Chapter 187. A Goodbye for You (3)
“I told you to let go of me!”
Victoria struggled the entire way down toward the ground.
She knew perfectly well that if No. 8 released her, she would fall.
And yet she still kept fighting him.
From No. 8’s perspective, it was utterly ridiculous.
“Those are Alpha’s orders.”
“Please understand.”
No. 8 remained completely unfazed, speaking in the same businesslike tone as always.
Before long, the two landed safely on the ground.
Yukgap spotted them from a distance and hurried over.
“Victoria!”
“Yukgap!”
Victoria called his name just as desperately.
There were several unfamiliar children in Yukgap’s arms.
Victoria tilted her head when she saw them.
“Who are these kids?”
“They couldn’t evacuate in time.”
“So I brought all of them out.”
After watching their reunion, No. 8 bowed politely.
“Then I’ll be going.”
“Please take care of yourselves.”
With those words, he flapped his wings again and disappeared into the sky.
He had fulfilled Alpha’s order to bring Victoria down safely, so there was no longer any reason for him to stay.
“Where’s Nova?”
Victoria immediately looked around, her face on the verge of tears.
The person she needed to see was nowhere in sight.
“I don’t know.”
“She said she’d escape through another route, but...”
Yukgap trailed off.
Apparently, Nova had not evacuated with him.
The moment Victoria realized that, she turned toward the burning building and desperately called out her friend’s name.
“Nova!”
No. 11 limped through a secluded back alley.
At the far end, the other Archons were gathered together.
No. 11 looked around at them.
“So everyone made it out safely?”
No. 2 nodded expressionlessly.
“Yes.”
Beside him, No. 9 scratched at one of his arms, which had been burned bright red.
“I got burned a little, but this much will heal, so I’m fine.”
Just as he said, the burned flesh was already regenerating rapidly.
It would probably be completely healed within seconds.
For an Archon, an injury like this barely even counted.
“I’m fine too.”
“Escaping something like that is nothing.”
No. 7 answered casually as well.
Considering that her specialty was infiltrating through all kinds of traps and security without being detected, something like this was hardly a problem.
“I also delivered Victoria Frankenstein safely, just as Alpha ordered.”
No. 8 gave a small nod.
One way or another, every Archon who had been inside the building had escaped safely.
“I’m fine as well.”
Something enormous came trudging toward them from the distance with wet, heavy steps.
It was No. 10, the Archon fused with a giant crocodile.
He was still in his manifested Archon form.
His belly was noticeably swollen, as though he had swallowed something.
“It appears you swallowed something.”
No. 11 noticed immediately.
No. 10 gave a sly grin.
“Yes.”
“And something very important at that.”
No. 10 was the Predator.
One of his specialties was swallowing prey designated by Abraxas and carrying or transporting it inside his own body.
“Bleurgh!”
Sure enough, No. 10’s stomach heaved.
Then he vomited something wet and slimy onto the ground.
No. 7 openly grimaced.
“Ugh.”
“No matter how many times I see that, it’s disgusting.”
No. 11, however, became visibly interested.
“This is...?”
The body was drenched in digestive fluid, but there was no mistaking it.
Shining silver hair.
An arrogant-looking face.
Small, youthful limbs.
It was Nova Hanson, the girl they had been pursuing all this time.
“Nova Hanson’s corpse.”
No. 10 answered calmly.
Nova, who had remained inside his stomach until now, had her eyes closed with a peaceful expression, almost as though she had simply fallen into a deep sleep.
No. 10 looked down at her and continued.
“I followed No. 2’s orders and moved through the building while blending in with the evacuating crowd.”
“That’s when I found her.”
“She was already dead, but I swallowed her and carried her through the flames myself.”
“Her brain wasn’t damaged.”
“That’s fortunate.”
“Alpha will be pleased.”
No. 11 smiled with satisfaction as he looked at Nova’s body.
There had been plenty of complications along the way, but they had ultimately obtained what they wanted.
“Nova Hanson.”
“What happened to all that determination you showed while running from us earlier?”
“Look at you now.”
“In the end, this is still how you ended up.”
No. 11 lightly tapped Nova’s corpse with his cane.
She had escaped Abraxas several times.
She had escaped from him as well.
And now she lay before him as a cold corpse, completely helpless.
Few things could have pleased him more.
[Did everyone evacuate safely?]
Alpha’s voice came through the communicator at just the right moment.
No. 11 hurriedly reported their success.
“Alpha.”
“We secured Nova Hanson’s brain.”
[...]
[Good.]
[Just as planned.]
That was what Alpha said.
But there was something complicated buried in her voice.
A moment later, she calmly addressed the Archons.
[All right.]
[Bring me Nova Hanson’s brain.]
[Let’s begin the final project.]
“Nova!”
“Where are you?!”
“Answer me!”
“Nova!”
Victoria desperately searched through the burned building.
Fortunately, the rescue workers had done their jobs well, and the fire had been suppressed quickly.
Everyone had also been evacuated, so there had been no confirmed deaths.
But Nova was nowhere to be found.
“I checked with the rescue teams.”
“None of them saw Nova.”
Yukgap approached with a grim expression.
He had gone to see whether Nova might have been receiving help from the rescue workers.
But she was not there either.
Victoria broke down sobbing.
“Ugh... Where did she go?!”
Just as Victoria was about to completely lose herself, Yukgap’s eyes suddenly sharpened.
He seemed to have noticed something.
“Wait.”
He abruptly sniffed the air.
Victoria noticed his strange reaction and cautiously asked,
“What is it?”
“I can smell Nova.”
Did that mean Nova was nearby?
Hope immediately returned to Victoria’s face.
“Then let’s go!”
Sniff, sniff.
At Victoria’s urging, Yukgap followed the scent.
Eventually, they reached a certain spot.
Flames had swept through the area.
Everything nearby was blackened, and the building itself had partially collapsed, leaving deep cracks across the walls.
Yukgap circled the area for a moment, then tilted his head.
“Hmm?”
“What?”
Victoria asked.
Yukgap pointed toward a corner.
“Nova’s scent ends here.”
Only a pile of black ash remained where he was pointing.
Victoria’s face went deathly pale.
“D-Don’t tell me...”
Then Yukgap suddenly frowned.
“Wait.”
“No. 10’s scent is here too.”
No. 10 was the vicious Archon fused with a crocodile.
And he had received orders directly from Alpha.
There was no way he would have simply ignored Nova.
Victoria’s eyes widened.
“Then did No. 10 take Nova?”
“Maybe.”
“Her scent stops here, so there’s a good chance.”
Victoria immediately urged him on.
“Then keep tracking No. 10’s scent!”
Yukgap sniffed the air several more times.
Then he sighed and shook his head.
“No.”
“It disappears a few meters ahead.”
“He must have passed through the flames and burned away his scent.”
Did that mean they had no way to find Nova?
Faced with that hopeless possibility, Victoria could only fight back tears.
“Nova...”
“Where did you go...?”
“This is truly remarkable.”
“How can brain cells even take this form?”
No. 11 stared through a microscope in amazement.
Alpha, who had been examining every part of Nova’s brain using Abraxas’s central control system, agreed.
[It really is impressive.]
[She truly was the final surviving test subject of the Sophia Project.]
They had already examined the brains of other Sophia Project subjects before.
But Nova Hanson’s brain, obtained after so much difficulty, was fundamentally different in structure from the others.
“The structure of her brain cells is unnaturally dense.”
“It’s almost as if several supercomputers were compressed into one.”
“To think she carried this around inside her skull...”
“Nova Hanson had impressive endurance.”
An ordinary person would already have gone insane.
Or died of shock from the pain.
But Nova had endured it all while gritting her teeth.
And as a result, the structure of her brain had become compressed to an almost absurd degree, taking on an abnormal form.
[What about cultivation?]
No. 11 looked away from the microscope and answered Alpha.
“Thanks to your assistance, Alpha, it’s proceeding without difficulty.”
“We should reach the target quantity within a few days.”
He pointed toward one corner of the laboratory.
There, transplantable cells based on Nova’s brain tissue were rapidly being cultivated.
“For now, I standardized the immune system to reduce rejection.”
“I also adjusted the cells so that they can be transplanted into almost anyone.”
[Good.]
[Now we transplant the central section of her brain into mine.]
[After that, once we adjust the brain waves and make them resonate, countless people will be able to share the same thoughts as though transmitting them wirelessly.]
No. 11 murmured in admiration at Alpha’s calm explanation.
“Alpha.”
“I never dreamed something like this would actually be possible.”
[According to the natural course of human history, this technology would have been developed approximately 295 years from now.]
[Of course, to me, it’s nothing.]
Her computational ability was as extraordinary as ever.
Viewed like this, Alpha truly seemed like a god in the form of a young girl.
Even if someone had appeared who could put a crack in that divinity.
“Alpha, are you truly planning to keep Victoria Frankenstein as your friend?”
No. 11 asked cautiously.
From his perspective, he could not understand why Alpha remained so obsessed with Victoria after she had opposed them so many times.
But Alpha refused to change her mind.
[I told you already.]
[Victoria is the only living being sustained by the Philosopher’s Stone who can accept and share the Wisdom of God.]
[More precisely, she’s the only one who can withstand it.]
There was something almost desperate in Alpha’s voice.
[I don’t want to give up the one person who may be my only true ‘understander.’]
As she said that, Alpha did not seem very different from an ordinary girl her age who desperately wanted a friend.
No. 11 did his best to hide his discomfort and nodded.
“Understood.”
“We’ll proceed according to your wishes.”
Alpha then gave her next order in a calm voice.
[Begin preparing for surgery.]
[We need to make these cells ready to be implanted into the heads of the children in Korea as soon as possible.]
