In a world where resources were scarce, anyone who had access to water could hold significant power. Oh, how Lucky wanted to own this piece of information. But alas, after 'accidentally' finding the location of the water source, a message appeared on the windshield.
It was short but precise, telling them to return to the base, Ant Hill, while another unit would head to the water source. And so they did. Nero still needed immediate help, and Lucky didn't want the man to die yet. Not when he needed more information.
"Why do you call it Ant Hill?" Lucky asked the little girl in the backseat. "Don't tell me because it looks like a colony's base?"
He glanced at the rearview mirror, only to see Rita pursing her lips. By the looks of it, his guess was correct.
"A base that looks like an anthill? Seriously?" He scrunched up his nose, baffled as he imagined a literal colony's hill. "That doesn't look nice."
But then again, up there in the sky was an inverted city. What else could he expect?
Their journey back to the base was almost quiet. Although there were a few hounds on the way, they weren't anywhere exactly on the main path. Hence, their travel was smooth — except that didn't apply to its literal meaning due to the rocky road.
[You are 3 km away from your destination.]
Lucky lazily arched a brow as he glanced at the notification on the corner right of the windshield. As he did so, he noticed that the fog around grew thicker the closer they reached the base.
'Ant Hill,' he thought, looking ahead, expecting a literal colony's hill once they emerge from this fog. And after a few minutes, Lucky squinted his eyes at the building from the distance.
Ant Hill.
Perhaps he imagined the base so terribly that the building in the distance quite surprised him. It wasn't like it didn't look like an anthill; it did look like one. However, it wasn't built out of dust or sand or rubble, but it looked like a worn-down facility that witnessed the change of time.
It was more like a temple.
Moving vines crawled around it and lights of different colors could be seen on some of its floors. But one detail about it stood out the most. The building was… huge, making the houses scattered around the area appear like matchboxes.
"Wow," Lucky blurted out. "Wow."
The closer they were, the more in awe he was. Even the mute in the backseat looked at the base in awe, her mouth falling open. As for Rita, she could only heave a sigh of relief as she saw their base.
[Entering Ant Hill territory. Slow down for inspection.]
Not wanting to make a bad impression, Lucky slowed down just as instructed by Calm Rex. He caught some people waving these red lights up ahead, signaling them to stop. Lucky continuously slowed down until their vehicle stopped, gazing at the people several meters ahead.
"What are they doing?" he wondered, watching the people talk to each other instead of checking the vehicle. "Won't they gonna inspect us?"
"Their role is to signal for us to stop," said Rita while Lucky looked back at her. "The Gate Keeper will inspect us — more like you and her."
"The gate… keeper?" Lucky trailed off as he caught something from the corner of his eyes. As soon as he looked back in the windshield, he saw a pair of metallic boots hovering over the windshield. He moved closer to the steering wheel, peeking up to see the person better.
Much to his surprise, the person hovering over them was wearing a white-powered armor suit. He was almost in awe if not for the helm's design, which looked like an ant's head.
[Who?]
Lucky furrowed his brows as he gazed at the wide text on the windshield.
"He helped up!" Rita answered in a hurry. "And Nero needs help!"
Slowly, the person wearing the powered-armor suit descended to the hood of the truck. The gatekeeper lowered his head, gazing at the people inside.
"Please!" Rita begged with conviction. "Let us in first."
[You and the Magic User get in. The other two will come with me.]
"Huh?" Rita was confused, but before she could think of anything else, the doors flew open from the outside. As soon as she saw the toddler-sized ants outside, Rita pursed her lips.
Lucky, on the other hand, was rendered speechless by the robotic ants surrounding the vehicle. He watched Rita slowly jump off the back seat while the ants dragged Nero out like a doll. The ants carried him on the biggest ant's back, rushing him into the base.
'Well, look at that girl,' he thought, catching Rita looking back at them worriedly, but still followed where they were taking Nero.
His attention shifted upon the faint 'tak' on the windshield. Looking ahead, he caught the 'gatekeeper' tilting his head.
[Out.]
Lucky glanced at the screen as another wide text appeared. He raised his brows momentarily, grabbed his backpack, and then stepped out of the driver's seat. The mute also stepped out, her anxiousness apparent.
"Look, if you don't want to let us in, that's fine," Lucky said as he faced the gatekeeper. "I'll just turn around and forget about… it."
He cleared his throat as the gatekeeper jumped right in front of him. He leaned back on instinct, feeling the ground shake a little when the person landed. The gatekeeper said nothing, but he knew he was assessing him and the woman with him.
"Follow me," a robotic voice came out of the suit, turning his back on them.
Lucky and the mute looked at each other, confused. But then, the gatekeeper looked back at them and spoke once more;
"Unless you do not want to enter the base and get executed right here and now," said the gatekeeper through its glitchy and static voice. "The chief is waiting."
'The chief?' Lucky arched a brow, reluctance evident in his eyes, but still followed. All he wanted to do was kill time until his skill cooled down. Until then, he was keen enough to learn a thing or two about this world and its rules.
With that thought in mind, Lucky followed the gatekeeper to one of the smaller buildings around. He kept a safe distance from the gatekeeper, watching the door automatically open. Just when Lucky thought the chief would welcome them, the gatekeeper led them to the bedroom.
'Where are we heading now?' he looked around, seeing that this place was nothing but a bedroom. Much to his dismay, he was once again wrong.
When the gatekeeper stood in front of the bed, the bed slowly flipped. As it did, the floor underneath it opened up, revealing some stairs down.
'Uh… this is suspicious,' thought Lucky, watching the gatekeeper take the steps down. He intuitively gazed at the hellhound-turned-human with him. She seemed worried and nervous still, but he couldn't find it in his heart to pity her.
"Stop cowering," he said to her, following the gatekeeper to the secret passage underneath the bed. "It doesn't suit you at all."
The stairs were steep and a little dark, but the light on the end was bright enough to make them see the steps. When Lucky reached the last step, what he saw was a wide laboratory equipped with advanced technology where some humans were working on some power suit prototypes.
"Wow," he blurted out in awe, gazing at the gigantic mechanical sabertooth on the side.
"You! There you are!"
Suddenly, Lucky heard the cheerful voice of a young boy. He turned his head to the source of the voice, only to frown at the sight of a ten-year-old boy beaming at him from where he was sitting. The gatekeeper was standing beside the boy, and Lucky had a guess.
'Don't tell me that boy is the chief?' the thought didn't sit well with him. 'Why do I have to keep dealing with children?'
"You are Mr. Lucky?"
Lucky looked to his left when he heard a man's voice from the other side. The latter offered a kind smile as he advanced in Lucky's direction.
"We've been watching you clear the area from the well, and I must say, I am impressed. It normally takes one gatekeeper to clear an area of that level," said the man with long white hair while offering his hand. "I'm Aldric Stormheart, the chief commander of Ant Hill."