Tyler and Tansy landed lightly at the bottom of the shaft, though neither of them relaxed after touching the ground. The underground air was much colder than above, carrying the stale smell of damp concrete, rust, and old metal that had been trapped in silence for years. It was the kind of atmosphere found only in places abandoned long ago, where time had stopped moving but traces of human activity still clung stubbornly to the walls.

Tansy immediately reached into her bag and took out a torchlight. When she switched it on, the pale beam cut through the darkness and revealed a corridor stretching ahead of them. The narrow light exposed cracked walls, broken floor markings, and scattered debris, while the deeper sections of the passage remained hidden under thick shadow.

The place was far larger than either of them had expected.

At first glance, it was clearly some kind of underground facility, but unlike the ruins above, most of the heavy machinery that should have filled a place like this was missing. Large rusted mounts still clung to the floor where equipment had once been fixed in place, while thick wiring trailed across the ground like dead roots pulled from buried trees. Whatever had once powered this place had either been removed or taken apart long ago.

"Looks like people found this place before us," Tansy murmured while sweeping the torchlight across the corridor.

Tyler did not answer immediately because his attention had shifted elsewhere. Something about the place felt wrong—not dangerous, but unfamiliar in a way he had encountered before in other worlds. Even without divine sense, he could feel a subtle irregularity in the air, as though space itself was not sitting naturally here.

Without explaining, he began walking deeper into the corridor.

Tansy followed him closely, her light moving over the cracked walls as they advanced until the passage opened into a chamber blocked by a massive vault door. The door itself had once been thick enough to survive explosions, yet now it had been torn apart, the metal bent outward as if enormous force had blasted from inside rather than from outside.

Beyond the broken vault lay another chamber lined with shelves. However, everything that might once have been stored there was gone. Even the smaller compartments had been opened and stripped clean.

"Looted," Tansy said with obvious disappointment.

They stepped inside carefully and continued through several adjoining rooms, but every chamber they entered looked the same. Broken furniture, collapsed shelves, empty storage spaces, and scattered debris filled each room. It was obvious that many people had searched this place before them.

"Looks like there’s nothing left here," Tansy said again, unable to hide her frustration. She had clearly imagined finding something valuable—perhaps ancient medicine, forgotten machines, or hidden treasure—but every room had already been emptied.

Tyler, however, was not paying attention to what was missing.

He was studying how things had broken.

The scattered debris across the floor all pointed in one direction. Broken shelves, fractured concrete, and twisted metal fragments had all been blasted outward from somewhere deeper inside the facility.

Following that pattern, Tyler moved toward a room near the far end of the chamber. This room appeared no different from the others. The floor was cracked, shelves had collapsed, and nothing valuable remained.

"There’s nothing here either," Tansy said with a sigh.

Tyler ignored her completely because his eyes had settled on the far wall. He stood there silently, staring as if he expected something hidden within the concrete to reveal itself.

Tansy looked between him and the wall but saw nothing unusual.

"Since there’s nothing here, should we go back?" she asked.

Tyler gave a small nod and turned away.

Tansy also turned, but before taking a second step she froze. For a brief instant, the wall had flickered—not cracked, not shifted, but shimmered in a way that made it seem like reality itself had blinked.

Her eyes widened immediately, and she grabbed Tyler’s hand before pulling him back.

"What?" Tyler asked.

"The wall," Tansy said quickly, making confused gestures with her hand as if trying to catch air. "Something happened there. Like... bara bara..."

Tyler turned and looked again, but the wall had already returned to normal. It was nothing more than solid concrete, cold and gray, with no visible damage beyond ordinary age cracks.

Still, both of them walked closer to confirm what she had seen.

Tansy touched the surface first. It felt hard, cold, and completely ordinary. Tyler then placed his own palm against it and immediately noticed something different. The material felt far denser than the walls elsewhere in Sector 11, almost unnaturally hard.

He thought quietly for a moment before suddenly saying, "Let’s leave."

Both of them turned their backs again, and this time the reaction was immediate. The wall rippled behind them like transparent water trembling in the air.

Tansy spun around at once, and the distortion vanished.

She blinked, then slowly understood what was happening.

"It only changes when we’re not looking?"

Tyler nodded while staring at the wall with renewed interest.

"No wonder it felt familiar. It’s a spatial fissure."

Tansy frowned. "A what?"

"A crack in space," Tyler explained. "A hidden passage connecting two different points. Why it only activates when we stop looking, I don’t know."

"It goes somewhere?"

Tyler shrugged slightly. "Anywhere. It could open somewhere safe, or it could send us into the middle of a volcano, the bottom of the ocean, or somewhere filled with poison gas."

Instead of looking frightened, Tansy seemed more curious.

"So how do we test it?"

Tyler glanced at her hunting gear. "You have rope for traps, right?"

Her eyes immediately lit up.

A few minutes later, she returned carrying a freshly shot bird tied to one end of a rope. Standing with her back to the wall, she carefully swung the dead bird behind them without turning her head. The moment it crossed the distortion, it vanished and the rope pulled sharply.

Tansy almost turned instinctively, but Tyler caught her wrist before she could move.

"Don’t look. Just pull it back."

She obeyed and slowly pulled the rope until the bird emerged again. It looked exactly the same as before—no burns, no water, and no visible damage.

"At least we know there’s no lava, ocean, or anything immediately deadly on the other side," Tyler said after examining it briefly.

Tansy nodded, but mischief appeared in her eyes. Without warning, she threw the bird through the fissure again.

"You really want to test more?" Tyler asked.

"Yes," she replied. "I want to know what happens if something stays inside while we look."

Before he could stop her, she deliberately turned around. The distortion vanished the moment her eyes met the wall, and when she pulled the rope back, only the cut end returned. The rope had been severed perfectly clean, and the bird was gone as if it had never existed.

Tansy stared at the severed rope for a moment before sticking out her tongue.

"So that’s what happens."