213

Five days had already passed since I returned to exploring—and it was fortunate that, after confirming my current position, I had been able to find my marker that same day.

It was good that I had resumed exploring from there, but… I still had no results.

I knew it would not be that easy to find, and if there was a research facility, I predicted it would be near the Imperial Capital, where various functions had been concentrated, or else in the west so they could deploy subjects to the front line.

The former had been blown away without a trace, and since the research facilities I had discovered so far, aside from my own, had been found in the west, I was beginning to think, “Shouldn’t I be searching over there after all?”

However, if I postponed exploring the southeastern part of the Old Imperial territory here, my concern that I might end up clashing with Seizeria after they advanced kept me in this place.

“It feels like I’m playing a territory-control game,” I grumbled, and I had the leeway to do so thanks to this nostalgic taste of home.

“Ah, irresistible.”

I carefully ate the last sausage sandwiched between hardtack with ketchup and mustard.

Then I felt a sense of loss after finishing it.

There was still hardtack left, but that was not what I wanted.

After finishing my meal, I took a break with the tea I had obtained and thought about what came next.

Of the research labs I had found so far, one had belonged to the Chimera Project, and the other had belonged to the Genetically Enhanced Soldier Project.

“Considering deployment to the front line, it makes sense for them to be in the west. And I, who became the final genetically enhanced soldier, was on the east side. In other words, the early groups, from when the front line had not yet been pushed back, were in the west, and the late groups after the retreat were in the east. That’s also possible.”

This was only speculation, but it seemed to fit together well enough.

In that case, even if I could discover research labs in the west, I needed to consider the possibility that they would be meaningless depending on their condition.

I could not say anything for certain because it was unclear how far the Empire had ultimately been pushed back, but if asked whether they would continue research in facilities that were no longer in a safe zone, the first possibility that came to mind was evacuation.

Naturally, given the nature of the research, I also needed to consider that the research contents might have been destroyed, but since several people, including me, had remained, I believed that concern would turn out to be needless.

While thinking, I washed the empty cup, finished tidying up, and resumed exploring.

I wanted some kind of result soon.

Another twenty days passed.

Feeling the temperature drop against my skin, I continued exploring again today as always.

Assuming the research facilities were underground, I had focused on finding the remains of buildings that would have formed their aboveground sections, but still had no results.

Should I finally decide to end my exploration of the southeast? I thought as I put the last piece of hardtack I had carefully saved into my mouth.

Most of the map had already been filled in, and with this, Seizeria should not be able to advance into the unexplored territory even if I left it alone for some time.

I remained there for a while and thought.

Should I continue exploring like this?

Or should I move to a place with a higher probability?

“The outer parts of the Old Imperial territory were ravaged by invasions from neighboring countries. But the southeast was not adjacent to them and remained unharmed, which is exactly why I saw a possibility that a research facility might remain here…”

Yet there was not even a building, let alone a facility.

I had known that development in the southeast was delayed and that its population was small.

Because of that, I also knew the military had used it as a training ground to exterminate monsters that appeared there.

“There were definitely military-related facilities on the southern side too, so I thought it wouldn’t be strange if there was a research lab…”

I let out a long breath, slumped my shoulders, and sipped the small remaining amount of coffee from the cup in my hand.

The tea had long since run out, only a few servings of coffee remained, and my various seasonings were steadily decreasing too.

Even if I left here now, there was no need to worry about Seizeria absorbing unexplored territory.

It was not as if they had no reason to expand their territory straight southeast, but doing so would provoke the Furon Council-State.

I told myself, “It’s fine,” and made the decision to leave this place.

My destination was the area around the Imperial Capital—I would bet on the possibility that even if the city had been blown away by the final weapon, the underground sections still remained.

To be honest, I had avoided the area around the Imperial Capital until now.

Because I had lived in the Imperial Capital, there were things I could not help remembering.

“Even though more than half a year has already passed since I woke up…”

No, should I say it had only been half a year?

When I thought about it, two hundred years had passed before I knew it.

I laughed at myself for having unexpectedly thick nerves, having managed this well in a situation where it would not have been strange for me to lose everything and fall into desperation.

I drained the completely cold coffee, stood up, and checked the direction.

I wiped the cup with a damp cloth, put it into my backpack, and stood up.

After carefully shouldering my backpack, which felt like it had started to deteriorate slightly, I began running.

If there were intact shops in the town, I wanted to resupply as well.

I continued running through the night and arrived at my destination after noon.

As for contamination and the like, I would trust that time had solved it.

Positionally, this seemed to be the southeastern part of a town on the outer edge of the Old Imperial Capital.

Perhaps because the damage from the aftershock of the explosion had been limited here, there were still some parts where buildings barely retained their original forms here and there.

With this, resupplying should be possible.

With a map in one hand, I tried to grasp my exact position, but as always happened at times like this, I could not find anything indicating my current location.

After wandering along the road for a while, I finally found one.

From an information map showing a bicycle parking area, I was able to determine my exact position.

From there, I stared down the map for a while.

If I knew my current position, then reaching the place I wanted to go would be easy as long as I had a map.

So first, I moved to the market.

My objective was a map.

This was just an idea that came to me, but I wanted to compare a slightly older map with the latest one and examine the differences.

The Genetically Enhanced Soldier Project was one thing, but the Chimera Project clearly had ethical problems and, no matter how I looked at it, was not something that would appeal to the public.

If such a facility was near a town, they would surely try to hide it, and I wondered whether I could find it through maps.

Of course, I did not think I would actually find one, but any clue at all would be a gain.

After comparing maps I had acquired from a bookstore I found for a while—the result, in short, was that there were quite a few differences.

There were differences such as some buildings being present or absent, and roads having slightly different shapes, perhaps due to mistakes.

Maybe there was something they wanted to hide here.

As I was thinking that, I found something even more suspicious.

“Imperial Genetic Engineering Research Institute…”

The name alone made it clear they had no intention of hiding it.

Partly because I knew about it, but still, I had not expected it to exist so openly inside the town.

Even though only the large ones were listed, spreading out an enlarged map that showed building names and thinking this and that made me feel foolish.

Well, around the Imperial Capital, the existence of facilities like this was not impossible.

There was also a sufficient possibility that it was an unrelated, purely academic research institution, so I marked it on a map with a different scale and headed toward this research institute.

Fortunately, the distance was not that great, so it should not take even an hour.

That prediction was correct, and although the paved road was ruined, running on it was easier compared to the forest, so I arrived without difficulty.

Standing before a collapsed gray two-story building that no longer retained its original form, I slumped my shoulders and thought, “I have to search from here?”

After that, I spent a while removing rubble.

I set down my luggage and silently engaged in physical labor while tapping the floor to check whether there was an underground level.

That was how I found an elevator.

An elevator in a two-story building.

“Could this actually be a hit?”

A voice tinged with delight slipped out without thinking.

I put more strength into the rubble-clearing work, diligently carried it away, and safely exposed the elevator.

Seeing doors that were clearly too large for human passengers, I became convinced there was an underground level.

I immediately pried the doors open… and, seeing the elevator car in front of me, I was at a loss for what to do.

I wanted to avoid dropping it downward.

It would be troublesome if it blocked the entrance.

But before that, I needed to confirm that an underground level existed.

I believed there absolutely was one, but nothing would begin until I saw it with my own eyes.

From here on, I will simply say that I “tried extremely hard.”

I tried slipping my fingers into gaps, but there was no way there would be enough space for my huge hands to slide in, so I tried this and that through trial and error.

As a result, it became the spirit sword’s turn, since it had a proven track record as a rock drill.

I opened several holes in the floor of the elevator car, peeled it away with brute force, and checked below.

“There it is…”

The illumination spell shone into the hollow space leading underground.

I had finally found one.

The relief of being saved pushed away the reality that I would be taking the lives of the test subjects.

In high spirits, I smashed through the floor and descended into the hollow space leading underground.

After descending about thirty meters, I reached the bottom, where I found a large door just like the one in the aboveground section.

I pried it open, went inside, and darkness welcomed me.

I added light with illumination magic, stepped inside, and saw white walls.

“No doubt about it. It’s a research facility.”

When I took one step forward, accumulated dust rose into the air.

It was dusty enough to make me want a mask.

For the time being, I took out a cloth, held it over my nose and mouth with my hand, and began walking.

First, I inspected the area near the entrance to learn the overall layout of the facility.

There were terminals, but none of them worked.

It seemed there was no power here.

It was probably the same type as the facility I had been in.

However, now that I had illumination magic even in the darkness, there was no problem.

Accompanied by a floating light, I investigated each room I found one by one.

It would have been nice if there had been a guide board, but I did not find one, so there was no helping it.

After carefully investigating room after room for a while, the eighth room turned out to be a document room.

“I’ll check this later,” I said, leaving a conspicuous scratch mark on the door as a marker.

I began walking again, and that was when I noticed something.

I had been walking so normally that I had not realized it, but the hallway’s width and height were not merely fine for my huge body; they were actually spacious.

“In other words, the test subjects here are at least as large as me.”

That reminded me of the words of my fellow subject, Lark.

“Behemoth…”

A genetically enhanced soldier with a different concept from me, specialized in combat ability.

I had anticipated the possibility of a battle, but I had nothing but the feeling that it would undoubtedly be a formidable enemy.

Relying on the magical light, I continued walking through the endlessly dark facility.

And finally, I found the room I was looking for.

However, what was there clearly differed from the scene I had expected.

I had thought it would be the same as the research facility I had been in.

But this place was not.

The forms of test subjects like me that I had finally found were remains that seemed to consist only of bones and a little skin.

I checked each cryosleep capsule one by one, but in every one, the state was such that I could not believe “a person had been there.”

What lay inside the four large capsules in total were all things that had accepted the passage of two hundred years in the proper form.

If they were not alive, the Nemesis Code would not react.

There was no way a research lab without its own power facility could continue keeping test subjects alive.

The emotional suppression function reset the despair that fell into my chest.

“The area around the Imperial Capital is wiped out.”

Because of the complete infrastructure and its convenience, dangerous things like experimental soldiers had been researched around the Imperial Capital.

Even if there were others, it was reasonable to think they would be the same as this place.

Calm thought and despair struggled inside my head.

It was not as if I had returned to square one.

It was still true that the places I needed to search had been narrowed down.

Now, if there was something in that document room, I could move forward.

For now, I simply prayed for that and left the room.