On one of the seats near the window, a young man with handsome features was sitting, silently staring outside. His black hair swayed gently with the movement of the wind coming from the window….
Beside him, a beautiful girl was also sitting, although she was slightly less beautiful than him, but that did not diminish her gentle presence. She was holding a small cupcake, turning it between her fingers with light boredom, as if she were hesitant to eat it.
Then, after a long hesitation, Gina raised her gaze.
"Is it really good?"
Zion turned toward her, then lowered his gaze to the cupcake she was holding between her fingers, before a faint smile appeared on his lips.
"It tasted great… to the point that I almost ate my fingers afterward."
Gina narrowed her eyes slightly and said in an unconvinced tone,
"That doesn't help me at all. You like anything."
Zion laughed lightly and shook his head in denial.
"That's not true. If it were bad, no one would have eaten it in the first place. Didn't you hear how they were praising it?"
Gina fell silent for a moment, staring at the cupcake as if she were thinking about it more than it deserved. Her hesitation was obvious, and even her silence lasted a little longer.
Zion noticed that, so he leaned slightly toward her, with a look of confusion appearing on his face.
"Why are you thinking so much like this? It's just a cupcake."
Then he added in a joking tone..
"Or do you not like cake at all?"
Gina's expression changed immediately, and a light frown appeared on her face.
"I really do like cake…"
She paused for a moment, then added in a more serious tone..
"But I don't trust the person who made it."
At that moment, a clear expression of question appeared on Zion's face; his eyebrows slowly rose, and his eyes widened slightly, as if he were trying to understand the reason for her sudden anger, or to make sure that he hadn't said something wrong without noticing. That expression alone was enough to increase Gina's annoyance.
She said in a sharp tone, mixed with clear irritation.
"Did you really forget who I'm talking about? Or are you ignoring it as if we never discussed it before?"
Zion tilted his head slightly to the side, and sincere confusion appeared on his face, without any mockery.
"What exactly do you mean? I feel that you're more angry than necessary over a cupcake."
Gina tightened her grip around the cupcake, as if trying to restrain her nerves,
"About Rion. About the person I warned you about more than once. Didn't I tell you last time that we should stay away from him as much as possible? Did you really forget all of that?"
Zion breathed slowly, then let out a light sigh, and ran his hand behind his neck in an unconscious movement, before answering in a calm tone,
"I didn't forget what you told me, believe me. I still remember every warning and every word you said about him."
He stopped for a second, then added while looking at the cupcake with a normal look:
"But in the end… this is just a cupcake. It's not a trap, it's not poison, and I don't think he's planning to kill us through sweets."
Gina stayed silent for a longer moment this time. She looked at the cupcake in her hand, then at Zion, as if her mind were weighing between her caution and her curiosity. She hesitated a little… then finally took a very small bite, with clear caution.
At that same moment, her facial expression changed without her noticing. Her eyes widened slightly, and her hand froze in the air, as if the flavor had surprised her.
Zion was watching her in complete silence. He didn't smile and didn't comment, he just waited, his eyes carefully following her reaction.
After a few short seconds, Gina raised her gaze toward him and said in a less sharp tone, as if she didn't want to fully admit it.
"Alright… its taste isn't as bad as I expected."
Zion slowly raised his eyebrows, and a faint side smile appeared on his lips.
"That's all you have? After all that tension and accusations?"
Then he added in a slightly playful tone,
"I was expecting a longer sentence, or at least a small admission that I was right."
Gina turned her face slightly, trying to hide her expressions, and said in a low voice,
"Idiot…."
Zion laughed quietly, a short laugh that came out unintentionally, then said while turning his gaze toward the window,
"I'll consider this a late compliment."
Then he turned his gaze back to her.
"Anyway, that means you won't throw it away, right?"
Gina didn't answer him, but she took another bite… this time without any hesitation.
At that moment, Zion lowered his gaze to the transparent screen that was in front of him..
[Warning: A low-impact toxic substance has been detected inside the host's body.]
[Do you wish to remove the poison?]
Zion's expression did not change, and he did not show any confusion, as if he had expected it from the beginning.
"Not yet."
He closed the window with a light tap, then slowly raised his gaze, heading toward the opposite side of the bus. There, Rion was sitting not far from him..
….
"Alright, guys, it seems we've arrived at our destination."
Fry's voice coming from the front of the bus was the first to pierce the state of lethargy that had dominated us throughout the road, his voice was not loud, but it was comfortable enough to make everyone realize that the long journey had finally ended..
"Haaah…"
The yawn came out of my mouth unconsciously, while I slowly stretched my body trying to loosen the stiffness that had affected my muscles, as we had spent nearly five full hours on this road, sitting in narrow and uncomfortable seats, and with every hour the pain in my body accumulated, along with that heavy boredom that made time pass in a suffocating slowness.
I looked around, watching the rest of the team begin to get off the bus one by one, some looked motivated, while others didn't even try to hide their exhaustion, so I rubbed my eyes several times trying to regain my focus before finally standing up, to be the last one to leave the bus.
The moment my feet touched the ground, the sunlight struck me harshly, so I closed my eyes for a brief moment, before feeling a wave of heavy, polluted air rush toward me, suffocating air carrying a strange smell that made my chest tighten..
Before anyone could say a word, we heard Fry's voice.
"The air here is polluted, and the reason is a rift explosion that happened in this area."
A rift explosion is a rare and dangerous phenomenon that occurs when a spatial rift appears and is not discovered or dealt with over a long period of time.
Under normal conditions, rifts are detected early and specialized teams are sent to cleanse them before they worsen, but when that fails—whether due to the rift's remote location, a malfunction in detection devices, or unknown interference—the rift begins to enter a dangerous accumulation stage.
Inside the rift, Ania continues to increase, and with it, monsters multiply at an abnormal pace, as if the rift turns into a sealed incubator that never stops. Over time, the internal space becomes saturated with hostile creatures to a degree that exceeds the rift's ability to contain them.
When the rift reaches its maximum limit, what is known as the explosion occurs:
A brief silence followed, before he continued,
"For this reason, this area has been abandoned for many long years, and no one has lived here since then."
"Before we enter, I want each one of you to activate the Farman device you received."
We carried out his orders without discussion, so I took out my device and placed it under my neck..
Before we finally moved, Fry passed his gaze over all of us, then said with a smile on his face,
"Be careful, monsters are everywhere, so stay close to each other."