Inside room 09-B, Amae and Meyra had just returned from the hospital. They immediately rushed over to Nugia, who was lying in bed.
"What happened, Zilla?" Meyra asked. Behind the pretty girl's sullen face, a hidden concern lingered that she couldn't conceal.
"Nugia... it looks like he has a high fever," Zilla replied.
Meyra hurriedly checked Nugia's forehead. "It's so hot—"
"Nugia? I'm already healed! Look, my muscles can't wait to return to battle!" Amae interrupted, striking a pose like a bodybuilder hoping to win a Nobel prize.
"Relax, calm down! Reyna and I already took care of it, he'll definitely recover tomorrow," said the silver-haired girl with a smile. Reyna, the innocent girl, merely gave a thumbs up.
Meyra, the fierce girl, took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. She handed a container to Amae. "Amae, how long are you going to pose like an idiot?" she yelled, throwing the container toward him.
"Ouch! Why did you throw it at my face?!"
"Just do what I say!"
"This isn't a stupid pose, it's a hero pose! What a witch, you only know how to boss people around," Amae grumbled softly as he got up to take the container.
"What did you say?!" Meyra shouted.
"N-nothing! I-I was just talking to myself," Amae replied quickly.
Moments later, the room fell silent. Meyra compressed Nugia's forehead with extreme care.
"What actually happened? The sirens keep wailing," Meyra asked, breaking the silence.
"The Azure Crystal Core has been stolen. One of the cadets from unit 008 died at the scene," Zilla answered gloomily.
"Then why has the alert level been raised? I caught sight of several fighter jets passing by on our way here," Meyra chimed in.
"It looks like we're going to be sent to the front lines. The northern gate has been attacked. Sergeant Jean asked us to prepare, and he..." Zilla suddenly stopped.
"He... why?"
"Forget it. We must hope Nugia gets better tomorrow. And we... we must rest too." Zilla glanced at Amae, the goofy guy who had just been doing push-ups, now fast asleep on his bed.
Far from the warmth in Dormitory Block 09-B, a bone-chilling cold gripped an abandoned bunker at the edge of the outer sector. In a place quiet and hidden from the base's hustle and bustle, Captain Snake and Elos stood in grim silence, preparing to kick off the core of their dark plan.
On the main monitor screen, digital numbers blinked brightly: Energy extraction: 91.23%.
"What kind of disaster is happening in PETERUMMAN right now?" Captain Snake asked, his voice breaking the cold bunker's silence.
"Kaelen is my best man. He never disappoints," Elos answered without shifting his gaze from the screen.
"I can hear the roar of battle from here. Who is he really, Lord Elos?"
"Rest easy, everything is under my control."
"Honestly, I feel like he isn't human. I sense such evil mana from his body..." Snake smirked, staring intently at Elos. "...I'm worried that you're the one being used by him, Lord Elos."
Before Elos could open his mouth, Snake cut back in, "But, as long as you can provide the key to that secret underground lab, I'll help you. With one condition: PETERUMMAN doesn't have to fall."
Elos chuckled, a hollow-sounding laugh amidst the hum of extraction machinery racing against time. He glanced briefly at Elos, then returned his gaze to the glowing blue light on the monitor screen.
"You worry too much about unnecessary things, Captain," Elos said calmly, almost effortlessly. "What Kaelen is doing out there isn't destruction, but a cleansing. This world is too rotten to be saved by clean methods."
Elos stepped slowly toward the control desk, then tossed a black special-emblazoned access card toward Snake. The card landed right in the captain's palm.
"And about PETERUMMAN..." Elos wore a subtle, unreadable smile. "...that city is just changing rulers. You keep your promise, hold the key, and let me finish what was started."
The sound of that small chuckle broke the tense silence inside the bunker. The atmosphere, previously fraught with anxiety, shifted straight to full alert when a mysterious figure appeared in the doorway.
Along with that, a soft hum came from the main console. The previously flickering monitor screen now displayed a stable green color, followed by bold, large text:
Energy extraction : Successful.
Critical Red Thread: A collective consciousness torn in two different places. On one side, the bunker's energy extraction system activated successfully right as a mysterious figure appeared at the doorway. On the other hand, the interrogation room became a center of panic when General Elang—using his God's Eye ability—realized that all memory recordings from unit 008 had been infected by high-level psychic illusions. The entity they faced was not a normal physical entity, but a cognitive parasite projecting a different face into every human head.
Beneath the flickering neon lights of the interrogation room, Elang gripped the edge of the iron desk. Memory recordings from various unit 008 members he had just explored with his God's eye ability had turned chaotic. All the subjects' memories pointed to one striking and terrifying conclusion: not a single one of them saw the same face.
Subject 029's memory: "A neatly dressed man with a cold smile."
Subject 044's memory: "A middle-aged woman with a blank stare."
Subject 045's memory: "Even... a faceless figure that absorbs sound."
"He's not just an ordinary intruder," Elang muttered, his breath quickening while cold sweat trickled down his temple. "This is mass telepathy or programmed hallucination piercing the layers of consciousness. This entity can project different forms into every human mind simultaneously."
The smirk at the bunker doorway widened, merging with the dark shadows creeping to swallow the control room. Elsewhere, the interrogation room and cadet dormitories were struck by the exact same conclusion: the enemy they faced had no fixed face, no limits, and now... the game had just begun.