Chapter 112:Nothing weird.
Chapter 112: 112:Nothing weird.
The afternoon wore on with a deceptive sense of normalcy. By three o’clock, the sun hung comfortably above the western skyline, bathing the abandoned streets of Detroin in warm golden light.
Long shadows stretched across the cracked pavement, while vines climbed over rusted vehicles that had remained undisturbed for decades.
If someone ignored the ruined buildings and overgrown streets, it almost felt peaceful. Silver’s group continued searching the northern residential district but found nothing remarkable, only a few unopened cans of preserved food and an old toolbox.
Claire somehow managed to discover an antique music player that no longer functioned but insisted on carrying anyway.
"It has character," she declared proudly.
Jonah rolled his eyes.
"It has rust."
"It has a history that you don’t need to know about."
"It has termites."
"It doesn’t have termites, you’re seeing things again. They are just cleaning the wood."
Brian laughed, shaking his head.
"You two sound like you’ve been married for twenty years."
Claire immediately pointed a finger at him.
"Don’t curse me, I would rather die here than get married to him."
The laughter eased the tension that had quietly followed them since arriving in town. Even Silver found himself smiling. Seeing all this, he could only wonder if perhaps he had simply been too cautious.
The district was far from empty. Other exploration teams crossed paths with them every few blocks. Some hauled generators on makeshift carts while others carried crates filled with preserved medicine or electronics.
One particularly excited group had discovered an intact machine shop. They proudly displayed boxes of unopened tools as if they had uncovered buried treasure. The mood throughout the town remained optimistic.
The Association personnel stationed at intersections calmly recorded discoveries while directing traffic between different search sectors.
People exchanged information, shared maps, and traded supplies with one another. Everything appeared organized and safe. Silver couldn’t quite understand why his instincts refused to settle.
As they continued deeper into the neighborhood, Ravenna slowed beside him.
"You’ve barely spoken for an hour."
Silver looked toward another quiet street.
"...I’m thinking."
"About yesterday?"
He nodded.
"You know the contractor, the one who survived."
She remembered immediately.
"The one with the strange mark, his name was Eric right?"
Silver’s expression remained thoughtful.
"I keep replaying what I saw... I know I wasn’t imagining it."
Ravenna considered that for several moments.
"You’ve been right before."
"I’ve also been wrong, it might just be their tattoo. Maybe it’s a plant type, I’ve never seen a tattoo of anyone who has integrated with a plant. It might just be a different type."
"Don’t try to minimise what you saw, you know you’re rarely wrong.."
Silver smiled faintly.
"I appreciate the confidence."
She returned a small smile.
"You’ve earned it."
A soft breeze drifted through the neighborhood. It carried the scent of damp earth, fresh vegetation, and flowers. Silver absentmindedly brushed something from his sleeve. He noticed a tiny white petal stuck on it.
He frowned.
These flowers were everywhere now. They were growing beside sidewalks, between broken bricks, around abandoned houses, and even inside cracks in the concrete.
He looked around more carefully.
"...Were there always this many flowers?"
Ravenna followed his gaze.
"...I don’t think so."
Neither of them thought much more about it. Wild plants reclaimed abandoned places, which was natural. And plants in this world tend to grow faster than normal.
At a nearby intersection, Brian crouched beside an old street map.
"The school should be two blocks east."
Jonah nodded.
"There are still several buildings nobody’s searched."
Claire adjusted the rifle slung over her shoulder.
"Race you there."
"You’ll get lost."
"I absolutely won’t, I’ve crammed the whole town’s map."
She had already started jogging ahead before Jonah finished speaking.
Brian sighed.
"She’s an energetic one."
Silver chuckled.
"That’s one word for it."
The school itself had suffered surprisingly little damage. There were only broken windows and collapsed sections of the roof but structurally, it remained intact.
Several contractor teams were already inside searching classrooms. One older contractor stepped out carrying an armful of books.
Claire curiously stepped forward.
"...Books?"
The man grinned.
"Mmh, I’m getting this for my daughter she’s learning engineering and these seem to have survived."
Silver liked that answer. Not everything valuable had to be money.
Inside the school corridors, silence lingered. Their footsteps echoed softly across cracked tiles. Lockers stood rusted shut, classroom doors hung open, and old educational posters still clung stubbornly to peeling walls. Time seemed to have stopped here.
Ravenna quietly ran her fingers across a dusty desk.
"Wow, I can’t believe children used to study here."
Silver nodded.
"A normal life."
Neither spoke again for a while. Near the rear entrance, they encountered another small exploration team preparing to leave. The group’s leader looked exhausted.
Brian greeted him.
"Found anything worthwhile?"
The man shrugged.
"A few solar panels and nothing else," he hesitated. "...Though..."
Brian looked up.
"What?"
"We kept hearing footsteps upstairs."
Claire frowned.
"Were there people?"
"We never found anyone."
The contractor laughed awkwardly.
"It’s kind of creepy, but it’s probably the building settling, but I think we’re done with this town."
His companions also didn’t seem convinced. Silver noticed one woman repeatedly rubbing at the back of her neck, hard, almost unconsciously.
She stopped only when she realized he was looking, then smiled.
"...Dry skin."
Silver nodded politely, yet, something about the gesture lingered in his thoughts.
With only a few minutes to four, the breeze had strengthened. White petals floated lazily between buildings and dust shimmered through shafts of sunlight.
Silver found himself blinking more often. His eyes felt slightly irritated and uncomfortable. He rubbed them once.
Ravenna noticed.
"Something wrong?"
"No, just something keeps getting into my eyes, maybe dust?"
She looked toward the drifting white particles.
"There’s certainly enough of it."
The radio crackled at that moment. An Association officer’s calm voice echoed through every contractor’s receiver.
*"Attention all exploration teams."
"Please report any unusual environmental observations to your nearest Association post."
"Repeat."
"Any unusual environmental observations?"*
Claire tilted her head.
"...That’s oddly specific."
Brian answered calmly.
"They’re probably just covering everything."
No one questioned it further. Still, Silver noticed several nearby contractors exchanging uncertain looks. They left the school and continued toward another residential block.
The streets had eventually grown quieter. The contractors they passed earlier seemed fewer in number, the conversations had also gotten softer and even the wind sounded different somehow.
Silver stopped walking. Ravenna did the same.
"What is it?"
"...Listen."
She did but all she could hear was the wind. Her expression slowly changed.
"...You’re right."
Silver’s uneasiness returned stronger than before. Without thinking, his hand rested on the hilt of his sword. His instincts constantly warned like a whisper refusing to leave.
He looked around the empty street. All that was in front of him were old houses, flower beds, and cracked pavement. There was nothing different, everything looked the same and yet, his chest felt tight.
At exactly a quarter past four o’clock, he finally stopped ignoring it.
"...Wait."
Ravenna turned. Silver closed his eyes. If something existed that ordinary senses couldn’t detect, then perhaps, there was only one way to find it.
His breathing steadied.
A familiar pressure formed behind his eyes. The world around him seemed to be quiet. Inside his mind, he reached for the space around him. Immediately...
[Spatial Sense Lv2 Activated]
The invisible field expanded silently through the surrounding streets. Silver expected the familiar outlines of buildings, people, and movement; instead, he saw something else.
Countless, tiny, glowing specks filled the air. They were everywhere; every street, alley, and open doorway. They were floating and drifting around, moving with every breath of wind. But that wasn’t the most surprising part, there were billions of them in the air.
Silver’s heartbeat stopped for a single terrifying instant. His eyes snapped open.
"...Ravenna."
His voice was quieter than a whisper.
"...Don’t breathe deeply."
She stared at him.
"What happened?"