The darkness and bone-chilling cold of DryZone enveloped Special Operations Unit Four the moment they stepped past the entrance. Raven immediately activated his steel gauntlet "Gear," faint blue light glowing from each knuckle, providing illumination in the terrifying darkness.
"Stay alert. This is the old base of Special Operations Unit Two," Raven said calmly, his eyes scanning the area carefully. "From what we know, it was abandoned long ago after some kind of incident."
"Huh? Unit Two's old base?" Shion repeated with surprise. "Then how did it become DryZone? Or maybe... Unit Two is connected to the missing children?"
"That's possible! Maybe Unit Two are the real bad guys!" Leon blurted out excitedly with his own theory.
"Shut up, you hick!" Shion snapped at Leon immediately, her amber eyes glaring. "Don't go spouting nonsense when you don't know what's true! It's annoying!"
Leon's face fell immediately, and he could only mumble a weak apology.
"Easy, Shion," Raven intervened gently. "We don't have solid information about Unit Two yet. Let's not jump to conclusions."
Suddenly, everyone noticed someone was missing from the group.
"Hey! Where's Mina?" Leon exclaimed first. He was sure she'd been walking beside him just moments before.
Everyone turned to look behind them and saw Mina's small figure crouched by the entrance they'd just passed through. She was busy opening her large travel bag and skillfully pulling out strange equipment to install on the ground and walls.
"Hey! Mina! What are you doing over there?" Raven called out, sounding somewhat surprised.
Mina looked up from her work, her large round eyes behind thick glasses gazing at them. "You guys go ahead. I'll catch up," she replied flatly. "Need to set up a security system in case enemies follow us in, or if something tries to escape from here. We'll know right away." Her slender fingers continued working on connecting small wires to one of the devices.
"Alright then," Raven nodded understandingly. "Just hurry up and follow us. Don't lag too far behind."
With that, Raven, Shion, and Leon began walking deeper into the dark passage. But then... they discovered another member was missing!
"Hey! Traffie! Where the hell did Traffie go now!" Raven cursed in frustration, rubbing his face wearily. "Do I really have to babysit all these kids..." he thought to himself.
"I'm down here! Come on down! This way's safe! Hahaha!" Traffie's clear voice echoed up from below the steep slope they'd just walked past.
Raven sighed heavily before signaling Shion and Leon to follow him down.
When all three reached the bottom of the slope, they found themselves standing in a large hall that looked like an old command center. Dim red emergency lights still blinked periodically, revealing equipment, work desks, and various rooms that had been abandoned. The surroundings were covered in thick dust and cobwebs, indicating no one had set foot here for many years.
Traffie, who'd gotten down first, was running around exploring the room excitedly like a playful kid. "Hey! Leon! Look at this! This is insane!" Traffie shouted while holding up a small lightning grenade he'd just found in an old crate, then dragged Leon around to see the strange things he'd discovered in various corners of the room.
While Traffie was marveling at everything around him...
WEEEEEEE!
An alarm suddenly blared! Bright red light flooded the entire room!
Raven, Shion, and Leon, who were exploring, all startled and quickly took defensive positions to prepare for the unexpected. Mina, who'd just followed them down, looked equally alarmed.
Suddenly! Hundreds of laser beams appeared throughout the room! They swept back and forth rapidly before converging to fire at a single target!
BANG!
The laser beams shot straight at the hand of a Vine-born corpse preserved in a large glass jar displayed in the center of the room! The corpse's hand was pulverized to dust in an instant!
After that, the laser beams stopped firing but remained visible throughout the room like a curtain of death for about a minute before gradually fading away, leaving only tension and a faint smell of burning.
"This is... the latest Vine-born detection and elimination system," Mina muttered, her eyes wide with surprise. "But... this system is still in testing phase, isn't it? That means... someone definitely snuck in here to install this system before we arrived."
"So... what do they want?" Leon asked suspiciously and warily. He could feel invisible danger creeping closer.
"Watch out!!!" Shion screamed! Her fighter's instincts shrieked a warning!
As Shion's voice ended, a shadow figure shot out from a dark corner of the room at high speed! Its target was Leon, who was standing closest!
Raven reacted just in time! He lunged to intercept the shadow figure while raising his gear-equipped arm defensively!
CLANG!!!
The sound of metal clashing rang out! Sparks flew everywhere! Raven was pushed back slightly by the tremendous impact.
"What the hell!?" Raven exclaimed in shock. He hadn't expected the other party to have such physical strength.
The shadow figure jumped back a few steps, revealing its true identity... A young man with short greenish-gray hair streaked with white. His sharp, narrow eyes stared at them with an unreadable expression. He stood calmly in front of all four special ops members like a predator sizing up its prey.
Mina's eyes widened in extreme shock. "Impossible! If this man just entered through the door... my sensor system would have alerted us! No... wait... or maybe... he's been here... for a long time!" The thought made her skin crawl.
"Well... Special Ops guys," the green-haired man said in a calm voice tinged with mockery. "Pretty surprising... that you're not actually Vine-born." He glanced at the destroyed hand remains in the glass jar. "How curious..."
"Who are you!" Raven demanded fiercely, blue energy beginning to gather in his gear again, ready to unleash an attack at any moment.
The green-haired man slowly raised his hand in a stopping gesture. "Hold on... take it easy. I didn't come here to fight you guys." He replied with a thin smile.
"But you just tried to kill him! Don't act innocent!" Raven shot back immediately, not falling for the other's words.
"Heh... I just wanted to test you out a little," the green-haired man shrugged carelessly. "But hey... Xiao Yan didn't come along? Hmm... too bad." He pretended to think. "Since you're just ordinary humans... I guess I don't have any business with you."
"See ya," he said, and his figure suddenly faded into the darkness as if he'd never existed there at all!
Beep! Beep! Beep!
Warning signals from Mina's equipment sounded again! But this time they came from the direction where the green-haired man had just disappeared!
The scene cut to a corner of the dark passage... The green-haired man was standing calmly in front of an invisible net trap that Mina had secretly installed. He smiled mockingly.
"Tch... kid's toys," he muttered, then raised the sword sheath at his waist and struck the trap hard with the sheath!
SNAP!
The net trap shattered into small pieces easily! The green-haired man brushed dust off his clothes carelessly before walking away into the darkness again, leaving behind only mystery and increased tension...