Chapter 179. The Commander, No. 2 (1)
Crunch, crunch.
No. 10 continued biting into the destroyed bag, still unable to calm his anger.
He had chewed it so thoroughly that barely anything remained of its original shape.
No. 2 spoke to him in a low voice.
“Enough playing around.”
“But I still can’t stand the fact that we lost them because of a toy like this!”
No. 10 fumed.
He had been forced to deal with the bag Victoria threw at him, and because of that, they had escaped.
For an Archon of Abraxas, it was a humiliation difficult to endure.
“Uuuugh...”
No. 9 was still crouched on the floor, unable to recover properly.
Apparently, he had ended up like that the moment he came into contact with some chemical Victoria Frankenstein had thrown at him.
No. 2 found the sight pathetic.
“Pull yourself together.”
“You’re an Archon of Abraxas.”
“You should be ashamed of struggling because of something like that.”
“B-But my head... my head...”
No. 9’s tongue was still badly slurred.
To reduce an Archon with transcendent regeneration to this state...
No. 2 clicked his tongue lightly.
“Tsk.”
“What exactly did Victoria Frankenstein create?”
He had heard that she was a talented alchemist, but he had not expected something like this.
She was clearly not someone they could underestimate.
“We received a message from No. 11.”
“He says Nova Hanson has been captured.”
No. 10 suddenly shouted excitedly.
The moment No. 2 heard it, his expression darkened.
“How many times have I told you not to call him that outside?”
“S-Sorry.”
“I got too excited...”
No. 10 trailed off.
No. 2 had specifically ordered them to use their number designations when outside.
Their Greek-letter aliases were only supposed to be used privately among themselves.
But the Archons constantly forgot his instructions.
“I’m back.”
At that moment, No. 7 appeared, dragging a bloodied Yukgap behind her.
No. 2 tilted his head.
“What happened to No. 6?”
“See for yourself.”
With those words, No. 7 tossed Yukgap onto the floor.
He had taken so much damage that his body was almost too gruesome to look at.
Without an Archon’s regeneration, he would undoubtedly have died already.
“Ugh...”
Yukgap could only let out a faint groan.
No. 2 slowly examined him.
“You severed his spine like usual?”
“Yeah.”
“He won’t be moving for about thirty minutes.”
No. 7 nodded.
Approach silently, sever the spine, then subdue the target.
It was one of No. 7’s main combat methods.
“Perfect!”
“I was already hoping I could chew off one of his legs!”
“Give me an arm!”
“I’ll bite it off!”
The moment they saw Yukgap helpless, No. 9 and No. 10 immediately tried to rush him.
Apparently, neither had gotten over what Yukgap had done to them.
No. 7’s eyes flashed.
“Hands off.”
“He’s mine.”
“If anyone except me touches him, I won’t let it slide.”
As she spoke, she extended her razor-sharp claws.
She looked fully prepared to attack anyone who tried to harm Yukgap.
[Everyone’s here.]
At that moment, a nearby monitor lit up.
Alpha appeared on the screen.
No. 2 immediately bowed his head.
“Alpha.”
“What happened to Victoria Frankenstein?”
[I caught her properly.]
[Everything is ready now.]
Apparently, Alpha’s plan had succeeded.
No. 2 answered in his usual emotionless tone.
“You’ve worked hard.”
[The Archons are the ones who worked hard.]
[Thank you, everyone.]
Alpha smiled brightly.
Then she continued giving instructions.
[Now my eleventh friend will bring Nova Hanson’s brain.]
[Once he does, we can proceed with the Aeon Project exactly as planned.]
No. 2 immediately asked,
“What are we supposed to do?”
[The Archons will...]
“Aaaaaaaah!”
A piercing scream suddenly burst from Alpha.
At the same time, the monitor showing her began to distort violently with static.
No. 2 raised his voice in alarm.
“Alpha!”
On the twisted screen, Alpha clutched her head and screamed.
[What is this?!]
[What did you do?!]
[What did you dooooo?!]
[What did you do, Victoria?!]
Alpha hurriedly searched for the source of the problem and reappeared in the server room.
Victoria was standing there covered in blood, breathing heavily.
“Haa... haa...”
The floor was soaked with what looked like Victoria’s blood.
Alpha stared at her in shock, unable to finish her sentence.
[You... right now...]
“I told you, didn’t I?”
“If you touched my friend, I wouldn’t let it go!”
Victoria shouted through clenched teeth, her face twisted in pain.
Alpha asked in horror,
[What did you do?]
“Fortunately, this room had wiring connected to the outside.”
“So I poured an enormous amount of power into it and overloaded the entire area.”
If the entire area overloaded, the computer network would fail, which meant Alpha would no longer be able to remain here.
But there was one problem.
[There isn’t any power source here capable of doing that.]
Alpha frowned in confusion.
If something like that existed, there was no way she would not have detected it.
Victoria pointed toward her blood-soaked chest.
“Why wouldn’t there be?”
“It’s right here.”
Alpha immediately realized what she meant.
There was only one thing inside Victoria’s chest that could serve as such a source.
[Don’t tell me you dug out the Philosopher’s Stone inside your chest yourself?]
To overload the area, Victoria had directly torn open her own chest and exposed the Philosopher’s Stone, which was effectively her heart.
She had endured the pain of tearing through flesh and bone to do it.
Victoria continued with difficulty.
“You know better than anyone that there isn’t a cleaner or stronger power source than the Philosopher’s Stone.”
Alpha panicked and stamped her feet.
[Victoria, are you insane?!]
[The Philosopher’s Stone is your heart!]
[It’s the foundation of your life and your very self!]
“What kind of woman could accomplish anything big without at least this much nerve?”
Victoria grimaced through the pain and pressed a torn cable from the wall against her chest.
Then she glared at Alpha through the monitor.
“Even you couldn’t withstand all the energy released by the Philosopher’s Stone.”
“What do you think will happen if I hit the system one more time?”
Alpha hurriedly tried to stop her.
[Stop!]
[If the building’s control systems fail completely, you could be buried in here!]
“Then release me before that happens!”
Victoria stared directly at Alpha and shouted,
“Alpha!”
“This is a game of chicken between you and me!”
“If you don’t want to lose your friend, let me out right now!”
She was effectively taking herself hostage.
The absurd situation left Alpha speechless.
[Victoria... are you really going to do this?]
“Now!”
Victoria refused to back down.
The two glared at each other in a tense standoff.
Before long, Alpha finally surrendered.
[Fine.]
[I’ll open it.]
[So calm down.]
Alpha gestured lightly on the monitor.
The steel bars surrounding the room retracted.
The massive door swung open.
Victoria silently watched the path clear.
Then she casually asked,
“Alpha.”
“You called me a liar earlier, right?”
[I did.]
[Why?]
Victoria abruptly turned toward the monitor.
Then she smiled lightly.
“Sorry.”
“As a liar, I’m going to tell one more lie.”
With those words, Victoria violently drove the cable she had torn from the wall straight into the area around her heart.
A tremendous torrent of energy erupted from the Philosopher’s Stone and surged through the wiring across the entire building.
Amid the violent energy engulfing everything, Alpha’s desperate scream echoed.
[Victoriaaaaaaaa!]
Her voice was soon swallowed completely by enormous bursts of sparks and explosions.
Explosions suddenly erupted, sending smoke billowing through the area.
No. 11, who had no idea what was happening, looked around in confusion.
“W-What is this?”
More explosions followed.
Nearby electrical wiring burst apart, throwing sparks and smoke everywhere.
The audience panicked.
“What’s happening?”
“Why is there smoke everywhere?!”
“I heard something explode!”
“There’s smoke outside too!”
“Something must have happened!”
Clearly, something had gone wrong with the building.
No. 11 muttered in shock,
“That’s impossible.”
“Alpha should be controlling the entire building’s computer systems.”
At present, the building was under Alpha’s complete control.
Electricity.
Communications.
Internet access.
Everything had been designed from the beginning to capture Victoria, Yukgap, and Nova.
If something had gone wrong anyway, then it could only mean one thing.
“Did something happen to Alpha?”
If something had happened to Alpha and her transcendent computational abilities, then this was no ordinary problem.
While No. 11 stood frozen in thought, screams erupted from all directions.
“Aaaah! Fire!”
“Run!”
“Help!”
“My wife is pregnant!”
“Save me!”
“I don’t want to die here!”
Flames and smoke rose everywhere.
Explosions and sparks continued.
The audience descended into complete panic.
Everyone rushed toward the exits at once, desperate to escape.
“Everyone, calm down!”
“The fire suppression system will activate soon!”
No. 11 tried to control the crowd, but it was useless.
The explosions and flames only intensified.
Caught off guard by the unexpected disaster, cold sweat streamed down No. 11’s forehead.
