Ch.108Obsolete Things

# “So it has finally begun.”

“I figured Cage would do something like this.”

“Wasn’t the Master Code that Cage obtained too low-level to manage an entire city?”

“He probably thought this was better than being controlled by the authorities until he gets all the Master Codes.”

“Tsk, I thought we’d have more time.”

At the center of the secret laboratory built beneath the mountain.

The place commonly called the White Room by those gathered to work at the laboratory for the same purpose.

People in white coats were holding tablets, monitoring the situation in City A.

“What should we call this? A coup?”

“Well, shouldn’t we call it a coronation?”

“It’s faster than expected. Moving so hastily.”

“It would have been troublesome if we hadn’t moved ahead of time.”

“Considering E55’s movements, today was the most suspicious.”

“So Cage moved to avoid him? In the end, he’s still human.”

Beep, beep. The researchers sighed as they each manipulated something on their tablets.

“Number 3, all green.”

“Number 7, beginning administration.”

“Number 2, 30 minutes until awakening. Countdown started.”

“Good, contact E55.”

As one researcher left the White Room with a phone, the others shared their thoughts on the situation.

“I never thought we’d have to move so openly.”

“I’m not sure if it’s fortunate or unfortunate that Meister isn’t in City A.”

“It’s actually better this way. If we just deal with Cage, we can use Meister again.”

“The senses of an S-rank awakened one are truly terrifying. Even without knowing our true nature, he’s been interfering based on intuition alone, and now he’s moving before our preparations are complete.”

“It’s fascinating how they become almost precognitive as they approach S-rank. A common ability shared at a certain stage… In the end, are awakened ones no different from monsters?”

“I’d like to dissect him. How is this hypersensitivity even possible?”

“Hey, something’s wrong. Everyone, look at this.”

While everyone was speaking their minds, a researcher who had been looking at something in the corner of the room called out to everyone.

What the researcher was looking at wasn’t research data or the current situation in City A through hacked hero cams and city surveillance cameras, but the surveillance cameras inside the laboratory.

“Three surveillance cameras at Exit D have gone out. How is this possible?”

“Is it an aging issue?”

“That’s impossible. This facility should last for another hundred years…”

Right after those words, cameras in other areas began to shut down one after another.

Sensing something was wrong, the researchers immediately manipulated their tablets to check various sensors.

“Is it a wandering monster?”

“No, the defense against ethereal infiltration should be working properly.”

“Defensive wall status, no abnormalities.”

“Monster reactions inside the laboratory, three additional ones detected.”

“What rank?”

“One Death-rank, two Destroyers.”

“Just those low-level monsters got inside…?”

They already had thorough countermeasures against wandering monsters attempting to infiltrate.

But monsters of only Homicide-rank and Destruction-rank, not even Disaster-rank?

Just as all the researchers thought this was impossible, multiple cameras began to shut down simultaneously.

“What are the identities of the monsters that got inside?”

“They’re not being captured on camera. Are they amorphous?”

“No, if they were amorphous, it would be strange for them to have this level of physical destructive power.”

“In the first place, if we consider that…”

At that moment, a sense of unease flashed through the researchers’ minds.

Monsters infiltrating the laboratory, monsters not appearing on camera, cameras being destroyed before capturing the monsters.

From this, they could deduce four things:

There are three monsters that have infiltrated the laboratory.

The fact that they can destroy the laboratory walls so quickly means they are definitely not Destruction-rank level monsters.

Despite being monsters, they know about the existence of cameras and are destroying them.

They’re heading toward the center of the laboratory, the White Room.

Where the researchers are.

“…They’re experiments!”

“Check immediately if there are any escaped subjects!”

“Initiate corridor lockdown! Fill them with sedatives and sleeping gas!”

The researchers who reacted with quick judgment activated the laboratory’s control program, causing walls to descend in the corridors that were being unilaterally destroyed.

As chemical mist was sprayed inside the walls, the researchers confirmed the shadows of the experiments stopping, and enlarged the surveillance camera footage of that area.

[Mmm… so sleepy…]

“…A human?”

What had appeared to be something with a large build in the smoke turned out to be a young girl with black hair.

“Could it be that Cage has already…?”

“Calm down, it was definitely a monster reaction. That’s an experiment.”

“But we don’t have anything that looks like that?”

“A humanoid form? That’s a characteristic only seen in some of the previous experiments.”

[Oh my, this is a problem… Gugu must be sleeping by now.]

And beside her, in another corridor shown by a camera.

Another woman emerged from the mist with her hand inserted into her neck.

This time too, it was human… no, not an ordinary human.

“A hybrid…?”

“Why is a hybrid here?”

Half monster, half human composite.

As the hybrid woman with a snow-white tail flicked it and tapped her toes on the ground, something small appeared from the ground.

[Honey, could you send Gugu over to me?]

Right after that, a black space appeared in front of the hybrid, and when she put her hand in and pulled it out, the girl who had been in another area was dragged out in front of the hybrid.

Torn space—the researchers who were already familiar with this were shocked.

“That’s spatial manipulation!”

“Why does that woman have it?! Did they succeed in putting such a high-capacity ability into a hybrid’s brain?!”

When the woman with snow-white hair stabbed her tail into the black-haired girl, the girl blinked and got up.

[Gugu isn’t sleepy?!]

“She neutralized the sedative?”

“What, how, what…?”

[I guess we should stick together… Oh my?]

The woman who had easily neutralized the monster sedative and sleeping gas that the researchers had developed over years made eye contact with the researchers through the surveillance camera.

In that moment, the beautiful monster with white hair, so enchanting that they froze, swung her hand wide and slashed the surveillance camera inside the wall.

[Don’t you know it’s rude to peep at women?]

Hearing those words, the researchers felt a chilling shudder and had the same thought.

What had come to this laboratory now were not wandering monsters that had arrived by chance.

They knew about the existence of the laboratory and the fact that researchers were inside.

“Are they… experiments from another laboratory?”

“Could they be the ones who escaped during the Romania collapse incident…?”

Those who came here were experiments that had escaped from a laboratory.

Their purpose: to kill the researchers.

“They’re underestimating us… those Romanian failures.”

“Apart from two lucky ones, all the Romanian specimens were worthless.”

“Are they here to get revenge on those who made them into experiments?”

“This… the Romanians couldn’t have deliberately sent experiments out of grudge from last time, could they?”

Having deduced the identity of the attackers, the researchers quickly manipulated the internal control system with irritated voices.

Corridor connection, door opening, awakening agent injection, stimulant injection.

The monsters that had been sleeping in the screen gradually woke up and raised their cores.

“It’s not like the Collapse itself managed to escape. The ones that escaped then were at best Disaster-rank. No matter how much those failures have grown since then, they’d still be Disaster-rank.”

“How dare these obsolete laboratory’s mediocre creations! Send all the failures and monsters into the corridors!”

At best one Homicide-rank and two Destruction-rank, while on their side, among various ranks of monsters, there were 15 Disaster-rank ones.

The researchers sent all the Disaster-rank monsters in the laboratory into the corridors, thinking of inflicting desperate despair on the experiments that had attacked without knowing their place.

Soon after, the researchers began to realize something strange one by one.

Merely Homicide-rank, Destruction-rank level monsters.

Even if they were experiments, could beings of only that level destroy the laboratory walls?

Even if they managed infiltration with the special ability of spatial manipulation, they clearly destroyed the cameras inside the walls without any difficulty.

“Eh…?”

And in the screen.

The black-haired girl with a smiling face vibrated her core, demonstrating the ability of spatial manipulation.

[Everyone dies! Fun!]

[Hmm? That’s strange, why are there only Disaster-ranks?]

The output of that ability, which tore apart the space in front of her like crumpled paper, was at least Despair-rank or higher.

When the monsters, feeling fear in the face of a power stronger than themselves, tried to flee, the white-haired woman flicked her finger once.

Then, the monsters all began to drool and spin in place.

Sensory confusion, with computational ability enough to easily affect Disaster-rank monsters.

The intruders were playing with the Disaster-rank monsters like toys.

Not only that, but in the corridor where they had sent out the monsters and failures that had just woken up:

[Ugh, gack, hegack…]

[Kee, keeek…]

Heads bursting from telekinetic pressure, bodies cut into dozens of pieces by something sharp, bodies petrifying and crumbling.

The Homicide-rank monster they had forgotten about while being distracted by the hybrid.

The monsters in the laboratory that encountered it, which still hadn’t shown itself on camera, all burst apart.

The detection device inside the laboratory, sensing abilities with impossible output, sounded an urgent alarm.

[Interesting.]

The monster that had turned Disaster-rank monsters into chunks of meat in an instant made a terrifying voice like wind leaking through the camera.

[The monster ratio has increased compared to previous experiments.]

Crunch, crunch… the creature eating the cores of the dead monsters one by one had figured everything out just by consuming the experiments.

As it said, the experiments that had become closer to monsters now completely lose their human memories when they fail, devoured by the monster.

Recent experiments had part of their minds eroded to make them obey the researchers’ orders.

What they had sent into the corridors were beasts whose minds had been so eroded that they no longer properly obeyed commands.

[There’s not a single human left now.]

“These, these aren’t ordinary experiments!”

“Close it! Close it!”

“Even if we close it, they’ll break through immediately! This is, this is…!”

It was only a matter of time before the experiments reached the White Room.

They would die if they faced those monsters.

Realizing there was no way to stop the intruders, the researchers’ faces turned pale, and they all rushed toward the exit.

“Wh-whaaaaa!”

“Hieek, hee, heeee…!”

The researchers scattered, each heading toward the escape route they remembered.

Some researchers remained in the White Room to inform other laboratories of the situation.

However, communications directed outside the city didn’t work at all.

All civilization in the monster era relies on Meister’s technology.

To communicate between cities, one must connect through the city’s communication tower.

Currently, City A is in a situation where Cage is carrying out a purge against the government authorities.

The communication tower has already been occupied by Cage.

“Of all times…!”

[What, what…! Why, why is this happening, here, why is this happening!]

[The door…! How did they know this passage, how did they know about this place!]

[No, no, no, no!]

Meanwhile, researchers who had opened the closed corridors and quickly reached the exits using the devices inside the laboratory.

The scene captured through the surveillance cameras embedded in the key cards hanging around each researcher’s neck was desperate.

All passages in the laboratory were blocked.

At that moment, something black gradually approached beneath the feet of the researchers desperately pounding on the crumpled steel doors.

[Eh…?]

[C-cat…?]

[Meow.]

What appeared before the researchers were small cats.

Surreally, the small cats that appeared at all four exits simultaneously used their abilities with cute meowing sounds.

The researchers, impaled by spikes that emerged from greatly enlarged shadows, died instantly.

“Grrrr…”

“Ah.”

Finally, a monster entered by crumpling and tearing the door of the White Room like a piece of paper.

Facing the black panther that everyone in the laboratory knew, the researcher unconsciously raised the corners of his mouth.

“CXI…”

The monster that protects humans, the creature called Black Cat.

Yes, it seemed likely that this one would attack the laboratory someday.

The question of what kind of monster would come here and do this.

The moment that was resolved, the researcher felt relief from the satisfaction of intellectual curiosity even amid confusion and fear.

The researchers who remained in the White Room completely gave up on escaping from this laboratory the moment they saw CXI.

The monster once called a miracle in the laboratory simultaneously burst the hearts of the researchers remaining in the White Room.

Vision stained red, yet a feeling of relief flashes by.

After all, this laboratory had already served its purpose.

The executives had already moved elsewhere…

This is the last memory of the researcher I swallowed.