"What the hell is this?" I blurted out in a voice filled with shock. "Where the hell even are we?!"
"Lucas Morningstar, I welcome you to my secret base," Kai replied with a smirk, finally responding to my question.
But his words only added to my confusion.
A secret base?! What is he, a puppet master-type villain who pulls the strings from shadows?!
Wait… never mind, he is exactly that.
You see, I had expected to find a simple church basement when Kai brought me here and opened the wooden door.
Although even that would have been confusing, it wouldn't have been as mind-boggling as this!
Before me was not basement.
Instead, concealed beneath the innocent facade of a grand church, lay a sprawling underground labyrinth!
It was an expansive underground chamber that stretched far into the distance. By my rough estimation, it was as large as the entire church grounds!
Yes, that big! And I'm not even exaggerating!
The walls were crafted from a type of pristine silver-metal alloy, and the entire area was illuminated by bright, white ceiling lights.
Ceiling air conditioners and air vents provided ventilation, as I felt the cold air brushing against my face when I tried to glance inside.
Astonished beyond words, I stepped forward and swiveled my head around to take in the scene, my eyes widening in disbelief as I looked around curiously.
I noticed that this 'secret base' of Kai was divided into several sections, each serving a specific purpose.
What could only be described as the central command center stood at the heart of this underground hideout.
It was a high-tech chamber filled with monitors, control panels, and similar equipment.
Many young adults, roughly my age, were sitting there.
All of them were completely engrossed in their work while continuously tapping virtual keys and filling up some kind of files or engaged in conversations as if on a break.
Everyone was minding their own business and no one noticed us entering.
The few who did notice us gave Kai a nod of acknowledgment and went on with their work.
"Keep moving," Kai's voice snapped me back to reality as he walked past me, urging me to follow behind him once more.
Adjacent to the command center was an elevator. We entered it, and Kai pressed the button for the floor below.
After reaching the floor below, as the elevator doors opened, revealing the view, I was once again left in a state of shock by its layout.
This floor resembled a training facility, where individuals were homing their combat skills.
The room reverberated with the sounds of hand-to-hand and weapon combat, as martial artists engaged in intense sparring sessions.
Rows of state-of-the-art weaponry and equipment lined the walls, ready to be utilized.
"Just what the hell is this place?" I muttered to myself, taking note of all the people present here while walking behind Kai.
"Come on," Kai said, moving ahead of me once again. "Pick up the pace and stop gawking at them."
"I'm not gawking!"
"You're staring stupidly. That's called gawking."
"Well, I call it observing!"
Adjacent to the training hall, there was another elevator.
We quickly stepped inside it, and Kai pressed the button with a downward arrow (↓) for the floor below.
"Why are there so many elevators instead of just one going up and down?" I asked, my confusion evident on my face.
"The last floor at the bottom is the most important one," Kai explained as the elevator doors closed and we began to descend. "In the event of an attack, the enemy would have to go through all the floors rather than directly reaching the lowest level."
Ahh, I see. I understand his reasoning.
Even if they disable the elevator during an attack, the enemies could simply break the door and jump down through the elevator shaft to reach the lowest level.
But with this method, even if they jump down the elevator shaft, they would only reach one floor below so that would still take some time.
Yes, it's only normal to take such precautions to safeguard an underground secret base.
Good, good.
...Wait a fucking minute! What am I even thinking?
Having an underground secret base is far from normal!
As I was deep in such thoughts, the elevator's descent came to a halt, and the doors creaked open.
Similar to the previous two floors, this one was different in more ways than one.
Unlike the floors above, this one wasn't bright at all and instead of the silver-metal alloy, the walls here were made of brick and cement.
In place of ceiling lights, this floor was dimly illuminated by light coming from the burning torches fixed on the wall.
Rather than a high-tech facility, it resembled an old dungeon. The air carried a heavy scent of blood, mingling with other nauseating, putrid odors.
Caverns were hewn into the walls and secured with what appeared to be exceptionally reinforced steel bars.
Wait a second… caverns with steel bars?
These were prisons!
And inside these prisons, all I could see were a variety of mana beasts... and alive humans!
Two individuals stood before each of these cells, diligently guarding them. Judging by their age, they seemed to be around the same as me just like the people on the floors above.
Ironically, on this dimly lit floor, I noticed something that I had overlooked on the previous two floors above.
"These people..." I trailed off, observing the young guards standing in front of the cells before turning back to Kai. "These are cadets from our academy! I recognize them!"
Not just them, but the individuals on the upper floors as well! Many of them were cadets from the Global Academy!
I couldn't identify all of their faces, but I had definitely seen some of them while walking across the academy halls!
"Took you a while to notice," Kai chuckled briefly. "Honestly, I'm impressed that you noticed at all."
Stepping out of the elevator, he resumed walking forward while I followed closely behind. We passed by the prison cells, and I observed the prisoners within.
The mana beasts relentlessly clawed at the iron bars in an attempt to escape, but their efforts were in vain.
These were all low-level mana beasts, and judging by the way they looked, they hadn't been given anything to eat for the past few days. They had no chance to break these super-reinforced steel bars.
I also spotted some humans but most of them had already given up. They appeared malnourished and sickly frail, teetering on the brink of death.
Completely ignoring the prisoned humans as if they were nothing but air, Kai began speaking without slowing his pace.
"Many of the people here are from our academy," Kai informed me. "There are also many from the Ethereal Academy. And some individuals here don't belong to either academy. However, one common factor among all of them is that they all are scions of influential and affluent families from all over the Five Continents. There are also adults affiliated with us, like the pope from the church above, but they're only tasked with maintaining the facade."
"Kai, don't tell me—" I began to voice my thoughts, but Kai interrupted me with a wave of his finger.
"No," he interjected. "Don't ask any questions here. Let's proceed to the bottom floor first."
This time, instead of an elevator, we headed towards a set of stairs located at the far end of the floor, leading downwards.
We descended the stairs until we reached the lowest floor, where a black metal door stood in our path, blocking our way.
The door had a similar geometric pattern on it as the basement door. Kai took out his metal plaque and placed it against the door.
The pattern instantly emitted a brilliant azure glow, and with a resounding click, the door's lock was opened.
Click—
Kai pushed open the door, revealing the bottom floor.
Calling it a floor wouldn't be entirely accurate—it was more like a grand hall.
Don't get me wrong, it was huge. But despite its vastness, it was smaller in comparison to the floors above.
A red carpet adorned the floor, hiding the pristine white marble beneath. The walls mirrored the silver-metal alloy of the upper levels.
Antique furnishings were placed around the hall, while golden vaults and portraits adorned the walls.
Numerous large holographic screens were projected in the center of the hall, playing surveillance footage of every nook and vanny of the floors in the underground base and the immediate surroundings of the church.
Some screens also displayed live satellite footage from various locations, including the Global Academy and more.
A single individual sat cross-legged on one of the sofas, observing the screens intently while sipping boba tea through a straw that was coming out from a cup in his hands.
His brownish-black hair was neatly combed back and his bright red eyes shifted from the holographic screens before him to our figures as soon as we entered.
And the moment I locked eyes with him, I immediately recognized the boy before me.
How could I not recognize him?! He had been a big question mark in my mind since the start of this story!
My eyes widened once again, and I couldn't help but exclaim, "Hugh Jass?!"
