Blademaster Ascension

30- Deception

Rowan's thoughts raced as he tried to envision what had happened inside the core region that triggered the self-destruction alarm. There were too many unknown factors mixed in. Firstly, he didn't know much about how the mechanical system in the bunker worked. Technology so advanced were things of distant past. Technologies with self destructive mechanics were not unheard of. But that was only limited to explosives or delicate mechanical instruments that had only temporary use.

As far as he knew, the bunkers were valued the most because they contained legacies, as well as having unimaginable technologies that indicated the magnificent scale of civilization in the ancient era. Then, if it could be assumed that the purpose of the bunkers was to spread the legacies to future human civilization, then why would it start to self destruct when they hadn't even reached the core region where the legacies are supposedly kept?

No, there was a big gap in his logic! Why did he assume that the legacies were still inside the core region? Why would he assume that somebody hadn't gone ahead and collected them by now? The bunker was open to anyone under seventeen.

It made sense. If someone had already gone inside the core region despite the monsters living around it, it naturally indicated that this person was highly resourceful as well as being close to a rank one creature. Or perhaps, they had already reached rank one. If that was the case, then they had a high chance to collect the legacies in there, and thus the bunker would have served its purpose. Could it be theorized that the person intentionally triggered the self-destruction of the bunker to ward off the rest of the teens who had just entered for the same purpose as them?

But what would they get out of such actions? It'd even expose them to some extent. Rowan's thoughts jumbled together into a mess.

"Let's get back," Soren, who had finally broken out of his daze, proposed in a low voice. His thoughtful eyes indicated that he had figured out something already. No one argued with his suggestion as they picked up their things and ran back as fast as possible. If the ringing alarm was true, then the bunker would likely explode or collapse. Being situated underground, those who stayed inside would be trapped with no way to get out unless someone could excavate the soil from outside.

The bunker was now no different than a packet of explosives under their bum. No one wanted to stay here waiting for it to explode.

As they ran, they with met different teams who had taken the same decision as them. Slowly, their numbers increased. Many of them were in terrible condition. They had been unlucky enough to encounter rather powerful monster beasts in the depth of the bunker. A few were significantly injured as well.
Rushing as if death was on their tail, they stormed out of the bunker and climbed up to the mouth of the ravine where several people stood, staring them with confusion.

"What happened? Why are you back so early? What's the rush?"

"Did you encounter any particularly powerful monster beast?"

"Why are you all together? Aren't there supposed to be teams of five?"

Questions after questions were hurled at them. The panicked teens briefed them about the general situation. Immediately, some of the adults exchanged imperceptible glances and rushed inside the ravine to verify their own guesses. Everything was a blur. Rowan was sweating hard. Things were starting to look bad. What would happen if the bunker was really destroyed and nobody gets a legacy? Would the powerful denizens of the town who had wasted a lion's share of their life in hope of finding a legacy stay still?

While Rowan warily gazed at the back of the adults who probably were infuriated beyond words by now, a large guy slipped beside him from the crowd. Rowan turned to see Isa gazing at the adults too with a calculating look in his eyes.