Chapter 148. The Weight of a Friend (3)
The room was dark.
There was not even a trace of warmth.
Apparently, the basic heating had not even been turned on.
“I’m coming in, okay?”
No. 7 deliberately took her time so Yukgap would know she was there.
But no answer came.
Only silence filled the room.
At this point, she was starting to get angry.
“If someone comes into your room, shouldn’t you at least acknowledge them?”
She turned on the light.
Yukgap was sitting curled up in the corner, staring blankly into space.
“...”
He sat there lifelessly, like someone whose soul had been taken away.
He was not crying.
He was not smiling.
He was clearly breathing, yet none of the vitality expected from a living being could be felt from him.
“Did something happen?”
“...”
Even at No. 7’s worried question, Yukgap gave no answer.
All emotion seemed to have evaporated from him, leaving behind nothing but endless emptiness.
No. 7 instinctively realized something serious must have happened.
Her voice softened.
“Hey, I don’t know what Alpha ordered you to do, but I heard you completed it successfully.”
“So that’s good, right?”
“...”
“I know.”
“I heard even your apparent desertion was something Alpha planned.”
“Sure, the other Archons might complain about it, but if Alpha steps in, nothing serious will happen.”
“...”
Still nothing.
It felt like she was talking to a wall.
Did he suffer some kind of mental shock?
No. 7 was genuinely beginning to worry.
She deliberately brightened her voice.
“Since you’re finally back, want to go out somewhere?”
“Let’s get the Tracking Team together again.”
“I’ll call No. 8 too.”
“...”
“You completed a difficult mission, so you should get a decent reward.”
“Maybe they’ll even give you a long vacation.”
“If they do, want to go back to Argentina like last time?”
“...”
Still no answer.
No matter how much she talked, Yukgap did not even seem to register her presence.
Unable to bear the frustration any longer, No. 7 suddenly shouted,
“Say something!”
Her hysterical voice echoed throughout the room.
Still, no answer came.
“...”
Seeing Yukgap remain silent, No. 7 finally snapped.
“Where did all that spirit go?”
“When I came to drag you back, you fought like hell saying you’d never return!”
“So why did you suddenly come back looking like a walking corpse?!”
No. 7 growled as though she might devour him on the spot.
At last, Yukgap slowly lifted his head.
His lips moved weakly.
“...You.”
“Me?”
“...Do you know how the Archons were made?”
After such a long silence, the question seemed oddly out of nowhere.
But Yukgap’s expression was desperate.
He looked like someone who had lost something essential and fallen straight into despair.
No. 7 stared at him for a long moment.
Then she answered indifferently,
“Who cares?”
She continued in a bored tone.
“Abraxas made us somehow.”
“That’s enough.”
“I’m still me.”
“It doesn’t matter who made me or how.”
“I just keep living as a weapon like I always have.”
Yukgap weakly nodded.
“I see.”
There was a terrible loneliness in his face.
No. 7 looked at him and casually asked,
“Is that really so important?”
She had never once wondered how the Archons had been made.
By the time she became aware of herself, she had already been trained as a weapon.
And that was how she had lived ever since.
She had given everything she had in every moment and carried out her role as an Archon without regret.
So why was this so important to him?
Yukgap slowly opened his mouth.
“It was important to me.”
“But...”
“But?”
Yukgap let out a deep sigh.
“It isn’t important anymore.”
No. 7 stared at him in disbelief.
“What does that even mean?”
“...”
Yukgap fell silent again.
Back to the beginning.
Was he planning to sit there in silence forever?
No. 7 was getting sick of it.
“Fine.”
“If you don’t want to tell me, then don’t.”
“Rot in this room for the rest of your life for all I care.”
She stomped toward the door.
Yukgap did not stop her.
No. 7 glanced back at him sitting in the corner and muttered,
“Damn it.”
“I came here because I was worried about you.”
No matter how badly shaken he was, was it really acceptable to ignore a teammate who had fought beside him for so long?
More than anything else, she could not stand the fact that she had dressed up this much and he had not even looked at her.
His indifference simply hurt.
“I heard No. 6 came back.”
At that moment, someone blocked her path.
No. 3.
Gamma.
For some reason, a cold metal prosthetic was attached to his left shoulder.
No. 3’s eyes burned with rage as he growled,
“Good.”
“I had something I wanted to discuss with him anyway.”
“Can you really readjust my brain through the Philosopher’s Stone?”
Victoria sounded skeptical.
“It’s part of my body, but even I can’t control it completely!”
Her body ran on the Philosopher’s Stone.
Even so, she could not fully control it herself.
And Alpha was talking about readjusting her brain through it.
Even Victoria found the idea almost unimaginable.
[Don’t worry.]
[I already finished analyzing everything.]
Alpha sounded completely relaxed.
[I don’t know exactly what abnormality in the Philosopher’s Stone prevents your brain from experiencing the sensation of ‘delicious.’]
[But readjusting it is not difficult.]
[Think of it like a reboot.]
[I’ll check for the error and repair that section.]
Alpha guided Victoria toward a machine inside the facility.
It was the same device that had been used to revive her with the Philosopher’s Stone.
Mechanical arms rose from all around it, busily adjusting the equipment.
[Come in.]
[I’m going to make contact with your Philosopher’s Stone from here.]
Victoria hesitated for a moment.
Then nodded.
“All right.”
“I trust you.”
This had been her lifelong wish.
Her lifelong unanswered question.
If Alpha truly possessed technology beyond anything humanity could imagine, perhaps she could manipulate Victoria’s brain through the Philosopher’s Stone.
And if that happened...
Victoria might finally understand what delicious meant.
She might finally become complete.
That faint hope was what kept her going now.
[Trust me, Victoria.]
[You’re my precious friend.]
[I’ll grant your wish.]
Alpha grinned from inside the monitor.
The machine began humming.
Sparks erupted from all around the device and gathered toward Victoria’s chest.
“Ugh!”
A sharp electric pain swept through her body.
Victoria swallowed a groan.
Alpha controlled the surrounding machinery.
[Just endure it a little longer.]
[I’m making the adjustments now.]
The sparks emitted by the machine concentrated on the Philosopher’s Stone inside Victoria’s chest.
Alpha slowly attempted to establish contact with it.
[Beginning reboot.]
[Adjustment possible.]
[Controlling core computation functions...!]
Complex formulas filled the space around Alpha’s monitor.
At the same time, the sparks focused on the Philosopher’s Stone grew thicker.
“Ghhh...!”
Victoria squeezed her eyes shut against the pain hammering through her chest.
Beneath her skin, the Philosopher’s Stone pulsed with a red glow.
Alpha had apparently succeeded in making contact.
[1010111010000110101010101110111...!]
Human language disappeared from Alpha’s mouth.
Only machine language poured out.
The room filled with the crackling roar of sparks and the endless beeping of mechanical code.
Then, at that exact moment, explosive energy erupted from the Philosopher’s Stone.
“Aaaaaaaah!”
Victoria screamed as the tremendous force surged from inside her chest.
Even Alpha, who had been in the middle of recalibrating the stone, raised her voice in shock.
[What?!]
[This wasn’t in the prophecy!]
Red energy burst from the Philosopher’s Stone and swept across the area.
At its center, Victoria and Alpha both screamed.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
[Aaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!]
Their cries tangled together as an eerie crimson light flashed violently in every direction.
Why did No. 3 have to show up now?
No. 7 did not understand, but one glance at his face made it obvious that he was holding a grudge.
If she simply let him go, a fight was guaranteed.
“Yes, he’s back.”
“But No. 6 isn’t doing well right now.”
“Why don’t you come back later?”
No. 7 deliberately stepped in front of him.
But No. 3 seemed to have no patience left for conversation.
“He did this to me, and now he gets to rest because he isn’t feeling well?”
“How shameless.”
He angrily shook the metal prosthetic attached to his left side.
No. 7 looked at it in confusion.
“What happened to your arm?”
“Why didn’t you regenerate it?”
Normally, an Archon could regrow a severed limb within minutes.
There should have been no reason for him to wear a prosthetic.
“It won’t regenerate!”
No. 3 roared.
“That blonde alchemist did something to my body!”
“No matter what I do, my left arm won’t grow back!”
“That’s why I’m stuck carrying around this useless, heavy prosthetic!”
“So what does that have to do with this?”
“If No. 6 hadn’t interfered back then, I wouldn’t have ended up like this!”
Apparently, Yukgap had played a part in what happened to him.
Even so, No. 7 could not allow a fight right now.
Yukgap was in no condition to deal with anyone.
“You came here to take your anger out on him?”
No. 7 asked, releasing a faint killing intent.
No. 3 answered without even needing to think.
He tightened his grip around his overtechnology longsword.
“He helped make me lose this arm.”
“So of course I did.”
“I’m going to cut off every one of his limbs until they stop regenerating too!”
