Aiden and Mia's group arrived smoothly inside LA.
Aiden, who vouched for their identity, gave a brief farewell greeting and immediately went to find Ava.
However, upon hearing that Ava was currently absent, Aiden had no choice but to head to his lodgings.
As Aiden was leaving the military headquarters and heading towards Beyond, a soldier blocked his path.
"Hello, Mr. Aiden."
"Who are you?"
"I'm a unit member working with Ms. Arian."
"Is that so? What's the matter?"
"There's a message from Ms. Arian. You can look at this."
The paper handed over by the soldier had a simple one-line request from Arian written on it.
[Come to the observatory right away]
Aiden looked alternately at the brief note and the soldier.
"Do I need to move with you?"
"You can go separately or move with us."
"I'll go alone then."
"Understood."
Aiden immediately headed to his lodgings.
As soon as he arrived at his lodgings, Aiden immediately started packing spent ammunition and some equipment.
He thought that if Arian, who normally didn't need to find him, was calling, it might not be an easy task.
Once the preparations were roughly complete, Aiden immediately set off for the observatory.
* * *
"You're coming here too?"
Arian was surprised to see Ava arriving with her escorts.
"Of course I have to come, it's an issue I need to handle."
Ava spoke as if it was nothing unusual.
She stared at the neatly arranged corpses of fanatics in front of the observatory.
"Didn't you say you don't kill people anymore?"
"Those guys aren't people. They're monsters worse than zombies."
Arian said with flashing eyes.
Ava flinched at the alien aura Arian was emitting.
"I still can't get used to it. How about calming down your excitement?"
"Innocent soldiers were sacrificed because of those crazy bastards."
Arian, who exhaled deeply, gathered her aura.
"I caught one of them intact inside, so I'll leave the interrogation to you."
"I express gratitude on behalf of the sacrificed soldiers."
Ava stood in front of the soldiers' corpses loaded on a military truck.
"Attention! We will not let their deaths be in vain. Everyone! Moment of silence!"
Ava and all the soldiers bowed their heads in silent tribute.
"At ease! From now on, we'll start the interrogation. Where is that bastard?"
"Yes! Commander! I'll guide you to the first floor guardpost."
As Ava was about to enter the observatory, Arian spoke to her.
"Are you going to do it yourself?"
"If I don't do it myself, I don't think my anger will subside."
Arian let Ava go.
And she blankly watched the back of the departing military truck.
Just as the truck disappeared from view, the sound of a motorcycle engine was heard from afar.
And soon, the figure of Aiden appeared, wearing a white gown that didn't match his black bike and black helmet.
Aiden's bike quickly passed the entrance of the observatory and stopped in front of Arian.
"You came?"
"I did."
"Are you planning to wage a war or something? Your armament is incredible."
Arian said, looking at Aiden's armed state as if in disbelief.
"I thought it wouldn't be an easy task if you were urgently looking for me."
"As expected of Aiden."
"So, what's the matter?"
"It's not good to talk about it here, let's move to another place first."
Arian took Aiden to the back of the observatory.
"I killed fanatics."
"I see..."
"I caught one, and now Ava is interrogating him herself."
"So Ava was here."
"Did you have business?"
"I was assigned a request."
Arian seemed to understand and didn't ask about the request, continuing with the story of the fanatics.
"They were searching through military documents. I think there might be some full-scale movement soon."
"They have been quite quiet for a while. Searching for documents... It gives me an ominous feeling. So, why do you need me?"
"It's simple, let's go to Bakersfield."
Aiden pondered for a moment.
"You mean just the two of us? What are we going to do there, are you thinking of waging a war against the fanatics with just the two of us?"
"No, just as they scouted us, we're going to scout them. We need to figure out what they're trying to do. And only you and I can perform that role without sacrifices."
"I see. Let me think about it for a moment."
Aiden fell silent in thought for a while.
Arian left Aiden alone and admired the moon that was just rising, looking at the sky.
"Let's move after hearing the content of Ava's interrogation."
At Aiden's words after finishing his deliberation, Arian smiled brightly.
"As expected, I thought you'd say that."
"Is that so?"
"That's right."
Aiden then entered the observatory building with Arian.
Frequent crashing sounds could be heard from inside the guardpost, indicating that the interrogation was rough.
Aiden and Arian didn't show much interest and calmly brought chairs to wait blankly for Ava nearby.
Thud!
Crash!
With the sound of something being smashed and broken, Ava came out of the guardpost.
Ava, with her face flushed red, was panting and then noticed Aiden and Arian.
"Ahem! Ah, Aiden, is the request already finished?"
"The request is completed."
"I see. Then let's talk in detail. Tyrone!"
"Yes! Commander."
Ava called Tyrone, who came out of the interrogation room with her, and told him to prepare a place on the second floor. He immediately went up to the second floor.
After a short while, Tyrone reported that the second floor was ready, and the three gathered on the second floor to start their conversation.
"First, what's the situation in Riverside?"
Aiden immediately reported on the interior of Riverside city and the situation of the college he was requested to scout.
"So the city interior is heavily destroyed. You said you think it's traces of Fears?"
"That's right. I expect that not just one Fear, but at least two Fears have appeared."
Aiden explained the situation of Riverside city in more detail.
He reported that ordinary small buildings were destroyed to the point of being almost in ruins, and while larger buildings were still standing, their interiors were a mess.
When Ava asked why he thought there were two or more Fears, Aiden said that the number of zombies remaining in Riverside city was abnormally high.
The number of zombies that one Fear drives around ranges from hundreds to thousands at most, but because they constantly move, the number of zombies left behind is not as high as one might think.
However, the number of zombies in Riverside was so high that it was difficult to consider it as the number left behind by a single Fear. They were settled all over the city, and he added the opinion that it was fortunate they weren't crossing over to LA.
"I see. Were there any mutant discoveries?"
"It was difficult to find traces or appearances of mutants in the city. However, I discovered and dealt with one new mutant inside the college."
"A new mutant? What kind was it?"
Aiden explained the new mutant to Ava in detail.
The mutant's appearance, combat method, characteristics, and seemingly weak points—everything.
Ava frowned as if getting a headache, as there were already mutants they hadn't grasped, and now another new mutant had appeared.
"It must have been dangerous, dealing with a mutant... I express gratitude on behalf of the military."
As Ava gave a short bow, Aiden said not to worry about it, and rather, if the military had tried to deal with it, many soldiers' lives might have been lost.
"Anyway, I've cleaned up the interior of the college to some extent. If a unit enters Riverside together, there will be many fights with zombies on the way to the college, but if it's a unit that has almost completed vaccine administration, there should be no problem at all."
"Thank you, Aiden. The request is completed. It was excellent information."
"Hmm."
"Now it's my turn, right?"
As soon as the conversation between Aiden and Ava ended, Arian spoke up.
"Aiden and I are planning to go on a reconnaissance to Bakersfield."
"Hmm... The reason?"
"The reason is that we can't just sit still. They're scouting our side and eyeing us. But we can't send soldiers, it's too dangerous. LA is a place where hope has taken root on the American continent. It needs to stand firm. I don't want to make people risk their lives for uncertain results."
"That's true, but isn't it too dangerous with just the two of you?"
"Don't worry about that. If it's me and Aiden, we can return safely."
At Arian's words, Aiden added one more thing.
"We'll scout them and return as soon as possible. We'll handle it well, but I hope LA will be well-prepared."
Ava sighed deeply.
"Haah... I understand what you mean. Don't you need compensation?"
Aiden shook his head.
"We don't need anything like compensation."
"I see. Compensation isn't important. I'm counting on you. Is there anything you need help with?"
Aiden thought for a moment.
"If so, I'd like to request a night vision device and a sniper rifle."
"Alright, I'll have them prepared right away. Are you planning to return inside the barrier first?"
"No, we'll depart from here right away. I'll need some blood."
Ava nodded at Arian's request and called one of her escorts, relaying Aiden and Arian's requests and telling him to deliver them quickly.
"Now then. I'll share the content of the interrogation with the fanatic."
"Ah right, I forgot about that."
Arian scratched her head.
Ava stared at Arian.
"Didn't you say you caught him intact?"
"Huh? That's intact enough."
"Well... anyway, I couldn't find out much."
Ava then explained the process of interrogating the fanatic.
The fanatic kept muttering incomprehensible prayers, and to Ava's questions, he only repeated the phrase 'Everything will be purified by flame!' over and over.
In the meantime, one of the passing remarks was 'Soon now' and 'All preparations are complete,' she said.
And then, unable to bear the sight of him just muttering prayers again, Ava said she lost her temper and handled him a bit roughly.
"'Soon now,' and 'preparations are complete,' is it? And flame... They do like to go around setting fires, but it might be that they're preparing for large-scale arson. And LA is the target."
"..."
The three fell into silent thought.
"In any case, it's clear that we need information about what they're going to do. We'll depart as soon as the preparations are complete."
Aiden and Arian got up and headed to the first floor.
Ava also followed them down to the first floor and got into a jeep with the restrained fanatic.
"In a little while, my aide will come with the requested items. Rest until then. I'm counting on you."
Ava said that and headed towards the barrier.
Aiden and Arian unfolded a map to grasp the route to Bakersfield, predicting places the enemy might use as bases, while waiting for the supplies.