215

I ran across the wasteland with the forest beside me.

My destination was west, but the reason I did not cut straight through the desert that had once been the Imperial Capital was because I remembered from my previous visit that sand made it surprisingly difficult to gain speed, and I also considered the possibility that contamination might still remain.

I also had the objective of investigating the outer edge of the desert, so I was running along the boundary with the forest like this.

It was also because I thought this was more advantageous than moving through an empty desert while searching for something.

Thanks to that, I had discovered the remains of towns several times, but… all of them were in terrible condition, and there was no way I could expect any gain.

Just in case, I checked them on the map, but the results only made me silently shake my head.

The one thing that could be called a harvest was the water from an underground channel flowing from an underground lake to the north.

It was true that it helped, but could there not have been something a little more?

In that fashion, I spent two days reaching the western side of the Old Imperial territory.

First, when I searched for the nearest research facility, Scissor’s, I found it unexpectedly easily.

Knowing the location really was a major advantage.

When I immediately tried to go underground, the entrance was a little narrow for my body, and after struggling my way down, I found a research facility that had been splendidly ransacked.

“Ah, so one of them was definitely here.”

Unlike me, Inos, Type Ogre, had met Lark and learned about the Nemesis Code.

This devastation existed because of that.

“This looks like it’ll take time.”

I let out a sigh and covered my mouth because of the dustiness.

First, I checked for survivors, but even after forcing myself through the narrow corridors, as expected, all three cryosleep devices were no longer operating.

The forms of the test subjects visible inside were also terrible, and it was obvious at a glance that this was not something from the past few years.

The only capsule left open had accumulated dust, and it was clear at a glance that someone had been here.

“This place is a miss, huh…”

My shoulders dropped, but there were still documents left.

After returning and beginning painstaking work that did not suit my body, about three hours passed—and there were no new discoveries, while most of the documents I found only contained things I already knew.

“A complete miss.”

I pulled myself together and moved on.

After crawling out from underground, I headed south.

It was the research facility of the Demon I had eaten.

Since there were objects I recognized along the way, it seemed there was a possibility that I could have found it if I had searched carefully around here.

With that, I safely found the second research facility as well.

This one seemed to have been properly hidden, but the camouflage had been ruined by the test subject emerging.

“It wouldn’t have been strange for me to find it in this state,” I said, clearing away rubble and expanding the entrance.

I descended underground and passed through the open gate.

I walked through the research facility, which was more spacious than expected, while casting an illumination spell.

After probing my surroundings a little, it seemed electricity could still be used here.

“So it has its own power generation facilities, huh…”

With this size, it could also be used as a base.

Thinking that, I began exploring the inside of the facility.

What I found was a large capsule that seemed to be a cryosleep device.

The number of them was only one.

Even if there had been a survivor here, it probably would not have meant anything, but still, the hope one could have differed depending on whether there was someone alive or not.

I let out a breath, returned to the corridor, and went around checking the state of the facility.

What I learned was that it was in better condition than expected, and documents had been properly left behind.

The document room was built for humans, so getting inside took a little effort.

And even after entering, it was cramped and I could barely move, but after a great deal of struggle, I succeeded in carrying out documents that seemed important.

I considered just expanding the entrance, but this was underground, so careless destructive activity was strictly forbidden.

And so, I lined up the documents I had carried out in a hall, used an illumination spell, sat down heavily, and began reading.

What I learned was that this Demon had been the first successful case of the Chimera Project.

Before reaching that point, there had been hundreds of failures, and the content after they shifted from success with laboratory animals to humans was nauseating.

“…Subject One failed. Subject Two and Subject Three also failed. Subject Four went mad. Subjects Five and Six failed, and Subject Seven is… unreadable.”

Since there was nothing beyond Sample 374 among the laboratory animals, human experimentation had probably begun from there.

The consideration of the causes and experiments to prove them.

The selection of test subjects derived from the experimental results and that process.

“Without a strong mind and strong will, they would go insane after seeing their transformed appearance. That’s why the reason of ‘to save family’ was convenient.”

Remembering the reason of the man who became the Chimera Project’s first successful case, my fist unconsciously clenched hard.

But that lasted only briefly.

My emotional suppression function returned my heart to calm.

It seemed this emotional suppression function had been born from technological improvements accompanying later data collection, but at this point, it was still not like the one installed in me; it only suppressed overly large emotional fluctuations to some extent.

Thinking about it, it was only natural that the data from the Chimera Project had been used for the Genetically Enhanced Soldier Project.

It was nothing new that my existence was built on top of their sacrifices.

“And I didn’t even try to realize that.”

I looked up at the ceiling, closed my eyes, and sorted through these hopeless emotions.

Even if I did not do that, they would be suppressed on their own, but for this, I felt I should swallow it by my own will.

After a while, I lowered my gaze and looked through the documents again.

The contents entered my head, but more and more things were beyond my understanding.

Unknown terms also kept appearing, so from here on, it seemed specialized knowledge was required.

Thinking it was probably technical material, I picked up another booklet and flipped through it.

“This is technical too.”

After that, I swapped through multiple documents, but not even half of them were readable, and even as I continued looking through them, there was nothing that could be called a new discovery.

“This is as far as it goes,” I muttered, closing the final document.

It could not be helped that the information obtainable from the earliest Chimera Project facility was mostly things I already knew.

It was true that I had hoped I might find something related to the Nemesis Code, but I had not expected there to be absolutely nothing.

Most of the documents from the research facility of Type Goliath, which should have been the final result of the Genetically Enhanced Soldier Project, had been carried away, and when I considered that, I could not help thinking that perhaps no more information about the Nemesis Code could be obtained from the Old Imperial territory.

In any case, I had seen what I needed to see here.

I left the underground facility and ran through the forest.

The place I needed to head was south-southeast from here.

I continued running through the night toward the final research facility, Needle’s.

The instant I discovered it, my emotional suppression function mercilessly pulled my thoughts back to calm.

There certainly was a vertical shaft leading underground, seemingly to a research facility.

The doors that must once have belonged to an elevator had been destroyed, and beyond them, the path was buried in rubble.

“I can understand it.”

If he had eaten the second one here, then he would have learned about the problem dwelling in his own body.

If he learned it not from someone else’s mouth, but from his own experience, then he would have had no choice but to acknowledge it.

It was easy to imagine that somewhere in his heart, he too had not been able to fully believe Lark’s words, thinking, “There’s no way something that stupid could be true.”

By nature, it was that absurd of a story.

So if he learned it was reality and was driven by anger into a destructive impulse, I could not condemn him.

I too had vented my anger on my surroundings that day.

After silently beginning to remove rubble, I continued for a while, then advanced the illumination spell into the space visible through a gap.

There, metal that seemed to be the remains of the elevator blocked the entrance underground, and I could tell that the rubble of a different color visible there belonged to the inside of the facility.

In other words, the underground facility had collapsed.

I stopped working, returned aboveground, looked up at the sky, and let out a breath.

“Come to think of it, I didn’t eat anything yesterday.”

I did not feel hungry.

But somehow, I felt like I had less strength than usual.

I did not even know when I had last hydrated.

For the time being, I drank water and searched for prey to fill my stomach.

Because I could not concentrate on hunting, it took a little time, but I managed to bring down a boar.

I butchered it and grilled the meat as usual.

In silence, I chewed the cooked meat, swallowed, and grilled the next piece.

I was thinking only about one thing so intensely that I could not even taste it.

The things I had searched so hard for and failed to find could be discovered all at once in three places as long as I had information.

In that case, there was only one thing for me to consider.

“Search for the documents that were carried away in the Council-State.”

It was not realistic.

There was a sufficient possibility that documents from two hundred years ago still remained.

However, searching for them on my own would be no different from attacking the Council-State.

Therefore, there was only one option I could take—obtaining them through negotiation.

In the worst case, I would also consider revealing my true identity.

Fortunately, I had negotiation material.

The spirit sword—if I dangled that before them, even the Council-State would not be able to ignore me.

Also, if I revealed my identity, I could emphasize that the time left to me was slight and explain the risk of fighting a genetically enhanced soldier who had lost his reason and gone berserk.

I knew there were mountains of problems.

Even so, I had enough material in hand to find hope.

“…Shall I go?”

After finishing my meal, I stood up.

I made it sound cool, but what waited for me was cleaning up.

Once that was done, I would finally set out.