episode_0006

I really wanted to eat the french fries the piggy girl-lover had graciously given to the ground.

But the french fries, more precious than gold, were now in the hands of the girl-abusing ponytail bitch.

“Uh…my french fries…!”

“Oh no~! Fast food is bad for you. Let’s eat this instead!”

Hey, you ate some too! I can smell oil on your clothes!

As I desperately reached out my hand, the ponytail raised her arm to avoid me. As I struggled to stand up and snatch them, the ponytail bitch flicked the french fries behind her. The flying french fries arced, hit the wall, bounced off, and fell into the trash can.

The piggy researcher also seemed flustered, saying, “Uh, Doctor-nim, I gave her that…” but then backed away when the ponytail glared at him.

“French friiiiiiies…!”

I was about to run to the trash can. I want to eat them! But that bitch with the ponytail blocked my path to the trash can.

“Violet. Unnie said no, didn’t she?”

“Please…. French fries.. I want to eat themmmm…”

As I pleaded, the life briefly disappeared from the ponytail bitch’s eyes, and she pulled out a necklace switch from her gown pocket.

“I said no, didn’t I?”

She blatantly raised the switch for me to see. I flinched and backed away. Only then did the ponytail bitch smile. Her eyes were still lifeless.

“Violet, if Violet doesn’t listen to Unnie… Unnie will become a bad person. Understood?”

“I’m sorry…”

‘No, do you really hate giving them that much?’

“Alright, from now on, you shouldn’t make Unnie a bad person~ Instead, eat this and listen well. Promise!”

She pulled a plastic bottle from behind her back. The cursed protein powder bottle was pushed in front of me.

I returned to my seat and sadly gulped down the baby food.

The scent of fried food lingering in my nose tormented me. I called out the names of longed-for foods, one by one.

Hamburger, pizza, chicken, ramen, pork cutlet, lasagna, pasta, spicy rice cakes, beer, a cold screwdriver, sour at the mouth and burning in the throat, and french fries, french fries, french fries…

“French fries! Hash browns!!”

What?

“Pancakes!! Bacon!! Fried eggggggggs!!!!”

-Thud!

“Wh-What!”

“What is it? What’s going on!”

Everyone, including researchers, guards, and test subjects, was flustered by the sudden shouts and noise.

Soon, the source of the noise was revealed. A sturdy adult man, wearing only pants, broke through a glass partition and burst in.

-Crash!

“Hey, you pieces of trash!! How long are you going to give me this kind of thing as food!”

The muscular man, filled with rage, threw a milk powder container at the face of one of the researchers in front of him. The one who was hit choked and fell over. Haha, serves him right.

And still not appeased, he slammed his hand down on a nearby table, smashing it to pieces, and panted angrily. Soon, a person who appeared to be his assigned researcher quickly followed.

“Stop! 12-5-10! You’re not going to violate the experiment contract regulations, are you? Coming here was your choice!”

The muscular man glared at the researcher with eyes blazing with fury.

“Shut up! There was no talk of giving me food that even a dog wouldn’t touch! Give me proper food right now!!”

“That’s health food…”

At the researcher’s excuse, the muscular man exploded.

“Bullshit! You guys eat that goat vomit! Give me steak! Or sushi!”

Exactly, I agree too! I watched this situation with a heart secretly cheering on the muscular man. Perhaps flustered by the muscular man’s momentum, the researcher pulled out the electric collar switch.

“Ha, it seems good words won’t work anymore. 12-5-10, if you don’t back down, I’ll consider it crossing the line.”

“Oh really? You desk jockey bastard. Do it! Just try it!”

“You’re crossing the line.”

The researcher calmly activated the switch.

-Crackle!

“Aieeee!”

A powerful high voltage struck the muscular man’s entire body. He finally knelt and collapsed. The human rights hero of the test subjects thus fell.

But to everyone’s surprise, he stood up again!

“Fuuuuuuck!!! Steeeeeeak!!”

“What? What is it? It’s clearly at maximum output!”

The assigned researcher was aghast. The other researchers watching also gaped in surprise.

The muscular man was an Awakened One specializing in enhanced physical abilities, just as his appearance suggested. Even as smoke rose from his entire body, our muscular hero directed both arms towards the collar.

-Snap!

And he snapped the collar. As soon as the electric collar was broken, a loud siren began to wail in the hallway a few seconds later. So it also had a function like an electronic ankle monitor.

The assigned researcher’s face turned pale, as if realizing the reality upon seeing the collar’s debris on the floor.

“Huh? Ugh.. Uwah..! Wait..! 12-5-10! It seems there was some misunderstanding…!”

He was terrified and tried to back away.

“Misunderstanding? What misunderstanding, you bastard!”

“Calm down..! We are civilized people, aren’t we? Let’s resolve this through dialogue, dialogue….!”

The muscular man strode heavily over and grabbed both arms of the assigned researcher who tried to stop him.

“Dialogue? Yes, it’s a physical dialogue, you motherfucking bastard!!!!”

Then something astonishing happened.

-Rip!

“Ah-oh? Arrrgh!!”

The muscular man twisted and squeezed the researcher’s arms as if wringing a rag! That a person’s arms could change like that was a truly grotesque and astonishing sight!

The muscular man kicked the screaming, twisted researcher with a thud.

With a guttural scream, the researcher broke several glass partitions and disappeared beyond them.

“This is justice, you motherfucking bastards!!”

Having come to their senses, the other researchers and test subjects screamed and ran away. As the situation was slowly turning strange, I quickly hid behind a wall and watched.

“Emergency! Emergency! Sector 2! Test subject violence incident!”

Guards who rushed in from the hallway aimed their guns at the muscular man.

-Rat-a-tat-tat!

A barrage of various types of bullets, from handguns to shotguns and rifles, poured down on the muscular man. He roared in pain.

“Uwaaaaah! You guys die too!!”

But even amidst this brutal violence, he didn’t die. Weak threats like pistol bullets were even deflected by the shimmering glow peculiar to the aether shrouding his body.

As expected, is that because he’s an Awakened One? He didn’t die from taking a few bullets.

‘I knew it!’

In the blink of an eye, the muscular man charged at the guards.

-Thwack! Whoosh! Thump!

Under the barrage of unleashed punches and kicks, the guards were sent flying without even having time to aim and shoot.

Oh, maybe the research lab will collapse here? That would be great for me, though. Riot! Chaos! Destruction!

But then, the atmosphere changed.

With a loud thud, a heavy vibration echoed through the floor. From the hallway corner, a black-clad guard, wearing a helmet that completely covered his face and holding a giant sledgehammer, appeared, and the muscular man stopped.

“Everyone, step back.”

It was the ogre guard I had seen that morning.

The other guards quickly retreated behind the ogre, and a one-on-one confrontation between the muscular man and the ogre was formed.

“What are you, you bastard!”

The muscular man charged at the ogre. A fist imbued with aether tore through the air and flew, and several perfectly delivered straight punches directly hit his chest.

-Thump! Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

The muscular man, who had been unleashing a barrage of punches, backed away in bewilderment.

The ogre stood perfectly fine. The effect of the attack was similar to hitting a concrete wall with a toy hammer. The only trace left by the barrage of punches was a few scratches on his black vest.

“What…are you?”

The muscular man’s eyes widened and trembled.

“You, surrender.”

“Damn it!!!”

The muscular man hesitated for a moment, looking behind him, then gritted his teeth and swung his fist once more.

At that moment,

-Boom!

I blinked, and then covered my mouth at what I witnessed next.

“Ugh…!”

The spot where the muscular man had just been literally exploded into red.

‘He was hit by the hammer and crushed!’

From the floor to both walls and the ceiling, it was a mess of crimson blood and what used to be human remains. Something that was a crumpled upper and lower body combined stood on the floor, then collapsed with a thud.

“Clean it up.”

The ogre threw out a single word and disappeared. Only then did the guards hurriedly move, recovering the injured and the corpses. The researchers who had hidden in the room also crawled out one by one, looking around nervously.

Soon, the situation was mostly resolved. Watching the guards mop the crimson floor, I thought that the sight of that giant wielding the sledgehammer would be truly hard to forget.

‘Ah. That’s right!’

Suddenly remembering what I had forgotten, I quickly checked inside the trash can.

‘French fries…. gone?’

They’re gone..! The trash can had been overturned during the muscular man’s rampage earlier, and its contents had long since been scattered. They were gone. I had wanted to eat them…

“Violet. Are you okay?”

Wait, when did that ponytail bitch run away?

With a sorrowful heart, when the ponytail wasn’t looking, I quickly sucked my index finger. A faint taste of oil and salt was perceptible.

With a gloomy heart, I was dragged to the next activity.

*

Despite the commotion earlier, the test subjects’ afternoon schedule proceeded smoothly.

If they made us fight in the morning, in the afternoon, they made us do something similar to studying. It was a kind of ‘working by day, studying by night’ situation [a proverb describing someone who works during the day and studies at night]. Of course, they also conducted experiments. At this time, we gathered in a room with a blackboard, along with the children I had seen earlier, and engaged in activities.

They mostly made us do psychological tests. They would give us multiple-choice options and make us check them to ascertain our psychological state.

I looked at the tablet PC’s monitor. The psychological questionnaire items looked familiar and similar to something I’d seen elsewhere.

Honestly, I felt a bit uneasy here. What if the results of the psychological tests or intelligence tests came out well? What if my clumsy act of playing dumb to hide my possession was exposed here?

Then wouldn’t people like slicked-back hair and the ponytail suspect me? I didn’t know how to use physical enhancement techniques to withstand electric shocks like the muscular man earlier. If I broke the electric collar, the siren would surely wail.

There was only one thing I could rely on. I fully activated my brain and recalled the shallow psychology I had learned during my major. Help me, long-term memory!

Of course, I didn’t forget to recall the electric shocks and french fries to influence my psychological state. No, there was no need to act. I want french fries… I will never forget that resentment!

-I have many friends: Yes  No 

-I am happy: Yes  No 

-I know more than 100 types of Skullkits: YesNo ….

-………

Once the test was over, we mostly watched various miscellaneous videos. For example, promotional videos about Laplacxia Corporation’s social contributions, or videos of hunters fighting magical beasts—yes, the hunters from hunter stories—in action.

The other test subject children stared blankly at the tablet. With the atmosphere like this, I felt like I was becoming dumber too.

With a beep, the monitor turned off. Learning time was over.

Fortunately, the research lab bastards don’t run us ragged all day. It seems that’s because they all leave before it gets late at night.

When the daily schedule ended, the researchers took the test subjects to the shower room. Laplacxia seemed to emphasize hygiene, as if they were some kind of biotechnology company.

Also, because they somewhat valued worthy test subjects, they didn’t trick us into thinking it was a shower room only to make us undergo chemical warfare drills. What a relief!

I took off my clothes and shambled in like zombies with the other teenage test subject kids.

“Ughhh! It’s cold!”

They called it a shower room, but it was actually a car wash without hot water. They roughly sprayed water once, sprayed soap suds once in the middle, and then rinsed again with water.

As I silently endured the cold water barrage and proceeded, the scarred backs of the test subject children were impressive. Some of them had scars running from the back of their heads all the way to their foreheads. What kind of experiments had they undergone, exactly?

At the end of the shower route, strong gusts of wind poured out. And picking up a single worn towel each, we dried ourselves.

After finishing all this, we went out to the exit again and put on a new patient gown and a piece of underwear.

Now we returned to the dormitory. Inside the door was a baby bottle. I roughly gulped it down. Having nothing to do, I sat at my desk.

How much time had passed? Music box sounds echoed from the speakers. It was an announcement telling the test subjects not to think anything else and just go to sleep.

‘I survived today too.’

I had repeated this endless drill dozens of times already. It was just like the boot camp routine in my previous life.

Yes, like today, encountering the ogre guard crushing a disobedient person with a sledgehammer, or encountering the girl-lover playing around with french fries, was a first. And gaining a level and acquiring new skills was certainly noteworthy.

Yes, a clear path was visible. A way to escape from being a helpless girl.

But regardless of the achievements, if I couldn’t escape this routine as soon as possible, I would go crazy someday.

Feeling tired, I lay prone on the bed. But I got up again. The cause was in my chest.

‘It’s uncomfortable…’

My full and elastic breasts were really beautiful, even to me. Even though all I had eaten so far was just baby food, it was truly amazing that they still maintained such elasticity and size.

Moreover, they were soft, and touching them felt good. That’s not what I mean in a weird way! I know because I sometimes touched them myself at night when things were hard. It’s really not anything weird.

However, they were heavy and dull.

There was also the biggest problem. When I lay face down like this, my chest would be crushed, making me feel suffocated and stifled.

If I changed my position again and lay on my back, this time, my breasts would gently spread out due to their own weight, swaying above me. Like two elastic puddings on a wobbling plate, they would jiggle with the slightest movement.

I adjusted my lying position and eventually lay on my side. This was the most comfortable sleeping position I had found so far among all my attempts to sleep comfortably since becoming a woman.

As I lay down and pulled the blanket over me, thoughts that had been dormant in my mind due to the daytime’s busyness floated up like bubbles. Sleep wouldn’t come.

‘What should I do now?’

The scary thing about military life was that even if you were flustered at first, you’d eventually adapt. And I was also adapting to this strange research lab world.

Being shocked in the neck by electricity, people dying or turning into bloody messes, fighting strange monsters, and being harassed by strange middle-aged women had all become familiar.

I had become buried in daily life.

‘And sometimes I become strange, like a manic patient.’

Although my current body was clearly female, I had once lived as a male for decades. So even going to the bathroom felt utterly awkward.

But lately, I increasingly found myself doing strange things while muttering to myself, ‘Because I’m a beautiful girl.’ It felt as if my mood swings were suddenly fluctuating wildly.

Could it be changes due to hormones? Or perhaps there’s someone else in my head? The original body’s owner? Or just psychological confusion?

No, let’s not think too complicatedly. If I were to delve into it, I’d have to talk about mind-body dualism, the existence of souls, and the veracity of dimensional travel, so there’s no answer anyway.

It was more important to focus on what needed to be done next.

Let’s remember what I witnessed today. The electric collar, the muscular man, the ogre, the siren, and my grudges…

I pulled the blanket over my head and closed my eyes. The footsteps of the patrolling guard in the hallway faded away beyond the corridor.

The research lab’s day thus came to an end.

“Good, they must be gone now?”

The research lab’s day had come to an end, and now my night began.

From today, there was a lot to do.

“Violet’s escape plan, it starts now..!”