『 Emergency Warning! Severe blood loss detected!』
Azuma heavily panted, he could not hear the warning or the ear-splitting rumble of death as it approached him.
All he felt was red seeping through his soul and clouding his vision, his body was numb, but the shadow of that intense pain softly shattered his will.
His heavy fingers trembled as he gripped the sword.
But it was too late by then.
[17 Hours Ago]
The small shelter camp for the hunters was created over an abandoned subway station. It carried little to no equipment, only one cabin office for the officer, and a large platform where the hunters were gathered.
An automated subway car was waiting on the tracks, its silver skin was faded and shabby.
Azuma looked at the white card he was given.
It was a translucent card with white lines that filled in the signature of the Supreme Commander in the form of a cryptic code and an identity chip.
» Independent License «
Also known as the hunters, the independent seekers were those who were not part of any fleet. They exercised drastically few perks and security but their freedom was much more.
Hunters can explore whichever area of Abyss they want, they can claim glory or plunge themselves to death. Genosis won't care as long as the hunters register their findings and abide by the basic rules.
On the other hand, having a white card meant that it was only a one-time license.
Azuma handed it to the officer behind a booth. There were still some formalities to be done before the registration was complete.
The officer cast a bored glance at the card and sucked on a lollipop while his fingers quickly worked in his computer.
"Alright done," he gave the card back to Azuma and said in a mechanical voice, "You can not go any further than Level One, inflammables are restricted, and return the card back to me within fifteen hours. Otherwise, there will be a penalty."
Azuma nodded, the translucent card was now filled with his personal details and identity number.
"If you have any firearms, register them here first," the officer added.
"I don't."
As useless as they become in the deeper parts of Abyss, the firearms were still pretty expensive for Azuma's budget.
The officer raised an eyebrow, he couldn't see Azuma carrying any sword either.
"You're not going to kill a hound with your bare hands now, are you?"
"I have knives."
Azuma replied and wondered if he can kill a hound with his bare hands. But that won't really be an issue because the depths Hansuke suggested to explore were usually peaceful.
The lesser hounds there can be stunned without much effort.
The officer concluded the young boy has a few screws loose to think he can go on his first expedition with a few knives.
"Commander Hansuke left this," the officer said and returned to his computer.
"Thank you."
Azuma wore the navigator around his wrist. It was like a watch but not for time. A wrist navigator was used to track the depth inside the Abyss, as well as to reach target locations and locate the few Seeker Shelters inside Abyss.
As soon as Azuma wore the navigator, a system bleep sounded.
『Foreign Device Detected!』
『No Malware Found 』
『 Initiate pairing?』
Azuma mentally agreed and walked down the subway platform.
When the commander gave him the white card last night, Azuma was at a loss for words. A part of him refused to believe but the other part mentally kicked him and asked him to pay attention to the urgency of the situation.
"Are you sure?" he still ended up asking that question to the commander.
"It takes some minutes to issue a white license. But," Hansuke closed his eyes and let out a small sigh, "It takes months for a fleet to get an approval of entering red zones."
Azuma had heard the stories about many seekers losing their way in the Abyss. It was rare for them to receive any help from Genesis because very few were allowed to be in the dangerous parts of the Abyss.
Level One was open to every seeker, Level Two required a squadron leader to be present, Level Three can only be explored with someone on the same level as a squadron leader, and Level Four was mostly restricted.
Only commanders and equivalent were allowed to descend there.
Azuma knew that Shiro had slim chances of receiving any help in the red zone because high-leveled seekers were rare.
Most of them die before they can advance.
He was grateful, determination flickered in Azuma's eyes as he clasped his fingers around the card.
"Thank you, commander."
Hansuke's gaze quietly observed the young boy before he added, "You are not going to Fourth Level."
Azuma was taken aback. What was the point otherwise?
"We discovered some strange…things regarding Captain Shiro," Hansuke began.
That night sleep scarcely came to Azuma, his mind was restless as he thought about those endless depths, the fatal fog of Mistfall Graves, and about Shiro.
The Abyss has always been a part of his dreams, something that stretched even in his oldest memories.
Being able to grasp its edge made him feel both warm and cold inside.
It was like lying over the winter's snow, softly being buried under the endless white, and tasting the breeze of summer.
The breeze did nothing to soothe his shivers, but it brought a strange flicker of warmth. A seemingly hopeless promise, but a promise nonetheless.
As the exhaustion of the day drifted Azuma off to sleep, he saw Shiro's face. She was looking at him silently, but her earthly brown eyes were filled with tears.
"Leaving in five minutes!"
The loud announcement from a hunter brought Azuma out of his thoughts. It stirred some grumbles and exclaims from others as they strapped their weapons and entered the subway car.
A small hiss left as the engine hummed to life.
Azuma glanced at his wrist one last time, something conflicted stirring in his heart.
"We discovered some strange…things regarding Captain Shiro," Hansuke began.
"What do you mean?"
"The neuralink system leaves traces of a cyber footprint wherever it goes. It disappears after some days so we couldn't use that to track Captain Shiro down."
Commander Hansuke paused as if contemplating whether to continue, but then he took a deep breath and sighed, "The radars picked up her cyber traces near Level One last morning."
If Shiro somehow managed to return from the Mistfall Graves and reach Level One, then she should have come back already. An experienced seeker like her couldn't lose her way in the upper level.
At the very least, she should have reached out to her fleet or anyone else.
Unless… she was not in the position to do so.
The navigator turned on, a small holographic map spreading over its surface. A green dot blinked over a certain place.
『 Distance From Target: 493 meters in depth』