Origin (8)

Eric and I fell silent, at a loss for words. The data stored in the bracelet was that unpleasant.

Honestly, I wanted to keep reviewing the records and continue speculating, but I couldn't just stand still with a mountain of work waiting for me.

I forcibly pushed aside the shock from the hologram footage and moved on to the cargo sector warehouse. I needed to load containers prioritized based on the data sent from the control room.

"Eric, Red and that guy already know about this, right? What's in here."

"Yes. We watched it together."

Of course—that was only natural. I didn't know where this bracelet was found, but since it was Eric, who had gone to see Licorice and the man, who brought it, they must have watched it together.

I assumed the man was quite shocked. Even though Licorice had released the residential area footage, it contained no information about the pureblood supremacists. Only monsters appeared there.

I had deliberately suppressed information about them thus far to prevent further confusion. But now, it was meaningless.

The appearance of ghouls, the pureblood supremacist organization's involvement, what those supremacists were targeting, and the rise of a new threat—all these things had come to the surface at once.

When things start to happen in this kind of chain reaction, it's hard to stop the flow. Even I, who had long recognized the danger of the pureblood supremacists, was surprised. How much more shocked must that man, who had only ever been in the town, have been?

Yet right now, he was focused solely on the console in the control room, as if nothing had happened.

'It'd be enough if just one person kept their mouth shut.'

That thought crossed my mind, but I shook my head. I glanced up for a moment at the control room affixed to the ceiling.

Just like Alpha, operated by Licorice, had done in the upper-level chief engineer's office in the communications sector, multiple hologram windows were open, and data was being gathered.

He was next to her, following her instructions to boost their work efficiency. They seemed to have already extracted all the cargo data—maybe they were looking for something else.

'Licorice said she would take care of it herself.'

I decided not to think any further about the issue of information disclosure. No matter how hard I thought, it wasn't something I could answer on my own.

Besides, the situation was different now compared to before. Back then, there was no shielding barrier; now, we had one. That alone brought a great sense of security.

I never thought we could hide it forever, nor did I intend to from the start. It was just that the time had finally come. A greater danger was approaching. To win, we had to unite as one.

I recalled the people who appeared in the records, the monsters that showed up there, and the things the pureblood supremacists had let slip.

Considering the sound of water and the hologram's partial depiction of the walls, it was likely that the place they'd been was the underground sewage treatment facility below the hydroponic farming facility in Nexus.

My hunch was supported by the insignia indicating their affiliation with Nexus, which was emblazoned on the suits of those being chased by the freakishly long-limbed monster.

'There are survivors in Nexus. No, there were.'

Heaven is divided into three main parts:On the left is the sector related to mining and cargo, in the center facilities clustered for the upper class, and on the right, facilities related to refinement and production. We were currently in the left sector of Heaven's mining base.

I couldn't say for sure whether there were more Nexus-affiliated survivors remaining or not. What was clear was that all of them, or at least some, had tried to reach the communications sector via the sewage treatment facility to call for help—only to die before making it.

'If there are more survivors, now that the communication line is restored, they might try to reach out.'

With that thought, I realized what Licorice might be doing in the control room. Whatever I could think of, she could do as well—no, she must have thought of it already.

She had insisted on bringing in a technician from the refinery so the town would be able to produce energy on its own for the future. So, she must have been trying to check on the situation in the refinery sector by attempting to contact them.

This could all be a trap, but I chose to believe she had taken all that into account with her actions.

'And then, the route of ghoul infection.'

Should it be called an infection route, or an artificial device that creates ghouls? Whatever that bumpy raw-looking stone the pureblood supremacist was holding was, it was certain it could forcibly mutate living people into ghouls.

It was dangerous. That was the thought that stuck in my mind from the moment I saw the record. Until now, we hadn't figured out how ghouls came to be.

It wasn't as if being bitten turned you, nor did their bodily fluids change you by contact or absorption through the skin. If that were the case, I'd have been changed long ago. I'd fought at the front lines, after all, and such things happened frequently.

Yet, I hadn't changed. Nadia and Eric, who fought alongside me, were the same. At first, I thought our suits might have prevented infection, but that wasn't it either.

Even when the black spike—said by Carrot to be expandable—stuck in my forearm, I still remained human.

The ghouls multiplied as if they had always been here, devouring the Titans in an instant. Hundreds of thousands died, and countless mutant creatures were born.

If that device the pureblood supremacist held had caused all this, then even the town was not safe. The shielded residential area had fallen, too.

All I could do was hope Carrot's research would crack these secrets, even a little. I didn't want to get caught up in things I didn't even understand.

'But something about it feels familiar...'

Even though the hologram hadn't shown the color and texture well, for some reason, the metal held by the pureblood supremacist felt familiar. I wondered if it was a blue crystal raw stone, but I concluded it wasn't.

'Come to think of it.'

I'd casually assumed it was metal. But, if you think about it, there was a greater chance it wasn't metal at all.

What could it be? Why did I feel that way? I had no way of knowing. Everything was uncertain—at least for now.

For now, I had to put out the most urgent fire, so I got into the warehouse crane. While I didn't handle them as well as Nadia, I'd operated plenty of these over the last three years—it's not like I'd just dug in the dirt the whole time.

Pulling up the cargo list data Eric had sent after manipulating the bracelet, I started to move the containers he had specified aside. The cargo securing anchors installed at regular intervals loosened, and as I watched the claw grab the container with special metals, I spoke up.

"What do you think 'buds' refers to?"

—I suppose it means particularly unique entities.

"Like mimics?"

—No, I mean even more dangerous creatures. For example, one that shoots beams from its mouth, or one that absorbs the core component of the shielding-device and generates an energy field around its own body.

Of course, that was just Eric's theory, presuming the buds were mutants—he admitted he could be wrong. But I agreed to a certain extent.

Each mutant we'd encountered—the ones in the waste treatment sector and the underground of the residential area central tower—had been clearly different from ghouls or mimics.

You might say they were on another level. If the 'bloom' the pureblood supremacists spoke of meant a fully mutated form, then the so-called 'buds' must be prevented from blooming at all costs.

If left unchecked, they'd become a vast threat that would take our lives. That wasn't a mere assumption—it was certainty. They were already so dangerous in their unstable state; what would they be like fully mutated?

'The problem is, we have no idea where any of them are.'

We lacked equipment and were currently looting the warehouse. Even then, only because we'd drawn away the swarm of ghouls temporarily.

In reality, we couldn't even freely seize the cargo—how could we expect to hunt for buds? That was impossible. If I'm honest, even meeting one would be a problem. We weren't ready for them.

"What's with the 'first root', what's the 'grace', and why do the pureblood supremacists want them? Are those things the cause of the ghouls' appearance? I mean—never mind, I know it can't be resolved smoothly anymore, but I just wish we could escape and return to Earth. Things are getting more and more complicated."

I grumbled endlessly at the ever-mounting situation. Still, my muscle memory let me keep operating the crane.

—You're telling me.

Eric replied dryly. Or rather, he was trying to act composed—but his expression was still very grave.

"... Do you think Earth is safe?"

—Earth should be fine. It's not such an easy place to fall. Even if something did happen, they'd be able to stop it. It's an energy-clean zone, but there's major military presence concentrated there.

Even if I didn't know everything else, I did know what the pureblood supremacists wanted: the coming of a pure age.

I couldn't say exactly what that age would entail, but it was easy to guess it wouldn't be a good time for people like us.

They'd waited for almost a century. Their organization already had a reputation for insanity; there was no way the outcome of their actions would be good for us.

It occurred to me that maybe the pureblood supremacists were the ones who'd driven the use of blue crystal as a new energy source.

I'd heard from Licorice that, when minerals emitting such tremendous energy in violation of known laws were first discovered, many experts expressed concern after witnessing the resonance waves trigger strange phenomena.

There had been enough potential for blue crystal to be considered as a new power source, but the prevailing opinion was that it was too soon for humanity to use it.

But what about now?

The megacorps ignored the warnings, researched the blue crystal, and claimed that once it was refined, it was safe. They ramped up blue crystal usage without proper ways to block its resonance effects.

The outcome was that, within less than a hundred years, relying on blue crystal became so vital to society it was almost a joke. Even the plasma cutter I used ran on refined blue crystal, and the same went for Carry's power supply.

Originally, there were hybrid engines; now, those are treated as worthless junk. Blue crystal is used everywhere—even the solar furnace in the central sector of Heaven.

Suddenly, I remembered something Carrot once said: humans are the only ones able to artificially create an environment suitable for survival.

'... Could each megacorp be linked to the pureblood supremacist organization?'

That sudden idea made me laugh bitterly. Megacorps were all about stacking credits to the sky. They only made moves when there was the scent of big money.

It was true that blue crystal had financial allure, and the megacorps probably just exploited that. That's far more logical.

"Eric, did Myosotis ever research blue crystal too?"

—It'd be harder to find a company that didn't.

Come to think of it, that was true. When megacorps got moving, their affiliates did too. When the conglomerates set a trend, exponentially more jumped on—so as Eric said, there probably wasn't a single company not involved in blue crystal research.

On top of that, Licorice once told me, "Before its downfall, Myosotis was connected to the pureblood supremacists."

Given that, I couldn't rule out the possibility that other megacorps were also involved with them.

Just as I was about to ask more, Licorice's voice suddenly crashed into the comms.

—Hey, you! Stop chit-chatting and get back to work. The container you've got right now isn't even on my shortlist. Get your head straight!

"It's just, the ones on the list are underneath so I had to move this one first—"

—Tsk. No excuses! Focus on the job. At this speed, we'll never finish before morning.

As much as I hadn't stopped talking, neither had my hands. Still, I got an earful from Licorice to hurry up.

My ears hurt.

-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=【(⌐■_■)-︻╦╤─】

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