Ch.80Smoke of Hope

# Meister

Meister.

It’s a term that refers to someone who has reached the pinnacle in a particular field.

Before monsters took over this world, that word didn’t belong to just one person.

However, in this era, when someone said “Meister,” it referred to only one person.

A City’s non-standard hero, Meister.

Nam Gyeong, a woman with an unusual name, had created countless things for humanity.

Autonomous construction drones, equipment for fortifying cities, underground factories for food production, monster alert systems, numerous restraining drugs to safely imprison villains, healing solutions to aid treatment, various new materials, high-performance prosthetic arms and legs…

A living embodiment of over-technology, a genius worthy of the title.

Many people thought so.

Until it was revealed that she was a superhuman with special abilities.

“She’s here.”

“Meister is really coming.”

“Is she really coming? This is my first time seeing Meister…”

“That’s possible. These days, even Meister’s photographs are controlled, so we don’t even know what she looks like.”

A top-secret information hidden from the citizens of W City.

As a train carrying not a single civilian arrived at W City’s train station, all heroes except those who had left for city patrol straightened their posture.

The first to disembark from the train were Electris and three heroes from A City.

Following them, about a hundred soldiers carrying weapons designed to subdue non-monsters—shockers—disembarked.

It was quite an escort for just one person, yet the W City heroes felt it was far too inadequate.

Currently riding this train was a truly untouchable woman of this era.

A scientist and inventor called the hope and savior of the monster era.

The superhumans’ sensitive senses detected something like the smell of a dying corpse.

Right after, a woman with a haggard face struggled to get off the train.

“Uweeeeek…”

“Whoa!”

“A-are you alright?”

Meister vomited as soon as she got off the train upon arriving in W City.

When the heroes tried to approach Meister after seeing this, the soldiers and A City heroes simultaneously activated their abilities.

“Stay away from Meister.”

“What? But she’s throwing up!”

“No, let her calm down on her own.”

The prohibition against approaching within a certain range seemed to apply even to A City heroes and soldiers, as everyone hesitated according to Meister’s movements.

Meister took out a large water bottle from a small bag tied around her waist, one that didn’t match the size of the bag.

Peculiarly, the water bottle was sealed with a vinyl pack and a sealing sticker.

As if that wasn’t enough, Meister only opened the seal after Electris took a long rod-shaped scanning device from her waist and quickly scanned the water bottle.

“Umm, puheeeek… gulp… gulp… gulp… puhaa…”

After rinsing her mouth with difficulty and drinking water, Meister held her forehead and staggered as she spoke.

“Heek… heek… S-sorry… it’s been too long since I’ve ridden a train.”

“You rarely have reason to leave A City anyway.”

“A~nna, it’s been a while… how long has it been? I can’t remember.”

Meister took out a stick with a hand model attached from her bag, and Yu Anna hesitantly grabbed the model and shook it.

A strange handshake, but Yu Anna was already used to such things.

“Well, then… I’m sorry to do this right after meeting, but shall we go over the schedule?”

“I’ll brief you on W City’s schedule. Observing cultured brain and implant surgery, inspecting production factories, checking server connection status, and if possible, contact with Black Cat. That’s all.”

“Shall we go see the implant surgery first… is that okay, Anna?”

“Yes, the removal of brains infected with parasites is already complete. The implant surgery will begin soon.”

“Okay, then… excuse me…”

With a weak voice, Meister took out a long rod, wheels, footrests, and various devices from her bag and assembled them into an electric two-wheeled vehicle.

As Meister mounted the device, formerly known as a Segway before the monster era, and began moving, the soldiers quickly formed a circular formation around her.

“Seems a bit excessive.”

“No, um… that’s actually normal.”

“Because she’s Meister.”

“But doesn’t that make her stand out more? And considering that all heroes have to come out…”

“She’s Meister.”

At the boundary between Zone 0 and Zone 1, areas where ordinary citizens were prohibited from residing, Meister entered the underground road from inside the train station and rode along the direct passage to the hero headquarters.

Though she was “riding,” her speed was only slightly faster than a normal person walking quickly, allowing the heroes and soldiers to follow her without issue.

“Anna, somehow your skin looks much better… I’m jealous… is it thanks to Black Cat?”

“To be honest, yes.”

“I’m jealous… I saw Black Cat’s photo, she’s cute… I wish I could borrow cat paws too…”

With a tired voice, Meister leaned on the handlebars of her two-wheeled vehicle and dozed off, then suddenly lifted her head and took out a sealed disposable pill case and food pack from her bag.

Electris scanned the food and medicine, and Meister sucked down the pills and something like thick porridge.

“Ah… sorry for interrupting everyone’s work, but I’ll fall asleep if I don’t eat now.”

“Sorry about all this…”

“No, it’s fine, I was curious too…”

What Meister just consumed was a type of stimulant and an energy pack compressed with nutrients, essentially biological fuel.

When Yu Anna, who knew about the special penalty of Meister’s special ability, apologized, Meister smiled awkwardly.

“The parasite eats away and replaces parts of the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, and temporal lobe… areas closely related to abilities. I wonder how Baal was able to draw out abilities from infected bodies? While I’m curious about that, if we can recover the brain, it would be a great help to government research…”

“Research, you mean that?”

“Yes, artificial superhuman research. Since human experimentation has been blocked, it’s facing difficulties.”

The inhumane research that began after the monster weaponization plan was scrapped.

The W City heroes all flinched as they recalled the reports of that research, which had horrifically dissected the bodies of numerous low-grade superhumans.

“…I find it hard to support such research.”

“But it’s necessary… no matter how much we increase the birth rate, the number of humans is decreasing due to monster damage, and the proportional number of superhumans is decreasing too. Oh, I’m sorry… I’ve said something inconsiderate again in front of superhumans.”

When even Electris narrowed her eyes sharply at the emotionless voice, Meister apologized with an awkward smile.

Then, one of the soldiers escorting Meister defended her with a formal posture.

“It’s merely a sacrifice for humanity. What Meister proposed was only the dissection of low-grade superhumans, through which humanity has gained much understanding about special abilities. The dissected superhumans would probably be grateful to Meister.”

“I’d appreciate it if losers without special abilities would shut up.”

When Electris crackled with electricity, the soldier who had been speaking closed his mouth with a tense attitude.

In the awkward atmosphere, Meister entered the hero building and headed to the treatment room under Yu Anna’s guidance.

Today, the treatment room, filled with advanced equipment for injured heroes, was packed with civilian patients.

“Meister has arrived.”

[Meister… I apologize, but I’ll postpone greetings. Currently, we’re checking if the cultured brains are suitable.]

[All cultured brains, no abnormalities.]

In the observation room overlooking the entire operating room, Starlight handed over a microphone, and Meister took out a sealed spray from her bag and spritzed it with disinfectant.

Meister grabbed the disinfected microphone and instructed the operating room interior with a tired voice.

“Please confirm the surgery order once more. The order is hippocampus, temporal lobe, prefrontal cortex. The culture medium moistening the brain will quickly regenerate wounds, so please don’t make mistakes in the resection… so as not to ruin the samples.”

[…Beginning patient surgery.]

[Surgery commencing.]

As W City’s doctors and medical robots coordinated to begin the brain transplant surgery, Meister, who had slumped down in front of the large window in the observation room, took out a drink and watched while drinking.

“The surgical skills are good, to the point where I’d like to take a few back to A City…”

“We will request that from W City.”

“Meister, W City is short on doctors.”

“Oh, is that so… then I guess I can’t take them.”

The soldiers reacted even to Meister’s unconscious mutterings.

Before anything uncomfortable could happen, Starlight intervened, and Meister sighed with disappointment.

[Number 1, hippocampus seated.]

[Number 2, hippocampus position stable.]

[Number 4, no abnormalities.]

“If I had known the implant seating rate would be this high, I wouldn’t have made implants for everyone…”

This surgery was primarily aimed at seating the cultured brains, and in case of failure, mechanical implants would be inserted to assist with computation from the outside.

Just as everyone thought they might not need to use implants at this rate, problems arose with some patients.

[Number 6, temporal lobe unstable.]

[Number 3, prefrontal cortex not attaching properly.]

“Hmm… prepare implant for Number 6, and for Number 3, administer 3 nanograms of culture medium, is that possible?”

[Did you say nanograms?]

“Ah… such equipment doesn’t exist here… can’t be helped. Take the needle there and poke between the brain parts like you’re stitching them together.”

Meister provided solutions to the problems, and the doctors quickly resolved them.

Yu Anna felt complex emotions watching this.

Certainly, Meister was helpful.

Just… a bit uncomfortable to deal with.

[Surgery complete, good work everyone.]

[Good work.]

“Primary recovery will take 12 hours… yaaawn… I saw well, good work everyone.”

After the surgery ended, Meister yawned and took out a trolley-like transport drone from her bag, handing its remote control to Electris.

As Electris accepted the remote with a subtle expression, Meister curled up on the transport drone, which looked like a small bed, with a tired expression.

“Then, I’ll be sleeping, so please wake me up when we reach the production factory…”

“Thank you for your hard work, Meister.”

“Yaaawn…”

Meister fell asleep at the soldier’s greeting, and Electris operated the remote to move the drone.

The drone, hovering just slightly above the ground, followed Electris, who walked beside Yu Anna and said:

“Hmph, annoying woman.”

Behind them, W City’s heroes followed the drone carrying Meister and muttered:

“Is that her ability?”

“What a strange ability…”

Woooong, the ability waves flowed ceaselessly from Meister’s heart as she slept.

Meister was currently using her ability while asleep.

The spreading ability waves were barely C-grade, no, even less than that.

Shortly after, Meister arrived at W City’s underground production facility, stretched as she got up, and said:

“Hmm… the accessible information related to artificial superhumans has increased.”

“Congratulations, Meister!”

“…Ha.”

The soldier and Electris showed contrasting reactions to that statement.

Meister’s ability, which she herself named Dimensional Archive.

An ambiguous ability that allows her to search for what she has observed while sleeping and hear interpretations about that information from something unknown.

“But… I don’t understand what it’s saying… I’m sorry…”

“Take your time to learn! You can do it, Meister!”

This ability full of holes was the spark of hope that prevented humanity from being annihilated by monsters.

At the same time, it was something like the smoke left from an extinguished spark.