"It's not like there's no way at all."
Kael's eyes narrowed.
"Just a moment ago, you told me to wake up from my dream."
"It's not a dream. It's a nightmare."
Harun pulled a small metal flask from inside his coat and took a swig.
The thick stench of alcohol wafted up.
"Going up to the upper levels is impossible, but getting close to the Surface Level happens from time to time."
"How."
"Waste backflow."
Kael quietly repeated the word.
"Waste backflow..."
"Waste from the upper levels doesn't just flow down to the underground. Sometimes, items sorted down here are sent back up. When they're worth reprocessing, when parts a corporation needs to recover get mixed in, or when mistakenly discarded equipment is found."
"A transport route for recovered goods?"
"Yeah."
Harun pointed a finger toward the underground ceiling.
"Underground Level 15, the 17th Waste Magic Device Treatment Plant. There's a Recovered Goods Elevator Shaft that leads up from there. Of course, people can't ride it. It's strictly for recovered goods."
"What about inspections?"
"Naturally, there are a hell of a lot of them."
"Then how do you get past them?"
"Wouldn't it work if it's registered as an official recovered good?"
When Kael looked at Harun, he merely shrugged his shoulders.
"Funny, isn't it? A human can't go up, but a piece of scrap metal can. In this city, expensive components hold a higher status than human beings."
"Sounds like Magiterra."
"You've become a proper local."
Harun lowered his voice even further.
"There are bastards with the authority to register recovered goods: plant supervisors, corporate subcontractor managers, and recovery brokers. Some of them will doctor the scrap list if the price is right."
"You're not suggesting I register myself as a recovered good, are you?"
"I didn't think you'd say something that stupid. Disguising a person as a crate gets caught in an instant."
Harun pointed a finger at Kael.
"You're not going up—you're sending up something you fixed."
Kael fell into thought for a moment.
And it didn't take him long to grasp the meaning behind those words.
"Are you suggesting we repair something connected to the upper levels?"
"Yeah."
Harun grinned.
"Something the bastards up top would be desperate to recover. Something expensive, rare, dangerous, and too costly to lose."
"Bait, then."
"See, we speak the same language."
Harun rummaged through his pockets again and pulled out a worn piece of metal.
It looked like an ordinary piece of scrap metal at a glance, but a faint emblem was engraved on its surface.
[Seraph Industry]
It was a corporate logo.
"It came in a few days ago. A high-tier medical circuit component. Something that should never have made its way down to the underground."
"Was it discarded by mistake?"
"Or someone threw it away on purpose."
Harun tossed it to Kael.
Kael caught it and examined the surface, revealing traces of circuitry.
"...."
It was a piece unlike anything Harun had tossed his way so far.
"Why are you only showing me this now?"
"Because until you brought up the Surface Level, there was no reason to show it to you."
The corner of Harun's mouth twisted.
"And frankly speaking, I didn't want to show it, either. This thing smells less like money and more... reeks of blood."
Kael didn't take his eyes off the metal fragment.
Most of the circuits were severed, but they were not completely dead.
And on the inside, there was a strangely familiar slot.
Kael's fingertips froze.
"This isn't an ordinary medical device."
Harun's expression hardened.
"What?"
Kael flipped the fragment over to show part of the engraved circuitry.
The lines were so minuscule they were barely visible without a magnifying lens, but Kael could see them.
"The outside looks like a recovery-type circuit, but the internal structure is different. It's not for healing; it's closer to a container designed to preserve something."
"Preserve?"
"You said they even sell things like organs around here."
Seeing the blood drain from Harun's face, Kael said quietly.
"This is just my guess... but among organs, I think it was a container specifically meant to preserve a 'brain.'"
Harun shut his mouth as if he understood what Kael meant, then muttered a curse under his breath.
"A brain?"
"Yeah."
Seraph Industry and a high-tier medical circuit. And a component that should never have ended up in the underground.
This might just be the first piece of the path upward that Kael had been looking for.
Harun glanced around at their surroundings, then spoke in a low voice.
"Can you bring it back to life?"
Kael didn't answer for a while, running his fingertips over the faint remnants of mana.
The damage was severe, but it seemed repairable.
The corners of Kael's mouth curved slightly upward.
"I can bring it back to life, but..."
At his words, Harun's eyes gleamed.
"But what?"
"We can't just stop at fixing it."
"What the hell are you talking about now?"
"If I just repair it, they'll simply recover it. And we get nothing out of it."
Kael looked down at the metal fragment.
"If we're going to use this as bait, we need to attach a fishing line to it, too."
Harun stood blankly for a moment, then slowly began to chuckle.
Low at first.
Then growing louder and louder.
"Ha."
He grinned, baring his teeth.
"You really are a crazy bastard."
"I'll take that as a compliment."
"It is a compliment."
Harun leaned forward.
"What are you going to attach to it?"
Kael tapped his fingertip against the metal fragment.
"A tracking formula."
Harun's laughter cut off.
"You're going to embed a tracking formula into a recovered good?"
"Yeah. More precisely, a recording-type one that can read the route the moment it gets recovered."
"What if it gets discovered?"
"Are you asking me that?"
"...."
"But if we succeed..."
Kael raised his head.
"We gain our first path leading to the upper levels."
Harun remained silent, then finally opened his mouth.
"You're going to need materials."
"Fine crystal powder. Thin silver wire. Insulating fluid. And a stable mana source."
"Expensive."
"Isn't that rather cheap for a stairway to heaven?"
Harun clicked his tongue.
"Sounds like you're telling me to foot the bill."
"That's right."
"What about the profit split?"
"There's no profit this time."
Kael calmly continued.
"Information."
Harun stared at Kael in silence before letting out a sigh.
"Fine. I'll get the materials."
"By when?"
"Three days."
"One day."
"Get them yourself, then."
"Two days."
"...I really don't like you."
"Not like you ever did."
Harun gritted his teeth and nodded.
"Two days. But if you fail, I'm docking it from your cut."
"And if I succeed?"
"You'll get your hands on the recovery route to the upper levels."
"Besides that."
"What else do you want?"
Kael thought for a moment before speaking.
"Everything you know about Seraph Industry."
Harun's expression twisted.
"Don't go tossing that name around carelessly."
"That's why I need to know more."
"From the moment you try to dig into something... no, even before that, those bastards eliminate anyone they deem a potential threat. That's the Megacorp way."
"I've lived in hiding long enough."
"Ha. When it's only been a year?"
Harun spoke firmly.
"I don't know what you're hiding, but anyone who stands out in the Underground Level has a short lifespan. Yet the corporate bastards from the upper levels are even faster. They hunt down their prey far more relentlessly."
When no answer came, Harun clicked his tongue and continued.
"Seraph Industry is a Megacorp that controls the medical, healing, and bio-circuit sectors. Basically, they handle hospitals, restoratives, artificial organs, and Circuit Stabilizers."
"And the dirty side?"
"Unauthorized human experimentation. Organ trafficking. Kidnapping circuit-compatibles."
Harun kept watching his surroundings as he spoke.
"Just rumors. Officially, there's nothing on record. As usual, of course."
Kael looked back down at the metal fragment.
"Hmm."
If research on Magic Circuits, or bio-circuits resembling them, was being conducted somewhere in this city...
The answer would lie up above, not underground.
"All right."
Kael tucked the fragment inside his clothes.
"Let's call it a day here."
"Already?"
Harun furrowed his brows.
"Are you going to pay me overtime?"
"You're probably the only bastard in the Underground Level who says things like that."
"That's why I'm still alive."
"Always with the silver tongue."
Harun clicked his tongue, but didn't hold him back any further.
Kael gave a brief wave of his hand and left the stall.
***
Rattle-clatter.
The sound of iron, glass, and waste tumbling together was a familiar noise by now.
Kael made his way toward his dwelling on Underground Level 20.
That was when it happened.
Rumble-craaash!
As a massive roar erupted overhead, Kael reflexively looked up.
One of the transport pipes was opening.
The people nearby scattered, hurling curses, and Kael took a step back as well.
The sound of falling waste from the upper levels echoed, and soon after, trash poured down with a deafening roar.
Kael watched the spectacle impassively.
It was no different from any other day, but amid the debris, a small shadow caught his eye.
'A child's corpse?'
Yet even as it plummeted, it was desperately trying to keep its balance.
Kael's eyes narrowed.
His body moved before he could think. Kael kicked off the ground—even though he couldn't use magic.
Kael's body had been forged on the battlefield, honed by countless clashes against the Demon King's Army.
Kael leaped straight into the pouring waste.
A piece of metal shrapnel grazed his shoulder. Pain flared up, but he didn't stop; the small bundle was falling fast.
The distance closed.
One step.
Two steps.
At the final moment, Kael sprang into the air and reached out his hand, but—
His fingertips only brushed against damp fabric.
It slipped.
He gritted his teeth and reached further.
'Got you!'
Kael pulled the small body into his arms and twisted away, just as a steel crate crashed down behind him, smashing the ground to pieces.
Crash!
Debris sprayed outward.
Kael landed, absorbing the impact through his knees.
"Phew..."
He looked down at what was in his arms.
A small body. Probably a child. But it was hard to tell the exact age, gender, or facial features. Covered in filth, its appearance was impossible to even make out...
The stench was simply too foul.
Every repulsive smell gathered together, stinging his nose.
Kael frowned.
"...."
Alive. Faint, but definitely breathing.
Kael looked at the child for a moment, then set them down carefully on the ground.
Because it was better not to get any more involved than this.
This was the Underground Level.
An unidentified child fallen from above. Considering the problems that would logically follow gave him a headache.
Kael already had more than enough problems of his own.
Concerning his unrecovered Magic Circuit and the path leading to the upper levels.
Right now, he could barely look after himself.
That was enough. Regardless, hadn't he stopped them from smashing into the floor and turning into paste? That was how Kael judged it.
Feeling the gazes around him, he rose to his feet.
In the crowd, someone was already sizing up the child to see if they carried anything of value.
Even seeing those eyes, Kael turned away.
Getting involved any further would never end. Living like that meant achieving nothing.
Kael took a step forward.
And then.
Tug.
Something tugged at the hem of his clothes.
With head bowed, the child was clutching the hem of his clothes.