Su Xiao stepped into the dark cave, feeling a rush of air with a slight metallic scent brush past his face. The entrance sloped downwards, leading deeper underground. After walking a short distance, the cave narrowed a bit but was still at least five meters high and seven or eight meters wide. It was hard to tell how long it took for the ghouls to dig out such a large cave.
Once inside, Su Xiao noticed that even though it was underground, it wasn't completely dark. At the top of the cave, there were gray, branch-like plants with thick roots, and they bore strange flowers. These flowers hung from the cave’s ceiling, emitting a faint white light that lit up the cave.
“Drip, drip…” Water dripped from the ceiling, prompting Arima and Yuna to quickly step back.
“Don’t touch that liquid; it’s the juice secreted by the ‘light flower’ and is highly toxic,” Yuna warned Su Xiao immediately, and he nodded in acknowledgment.
“Be careful; over fifty search officers have died from the poison of the ‘light flower,’” Yuna reminded him again when she saw he wasn’t taking it seriously.
“Thanks,” Su Xiao replied. Despite being a bit anxious, Yuna was a good teammate.
After walking a few hundred meters inside the cave, they came across a metal door.
“We’re here,” Arima said, reaching into his collar to pull out a necklace with a golden key on it. He inserted the key into the metal door, which opened with a loud bang.
“Every time I go through this door, I feel like I might not come back. Who was the idiot that built this thing? It’s infuriating,” Yuna muttered under her breath after cursing softly.
This was a checkpoint built by CCG long ago to prevent ghouls from leaving Area 24. There were only two keys, one with Arima and the other with the CCG director, Shuuji.
As the metal door opened, a foul smell rushed out. Beyond the door were two paths. The area outside the door and inside were completely different worlds. Inside, the walls were no longer dirt but a dark red, fleshy wall.
Su Xiao took out his weapon, the Dragon Slayer, and poked it at the fleshy wall. The wall was hard and had a lot of resilience.
“Puff.” As the Dragon Slayer pierced the wall, it surprisingly began to tighten around the blade, trying to trap it.
“Arima, which way should we go?” Yuna asked, familiar with Arima since they had worked together for a long time.
“You decide,” Arima replied, holding a Quinque in each hand, named ‘Mikami’ and ‘IXA.’
Yuna tossed a coin into the air. “Heads, we go right then.”
Arima nodded.
Su Xiao watched this unfold, feeling puzzled. Was there really no set path?
“Strange, right? This way of choosing a path,” Yuna said with a smile.
“No fixed route?”
“None, and there can’t be,” Yuna explained, making Su Xiao even more confused. “These fleshy walls aren’t fixed; they change often. Sometimes there are two paths, sometimes three, or even five. That’s why Area 24 can’t be completely explored. This whole area is ‘alive.’”
Hearing Yuna’s explanation, Su Xiao frowned. “How do we get out after going deeper into Area 24? At this rate, it’s possible we could get trapped.”
“Of course, there’s a way. With this, we can leave without a problem,” Yuna said, tossing a compass.
Arima then spoke up. “This exploration is set for two days. If we don’t find anything in two days, we’ll return to the surface and rest at the temporary base.”
After thinking for a moment, Arima continued, “Bai Ye, what are you best at?”
Arima wanted to learn more about Su Xiao.
“Direct assault, perception, breaching,” Su Xiao replied.
“Good,” Arima said, adjusting his glasses. “I’ll lead, Yuna will be in the middle, and Bai Ye will be at the back.”
Su Xiao had no objections to this formation, but Yuna pouted. “I’m not a newbie; why do I have to be in the middle? It’s so annoying.”
After sizing up Su Xiao and realizing she wasn’t a match for him, Yuna reluctantly agreed to stay in the middle.
The three of them began to advance deeper into Area 24.
“Roar!” Not long after, a fierce roar echoed from ahead.
“Damn, do we have to be this unlucky?” Yuna cursed softly and turned to run.
Arima reacted the same way, running back without hesitation.
“Quick, retreat! Something is coming!”
Without needing Arima to shout, Su Xiao turned and ran as well, slightly outpacing Yuna.
“What was that?” Su Xiao asked Yuna while running.
“That’s a ‘monster.’ Area 24 is different from Area 14; it’s not just ghouls here,” Yuna replied.
Soon, the three of them reached the fork in the path.
Although the terrain in Area 24 changes, these changes are periodic. It usually takes about seven or eight days for significant changes to occur, with only minor variations in between.
“The right path is blocked; the blood-eyed one is on the right,” Yuna said, breathing heavily and nervously glancing at the right tunnel.
Su Xiao frowned. What kind of monster could make Arima run away?
“Arima, the blood-eyed one is active. Should we give up?” Yuna seemed to be reconsidering.
“No need; the blood-eyed one doesn’t have a wide range of movement. Let’s explore the left tunnel,” Arima decided.
Leading the way, Arima took the left path, and the three of them ventured in.
They hadn’t encountered any ghouls yet, but Area 24 had already shown Su Xiao two terrifying aspects: the constantly dripping poison and the powerful monster that made even Arima flee.
Their exploration of Area 24 was going smoothly for a few hours without any disturbances, not even a single ghoul. This made Su Xiao wonder; weren’t there supposed to be a lot of ghouls in Area 24?
“Boom.” A loud noise echoed, shaking the tunnel and causing dust to fall.
“The blood-eyed one is going crazy again,” Yuna said, her expression darkening as if she was very wary of that creature known as the ‘blood-eyed one.’
“It’s entering its molting phase. I fought it last week,” Arima said, shocking Su Xiao with the revelation that he had faced that unknown monster.
After another hour of moving deeper into Area 24, Su Xiao felt lost. True to its reputation as a maze, Area 24 had at least dozens of paths they had taken.
Ahead, another corner appeared.
“Wait,” Su Xiao suddenly said, catching the attention of Yuna and Arima.
“What’s wrong?” Yuna asked, her body tense.
“I smell blood, and it’s fresh. It’s just around the corner,” Su Xiao said.
Yuna looked at him skeptically but cautiously approached the corner, peeking around it.
She turned back and nodded to the two of them.
Arima glanced at Su Xiao, and they both quietly moved closer to the corner.
Peeking around, Su Xiao saw two ghouls feasting on a corpse. From the red eyes of the corpse, it was clear that it was also a ghoul.
This was Su Xiao’s first time seeing a ghoul from Area 24, and they were very different from the ghouls outside.
It wasn’t just their appearance that was different; it was their clothing. The two ghouls in Area 24 were wearing grass skirts, and one had a necklace made of bones hanging around its neck.
Su Xiao was stunned. Had he just encountered primitive ghouls?
(End of Chapter)