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Choice... Was it even a reality? As someone that believed more in luck than hard work, the concept of choices struck me as something you do only to increase your chances of success. There was no such thing as guaranteed success in this world. Hell, even if you somehow did everything right, that you somehow prepared for every single possible scenario that could possibly go wrong, you still had a one percent chance that something ridiculous was going to happen. It might be as small as a forgotten screw, or it might be that an earthquake suddenly happened, but the end result was always the same. There was simply no feasible way to make sure that your efforts will be rewarded. At best, you get a decent payoff, and even then it might not even be worth it.

Then again, that was just me. I did say that choices increased the odds of success, so that also means that one could stack the odds so heavily in one\'s favor that the one percent scenario would be inconsequential even if it did happen.

[Marquee]

[Secret Hallway B17]

"Moriya?"

"Yes?"

"Where do you think we\'re going?"

I paused midstep, causing Shizu to stop pause right in front of me as she turned to face me. She didn\'t look too winded, what with her eyes never seeming to revert back to their usual golden hue, but she was clearly starting to run out of steam even if she didn\'t show it.

"Do I look like I know?" I chuckled as I shrugged at her question. "You\'d think that you\'ll be the one to guide us, what with your eyes showing us a detailed view of the entire facility."

"H-Hey, I can\'t see everything, you know," Shizu shook her head in mirth. "I said already that I\'m pretty much limited to seeing just the current floor and a bit of the floor below us. Right now, I can still see that there\'s another floor after this, and that we\'re going straight to the shaft to lead us there."

"And still, I\'ll take that more than my own word," I scoffed.

I then continued walking, with Shizu taking that as her cue to resume her role as our lead. Having traversed this maze of a facility for what amounted to hours now, we were somehow still far from finding out where Guidance was. Sure, we\'d seen some signs that the dev had been walking ahead of us by virtue of broken robots and in some cases, actually broken hallways that had collapsed due to battle damage, but Shizu\'s eyes still hadn\'t seen even a glimpse of the woman in question. Knowing that, it meant that Guidance was way ahead of us by at least an entire floor.

Somehow, the thought that we still haven\'t caught up to her made my nerves flare up. Just how deep does this thing go?

[*BANG! BANG! THUD! THUD!*]

[+10000 EXP]

Reaching yet another boss room, Shizu and I quickly dispatched of yet another boring robot that barred our way to the next hatch in our journey to the center of the universe. Sure, they were getting tankier, but Shizu and I were also getting stronger with each passing floor we went through. Well, I could only suppose that was the case. I haven\'t leveled up again after a while, the [EXP] gain having petered out to the point that going up to level 37 was almost proving to be impossible even if I spent days killing nothing but boss monsters.

[Moriya: Level 36]

[EXP TO NEXT LEVEL: 1,295,040/5,734,400]

I mean, seriously, why in the world did Guidance decide that [EXP] requirements per level had to double instead of just increasing by a percentage?

"Well, another level we go," I sighed in resignation as I stared at the hatch in front of us. "Can you keep going?"

"I\'m still ready to kick some ass, Moriya," Shizu smiled, cracking her knuckles as flashed her teeth. "Although, these shiny automatons don\'t really offer much of a challenge. They\'re just harder to punch and kick."

"I get the feeling," I chuckled. "Just imagine what Guidance is going through right now. I\'m sure she\'s also getting sick of her own creations by now."

"I\'d say these are Marquean, but I can see the logic," Shizu scoffed, a hint of her royal lineage showing. "Well, shall we?"

"Yeah."

With a nod, I kicked the hatch open and stared at the blinking red abyss below it. Pumping my legs, I-

"Wai- Look out!"

[*BOOM!*]

Before Shizu\'s warning could even register in my head, the princess had already pulled me away from the hatch. And just in time too, as a blast of hot glowing air shot through the open hole and up against the ceiling. It then kept on firing, each blast getting larger than the last.

"Shizu?!" I quickly asked as I gathered myself up on my feet. "What\'s happening down there?!"

"I-I don\'t know!" the princess responded, her eyes growing wider the more she stared at the ground. "There\'s something building up down there... W-We have to run!"

Nodding, we both made a beeline for the nearest available hallway.

[*BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!*]

Practically backtracking, each boom sounded closer than the last as the entire facility shook all around us. If it wasn\'t obvious before that something was wrong, now was the time for it to be clearly observed. This place was possibly about to collapse, and we certainly didn\'t want to be caught in the crossfire of whatever it was that was exploding- Wait... "Guidance!"

I dug my heels into the metal floor, my head turning back as I felt Shizu tugging at my arm.

"Moriya?!"

"What about Guidance?" I asked, my fears starting to accumulate the more the explosions began to regularly tear apart each room we passed. "We can\'t just leave her!"

"I-I can\'t see her though," Shizu cried out, the anguish in her tone only making my fears rise even higher. "Even if we wanted to, the explosions might kill us!"

"What\'s causing it anyway?!"

"T-There\'s something down there," Shizu pensively replied as we began running again. "Something powerful... Its numbers are flaring up, almost blinding..."

"That\'s enough," I quickly told her. "For now, focus on getting us out of here."

Nodding at my instructions, Shizu began twisting and turning through the facility, the rhythmic explosions starting to become distant the more distance we put between it and us. For now, I could only hope that Guidance was alright. She was a healer, right? And she had shielding [Moves] that might be able to withstand whatever it was that was causing this. For all we knew, she might be fighting a monster down there. Or perhaps... Was it the weapon?

"Shizu, can you try and find another way down?"

"W-Wha?" Shizu questioned, confused at my question. "Why?!"

"I have a feeling," I vaguely replied. "There must be a safer way to go down, right? Surely there\'s another hatch somewhere around here."

"But what about the explosions?"

"We\'ll just go around it," I quickly replied, inwardly surprised at my own stupid idea. "It doesn\'t seem to be growing larger, right?"

True enough, the explosions sounded distant now. In fact, I could only assume that it was still originating from the first hatch we found, radiating and growing around it at a decent rate to allow us to put as much distance away from it like this. The facility still shook, of course, but it felt like the entire structure would hold at least for now.

Shizu looked in the direction of the explosions. Squinting, she then looked down below, her eyes narrowing further as if she was being blinded by the light. "Y-Yeah... It\'s like it stopped growing, and the numbers below are pulsating..."

"Then that might mean that Guidance had fixed it somehow," I postulated. "Or at least, she stalled the inevitable huge explosion that might wipe us off the map."

"Which means we can still save her if we can get down there," Shizu\'s eyes widened in realization. "D-Do you think-"

"She\'s definitely still alive," I scoffed, doing my best to show confidence for the both of us. "Even if she got caught in the blast, I\'m pretty sure she won\'t die instantly. And if that happens, she can just heal herself just fine."

Shizu\'s smile only gave me more confidence as she gave me a determined smirk. "Leave it to me then!" she beamed. "I\'ll do my best to quickly get us down there!"

Sprinting forward, Shizu moved like a rabid dog as her head twitched back and forth in search of another way down. Meanwhile, I could only hope that whatever it was that Guidance was doing, it better not be jeopardizing her own life. If this was truly the secret weapon, then we might just end our journey here in Marquee without even spending a week searching for it.

Or maybe it was just wishful thinking. "Seriously... Don\'t you die on me down there..."

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