003

The day started late for us. Figures as we both slept somewhere around 3 AM. I was at the balcony, leaning on the railings, waiting for the supply to drop.

"Buongiorno~ Partner~" Haya yawned as she walked towards me. "What's the status?" She asked.

"Command told me earlier that the supply drop's coming in 2 hours." I checked my watch, It's 11:30, the supply would drop in about 1:30.

"Mhm, so where would they drop it?"

"The supply carrier would drop it exactly outside our hotel room. I reckon we could do something for the next hour and a half."

"Like what?"

"Hmm, well. We haven't really gone to the mall across the street. Would be a waste considering that it's the largest one in True Maryland."

"Ah, yes. True Maryland. The golden city in the state of rural Maryland. Where 75% of the income of the entire state comes from."

"Yes. That's why we're here

"Mission briefing didn't state that we're gonna save the entirety of Maryland."

"And our first mission's briefing didn't state that we're gonna save the entirety of Fake Mexico but here we are."

She shivered. "Don't remind me of Fake Mexico." She said. She had imitated a slime and its disgusting, viscous movements.

I laughed a bit then asked, "So are we going there or not?"

"Separately?" She asked.

"No, of course not," I said.

"Then we shouldn't wait any longer, let's go, partner~"

"Su-- H-hey!" She quickly grabbed my wrist and dragged me outside the hotel and across the street into the mall. She was lucky that ground traffic was sparse at that time.

The mall was large, vast and filled with a lot of shops. It really deserves to bear the title of 'largest mall in True Maryland.'

"Hey, partner." She called out to me.

"Yeah?" I was staring blankly at the expanse in front of me. The mall spread sparsely above and underground. Various shopping and grocery centres spread around the belts of the mall. It's built as a descendingly with most of the ground space in the side, a large hole makes up most of the middle ground.

"I've seen reports that this place is so vast that it has its own ecosystem.

"How about security?"

"Decreasing in effectiveness the lower you go."

"Product quality?"

"Increasing the higher you go."

"I'm guessing the same goes for the price?"

"Well, you know your basic economics."

"Well, I exceeded that class haha…"

We then decided to go up instead of down. It was fine for us to do so. Though we can't buy anything, we've spent most of the budget given to us by command.

As we ascended the stairs, it's quite apparent that this area is for high-class people. Enclosed ventilation units, bright light flooring, the definite atmosphere that we're not supposed to be here.

I went near the railings and peered down the hole. Peculiar. It obviously gets darker down the hole. Although at the bottom, down the very bottom of this pit is static. Not static as in a dark void or a non-moving background. But broken signal static. I spat on it and watched as it fell and then disappeared as it reached it.

I tapped Haya's shoulder and asked her to take a look at what it could possibly be. She looked down. "Hmm," she hummed, opening her vest to reveal a single pair of glasses with different lenses. She tried out each and every one of them, an expression of bewilderment came out of her with each new lens. After a while, she took off the glasses and put them back in her vest. "Really fascinating, let's sit down at that table there," she said. Dragging me to an outdoor table in front of a coffee shop. She took her laptop from her bag and started listing down the information she got.

"So what'd you get?" I asked.

"A self-concealing… thing."

"Thing?"

"Well, it's self-concealing so we can't say for sure. All I know is that whoever's responsible for casting the concealing spell for it is skilled enough to conceal it through multiple wavelengths."

"All of them?"

"Yeah, UV, Radio, Micro, X-ray, Infra, all of them. And I reckon that if you look at it without the protective contacts given to us we'd… well, we'd die."

"Lemme guess, whoever made it is skilled enough to use Visua-mortem."

"Yeah, it's quite obvious now that they're hiding something in there."

"Well, I think I have a few ideas about what they're hiding in there."

"That is?"

"A black market, a Terrium powerplant, or, if we're taking it to the extreme, the main staff rooms of the mall."

"No." A beautiful woman sitting beside us said. She took a sip of her tea and looked at us with a smile. She was wearing a white dress, her dark blue hair flowing down her elbows. She looked at both of us through her violet-lens glasses. "Hello there, agents."

We both stood up and saluted at her. "At ease," she said. Haya and I did so then sat back down at our tables.

"We apologize for not noticing you there, commander," I said.

"It's OK," she said. "I'm guessing that you're here for a little R&R before the mission too?"

"Yes, ma'am. We're supposed to be here for the next hour to rest up and enjoy ourselves." I replied.

"That's acceptable. My team and I are here both for the same reasons and because we currently have a mission here. And it has something to do with the thing down there."

"Do you know what it is?" Haya asked, sipping on a juice that I don't remember her ordering.

"Yes," The commander replied. "What's down there, at the bottom of the pit is none other than a residential area."

"Do you possibly mean staff housing?" Haya asked.

"No. A residential area for residents of the mall."

"But why is it covered up? It doesn't make sense for it to be since it should just be a normal residential area, right?"

"That's… why we're here, and why I took team E-3."

"Why'd you take the cleanup crew?" I asked, bewildered of course. It's not always that a commander would take a cleanup crew for an initial mission.

"Here's the thing," The commander started, "The place at the bottom is a residential area, yes. But it's not the only residential area in the mall. My team speculated that the crime rate also increases further down below as security is lighter but that doesn't mean they're safe from them. So what's the best place to hide a body?"

"At… the bottom of the pit." Haya and I said together

"Exactly. What we don't know is how many rotting dead bodies are there, that's why I'm taking the cleanup crew, their equipment isn't just for cleanup of dead bodies after all. They also have a defense against them."

"So you're saying that the dead bodies there are coming back to life?" Haya asked, writing more intensely in her laptop as if she's just spamming the keys.

"No. Well, no as in we don't know. All we know is that there's a ton of magic content detected over there. So they might as well be." she sipped her tea more, her watch beeped. "I have to go." She said, "It was a pleasure speaking with the two of you," she stood up to leave. "And," she looked at us. "Good luck with the castle." She left.

-------

"So what now?" Haya asked while busily typing on her keyboard. I checked my watch for the time, it's only been 30 minutes.

"It's only been 30 minutes," I looked around. "I wanna have a drink," I said, looking at the bar beside the coffee shop.

"Isn't it too early for a drink?"

"Not really, no. Maybe someone might even know something in there.

"This mission is confidential, you'll be compromised."

"Not with you, I won't."

"Fine," She rolled her eyes, "but you're treating me coffee later.

I nodded, she closed her laptop and went with me to the bar. As we approached the bar it slowly got bathed in a clouded darkness, artificial dark. Maybe to give more atmosphere to the bar. The bar itself isn't peculiar, neon lights fill the entrance with a harsh light, the inside is wooden with minimal people inside.

"Here's the plan," I said, stopping outside the bar. "I'm gonna go in, you order us a drink and I'll go to the back. I know an information broker there. If anything happens I want you to shut down the power system on this side of the mall and we'll make a run for it."

She nodded in approval. We walked to the bar and she sat down by the counter and ordered a drink. I took a cigarette and walked to the counter as well. I called for the bartender and said, "He who treads the beaten path will suffer the fate of those who came before."

"Exolvuntur et Infinitum." He replied. "The door is open, come in." I heard a door click open from behind him. I went around the counter and entered the door.

The room is dark, illuminated only by the light of a dozen computer screens working together harmoniously. At the center of it all is a giant monitor with a glitched out face. "Good Afternoon, Marcus." It said, its voice non-reminiscent from any male or female sounding voice.

"Good Afternoon, I-13-51."

"Oh please, you can just call me…" It paused for half a minute, "J" It said.

"Okay. Hello, J." I said, approaching It slowly.

"No no, stay behind that line."

I did as it asked. Then it shone brightly against the darkness of the room, a little bit too bright, after a while it started to smell oddly like electricity. Then, a flash of electricity right before my eyes. It then stood flat in front of me then condensed itself after a while.

"Ta-da." J said.

"What the hell…?" I belted out, confused.

"I showed you a manifestation of your future, lightning, condensed lightning."

"But, that's not what I'm here for."

"Oh really now? I could've sworn as my data suggests that 99% of those who seek me are seeking their fortune."

"No. Of course not. I know your other purpose."

"What is it that you want to know?"

I raised two fingers.

J sighed, could an AI even sigh? "One, the crimson king is not on my database at the moment. There have been a few mentions in his name, yet from what I'm seeing they all seem to be related to an obscure and old pop culture reference. So it's not reliable. Two, while data suggests that the scarlet king does not exist. There have been few sightings of a few people with engravings on their palms. Which you might want to investigate."

He then showed me a picture of a line piercing the centre of three crescent moons. The crescents shrunk inside one another like layers.

"And this is not some old pop culture reference?" I asked.

"No, no. It's not. I've found no other sources on where it may have come from. So it's best to assume that it's from the crimson king."

"Do you know where these people are?"

"No, unfortunately. They escaped my field of view, all of them, four days ago. Although, reviewing the footage I have, I find that 6 of them are traveling to the abandoned castle."

"I see. Thank you, J." I started walking out.

"Hang on, Marcus." It called out.

"Yes?"

"Your payment."

"Command will handle that, just ask them about it."

"Marcus. When will you pay?"

I look back at it, a bit confused about the situation. After a few minutes of silence it laughed and said, "I see. Go."