episode_0344

It was a boring afternoon at the Joint Research Lab, nearing the end of lunch break.

A researcher, who had been sipping coffee heavily laced with stimulants to ward off sleep, fixed their gaze on a pure white object that suddenly appeared on the table.

“Team Leader-nim, it escaped again.”

“Squeak?”

Ennis, carrying a coffee pot, met the gaze of a mouse that was waving its front paws as if greeting her.

As the mouse squeaked impatiently and extended its front paws, she showed a momentary look of contemplation.

“Oh, it really did. The Professor was looking for it earlier… Little mouse, want to eat this until the Professor arrives?”

“Squeak! Squeak!”

The mouse, receiving the peanut with both front paws, couldn’t hide its joy and bounced around.

Its sight, gnawing on its food on the desk, was utterly adorable. The blue ribbon Bernike had tied to distinguish it from the laboratory mice further emphasized its cuteness.

“Is it tasty?”

“Squeak!”

The researchers’ gazes were drawn to one spot as if by a magnet. Those who had been analyzing the magic circuit composition and numerical values of the Apostle-made artifact just moments before involuntarily shifted their interest.

In this place, where strict surveillance and thorough management were carried out in the deep parts of the Joint Research Lab, the word “holiday” was as unrealistic as a unicorn land beyond the rainbow.

In their daily lives, like a hamster on a wheel with no holidays, the researchers, trying to find any loophole, subtly began to mess around.

It wasn’t difficult for the V-rat’s intelligence to notice that fact.

The mottled mouse, immediately aiming for attention and snacks, performed an adorable little dance as if showing off, then tilted its head charmingly. Cheers erupted among the female researchers.

“Kyaa! Look here, look!”

“Look, it’s greeting us! Ah! So cute!”

Raspberry basked in the pouring attention, growing smug. It rubbed its head as if openly asking for pets, enjoying human touch and gnawing on its snack for a moment.

The unexpectedly delightful spectacle was abruptly interrupted with the appearance of an uninvited guest.

“Stop. That’s enough.”

Along with a cold voice, a sleek mechanical tentacle, sliding silently, lifted the mouse.

“Squeak! Squeak!”

[Ah! My freedom! No!]

Raspberry, who had escaped its cage in pursuit of fun, was eventually caught again.

While the mouse, caught in Broca’s metallic maw, struggled piteously, Bernike scanned Ennis and the researchers with a cold gaze.

“Dr. Lowell, you saw the email I sent a moment ago, didn’t you? Am I to believe you were doing this because all the data analysis I entrusted to you is finished? Hmm?”

“…Ah! Yes! Just a moment!”

Bernike, issuing instructions like a torrent, took the struggling Raspberry and returned to her private office.

Soon, the mouse, plopped onto the desk, braced itself for the impending nagging. The escape battles between the mouse and the professor were now commonplace.

It was annoying that after escaping a few times out of boredom and showing off some tricks, she kept interfering, telling it to stay still.

“Honestly, who do you take after… The crow is fine, so why do you keep doing this?”

However, today, the white-haired woman merely grumbled to herself and didn’t seem to have any intention of scolding or lecturing it.

Her attention seemed to be elsewhere. Raspberry thought with its small head.

‘She looks busy! She won’t say anything more!’

The mouse’s prediction was correct. Bernike was currently examining something else. Just then, as always, painful psionic waves resonated within the research lab.

[Strange noise… I hear a noise! What is this…]

As if she had been waiting, Bernike turned her head towards the cage.

“Alright, Mr. Squeaker. You’re probably getting used to this lab by now, so you must know what that sound is. We usually inject thousands of liters of tranquilizers into that monster every day, you know? But ever since you came, it seems to be sleeping less, and it keeps talking about that these days.”

[Strange noise… Is it a song?…]

Bernike’s yellow eyes narrowed sharply like a snake before its prey.

Raspberry’s ears and tail drooped for a moment, but it pretended not to notice and looked away.

“Squeak?”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know. Surely your network has been temporarily connected to that thing’s mind sometimes. And a song, you say? Come to think of it, you’ve been squeaking often lately, like some kind of singer… Is that the song?”

The mouse, assessing the situation, slowly nodded its head.

Bernike let out a hollow laugh, while also summarizing the recent trends of these V-animals, which were like pseudo-monsters.

‘Their intelligence is growing, and they’re already engaging in unproductive cultural activities with their leftover energy. Encouraging.’

Suddenly, Bernike grew curious about what these insignificant beasts were singing. After checking if anyone was watching, she handed a ballpoint pen and paper into the cage.

Raspberry held the pen with its two front paws and scribbled roughly.

-This is a song praising the Boss! Cocoa composed it!

“An original composition, by that monkey, you say. What’s it about?”

The mouse wrote down the song lyrics with confident movements. Bernike, reading the crooked handwriting on the paper, was momentarily stunned.

-O Violet, descend upon this land! Fill the entire world with your avatar of justice!

“…?!”

Bernike remained silent for a while, facing the mouse that sent a gaze full of anticipation, as if asking “How was it?”. There was only one evaluation she could give for this preposterous song.

“…Tell your comrades. That thing seems to be gradually recognizing your network, so sing it without including your intelligence-deficient boss’s name. Understand?”

“Squeak!”

The mouse, nodding its head, took this as an implicit approval of the song.

Suddenly, Raspberry closed its eyes, then raised its front paws in a surprise move and started an impromptu performance, squeaking once more.

The joint praise session with its animal comrades, far away, had begun.

Clicking her tongue, Bernike scribbled her observation notes on the tablet in Luminexa-style cipher cursive.

[Intellectual capabilities continue to show a significant growth curve-]

[-Communication among the subordinate intelligences of the hive mind network is also confirmed to have interference and influence on the Eidos entity…]

The small Broca clicked its maw and activated its scanner. As it scanned every corner of the mouse’s body, data streamed in. Bernike’s eyes, analyzing the information transmitted in real-time from behind her, slowly narrowed.

[Intra-body ether activation level continuously rising-]

Once again, the hymn soared through the laboratory air.

-Break the chains of hypocrisy and lies of the Clans!

[A song… No way! No… Is it coming…]

The hymn performance, accompanied by one unwilling audience member, continued for a while.

-May they be trapped in the net they themselves cast!

**

We brainstormed several methods to attack the Foundation.

[First, raid the central archives!]

However, this plan had a fatal flaw.

[I don’t know! Nobody knows the data center locations. Plus, there are several of them!]

No one knows the location of the archives. Not even the inspector.

There’s even a rumor that this place doesn’t exist in a physical space in reality.

In the end, the best we can do is infiltrate where the access terminals are and extract the data. Though it will take quite a while.

[Is it impossible to kidnap a high-ranking executive and use their identity?]

[Yes.]

Even the Secretary-General, let alone the board of directors, cannot access data at will without strict procedures.

Easy access, like going in and out of folders on a home computer, was impossible.

To fight Luminexa, we had to mobilize all our forces.

As the inspector said, they were the weakest in ‘military power’, but the standard for ‘military power’ here should not be based on an ordinary clan.

[Each main base or research lab is like an iron fortress!]

[Fortress?]

No. 7200, a former Luminexa special forces member, explained in detail.

[Advanced scientific weapons are packed into every passageway! Landmines and turrets are standard, and armed proxy groups and Stregonixes are fundamentally deployed at every base. And there’s even more…]

I rummaged through my memory and unfolded a three-dimensional topographic map on the Violet network. Areas I hadn’t been to or lacked information about were left blank.

Nevertheless, the structure unfolded before my eyes was excessively complex and difficult.

[It’s a maze.]

[Correct! The Foundation didn’t want internal test subjects or external enemies to come and go as they pleased! So, they designed the internal structure to be as complex as possible, even at the cost of efficiency!]

We haven’t even fully grasped the exact locations of each core base and facility.

Furthermore, if the interior is in such a state, it will take much longer to attack than expected. The problem is becoming increasingly complicated.

[Then…]

Magnavis had already fallen for our psychological warfare because most of their forces were scattered and their leadership had been decapitated, but these guys are different.

They saw how another clan was destroyed a year ago, so the same trick won’t work.

So the biggest problem is the further reinforced security system.

[Inside the walls, you mean? Recently, they’ve started scanning every single wall and pillar! It looks like it’ll be difficult to infiltrate wall duplicates beforehand…]

A bitter taste filled my mouth. To think we can’t use our Violet’s trump card.

No clear solution is visible. All we can do is ascertain the locations of the base facilities and launch simultaneous raids.

Nevertheless, we, the Violet, must do our best.

Thoroughly training the V-animal commando squad is part of that.

[Boss! We are ready!]

Inside the transport plane, filled with the humming sound of engines, monkeys wearing parachute bags looked at me with sparkling eyes, crying out in excitement.

The V-monkeys, recently increased to five, nervously handled grenade launchers the size of pistols. They were neatly dressed in combat uniforms, wrapped in ammunition belts full of grenades and explosives.

And in a corner of their bags, a potato chip can was nestled.

Through Cocoa’s animal network, they had already perfectly mastered the usage of the equipment.

“Alright! From now on, the V-monkey airborne training begins!”

“Ooo-ooo-ooo!”

The genius monkeys’ airborne drop training began.

[Finally! We begin our journey towards paradise!]

[Long live paradise! Long live democracy!]

When the door opened, a cold wind swirled. Below, an endlessly stretching azure sea, and in its center, our target, the uninhabited island, looked like a tiny dot.

The monkeys squinted, then quickly put on their goggles, and one by one, with determined steps, leaped into the air.

[Here we come!]

The brave monkeys disappeared among the clouds. A moment later, white parachutes bloomed like flowers in the sky.

The monkeys, landing cleanly on the ground, quickly packed their parachutes as per the training plan and hid behind nearby cover.

The target was a rusty old car with a flag stuck in it far away. Target boards were strategically placed throughout the training ground.

The monkeys’ precise movements were displayed in real-time on Violet’s tactical map.

[Landing complete! Move! Moving out!]

Soon after, the monkeys carefully opened the bags on their backs with deliberate movements, then cautiously opened the lid of the potato chip can.

Waiting inside, V-rats darted out like arrows and streaked across the sandy beach.

Wrapped neatly around the rats’ small bodies were various sizes of threads and square pieces.

[Squeak! Approaching target!]

[Keep going! Move slowly! Don’t be too conspicuous!]

While the rats scurried guided by the crow, the monkeys reached the firing point and shot their grenade launchers.

While the target board shattered and smoke billowed up, a rat bravely leaped into the car.

I felt, without filter, them crawling into the hood and reaching the engine’s interior.

[Installing!]

The rats helped each other unwrap the cords coiled around their bodies and then wrapped or attached them inside the car.

The cords were detonating cords. The prepared rats scratched at the end of the detonating cords as if biting them with their teeth.

As smoke rose, the rats scattered in all directions.

[Run! Escape!]

[It’s on fire! It’s exploding!]

-Boom!

Soon, smoke billowed from inside the car. The training concluded with the monkeys and crows waiting nearby snatching up the fleeing rats and escaping.

[Good! It was clean for a first try!]

[We’ll need to make some adjustments to the equipment…]

We deliberated on how to better operate the V-animal commando squad.