“Ruin excavation requires funding! We at Finance Loan Corporation support all ruin explorers! Contact us at—”

  “Small-caliber pistols won’t cut it against alien or experimental creatures! Heavy firearms and blades are the basics, dear customers! Protect your life yourself! For weapons, visit—”

  Leaning against the elevator wall, Danang loaded shells into his shotgun’s magazine, covering his mouth and nose with a gas mask and donning multi-purpose goggles.

  “Dear customers! Here’s a hot tip! Do you know the most reliable life insurance in the undercity? We are—”

  Swapping the assault rifle’s magazine and racking the slide, Danang chambered a round, disengaged the safety, and holstered the rifle. He loaded a high-caliber magnum simultaneously.

  “…”

  The synthetic voice blaring scam ads from the monitor grated on his nerves.

  “…”

  Aiming his shotgun at the monitor, Danang lowered the hammer, pulled the trigger, and blasted a hole through the screen. Red sparks flew, the audio and visuals cut out, and silence enveloped the room.

  His heart pounded deafeningly, each beat hammering his eardrums, etching the proof of life into his being. His teeth chattered unconsciously, and only then did he realize he was terrified.

  “…I won’t die.”

  Muttering his mantra to rally his faltering courage, to suppress his fear, to face the ordeal ahead, Danang gripped the gun tightly. Steadying his trembling hand with the steel of his mechanical arm, he took two deep breaths, his eyes fixed on the rising floor numbers.

  Ding—a faint electronic chime sounded as he activated the goggles’ night vision. Aiming the shotgun at the elevator doors, Danang locked onto the door about to be kicked in. Shouldering the shotgun, he drew the sword Heres from his waist, thrusting it into the door.

  Did I get it? Swallowing hard, he pulled Heres free, its glass-like blade unmarred by resistance. Glancing at it, he dove aside as the door was kicked open, revealing the black iron exoskeleton of a cleaner.

  No blood on the blade. No sparks, no groans—proof Heres hadn’t touched the enemy. Regaining his stance, Danang gripped the shotgun with his mechanical arm, fired, and unleashed a hail of bullets amid swirling gunsmoke.

  “?”

  The cleaner’s red mono-eye, shielding its head, locked onto him as its arm armor split open, revealing a chain machine gun and a pile bunker firing steel stakes. With no time to catch his breath, Danang ducked into the elevator’s shadow, slashing the room’s wall with Heres and his vibro-blade to carve an escape route.

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  In an instant, the sound behind him was a roar of overwhelming violence—concrete gouged, steel crushed. The cleaner’s leg-mounted roller dash hummed. Sweat poured from every pore as a chain gun bullet pierced Danang’s side, blood spilling from his mouth. Choosing flight, he kicked open a rusted door to the next room.

  Ridiculous. For the upper city to send a cleaner to kill a mere undercity ruin explorer and info engineer was absurd. Tumbling down stairs, Danang caught the cleaner sliding across the ceiling in his sights. He unleashed a barrage from his assault rifle and shotgun, slicing an incoming pile bunker stake with his blade.

  “—”

  Gasping for breath, he licked his dry lips.

  Dodging the chain gun’s bullets with a half-turn, he parried a pile bunker strike aimed at his skull with his blade, cleaving through the steel armor.

  “—”

  Sparks danced in the dark. Sensing the threat, the cleaner retreated, but as Danang lunged down the stairs, a sharp pain shot through his flesh arm. Blood poured from it.

  No, it wasn’t just his arm. His whole body screamed. And—he couldn’t run. Something tangled his legs, like steel chains.

  Crashing hard, Danang saw the capture chain with barbs embedded in his flesh. Screaming, he reached for Heres, but it was too late. The chain yanked him toward the cleaner, who spun the barrels of a Gatling cannon deployed from its back armor.

  No—this is bad! Clawing at the ground, nails tearing, he tried to stab his blade into the floor, but it was futile. Approaching death—the bullets’ low growl signaled a barrage that would shred him to pieces.

  “…Target elimination confirmed. The black serpent is fully removed from the tower. Returning now.”

  Glancing at the blood-soaked corridor and Danang’s mangled remains, a low male voice leaked from the black iron cleaner, accompanied by the heavy clank of steel.

  “…For a moment, I felt a hint of threat, but you’re just undercity trash. No obstacle to us. Yes… as Her will commands. The savior is always one… Lady White, my sole duty is to eliminate your burdens.”

  Touching its headgear, the cleaner spoke as if to itself via remote comms, bowing deeply in a prayer-like gesture.

  “The bug? No, I saw no such thing. Lumina? Lady White, what are you… No, I would never doubt you. Yes… I’m your loyal hound and blade. Confirm the body? If necessary… Burn it?”

  Scanning the blood pool and flesh fragments with a biometric sensor, the cleaner detected faint life signs.

  Like worms writhing underground, scattered cells and lost blood converged toward a still-intact heart. As time passed, the body reformed, even repairing shattered armor. Witnessing this anomaly, the cleaner unleashed its chain gun, reducing Danang to fragments again.

  Impossible… It can’t be! A human—blown to bits—still alive? Unthinkable! The more it fired, the faster the regeneration and healing. Like time rewinding, Danang restored to his pre-death state.

  “Monster…! You are the evil serpent! The immortal black snake, as expected!”

  “—”

  A pile bunker pierced Danang’s abdomen, staining his armor with blood.

  “It was you! Lady White was never wrong! The true savior is Her alone! Black serpent, rot and fall—this is a holy mission!”

  Danang’s face crumpled, muscles tore, and bones shattered. Blood sprayed as he convulsed, slammed into the ground with the stake, and fell into collapsing rubble amid an explosive blast.

  A dead man now—no voice for the dead. No flowers bloomed in the undercity’s filth, but if a single gardenia could grow, it would suit the tattered rag that was Danang.

  “Die, undercity scum… You’re worthless filth. A serpent obstructing Lady White and the tower’s survival will be eradicated, no matter how many times you regenerate.”

  Gazing down at Danang, buried in rubble with his mechanical arm outstretched, the cleaner leaped to the lower floor, charging the laser weapon in its palm armor.

  “Die, immortal black snake.”

  As the countdown ticked, the rising percentage filled its view.