214

I left the room lined with cryosleep devices.

I should have considered this possibility, but finding a research facility had made me get a little carried away, which had only created room for disappointment.

I told myself that and steadied my breathing.

It had not ended in wasted effort yet.

Believing there would be some harvest in the document room, I twisted my body inside… but as one might expect, most of the documents had been carried away, and when I thought about how much value the remaining ones might have, my expectations inevitably dropped.

“Even so,” I thought, taking the remaining documents in hand and examining them.

Then something unexpected had been left behind.

“Chimera Project…”

Most of the title was unreadable, but from the parts I could read, there was no doubt it must have said that.

When I opened the document in my hand, unlike the title, the contents seemed intact and remained in a readable state.

As for what was inside… at a glance, it certainly contained the information I wanted.

“So it goes from ‘Demon’ and ‘Gorgon’ to ‘Scissor,’ ‘Needle,’ and ‘Chaos,’ huh…”

I could vaguely tell what Scissor and Needle had been based on.

I definitely had not encountered those.

It was hard to believe that the spider man, who had clearly retained parts that seemed like monster body parts fused with a human, was a product of the Genetically Enhanced Soldier Project, and he was probably a test subject from the Chimera Project.

I thought he was one of the remaining three, but I might find out as I kept reading.

The document I had picked up summarized the results of the Chimera Project.

The first thing I learned was that this “Demon” had been the first successful case of the Chimera Project.

Moreover, it was the octopus-type creature called the Forest’s Nightmare, the first thing I had eaten.

Apparently, it had been shaped so that a human head was stored inside its mouth, and a new fact I did not want to know came to light: I might have eaten that too.

It was written that he had taken on a large debt to save his sick little sister, then sold himself to repay it and cover her surgery costs.

“Beyond saving…”

All I could do was hope that his little sister had survived and made it south.

Next was “Gorgon”… and this one was the spider man.

Moreover, he had been a death-row inmate and serial killer.

That explained his personality.

As for the details, most of it was already known to me, and since he was already gone, I will omit them.

However, something more important had been written about these two.

Namely, which research facilities the Chimera Project had been advanced in.

“No way,” I thought, and when I checked, the storage locations of every test subject were recorded.

The page slipped from the fingers pinching it.

Setting aside the fact that reading it was still difficult as ever, this information was exactly what I had wanted.

Out of joy, I felt as if I were smiling despite my expression not changing, but then my emotional suppression function returned me to a calm state.

It seemed the change in my emotions had been a little too large.

But thanks to that, I was now able to read this document calmly.

For now, I looked over the next one, “Scissor.”

As expected, this Scissor had been a crab.

To be precise, it was a successful case of the Chimera Project equipped with the carapace and enormous weapons of a large crab-type monster called an Iron Mud Crab, which possessed claws capable of tearing even a car apart.

That was Scissor.

Its lower body was close to humanoid, with legs growing from its back, a shell covering its upper body, and both arms turned into claws.

Incidentally, it seemed he had been introduced here because of gambling debt.

He also seemed to be an unrivaled dog lover, and the notes section said, “Upon seeing his own appearance, the first thing he lamented was that he could no longer pet dogs.”

Some truly unimportant information was written there.

I skipped over that part and moved on to “Needle.”

It possessed quite powerful poison, and its appearance, like the spider man, retained a human upper body while the lower body had become that of a scorpion.

Leaving aside my impression that “I feel like I saw this in a movie,” how was this statement—“The combat ability of the scorpion portion is beyond reproach, but the human portion is an obvious weak point”—acceptable as a weapon?

Certainly, with that appearance, even I would attack the human part without hesitation.

As I read on, unlike the spider man, it did not possess offensive or defensive abilities such as “spitting acid” or “molting,” and this part was clearly declared “a failure.”

“And the notes section says, ‘A genuine idiot who fell for a ridiculous scam’…”

Apparently, the debt from that incident had grown at an abnormal speed, and as a result, he had been sold here.

He was so pitiful that I might hesitate to fight him if I encountered him.

Lastly was “Chaos”… but as for this one’s detailed information, it ended with a single line: “Disposed of due to uncontrollability.”

Its appearance was unknown, and aside from its name, only a tiny amount of information remained, treating it as a failed case.

Apparently, as a result of combining multiple monsters, it had taken form, but a serious problem occurred, so it had been disposed of.

This would not let the test subject rest in peace—that was what I thought, but apparently this experiment had also used a death-row inmate.

It said they had been able to bring it to completion because the test subject’s vitality far exceeded the researchers’ expectations, which made it clear that it normally would have been impossible.

Incidentally, because these results were applied to the later Genetically Enhanced Soldier Project, it seemed the rule became “only one monster species is to be used.”

I had once wondered, “Wouldn’t mixing various things make them stronger, so why didn’t they do that?” but now I had learned the answer in this form.

Finally, I checked the locations where these Chimera Project test subjects were stored.

Every one of those locations was in the west.

Just as I had predicted, it seemed the early types had been researched in the west so they could be deployed in the war against the elves.

The problem was the location.

“Southwest, huh…”

Yes, the southwest was where Type Ogre—the second Nemesis Code holder I had eaten—had been sleeping.

And Inos, who was Type Ogre, had acquired two codes by the time he met me.

What did that mean?

“There is a possibility that Scissor and Needle have already been eaten.”

I said it out loud, and while I did not want to consider this possibility, it seemed the most likely.

There was also the possibility that he had eaten others, and there was even the possibility that successful cases still remained.

Either way, I had to visit the two locations written here.

I took out my map and marked the approximate positions while comparing it with the document.

Just in case, I also confirmed the storage location of the spider man that I knew of, and it seemed this information was correct.

I let out a relieved breath and rummaged through the document room for a while to see if there was anything else, but as expected, I did not encounter any more information beyond this.

I had known that most of the important documents had been withdrawn, so there was nothing to be discouraged about regarding that, but what bothered me still bothered me.

After all, this was supposedly the research facility for “Behemoth.”

From Lark’s story, there was no doubt it was a late-stage genetically enhanced soldier type, and if there were related documents, it would not be strange for them to contain information on other test subjects.

But in the facility where I, the final genetically enhanced soldier, had been located, no decent information had remained.

“Or rather… unless it’s just my imagination, this place and that place are different in various ways.”

For example, the size.

This facility was mostly wide and tall, probably assuming that Behemoth would move through it.

However, the place I had been in was narrow and low overall.

“Budget reasons?”

Considering that this place was close to the Imperial Capital, perhaps the money saved on various costs had allowed more to be spent on the facility itself.

In any case, when I searched the other rooms to see if there was anything, I found the personal data of someone who seemed to be the successful Behemoth case.

Apparently, Behemoth’s test subject had not been a trainee like me, but a regular soldier with abundant combat experience and a reputation for martial arts.

His rank was lieutenant, and after losing his right arm in the war and withdrawing from the front line, he volunteered to become a genetically enhanced soldier.

Also, his reason for volunteering was “to return to the front line,” making him a warmonger.

“…If he had been alive, there’s a chance I would have been eaten.”

Now, I could think of the result here as “fortunate.”

If I was inferior in basic combat ability, original specifications, and experience too, then in a head-on fight, the odds would be bad no matter how I looked at it.

After finishing my search of all the remaining rooms and deciding there was no more to gain, I went aboveground.

Since little time had passed since the date changed, the surroundings were pitch-dark.

Even if I prepared food now, there was no sign of prey in the area at all.

Having no choice, I looked around for a building that still retained its form… but found none.

Going back underground again was too much of a bother, so I sat down on the rubble and closed my eyes.

Ah, but even so, the documents that had been carried away still bothered me terribly.

Since they had information this detailed, the documents concerning genetically enhanced soldiers must also have been highly accurate and even more detailed.

If the next place I headed to turned out to be a miss, should I consider making a deal with the Furon Council-State?

While thinking, I drifted in and out on a body that did not feel sleepiness.

However, as expected, I could not seem to sleep there, so in the end, I went back underground, gathered mats from the nap room, and made a bed for myself.

Perhaps because I had slept in a proper place for the first time in a while, when I woke up and returned aboveground, it was already past noon.

Since I had spent all of yesterday underground, next I needed to eat.

“Even living is hard.”

After muttering that, I lumbered toward the forest.