Morning.
Second period.
The classroom was very quiet.
The heating system was running steadily.
Outside the window was the familiar gray-white sky.
The teacher stood at the front of the classroom, explaining the underground energy network.
A diagram of the thermal energy transmission system was displayed on the projection screen.
The students lowered their heads and took notes.
Occasionally, someone raised a hand to ask a question.
Everything was no different from usual.
Irina sat by the window.
She carefully copied down the key points.
Although she often missed classes because of government assignments,
whenever she was at school,
she still did her best to keep up with the lessons.
Just then,
the communication terminal placed at the corner of her desk began to vibrate softly.
She lowered her head.
A red indicator appeared on the screen.
Pollution Control Bureau.
Highest-priority assignment.
Irina immediately stood up.
The teacher noticed the mark on her terminal.
He did not ask for an explanation.
He simply nodded.
"Go."
The students in the classroom had long since grown accustomed to it.
Someone looked up briefly.
Then continued taking notes.
To them,
Irina suddenly leaving class was nothing unusual.
She picked up her coat
and quickly left the classroom.
The communication channel connected.
A staff member's voice immediately came through.
"Third Residential District."
"Aurora Department Store."
"An object suspected of being a pollution source has been discovered."
"Initial evacuation has been completed."
"The police have sealed off the area."
"Understood."
Irina asked no further questions.
She headed directly to the scene.
More than twenty minutes later,
the vehicle stopped outside the department store.
Numerous police cars had already blocked off the surrounding roads.
A perimeter had been established for more than a hundred meters.
Residents had been evacuated to the outer area.
The person in charge hurried over to meet her.
"It was discovered on the third floor, in the public restroom."
"A janitor was the first to notice something unusual."
"The pollution index isn't high."
"But we haven't been able to determine its nature."
Irina took the documents.
She quickly looked through them.
Then entered the department store alone.
The automatic doors slowly opened.
The department store, which was normally bustling with activity, was unusually quiet.
The lights were still bright.
The advertising screens were still running.
But there were no customers anywhere.
The air was filled with an indescribable sense of emptiness.
Her detector began operating.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
The faint sound continued to echo.
Irina walked forward along the corridor.
All the way to the third floor.
The detector's response grew noticeably stronger.
Her steps gradually slowed.
She carefully observed her surroundings.
Something was wrong.
It was too quiet.
Under normal circumstances,
even after a pollution source was discovered,
the police would leave a certain number of personnel behind to assist.
But now,
the entire floor seemed completely deserted.
She arrived at the restroom entrance.
The detector began emitting continuous warning tones.
The target was inside.
Irina pushed the door open.
She slowly entered.
The stall at the very back was half open.
The detector's response was already approaching its peak.
She walked toward the stall
and reached out to push the door open.
A black metal case was sitting quietly on the floor.
Complex patterns covered its surface.
It had clearly been artificially manufactured.
Irina's brows furrowed slightly.
Man-made?
At that very moment.
Bang—!
A gunshot suddenly rang out.
The bullet shattered the partition.
Fragments flew everywhere.
Irina instinctively twisted aside and rolled across the floor.
A second bullet grazed her shoulder.
Her clothing was torn open.
Blood slowly seeped out.
She immediately took cover behind the wall
and cautiously looked toward the entrance.
Several figures slowly walked in.
All of them were wearing masks.
Weapons were in their hands.
The man at the front held a gun.
His expression was calm.
There was not the slightest trace of panic.
"Nice reaction."
The man spoke.
Irina did not answer.
She quickly assessed the distance.
Their numbers.
Possible escape routes.
But she soon realized
that the exits had already been blocked.
"Don't even think about escaping."
The man seemed to have seen through her thoughts.
"If we wanted to kill you, wouldn't that be easy?"
Those two shots just now
wouldn't have been mere warnings.
The air fell silent for a brief moment.
Then the man waved his hand.
"Take her over."
Two members stepped forward.
They did not use excessive force.
They simply motioned for her to leave.
Irina hesitated for several seconds.
In the end, she did not resist.
Because she wanted to know
what these people were actually after.
A few minutes later,
she finally saw the real scene.
The central hall of the department store.
The open area normally used for events.
It had now been completely taken over.
Dozens of hostages were sitting in the center of the hall.
The elderly.
Children.
Store employees.
Customers.
All of them had been gathered together.
Temporary barricades had been placed around them.
Several armed men stood guard.
Observation posts had been established both upstairs and downstairs.
The entire layout had clearly been planned in advance.
But strangely,
there was very little blood at the scene.
There were no bodies.
Not even anyone who appeared to have been seriously injured.
A young member was handing hot water to an elderly hostage.
Elsewhere,
another member was comforting a crying child.
This looked nothing like an ordinary terrorist attack.
Irina frowned slightly.
The longer she watched,
the stranger it seemed.
She was brought to the center of the hall
and made to sit near the hostages.
Quite a few people recognized her.
But no one dared to say anything.
An oppressive atmosphere filled the entire hall.
Meanwhile,
outside the department store,
at the temporary command center,
the communications officers continued reporting the situation.
"They haven't made any demands."
"No contact with the government."
"No contact with the media."
"No conditions for releasing the hostages."
The meeting room fell silent.
The director frowned.
"What exactly are they trying to do?"
No one could answer.
Because their actions made no sense according to normal logic.
Kidnappers wanted ransom.
Political organizations wanted demands met.
Extremist groups wanted publicity.
But this group wanted nothing.
After taking control of the department store,
they simply remained there.
As if they were waiting for something.
Inside the hall,
the organization's leader finally walked over to Irina.
He slowly sat down.
"They should have started guessing outside by now."
He spoke calmly.
Irina looked up at him.
"What exactly are you trying to do?"
The man was silent for a moment.
Then suddenly smiled.
"They must be very confused right now."
"Because everyone thinks"
"terrorists should have demands."
"Kidnappers should have demands."
"Rebels should have demands."
He looked at the hostages around them.
His voice remained calm.
"But we don't."
Irina frowned slightly.
"No demands?"
"None."
The man answered.
"Because we didn't come here to take anything."
"Then why did you create a pollution source?"
The man did not answer immediately.
Instead,
he slowly raised his head
and looked toward the ceiling of the hall.
After a long silence,
he finally spoke again.
"My grandfather."
"He died in a pollution control zone twenty-seven years ago."
The air fell silent.
None of the surrounding members spoke.
They seemed to have heard the story many times before.
"The official records say"
"he voluntarily entered the restricted area."
"He protected the eastern facilities."
"He was awarded the title of National Hero."
The man gave a faint laugh.
But there was bitterness in his smile.
"But what I remembered as a child"
"wasn't a hero."
"It was a funeral."
No one interrupted him.
The man continued.
"The deputy squad leader's father"
"died at an underground maintenance station."
"The logistics officer's mother"
"died in a containment accident."
"And him."
The man pointed toward a young man in the distance.
"His father was already dead before he was born."
The air grew heavier.
Irina listened silently.
Because all of these things
had really happened.
The man continued.
"Everyone said they were great."
"Everyone said they were heroes."
"Everyone said we should be proud."
He lowered his head.
His voice gradually turned cold.
"But no one ever asked us"
"whether we wanted that kind of pride."
The hall fell silent.
The hostages in the distance did not dare speak.
The members of the organization also remained silent.
As if those words
had been buried inside them for many years.
The man looked at Irina again.
"Do you know what the most ridiculous thing is?"
"When I was a child"
"every anniversary"
"someone would come to see me."
"They brought gifts."
"Care packages."
"They told me"
"Your grandfather was a hero."
"You should be proud of him."
The man slowly clenched his fists.
"But what I really wanted to know was"
"what food he liked."
"What color he liked."
"Whether he drank."
"Whether he cursed."
"Whether he laughed."
"No one knew."
The silence became terrifying.
"Because in their eyes"
"my grandfather had stopped being a person long ago."
"He had become a monument."
The surrounding members lowered their heads one after another.
No one spoke.
Clearly,
they had experienced the same thing.
The man looked into the distance.
His voice grew quieter.
"The Northveil Directorate has always thanked its heroes."
"But no one has ever known"
"how the people those heroes left behind survived."
The hall fell silent once again.
And at that very moment,
the black metal case that had been brought out of the restroom
suddenly gave a faint tremor.
Click.
A tiny crack appeared on its surface.
The member standing nearby froze.
The alarm immediately went off.
Beep—
Beep—
Beep—
Irina's expression changed instantly.
Because she knew better than anyone
what that meant.
The pollution source
was beginning to lose control.