The plan was set.
Whether it was truly the right course of action, even I couldn’t tell.
But there wasn’t any other way.
Hayoon pressed the communicator.
There wasn’t much of a wait for a response.
[Hayoon!?]
A voice came through the communicator.
It sounded like a perfect Earthling’s voice, but that probably wasn’t the actual voice of the “Chikchik Alien” themselves.
Like James, they must’ve been wearing a translation device around their neck.
Otherwise, it wouldn’t be possible to mimic an Earthling’s voice so accurately.
“Cherry, I have a favor to ask.”
The situation was urgent, so Hayoon skipped any greetings and got straight to the point.
[A favor? What is it?]
Surprisingly, Cherry didn’t seem particularly flustered by Hayoon’s words.
Had they anticipated this contact?
No, thinking about it, the real surprise might be that we hadn’t reached out until now.
Given our situation, even without the bomb, we would’ve needed someone’s help sooner or later.
The fact that we had held out this long without asking for help was almost a miracle.
Hayoon briefly hesitated.
Even if the communicator had been modified to remove the tracking function, “communication” inherently meant being connected to someone.
The location wasn’t a big concern, as the nearby police were already aware of the area, but there was still a significant risk of our conversation being eavesdropped on.
No, they were definitely listening.
The other side needed information on us, after all.
They’d be fishing for any hints embedded in our words.
“Could you come here, to where we are? You know our location, right?”
Hayoon refrained from explaining what was happening here.
Even saying “there’s a bomb” seemed like something we could casually mention, but in reality, it was best to avoid such words altogether.
This was a civilian zone, and even if we clarified that we didn’t plant the bomb and had called someone to defuse it, just that alone could be twisted to frame us as terrorists.
But the other side was already using any means necessary.
So it was wiser not to even bring up the word “bomb.”
Who knew how they might use it?
With technologies like AI at their disposal, being cautious might ultimately be futile, but still.
[…….]
There was a brief silence on the other end of the communicator, accompanied only by the sound of slightly trembling breaths.
[Understood. I’ll come now.]
The three of us collectively exhaled deeply.
James, still inside his drone, didn’t show any expression, but I was certain it wasn’t a pleasant one.
Cherry arrived after I had already smashed the floor and exposed the bomb.
Just in case, I had scanned the surroundings again, rummaged through the half-destroyed desk, and used a marker to draw a large circle around the bomb.
I carefully chipped away at the surrounding floor to clear the area.
The floor, which appeared to be entirely made of thick marble at first glance, was oddly thin in that one spot.
Even so, it was stone, so breaking it wasn’t easy, but at least clearing the surface was manageable.
And then—
“This is…”
Hayoon swallowed nervously as they muttered.
What lay buried beneath was a massive circuit.
It was embarrassingly larger compared to the devices Hayoon, Iris, and I wore on our wrists.
When I heard “bomb,” I imagined something like an anti-tank mine.
But seeing it in person, the diameter seemed to be at least a meter.
On top of that, the circuit glowed suspiciously and even vibrated slightly.
Once the stone slab above it was removed, the vibrations grew stronger.
“…How is it?”
I asked James, who remained silent for a moment.
“It’s extremely unstable. Ridiculously shoddy craftsmanship.”
Honestly, I couldn’t tell just by looking. It seemed there was some standard of judgment unique to the “Chikchik Aliens.”
After all, the circuit was their creation.
“Can it be defused?”
“Hard to say.”
James’s drone descended.
After disembarking, James stood at the edge of the hole, resting his hand on his chin in thought.
“As I mentioned earlier, one wrong move during the defusal process will cause an explosion.”
“So, there’s a chance?”
“There’s always a chance. But until I try, I can’t say for sure.”
Hayoon, Iris, and I exchanged glances.
As we sank into a brief silence—
The outside became noisy.
The sound of police shouting and rushing to resolve the situation echoed outside.
Then came a high-pitched whirring, followed by a noise similar to the drones James used.
Suddenly, something flew in through the shattered window.
Almost instinctively, I grabbed it with my hand.
In hindsight, it wasn’t the smartest decision.
The drone had four spinning propellers, and I could have easily cut myself.
Fortunately, I managed to grab it by its “middle.”
“Ah!”
Unlike James’s drone, this one had no top cover.
Sitting on it was a hamster-like creature with pink fur, looking quite similar to James.
It had unusually large ears and a bushy tail for a hamster.
This must be “Cherry,” the Chikchik Alien Hayoon mentioned.
I felt like I’d seen them once before.
“Uh, uh, uh…?”
Cherry seemed flustered, perhaps startled by making eye contact with me.
After glancing around nervously, they looked at Hayoon and then back at me.
Feeling a little bad about distressing them further, I carefully set Cherry down.
“Uh, oh, thank you.”
Cherry quickly darted over to Hayoon’s feet, speaking in a voice full of relief.
“Cherry!”
“Hayoon!”
When Hayoon picked Cherry up, the little creature seemed elated, shouting their name.
“Are you okay? You’re not hurt, are you?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. What about you? Did you get hurt?”
“No, thanks to them catching me…”
Their joyful reunion was cut short, however.
There was another Chikchik Alien in the room—one with a sharp tongue and little patience for warm reunions.
“We might all explode if we don’t focus here. Unless you’re keen on dying together?”
James’s pointed remark made Hayoon carefully set Cherry back down.
Cherry finally noticed the exposed circuit we had uncovered.
“…This!?”
Even Cherry could immediately see how dangerously unstable the circuit was.
“It seems designed to react to my magic. Too much magic will cause an explosion, but if the supply is cut off now, that’s also a problem. If it loses stability, it’ll become uncontrollable.”
Cherry appeared to grasp the situation from my explanation alone.
“What the heck is this…?”
They didn’t seem to fully understand the nature of the bomb but weren’t directly involved in its creation.
“Well, that much is clear.”
James, noticing Cherry’s reaction, chimed in.
“While it’s possible to weaponize circuits, we’d have used a much more sophisticated method than this.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Cherry frowned at James’s comment.
“Sophisticated or not, we wouldn’t plant a bomb in the middle of a civilian area!”
James glared at me with visible displeasure.
“What choice do we have? We need to deal with it to get out of here. You said you can’t handle it alone, didn’t you?”
My words made James grit his teeth before climbing onto the bomb.
“Fine, let’s resolve this quickly. Can you help?”
But Cherry hesitated.
“Why the hesitation?”
“…I don’t know anything about your circuits. I have no idea how emotions might affect it. What if I mess up?”
“Just follow my instructions.”
“If I’m only following your instructions, why can’t you do it alone? Isn’t that the case?”
Cherry’s pointed response left James momentarily speechless.
I quietly observed the two.
“Should we stay and watch?” I asked.
James remained silent again, then took off his translation device.
Seeing this, Cherry also removed their translation device.
The two began communicating in a series of squeaks and chirps, incomprehensible to us.
To an outsider, it would have looked like two hamster-like creatures scurrying over the complex equipment.
Hayoon silently watched them, her gaze serious.
Perhaps she was concerned about the circuit or her friend Cherry being on top of it.
But something about her expression suggested she was thinking of something else.
I recalled my earlier conversation with James.
I had asked him, half in jest, if we should maintain “positive thoughts.”
Looking back at Hayoon, her expression seemed heavier now as she stared at the circuit.
Surely she wasn’t dwelling on that conversation, was she?
I realized I’d been too careless.
Fortunately, Hayoon said nothing to me, simply watching Cherry and James tinker with the circuit.
“Well, that’s one problem solved.”
James, now wearing his translation device again, finally spoke.
“It’s solved? What do you mean it’s solved? The bomb is still there,” Cherry countered James.
“At the very least, we’ve bought ourselves some time to escape,” James replied.
“Excuse me?” Cherry looked incredulous.
“Are you seriously suggesting we just leave this bomb here? Once it forms a black hole, it’ll explode in just a few minutes!”
“What do you mean?” Hayoon asked.
“I made a few adjustments to the circuit,” Cherry explained.
“But modifying something this unstable, especially with such little time and without risking an explosion, wasn’t easy. All we could manage was to delay the detonation, not prevent it entirely.”
“And?” I prompted, looking for more clarity.
James answered this time.
“It means stopping the explosion entirely is impossible. It’s already far too unstable for a permanent solution. If we want to resolve this, the only option is the traditional method of bomb disposal.”
“Evacuate the area and detonate it?” I guessed.
“Exactly,” James confirmed.
“That’s the standard approach, isn’t it?”
“But if we do that, rumors will spread that Jieun planted the bomb here,” I pointed out.
“And what of it?” James said sharply.
“Would you rather we all die together, or survive and let the bomb explode? The choice is obvious.”
No one could argue with his logic.
“So, should we warn the police to evacuate? Announce that a bomb has been planted?” I asked quietly.
All eyes turned to me.