My Vampire Older Sister and Zombie Little Sister

To be honest, no one was able to react.

The Vampire Archenemy rushed at us completely out of the blue. It was my older sister, Amatsu Erika. An undead was attacking me with bloodshot eyes and I was only human. Anastasia was a maid fairy and the Sylpheed was a finger-sized fairy who could only use her sniping ability from a distance of several hundred meters to a few kilometers, so they could not fight indoors. That meant no one could stop my sister.

So.

When our lives were saved, it naturally came from someone else within Absolute Noah.

A slender arm grabbed my older sister’s shoulder from behind while she made her charge. The accumulated inertial force did not matter. Erika’s body was thrown back inside Absolute Noah like she was being sent back the way she came or like she had an invisible elastic cord around her neck.

We had been saved by…

“Ayumi!? You’re hurt!!”

“Fuguu. Stay away from here, Onii-chan! The hell inside here isn’t something a human should see!!”

Ayumi yelled back at me and then moved back inside. She disappeared into the depths. No, she was forced to fight back to make sure Erika did not get back up and attack again.

But what was that?

Why was my kind older sister growling like a beast!? What had happened inside the ark? Was the Calamity really that indiscriminate!?

“User, the door will relock in another 60 seconds. Whether you stay outside or go inside, make a choice you will not regret.”

Once it closed, there would be no opening it again. And if I went inside, I could not safely get back out.

But the choice was obvious.

“Sorry, Anastasia.”

“Oh, you are not going in there alone. If we’re doing this, we’re doing it together.”

“I only wanted to open the door so I could save Lady Charlotte. If things are even worse than I had thought, that is all the more reason to go in. What other choice do I have now?”

Whatever the case, we had no time.

We still could not accurately judge the risk, but we nevertheless stepped inside the hell that Absolute Noah had become…

The door closed behind us with an especially loud noise. There was no turning back now.

“So this is the place…”

Now that I had set foot inside the “real” ark, I found it was too large to imagine its overall form based on what I saw.

It was called a boat for convenience’s sake, but what was it really? A shelter, a rocket, or a submarine submerged in the dam? The interior was made up of windowless metal doors and lots of pipes, so it made me think of a warship tilted vertically. That said, it did not feel at all cramped and had to be even larger than a warship.

According to my stepmom, Amatsu Yurina, they could only give out a few thousand tickets and the rest of the 7 billion people would be carried on to the next generation by having genetic samples kept in cold storage.

…But that meant this single facility had enough room for all the necessary living space and storage facilities. Since a school could only hold a few hundred, this was definitely extraordinary. Even a nuclear aircraft carrier would have a hard job providing “sufficient” living space. If this really functioned as some kind of vehicle, it had to be a world record.

There was no sign of Ayumi or Erika.

But there were strange dents in the walls and floor. Not to mention dark red stains. I did not want to imagine which one of them had left those. It was inappropriate and wrong of me, but part of me was hoping that it came from a complete stranger.

“I wonder where everyone is,” said the finger-sized Sylpheed.

Everyone.

It shouldn’t have been surprising, but she used that one warm word to refer to all the people here. With the exception of my family, I viewed them all as complete and utter villains, but the Sylpheed would see it differently since she was here to save them.

In that case, her goal would be even more difficult than mine. I only had to save the few members of my family, but the Sylpheed had to save everyone.

Anastasia grabbed onto my clothes and spoke up.

“But…yes. This is strange. I don’t know how large a space this is, but there are thousands of people closed in here, right? Isn’t it eerily quiet for having a small village’s worth of people gathered in a single location?”

It was not that we had seen no signs of life.

At the very least, my Vampire older sister and Zombie little sister were still active.

But what about “everyone” else?

Where were the Absolute Noah members, including Amatsu Yurina?

And weren’t we forgetting something?

My sisters had a certain special trait.

They were a Vampire and a Zombie.

Those undead could spread at just about the worst rate imaginable.

“…It can’t be.”

A groaning voice left my mouth. It sounded like I had vocalized my cold sweat and it seemed to be revealing how I was already distrusting my own family.

“That can’t be!!”

“Ah, Truth! Stop!”

I could not even hear my small friend urging me to stop.

Ayumi and Erika were my precious family. I could not suspect them. Yet my mind kept churning away. It told me there was no other explanation. It told me it was most logical to assume those two had bitten everyone!

I had no idea what had triggered it. After all, this was the middle of enemy territory. Even if everyone around you was celebrating, wouldn’t you feel worried with thousands of fanatic end-times believers around you? Could you really tell yourself to hold back on using your weapon?

Of course not.

If I was an Archenemy, I wouldn’t have been able to bear it. I would have given into the pressure and started biting people to increase my numbers. I would have tried to secure my safety by stealing away the “power” of the majority.

So could I forgive my sisters for what they had done?

Could I just smile and accept it?

There were blood stains and scars of violence everywhere. Could I just accept that those Archenemies had silenced thousands of people to protect their own lives!?

“Uuh, ugh, bghbh, cough, cough!”

My tension and confusion grew to the point that I nearly vomited. I must not have swallowed the stomach acid very well because I felt a scorching pain in my esophagus.

I couldn’t do it.

I couldn’t bear it.

Where was I? My vision had narrowed. There were steel walls and thick pipes everywhere. I didn’t even know if this was a vehicle or a building, so how was I supposed to know what role this room played? What even was Absolute Noah? A spaceship? A submarine for a sunken world? A time machine? It was absurd, but shouldn’t I assume a facility I had never seen before might be able to do things I had never seen before? Anything could be waiting for me up ahead. Anything could pop out from the shadows, from the gaps between shelves, or from the stains on the walls. Common sense no longer applied, so I had to defend myself on my own. I thought I was calmly cautious as I walked through a few doors, but…how odd. What was this? Why did I have a butcher’s knife in my right hand?

Oh, right. This was a kitchen.

Did the time machine have a kitchen?

“…Sato…ri?”

I heard a scratchy voice.

I turned around and saw someone giving me a disbelieving look from the kitchen’s entrance. It was Archenemy Lilith, one of the leaders at the center of the Absolute Noah group. My stepmom looked back and forth between my face and the knife in my hand.

?

After all her plotting, what could possibly make Amatsu Yurina look that shocked? I mean, it was surprising to find this bizarre facility had a kitchen, but with everything going on, wasn’t it perfectly normal to grab a knife to defend yourself?

“Ahh, ahh.”

But she was more flustered than I had ever seen her. Instead of struggling or shouting, she simply sank down to the floor.

And she spoke.

“Ahh! But Erika did nothing wrong. She was only indiscriminately threatening everyone to protect me, Ayumi…and all the Archenemies from the humans’ witch hunt!!”

…eh?

why would she bring up erika here???

and something felt off to me. a wet sensation and a rusty smell. something flowed down between the knife’s grip and my hand. wet, so wet. when i grimaced and stared, i saw something placed on top of the cold silver countertop. no, something laid there. was it a large animal? or a fish maybe? it was too covered in red to tell, it was shaking just a bit, it didn’t look at all like food, and i knew i shouldn’t waste food, but even in that horrific state, it smiled and spoke.

“Don’t worry… This isn’t your fault, Satori-kun. You were just affected by the spreading mass insanity of the Calamity…”

ah.

ahh.

ahhh…

“Wha-…ah…eh?”

I immediately threw away the knife that clung to my palm with a strange stickiness. What…what in the world was happening!? Why did I have my older sister on the stainless steel countertop while I chopped her to pieces like a small child who had no idea how to cook!?

“Don’t look, Satori!!”

Seeing my panic must have brought her back to her senses because my stepmom looked up and quickly shouted at me from the floor.

But it was too late.

The red below my fingernails disgusted me. What was that wet and squishily soft feeling on my palm? What had I done? What had happened during the blinding gap in my memories!? What had I done!?

“Thank…goodness.”

Erika.

How can you smile after this happened!?

“I’m so glad…you managed to snap out of it…”

If she had wanted to, she could have easily fought back. She could have easily grabbed the knife and crushed it and my hand with it.

But she hadn’t.

She had refused to let anyone die. She would not let me die and she would not let me kill someone else. So she had continued to draw my attention while unable to attack someone as fragile as me. Because while I was busy destroying her, I could not turn that blade on someone else, like Ayumi or our stepmom.

So…

Even as it continued on and on…

“Satori!”

My stepmom hugged me so that her body blocked the view.

“This is the horror of the Calamity. It isn’t something you can fight on your own. The fear and confusion push explosively in from outside and there is nothing you can do. So, Satori, you don’t need to feel guilty!”

…What did that matter?

“I’m a Vampire…cough. So as long as…I’m not hit in the…heart and don’t have my head chopped…off, I’ll be fine. Don’t worry. This won’t even leave a scar…”

…Was that supposed to lessen my crime here?

I had no memory of it. I had committed such a horrific crime, but the depths of my heart were still trying to pretend it hadn’t happened! I’m such a piece of shit!! I had such a remorseful look on my face, but I was trying to just forget any of it had happened!

Could I really go on living?

Right!? Could a creature as grotesque as this really be allowed to continue breathing!!!???

“No! Mom, attack Satori-kun! Cough, he’s going to bite his tongue!!”

“So it’s just like depression. The more serious and responsible the person, the more easily the Calamity pulls them down. I’m sorry, Satori!!”

Something wrapped around my neck.

At some point, my stepmom had moved behind me.

I felt something pulsing on the sides of my neck. The pulsing grew and grew until it seemed to fill my entire head. There was nothing I could do. The term “carotid artery” came to mind, but I was not a judo fighter. My already narrowed vision shrank further and was finally enveloped in darkness.

I felt a dull pain like my brain was being slowly massaged.

“Uuh…”

After I grimaced and groaned, I found Erika, Ayumi, and our stepmom staring down at me.

“Wah! Ahhhhh!? Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

It was heartrending.

I was too much of a coward to get up, so I simply screamed. I showed off my weakness to try to earn their sympathy. Given who was the victim and who was the perpetrator, I should have bowed down in apology, but I robbed my sister of the right to be the weaker one.

“It’s okay.”

Her gothic lolita dress was in tatters and stained with lots of blood. That showed just how gruesome a scene it had been, but she still smiled kindly at me.

“You’re crying because of the regret and self-blame. That means you’re still a human being who loves us. So don’t be afraid. The world isn’t going to take anything more from you.”

No.

That wasn’t what I wanted to say.

I tried to speak up, but my throat and tongue were shaking too much to form the words. But if it wasn’t that, what was it? You coward. Did you really have the courage to accept the blame for what you did?

In the end, I had been hoping my family would smile and forgive me for breaking. There had been no other compromise for me.

I had tried to take the easy way out with death. I was enough of a fool to stop thinking there, so I had never thought of any option other than having someone else reach out to me.

I was a coward who had avoided facing the thorny path needed to make up for my crimes, so what good was trying to save face now?

“Sorry…Erika…I’m sorry…”

“It’s okay.”

She was not an idiot.

She had to have seen through it all as she smiled at me like that. And she would have done the same thing no matter how many times she was placed in the same situation. If the alternative was killing a family member, she would accept the blade. That was the noble path she would choose.

“Why did you come to Absolute Noah, Satori-kun? I can only imagine it was my indulgence. You heard me in the communication tower, didn’t you? You heard me in a moment of weakness.”

“…”

That was true.

But I didn’t want to blame her here. This was my crime. I couldn’t let anything else lighten that burden.

“I tried to drag you into this in that moment of weakness, Satori-kun. Even though I knew better than anyone what it was like in here. While wandering through this atmosphere of death, I just wanted to see you again and I didn’t think about the consequences. There is no excuse for that. I don’t want to place the blame on the Calamity.”

…This was the power of the mysterious and formless Calamity.

It was a madness and violence that was explosively infectious. It had even worked its way into that noble sister’s heart and created that moment of weakness.

I had stopped the chain reaction started from Wild@Hunt’s collapse, but what would have happened if this had spread across the entire planet? This ark was meant to survive the destruction of the world. The method may have been extreme, but my stepmom’s fears may not have been entirely unfounded.

I had to change how I looked at this.

The Calamity had spread through the enclosed environment of Absolute Noah. My dad and the rest of my family were in here, but so were Anastasia and the Sylpheed. There was no time to spare. There was a risk that everyone had ended up “like that”, so this ark containing thousands was no different from an insane island on which some gloomy ritual was held. Despite the thousands of people in this closed space, I had not seen any other people like you would at a large train station, but that meant they were all packed into a smaller area. If something caused a shift in that distribution, they could come pouring in here. Whether they meant harm or not, when shivering chickens huddled together for warmth, the ones in the center could be crushed to death.

“Mom, Ayumi, and Erika. I’ll make up for what I did later, but I want to know the situation. Some people came here with me and I can’t lose them here.”

According to my panicked stepmom back in that hellish kitchen, Absolute Noah had split into a human side and an immortal side and the humans had grown hostile toward the Archenemies.

Since they were weaker individually, they had used their numbers to begin a witch hunt, so Erika had been playing the role of a violent Archenemy to deter them.

Did that mean the humans were in the majority?

And was Ayumi fighting with Erika as a part of the act, or had Ayumi been fooled by Erika’s act?

It was my stepmom, Amatsu Yurina, who gave me the details.

“Currently, Absolute Noah has been split in two. The Archenemies like us are holed up in the central command while the humans are using the engine room as their base. Mutual trust has completely collapsed. It looks like a balance of power has settled in, but the humans fully control the power supply and they can neutralize all of the electronic locks with a total blackout. That means they can make an attack at any time. And in the absolute worst case, they can overload the engine and kill us all in a giant explosion.”

Central control?

Engine room?

…That made the place sound like an unbelievably large ship, submarine, airplane, or rocket, but I did not have time to ask about it now. Moving the ark would not give us a way of safely reaching my dad or Anastasia, so I didn’t need that.

“Let’s assume the worst. How large would this explosion be?”

“…Big enough to not just destroy Kukyou City, but to blow away the 5 closest prefectures and rip the Japanese Archipelago in two.”

What the hell!? Did this ark have a nuclear engine!? And we weren’t talking about a midair explosion! Even if you set off a nuke deep below the dam, wouldn’t the thick bedrock suppress the blast like during underground nuclear tests!?

I decided to set aside my own mistakes for the moment.

“…Mom, you really need to think about what you’ve done. You’ve gone way too far.”

“Yes, that’s finally started to hit home. I’m doing some real soul searching…”

They must have never imagined the infectious madness would spread through the ark and hijack the engine room. The ark legend required the inside of the ark to be a sanctuary.

“Where is Anastasia?”

“Um, is she here?”

Amatsu Yurina’s confusion told me what I had to do: locate Anastasia and the Sylpheed.

“Next comes dad. You said you were bringing him here in the truck, but is he not with you?”

“I said the humans and Archenemies split apart, didn’t I?”

…I had a bad feeling about this.

This was even more complicated than I had imagined. Or should I think of it as a single ray of hopeful sunlight?

“Your father was caught in the initial confusion and ended up on the human side. We have not heard from him since. It wasn’t like he wanted to join them. It was more like being caught in a crowded train and unable to get off at your station… He also used to be a Bright Cross researcher, so they might be forcing him to do some kind of work in Absolute Noah’s engine room. …I just hope he isn’t repeating the mistake of taking the Archenemies’ side without reading the room first.”

That gave me a second objective.

We needed to find a way to get my dad out of the deepest and most dangerous depths. And he had to be alive.

However.

His actions down there could prevent the giant explosion of the worst case scenario. He held the golden key that no one else could touch.

“…I don’t like it, but we just have to go for it. Maxwell!”

“Sure.”

“I don’t remember it, but I must have caused you some trouble. We’re really getting started now, so prepare the necessary processing space. Create a new simulation file and flag it as a top priority task.”

“What shall I name the file?”

I took a deep breath.

And I answered.

“How to pick a fight with the end of the world.”

We had to start with the basics.

“This is the relaxation gym. Simply put, it’s a large room for getting some exercise. That might sound silly, but it is a necessity for people to survive in a closed environment like Absolute Noah.”

Even the strictest prison would have an exercise room. So even the most violent of criminals would break if they did not have this.

“It would be best to picture Absolute Noah as a giant tower located at the bottom of the dam’s reservoir lake. It would be about 40 stories tall, I think. But unlike normal, Absolute Noah isn’t made to detach pieces during the ascent. As I said, the engine room provides such a massive amount of energy that there is no real weight limit for the payload.”

“That alone would make this truly extraordinary. The weight is a standard concern for both ships and airplanes. This completely defies the science of planes and ships.”

“Our technology has surpassed that of humans alone, Satori.”

It was true I had seen the Sylpheed who could break the sound barrier on her own, so it was possible Archenemies had some crazy ideas about flight tech.

“The blocks related to life support tend to be at the top and the blocks necessary for movement tend to be at the bottom. That means we are relatively near the top and the main airlock you entered through was on the very top level. Meanwhile, your father is in the engine room at the very bottom.”

“Hm.”

“Also, the middle levels contain everything else. Most notably, the storage facilities for the wild flora and fauna and the genetic samples for the people who were not chosen.”

“…So if we’re going to search the entire structure, we’ll need a safe way of moving up and down.”

“There are emergency stairs and a freight elevator. They weren’t given much focus because normal gravitational calculations wouldn’t really be necessary when Absolute Noah is running properly.”

…Surely she wasn’t going to say they would produce artificial gravity from the centrifugal force of spinning the entire cylindrical structure.

“Fuguu. What about the old standard of ducts?”

“They’re full of toxin filters. Even if you forced your way through, I think you would only end up sliced to pieces by the giant fans.”

“…Ayumi-chan, this is a huge vertical structure, so most of the ducts would be vertical as well,” said Erika. “But if you want to fall to your death in that narrow gap, I won’t stop you.”

“F-fuguu…”

Ayumi was already deflated. While I hadn’t said anything, I had been seriously considering the same thing, so I was in no position to laugh at her. I couldn’t help but give my little sister a head pat as I spoke up.

“What about the computer that manages the internal security cameras and sensors?”

Those would be invaluable for locating Anastasia and the Sylpheed and we also wanted to avoid having the witch hunt humans know what we were doing. A few thousand people was more than 10 times the population of a normal school, so internal trouble was a distinct possibility. They would surely have some kind of self-defense organization that played the role of police or administrators. Expecting a society of equality and smiles inside this ark was being far too optimistic, so they would need a surveillance and control system.

But my stepmom had this to say:

“You can ignore the cameras and sensors. They are set up, but the central computer meant to process the data was never installed.”

“?”

“Maxwell, Laplace, and Ghost Cat. The plan was to borrow all of the computers you had gathered, hook them up in parallel, and use them as the guardians of the law within Absolute Noah. All to support the simplest law enforcement system after inviting you in as a bridge between the humans and Archenemies.”

“…You can’t just take other people’s possessions…”

So did that mean I would be hell’s Minster of Justice?

On walkthrough sites that provided information on the legends used in games, you would sometimes see a ranked list of medieval demons. The demons’ names were listed alongside titles like “executioner” or “chef”, but it was never clear what exactly those positions meant.

“Really, I was mostly using that so you had an excuse to bring those inorganic machines aboard Absolute Noah,” said my stepmom. “Maxwell was one thing, but Laplace and Ghost Cat were recent additions and it took some doing to work them into the plan. All of it proved unnecessary, though.”

She smiled bitterly at that.

“But is that all? There are no other large computers on Absolute Noah?”

“There are computers in each individual section, but they use a different format and can’t be used to analyze the security camera data.”

…So was this really a vehicle? Whether the arc was a rocket or a submarine, installing multiple computer formats on a single payload was generally a bad idea. That would increase the amount of maintenance tools and spare parts. To reduce the weight, the design would eliminate any competing functions to get rid of every last gram possible.

“So for better or for worse, no one can use the security cameras? No, wait.”

“Onii-chan?”

“Maxwell, wake up Laplace and Ghost Cat. Make a wireless connection and enter standby mode. I’ll be sending you security data from Absolute Noah, so analyze it using all three machines. Then we alone should be able to use the security system! Oh, I’m so glad we have Laplace and Ghost Cat!!”

“…”

“Hey…? Please stop using those dots to express your jealousy!!”

“That was entirely your own fault, Onii-chan. Fuguu.”

Whatever the case, data was our greatest weapon. Knowing the distribution of people throughout the structure would give us a great advantage. It was as unfair as playing hide-and-seek while the person who was “it” watched everything from an airborne drone.

“If the human side doesn’t have the whole picture, they’ll have people posted at the crucial junctures to monitor and control the flow of people with minimal personnel costs. They’re sure to have checkpoints set up at the stairs or elevator. If there isn’t a secret way around, we’ll have to break through there.”

Unlike before, Ayumi, Erika, and my stepmom were all Archenemies who specialized in combat. They might be in trouble if a large group rushed into the limited space, but they would be quite reliable when it came to defeating a few people separated from the group.

“That also means you could create an opportunity by sowing the seeds of doubt by hinting at the existence of a secret route not present in the designs,” said Maxwell. “Shake them well enough and the checkpoint guards may temporarily move elsewhere.”

“Could we make noise and vibrations in the walls?”

“To use the ducts you mentioned before, simply blowing hot air into the chilled stainless steel ducts would cause a denting sound.”

“Oh, like when you pour the hot water from your cup yakisoba into the sink. That might indeed trick them into thinking someone is crawling through the duct.”

It would be effective if it worked, but it was not exactly repeatable. We had to see it as just one option available to us.

“Satori-kun, you’ve been eating that kind of junk alone at night? You’re not immortal like us, so you need to take care of your health.”

“We can discuss that later, Erika.”

“That’s right. Fuguu, you should’ve shared it with me!”

“That was not my point, little sister. Now, mom, about the security cameras. You said the computer itself wasn’t installed, but the internal wiring is all in place, right?”

“I believe so. The law enforcement system should be ready to activate as soon as Maxwell and the others are installed.”

“…Then let’s start with that. Where were the computers going to be installed? Let’s construct a relay system that gathers all the data from the cables and sends it outside.”

We needed to know where exactly Anastasia and my dad were if we were to rescue them. The best way to do that was to have Maxwell and the others process the data from all the cameras and sensors.

Luckily, I knew from the communication tower incident that the communications did work. Plus, the card-sized car navigation system was still linked back to the container at the harbor. I didn’t have to worry whether or not there was a way to get the data out.

My stepmom naturally knew the most about Absolute Noah’s internal structure, so she led us to our destination.

“Mom…how did the three of you avoid the Calamity’s effects?”

“We don’t really know. I’m not confident it isn’t infecting me as we speak.” She sighed and seemed to be smiling bitterly as she walked out ahead. “I think it’s like motion sickness. It’s somewhat influenced by your inherent traits and by your condition on that specific day…but there is no real way of choosing whether or not you will be affected. Everyone there is being constantly shaken by the motion and it isn’t something you can suppress through your own effort once the signs show themselves. If only there was a way to just vomit it out until you had left the winding mountain road.”

Your inherent traits and your condition…

That may have only been a metaphor, but it was true I had not gotten much rest while fighting with the supernatural hackers and Wild@Hunt. I was mostly masking my exhaustion with the energy drink Anastasia had given me.

I had “vomited” once.

And it could always happen again.

I could not afford to forget that. I was in an unstable condition that normally would have warranted locking me behind bars to keep me away from everyone else.

“…”

We arrived at our destination without seeing anyone else along the way. I wasn’t sure if that should make me happy or scared.

“This is the place.”

My stepmom opened an airtight metal door with a round handle to reveal a large chilly room.

A few LCD maintenance monitors and keyboards were installed near the wall and a few dozen fiber optic cables lay on the floor, but none of them were hooked up to anything.

“Then let’s get started. Simply relaying the data shouldn’t be too difficult.”

If we had to carefully assign the proper destination to each piece of data on the giant spider web of the internet, we would probably need a largescale server machine, but we just needed the one pipeline, the burden on the relay machine was greatly reduced.

These days, the smartphone social games everyone played might be hooked up to a giant server system that filled up an entire building. It used a lot of data overall, but the relay antenna bases located in cafes or subway stations were small enough to hold in your hands.

“Have you found a suitable computer?” asked Maxwell.

“Let’s borrow this thermo controller in charge of the giant cold storage room’s temperature control. It isn’t needed without a computer to cool.”

I removed a likely wall panel and stuck a bundle of fiber optic cables into the exposed machinery.

Supercomputers were sometimes stored in rooms larger than a gym, but you could not just cool the entire room. If you did not use sensors to locate the heated sections and provide cooling there, the machines nearest the vents could freeze over. Well, modern air conditioners could check the state of a room and the location of people before sending in the air, so just think of it like an even more incredible version of that.

This of course required a fair amount of data processing, so it could play the role of a small server.

“Copying necessary settings files…done. The thermo controller has been remade into a data relay system. Taking control of Absolute Noah 00’s security devices and beginning data processing.”

This was not so much hacking as it was hooking Maxwell and the others up to the machines they were originally intended for. There was no reason why it wouldn’t work.

“This card-sized car navigation system is a pain. Maxwell, use all the maintenance monitors on the wall.”

“Sure.”

Now, what fate awaited us here?

Life was breathed into the monitors and information on Absolute Noah spread out before our eyes.

“Uuh…!!!???”

Vivid red and black.

The silver corridors were packed full of crowds endlessly producing explosions of self-made anger and fear.

Each of them had the light of madness in their eyes and the canine teet