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Chapter 9: The Truth Revealed
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The air in the facility grew colder as the distorted voice echoed through the room. Kaito's hand tightened around his spear, his senses on high alert. Every inch of his body screamed that they were in danger. The woman in the tank—her glowing, unnatural eyes—held his gaze, as if she were aware of their presence, aware that they were here to uncover the truth. But what truth? What had they stumbled upon?
"Who are you?" Kaito demanded, his voice steady despite the dread creeping up his spine.
There was a pause before the voice crackled to life again. "I am... many things. But for now, I am your answer. Or perhaps... your doom."
The words sent a shiver down Kaito's spine, but his resolve only strengthened. Whoever was behind this, whatever they were planning, it had to be stopped.
"We came here to find out what's really going on," Kaito continued, his voice cutting through the heavy silence. "What happened to the infected, and why are they behaving like this?"
Another pause, longer this time, as if the voice were considering how much to reveal. When it spoke again, its tone was colder than before.
"You think the infected are the enemy? No. The true threat lies deeper than you can imagine. The infection, the Watchers—everything you've witnessed so far is the result of a far greater force at work. The Watchers… they were never meant to be your enemy. They are a symptom. The real infection is something else. Something far older. And it's been here all along."
Kaito's mind raced, his thoughts stumbling over each other as he tried to make sense of the cryptic message. The Watchers were just a symptom? Something else was controlling them? The room felt as if it were closing in around him, suffocating him under the weight of the mystery that was slowly unfurling.
He looked at Ayumi, Ryo, Hana, and Akari. They all shared the same confused, uneasy expressions. Whatever this voice was, whatever it had to tell them, it wasn't good. Kaito could feel the growing sense of dread gnawing at him.
"We came here to understand what's happening," Kaito said, his voice firm. "Tell us everything. Now."
The voice on the speakers seemed to chuckle—low and unsettling. "Very well. But be warned, what you learn here may be more than you can handle."
Suddenly, the woman in the tank stirred again. Her body jerked violently, and Kaito's heart skipped a beat. He could hear the faint whirring of the machines hooked up to her, and the hiss of gas escaping from one of the vents. The figure's movements were unnatural, as though she were not fully in control of her own body.
The eyes—those glowing, sickly yellow-green eyes—narrowed, and for a moment, Kaito could have sworn that she was looking directly at him. There was something in those eyes. A knowledge. A warning.
"She's still alive," Ayumi murmured, her voice barely audible.
The woman's lips parted, and in a voice that sounded both distant and intimate, she spoke again.
"You think you're the first to come here? The first to seek answers? No. You're just the latest in a long line of fools. The facility was never abandoned. It was left... to lure you in. We were waiting for you. Waiting for someone who could finally hear the truth."
Kaito's blood ran cold as the woman's words sank in. The facility hadn't been abandoned. It had been set up as a trap. They were meant to find it. To discover it.
"Why?" Kaito asked, his voice strained. "Why wait for us? Why…"
The woman's body seemed to go limp in the tank, her eyes fluttering closed for a moment. Then, she spoke again, this time with a clarity that sent chills down Kaito's spine.
"Because you… are the key. You and your power."
The words struck Kaito like a blow. His hand trembled around the spear, but he remained silent. He was the key? How? Why?
"You've been chosen," the woman continued, her voice now more of a whisper. "But not by fate, by design. You are the one who can end this. The Watchers, the infection, the system... everything you've seen so far. It's all connected. And you... with the power of the system, and the title you hold as the Slayer, you are the only one who can bring this to a halt."
Kaito's mind was racing, his thoughts tangling in knots. The Slayer? He had assumed the title was a result of his actions, but now it seemed like more—like it was part of something larger, something orchestrated. Was the system that had been guiding him, the notifications and powers he had been receiving, somehow part of this plan? Was the infection a side effect of the system itself?
"You're saying the system… the power I have is linked to the infection?" Kaito's voice was barely a whisper.
The woman's eyes flickered open, and she nodded slowly. "Yes. The system you have... it's not just a tool. It's a force that has been awakened, tied to the infection itself. The Watchers are only one piece of a much bigger puzzle, but you, Kaito Takeda, you have been chosen to unlock it."
Kaito's breath caught in his throat. "Unlock it?" he repeated, his voice trembling. "What are you saying? What do I have to do?"
The woman's eyes gleamed, almost as if she were amused. "The Watchers aren't the endgame. They're only the beginning. What they were trying to achieve… they wanted to create an army. And you were the key to their success. But you're more than that now. You have the power to stop them."
Kaito's heart pounded in his chest. He was the key? The thought was overwhelming. His mind kept returning to the System—was it connected to everything happening around them? Was it creating these challenges, these enemies, all as part of some grand design? And now, he had the power to stop it? But how?
Before he could respond, the voice in the room crackled again, its tone darker now.
"Be careful. The power you wield is not yours to control. It was never meant to be. And with it, comes great responsibility. The Watchers are just the beginning of something far more dangerous. The real enemy is still out there."
Suddenly, the ground beneath them shook with a deep, rumbling sound. The walls of the room trembled as if the facility itself were alive and breathing. Then, the lights in the room flickered out, plunging them into darkness.
A low growl echoed through the shadows, a sound that didn't belong in the sterile, clinical space. Kaito's heart pounded in his chest as he tried to adjust to the darkness, reaching for his weapon. The whirring of machinery came to an abrupt halt, replaced by the unsettling sound of footsteps—slow, deliberate, and uneven.
"Get ready," Kaito whispered, his voice steady but laced with tension. "Stay close. Whatever's coming, we face it together."
The sounds of movement grew louder, drawing closer. Then, from the corner of the room, a figure emerged from the shadows—a grotesque, mutated version of a human, its skin pale and stretched taut over an emaciated frame. Its eyes, glowing with the same sickly yellow-green hue as the woman in the tank, locked onto them. It didn't make a sound, but it was unmistakable.
It was one of the infected, but it was different—much worse than any they had encountered before.
The air grew colder still, and the mutated figure took another step forward, its body moving in unnatural jerks. Kaito gripped his spear tightly, his pulse quickening. This wasn't just another infected. This was something far more dangerous.
And then, it spoke, in the same distorted voice that had come through the speakers earlier.
"You've come too far. And now, you're too late."
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Mission Update:
Objective: Investigate the facility and uncover the truth behind the infected's behavior.
Status: In Progress
Reward: Unknown
New Objective: Defend the group and survive the encounter with the mutated infected.
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