Chapter 96

[Disengaging the partition wall.]

Clank! Ku-gu-gu-gung!

The partition wall blocking off the residential area from the factory district opened with a heavy sound.

A thick iron door, reminiscent of a bank vault, swung open, and an uphill road leading to the surface greeted me.

The tightly closed partition bore large scratches, as if from a monster’s claws. Near the entrance, scorch marks from explosions and unidentifiable debris were scattered around.

‘So there really were monsters here.’

A musty smell drifted in from afar.

An indescribable stench stabbed at my nose.

It was a smell I had encountered before—similar to the one from the hunting ground. Could it be that similar types of [Arcanes] were wandering around here?

It was time alone for myself.

I had been buried in work constantly, so wandering around as if on a walk wouldn’t be bad, but there was something more important that required my attention.

‘There must be a hidden facility somewhere.’

As Chairman of the Human Resources Development Foundation, I only dealt with “talent acquisition,” so it didn’t feel very personal to me, but in truth, the Stingray Group was an organization of evil (惡).

Even the mere existence of a “department you must never be assigned to” proved it.

The Stingray Group might appear to be a glamorous conglomerate with generous welfare benefits, but in reality, they carried out all sorts of shady operations, tossing human rights to the dogs.

Turning humans into mutant monsters was child’s play compared to their other deeds: injecting mana into the bloodstream to create artificial essence, experimenting to fuse [Arcanes] with human bodies into chimeras, and so on—the list went on endlessly.

‘Even just looking at us three brothers—we were made in a laboratory…’

This was my guess.

They were probably being conducted by the Chairman’s direct departments.

Before I transmigrated, Aaron would have had no interest in such matters.

And the Chairman wouldn’t bother sharing such things with his children. Of course, that didn’t mean they were completely ignorant of it either.

Anyway.

According to the original story, these bastards hid at least one strange laboratory in every colony to carry out secret projects.

Running such secret experiments in a city was too risky. If an explosion occurred or a test subject escaped, it would be a huge headache.

So, in this V7 Colony as well, there was a good chance there was a hidden secret laboratory that must never be seen by others—I just didn’t know about it.

‘I’m going to find it.’

If I ever turned Drake Stingray into an enemy, that information would surely help me tighten the noose around his neck.

Perhaps, since this place used to be a module production factory, the secret lab here might have been working on related research.

If I was lucky, I might even get my hands on a high-performance prototype.

Something good enough to fill one of the empty slots in my Socket HUB.

But I soon chuckled to myself.

‘Well, maybe that’s asking for too much.’

I couldn’t know exactly where the lab was. I couldn’t even be sure it was in the factory district now overtaken by [Arcanes] and transformed through Otherworld Transformation. I didn’t even know if it existed at all.

‘But there’s no harm in checking.’

With a scanner in hand, if I wandered around diligently, maybe I’d stumble upon it by chance.

If I couldn’t find it, then it couldn’t be helped. It wasn’t something that would be discovered so easily in the first place…

‘…There it is.’

About an hour later.

While wandering around my assigned sector of the factory district, I discovered it by chance.

It wasn’t because my scanner’s performance was excellent.

In the midst of bizarre scenery twisted by Otherworld Transformation, there was a lone door that remained perfectly intact and unaffected.

Next to the door was a forest.

It had originally been the system control room managing the automated factory, but under the influence of the transformation, various plants and flowers were growing everywhere.

The conveyor belts of the long production line were covered in moss, and a boulder of unknown origin had settled itself there.

Ivy had extended its vines along the pillars and walls, and in the middle of the factory stood a towering tree that looked at least 500 years old.

‘Even if they left the equipment, restarting this would be quite a chore.’

It would take considerable time and manpower to purify that and process all the materials.

Forest Goblins, Trolls, and other small fry popped out here and there, but those disappeared with a single snap of my fingers.

Although less than a quarter had passed since the colony fell, the atmosphere here felt as though humanity had been gone for a hundred years.

While enjoying this leisurely walk, I suddenly noticed it.

A door that seemed to have elegantly sidestepped the passage of time, standing in pristine condition.

‘There’s something here.’

Just as dust contamination must be avoided when making semiconductors to prevent defects, in this world, great care was taken during processes to ensure mana didn’t mix in and cause errors.

Even Miyu had installed mana defense equipment when renovating her dorm workshop, which allowed her to avoid getting caught up in the recent hallucination incident.

But here, in a place where even the module production lines had been eroded by transformation, there was one spot completely unaffected?

Suspicious.

It was strange to think there was nothing inside.

‘Of course I have to go in.’

Using the scanner, I traced the cable line connected to the entrance.

I realized it could be opened and closed using a computer in the control room, so I was about to fiddle with it—

But the power was cut, leaving me no way to operate it.

‘It looks like a closed circuit, so would contacting Ciel be useless?’

Damn, the situation really isn’t going my way.

If this were a game, there would probably be a key lying nearby, or you could just tinker with the computer password and open it easily.

Not that I’ve ever learned any kind of professional skill like that anyway.

‘No helping it then.’

I should use the method I’m best at.

Thinking that, I stood in front of the door.

“Module Online, [Techblade]”

Viiiiing.

From my hand, the black-bodied single-edged blade instantly grew out.

I gave my wrist a small flick, and from the friction with the air, the blade began to burn red.

I lightly swung the sword toward the door.

Even though it was a thick iron door, there was almost no resistance against the blade.

It felt only faintly like slicing through tofu.

Sring.

I deactivated the module, dismissing the summoned sword, and the thick iron door collapsed forward with a loud crash.

If possible, I would have preferred to look inside without leaving even this kind of trace, but there was no other way.

I took a short deep breath, steeling myself.

Since this was a secret laboratory of the evil mega-corporation Stingray Group, there was no telling what kind of horrific sight awaited me.

Maybe a brain with eyes floating in a tank, or a golem stitched together from corpses.

A cold wind blew from the downward slope leading deep underground.

This side also seemed to have lost power, as it was so dark that I couldn’t see an inch ahead.

It was a little uncomfortable, but with this overpowered body, that kind of darkness didn’t matter much.

I switched my vision to infrared using the scanner ocular, and my field of view lit up as if it were midday.

Following the long corridor all the way in, I came upon another partition wall blocking my path.

Here too, the emergency generator must have been out, as the biometric authentication panel to the right was completely dead and unresponsive.

That was actually better.

I didn’t know the password anyway, and if the security systems were still active, they might have recognized me as an intruder and attacked.

No, thinking about it, that might actually have been preferable—if there had been an automated system that deleted research data the moment an intruder entered, that would have been game over.

This time too, I cut through the partition with my sword, and in front of the power of a Lv.5 Arcane Module, the thick iron door opened with surprising ease, as if before the magical unlock spell “Alohomora.”

Yeah, in games too, if your strength stat was maxed out, you could just break down the door and ignore the security.

And then, a sudden thought came to me.

‘Ah, come to think of it, if the power’s out here too, how am I supposed to check the data?’

The computers wouldn’t even turn on, and any cold storage would have stopped operating and thawed out.

Would there even be anything intact left?

When I first discovered the secret entrance, I thought I’d hit the jackpot, but it turned out there were more hurdles than I expected.

‘Well, there might be paper records.’

You know how important national confidential documents are sometimes kept in paper form to avoid hacking or data corruption?

Maybe there would be something like that here too.

With that thought, I began searching all around the secret lab.

A few trolls came chasing after me late.

“Kuwooooooo!”

“Tsk.”

I simply snapped my fingers a few times, shooting out threads, and they turned into ‘ㅌ/ㅡ/ㄹ/ㅗ/ㄹ.’

Even though I did it myself, at this point, even a butcher shop owner in Majang-dong would look up to me.

‘Really, why come here just to die, why.’

I wished they’d stop bothering me when I was already busy.

Grumbling internally, I searched the lab, but found no useful information.

No, actually, there was a lot of data, but unlike in a game, I couldn’t understand it just by skimming through it.

It was all jumbled with technical terms, formulas, and codes, making it hard to comprehend.

‘Isn’t there anything more straightforward? Like evidence of human experimentation, torture devices, or something straight out of a movie…’

Honestly, if I just packed up all the materials I’d found so far, or scanned them and showed them to Miyu, she could instantly tell me what kind of experiments they were.

But if they really were horrific experiments, who would take responsibility for the shock Miyu would suffer?

A dad wants his daughter to grow up bright, pure, and cheerful, only watching content rated 12+.

Well, setting aside that nonsense about being her dad, there was no benefit in showing Miyu the ugly side of the Stingray Group.

With our current favorability level, there was still a risk Miyu might start being wary of me.

And if that information ever leaked, the Stingray Chairman might send a squad of ninjas to eliminate her.

‘What should I do… Should I just go back?’

I was thinking of blowing up this entire lab to erase any trace that I had been here.

Which meant that if I didn’t check it now, I wouldn’t be able to find this secret lab again.

After a short moment of thought, I reached a conclusion.

‘Let’s just scan the materials that look important and take them. I can figure out the interpretation on my own later.’

With that in mind, I went around the lab, finding documents and scanning them repeatedly.

The laboratory was divided into several sections, so I searched each in turn, scanning anything that looked important.

Then, in the very back, I tore open a door marked with a “3” and forced my way in.

Even here, the trolls that came rushing in to die made me doubt their intelligence.

So this is why players who ruin games are called “trollers.”

The room labeled “3” looked less like a lab and more like a storage room for experiment samples.

I thought I might find the most direct evidence here, but again, it was no use.

The contents of the glass containers, which looked somewhat proper in shape, had all turned into unidentifiable sludge.

If they had contained human brains or organs, that would have been a sure thing.

Still, just in case, I used the scanner to search every nook and cranny.

And then, at that moment—

Flash!

An unknown green light suddenly flickered from deep inside the storage room.

‘Did I finally find something?’

Sensing a jackpot, I quickly made my way inside, heading straight to where the green light had leaked out.

And then, I caught my breath for a moment.

‘Don’t tell me…!’

No, why on earth was this here.

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