

System: ".... Not like that, boss."

The system advised her on how to use it properly. Soon she was using the mouse like a pro. She moved the cursor across the screen in a slow, twitchy motion. There were four icons on the screen.

'Messages, Reports, Notes, Personal'

Dai began systematically from the bottom icon. The first one opened the 'Personal.'

'Enter password'

She didn't even bother trying anything. The chances of her guessing it were less than zero. She tried all of them in turn, but they required a password. Eventually, the only thing that opened was the Messages icon. Three unread messages popped up, and two more read ones. She started with the oldest.

To: All staff

Subject: 50th Anniversary

On the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the launch of the Sea Breeze Project, we are announcing that all participating employees will receive a bonus of three months' pay.

Our founder and savior, Director Simon Atersta sends a message of 'Well done, everyone. To another 10 successful years. Cheers!'

Marlon Comrales

Project Manager of the Sea Breeze Project

According to the mysterious project, she was beginning to understand why the estate had such a strange name. The people who worked here were paid well. She looked at the following message.

To: Helen Stratford

Subject: Party

Helen,

Did you read Marlon's message? Isn't it great?! A full quarter's pay!

Why don't we meet in the cafeteria tonight and celebrate?

Stislav

reply:

Hi, Stislav.

Sure, we'll meet there around 7:00?

Will you bring your guitar?

Helen

reply:

Okay. I'll take it. I'll see you there.

Stislav

Dai blinked at the personal message. Okay, maybe she was a little dense when it came to the opposite sex, but were they really setting up a date? This wasn't helping her.

The following message was already unread, she noticed the time and dates next to the messages, but she couldn't really tell by that how much time had passed since it had been sent. Her entire society had only recently started using time and day tracking again. So it could have been hundreds of years or just a few years.

She compared the numbers on the read messages.

21/3/3010

The unread message she just opened again had a date of 30/3/3010. That was quite a long delay, wasn't it?

To: All Staff

Subject: ALERT!!!

All employees are to evacuate immediately!

There has been a SAFETY BREACH. Repeat all employees to evacuate immediately.

This is not a security practice!

Arnold Grisl

Security Commander

Dai had an uneasy feeling after reading this message. It didn't sound good. But even though she didn't like it, she opened another message sent the same day as the breach message.

From: Helen Stratford

Subject: Help

Stislav? Are you there? Please answer. I'm writing to you from my PDA. We're stuck on the second floor! You have to send someone!

Stislav reply:

Helen? You're still inside?! How many of you are there? I'll notify security right away.

Helen reply:

There are six of us and one security guard. Please hurry! It's a madhouse out there!

Stislav reply:

Security's getting ready. They'll be on their way soon. Just stay safe.

Stislav reply:

Helen? Are you there? Security's on its way. They'll be there soon.

Stislav reply:

Helen? Answer me, Helen.

Stislav reply:

Helen, stop scaring me. Answer me!

Helen reply:

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Dai got chills as she read it. What the hell happened here? She just read it, and it made her all anxious.

She would have preferred to leave right now, but even as her chest tightened with anxiety, Dai continued reading the last message sent two weeks later.

From: Atersta Simon

To: All Projects

Subject: Emergency State

Warning for all staff and management of currently running and suspended Projects to immediately hold all Subjects. All Subjects in development status must be destroyed, and all experimental Subjects must be immediately detained. In case they resist, they must be eliminated.

The loss of Project 22 and Project 3 was a terrible tragedy; I see it as my personal failure. I pledge to all my faithful that nothing like this will happen again. All our efforts and hopes are reaching the final stage, and I will not allow us to be stopped.

We are now launching the final goal, 'Project Keeper.'

May the Creator protect us all.

Simon Atersta

Dai stared at the latest report. The last few words. Project Keeper.

She felt faint.

"What... what...." she grabbed her head. What did that have to do with her!? No, no, no, hell no!