Chapter 4

chapter 4

due to the wretched situation he found himself in, wei, a ganymede colony native, felt like he was on the brink of death. when he first joined the project, he couldn’t have been happier upon learning that his superior was not just any earthling but a noble capital, essentially royalty within megacorp’s ruling class.

if he could establish a connection with them, his dream of immigrating to mars, something he had only fantasized about, could become a reality.

with such anticipation, he boarded the ship, but wei’s dream was shattered sooner than he expected.

“that crazy woman again. she says today is a day off.”

wei wiped away the beads of sweat dripping from his half-bald head and stole a glance at his young and capable superior standing beside him.

her name was keisaragi yujin, wei’s superior and a noble capital belonging to the yujin family, one of the five noble houses that ruled earth.

today, as it was a non-working day, she was dressed in casual attire, holding a cat in her arms.

“damn it. why the hell does a cat need a walk?”

wei briefly cursed himself for thinking of going to the garden for some fresh air. keisaragi brought up the question that he had heard hundreds of times before entering the lab.

“when will experiment 26 show results? if we don’t achieve significant results that we can report to the company before we reach our destination, they might reconsider your ’employment’ over there.”

“ugh! please, not that...”

as soon as the word ’employment’ came out of her mouth, cold sweat poured out of wei’s forehead like a waterfall. as a senior researcher at megacorp, he knew all too well what ’employment’ meant.

his gaze briefly shifted to the brain inside the test tube, almost as if his predecessor was beckoning him to join.

“senior researcher, i mean, mr. wei.”

“yes, yes?”

keisaragi, who had been giving him a cold look, suddenly changed her expression and began to comfort him with a gentle tone.

“i don’t wish for such results either. i have expectations from senior researcher wei as well. if we can extract that ‘aptitude’ from experiment 26, a promotion to chief researcher is not out of the question.”

“r-really?”

“yes. at the very least, chief researcher, and if things go well, we might establish connections with mars. they have a keen interest in this project, after all.”

upon hearing her words, wei’s eyes lit up. he decided to tell her about a method he had only contemplated but never attempted.

“well, there is one remaining method...”

“what is it?”

“i want to try administering psyonium.”

“psyonium? are you talking about the drug made by star union?”

“yes.”

keisaragi yujin stroked the cat’s head silently. the cat purred in response to its owner’s affectionate touch.

“psyonium has awakening effects...”

“i know what it does. we used it to secure the project before. psyonium,it’s a drug we haven’t tried.”

“actually, there are a few other substances, but...”

“we’ve tried all the ones with similar ingredients. psyonium is the only one left.”

kisa’s gaze shifted toward experiment 26. her look wasn’t as gentle as when she petted the cat.

observing the test subject, she resembled a machine sorting goods in a factory.

“fine. administer it right away.”

bubbles rose inside the test chamber, and the bubble amoeba jumped. it wriggled slightly but remained predominantly in a white, almost lifeless state.

“fascinating results. try it again on experiment 26.”

“are you sure?”

“if you achieve significant results with another attempt, report to me.”

wei’s face brightened as if he had been given a reprieve from a death sentence. keisaragi, who had turned one person’s life into heaven and hell with a single word, suddenly felt a gaze and glanced towards the ventilation fan.

“i sense a gaze again.”

there was nothing visible beyond the ventilation fan.

***

the experiment i saw earlier had meaning for me too. the psyonium they injected into experiment 26 is a substance i’m familiar with.

‘psyonium: a temporary awakening agent that unlocks dormant racial traits.’

in the game, when you consume psyonium, your maximum health decreases, but locked racial traits are unlocked for a limited time. for example, if i were to consume psyonium, i could use abilities that are normally unavailable during the human stage for a short time, such as the acidic blood trait gained during the fluid stage or the enhanced exoskeleton trait. of course, the duration of the effects decreases with each use, making it more of a mid-game item than a late-game one.

‘does experiment 26 possess hidden traits that i don’t know about?’

despite having hunted thousands of them before, i hadn’t seen any concealed traits. there had never been discussions of this in the community either, so it’s possible that experiment 26 was a unique specimen or that differences had emerged in the transition from the game to reality.

‘in any case, learning about the existence of psyonium is an achievement.’

when i engage in full-scale combat against the humans on board the spaceship, it might come in handy.

back at the nest, i relaxed once more. as i did, thoughts i had intentionally avoided began to resurface.

‘it asked me for help.’

experiment 26, who had received a massive injection of psyonium, had pleaded for salvation. the screams still echoed vividly in my mind. experiment 26 had begged for mercy, even though the researchers hadn’t understood the implications of those waves. even if they had known, they probably wouldn’t have stopped.

the unfortunate fact was that this gruesome experimentation wouldn’t end here. the megacorp researchers would likely repeat the psyonium experiment until experiment 26 couldn’t endure any longer and dies.

i knew that there was nothing but darkness in its future. the only reason i had spared experiment 26’s life was because i had deemed its genetic essence useless; otherwise, it would have been a candidate for my meal.

but why, even knowing that, did a feeling of discomfort creep up from the depths of my heart? why did experiment 26’s cries still echo in my mind?

‘i don’t like this. not at all.’

given all of this, i didn’t seem to be a complete ‘honored amorph’ yet. i was consumed by anger, but at the same time, i remained in a thoroughly rational state of mind.

my judgment was based on the belief that i had enough evidence to target her. among the achievements i had obtained today, there was information that could be useful concerning keisaragi yujin .

‘she’s raising a cat.’

using my heightened senses, i could deduce how much she cherished the cat. she seemed like a woman whose veins ran with cold blood, but when she stroked the cat, human emotions were palpable.

when her beloved cat dies, it wasn’t difficult to imagine how keisaragi yujin would react.

‘there are many vulnerabilities.’

obviously, the cat didn’t receive any special protection. besides when her owner called, it was mostly alone. people on the spaceship hadn’t even thought about how keisaragi yujin would react when her cat dies.

in other words, using the cat as bait to lure in prey was the core of my plan.

‘keisaragi yujin , you’ll die within a few days.’

fueled by burning anger and icy calculation, i pronounced her death sentence.

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