Mr. Pilot 2 (before battle)
'Tis injustice that thou hast left me out of thine iced-crrream jaunt...
It tasted like fish! Not worth the walk~ Maybe they put ground Mermaid in there.
Ground Mermaid... in ice cream...?
Boy, I'm nervous. What an audience, huh...?
T.O.S.T.O.O.F.
...? I'm sorry?
... Talk...
S... F.S.
Haah... Or Suffer The Obliteration Of Forehead...
...!
I appreciate you translatin' it... I... I feel a bit better...
She reminded me a lot of our LCC Before Team Director just now.
Must be a helluva boss, huh...
Heh...
Where do I begin...
It took us a hot minute to pinpoint the location of the Lobotomy Corp. Branch housing the Golden Bough, actually...
Me and my teammates, we ran a pretty tight ship...
But the Twinhook Pirates of U Corp. Backstreets caught wind of us sniffin' around!
Listen 'ere lad! This be the cheapest bottle of oil in all the Great Lake, I tell ye!
What? How? That's ridiculous! Y'all are tellin' me that this Whale oil of dubious origin is worth HOW much?!
Wait...! Yeah, no wonder! You pretty much antagonized them to their faces!
Okay, in my defense, those fellers was about to rob us blind!
I mean... Couldn't you have just paid a bit of money for some intel, though...?
W-well, anyway...
After a thorough search, we identified the exact location of the Lobotomy Corp. Branch with the Golden Bough.
Did you find the Golden Bough?
Yup. Saw that fabled golden light, too. "Too bright yet not too bright", was it?
I had to see it with my own two eyes to understand what that meant.
Boy, what an incredibly incandescent glow that was, even from deep within the Lobotomy Corp. Branch Ship.
Observation: check! Confirmation: check! All we had left to do on the docket was the report.
Oh! Our job, by the way, was advance reconnaissance to confirm the presence of a Golden Bough.
They say that plenty of advance reconnaissance teams encounter Abnormalities or get wiped out in the process.
We were about to make our return journey, considering the mission a resounding success, when...
So those pirates followed you guys there, huh...
Team Leader Haru assured us that nothing was out of the ordinary and that these uh, interruptions by opposin' parties happened all the time.
But...
So... I don't really care what you're doing all the way out here on this creepy ship, but...
This gentleman here was rather curious about what business you guys were up to. So I tagged along. No objections, hmm?
Pilot's face turned pale with fear for the first time since he started recounting this story.
... That's when I heard the weapon slip outta our Team Leader's hand and onto the ground.
Our Team Leader's an experienced field agent with a decorated track record...
She... I've never seen her just give up like that. She ain't the kind to be so easily rattled...
So I turned to look at her, and the look on her face was...
I say, that was a look of resignation.
Would I be correct in assuming that she had something to say at that moment?
... "Mission failed". Verbatim.
... Who'd she see? To immediately give up like that...
... "An officer from the Middle shouldn't be here..." Again, verbatim.
... Hm.
...!
I'm guessing the guy had like... a huge fancy tattoo? That glowed purple?
H-huh, how'd you know? That was the very first thing I noticed about him, actually. That... weird-lookin', purple-glowin' tattoo.
Still, I thought that maybe, just maybe, we had a shot...
We're Unit 3, after all... We weren't no slouches, and we had some impressive names with us...
You didn't.
... And I do not recall much more after that...
When I came to, I was on the floor, face down...
At first, I thought I'd gone deaf and couldn't hear a thing. Y'know, when a bomb goes off right next to you, your ear starts ringin' and all. Thought I'd burst my eardrums.
... But that wasn't it, no. It was my team... shoutin' and screamin', shoutin' and screamin'... And all of it combined into some kind of a incomprehensible cacophony. I just couldn't register that at first.
Ah...
Once I recognized that, I also noticed... a deep rumbling, echoing underneath all that.
A bizarre, terrible rumbling... that sounded like it was echoing from a place far away from the Branch.
... Bizarre rumbling?
Yes ma'am. It was almost like a distant explosion. And it seemed like others were picking up on that odd noise too.
The pirates... suddenly started actin' all nervous.
And even the 'Big Brother' from 'the Middle' was rattled.
... They all called him 'the Big Brother'? Did you hear that right? I guess there really was a big fish looking out for the pirates...
Yes ma'am. Loud and clear. They called him 'Big Brother'.
Keh... Kehehe... Hah! I wonder how those fools are doing nowadays.
Take only the high-value hostages. We're leaving. Now.
That right there is one of the Five Calamities. We have to book it before that thing gets here. We're all dead meat if we don't.
One last thing I remember... is our Team Leader.
Right before I lost consciousness... The Team Leader, she...
Stuck her employee card badge to my chest when the pirates weren't looking...
Back then, I didn't understand what she was doin'. But now that I had some time to think about it...
She did that so I'll look more valuable... so they'll take me hostage instead of leavin' me to die... Me, who's just a rookie...
To summarize... Every LCCB Agent was either injured or unconscious...
The Middle got involved out of nowhere... And there was this 'Calamity' that even the Middle bloke was scared of...
Can you give us the coordinates to the Lobotomy Corp. Branch, Mr. Pilot?
O-of course.
Pilot produced a piece of paper that had been folded over many times and handed it over to Faust.
It's all right there, ma'am. Down to every last bit of detail you'll need. I hid it from them to the best of my abilities. I'm glad that I was able to complete my mission, at least.
......
Wait.
That 'Calamity'. Was there anything else about it that stood out?
There's got to be more.
... Pale...
It was... white. An off-white color unlike anythin' I'd ever laid my eyes on before. It was, ah... towerin' and pallid. And that... rumbling... I'm sure I've heard of it before...
Ah! Right, It reminded me of U Corp's Singularity! That rumbling... sounded a lot like them tuning forks when they combined stuff together.
... Yeah... Almost there...
Let me tag along with y'all!
I could be your guide in the Lobotomy Corp. Branch!
Indeed, this was to be a joint operation with the LCCB where they were supposed to accompany us to the Lobotomy Corp. Branch.
What is your decision, Dante?
<......>
<Tell him that while I appreciate his offer, I decline.>
<People that get involved with us... often don't make it out in one piece.>
... I.A.
We just saved your life! Mate, show some gratitude!
Uh... Thank you...?
Mr. Pilot, remain on standby until the After Team arrives. Then, return to base and report your findings.
Ah... so they declined, huh?
The stories were true, I don't hear nothin' but the ticking of their clock...
Executive Manager, in their endless generosity, has also deigned to thank you for your offer. Remember that as you return.
Alright...
W-well then, best of luck to y'all.
That's all I needed. Bye.
... Sigh.
Ishmael was the first to leave the room.
Uh... Umm... Well, this meeting was pretty short-lived.
But say hello to Saude for us, will ya?
And... please tell her that I'm thankful for what she did for us.
Back then... I couldn't bring myself to tell her even that.
I'll be... sure to tell her that.
You have endured well despite the tribulations, Pilot.
Aww, Yi Sang! How kind of ya~
It appeared to me that he deserved such words.
.......
Kh... Agh...
I wanna see my team again...
They were all so kind to me, me bein' the rookie of the team and all...
......
Maybe... maybe there are survivors at the Lobotomy Corp. Branch...
Pilot's eyes, which had been welling up for a while, eventually broke like a dam. Tears flowed down his cheeks to the ground.
... We shall bring them home. You have my word.
And mine, too.
... We won't fail again.
…….
I have examined the variable coordinates Mr. Pilot provided us.
<What exactly are variable coordinates?>
Ships beyond a certain magnitude, like our Lobotomy Corp. Branch or the Marlin Port, receive partial laws of the Great Lake in an encrypted form from U Corp.
U Corp. holds a strict monopoly on the intel regarding the laws of the Great Lake within the Nest. Of course, the vessels that receive that intel pay various prices for that privilege.
They use that partial information to calculate at which location their vessels must be during which specific period to ensure a safe voyage, and finalize it into a standardized form known as 'variable coordinates'.
Portships often send out their coordinates to other vessels, as they want to host as many guests as possible. But vessels that prioritize privacy and secrecy, like the former L Corp. Branch in question, will never do so.
So... the Lobotomy Corp. Branch we're looking for... is kinda like a treasure ship, huh? Then there's gotta be a black market out there for people willing to pay big money for its coordinates...
Impressive deduction.
Also, unlike normal coordinates, variable coordinates are composed of lengthy and encrypted codes.
Therefore, vessels sailing across the Great Lake start by entering the variable coordinates of their destination. Based on that information, said vessels will follow a certain route charted via the automated navigation system that periodically confirms the current location of their destination.
Wow~ That's a lot of big words! So basically, if we enter the information we got from Mr. Pilot here, we can somehow find our way to the Lobotomy Corp. Branch?
... It's useless in the waters of the Outskirts, beyond the borders of U Corp.
Indeed. But the Lobotomy Corp. Branch is within U Corp.'s borders. We will have no trouble analyzing the vessel's travel patterns as long as we have its variable coordinates.
<Gotcha. Then let's get a move on.>
Yi Sang and Sinclair nodded with determination, while the other Sinners followed suit and hurried on.
…….
Though I didn't catch a clear view...
I think Ishmael nodded, too.