In the early hours of the morning, when darkness covered the entire sky, a time when everyone in the world sleeps.
Landa, the largest city in the United Kingdom, was no exception. Landa, too, fell asleep when darkness took over.
However, if there was a difference, there were some places that were not bound by this law.
A good example was District J, which provides relaxation and entertainment to gentlemen who suffered until the wee hours.
This was also the case with factory-intensive areas that operate day and night to produce goods on schedule.
In addition, Districts D, E, and F, where the headquarters or research facilities of various companies were located, places where overtime was common were concentrated.
In particular, in the case of District F, where many research facilities were concentrated, it was the norm to stay up late to produce results.
Therefore, most researchers used to stay up all night with the help of coffee, tea, chocolate, and even drugs, and Mattel, a research lab of School of Life magic, was not an exception to such a fate.
As a result, even researchers with higher positions remained in the lounge until this late hour to chat.
"Ughhhhh… I'm going to die.”
A blond and well-built researcher sat on a chair in the lounge and made a fuss.
Two other researchers, who appeared to be his colleagues, were also in the lounge.
They were more than coworkers. They were real colleagues who shared the same project and had the same status within the school of life magic.
The blonde researcher slurped his coffee and spilled it on the desk.
"Huh, I'm dying."
"If the healthiest one among us makes such a big deal of it… Think about us. I think I'm going to die, too”
The red-haired researcher replied.
Unlike the blonde, he was not a senior researcher, but he was the same age, and there was no significant difference in terms of skills.
That was why even the blonde researcher didn't say anything to his rude remarks.
No, he even laughed despite being tired.
"Oh… I can't believe I'm working late at this night drinking coffee like water. I thought there would be only a colorful future if I graduated as a topper from the Magic Tower."
"Same here. The world ain’t an easy place, amigo?"
"Oh, fu*k it. But don't those Barbarian guys think we live comfortably without any effort?"
"It’s not a thing that happened yesterday or today? Why do you care what they say?"
"It's annoying dammit, isn't it?”
"Enough of the nonsense, how did it go?”
The bald man, who was silently reviewing the documents besides the two, spoke.
Unlike the blonde and redhead, there was a serious atmosphere around the bald man.
"What are you talking about?”
"Securing the test subject. How did it go?”
At that word, the blonde researcher's eyes returned to life and he took out a small hand mirror-like object from his pocket.
It was not a real mirror, but a magic item called [Talk mirror] that could communicate with the other person in real-time using letters.
Only one-on-one communication was possible, and there was a limit to the scope, but it was a fairly convenient item to exchange limited information in the city.
"Wait a minute… There are no reports of that yet. He's still locked up in his house.”
"I knew it… Isn't the operation too optimistic in the first place? Why would a Warlock come to save some trash? We can't get anything out of it. It was just a trash that was doing chores. What shall we do if we fail?
"Why are you asking that to me, dammit? You guys said it was a good idea. Or is there a better way?”
When asked by the blonde researcher, the bald researcher shut his mouth.
"Ah. We should have kidnapped him the first time. I told you guys to do it, didn't I?
"What's the point of thinking about it now?"
The bald researcher, who was quiet when the blonde researcher bickered, flicked his finger at the crystal ball on the ceiling.
As a result of accessing Mattel's [Root net territorial], numerous images appeared in the air.
The video showed Solvers being hunted by the Chimera, and most of them had distorted faces filled with confusion and fear.
It was a natural reaction since the newly developed biological weapon Chimera was much more cunning than the existing Chimeras.
Before the commencement of the police department's investigation, it was intended to secure data on street warfare by sacrificing residents of District V and solvers who were blinded by the bounty, but the experiment ended unexpectedly quickly and in vain.
CHRRSH
The video stopped and a scene came out.
It showed a man in his twenties.
His name was Dave, a Solver from District T.
"What did he do?"
The bald man asked sincerely.
Made to slaughter anyone without being scared, the chimera was designed to not panic in any situation.
But it fell into a panic state when it saw Solver Dave.
It was so out of control that even the remote control did not work.
This was no ordinary matter. It was as if saying that the great Mattel Lab’s design was broken by a mere solver.
The blonde researcher said after a closer look at the footage.
"Hmm… From the look on his face, he doesn't seem to know anything either."
It was true. Dave, pictured in the video, also seemed to have no idea of what was wrong with the chimera.
This made the researchers even more curious.
"Maybe it’s kind of error?”
"The question is why it was never like that during that long experiment stage. It's not a coincidence, no matter how you look at it”
The three researchers from Magic Tower all closed their mouths at once due to an unexplained phenomenon.
That was the reason why they regularly observed Solver Dave.
Everyone took out their notebooks and looked at the data.
In order to obtain excellent test subjects, the research lab under the Magic Tower always obtained and observed information about the Solvers through illegal pipelines.
And Dave, the Solver, belonged to a prominent high-level test subject.
It has been about six months since he officially debuted as Solver. However, as he solved bigger cases, his skills skyrocketed, and it turned out that he was a Rare-case.
A Rare-case that was difficult to experiment with and study due to few in numbers.
Mattel Lab moved as soon as they found out that Dave was a Rare-case.
Several of them have been watching him for a long time and could have captured him at any time.
But lately, securing him has become risky.
As his reputation as a Solver grew, he became someone who could not be kidnapped whenever they wanted.
The probability would be low, but if they failed, they could not only lose money but also their reputation without gaining anything, and it was dangerous.
Not only inside the Lab but also in the School of Life magic there were voices against the Grandmage’s grandson, so if anything happens, the easy thing could have ended up as a complete mess.
That was why the blonde researcher used his brain.
-Let's bring one of Dave's close guys to the lab and lure him in.
However, it was too childish and an unlikely way to lure a Warlock.
"Oh, what do you want me to do? You have to do something. And we originally needed a great specimen for the experiment, didn't we? What was the name of that trash again?"
"Rosbane."
"Yes, Rosbane. It's a pretty good sample if you look at it as a test subject, even if it’s useless as bait. It’s an orphan, it has been working diligently in an inn, and more than anything it learned to read and write by itself, isn’t it? That's great for orphan trash. Inferior, but there's an effort factor. It's not that easy to find a test subject like this, isn’t it?”
Bald and Redhead nodded in agreement.
While the [Reincarnation Project] they were currently in charge of needed a lot of experiments, it was difficult to find a suitable test subject.
From transferring brain information to modifying the body, there was so much to do and that was why they couldn’t go home.
"Let's not focus on the Rare-case. Our job is [Reincarnation project]. Resolving one of the current blocked issues will stabilize Carl's position and we will benefit from it.”
"That's true, but for that, it's good to have the Rare-case."
"That's right, but…"
BEEP!
BEEP!
BEEP!
BEEP!
BEEP!
A low, quiet, but distinctly audible alarm.
It wasn't a normal alarm.
The three researchers, who were talking, searched their pockets in unison.
Inside the pocket, there was an alarm system provided only to participant researchers and a small number of veteran guards in the [Reincarnation Project].
The alarm gets triggered when an intruder enters the secret underground laboratory that only some of Mattel's researchers knew.
The three researchers looked at each other's faces.
⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩
"Oops."
Oliver made a short sound as if he was in trouble.
He thought he had found out all about Mattel Lab’s defense systems by searching the World Tree– but that seemed to be an illusion.
Most of them were mana-based detection systems, so he avoided them by confusing them with extracted mana, but he couldn't believe he got caught by a basic scaffolding-type alarm.
It seemed to be an external security system as it was not on the list of Mattel Lab defense facilities.
‘Anyway, I'll have to hurry.’
Oliver said, calming himself down.
Just because it was a research lab under the Magic Tower, there was no need to be too scared.
Ironically, because of doing important and secret research, they couldn't fully concentrate security and security personnel in the secret laboratory here.
Moreover, it was time for everyone to leave work, so it could have been unexpectedly easy to take Rosbane out quickly before they came.
‘Maybe.’
Oliver started running after covering his whole body with black smoke by increasing the intensity of the black suit he wore to hide his identity.
When he focused the energy on his eyes, he could see two emotions coming running toward him from the hallway ahead of him.
It seemed to be Mattel employees.
"Here!"
A man in a white gown, who appeared to be a Mattel employee, shouted and gathered mana at his fingertips and fired.
The concentration was high, and the speed of the casting was also fast.
‘Maybe on the same level as the wizards who attacked the Murphy Magic Wine Factory?’
With that thought, Oliver avoided all attacks by raising the black magic output on his legs.
By imitating Joe better than he thought, he narrowly avoided the Magic bullet.
[Thrust]
After avoiding the attack, Oliver fired a shock wave.
As killing a person would exacerbate the problem, the output was adjusted and shot to avoid killing the opponent.
Thanks to that, the Mattel employees were blown back and only their posture collapsed.
BAM
Just in time, Oliver kicked the floor and approached them in an instant, and lightly hit the Mattel employees with his quarterstaff.
The two employees' eyes turned upside down and fainted with a thud, and Oliver began to run again.
"Um…"
Oliver focused the energy on his eyes, looked through the entire lab, and groaned.
Judging by everyone moving in haste, the alarm Oliver triggered earlier seemed to have alerted everyone of Oliver's presence.
‘Ah… I wanted to end it as peacefully as possible.’
Oliver focused more energy on his eyes and searched for Rosbane's emotions.
Based on the information from the World Tree, it wasn't too difficult to find Rosbane's emotions.
"…there."
Oliver turned and ran through the hallway that was white on all sides.
‘After finding Rosbane, cover him with a black suit and quickly run away. Okay okay.'
It wasn't okay at all since he did not plan what to do with the saved Rosbane and how to deal with him afterward, but Oliver put it all behind him and told himself that everything was fine.
He felt his head would break in pain if he did not do this because someone inside his head kept telling him this was not how to do it.
He really wondered why he was doing all this.
‘…because it's annoying.’
At that moment, Oliver stopped, turned sideways, and dodged with one foot as Joe did.
At the same time, blue ice bullets flew quickly and stuck in the wall right next to Oliver.
CHIRRRR
Ice bullets disintegrated into white powder and soon the surrounding area was covered in white ice.
It seemed like a move to tie down Oliver’s feet.
Oliver raised the power output on his legs again, jumped forward at once, and swung the quarterstaff into the air.
BANG
A response was felt from the place where the quarterstaff struck.
The space shattered like light scattering, and in its place, a man with a cape and a gun appeared.
The man shouted, looking at the hallway where no one was.
"Undo the Transparent Magic! The intruder can see us. Change of plan, suppress him with firepower."
Along with that command, lights scattered in several places, and about ten people appeared in the hallway.
They wore similar clothing to the person Oliver just knocked down, such as wearing a cape, a gun with magical power, and a defensive suit.
They seemed to be the security guards of the secret lab.
They got into formation before Oliver could move, deployed their shields, and aimed their guns at Oliver.
It felt the same ice magic as before.
‘They don’t plan on killing me, they want to capture me.’
After grasping the situation, Oliver quickly narrowed the distance by kicking the floor before the ice bullet was fired from the gun.
"…Um!"
Then, he moved the black magic power that was concentrated on his legs to his shoulders, arms, and quarterstaff.
He didn't want to kill people as much as possible because he didn't want to make things big, but at the same time he did not want to stay here for a long time, so Oliver decided to trust the strength of the guards and go all out.
BOOM————!!!
With a loud sound, the shield deployed using the auxiliary device was smashed, breaking the defense of ten people at once.
In particular, the defense personnel at the forefront fell down by hitting the wall next to them or flew backward, creating a large gap in the formation.
Oliver moved the concentrated black magic back to the black suit around his whole body, went through the gap, and briefly knocked all of the guards out.
Fortunately, no one died.
"Ugh…"
Oliver knocked out a less-fainted guard before moving forward.
Before he realized it, the white hallway got changed into one that was enclosed by iron walls, floors, and ceilings. The size gradually widened, making it more like a hall than a hallway.
Oliver stopped in front of a room with a huge iron door.
‘It's like a bank vault.’
Oliver thought of the bank vault that he once saw when he went to collect money from an anonymous account.
He tapped it like knocking it.
The density was so high that it felt like it wouldn't budge at all– no matter what he did.
"Um…."
Oliver looked up at the ceiling.
Mana was gathering rapidly in the round crystal embedded in the ceiling.
At the same time, a powerful light mixed with blue and white colors fell on Oliver's head, freezing everything around him in an instant.
CHIRRRLLLL
As the screeching sound stopped, a white block of ice spat white smoke in the place where the light was shining.
Oliver was trapped in the ice and silent.
With the sound of footsteps, researchers with blond hair, red hair, and bald hair appeared.
"Heh… I really caught it.”
"I know. You got lucky there."
"It's not luck. I analyzed the route and responded accordingly."
"How did you figure out the route?”
"It’s the nerve crystals that've been installed throughout the lab…. huh?"
In the blink of an eye, Oliver broke the ice and rushed toward the researchers, and swung his quarterstaff.
BANG!
CRUSH——!!
KANGGG—!!!
A different response was felt from each strike by the quarterstaff.
Oliver, who passed the researchers, looked behind.
A blonde researcher who restored his broken arm immediately.
A red-haired researcher whose whole body was covered in ice.
A bald researcher whose whole body turned into steel.
All three kept staring at Oliver.
Waving his recovered arm, the blonde researcher spoke.
“It hurts, fu*king trash.”
(To be Continued)
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