Chapter 29: Did you meet a friendly infectious agent?

Shallow, swollen marks of tentacles rose to the surface of her skin.

The red flash reflected in her bloodshot eyes was clearly not just a malfunction or damage—it was unmistakably a sign of infection.

Just those two signs alone were enough for me to realize that the being in front of me was an android infected by a parasitic lifeform.

Most likely, a variant of the human hunter we took down last time.

An inferior infected being, stuck at a ‘mob’ level, unable to evolve into a Queen-class.

And that childlike frame.

She had to be part of the R.P.M.’s 3rd unit—the Covert Operations Squad.

‘The smaller they are, the better they can hide.’

As a special android unit specializing in assassination and infiltration, most of its members had a young, slender appearance just like this girl.

Maybe that was why.

Even in a situation where I should have instinctively remained on high alert, I hesitated for a moment.

The girl-shaped infected android in front of me was trembling, her voice so weak it was barely more than a whisper.

“I… I’ll just go… I was just really hungry… If you don’t want to give me anything… it’s okay, I’ll just leave.”

It was strange.

Far too strange.

An infected android was a ‘dead machine,’ severed from the network.

A parasite took over the body and rebirthed it into a new creature.

From that point on, it was no longer an android or a human.

And yet—

“Kid… you’re one of those monsters, right? But how are you… still able to speak human language?”

At my question, the girl flinched, her eyes widening in panic.

“That… I… I don’t really…”

“Chanwoo, please step back.”

At Levi’s words, I snapped back to reality.

She was already standing in front of me, blade raised.

Her face was expressionless, but her eyes shone with a cold light.

“Do not be deceived. That is a monster.”

Serika also spoke up, her violet eyes carrying a chilling judgment.

“She’s right. Regardless of how it talks, an infected being capable of using human language could actually be even more dangerous. It’s entirely possible it learned to mimic speech to deceive us.”

“A-Aaah…! P-Please… spare me! I really… I really only came here because I was hungry…!”

The girl collapsed almost completely to the ground, sobbing.

Trembling all over, she clamped both hands over her mouth, trying to muffle her cries.

At that moment, Levi quietly stepped forward.

“Chanwoo. If you wish, I can take this child far away and dispose of her quietly.”

“Levi…”

“You are kind, Chanwoo. I judged that you would not want to see even a parasitic android die before your eyes. So please, just wait here without worry.”

“I-I don’t want to die, please!”

***

Drip.

And then it happened.

With a small sob, a warm liquid trickled down from the girl’s thighs.

A spreading stain of urine on the ground between her legs.

“……”

This was the kind of reaction that only a living being pushed to the very brink of survival could show.

Tightly shutting her eyes and covering her mouth, she had even wet herself out of fear.

It was nearly impossible to tell what part was acting and what part was genuine.

But no matter how I looked at her, she just seemed like a terrified, trembling child.

I quietly stared at the back of Levi’s hand gripping her blade.

‘Is this really a trick? Or is it…’

Levi still hadn’t moved.

Though she usually prioritized swift, accurate decisions, even now she couldn’t bring herself to lower her blade.

The hesitation at the tip of her blade—

It wasn’t just because she was waiting for my signal.

Levi herself could sense that something about this child was off, that there was a strange, inexplicable feeling logic alone couldn’t explain.

And then, between the small sobs—

Grrrrrrr…

A low rumble echoed from the girl’s stomach.

It was unmistakably the sound of hunger.

‘Is this really an act? Or could it be real?’

I bit my lip.

It wasn’t impossible for parasitic infected beings to imitate emotions.

Even the human hunters we fought had absorbed memories and mimicked androids.

This child could be doing the same.

And yet, seeing her sobbing, trembling, even wetting herself—

‘Why did my heart feel so unbearably heavy?’

Before I realized it, I opened my mouth.

“Were you really… just hungry?”

It was something she had already said many times.

Her pleas for help, her tearful excuses—they had all been rooted in those simple words.

But at the time, I had dismissed them as possible lies, desperate fabrications to save her life.

After all, infected beings could do that.

Believing otherwise was the only way to keep from being shaken.

But now, hearing that feeble rumble from her empty belly, I understood.

From the very beginning, she had been telling the truth.

She hadn’t come here to steal or harm.

She had come here simply because she was starving.

Tightly biting her lip, the girl gave the tiniest nod.

A single tear welled up at the corner of her eye, slid down her cheek, and fell silently to the ground.

Slowly, I released the tension in my hand, silently repeating to myself—

‘You must not trust it. Unknown infected beings must be eliminated, no exceptions.’

That was the one unbreakable rule for survival in this world.

But right now, in front of this small, trembling being, that rule felt impossibly distant.

Before I realized it, I even found myself wanting to hand her the canned food I was holding.

Munch, munch!

Chomp, chomp!

Gulp, gulp!

It was, quite literally, a binge.

The sound of a can being popped open, the small mouth chomping furiously, the throat working smoothly as she swallowed, and the growing pile of empty cans on the ground.

“……”

We silently watched the scene unfold.

It was true that kids in their growth phase tend to eat a lot, but this was on the level of a disaster relief refugee.

‘Or maybe… do infected creatures have something like a “growth phase” too?’

Physiologically and logically, it made no sense, but the way she ate so heartily did make her feel undeniably alive.

By the time half of the week’s worth of food that Serika had prepared had vanished…

The small girl wiped her mouth and cautiously stood up.

“Th-thank you so much! I almost starved to death… but thanks to the three of you, I survived!”

Her voice was bright and clear, with a tone that almost tickled the ears.

“Yeah, you ate well, didn’t you?”

When I spoke to her, the girl beamed and nodded enthusiastically.

“Yes! It’s all thanks to meeting the three kind androids who hunted this food!”

“…Three androids?”

At that moment, I blinked in confusion.

‘This girl… is she mistaking me for an android too?’

Well, it wouldn’t be surprising.

In this world, humanity had gone extinct thousands of years ago.

It was only natural she wouldn’t even imagine a living human still existed.

I was just about to carefully open my mouth to correct the misunderstanding when—

“Hehe, that’s right. We’re three kind androids~.”

“I agree. You won’t find androids as kind as us.”

Soft sensations pressed against me from both sides.

The two androids clinging to me, Serika and Levi, smiled warmly at Lila, easily playing along with the misunderstanding.

“You two… what are you doing…?”

[Whispering]

“Chanwoo. It’s better to keep the fact you’re human a secret for now,” Serika whispered softly.

“You still don’t trust her?”

“Yes. Honestly, there are too many suspicious points for me to fully believe her.”

Levi nodded in agreement.

“Better to be cautious. An infected creature can change its behavior at any time.”

Well, she wasn’t wrong.

There was no downside to hiding the fact that I was human.

And no matter how harmless she seemed, the fact that Lila was still a mutated lifeform hadn’t changed.

Which meant it was about time to get to the main point.

***

“By the way, Lila.”

“Yes?”

“You are… a mutated lifeform, right?”

“Ah… yes, I think so.”

“You think so?”

“Yes… I didn’t have any memories before I woke up. I was just… crawling somewhere, and then when I came to my senses, I was like this.”

Her tone carried more than just the usual meaning of “memory loss.”

There was a deep confusion and uncertainty, a sense that she didn’t even know exactly what she was herself.

Like a being that had awakened purely on instinct, without consciousness or self.

She couldn’t even be sure if she had been infected, and the best she could offer was the vague word “maybe.”

That gave off a completely different kind of eeriness than the obvious enemies we had encountered so far.

***

“Lila, what do you think about humans?”

When I asked suddenly, Lila tilted her head in confusion.

“Humans?”

“Yeah. Mutated creatures are supposed to feel an instinctive urge to attack humans, right?”

That was one of the fundamental rules of the Children of the Star universe.

It was why humanity had gone extinct—because mutated creatures would go berserk just from smelling a human.

But Lila, standing here in front of me, simply said:

“Hmm?”

She shrugged nonchalantly.

“If they’re there, they’re there. It’s not like we have to attack them or anything, right?”

“…Really?”

“Yes. Actually, we’re more afraid of androids than humans!”

“!!”

That answer caught me off guard.

“At least, that’s what all the ‘villagers’ said. We should avoid androids as much as possible.”

“‘Villagers’?”

A jolt of electricity seemed to run down my spine.

‘Villagers?’

‘Could there still be survival clusters on this ruined Earth that could be called “villages”?’

“What do you mean, Lila? Villages?”

“Yes! There’s a little underground village where infected androids like me live together!”

“An underground village?”

A vivid image flashed across my mind.

‘Why we hadn’t seen many infected creatures roaming around.’

‘Why only rare, advanced-level infected like human hunters existed.’

The reason was simple.

They had been hiding underground all this time.