Story Reader / Border Pact / Southwood Road / Story
NO.44 Bamboo Garden
>Southwood Road...
Less than a thousand kilometers from Kowloong Metropolis.
It was a scantily populated seaside area even back in its heyday, nothing compared to the major East Asian cities.
What interest could the President have in this place?
Cabin, this is Mother Swan-2. We are approaching Southwood Road FOB (forward operating base) temporary runway.
...Looks like it's not the time to read through files.
Babylonia Support Force, codename "Abyss E3714". Identify yourself.
Verifying... Verification successful. Babylonia Task Force, [player name], Mission E-A-3317.
Mission briefing commences in: 33 minutes, 14 seconds. Location: Tent 4.
After the conversation—obviously a template—the service Construct stalks off.
...Eh, saved me a lot of trouble.
The briefing will begin now.
I am the leader of task force "Dodo"—don't ask about the name. None of your concern.
I'm just here to hand over the details and access to Mission E-A-3317 to you.
All right, enough chitchat.
Next, I will be going over the mission details and handing over the base supplies and command authority of the Support Force.
You can read about the situation at Southwood Road in the file. If I have to describe it... due to certain necessities of the post-pandemic generation, the place is not exactly abandoned.
Didn't even read the file, huh?
This section was shared by two major East Asian cities—that is to say, before the pandemic, it was pretty much no man's land.
When the pandemic happened, the two major cities exiled the incurable humans and possibly infected mechanoids to this area.
As you know, "humane treatment" is usually reserved only for humans.
Still, what they called "humane treatment" was simply to offer the incurable humans rations and ammunition enough to last them four lifetimes.
Back then, "Arcadia" had priority over everything.
...Anyway, let's not waste time talking about this. Let's move on to the transfer process—
[Verification successful. Mission Commander: [player name]]
My mission is done here. I suggest that you find an excuse to get rid of this ticking time bomb as soon as you can.
Nothing good will come out of it, trust me.
An hour after I landed and finished with the procedures, the Gray Raven transportation craft arrives and lands, following the laser guidance signals.
Commandant! I bet you've added me to the team because there's something Lucia can't handle alone, haven't you?
Move to the side, Karenina. You're in the way of the Support Force.
Technically speaking, it's true that there's something I can't handle, but the main reason is—
...That's right.
Tch, whatever... truth is that Lucia can't do it on her own!
Um...
Can we... chat after we've reached the target?
...
...
What... was... that...?
What fresh hell is this?
Countless tents and mud stoves surround the gigantic, battered manmade structure.
However, the supposed inhabitants of these tents are nowhere in sight.
No need to investigate. I show no heat signals from the tents.
Even if they wore those, there would still be movement detectable to ten-thousandth of an inch. There's nothing.
Therefore, there are no humans in the tents—at least not live ones.
Liv, air and soil analysis, please.
On it.
...No human organic elements have been detected in either the soil or the air.
According to the files, over a thousand scavengers from cities including 015, 049, 063 and more live here.
Scanning the large structure surrounded by the tents.
Multiple—no—a swarm of Corrupted signals detected.
...None.
No, there's one...
As I'm a specialized prototype customized by Star of Life, my Inver-Device is slightly better at detecting life signs.
Liv immediately syncs the marked location on her holo-map to her terminal.
Roger!
