Chapter 180. The Commander, No. 2 (2)
“Ugh...!”
While No. 11 was distracted by the chaos, Nova struggled to push herself back to her feet.
She staggered toward the exit as quickly as she could.
“Where do you think you’re going?!”
No. 11 immediately prepared to release his bacteria and stop her.
The moment he did, Nova slipped into the crowd of fleeing spectators.
Her small frame made it easy to disappear among them.
“Haa... haa... I-If you release bacteria here... the parents of your precious test subjects will die too.”
“There’ll probably be even more chaos.”
“Can you deal with that?”
Nova forced the words out between ragged breaths.
She was not wrong.
If No. 11 released bacteria here to target Nova, the spectators nearby would be caught within the affected range as well.
Innocent people would die, and that could cause problems for the Aeon Project.
And with his bad leg, No. 11 could not physically chase Nova down either.
Having thought that far, No. 11 glared at her.
“You intend to use innocent spectators as shields?”
“I can do worse than that.”
Nova clenched her teeth.
Only a fierce determination to live burned in her eyes.
“I don’t want to die at the hands of Abraxas.”
“I’m going to survive somehow and hit you back.”
“That’s the only reason I have left to live.”
With those words, Nova quickly vanished into the crowd.
No. 11 could only helplessly watch her silver hair disappear into the distance.
[It’s me. Have you secured Nova Hanson?]
At that moment, No. 11’s communicator suddenly rang.
It was No. 2.
No. 11 answered weakly,
“I lost her.”
“There were too many people, so I couldn’t release any bacteria.”
“If unnecessary casualties occurred, it might have caused problems for the project.”
[Alpha is not responding.]
No. 2 delivered only that single sentence.
But it carried a great deal of meaning.
“It seems the entire building has suffered some kind of failure and communications have been cut.”
No. 11 quickly assessed the situation.
No. 2 asked,
[Then may I assume Alpha is currently unable to issue direct orders?]
No. 11 thought for a moment before answering,
“Yes.”
No. 2’s firm voice came through the communicator.
[Good.]
[Then I will take command of the situation from here.]
No. 2 was the Commander.
Whenever Alpha could not, or chose not to, issue direct orders, command authority passed to him.
No. 11 knew that better than anyone.
He quickly continued,
“Securing Nova Hanson’s brain must be the highest priority.”
“Without her brain, the Aeon Project cannot proceed.”
“You must not kill her or damage her brain under any circumstances.”
[Don’t worry.]
Then No. 2 added something rather incomprehensible.
[Even if I am like konjac, command is my specialty.]
That was the end of the call.
No. 11 stared at the communicator and tilted his head.
“Konjac?”
“What is he talking about?”
“No. 11 lost Nova Hanson.”
No. 2 spoke flatly after receiving the report.
No. 7 sounded surprised.
“Hmm. That’s unexpected.”
“For someone who specializes in scheming, he actually lost his target.”
No. 2 looked around at the Archons gathered nearby.
“Alpha is currently unable to issue direct orders.”
“I will take command of the situation from this point.”
The moment he said it, the Archons immediately fell into formation as they had been trained to do.
When No. 1, Alpha, was unavailable, following No. 2’s commands was already established procedure.
No. 2 calmly explained the key point of their current situation.
“Nova Hanson is somewhere inside this building.”
“She has probably mixed herself into the crowd.”
“Do not kill her or damage her brain under any circumstances.”
“If her brain is destroyed, the Aeon Project cannot proceed.”
He turned to No. 7.
“No. 7, guard the entrance.”
“Use your cloaking suit and remain hidden.”
“If Nova Hanson approaches, secure her.”
No. 7 answered casually,
“Leave it to me.”
Then No. 2 turned toward No. 9.
“No. 9, your sense of smell is sharp.”
“You’ll track Nova Hanson with me.”
“Do not use more violence than necessary.”
No. 9 immediately nodded his large head.
“Okay!”
Then No. 2 gave his final order to No. 10.
“No. 10, blend into the escaping crowd.”
“If you find Nova Hanson, do not capture her immediately.”
“Report to me first.”
“Understood.”
No. 10 bowed politely.
The orders were complete.
No. 2 slowly raised his gray eyes.
An unmistakable beastlike presence flickered across his expression.
“Then the hunt begins.”
“Haa... haa...”
Victoria breathed heavily as she raised the exposed electrical wire.
Sparks crackled from its end.
She squeezed her eyes shut and pressed it against the wound on her chest.
A burning pain immediately tore through her flesh.
“Ugh!”
Victoria clenched her teeth and endured it.
She was cauterizing the wound in her chest with electricity to stop the bleeding.
Thankfully, the flesh touched by the sparks began sealing rapidly.
It was the power of the Philosopher’s Stone, which maintained her body in an ideal state regardless of circumstances.
“Mother... I’m sorry for using the Philosopher’s Stone like this.”
Victoria muttered while looking down at the slowly healing wound.
She had caused this entire disaster using the Philosopher’s Stone, the heart she was supposed to treasure above all else.
Her mother would surely have been furious.
No.
Maybe she would not have cared because Victoria was a failure.
Honestly, Victoria would almost prefer that.
“At least I got out.”
Victoria looked down the open corridor.
Thanks to Alpha opening the door earlier, she had successfully escaped the trap.
Alpha was probably furious now, though.
“Victoria!”
A familiar voice suddenly came from farther down the hallway.
It was Nova.
Victoria immediately brightened.
“Nova!”
Nova saw the blood covering Victoria’s chest and stared in horror.
“What happened to you?!”
“Are you okay?”
“Hahaha. Something happened.”
“What about you?”
Victoria hurriedly brushed it aside.
Nova gave an awkward smile.
“That annoying bald fatty used his bacteria on me, but I can handle it.”
She said that, but her pale face made it obvious she had taken a serious hit.
Considering she had been exposed to No. 11’s lethal bacteria, that was hardly surprising.
After checking Nova’s condition, Victoria quickly asked,
“What about Yukgap?”
“I don’t know.”
“He ran into a female Archon with green eyes.”
“I haven’t seen him since, so I think he lost.”
Nova answered weakly.
In truth, she had no idea what had happened to Yukgap.
Victoria cautiously guessed,
“Sounds like he met our jaguar friend.”
“She’s Yukgap’s natural counter.”
“He’s probably badly injured by now.”
“What do we do?”
Nova asked nervously.
Victoria answered lightly,
“She probably didn’t kill him.”
“Our jaguar friend likes Yukgap.”
“She probably just broke his spine or something.”
Nova quickly reassessed the situation.
There was something more important right now.
“The Archons in this building are probably searching everywhere for us.”
Victoria’s mind immediately started racing.
“I temporarily overloaded the electrical system.”
“The wiring exploded and caused fires, so emergency responders should arrive soon.”
“Abraxas may be ruthless, but they can’t openly kidnap us in front of a crowd of witnesses.”
Nova let out a relieved breath.
“Then we only have to hide until they arrive.”
Normally, emergency responders would arrive within about three minutes after a fire was reported.
They only needed to endure until then.
Just as Victoria said, if Abraxas attacked while they were in direct contact with rescue personnel, their actions would be exposed to the entire world.
Unless they were completely insane, they would never do that.
“It’s dangerous to stay here.”
“I temporarily cut off Alpha’s communications, but she’ll restore them soon.”
“Once she does, she’ll find us through the CCTV cameras everywhere.”
Victoria glanced at a camera attached to the ceiling.
If Alpha were functioning properly, she would definitely be watching through it.
Nova sighed.
“It really feels like we’re fighting a god.”
Victoria giggled.
“I was thinking the same thing.”
“The more I see Alpha, the more godlike she seems.”
“Yeah.”
“If you can control every communication network and electronic device, while predicting our every move, that’s basically a god.”
Nova agreed.
Alpha was probably calculating what they would do even at this very moment.
Am I really struggling to escape from something like that?
Thinking about it made a sense of helplessness creep over her.
“Nova, have you ever read the Bible?”
Victoria suddenly asked.
Nova shrugged.
“I read it once as general knowledge.”
“I don’t believe in it, though.”
Victoria continued with an unexpectedly serious expression.
“The god described in the Bible actually reminds me of Alpha.”
“Childish, prone to tantrums, pretending to be merciful while being stubborn, jealous, obsessive, supposedly omnipotent, yet full of blind spots.”
Nova burst out laughing.
“Hahahaha!”
“Are you allowed to say that about God?”
“If you get struck down for blasphemy, don’t blame me.”
In a sense, it really was a spectacularly sacrilegious thing to say.
Victoria did not seem bothered.
“Let the punishment come.”
“What could possibly happen that’s worse than this?”
Victoria laughed along with her.
It was probably a foolish thought.
But with everything around them so hopeless, both of them desperately wanted to cling to even this small bit of humor.
