"We need to get to the back safes without attracting the attention of the monsters around us. Do you know what kind of monsters this place has?" Mark did not know. He could feel them but they all felt the same.
Just Kuro felt different from them but that could be attributed to her being a pet rather than a simple monster.
"Unfortunately not yet. But let's keep going on the route we planned. There is no monster there, right?" Mark asked, his voice quiet and low. He did not want to attract unnecessary attention toward himself after all.
He was happy staying in the shadows, especially in such a place.
There was a presence very near to them which caused a feeling of panic to occur and he dragged Alan toward the nearest place they could hide behind. A shadow passed over their head, ignoring them but also giving them a clue about what lay inside.
"It's a spider. I hate spiders" Alan complained, his voice terrified. The shadow had been huge so Mark understood the fear it caused. Even he felt a little terrified of such a large monster.
Mark decided to take a look at the monster and he regretted it instantly. Yes, it looked like a spider but at the same time, it seemed to have mutated and its biology twisted.
The lower part was wholly spider but the upper part seemed to have fused with other creatures. There were two of them, one with an upper part of what appeared to be a cockroach but it was the other one who terrified him.
It had a human upper body, not even fully intact and with a lot of holes as if it was chewed upon.
It was revolting and caused Mark to reflexively heave. He wished that out of all his disconnected senses and emotions, this was the one that was muted but alas, the scene was gruesome enough to overcome it.
'Stop, please stop this feeling' Mark chanted inside his mind as he looked away. Alan tried to stand up and have a look too but Mark stopped him. The teen should not see this now. He was too young and now Mark regretted bringing him at all.
_______________________
System settings: disconnect status: medium
Choose the setting: None / Low / Medium / HIGH / FULL
(Warning: full not recommended, can lose all feelings and only rationality remains. None not recommended, can cause death by overwhelming)
_______________________
Mark knew it was the system that caused this situation inside him and had it been any other time, he would have ignored it and gone to none or low.
But he wanted it high or even full. Whatever made this feeling go away was good and appreciated.
_______________________
System settings: disconnect status: high
_______________________
He felt much better, the feeling going away now and he could finally think clearly. The first thing he noticed was that those monsters were not something that originally existed. While monster mutations and DNA splicing was a thing, humans had never been a part of the gene pool.
In fact, humans were the only species immune to the effect in the original game and that's where the concept of introducing animal DNA to humans.
Most of the main cast was a part of this, especially Maya. Mark had now known how big a deal Maya adopting Kuro had been. Kuro had been killed and Maya had been left greatly injured as a confrontation with one of the four S-grade beasts.
She had been the first to be experimented on and had created a whole new race as a result. But those had been humanoid, nothing like this.
This creature looked closer to fantasy, an arachnid to be exact.
"Let me see too. I want to know what we are against too" Mark ignored the teen but kept him low enough so that he could not see. Then he decided to check his map to look for more clues.
The monsters were marked with red, their own allies and humans were marked as blue but the arachnid was most likely the purple spot on the map. Not human but not monster - a mix.
Luckily, there was only one here which meant that Mark could hide this from Alan if he did this right.
"Kid, I need you to take Kuro to the next safe point, the one in the next corridor and hide. I'll join you once I secure this part" Mark made sure his voice held the command as he looked around the building.
They had entered from the side entrance, the worker office area and the rooms were spacious but full of furniture. It was easier to hide but it would get incredibly frustrating if they were to get stuck in a single place.
"No way. I'm your backup so I need to stay with you. Besides, I shoot better than you" the teen was being stubborn here which Mark did not like at all. While the teen did have a point, Mark was not willing to entertain him.
"You came here on my command, so I'm in charge here. And you'll not be ideal for long. I want you to look at the enemy catalogue on the shared map and find out their weaknesses for me" Mark forced the teen to go who looked a little better at that suggestion.
Since the teen was young, he was easy to manipulate and Mark made full use of the knowledge.
Finally, the teen seemed to agree and Mark manoeuvred him in such a way as that neither the monsters nor themselves were ever in direct line of sight. Finally, the teen seemed to leave him, taking Kuro with him.
Kuro could sense these monsters and she'll alert the child of dangers before they could reach the child.
He himself readied his gun and took aim. He had some misgivings about this whole situation but he had no time to second guess his thoughts. He fired the gun toward the arachnid who looked at his position in surprise.
The gunshot had gained its attention.
____________
Meanwhile, Alan made his way toward the safe spot. While he did not want to leave Mark behind, he could see the logic behind his words. They would need the knowledge and Alan was better at navigating computers than Mark.
The corridor he had exited in had been narrowed and the tiling had been full of dust. But along with that, it was slippery and every time Alan decided to go faster, his foot almost slid off the floor.
His hands were preoccupied with Kuro so he could not make effective use of them even if he tried.
Suddenly, the kitten in his arms hissed, looking right above them. Alan looked at the map, just to make sure it was all a fluke.
It was not. There was something right above them at this moment and he held his breath as he saw the dot stop right above their position.
He plastered himself right at the side of the wall and instantly felt foolish. There was no visible link between this floor and the one above, so what was he hesitating for? He tried to move but his body refused to work.
His mind was screaming at him to run, but he could not even move. He did not know why his limbs refused to listen to him. Kuro was already out of his arms, her tiny body trying it's best to move him but it was futile.
Suddenly something bent from above and the ceiling sank down. Something heavy seemed to land right in front of him and then another crash. Alan instantly closed his eyes to protect his eyes from the flying dust.
He opened them again to see that the floor had collapsed right in front of him, crushing the body of a monster spider right in front of him. He had gotten lucky, so lucky.
"Meow" Kuro was calling out to him but his brain was still panicking.
'I need to move or I'll be next, maybe even Mark or Kuro will be next. I need to move' the only words that went through his mind were Mark's previous words and he willed his body to move.
Alan had seen death before, even difficult situations but this had been the first close call of his own. His brother had been there before and then Mark had always been the one to take care of the heavy stuff.
He had no idea it was this scary or heavy of a burden but now he had a taste and he wanted it to be over.
There was another shadow in the hole above which finally snapped the teen out of his trance and he picked up Kuro. The moment this time was fast and the safety point was reached in record time.
He did not wait to open his system and have a look. Mark's position was still moving which indicated that he was alive. That finally brought Alan peace.
But that was not what he needed to look into and he opened up the library of information.
Nothing was visible, just a blank canvas which made him wonder if he had been pranked, but the next message seemed to prove him wrong.
_______________________
Warning: access level too low - information not accessible.
Please try again
_______________________
Great, all that effort and there was nothing to show for it. Just what kind of system did Mark have to be provided with so much security? He had observed Mark and he was sure that even the man himself did not know.
And now he had to wait for him here without anything to do. He could not even message him from the fear of distracting him.
"Kuro, what do I do to help?" Alan asked the kitten who just snuggled helplessly in his arms.