Etranger

There were a total of 40 ‘experimental facilities’ in the vast area that spanned over six hundred kilometers. The two had no intention of avoiding any nook or cranny. Of course, everything would be ‘overturned.’ They had something to check. They were now ready. Their reconnaissance was over.

San cracked his fingers. There was a loud popping sound coming from his joints. Biyeon tied her hair back. San flew out first. Biyeon followed closely behind. The first operation was starting. Fast and bold.

[One.] 

“Who…?”

The control agent felt he had a glimpse of a person for a brief nano-second. However, he couldn’t continue to speak. He felt a sour feeling in his throat as he saw himself tumbling onto the ground. His head rolled down, and his body slowly collapsed afterward.

“Ugh.”

Beside him, a short moan and the sound of bones being crushed and broken could be heard.

[Two.]

An Archon sword’s blade rotated twice. The two agents had fallen in an instant.

San and Biyeon proceeded to move into a structure. They passed by bizarre rock and mineral formations that seemed to grow from organic materials. Whenever they passed a gate, all sorts of defensive mechanisms popped out. Some looked like humans. Some were menacing-looking traps. The two move forward, handling all these things with ease as if they were characters in a video game.

Bang!

The entire door to the huge central control room burst open. A semi-spherical ceiling over ten meters high was visible. Simultaneously with the violent entry, San leaped into the room. Biyeon also slid in quickly and bounced to the left. Something was firing projectiles towards the door, making a hissing sound as they harmlessly flew through the door.

[Two?]

[No, three. One more guy on the mezzanine level, on the second floor.] 

[I’m heading up. Take care of the lower floor.]

[Roger.]

San turned his body mid-air. In what appeared to be the control room, a man was hurriedly manipulating something. San threw a capsule at the figure. The capsule burst and purple smoke spread out.

The moment the agent paused, San smashed against the agent with both his feet, grabbed the agent’s neck, and smashed his face onto the ground.

Biyeon turned her body to an agent who was running away. One had already been dealt with by San. Biyeon’s waist flexibly turned. A semicircular knife flew out. There was no sound. The knife swung towards the agent’s knees, brushed across his legs, and then returned to Biyeon’s hand.

The retreating agent’s body slumped forward while leaving only two cleanly severed knees behind.

“From now on, we’ll be having a serious conversation.”

“First, could you cut off all outside communications for now?”

The two stayed in the building for a while. They recognized that this space was the same type of space that Nil and Null had previously operated in.

***

San and Biyeon had never seen such technology before. Three-dimensional image projections and various screens filled the control center’s office space. Various scenes like a game were unfolding on each screen. They could see what was going on in all forty sectors at a single glance. They also recognized familiar places that had been shut closed for maintenance. Area 27 had been shut down. They were currently in Area 12.

There were other scenes too. Countless lives… The screens showed how these beings who operated this place dealt with life. Almost every scene one could imagine was unfolding on the screens. This place was a huge living laboratory. San and Biyeon didn’t know what these beings were trying to achieve, but it couldn’t be more methodical and terrifying. They both felt a sense of nausea just observing the screens.

“It’s similar to what we imagined.”

“Yeah, it’s not far from what we imagined.”

“Do you need to see anything else?” 

“No, I’ve seen enough.”

“The Master?”

“They confirmed that he’s not in the Pian area.”

“How can we contact him?” 

“I’ve secured the contact method.”

“What about the sages?”

“Two in the area have been identified.”

“What about the others?”

“The emergency summon order has been sent out. It’ll take them about three days to get here.”

“Then, shall we end this?”

About three hours later, they left the first section they had entered. Behind them, everything within the section was falling apart and burning. There was no longer anything alive or moving within the section.

Like this… they were officially informing the ‘owner’ of this place that a new experiment would be conducted within this space. They were declaring war. Furthermore, they would now be setting the rules and terms of this new war. Furthermore, they would be in control of this ‘new experiment.’

The sixth section was collapsing. Exactly one day had passed since the first section collapsed. The enemy’s response began after the first section collapsed.

The response was quick. The entirety of Pian had entered into an emergency state. However, many of the sector agents didn’t know what to do. This kind of event had never happened before, nor did they ever plan for it.

For the first time, communication with the outside world was opened. The powerful sages were ordered to convene to defend each section. They also started tracking San and Biyeon. The pursuers knew who was carrying out these attacks. However, the pursuers were unaware of San and Biyeon’s next target. San and Biyeon were always a step ahead of them.

An hour later, the eastern end of Pian collapsed, and three hours later, communication was lost with the western sections, which were fifty kilometers away. After just two hours, contact was lost from another section that was 200 kilometers away from the center section. When the pursuers belatedly arrived in each section, all that met them was a complete ruin.

The pursuers felt confused. San and Biyeon left messages. The contents of the messages, which were delivered by the spirits, were as follows:

The first message, “We’re going to Teletubby Land.”

The message that they found in the second ravaged section: “Shall we go to the moon?”

These types of messages greeted them whenever they arrived one step too late into each destroyed section. 

“How about Mars?”

“To the moon!” 

“Jupiter.” 

“Uranus.”

These weren’t clues. They were jokes. However, the pursuers didn’t know this, so they faithfully and sincerely conveyed this gibberish somewhere and racked their brains trying to decipher the meaning of the messages. Even now, a great amount of manpower was being utilized to decipher and analyze these childish lines of text. In the end, for the pursuers, time passed without any fruitful results.

Biyeon looked down at her map. On the hand-drawn map, the location of various targets was marked with numbers. There were symbols, but no names. However, San and Biyeon had names for these various symbols in their minds. They had corresponding silly names to each target on the map.

They used their common sense to exchange information without stating anything specifically. Rather than using location names, they used unspecified symbols and metaphors requiring more than two steps of calculation. The sages would never be able to make sense of the messages without the codex that was San and Biyeon’s creation. San and Biyeon both believed so, and their belief was right.

Five days had passed. Their thirty-second section. This is where their powerful pursuers first met the two. “Have they already… finished?” 

“In just thirty minutes?!”

The pursuers murmured. They were approached by San and Biyeon, who had just finished destroying their thirty-second section. The pursuers glanced behind the two. Everything within the section was falling apart and up in flames.

It had become a familiar scene. A fierce fire was burning and thoroughly incinerating everything within the section. The smell of burning protein and plastics wafted everywhere.

It was a similar scene to when San and Biyeon had first escaped… Underneath the dark sky and blazing flames in the background, the two humans were slowly approaching their pursuers. The outlines of their dim silhouettes were flickering along with the raging flames behind them.

San and Biyeon’s eyes seemed to convey the simple message that they would tear anyone and anything in front of them to shreds. The atmosphere made the pursuers’ skins crawl.

It was as if the two humans were emerging from the depths of hell. The pursuers shivered and trembled.

“Hey, it’s been a while. Have you figured out our messages?”

San smiled as he wiped his mouth with his hands, which were stained black from all the ash and carbon that was floating through the air. An eerie energy emanated from his white teeth.

“Oho! It seems like it’s not our first meeting with these guys.” Biyeon said.

“…”

The pursuers, two sages, clenched their teeth. Their expressions were grim. How could these two sages forget the day when these unusual humans jumped off the cliff and escaped the Pian in such an extraordinary way! The two humans had appeared once again, only to again surprise them with an unimaginable act. Fierce flames, dark nights. It was the same setting. However, the sages knew they couldn’t act as aloof and loose as they did in their first meeting. 

Suddenly, in their minds, the names of Dam and Tuk, who had disappeared under these two humans’ hands, came to mind. A creepy feeling ran through the backs of their necks. They gripped their swords tightly.

“You both are pretty late. I’m very disappointed in you two. I thought, since you were sages and all, that you’d come to greet us at least at the tenth section. Anyway, I guess the two of you are standing there because you plan to stop us? I don’t think this will be very interesting… Are the great Master’s dogs different from the dragon’s?” San lightly tossed out his thoughts and took a step forward. He was wearing gloves and had a white sword in his right hand.

Biyeon stepped aside to prepare for battle. She put on her gloves and held a pistol in one hand and an Archon bone dagger in the other.

“What do you want here? Why have you come here?” the blonde-headed sage, Seti, asked. 

San opened his eyes wide. The tip of his lips was slightly raised.

“Ho, this is… interesting. Are you trying to negotiate with us? The great sages, negotiating? With this little human baboon?”

“What the reason for this indiscriminate destruction?”

“No reason.”

“What…?”

“This bastard… are your ear canals clogged? I said there’s no specific reason.”

“Then…” the female sage, Setin, grumbled in a low voice.

“Does a hunter take the time to explain the purpose of hunting to his prey before catching it?” Biyeon asked.

“Hunt? Prey?”

“We just wanted to spend some time hunting.”

“?”

“You know what the prey’s position is, right? There’s no need for the prey to know why it’s being chased. Whether caught by a hunter with noble reasons or as a hobby by a mad bastard, the result is the same. I felt dirty being the prey. Now, it’s your turn,” Biyeon said.

“Did you just destroy all those valuable facilities and materials for that reason? Your human race is really…” 

“Just that reason?” 

Biyeon narrowed her eyes. Her breathing was becoming ragged. Her chest felt congested as she recalled all the scenes she had seen and experienced when she was trapped in this Pian. She also remembered the familiar faces that she and San killed with their own hands in the last few days. A storm of rage raged endlessly in her heart.

Her muscles began to tighten.

“Hey, hey, calm down… Those things are not people. Do you need to be angry when a guard dog barks?”

San stretched out his hand and stepped forward in front of Biyeon. However, his expression was just as severe as Biyeon’s.

“You know, those little lizards are no match for us. We need their owner to come out. That’s the only time we should speak. It should be time for that guy to come out. I didn’t know he’d be so embarrassed to show himself.”

San took one step forward. Biyeon bent her legs as she took a step to the side.

“…”

The sages were unwittingly taking a step back.

“Spending even a second with you sages is boring.”