Hans dropped the system panel and walked back to the control tower. He swept past the large hole on the ground.
A hive presence once occupied the space; now, it was completely gone from existence.
As he crossed the street, he stumbled upon familiar faces.
"Took you a while to come after me," Hans smirked.
Yunera harrumphed.
"As if I wanted to," she crossed her arms. "This girl insisted."
Kimmy lowered her head slightly. "I wanted to ask you something."
"Not a surprise."
Hans slowed his steps and looked between the two sisters.
"The soldiers," she said. "Earlier... they all weakened at the same time. Then they recovered just as suddenly."
Hans kept his smile. Just this? I doubt it.
Yunera narrowed her eyes. "You know something about it, don't you?"
Hans resumed walking, forcing them to follow beside him.
"They're my soldiers. Of course, I know a thing about it."
"That is not an answer," Yunera shot back.
"No," Hans calmly responded. "It's the only one you're getting."
Yunera clicked her tongue in annoyance, but Kimmy did not press further.
Not for now.
The three of them passed beneath the streetlights that were now feeding off the newly deployed grid. Their shadows stretched over the pavement.
After a few seconds of silence, Kimmy spoke again.
"Then what about this... mega-structure of yours?"
"It's a Construction Yard," Hans answered absent-mindedly. "Long story short, I can use it to construct buildings for my base."
"What is this?" Yunera raised a brow. "Something born out of a technological fantasy?"
Hans replied with a smile, not bothering himself to answer her question.
The existence of the system was something too difficult to fabricate a story by his own means.
Let these people form an idea in their minds. I don't have the need to confirm everything. Or anything, at all.
Kimmy tilted her head.
"The sound of it is strange," she murmured. "Familiar."
Hans glanced at her but didn't say anything.
Yunera asked instead. "Strange?"
She nodded once. "The way it deployed. The way the ground... trembled. The hum after... I've heard something close to it before."
Yunera frowned. "What is that supposed to mean?"
Kimmy hesitated, choosing her words carefully.
"My brother, who's in the military, once mentioned military construction platforms," she said. "Rapid deployment systems, if I recalled. They were mobile infrastructures, mostly emergency field bases."
Hans's eyes narrowed for a bit before returning to normal.
The military has something similar, he thought. Just not this insane. It seems Tyrus's words do imply something else than just Project HELIX. What other technology did Libertan and the AWN get out of it??
"But it wasn't like that," Kimmy added. "Not as complete... as what Hans has."
Yunera looked between the two of them. "You're saying this thing feels military?"
Kimmy shook her head.
"No. That would be easier to understand."
Her blindfold fluttered in the night breeze. "This is more than that."
Hans kept walking, trying to hide the smirk on his face.
Good, keep thinking of it that way.
Kimmy's voice softened.
"My brother also said some of those platforms were not entirely human in origin."
Yunera blinked, finally clicking something in her mind.
"What? Does it have to do with that Tyrus guy?"
Kimmy tightened her fingers around her sleeve.
"My brother didn't explain much. Only that some branches of the military received technologies far too advanced for public knowledge."
Hans's curiosity was piqued. Yunera glared at him.
"And you're saying that thing of his came from the same source?"
Kimmy shook her head.
"I can't verify it. I only know that what I sensed tonight felt closer to those descriptions than anything I've ever heard before."
Hans recalled Tyrus's words.
...
It impacted in a controlled manner. Libertan's government sealed the zone within hours.
And from there came an archive—military, intelligence, scientific knowledge.
Project HELIX was greenlighted not to create anything.
It was one of the many assemblies to interpret what Libertan had found.
...
He fingers brushed his cheek. An assembly of many—no, just a branch, huh?
He took a glance at Kimmy. After a short pause, he asked.
"Did your brother even mention what those platforms were called?"
He had to know, already suspecting that it may have something to do with Libertan's source—whatever it was.
Kimmy shook her head. "No formal name. Not one he could share freely to me."
Hans's eyes dimmed in thought. So, HELIX really was just one piece.
Meanwhile, Yunera caught his expression shifting and flashed a grin.
"You sound interested in someone pretending not to answer our questions."
"The world has changed, Ms. Yunera," Hans smiled. "It would be foolish of me to think that I know it all. I still have more to do. You both should take a rest."
"Still not giving up, huh?" Yunera raised a brow.
"That should be enough for tonight."
He glanced past them, toward the glowing district beyond.
The newly restored lights of the industrial sector stretched across the darkness like a promise.
Or a warning.
Kimmy lowered her head slightly. Yunera frowned but said nothing more.
Hans stepped past them and continued toward the control tower.
Behind him, the silence of the conversation lingered.
And in front of him, the city waited—ominously.
If Project HELIX was only one branch, then whatever stood behind his system was far larger than Tyrus had implied.
Or perhaps—his system and theirs had never been the same to begin with.
Whatever the truth was, Hans felt that the mystery had only deepened with no answer to be found.
His transmigration.
His RTS System.
Hans raised his head and looked toward the night sky.
Somewhere beyond those clouds lay answers he could not yet reach.
Something greater waiting to be understood by him.