Black Badger

The one truly fortunate thing was that communications had not been completely cut off.

A report had gone through to HQ, and they had even received confirmation that HQ acknowledged it.

So at least we no longer had to worry about starving to death.

Support would come somehow.

The real problem was the rainfall.

If the water started rising faster than the rescue could arrive, things would become complicated.

Right now it had only reached the third floor, but if the rain started again, it looked like it would fill up fast.

And the speed at which the water had risen was terrifying.

Having experienced it firsthand, there was no way I could underestimate it.

If it surged all the way to the fifth floor, we would have to retreat to the rooftop.

That would leave us waiting for rescue in the rain.

Which meant worrying about hypothermia and drowning.

And on top of that, heavy rain made it difficult for drones to fly.

What should we do...?

“It’s raining again.”

The instant the sound of rain started, Ami snapped her head around.

“If it pours too much, we’re screwed.”

I stared at the muddy water that had already swallowed half the third floor.

Brown water with supply items from the depot floating aimlessly in it.

If anyone drank that, it looked like they’d die of food poisoning on the spot.

God knew what else was floating in there, which made swimming through it seem dangerous too.

Looks like even opening my eyes underwater would be impossible.

There was nowhere higher we could move, either.

This was the only intact building nearby.

And there were no Creatures I could command.

At this point, waiting on the rooftop for rescue might really be the only option.

“We should prepare to move.”

Carl said it at the same moment I reached the same conclusion.

“If it keeps coming down like this, the water will fill this floor soon.”

“But the rain’s weaker than yesterday.”

Sophia said.

“Right now it’s just a sunshower.”

“Pack up the sleeping bags.”

Yun appeared at the end of the stairs.

We all turned our heads at once and looked up at the squad leader.

“So we can move to the rooftop immediately if we have to.”

I turned to head back to the fifth floor.

At that moment, something in the rippling surface of the water caught my eye.

I was about to grab the railing and go up when I whipped my head around.

The moment my hand went to my sword, everyone turned to look at me.

“Hilde?”

Ami asked.

“Doesn’t it feel like something’s there?”

Something had definitely disturbed the surface.

It was still now, but I kept my eyes fixed on the muddy water, scanning it.

Whatever it was, it was underwater, so it wasn’t an immediate danger.

I couldn’t sense the presence of a Creature either.

Still, I had seen far too many bizarre amphibious monsters in the Empire.

There was no downside to being careful—

Splash!

“Eek!”

Ami jerked backward.

“There’s something there!”

“It’s big.”

Carl muttered as he watched the widening rings.

“Judging by the shadow.”

“A Creature?”

Sophia murmured.

I didn’t take my eyes off the heavy shadow moving beneath the surface either.

Even through the muddy water, the dark mass was unmistakable.

It was slowly swimming through the third floor.

It seemed to be gliding close to the surface, because every now and then I thought I could make out the faint suggestion of dark skin.

Looks like it came up from the first floor.

“That’s too big to be a fish.”

Didn’t seem like a crocodile.

And it didn’t seem likely that anything like a hippo would be living around here either.

But there was no way to go inside the water and check.

Even if we did, the water was so murky we wouldn’t be able to see a thing.

“What is it?”

I murmured as I watched the heavy shadow circling the third floor.

“It doesn’t seem like it’s going to come out.”

“So it’s not a Creature then!”

“No. I can’t feel any hostile presence.”

“Then maybe it’s a giant squid!”

Wouldn’t a giant squid live in the ocean, not freshwater?

“Actually, I know giant squids live in the sea. I just said it because I kinda want to see one someday.”

“Outside the Cores, there’s no shortage of things stranger than that.”

“Truee.”

“How fascinating.”

“So this is what Black Badger reclamation duty feels like~.”

As I muttered that after hearing Carl, Ricardo loaded his gun beside me and added,

“It was only after you showed up that we started being able to immediately figure out what these new species were....”

“But I’ve run into underwater Creatures pretty often, y’know?”

Ami said from where she stood on the stairs, looking down at the flooded third floor.

“But way more of them than you’d think jump out of the water to attack.”

“...What?”

I turned to her in surprise.

“They do?”

“Yep. And look, that thing keeps circling right under the surface.”

Ami pointed at the shadow and spoke matter-of-factly.

“In cases like that, it usually means it’s aiming for something alive above the water.”

I see.

That was exactly why my hand was already on my sword.

The instinct telling me to stay on guard wasn’t baseless.

The Empire had been full of horrifying things underwater too....

How did Badgers usually deal with this kind of situation?

“Kalakk, Carl. Go up and finish packing the sleeping bags.”

Yun gave the order.

“Sordi and Hilde, keep watch on that thing.”

“Yes.”

“Choi Ami, check the fourth floor.”

Without a word, Ami sprang upward and vanished.

The third-year seniors went upstairs to finish packing.

I blinked and kept staring at the dark shape slowly crossing the broad third floor back and forth.

“Should we kill it?”

Yun stepped down beside me and spoke.

“If we run electricity through the water, there’s a high chance it’ll die. But for some reason, I don’t feel like it.”

“I kind of agree.... Let’s watch a little longer~.”

“What’s the standard response protocol for an unidentified Creature?”

I asked while watching the purposeful trail constantly forming on the surface.

Once, when we had gone to rescue Shu, I had encountered something like steel-eating marimo.

I still remembered how it trembled and split into smaller pieces when I struck it with my sword.

Yun had taken a sample of that one back then.

This one didn’t seem like the sort of thing we could collect a sample from.

It really hits me how comfortably I’ve had it compared to everyone else.

There was a world of difference between facing an enemy whose nature you understood and facing something completely unknown.

“In situations like this, the standard approach is to trust each person’s instincts....”

Ricardo explained.

“That’s why the farther you go into Zone A, the more each individual Badger’s intuition matters~. You know what I mean, right?”

“Yes.”

Instinct was tied directly to survival.

The Empire had been far larger than Earth, and because roads had never been properly established, huge parts of it remained unexplored.

Meaning there had always been countless monsters you were seeing for the first time.

Personal instinct was what often kept its owner alive in that kind of uncertain danger.

Though plenty of disasters happened even when instinct screamed a warning.

Higher monsters that could kill living beings with a glance alone, for example—most who met them without prior knowledge never survived.

Thankfully, this one was still staying quietly underwater....

“You don’t feel like killing it either, Yun?”

“I’ve just got this feeling that if we kill it now, it’ll make things more troublesome.”

Yun answered in his usual indifferent tone.

“Could just be because I didn’t get enough sleep yesterday.”

“...I’m sorry.”

I mumbled, left with absolutely nothing to say.

“That’s why I said I’d finish the watch shift....”

“You sure talk big.”

“Ah, but you know I meant it.”

“So what about you~.”

Ricardo smoothly cut off my grumbling.

The green-eyed senior tilted his chin toward the Creature.

“What do you want to do?”

Hm.

Already prepared to draw at any moment, I thought it over.

The Imperial Capital lay deep inland, so I had rarely seen the sea.

Which meant I wasn’t as skilled in underwater combat as sailors were.

It wasn’t as if water stopped my sword strikes, but every memory I had of facing underwater Creatures ended in a fairly messy fight.

Water slowed movement.

It dulled attacks too.

Kyle, on the other hand, had absolutely hated underwater combat—

...Stop thinking about that and focus.

“I don’t think there’s any need to provoke it right now either.”

It wasn’t an immediate threat.

And corpses tended to attract other problems.

It really did seem like lifeforms from other worlds had settled in this region.

Hadn’t Yun said as much on the ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ train?

There was a subway next to the Safe Point, yet strangely there had been no sign of monsters there at all.

The bizarre phenomenon I saw yesterday too.

Other lifeforms—not monsters—had become the apex predators ruling this area.

This was probably one example of that.

There was no harm in being cautious.

“The water level’s rising....”

Ricardo extended a finger.

“We used to be able to see the third-floor window latches, but now they’re underwater~.”

We went back up to the fifth floor.

The seniors had already packed everything.

Every piece of gear except the blankets had been completely put away.

Carl had pulled up his face covering. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Sophia was tightening the laces of her boots.

Ami already had on her flight boots, with wire gloves on both hands.

The rain still hadn’t stopped.

So when a reclamation mission goes wrong, it can really twist out of control without end.

I stared gloomily out the darkening window.

So this is why entire squads sometimes get wiped out despite having enhanced bodies.

The smell of rain and wind mixed with the stench of water.

Ready to sprint straight to the rooftop at any second, I waited for Yun to finish his communication with HQ.

It was a huge relief that comms were still alive.

If even that had been cut, we wouldn’t have the luxury of waiting like this.

We’d be desperately clawing for any path to survival.

Our survival odds would have plummeted exponentially.

But thankfully, communication was still working, and Yun soon returned.

“I’ll give you the conclusion first.”

The squad members naturally straightened into attentive postures.

Looking at us standing at ease, the squad leader said,

“A drone is coming, but it can’t land. We’ll wait on the rooftop, then grab the rope it lowers and climb aboard.”

I figured it wouldn’t be able to come down.

Still, that was a decent outcome.

“ETA: two hours from now.”

Two hours?

That’s cutting it close.

“We stay here as long as possible, then move to the rooftop. No point in stupidly going up early just to get drenched. We’ll rotate checking the water level like a watch shift, and don’t take your eyes off whatever’s swimming down there.”

“Yes.”

We answered in unison.

Yun continued in the same dry tone.

“Carl, you go first. Fifteen minutes each.”

“Yes.”

“The rest of you, rest.”

After saying that, Yun walked over to his backpack and dropped down onto it.

“If the worst-case scenario happens and the rooftop floods before the drone arrives, swimming will be the only option. Save as much strength as you can.”

Please don’t let it come to that.

Thinking that, I followed Yun’s lead and sat down on my own pack as if it were a chair.

The other seniors adapted just as quickly.

They all had too much field experience not to know you rested whenever rest was possible.

In sharp contrast to the emergency, they loosened their tense muscles.

Shaaah....

This really is a life-or-death situation, but sitting here with nothing to do except listen to the rain somehow feels strangely cozy.

I was having that absurdly comfortable thought—

right until Ricardo suddenly spoke.

“So.... you really think the Badgers resent you for deliberately letting Kyle live, huh~?”

In a situation where the threat of drowning was practically right in front of us, did we really need to talk about this now?