Death

Vero woke up from a long nap. The first thing he saw was an unfamiliar white ceiling in the underground facility. He sprung up from it in a panic. He checks if his body is fine after what he went through. He pinched himself to check if this was a dream. He concluded that this was real.

"What is that!?"

The pain he felt was out of this world. It's worse than having a fever on the slum streets.

[Sorry, we have some technical issues with our procedure]

Rage built up inside him as he heard the voice. He thinks that this is a sick joke by the A.I. for their amusement. Vero has been through this before

"Do you have fun messing with me!?"

[We do not take pleasure in body-harming, but if the subject requests it, we would gladly comply.]

"What a load of bullshit."

[We apologize for our mistake. Please accept this...]

"I don't want anything! Just get me out of this place! "

He shouted at the air and the A.I. metallic voice seemed to stop. He was getting nervous in this unfamiliar space, and the A.I. voice seemed creepier in his head.

[Very well,The subject can follow the line on the floor to an elevator. It will lead you to the first floor.]

Vero is surprised that the A.I. cooperates. He thought that it would deny his request and trap him there. This makes it even weirder. He gets up from the "healing pod" and follows the blue line on the floor. He follows it to the same elevator that he'd been in earlier.

The monster's head has been cleaned off of it. Leaving no trace of its green blood. He took the elevator up to the first floor. Seeing the hallway and room that he ran through to save his life still gives him chills.

He walks through, unsure of what he wants to do. He is stuck in the middle of the ruin without water or food. Even in the slum, you can find trash and eat it, but in the ruin, you only have a hard wall and old-world relics.

Vero starts walking around, making his way through the Dumo tower slowly. Checking to see if there are any monsters in here. Even though he could find nothing but, he was still on high alert.

Finally, he was out of the tower. Gazing at the sight of a ruined city covered in dust. The street is unorganized and the buildings that surround the Dumo tower have been swept over time. The only thing that's still in perfect shape is the Dumo tower.

Vero goes to explore one of the buildings. He was hoping to find something he could use or eat. When he entered the building, he noticed that everything was in disarray.Empty bookcase, broken table, and filthy carpet. Vero walks past them all, finding almost nothing of value.

Maybe he could use something in here, but he has no idea what any of this does. Most of the items here are gone, and what's left is some paper and empty bottles.

Vero decides to give up after an hour of searching. He concludes that this place has been wiped clean, or he's just too dumb to know what's useful. Maybe it's more of the latter. Vero's plan was to go up to the top of the building to see where he could go next.

However, when all hope is lost, he's stopped by something moving at the edge of his vision. He turned to look at what it was and was delighted by what he saw. It's a van running to the ruin at high speed.

'I'm saved!'

He's excited about his find and rushes downstairs to call for the truck.

"Hey!!! Save me!!! "

He yelled at the top of his lungs. Running with all this strength, trying to

He runs to catch a ride that may be his only ticket back to the city. He's so happy in this situation, after suffering all that, he'd be free. Vero's mind is optimistic to compensate for all the pain he suffered.

The van seemed to have noticed him and started coming for Vero. They seem to speed up for some reason, but Vero doesn't understand why. When they're about to reach him, something reaches him first.

A gaping mouth of a ruin tracker is visible in Vero's vision. While running and screaming, he attracts the attention of a ruin tracker. At that moment, time seems to stop while Vero has a flashback to when he was with Fran and his stupid dream of becoming a hunter.

Vero got swallowed whole. He remembers that time when he watched someone get eaten by this thing, and now he is going to feel it firsthand.

Inside the van, Cherry and her group are shocked as a ruin tracker appears out of nowhere and swallows the kid that they're about to save.

"What!? Elley! How did the ruin tracker get this close!?"

Cheery said while climbing up to shoot the monster down. She is upset at Elley, who can't detect a big monster up close.

"I don't know why, but our tracker can't pick up anything at all. It lost its scanning ability for a moment, like something was interfering with it."

"You think I would believe that?"

"Please, I'm doing my best here."

"Cut her some slack Cherry, Elley's not been on our team for that long. And I think your temper is rather short lately."

Max, the driver, chimes in, trying to calm down his best friend.

"Can you blame me!? That shitty ass policy that the higher up is passing is outrageous. They don't even value our effort anymore!"

She could not hold the rage in. Her gang situation right now is a total mess. The change that has been made by the management of the inner wall has set in motion infighting and a mass migration of veteran hunters. Many of them quit the gang, including her team's former tracker. A recently promoted veteran hunter replaced him.

"That's understandable, but Elley is not the person you should yell at, you know."

"Hmp," she always pouts if she can't find a word to fight back.

"Moreover, it's not like we really care about that kid anyway, right?"

In the wasteland, it is common to see someone's life being taken away by the environment and monsters. So another person dying is like a drop of water in the ocean. Someone with a kind heart wouldn't last long in the lawless land.

"Well, yes, but I didn't want to see someone die right in front of my eyes. Especially a kid."

"Wow, what a kind-hearted person you are. Find it in you to forgive Elley, will you?"

"hmp"

The group takes down a ruin tracker and heads back to O'ruma city to report their finding.