Esper Harem in the Apocalypse

Chapter 1055: Radiation City

ʼWhatʼs this feeling?ʼ Rudy asked himself as he held his head in his hands.

Rudy recalled how he was feeling awfully similar to what he had experienced when he had encountered a goblin nest in the forest.

ʼIt was for a split second, but I definitely saw something. I saw… cosmos… and a figure in it. But… it wasnʼt what I saw the last time. The figure wasnʼt covered… it was… blurry. It was there, but I couldnʼt see it. And I am sure it was a girl because of the red hue I saw in her long hair.

More importantly, why did I have a vision like that when I saw the house? Is it somehow linked to my… amnesia…? Should I even call it amnesia? My memories from the other timeline are sealed.

Either way, I am sure I will find answers once I go in. However…ʼ

Rudy turned to Eric and asked, ”What is this place and how do you know of it?”

Eric walked towards the house without saying a word. But as he climbed the first step onto the porch, he said, ”Letʼs get inside first.”

When Rudy stepped into the house, he felt a strange sense of nostalgia all over him. He felt like he had come here before. He looked at Eric, who was walking into the hallway and called out to him:

”Where…”

Eric turned around with a confused look on his face and asked, ”Hmm?”

ʼWhat is this feeling?!ʼ Rudy asked himself. ʼWhy do I feel like someone I know used to live here? It seems like Eric has come here many times and he knows every corner of the house, but I too… feel like I know it.ʼ

Rudy walked around the house for a few minutes and looked at the paintings on the walls, but much to his surprise, there were no pictures or paintings; they were only frames hanging on the wall.

”Eric, how do you go upstairs?”

”What do you mean?”

Eric handed the bowl of fresh and hot noodles to Rudy and continued, ”There is up upstairs in this house.”

”But from outside…”

”Yeah.” Eric nodded. ”From outside, it looks like it has a room upstairs, but trust me, I have been coming here for over a year and searched the entire house and the nearby areas to look for a hidden pathway. I even tried going into that room by climbing.”

”What happened then?” Rudy asked curiously while pipping noodles.

”Nothing. I could see the hallway from the window, which means that the house was made like that. Itʼs an illusion.”

”You said something about living here. Whatʼs going on? Tell me the story of this house,” Rudy asked with a composed look on his face. He didnʼt want to look curious, although he was dying to find out about the house.

Eric stayed quiet for a few seconds. Seemingly gathering his thoughts to tell the story.

”As you know, this forest was nuked and everything should have been destroyed. No one actually came to look up the site because of the strong nuclear radiation. They were sure that all the monsters had been obliterated.

Of course, they scanned the area to make sure everything was clear. Last year, I was roaming in the forest since I had received reports about a few low-ranking monsters appearing in the woods.

I had to make sure there wasnʼt another nest, so I came to look for it. I found a few monsters and killed them immediately. I kept wandering in the woods, hoping to find more monsters, but I reached the radiation city.”

”...” Rudy squinted his eyes after hearing that word.

”Donʼt look at me like that. They named it that.”

”Werenʼt there other names?” Rudy asked.

”Oh, they were worse.”

They both sighed together.

”Moving on, I was about to leave, but I saw the security machines installed in the area. At first, I thought they did this to prevent a civilian from getting infected, but that was not the case. The machines were equipped with weapons, deadly weapons.

They werenʼt installed to stop anyone from entering in order to save them, but it was to kill them. Obviously, my curiosity piqued, and I wanted to go in, but I couldnʼt. So… I asked Erika for help and she created a gadget for me that could hack into anything.”

”Wait, what?” Rudy was genuinely surprised to hear that. He knew Erika was the smartest in the group, but creating a device like that requires deep knowledge.

”Yeah. We heroes were given a hero device that worked on a private network firmware, and fortunately, all the machines and devices belonging to the hero organization worked on the same firmware. So it was easy to hack into them— or so Erika told me.”

Eric had finished eating noodles a while ago since he had to narrate the story, while Rudy was leisurely eating them, enjoying the spicy lunch with Ericʼs story.

”What happened next? Skip the part when you used the device and entered the ʼradiated cityʼ.” Rudy quoted.

”Itʼs radiation city.” Eric corrected Rudy.

”I was sure there wonʼt be any monsters in the area. After all, It was impossible for anyone to survive. Anyway, I continued strolling, looking for a clue as to what the Hero Organization was hiding. And imagine my surprise when I saw a house, completely unscathed while the other houses nearby had been obliterated into ashes.

I checked the material to find out what it was made up from, and sure enough, it was wood. Then, I thought perhaps this house was made after the bombing. It was the only plausible explanation I could think of.”

”And…?” Rudy placed his bowl down after sipping the last drop of the soup. ”What did you find out?”

Eric shook his head.

”So, what are we here for?”

Eric opened his bag and took out a pen drive.

Then, with a serious look on his face, he asserted, ”This has the most valuable information on the planet. If itʼs leaked… consider a world war.”