9. Heaven

What? Wasn’t humanity’s last surviving city Paradise? How could it be underground? And how could a world coexisting with Them be called Heaven?

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Although Ruka’s mind was full of questions, she continued to stay silent. Letting Nikolai talk was safer. She must not let him discover she was a resident from the surface.

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After opening that door, ahead was the door of a large passenger elevator. But Nikolai intended to take the emergency stairs beside it. “Sorry. After all, we still can’t be too conspicuous here. We have to take the stairs. Once we’re outside, it’ll be fine.”

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Since the stairwell was an enclosed space with loud echoes, Nikolai said nothing after pushing the door open. Ruka quietly followed behind him, continuing downward, deliberately softening her footsteps along the way.

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When they reached the ground and pushed open the heavy security door, the scene before her astonished Ruka.

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A civilized city bathed in sunlight. Although not as high-tech as Paradise, everywhere were houses no more than three stories tall. Visually, it seemed more leisurely and spacious than Paradise, without any sense of crowding.

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“So there have actually been large numbers of humans living underground at the front lines, fighting Them?” Ruka of course did not ask this question, which would expose her identity. She only asked Casey.

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Even with Heaven before her eyes, Ruka still cared about the danger of Them. After all, to her and all humanity, they were an indelible nightmare and the driving force for survival.

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For Casey, humans striving to fight Them was also one of the underlying logics in its source code. But it was also the reason Casey sought answers. “This is why I helped you come down. But just think. You can’t ask directly.”

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So Ruka changed her question. “Nikolai, what is outside Heaven?”

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“What outside? Heaven is built by hollowing out the underground. The last utopia. If you mean outside, it’s all kinds of rock and minerals.” Nikolai’s eyes were full of gratitude toward Heaven. Clearly, the residents had lived in Heaven for some time and were quite satisfied with it.

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“Looks like Heaven is just another Paradise.”

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Ruka and Casey said almost in unison. Without asking they could guess. To Heaven, the residents of Paradise were Them. “Then we don’t need to ask about the surface anymore. It’s probably another one of those unmentionable taboos.” Ruka said this, but she still did not understand why “Them” was specifically used to separate the surface and the underground people.

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Casey combined the current situation with the knowledge it had recorded, analyzed, and explained. “Ruka, as a herder, you should understand this principle. Think about it. Animals accelerate reproduction when they sense crisis. Conversely, a stable environment and sufficient resources make animals lose their survival instincts.”

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“Ah. So not only us, but even the underground people of Heaven are just livestock.” Recalling the education she had received since childhood about Them’s invasions and humanity’s future development, Ruka could not help but sigh. Now she finally understood. The questions she had never been able to answer deep in her heart gradually unraveled as Heaven’s true face was revealed.

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Now only one thing remained. Ruka had not forgotten why she had come down. Why did David die?

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Casey continued to add, “It’s not hard to understand why some people disappear or become hollowed-out corpses. Let humans, as livestock, experience disappearances and occasionally death. Combined with an enemy with no concept at all, it is enough to make humans automatically imagine unknown fear in their minds, giving them more motivation to survive and contribute every day.”

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“Like a time bomb. You don’t know its appearance, location, or time. It could blow you up at any moment.” Ruka suddenly found it ridiculous. The murderer she had been chasing all along was Paradise itself. Looking at the scenery of Heaven, the residents were also extremely satisfied with life. It turned out that even underground, there was no difference.

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At that moment, Nikolai stood nearby. Seeing Ruka staring intently at the streets of Heaven, not knowing she was conversing with Casey, he thought she was trying hard to recall past events.

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But Ruka had indeed been talking with Casey for a while. So Nikolai took the initiative to continue the earlier topic. “Miss Ruka. What are you puzzled about? Are you thinking about why we are trapped underground? Because of the nuclear war, our genes mutated. We cannot directly contact sunlight. And the surface pollution is severe. So we moved underground to live.”

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“I see. I remember now.”

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Ruka was secretly pleased. This was easier. Nikolai had even proactively answered why the underground people did not move to the surface. According to him, this further confirmed her earlier guess. The surface was polluted and had monsters. Heaven used those passages to fight Them and did not know Paradise existed.

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The biggest difference between the two was that Ruka, a Paradise resident, could go underground, while Heaven residents could not easily go to the surface.

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