Chapter 138

Episode 138. The Horror of Dunwich (2)

****

Poi Station Underground Bunker.

It was a more comfortable space than expected. There were still functional areas left. Probably maintained by the Colorless Orchestra until now.

Black opened his mouth.

“The Jeju Island Branch was turned into a wasteland by just two people. Do you think it’s impossible for us? Do you think it’s impossible for us to raid the Seoul Branch now, retrieve Blue Rose-13, or extract Dr. Chloe?”

“Impossible. The Seoul Branch humans wiped out an entire base with just two people. There’s no way we can win on their home ground.”

“There weren’t many people guarding the Jeju Island Branch either. Most of the Blue Roses weren’t at the facility or didn’t participate in the battle.”

Blue Rose-1 sighed.

“There were only Dr. Chloe and one or two Blue Roses. We also need to retrieve Paint, which is stored somewhere in the Seoul Branch, and Silver’s remains.”

“Impossible is impossible.”

The Blue Rose group murmured among themselves.

“We lost two people, but we achieved our purpose in coming to Seoul. We secured a stronghold, successfully made contact with hostile groups, and confirmed the locations of Dr. Chloe and Blue Rose-13.”

“Can you really say we made contact with hostile groups just by occupying one of the Colorless Orchestra’s safe houses? We even killed one of them.”

“We made contact. Like it or not, we’re now part of the resistance… you could say. Spring, how’s it going with contacting the Machine Cult? Did they agree to support us?”

“Positive.”

“Let’s be satisfied with that for now. What we need to do now is find a way to locate Blue Rose-0. It doesn’t seem easy in the current situation.”

Blue Rose-0 is somewhere in the South Sea. The exact coordinates are classified. Even the other Blue Roses don’t know where it is.

“Attacking a Foundation facility is the answer. Let’s find allies. With the four of us and a few hostile groups cooperating, it should be possible.”

“Provoking the Foundation unnecessarily isn’t a good idea. How about Spade infiltrating and gathering information?”

Spade thought for a moment.

“Hmm… If someone can definitely draw their attention, it might be possible for a while. But I can’t promise anything. It’s the best in the world, after all.”

“Fighting directly is a bit… Maybe we can summon some hostile group members or monsters to draw their attention and then attack.”

Blue Rose-1, Contrabass, pondered for a while. There are several ways to summon monsters.

“Let’s do this. Spade and I will infiltrate the Foundation facility and attempt to extract Dr. Chloe. Black and Spring, gather the hostile groups and attack another Foundation facility. Even if it’s not the Seoul Branch, it might be manageable.”

Just recently, Machine Cult agents occupied one of the Foundation’s docks and threatened a warship. That ended in failure, though.

If it’s not the Seoul Branch headquarters, but another Foundation facility, it might be possible to attack.

“Um, wouldn’t all the important artifacts be in the Seoul Branch headquarters?”

“Not necessarily. They need to distribute the supernatural phenomena they manage. There are quite a few things in Jeju Island, Busan, and Taean as well.”

Opinions started to gather.

“Those in favor, raise your hands.”

The four Blue Roses present raised their hands. The decision was made. Two will attempt to infiltrate the Seoul Branch, and the other two will attempt to attack another Foundation facility.

The Mimics sitting around also nodded.

“One last thing. How did you make those Mimics so obedient?”

“Ah. Just persuaded them with magic.”

Spade shrugged.

Contrabass slowly opened his mouth.

“Hmm, well done. Let’s not go too deep into the cave. There’s a smell like a forest deep in the cave. If we go too deep underground, who knows what’s down there?”

It was a statement that stimulated the imagination.

The underground of the city, whether positive or negative, is a space filled with magic even just tens of meters deep. The cave clearly goes down endlessly, but there’s no way to guess what’s deeper. But that’s not all there is.

****

Black and Spring, of course, didn’t listen to Contrabass. There’s something endless underground. Of course, they had to check it out.

“This is the pit.”

The hole in the center of Poi Station.

The Blue Roses had no way of knowing, but it’s the hole that Dr. Kim was shocked to find was 8 kilometers deep. Black securely tied the cable and checked the inside of the underground hole.

“Are you planning to go down here?”

“Yeah. I don’t know any other way.”

“Is there definitely a bottom?”

“Hmm, not sure about the bottom. But this vertical hole definitely connects to other caves.”

“Hmm. I don’t know. Let’s find another way… We came to explore, but this is crazy.”

Black put down the cable.

“Let’s find another way down.”

The two Blue Roses followed the cave’s downward slope for a while. It didn’t take long to find something new.

The groundwater at the bottom of the cave began to emit a faint green light. Spring frowned behind his mask. The green light flickered with every step.

“What is this, radiation?”

“Don’t know. I think it’s bioluminescence.”

The two Blue Roses looked around.

The cave they descended was narrow, but with one step, a cavity opened up. It widened to the size of a bus… The two Blue Roses closed their mouths.

Bioluminescent organisms, bioluminescent mushrooms adorned the underground cave. No moving creatures were visible, but they must be somewhere.

“……”

“How far down are we?”

“Not sure. Maybe about 300 meters. A normal person probably couldn’t breathe in this space.”

Black drew his greatsword.

“I have a bad feeling. Let’s get out of here.”

The Blue Roses, and even the Foundation. What they witnessed underground was just the tip of the iceberg. Black couldn’t hide his discomfort.

****

Meanwhile. Director’s Office.

“Director. Did you call?”

A nervous expression.

This person is Director Han. A Foundation employee with a very unfortunate fate, tasked with managing and communicating with hostile groups that are friendly to the Foundation, or at least capable of minimal communication.

Currently, it seems he’s working despite not being able to die. Maybe he’ll get better with time, I thought.

Judging by his expression so far, it doesn’t seem like it. But since things have been running smoothly, there’s no intention to replace Director Han.

“Director Han. How’s work going?”

“It’s running smoothly. I keep passing on things the Foundation should know, but most of it is just recorded.”

“Good. What about the Blue Roses?”

Director Han shook his head.

“I’m passing on what I can within the allowable range, but I doubt it’s helpful to the Foundation. The police won’t arrest them.”

“The government, and other hostile groups, have their own methods and means. It’s Director Han’s job to manage that in a helpful way.”

That’s true.

“Any movements from other hostile groups? We speculated that the Blue Roses came to Seoul to contact a specific hostile group.”

Ultimately, all hostile groups share a common goal. To survive and maintain their organization while avoiding the Foundation’s eyes as much as possible.

In this situation, everyone cooperates.

As long as even one hostile group remains, the Foundation’s attention will be drawn, and the other hostile groups can survive another day.

“Let’s request cooperation as much as possible now.”

The Blue Roses are underground. And going underground to find monsters isn’t a good idea. It’s tough and horrifying.

What we can do now is narrow the surveillance net as much as possible and catch the Blue Roses as they come out. At least we can do that.

****

[Anomalous Phenomena Response Bureau Response]

[Author: Director Han]

[I’ve informed the Bureau. Four humanoid supernatural phenomena are roaming around, extremely dangerous, so contact the Foundation immediately.]

[They said they understood.]

[Actually, they sounded like they thought it was nonsense. How would we know about the Blue Rose series? Well, it’s not a level the government would look into.]

[Other government departments had similar reactions. Only the police’s supernatural phenomena department insisted they’d issue a warrant if we provided descriptions.]

[I’ve passed it on. As expected, the police also responded with disbelief. Honestly, it’s questionable if it’s even a level where civilian tips would be useful.]

[More importantly, the hostile groups have gone quiet again. It seems they’re planning something, but I don’t know what.]

[I’ll ask the Precognition Department. I suspect the Blue Roses are pushing something big… but there’s no concrete evidence.]

****

[Anomalous Phenomena Response Bureau Response. Reply.]

[Author: Director Kim]

[You’re doing well. Keep up the good work.]