Ch.4848. The Laboratory

# 48. Research Lab

Man is not born to be defeated. He can be destroyed but not defeated.

This is a famous quote from a beloved book, and one of my favorite lines.

Though I’ve faced many setbacks since falling into this strange world, I’m still alive. No matter how many times I break or fall, as long as I’m breathing and refuse to give up, I can keep moving forward.

I look down at my bandaged finger. Regret, pain, frustration. Yet I continue without giving up. Even when the world is filled with pain and darkness that obscures the path ahead, humanity has persisted because we believe there’s light at the end of this wandering. The same goes for me.

I fell into deep despair when I heard that despite my belief in other survivors, I was actually the only one left. But a glimmer of hope still remains.

Messages that say things they couldn’t possibly know without sharing my vision, and people supposedly remaining in Paradise. I know these don’t quite align, but I think I can still hold onto hope.

Giving up can wait until everything is truly over. If I have time to sit around, I’d rather use that time to move forward, even if just a little.

“It’s gotten dark already. My sense of time has been strange lately.”

It doesn’t feel like I’ve been awake that long, but the sun is already preparing to sleep.

Since I started using Alexander and conserving my energy, time seems to flow faster.

It’s good that I can travel around without exerting myself and explore more with my remaining energy, but—I still hate the night. Nothing frightens me more than the darkness of night when I can’t see anything.

“Of all places to get dark, it had to be here with buildings and junk scattered everywhere. I was sure I could reach the Factory while the sun was still up… That’s unfortunate.”

Walls that look like they might collapse at the slightest touch, or pits that are hard to see with the naked eye.

Compared to the city where I had to be careful not to step on people buried in the snow, my mind is more at ease, but I need to concentrate more to avoid danger.

“Careful, careful…”

I move forward, relying on Alexander’s headlights and the stick I attached to the front to prevent any potential accidents.

“Aaah!”

“Woof!”

But… even with bright lights, it was nearly impossible to distinguish minor level differences in this snow-covered place.

As we approached the Factory on the hill and entered an area with many buildings, the Puppy and I couldn’t help but startle every few minutes at the suddenly increasing number of uneven surfaces.

—A new message has arrived.

[s̡̼̰̠͓̏̂͗̈́͗̚͠a̜̻̤̦͇͕̖̿̾̅͗͘͟͟t̴͈̖͈͖̘̂̈́̂̊̓̇͊͞ͅị͉̝̱̳̃̀͂̊̓͛͊͑t̶͓͔̣͙̹̳̳͉̥̓̽͊̊͒̾̓͑̏͝h̨̛̙̜͕̭͈̋̎͆͊̽̀͌͢q̷̡̢̧̣͚̩͈̟̎̑̿́̅̕͟͝ẁ̸̨̯͈̯̖̥̠̼̩͑̋̀̿͘/̵̡͎̩̦̹͕̲̪̔̔̑͋̋f̝̬͚̗̖̿͛̿̀̐̾j̻̬̜̫̺̰̦̫͍̭͋͛͌͌͗̄v̷̜̘̮̝̙̦̀́̂͐̓̈]

“Sigh, another corrupted message. That’s the fifth one today. What are you trying to tell me? These messages have been bothering me so much lately that I can’t even sleep properly.”

After nearly falling into despair upon realizing the cruel truth, the number of corrupted messages increased dramatically. I used to receive maybe three broken messages a week, but today alone I’ve gotten five.

The fact that these corrupted messages were arriving during times when I normally received proper messages suggested this wasn’t simply a drone malfunction.

“Either you’ve sensed something strange too, or I’m in some serious situation that only I don’t know about, because even the intact messages have been saying weird things.”

Messages like “The end is near and humanity will perish without escape,” cursing me when I’m desperately trying to survive.

Or ominous statements like “Since I don’t know when I’ll disappear, I should go thank my parents.”

When the Controller, which until just days ago had been filled with casual conversation like between friends about our shared world, started filling up with these messages, it was hard to ignore them even if I wanted to.

One way or another, the drones, the Controller, and conversations with people through messages had become central to my life.

“Considering how messages about the Ark built in the past were deleted… I wonder if these recent messages were also talking about the past.”

At first, I had no idea why messages were arriving completely or partially corrupted.

But after hearing the truth about the Ark, and seeing the sudden increase in censored messages, I could make some guesses.

“Could it be that the messages I’m receiving… are from people in the past? Saying they don’t want to live in such a cold world, asking me to help them escape. Asking me to tell them how to escape.”

Even I think it sounds ridiculous, but various pieces of evidence have led me to such absurd speculation.

“Well. Humanity, born on Earth and eventually reaching for distant galaxies, still never managed to decipher time.”

Whenever I brought this up, the Robot would tell me that such things were scientifically impossible. That even if it were possible, humanity never found the method before its extinction.

“If, as Mori says, this drone is really connected to the past, showing people in the past our situation in real-time, and we’re receiving messages from them—”

“…if we are?”

“—That would certainly be a ‘miracle.’ Like when humans first discovered fire, or when an incurable disease was suddenly completely cured. A miracle created by the overlap of coincidences that humanity has yet to discover.”

The Robot looked up at the sky and smiled.

I couldn’t understand why the Robot was smiling… but at that moment, I could smile too.

“Hahaha! Don’t casually throw around words like ‘miracle’ when you’re just a robot. It doesn’t suit you.”

A being created to systematically solve practical problems using a word that deviates so far from systems and knowledge.

It resembled humanity, which constantly discusses death throughout life and imagines the unobservable afterlife.

For once, I could laugh out loud.

The Factory existed on a hill formed by numerous densely packed buildings.

I don’t know what these buildings originally existed for, but now they’ve lost both their function and meaning, reduced to simple rectangular shapes. I approach the Factory along a slanted path that cuts through these shapes.

“…So this huge thing, dozens of times my size, is just a single screw?”

The Factory looked quite different from what I’d seen in the Snowfield.

There was no outer wall to keep strangers out, and around the rectangular building with its complex structure of numerous pipes, giant gears and screws were scattered randomly.

“I wonder where this screw came from. Did it fall from up there?”

Looking up, I can vaguely see the floor supporting the upper levels of the Tower I had compared to a cake.

It’s not directly above my head, but if something fell from that high place, it could certainly fly all the way here.

While staring at the floor above, worried that another gear might fall and destroy the building while I’m inside, I could faintly see sections that seemed to have failed against weight or time, with empty spaces and various pillars and gears visible within.

…I shouldn’t have looked up. Dangerous. Dangerous.

“Hmm, since the building is intact and there’s no sign of impact, rather than a screw that fell from above, I’ll just think of it as a screw used to assemble some special machine that was used in here.”

Shaking my head to dispel the image of myself being crushed to death by a giant screw falling from above, I entered the Factory through the wide-open entrance.

“I wonder what kind of factory this was. Hopefully not one that made dangerous things like weapons or… bombs?”

Surprisingly, the inside of the Factory was quite bright, despite having no lights turned on.

However, the rather messy interior was traversed by large pipes, and the water inside them glowed faintly even in the darkness.

“This place has a completely different atmosphere from the buildings I’ve seen so far.”

Like a moth advancing by the faint moonlight, I walked along the pipes as if entranced.

“With desks and chairs scattered around… it looks more like a Research Lab than a factory.”

“You think so?”

“What do you mean ‘you think so’? You’re the one who called it a factory!”

“No, I didn’t! I said it looked like a factory, but I never said it was one! Just because I’m a robot doesn’t mean I have technology to instantly identify buildings in a city I’ve never been to before.”

“…I wish you couldn’t talk.”

I grumble as I walk through what might be a factory or a research lab.

I don’t know what this building was originally used for, but as long as there are useful items or edible food, I don’t really care.

But looking at the scattered objects as if someone hurriedly packed and left, and the cracked walls and ceiling, I get the strong impression that there won’t be anything useful here.

…I used quite a bit of fuel and food to get here, so I might cry if there’s nothing.

“By the way… seeing how complex and messy this place is, yet there’s no blood or corpses, I’m guessing there was a Maintenance Robot here too.”

“I suppose so.”

“If the Maintenance Robot is still alive and has better capabilities than you… I might take it with me instead of you.”

“No! Please, anything but that! I’m sorry! I won’t survive long in a place like this!”

“I’m just kidding.”

I laugh at the Robot’s tearful response as I continue deeper inside, following the large hose.

Going up slightly tilted stairs, then down again. Following the hose that seemed to circle the entire building, I eventually descended into a darker basement.

It seemed they built this hill specifically to create this basement and then built the structure on top.

“It’s locked.”

The blue-glowing hose passed through a door in the corridor to the other side, and the door was firmly locked.

[Access denied.]

[Access denied.]

“Hmm… I wonder if there’s a way to get in.”

As usual, the door wouldn’t open by force. What was unusual was that even Maximus couldn’t open it.

Even when I put my eye up to the small camera that seemed to be the only key, the speaker just kept repeating that access was denied.

“Mori. Let me try to open this.”

“Really? Can you do it? This isn’t even the city you managed.”

“If I can’t solve something like this, how can I call myself a travel companion! Trust me!”

“Hmm… well, okay. I don’t have any other options anyway. I’ll look around the other rooms for a bit, so good luck.”

“Yes!”

Fortunately, I had a robot who knew how to handle these machines.

But that was limited to the city the Robot managed.

Since coming up to the Tower, it hadn’t been able to turn on building lights or control machines lying around, which was disappointing.

Seeing its confidence now, I felt I could trust it this time.

Trusting the Robot, I left and decided to explore the other rooms in the corridor, relying only on a flashlight.