episode_0347

The bustling white soldiers shot up and began firing their guns. Gunshots that sharply cut through the air echoed loudly.

A monomolecular arrow flew toward the girl at the front.

The girl quickly raised her shield, and the shield, radiating a golden glow, collided with the arrow.

-Ping!

The arrow struck diagonally and broke, bouncing off. Immediately after, a golden spear blade mercilessly shattered the center of the target.

The girls who followed mercilessly chopped down the soldiers with axes and bludgeoned them with maces.

For a moment, the scene repeated itself several times, then the view before them blurred.

[Training Program Terminated]

As the training ended with a mechanical sound, the girls one by one lowered their weapons. The girl who lowered her weapon last sat down in a comfortable posture.

With a clank, the helmet came off. Irene softly swept back her hair.

“How was it?” Violet asked. Irene caressed her shield and replied.

“It’s definitely lethal. It seems I could withstand even concentrated crossbow fire or a barrage of cannon shells. But this weapon is insane. They poured everything into its penetrative power. Plus, it’s infused with Aether. It’s too burdensome to take many hits from it.”

Indeed, Violet nodded. Even with Irene’s innate toughness and powerful unique abilities like the Blessing of Sunlight, Luminex’s armaments were still terrifyingly strong.

In fact, when she first received the request for Irene to be directly shot by the weapon, Violet herself hesitated greatly.

She knew her friend was tough, but being prepared to lose an arm was not something a normal person would do.

Violet suddenly wondered if Irene was becoming like her in recklessness. She didn’t care if she died or lost her limbs, but she could never recommend such actions to someone who wasn’t like that. Irene becoming like her was something she truly disliked.

A strange thought suddenly crossed her mind.

“No, let’s think positively. It’s an opportunity for Daphne’s medical skills to develop!”

“That’s right, Daphne might need to treat other people sometimes.”

Violet was reminded of Daphne’s overly monotonous treatment methods these days.

When limbs were severed or organ damage was severe, consuming a lot of time and magic for regeneration, Daphne would say with an expressionless face:

“Could you bring me 421, 6771, and 5211? They’re beyond recovery. According to emergency classification standards.”

Then, from Violet, who was unconscious and slumped limply, she would cut off her intact limbs and attach them to the missing parts, as if assembling toy blocks.

Because they were the same body, the procedure was swift. In less than 10 seconds, a miraculous thing happened.

“Repair complete!”

“Well done. Next person!”

Violet was worried about Daphne’s nonchalance. Not everyone could casually swap out their bodies like she could. Besides, gaining various treatment experiences would also benefit Daphne herself.

Irene’s voice brought Violet, who had been staring into space for a moment, back to reality.

“So, you haven’t tested the energy weapon you’re holding, have you? If I were to take a direct hit from that, the chances of me surviving seem slim.”

“That’s true.”

Irene moved her steps and exited the training ground. Something caught her eye. On one side, captured plasma rifles were visible.

Energy weapons were not an entirely unfamiliar concept in the weapon market. Since childhood, Irene had been exposed to various weapons and offensive artifacts by following her father.

However, the terrifyingly powerful weapons issued to the elite unit were something she had never seen before.

The reactions of other Helios people who saw the weapons that a Special Operations Unit member ‘retrieved from somewhere in a dungeon’ were even more intense than Irene’s.

That’s why Irene was even more unconvinced.

“Why do they try to use something like that all by themselves?”

“You can say that again.”

It wasn’t about pure sharing or charity.

“Restraid’s main products are high-strength metal materials. You know the head of that organization, and he’s difficult, but he still distinguishes between public and private matters to some extent. He sells ultra-high-strength alloys like Carbonite or Megasteel without discrimination, even to the Federation, which might be a potential threat, or to other companies they don’t get along with. They also release obsolete armored suits into the market without hesitation.”

The Foundation’s twin brother was also rational in this regard.

“Even the infamous Raphlaxia isn’t stingy about releasing products or services made with their own technology. Money might be their goal, but surprisingly, they don’t make exorbitant profits.”

“Ugh, that’s surprising,” Irene murmured.

“But the Foundation doesn’t pursue profit to an unusual degree. Instead, they’re obsessed with collecting and securing technology they won’t even use. Why in the world are they like that?”

“They said it themselves! Something about how the incompetent aren’t qualified to possess dangerous technology or knowledge.”

Violet’s complaints echoed in her ears. Behind confronting the Foundation, besides practical objectives, lay the fact that they had provoked a new friend and started a quarrel.

Yes, it was clear that the Foundation’s actions had no small number of irrational aspects.

“Indeed, it’s ironic that Luminex talks about danger. Dr. Valence, the founder of the Foundation, was the first person to develop and deploy atomic bombs in real combat.”

Irene momentarily shook off the doubts in her mind. Because the secret meeting place, to which some of the Foundation’s victims had been invited, was approaching.

“There are so many people!”

“That means there are that many victims, Violet.”

Whether fortunately or unfortunately, there were more people than expected who would do anything if given the chance to stab Luminex in the back.

“Those damn bastards! Our research director has become a complete imbecile! Why, in the world?”

“…He was supposed to be the promising child of our family… My son, my son…”

“Those bastards, the Blockade Enforcement Unit agents shoved their gun barrels in our faces, blabbering about laws and regulations. We had no choice but to admit to technology theft. It was taken for a pittance, haha…”

Even though these were people carefully selected based on ability and trustworthiness to be welcomed as allies, this was the scale.

How much practical help they would be was still unknown.

“…I fully understand your anger. It’s because of that we called you here. This gathering is prepared for you to reclaim your rightful rights that the Foundation stole. Please do not forget this point.”

The tasks to be entrusted to them were information gathering in various fields, and outsourcing of work after future technology acquisition. From their perspective, it was resuming the work they should have been doing originally.

“So, is there any other information?” Irene’s masked voice resonated heavily. A man with a tense face raised his hand.

“…Well, I don’t know if it will be helpful, but there’s news that all board members will gather for a meeting. They say it’s a critical agenda. I couldn’t find out the exact location… but perhaps…”

A meeting… Irene organized her thoughts. Neutralizing the board members by crushing them was also one of the core objectives of this operation. After checking, it would be appropriate to entrust this mission to Violet.

“…There’s talk of renewing the contract with Rheinkruf University.”

“Excuse me, the Raphlaxia executives have agreed to a re-interview with us.”

The more avenues for contact, the better. If Violet could just seize a contact opportunity, neutralizing the Foundation wouldn’t be too difficult. The problem, however, was that the information was vague.

“As expected, these people are far from espionage. It might be best to just get their research technology back and take the results. At this rate… is the tail still ongoing?”

“Yes, if they do anything suspicious, I’ll throw them into the sea immediately!”

Ultimately, the key was how to access the Foundation’s stronghold. That’s why they were scraping together all sorts of information to get a lead.

Violet suddenly remembered something she had forgotten.

“Ah, I left it behind!”

“Left what behind?”

Seeing her friend’s puzzled expression, as if asking what she meant, Violet instinctively knew the explanation would be quite long. More than anything, she would first have to unravel the knowledge related to the Foundation.

Violet opened her mouth.

“Have you ever heard of the Stalemate Corridor?”

**

The Stalemate Corridor is a place like a sewer that exists between a completely isolated subdimension and reality.

The organization that first discovered this was Luminex. It is said that when it was first discovered, the majority opinion was to just use it as a warehouse or a shelter.

“But after the Foundation decided to engage in more active use of force, the Stalemate Corridor became a kind of shortcut! If applied correctly, a path that would take a hundred steps in reality could be shortened to just one or two steps in the Stalemate Corridor!”

Simply put, the Foundation could traverse vast distances quickly using a limited method. This was the most troublesome problem when fighting the Foundation. We didn’t know the location of their important strongholds, nor how to enter their main bases or facilities, yet if something happened, there was a high possibility that their reinforcements would instantly flood out.

“The Stalemate Space undergoes a reactivation period at regular intervals. During that time, each branch and facility becomes isolated! About 30 minutes? Think about Sercliff last time.”

Anyway, despite its clear drawbacks, the ability to quickly move large-scale units in a way different from airplanes, cars, or expensive and complex teleportation magic was threatening.

But she just remembered that she had left a clone behind.

She thought she had reversed-engineered all of them and converted them into magic power. But one hibernating Violet remained.

“Gah! Where is this?”

In an endlessly repeating concrete passage, a Violet opened her eyes.

The time for exploration had arrived.