Ch.109″Living test subjects are valuable, you know?”

Of course, my curiosity about Griyanar’s strange behavior didn’t last long.

After all, barely five minutes had passed since our eccentric Professor Griyanar started showing that mad-scientific attitude when an explanation for her behavior popped up as an event message right before my eyes.

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<Event>

<Wow! Free Living Test Subjects!!!>

<Content: Griyanar, who has been devoted to developing all kinds of technology since the past, has shown remarkable aptitude for various new technologies.>

<However, regarding her recently fixated field of ‘bioengineering,’ she hasn’t been able to produce proper results.>

<The reason, of course, was that she couldn’t conduct proper clinical trials.>

<If one wants to enhance Superhumans through bioengineering, experiments using humanoid test subjects are absolutely essential…>

<Unfortunately, where Griyanar resides, due to a ‘certain Commander’s’ indifference,>

<Finding proper test subjects has been nearly impossible.>

<Until now, through Oxianor’s mercy, she’s been experimenting with humanoid meat-mannequins made from monster cells.>

<Or only occasionally, when ordered to enhance the Superhumans in the base, could she attempt anything resembling an experiment.>

<But the appearance of a large group of pirate prisoners before Griyanar…>

<Represents ‘a massive number of test subjects that can be freely used’…>

<This is truly exciting for her, and Griyanar desperately hopes that the pirates will be given to her.>

<Option 1: …Those pirates who plundered us now seem pitiful. (Hand over all captured pirate prisoners to Griyanar, slight increase in ‘Enhancement Critical Success Rate’ in the future, ‘Bioengineering’ research speed +10%)>

<Option 2: Pirates are people too! Just make them do labor! (Forced labor camp construction possible, pirate prisoners can be immediately deployed, rebellion probability +5%)>

<Option 3: Too bothersome, let’s just kill them all. (Execute all pirate prisoners, +15% probability of being attacked by pirates not affiliated with the ‘Pirate Union’)>

—————————————-

It was quite detailed, complete with choices.

‘Hmm.’

Regardless of the lengthy content, judging by what was mentioned in the options:

Option 1 meant the pirate prisoners… or rather, the storage room guys would change their occupation to lab rats under Griyanar.

Option 2 was, as expected, sending them to forced labor.

Option 3…

‘Wait, something seems off.’

Wondering if I misunderstood something, I called Jessica who was standing nearby, showed her the event choices, and asked if she understood them.

After looking through the options, Jessica shook her head and said:

“I don’t know about the others, but option 3 is clearly telling you not to choose it, Commander.”

“Hmm.”

“It’s not a reduced chance of being attacked by pirates, but a 15% increased chance… that would be really annoying when conducting mining operations in resource zones.”

“Ah, I see.”

After hearing Jessica’s interpretation, I eliminated option 3 from consideration and continued deliberating between options 1 and 2…

‘Hmm… this feels like I’m being threatened at knifepoint to choose option 1.’

Options 2 and 3 might look normal on the surface, but they subtly included negative consequences, clearly intending to give me a big headache later.

I only just noticed it, but what’s with that “rebellion probability +5%” plainly written in option 2?

Anyway, the important thing was that options 2 and 3 only appeared decent on the surface.

In reality, they existed solely to screw me over…

So while internally shaking my head, I immediately chose option 1 and declared:

<Option 1: …Those pirates who plundered us now seem pitiful. (Hand over all captured pirate prisoners to Griyanar, slight increase in ‘Enhancement Critical Success Rate’ in the future, ‘Bioengineering’ research speed +10%)><Selected>

“Griyanar, you can handle all of them as you see fit.”

“…Ooooh!”

Upon hearing my words, Griyanar’s face lit up with joy.

Then, with her signature purple eye-light pouring out, she dragged the limbless pirate prisoners away with her pet tentacles toward her nest(?)…

No, toward the biology research lab, moving quickly.

And after Griyanar and her maggots(?) disappeared that way,

I decided to offer words of praise to Marian who had worked hard to bring in and manage these valuable(?) test subjects(?).

“Marian, thank you again for your hard work in bringing these ones in and managing them.”

“Eek, t-that… it was nothing! Don’t worry about it!”

Of course, in response to my shower of praise, Marian, as always,

Showed a silly grin and flustered expression before finally pulling herself together,

And displayed a look of immense satisfaction.

==========

Anyway, even while experiencing such trivial matters, the Department of Defense… no, our clock kept ticking.

And perhaps because we were no longer burdened by excessive repair costs,

Three days after Griyanar took the pirate prisoners:

—————————————-

<Favor Points: 452,332 points>

—————————————-

While she was so focused on research that she couldn’t participate in quests,

The remaining four members diligently completed high-grade quests, and

“Document processing quests seem to give pretty stingy points.”

“Can’t be helped, right? To be honest, compared to the quests that Ignis and other Superhumans solve… these are actually easier.”

With Jessica and I also diligently completing Oxianor’s monster quests along with ‘daily quests’,

We managed to earn 150,000 points in three days, showing a decent start.

And most importantly…

—————————————-

<Event>

<Chimera Production Project Complete!>

<Content: Professor Griyanar, after grinding up dozens, no, hundreds of prisoners who couldn’t be brought to the command center due to space limitations,>

<Has succeeded in creating chimera forces that can be produced independently at the base, separate from the ‘Monster Farm’.>

<Effective immediately, ‘Chimera Soldiers’ can now be produced within the base.>

—————————————-

‘Wow! Chimeras!’

I was wondering what she was doing, locked up in the biology lab without handling any quests, and now I know.

—————————————-

<Chimera Soldier>

<Soldiers each comparable to D-rank Superhumans.>

<Although the individuals who became chimeras never wanted this fate,>

<No one asked for their opinion, so they suddenly found themselves living a new life as biological weapons that only follow orders.>

—————————————-

Hearing that we could now produce forces far superior to the regular soldiers or androids we had been using for ship combat,

I felt extremely satisfied and decided to head straight to the biology lab to commend her.

But when I actually opened the rather bizarrely modified door of the biology lab and stepped inside…

“Ah, Commander? It’s been quite a while.”

“…”

“What do you think? The appearance of the newly created ‘Chimera Production Facility’?”

Along with the sight of pirate prisoners who had been transformed into specimens,

There was something so grotesque that it was hard to describe.

“Well, good job.”

“Heheheh, of course! When something passes through this professor’s hands, everything turns out perfect!”

After just praising the overconfident Griyanar, I had to immediately backpedal out of the lab with Jessica.