"That’s good... but it’s not enough," the rchant said after examining the piece of sli in Tansy’s pouch.
His tone remained calm, but there was a clear expectation behind his words. The small fragnt Tansy had collected might have been rare, but it clearly didn’t et whatever requirent the system had set for this exchange.
Tyler frowned slightly.
"For sothing this small?" he asked, glancing between the sli and the neatly displayed items. "Feels like a scam."
The rchant simply smiled.
Tyler stepped closer to the display and reached toward one of the items— a compact firearm. His fingers passed through the rchant earlier, but this ti the weapon felt solid. That confird sothing important: the rchant was a projection, but the items were real.
"So what if I just take it?" Tyler asked bluntly.
The rchant didn’t react with anger or urgency. Instead, he answered in the sa composed tone.
"You may try," he said. "But those items are protected. If move without proper exchange, they will self-destruct."
Tyler paused mid-motion.
That made things inconvenient.
He withdrew his hand slowly and glanced sideways at Tansy, who was still holding the pouch. Her expression showed she was already considering options, but unlike Tyler, she wasn’t reckless enough to test the rchant’s claim blindly.
Tyler reached out and took the sli from her.
The piece still carried a faint blue shimr, dull but not entirely lifeless.
"Stay here," Tyler said calmly. "Keep an eye on him."
Tansy raised an eyebrow. "On a hologram?"
"On whatever’s behind it," Tyler corrected.
The rchant continued smiling as if he had heard everything but didn’t mind.
"I’ll be back," Tyler added, already turning away.
Without waiting for a response, he stepped out into the street again, his gaze shifting imdiately toward the direction they had co from. If a small fragnt wasn’t enough, then the answer was obvious— he needed more of that Azure Tox Sli.
And if the ga wanted to make things difficult, then it had probably placed more of it sowhere dangerous.
Tyler smirked faintly.
"Of course it wouldn’t be simple," he muttered as he moved forward alone, "But for ..."
┉┈ ◈ ◉ ◈ ┈┉
After getting separated from Tyler and Tansy, Rose and old man Rudd didn’t even realize where they were falling until the ground rose up to et them. The drop wasn’t deep enough to break bones, but it was sudden enough to knock the air out of their lungs. Dust rose around them in a dull cloud, and for a brief mont, neither of them moved as the echoes of the collapse faded into silence.
Rose recovered first.
"Grandpa, are you alright?" she asked quickly, pushing herself up and reaching toward him.
Old man Rudd rolled his shoulder once, testing it, then stood up with surprising steadiness. His body might have been old, but it was far from weak. He brushed off the dust from his clothes and gave a small nod.
"I’m good," he said calmly.
Rose exhaled in relief, her shoulders dropping. "That’s good... I was worried." Then her expression shifted almost imdiately as she turned toward the direction they had fallen from. "Sister...? Sister...?"
Her voice echoed faintly, but no reply ca.
Rudd glanced around, taking in their surroundings with a sharp, experienced gaze. "Looks like we got separated from them."
Rose bit her lip, her thoughts running faster than she could organize them. "Ah... I can’t let her stay alone with him..." she muttered under her breath, her voice so low it barely carried. "She might make him my brother-in-law..."
Rudd didn’t catch the aning of that clearly. To him, it just sounded like a younger girl worrying about her sister in a dangerous place, which wasn’t unusual at all.
"Don’t think about that right now," he said, his tone steady but firm. "We need to focus on ourselves first. We don’t even know where we are."
Rose finally looked around properly, and the confusion in her eyes deepened. The place they had landed in wasn’t a simple underground pit or natural cave. It had structure—walls, tracks, tal surfaces, all partially buried under dust and decay.
"It looks like a tunnel," she said slowly, stepping forward and looking along its length. "But... not like anything I’ve seen before."
Old man Rudd nodded slightly. "This isn’t from the sectors. This is old infrastructure... sothing from before." He paused, then added, "Let’s find a way out."
Without hesitation, he began walking in one direction.
Rose followed after him, but after a few steps, she couldn’t hold back her curiosity. "Why are we going this way, grandpa?"
Rudd didn’t slow down. "When we fell, the barrier was behind us. That ans the opposite direction should be safer."
It was simple reasoning, but in a place like this, simple reasoning mattered.
The deeper they walked, the darker it beca. The faint light from above disappeared completely, leaving them surrounded by heavy shadows. Rose took out a glow stick and cracked it open, handing one to Rudd. The soft green light spread around them, revealing more details of the tunnel.
The tracks weren’t ordinary. They were embedded into a sleek structure that still hinted at advanced engineering despite the damage. The walls curved smoothly in so places, broken violently in others.
"Hyperloop," Rudd murmured.
Rose tilted her head. "What’s that?"
"A transport system. Fast. Faster than anything we have now," he explained. "Looks like it’s been abandoned for years."
They kept moving, their footsteps echoing faintly along the tunnel. The silence pressed in on them, broken only by the occasional drip of water or distant shifting sounds that didn’t seem to co from any clear direction.
After several minutes, the tunnel widened.
Lights appeared ahead—dim and flickering, but still alive.
They had reached a station.
The platform stretched out before them, covered in dust and scattered debris. Broken signs hung from the ceiling, and empty benches stood like forgotten relics of another ti. Despite the decay, parts of the place still functioned, which made it feel even stranger.
Rose’s eyes quickly locked onto sothing.
"There."
A vending machine stood against the wall, its internal lights faint but still on.
Food.
Without hesitation, she raised her gun and fired.
The glass shattered instantly, echoing through the empty station.
She stepped forward and began pulling out packaged food and bottled drinks, handing so to Rudd while stuffing a few into her own pouch.
"Still works," she said, impressed.
Rudd gave a faint nod, but his attention had shifted.
He had heard sothing.
A subtle sound, almost lost beneath the silence.
"Wait," he said quietly.
Rose froze. "What is it?"
Rudd didn’t answer imdiately. Instead, he walked toward the edge of the platform and looked down along the track.
"There," he said.
Rose followed his gaze.
A massive hole had torn through the side of the tunnel wall, as though sothing had broken through from outside. tal was bent inward, and chunks of concrete lay scattered around the opening.
Inside that hole—
Sothing moved.
No, not sothing.
Soone.
"...Victor?" Rose said before she could stop herself.
Rudd glanced at her. "You know him?"
"He’s from our sector," she replied quickly.
Victor looked up at that mont, his face lighting up with relief the instant he saw them.
"Hey! Please—help ! I’m stuck!" he shouted, reaching toward them.
His voice sounded desperate, strained.
Rudd studied him for a mont.
Rose didn’t move.
Sothing about the situation didn’t feel right, but she couldn’t explain why.
Seeing her hesitation, Rudd sighed softly. It reminded him of his own granddaughter—the sa uncertainty, the sa instinct to help mixed with caution.
"We can’t leave him like that," he said.
He grabbed a thick broken cable nearby and threw one end into the hole.
"Grab it."
Victor caught it imdiately and began climbing. With effort, he pulled himself out and onto the platform, collapsing to his knees as he caught his breath.
"Thank you... thank you..." Victor said, his voice shaking as he pulled himself fully onto the platform. His breathing was uneven, but the mont his eyes landed on the food in Rose’s hand, sothing in his expression changed. Hunger flashed across his face so clearly that it almost hurt to look at.
Rudd noticed it imdiately. He let out a quiet sigh, his gaze softening for a brief mont. Victor was no older than Rose, and yet he was already forced into a situation where survival ant suspicion, hunger, and fear. Rudd couldn’t help but think about how wrong it was—how children were being thrown into this chaos simply to satisfy those who watched from above.
Without saying anything more, Rudd bent down, picked up one of the food packs, and stepped toward Victor.
"Eat sothing first," he said, stepping closer.
For a brief mont, everything seed calm.
Too calm.
Victor lifted his head.
His expression changed.
Rose saw it.
But not fast enough.
The sound ca suddenly.
A single gunshot exploded through the station.
Rudd’s body jerked.
The food slipped from his hand as he fell forward onto the ground.
"Grandpaaaa...!" Rose’s scream tore through the silence.
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