Chapter 218

Boom!
A military vehicle traverses a collapsed city. A ghost town without a single human being. The air was eerily silent, but there was an eerie undercurrent, like the breath of a beast.
“Wow, that’s a lot of pollution in a few months.”
Leila said, eyeing the instruments. “The reading is 152 p. Not quite in the red zone, but enough for life to mutate.
It’s not just the ruins that are particularly dangerous. The entire territory of Old Shalem is contaminated. Mutated flying creatures roam free, making it dangerous for helicopters to operate.
I had no choice but to stop by a nearby safe house to get my car.
“I don’t know if I would have left here eventually even without that incident.”
“It’s not a great place to live, and it’s all around.”
“Mr. Pablo, do you prefer the bastitera?”
“That’s vague. You’re just as inconvenient as you are.”
Even as we talked, Pablo was inspecting the pistol. He’d already checked it a few times to make sure it was in good working order, but the thought of fiddling with it made him nervous.
“My favorite is Kilikia. Alcohol and cigarettes are rotten.”
“For the sake of your health, I’d like you to restrain yourself….”
“It’s more unhealthy to force yourself to quit.”
“I agree with you. I’ve been noticing lately, but as I’ve gotten older, I’m finding that fatty foods are harder to stomach. I think you should enjoy them while you’re young because your body won’t support them when you’re old.”
“I said. Ghost, for some reason we’re on the same page.”
Leila sighed as the two men talked. Even the usually serious Ghost could hardly continue her nagging.
“Although I’m actually most concerned about you, Rosetta.”
– Go, suddenly I’m like, why?
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Compared to Miss Rosetta, we enjoy ourselves in moderation. Don’t you think so, Turkham?”
“What? Well, um. I was like, “Oh, he’s drinking vodka like it’s water, so he’s gonna pass out.”
– I’ll see you later when you get off. I know how to rummage.
The chatter over the radio was lively. Behind the playful voices was a shadow. It was a shadow that stood out more and more the brighter it pretended to be.
If Kim had been around, he would have called it a death flag.
But needless to say, the mood quickly changed.
“Erai, we have a group of monsters up ahead, coming this way!”
Monstrous creatures that made the ruins their nests pounced on the intruder. The prototype was an Ashwolf, but each one was grotesque in appearance. Some were as large as light vehicles, and there were even four-headed variants.
“Looks like you’re going to be hard to beat, so let’s get out of the car.”
At Leila’s command, traffic slowed to a crawl.
Grenades tumbled at the feet of the charging beasts. The explosion shook the ground as it engulfed them, followed by a barrage of bullets from above the building into the blaze.
The commotion didn’t last long.
When the smoke cleared, all that was left was a dead body.
Jiaying-!
A human form descended from the building with a snap of wires, and sighs of relief erupted from the comms. The eyes and hair peeking out from under the mask were all too familiar.
Leila let her guard down and got out of the car.
“Mr. Hyun. You got here first.”
“Someone did it, and it was you.”
“Didn’t you pick me up knowing?”
“This time it’s 100 percent coincidence.”
Kim waved lightly at the agents as they stuck their faces out the car window.
“There were a lot of monsters. I figured I had nothing better to do while I waited, so I was cleaning up the area with my body and grass. I got out pretty far before I ran into them.”
“……Three months go by fast, I can’t believe you’ve gotten to the point where you’re hunting monsters in your spare time.”
“We’ve known each other for what, six years? Six years when you’re just 30 is different than six years when you’re at least 50.”
“What, what?”
Leila’s expression turned peculiar. Her eyes were filled with bewilderment and a faint hint of uncharacteristic anger. Her mask cracked slightly at the verbal abuse she’d never heard in her life.
Apparently, it was a mistake, and Kim changed the chapter.
“Let’s just go talk to him.”
* * *
When I returned to the basement of Cellbrox Labs after a long absence, it was a mess. Most of the materials I hadn’t brought with me were gone, and miscellaneous items were strewn about the hallways.
Leila picked up the discarded lab coat. The trampled footprints were enough to tell. She looked around the hallway with a pitying feeling.
“It must have been searched by Shiran’s enforcers, who took everything of value back to Bastitera, and what they really wanted in the first place was destroyed long ago, so it only exists in the Warden’s head.”
She wasn’t robbed of her research, but she was robbed of her emotions. This is the place where Leila was born and has lived her entire life, and now that an outsider has trampled on her home, she’s understandably upset.
“Professor …… will never see his old ‘home’ again.”
“It would have been the same if it didn’t look like this. It’s not the same structure.”
The current lab is a long-overdue renovation to make it self-sufficient in the land of the fallen Shalem. It’s a far cry from what the old professor remembers.
Still, Leila wanted to showcase a healthier lap.
“What did your professor look like?”
“He’s confused. He’s not organized yet.”
“If you’re talking about decades of memories, that’s a lot of information.”
Leila was told by Kim that the professor had successfully regained his memory. The professor has successfully recovered his memories and has a plan to use an old device to open a giant rift in Shalem.
“You’re a great man. Labs and Ishrad, Shran and Legion. You’ve been studied by so many people, and yet not a single one of them has surpassed your knowledge.”
This is partly because he used the first parasite as a test subject, which was a recipe for disaster. But even with that in mind, there’s no denying that the professor’s abilities are extraordinary.
Leila trusts her professors. The professor from her past who brought her into the world, and the somewhat silly but warm professor who has been with her for the past six years.
But trust and blindness are not the same thing.
“It’s a backwards plan. We only have one chance. If we fail, the pollution will cover the entire continent in a matter of years. No excuses, no excuses, it’s the fault of Cellbrossix Labs.”
The brown eyes turn to Kim.
“Do you think Mr. Hyun will be successful?”
His usually steady eyes were shifting. It was a sign of anxiety. Leila was acutely aware of the heavy responsibility she bore in the Professor’s plan.
So we needed to be sure.
“Of course not. I don’t do things that will fail.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Thorough preparation.”
Kim immediately responded.
“I didn’t just float a boat and pray. I honed my skills and organized my forces. I made allies, and I got those who wouldn’t help me to help me.”
A human named “Kim Yi Hyun” was transformed and adapted to Polaris.
“It’s not any different than it was before, just bigger.”
You’ve got the quote, you can do it.
Leila stared at him for a moment as he spoke solemnly. Then her shoulders relaxed and she let out her usual laugh.
“I think about that sometimes.”
My gaze shifted to the ceiling.
“Maybe, just maybe, there’s a will up there somewhere.”
“What are you talking about, some kind of cult?”
“That’s just a hypothetical, so bear with me. Back to the story, that will brought us the one person we desperately needed, so Mr. Hyun is, um. I’d say you’re in for a real treat.”
Leila giggled and apologized after I left it at that.
“I’m sorry, I don’t think that’s what you’d like to hear, Mr. Pragmatic, so we’ll have to make our way out more slowly. Given the high level of pollution on the ground, we should probably change our rendezvous point.”
Kim glanced back at him as he walked toward the stairs.
‘It’s a bowel movement.
That’s what I’m saying, damn Polaris.
* * *
Troops have gathered in the territory of Old Shalem.
Their affiliations were varied. Celbrox Labs, Dustborn, Albatross, Knights of Bastiterra, mercenaries from Kilikia, Shiran, Harenhal, and the armies of the nations.
Troops were deployed to different locations based on their affiliation.
Forming an alliance will only muddle the chain of command. If the fissures opened up, parasites would flood everywhere. To control it, we need to spread the front lines wide.
And on May 1.
Briefings were held in outlying cities where Lab and Dustborn were stationed.
“The operation is simple.”
Inside an abandoned government building, Kim rhymes.
“First, we’ll use unmanned reconnaissance aircraft to determine the location of the crack, which will also give us an idea of the size of the parasite. This is where we need to share information quickly.”
They’re not human. You don’t need to go through cumbersome encryption steps. Communication should be instantaneous through the network you’ve established.
“The closer you get to the fissure, the steeper the contamination level will rise, so keep a safe distance. I can’t give you an exact number right now, but if it’s over 300P, consider it unreachable for infantry.”
“You’re saying we can’t rotate people the way we’ve been doing it.”
“Depending on your tolerance, it won’t last 10 minutes before it starts to mutate.”
The First Executioner of Shiran crossed his arms.
“I guess the only answer is bombing with drones or long-range artillery.”
“Yes. Basically, we take them out with Chapter, but the ones that spill over are countered with mines and infantry. It’s more of a line of defense than a siege.”
“I don’t know if it’s going to be a long game.”
“No, that’s not it.”
Kim cut to the chase.
“All of the cracks we’ve seen so far have had a tendency to expand over time. Likewise, the mindset is that if you don’t respond early on, you’ve failed.”
“…….”
“We don’t intend to drag it out for long, and we’ll try to break through once we think the parasite herd has been cleared out of Cellbrossix Labs and Dustborne.”
“I thought you said it was inaccessible?”
“Of course, you’d want to make sure your commandos are only spellcasters with strong immunities.”
There was a sigh in the room.
To the casual observer, they sounded like nothing more than a suicide squad. Spellcasters are only human. After all, it was an operation predicated on sacrifice.
But no one had a different opinion.
“If we had more time on the continent, we could study the cracks and come up with a breakthrough, but I think we all know it’s not that easy.”
Kim, who will be leading the charge, said with a straight face.
“So we need you to pave the way.”
* * *
Laura stared at the machine in front of her for a long moment. A semicircular structure, countless bundles of wires running through holes drilled into its surface. It looked like a human brain plugged into a cable.
Investigations have been ongoing since the day of discovery, with limited success.
The fact that we somehow managed to get it ready for operation was entirely due to his initiative. Without him, we wouldn’t have even known what the device was for.
The imperial court is searching for the researchers the emperor trained, but the search is hampered by the fact that some have been mysteriously eliminated. It’s proof that the Emperor’s handmaidens are still out there somewhere.
“I’m still not sure, is this the right choice?”
“At least in my view, it is, and there is no better solution.”
“Conversely, there are more dangerous ways to do it.”
At Laura’s point, the professor shook his head nonchalantly.
“This is a major surgical operation, and like anything human, it comes with risks. You have to get over the hump in front of you to avoid the certain tragedy that’s coming.”
Otherwise, it will just die a slow death.
“……It’s scary, isn’t it? You have a switch in your hand. You can save a continent, or you can destroy it in an instant. Hundreds of millions of people could die.”
It’s not the same as the catastrophe of 2000, which caused continental upheaval. There was no “intention” then. The death of the test subject was sudden, and the catastrophe began without warning.
On the other hand, right now they’re trying to flip the switch themselves.
“Of course I’m scared.”
The professor has an objective view of the dangers of large cracks. He also expects to fail. Maybe then the guilt will be unbearable.
However.
“It’s not an emotional decision, especially when the stakes are so high.”
If it’s necessary, and if you think it has a chance of succeeding, the next step is to act. Reflecting on my mindset, the professor suddenly realized the irony.
“It’s kind of like strings.
I’ve admired his tenacity for the past six years.
It’s only now that I’m seeing the similarities.
There was a silence between them, with the buzz of electronics and researchers talking. It was as if they were separated in space, as they stared at the machine without speaking.
-Digitize!
At noon, the device was energized.
“It’s about time.”
* * *
May 15, 2048, 1:28 PM.
Koooow!
The ground shook throughout Shalem. Kim immediately ran out of the command center. The agents waiting outside all looked up at the sky, and Kim immediately followed their gaze.
In the corner of my vision, a tiny dot rapidly grew larger. In the distance, the sky was turning an ashen color. A storm of microscopic particles churned, tearing at the clouds.
Everyone knew it was a sign of a crack.
“Here we go.”
The curtain has risen on the final stage.