Chapter 182

Chapter 182. The Final Deal (1)

Nova limped forward.

Her knee stung from the fall earlier.

Still, she could hear people shouting and the sound of fire engines not too far away.

Thankfully, it seemed she had managed to escape in the right direction.

Yes.

Once again, she had escaped safely.

By using someone else as a shield.

“What good is genius-level intelligence?”

The bitter words slipped from Nova’s mouth.

The thought that she was alone weighed heavily on her mind.

“What good is the Wisdom of God?”

Looking back, she had always lived a life of praise.

Because she had been born with extraordinary intelligence, she had constantly been welcomed and given special treatment.

But whenever a real crisis came, she always survived by leaving someone else behind.

“What’s the point of being several times smarter than everyone else?”

The nuns of the Herrington Convent had risked their lives to protect her.

Yukgap had thrown himself into danger for her.

Victoria had done the same.

And yet Nova, the one blessed with genius-level intelligence, had done nothing but run helplessly every single time.

The realization filled her with self-loathing.

Nova screamed into the darkness.

“I can’t do anything on my own anyway!”

Her cry echoed through the area, directed at no one in particular.

Breathing hard amid the fading echoes, Nova clenched her teeth.

She did not have time for this.

She had to do something.

“There has to be a way.”

“I have to find one somehow.”

Nova grabbed her head and sank deep into thought.

The Archons were still chasing her.

Alpha would soon recover and seize control of the surrounding systems again.

She had to find a solution before that happened.

She pressed herself with a question.

“What do I have to do to stop Alpha and Abraxas?”

Every blood vessel in her brain seemed to stand on end.

Thought after thought raced through her mind.

A way to stop Abraxas.

A way to interfere with Abraxas.

What was it?

What could she do?

Then, amid the endless stream of thoughts, one idea pierced through her mind.

Nova slowly lifted her head and muttered in a trembling voice,

“Right.”

“There was that.”

“I wonder if this will work.”

Nova muttered as she connected an old radio to a monitor fitted with a camera.

Using machines she had scavenged from the building and the antenna on the rooftop, she had hastily assembled a crude communications device.

It looked plausible enough.

But she had built it in a rush, so she had no idea how well it would actually work.

At this point, she was relying entirely on luck.

“Fuuuu...”

After finishing everything, Nova drew a deep breath.

She was now on the roof of the building.

Thanks to Victoria buying her enough time, she had fortunately avoided running into any Archons on the way up.

The fire seemed to have been brought somewhat under control as well.

The smoke rising around the building had noticeably thinned.

Nova stared blankly for a few seconds at the blue sky visible beyond the smoke.

“Pretty.”

Had the sky ever looked this beautiful before?

The thought brought a bitter smile to her face.

“All right.”

“Let’s begin.”

Nova cleared her throat.

Then she spoke clearly into the communicator connected to the antenna.

“My name is Nova Hanson.”

“I temporarily restored what remains of the computer network and used your access history to establish a connection.”

Reach her.

Please let my voice reach her.

Driven by that one thought, Nova raised her voice again.

“If you can hear me, answer me, Alpha.”

There was no response.

Had it failed?

Nova continued anxiously.

“You’ve probably already found some way to access this building’s internet server through the surrounding network.”

“So I think you can hear my voice too.”

She fell silent and waited.

Before long, static crackled from the device.

Then the face she had been waiting for appeared on the monitor.

[...I was wondering why the overloaded network suddenly came back online.]

[So this was your doing?]

It was Alpha.

Apparently, Nova’s hastily built communicator had worked somehow.

Nova greeted her first.

“Hello, Alpha.”

Alpha visibly looked irritated as she gave a small nod.

[Hello, Nova Hanson.]

For a while, the two simply stared at one another without speaking.

Then Nova got straight to the point.

“I don’t have much time, so I’ll be direct.”

“Release my friends and withdraw the Archons.”

[Why should I?]

Alpha gave a dismissive laugh.

Her expression practically said, Who do you think you are to order me around?

Nova had expected that much.

“Because if you don’t, you’ll regret it.”

Nova answered coldly.

Alpha did not so much as blink.

Instead, she replied mockingly,

[Regret?]

[What exactly am I going to regret?]

“Why don’t you use that transcendent computational ability of yours and predict what I’m about to do?”

Nova spoke calmly.

The moment Alpha heard that, her expression twisted.

[Don’t tell me...]

“So you calculated it.”

“That makes this easier.”

Nova climbed straight onto the rooftop railing.

A strong gust of wind blew past, making her silver hair flutter softly.

Standing there, Nova opened her eyes wide and spoke firmly.

“If you refuse my demand, I’ll jump.”

Alpha stared at her in disbelief.

[Are you threatening me?]

“It’s not a threat.”

“It’s a notification.”

Nova deliberately forced herself to remain composed.

“The Aeon Project Abraxas is trying to carry out requires my brain, doesn’t it?”

“If I fall from here, my brain will be smashed on impact.”

“Then the Aeon Project will never be possible.”

Alpha asked as if she genuinely did not understand.

[Why are you so opposed to the Aeon Project that you’d go this far?]

“Because I don’t want any more victims like me.”

“No.”

“Like us.”

Nova deliberately emphasized the word us.

The other Sophia Project subjects who had already given up on their cursed lives.

In a sense, Nova was carrying all of them with her now.

“I don’t trust Abraxas.”

“You claimed the Aeon Project is safe, but there’s no way transplanting brain tissue and forcing someone’s intelligence to develop explosively comes without side effects.”

“Those children will suffer somehow.”

Nova staggered slightly backward on the railing.

The building was high.

If she fell from here, she would not survive.

The thought made her legs tremble.

But she could not retreat.

“If my brain is going to be used for that, I’d rather destroy it myself!”

Nova raised her voice at Alpha.

She could not let Alpha see her fear.

If she did, the balance would shift in Alpha’s favor.

Holding onto that thought, Nova straightened her back.

Her posture said plainly:

Try me.

But Alpha responded with loud laughter.

[Hahahahaha! Hahahahaha!]

She simply kept laughing.

Feeling as though Alpha were mocking her, Nova snapped,

“What’s so funny?”

[Do you really think your brain is that valuable?]

Nova flinched despite herself.

Was Alpha serious?

Or was she only bluffing to hide her true feelings?

Nova deliberately answered with confidence.

“Of course it is.”

“I’m the only remaining Sophia Project test subject in the world.”

[Someone like you can be made again.]

[I succeeded in replicating even memories using the genetic material of a dead person.]

[Even if you die, I can simply use your corpse to make a suitable clone.]

Alpha’s response was completely calm.

And it was not entirely wrong.

But something felt strange.

If that were true, why had Abraxas gone through all this trouble to hunt her down?

Once Nova thought that far, she reached a conclusion.

“You’re lying, Alpha.”

Alpha looked offended.

[I’m lying?]

Nova responded clearly.

“If you had truly succeeded in perfectly reproducing a brain, why would you need to bring the brains of Sophia Project subjects into the harbor?”

“You could have just cloned them whenever you wanted.”

[...]

Alpha said nothing.

Apparently, Nova had struck directly at the truth.

Nova continued her reasoning.

“But after you lost those Sophia Project brains, you ordered the Archons to capture me.”

“That means my brain really is that valuable.”

That raised another question.

Just as Alpha had said, Abraxas possessed technology capable of perfectly recreating a dead person.

So why had they tried to use already-developed Sophia Project brains instead of making clones?

Why?

Why did they have to?

Was it simply more convenient?

No.

There had to be another reason.

What was it?

That’s...!

One answer finally surfaced naturally.

Nova paused.

Then she slowly nodded.

“Ah.”

“I see.”

Having realized something, Nova looked directly at Alpha on the monitor again.

Then she quietly spoke with several emotions mixed into her voice.

“Alpha.”

“I forgot that you’re also a Sophia Project test subject.”

[What are you trying to say?]

Sure enough, Alpha’s face began to tremble with unease.

It was completely different from her earlier composure.

Nova asked with growing certainty,

“You don’t have much time left either, do you?”

[Shut up!]

Alpha screamed hysterically.

Nova continued anyway.

“Sophia Project subjects mostly went insane and died because their brains developed too rapidly.”

“You’re no different.”

“No matter how your brain was extracted and specially treated, you’ll still reach a limit eventually.”

[I told you to shut up!]

Alpha screamed at the top of her lungs through the monitor.

But that reaction was as good as confirming Nova’s guess.

And I thought this girl was like a god.

Nova almost found it absurd how easy Alpha was to read.

“Like you said, it probably wouldn’t be difficult for Abraxas to create a clone of me.”

“But you don’t have time to wait for that clone to mature.”

Nova glared sharply at Alpha through the monitor.

“Because you’ll reach your limit and die before then!”