Escaping The Mine [1]

Gio remembered this incident from his past life very well.

The company that owned the mine had acquired an experimental technology that could create a "multiplying beast."

In theory, if one took a tamed mutated beast and injected it with the serum, it would be able to duplicate itself and multiply its working potential.

However, the company that made the serum based all of its research on the concept of "domesticated" beasts.

There was a distinction between "tamed" beasts and "domesticated" beasts that they forgot to make. From the beginning, the serum was defective. 

Not realizing this, the company used the mine site to test the serum and see if they could replace some of their slaves. 

The result?

A single mutated beast multiplied into hundreds of mutated beasts and rampaged. It killed any human it came across, causing havoc on the surface.

That was the danger that the current Gio was facing, but he knew that wasn't all.

'Almost as if fate was against us from the beginning, there was a second threat as well.'

Somewhere in this very mine, a group of miners had broken into a cave ecosystem that they hadn't captured on the sensors. The beasts that were living in that cave were also swarming out into the world. 

And there was one fact that always remained true.

Unless a beast was truly domesticated, its base instinct would always be to attack humans. That was the kind of change brought about by the Forthcoming.

'We have to get out of here as soon as possible.'

Gio grabbed Ricky by the arm and started running without looking back at the group of mutated beasts.

"Follow me!"

"Huh? Uh, oh yeah…"

Ricky muttered incoherently and allowed Gio to drag him. Seeing beasts in such close proximity could never be a good thing for someone's psyche.

As they ran in the opposite directions, screams rang out from the mine entrance. It was obvious what was happening. 

'I prepared for this day. I checked the [Memory Book] and confirmed it. We have to get out of here within the next hour.' 

Because after one hour, sixteen minutes, and fifty-three seconds, everyone and everything left in the vicinity of this mine would go up in smoke.

As they moved past several other miners, Gio and Ricky arrived at the locker room where they stored their personal belongings in the morning.

Gio promptly locked the door behind them and forced it to remain locked with a nearby steel bar. 

"Do you have anything important at your apartment?" 

Ricky thought for a moment before shaking his head.

"Not really. My main place isn't on-site, anyway."

"Good."

It was the same for him. There wasn't a single thing in his apartment that he cared for. Opening his locker, Gio revealed an assortment of things that he absolutely shouldn't have been able to bring into the mine.

"Five homemade explosives…"

He took them and carefully placed them on the belt he'd prepared.

"This bat…"

It was an ordinary baseball bat covered in barbed wire. It was a weapon older than time itself and one of the only weapons Gio could possibly afford and attain at the current moment.

"And…"

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Suddenly, there was a loud banging on the door.

"HELP! HELP US!"

There were muffled screams coming from the other side. At least three people were crying out.

Ricky's body trembled. He looked at the door with a hesitant expression and–

"Step back. Leave them."

Gio was pointing his bat at him with eyes saying that he would strike if he made any dumb moves. 

GRRR–!

"Hear that?"

The growling of a beast soon followed those voices. Gio pointed it out as if he knew it was coming. 

"It's already too late to save people." 

If anyone had come this way when they first entered the locker room, it might have been possible to let them in.

Not anymore.

Right now, this area needed to remain inaccessible so the mutated beasts thought that it was no more than a wall.

If they thought that, then they'd move along while completely ignoring the room. They were not intelligent beings, after all. 

It was hard to make sacrifices. As someone who came back to save humanity, it was even harder for Gio.

However, he accepted long ago that in order to secure the world he wanted to create for the people he wanted to save, he would have to act decisively sometimes. 

While allowing Ricky to come to terms with everything, Gio looked at the last item waiting for him in the locker. 

When he regressed, Gio knew that he wouldn't be starting with a lot of money. He only had what his thirteen-year-old self had saved up. 

It wasn't much, but it was still enough to buy some good things. If he was resolute in spending it all…

Well, that was how he got his hands on it.

"A black market shield projector."

It looked like a small black slate roughly six inches long, but it had the ability to project a barrier in times of need that could save its user from death. 

'Of course, it's a black market product, so it isn't guaranteed to work. This is the best I could get my hands on, so I can only hope it at least works the first time.' 

If it could save him once, that was enough.

"Hey, Muddy, are you done?"

Ricky commented nervously from behind. Gio could hear them too. The screams and the sound of mutant beasts growling and roaring were coming closer.

"Yeah, I'm done. Let's get going. Also, what the hell is a 'Muddy?'"

"Uh, Mud Rat seemed rude, so I made up a new one. It's like 'mud buddy' instead."

For a moment, Gio wondered if it would be better to leave an idiot like him behind.

'Well, a debt's a debt.'

Rolling his eyes, he looked at the locker room door. There were two entrances to this place. One of them led to the mine and the other led to the city outside.

'Neither are safe, but we're trying to escape, so we have to go that way eventually.'

Gio had the exact layout of the mine and its vicinity memorized. He also knew every possible path to every possible exit. [Memory Book] made it possible for him to make calculations that would make other people's minds burst.

The beasts that charged into the mine entrance were going to continue deeper into the mines until they could no longer sense any humans. 

At that point, they'd return back to the surface accompanied by the mutated beasts that had just escaped from the underground world. 

Taking the door to the city might've seemed like the better option, however…

Gio waited. The impatient Ricky signaled him from the side and urged him to leave, but he didn't move.

Though Ricky made it seem like he was going to leave regardless of what Gio thought, he stayed and complained, pretending like he would leave only to rush Gio. 

He also might've been doing it to calm himself down. After all, it was harder to hear the screaming outside over his own voice.

But that was also because the screams were further away. 

"Ricky, no matter what you see, keep your eyes forward and follow me. You hear me?"

"Mhm."

Ricky nodded his head with a firm expression. Gio looked into his eyes seriously before nodding.

It looked strange from a thirteen-year-old, but Ricky found it hard to consider Gio younger than him. The boy was simply too mature. 

That was why, instead of choosing the city door, he chose to open the door back to the mine.

And that was why he kept a cold face when Ricky couldn't help but vomit at the sight they saw when he did. 

That door opened to complete silence. Echoing from the depths of the mine came the sounds of mutated beasts, but the area in front of them was silent.

No, there was one sound.

The sound of blood dripping onto the cold rock. Tens of corpses lined the walls and the floor. Their blood was splattered everywhere, and assorted pieces of limbs and intestines were strewn about.

Ricky's stomach gave up on him. He vomited everything in his system while Gio sighed and waited for him.

He understood it. Corpses were hard to get used to no matter what environment one grew up in. 

Still, Ricky was a tenacious one. After only a minute, he shakily stood up and looked at the ceiling, trying his best to ignore the gory scene below.

"Le- let's go."

Gio nodded, living up to his stuttering bravery.

Grabbing his arm, he led him up the sloped entrance to the mine.

"It's going to get worse from here, and I won't be able to lead you the entire way. We'll have to run, and in the worst case, we'll have to fight. That's the only way we'll survive and make it out of here."

He looked at Ricky, who was still shaking while trying to hide his fear.

"Can you do it?"

Ricky genuinely didn't think he could do it. Knowing what kind of person he was and what he'd experienced, he knew that this was the kind of place where he could only die.

It was better for the young kids who had bright futures like Gio to make it out instead.

But, in this situation, Gio was the one trying to save him.

'If I give up and leave this kid alone, he'll die.'

His reasoning was a bit flawed, but it came from a good place. 

With that thought, he firmed his mind and steeled his heart.

By the time they reached the exit of the mine, his eyes were no longer facing the ceiling. 

Gio's planning meant that they'd been able to stay away from any of the actual violence thus far. 

However, that ended now.

Now that they were back on ground level, they were seeing the true madness caused by human greed.