It Came Alive

"Aetherine Omega? That Madam Chairwoman?" After hearing her teacher read the contents aloud, Rosaline covered her mouth in surprise.

She had seen that woman in the dream, of course, on the big television in the Wright Apartment room. At the time, Aetherine had been dressed in splendid attire, sitting gracefully on the dais at some charity event, passionately raising funds for local orphans. Her speech had been incredibly moving. When she reached the emotional parts, her eyes had reddened, drawing plenty of tears from Rosaline in front of the television.

Although her life in the Blackwater District had later worsened her impression of Black Tower Pharmaceuticals somewhat, that did not prevent her from having a fairly favorable impression of Aetherine.

After all, in a sense, she and Aetherine were both young ladies of noble birth. They came from similar social classes and both harbored kindness and sympathy for the lower classes. If someone accused Aetherine of hypocrisy and putting on an act, Rosaline would immediately empathize and feel miserable.

—Of course, that was assuming Aetherine truly was a good person.

Ivette hummed in acknowledgment, unsurprised. If the apocalypse had suddenly descended, the Abyss Base hidden within Crater Lake truly would have been a natural shelter. As the CEO of the Black Tower Yish Branch and the "imperial granddaughter" of Black Tower's ruling family, Madam Aetherine certainly had the authority to seek refuge in the Abyss Base.

The real key was still the final two sentences.

The "Divine Molt" at the Abyss of Divine Erosion—what was that? It sounded like it had something to do with "gods." Could it be some transcendent existence that even Black Tower Pharmaceuticals could not understand, leaving them no choice but to use a word like god?

The mutation had come from the sea. Did that mean aberrations had begun in the ocean? Then, when they finally spread onto land, their sheer scale had destroyed Origin Civilization?

That was very possible... She had not dared cross the sea for so long precisely because the ocean was a colossal breeding ground, far too dangerous. Who knew what level of gigantic aberrations lurked within, swallowing little children whole.

She kept flipping through the pages and found nothing else. In other words, Madam Aetherine's dying message contained only that pitifully small amount. Everything else that should theoretically have appeared in a final message was nowhere to be seen.

So proving her family's innocence had been her only obsession before death?

Ivette put down the notebook, then caught sight of Rosaline rummaging through boxes and cabinets like a thief—no, like a little detective—brimming with excitement.

Then Rosaline pulled out a heavy file bag from a dark corner. Most of the documents inside had already decayed and molded, but a few fragments remained barely legible. She carefully picked out several pages whose writing could still barely be read and handed them to her teacher.

Ivette took them and translated for Rosaline as she read.

"Experiment Log F#933. August 9, 2146. Eternal Life Project Phase VI is nearing completion. Summary of results."

"Recorder: Leo Klaus."

"...(illegible)... Success rate: 33% (see attachment for details), an increase of 14% over Phase V."

"The new-generation Metamorphosis Potion Type VII has contributed enormously to improving the success rate."

"Note: Dr. Dillon Dempse's mental state has returned to normal. He may resume leading the experiment."

"Request: Expand experimental authority and swiftly begin Phase VII."

"Board annotation: Approved."

Without question, compared with Madam Aetherine's suicide note, this experimental log revealed far more information. Ivette was stunned for quite a while before extracting the noteworthy details one by one.

August 9, 2146?

She clearly remembered that when she had entered the dream for the first time and awakened in the Abyss Base as an orphan, the date had been 2125. A year before that had been the period when, during her second dream, she had come into contact with the Hoffman family.

So this report had been produced twenty-one years after the original owner first participated in the Metamorphosis Project?

The apocalypse had not arrived during those twenty-one years?

And the two new terms, "Eternal Life Project Phase VI" and "new-generation Metamorphosis Potion Type VII," immediately made her think of her own peculiar nature and the medicine she had taken when participating in the Metamorphosis Project.

But the medicine she had taken back then had been Metamorphosis Potion Type II, while this one was called "Type VII"... Was this the product of later iterations?

Could the Metamorphosis Project have been merely a public-facing alias for the Eternal Life Project? Was curing genetic diseases a lie, while researching immortality was the truth?

Was she herself, with her seemingly ageless and undying body, a successful product of this project?

But if that were true, why had she alone endured beyond the apocalypse?

Could it be like America's moon landing, where the path to success could neither be understood nor replicated? So aside from her, even Black Tower Pharmaceuticals' imperial granddaughter, Madam Aetherine, could only wait helplessly for death?

Seen this way, that 33% success rate could not have referred to an immortality potion, could it? It already sounded incredibly high...

Unable to make sense of it no matter how she thought, Ivette's gaze fell on the name "Dillon Dempse."

She knew that name. When she had entered the dream for the first time, the female doctor responsible for taking care of her, Tebesa Clovelan, had been Dr. Dillon's student.

But Dr. Dillon did not seem to have been involved with the Metamorphosis Project. At least, on the ninth underground level, she had never seen Dr. Dillon. She had only heard Dr. Tabitha mention him while chatting with other researchers.

In this log report, Dr. Dillon had suffered from mental problems but had recovered... Could his mental issues have been related to the Eternal Life Project?

"Teacher, are you... all right?" Seeing Ivette stare at the experiment log and fall into thought as if petrified after finishing it, Rosaline finally could not hold back after waiting for more than ten minutes. She called out worriedly.

"Mm... I'm fine." Ivette shook her head. This document revealed too much. It had allowed her to glimpse the tip of the iceberg of secrets hidden within the Abyss Base before the apocalypse. Though it could not explain the origin of the apocalypse, it did provide some reliable evidence concerning her own origins.

Sure enough, there was a strong possibility that the original owner had been an immortal created by Black Tower Pharmaceuticals. That was why she had awakened here.

She simply did not know why everyone who had created her was dead, while she alone had endured through the apocalypse. There had to be some other mystery hidden within.

Next, she flipped through the other readable experiment logs.

The remaining logs covered the closing stages of Eternal Life Project Phase VI. Since they were no longer summaries of results but daily records, their contents were much more mundane. They simply recorded the subjects' condition monitoring, neither involving further secrets nor mentioning the mysterious Divine Molt from Madam Aetherine's suicide note.

She put down the logs and asked, "Are there any places we haven't searched?"

"No." Rosaline shook her head. She had no idea what those projects and potions might mean, but this archaeological investigation was quite interesting. That was why she had searched everywhere so carefully. She had even found quite a few specialized medical books and planned to pack them up and bring them all back to the manor later.

"Then let's continue to the next floor," Ivette said.

After leaving the eleventh underground level and continuing down to the twelfth, the lingering traces of human life suddenly became much scarcer.

But that was normal. This was the Abyss Base's "main control hub"—in plain terms, where the server data center was located.

It was a broad metal room with relatively few functional divisions. Faintly glowing Magic Light Vines crawled across the cold metal walls, entwining and coexisting with Cloud Containers that had gathered dust for centuries, illuminating the entire room.

At the center of the room stood a colossal columnar machine encased in a sturdy glass cover. The exposed mechanical surface inside resembled obsidian and was covered in countless fine lines. Though they looked like decorations, Ivette was certain those lines contained dense arrays of runes too small to see with the naked eye, representing Origin Civilization's proudest knowledge and power.

She tried to activate it, but there was no response. Feeding magic power into the magic conduit did not work either. As for what exactly had gone wrong, she had no idea.

However, Rosaline, still the expert at rummaging through things, found another set of log records inside a file bag. They had likely been left behind by the maintenance staff of the computer room, and quite a few were relatively well preserved.

Compared with the Eternal Life Project's experiment logs, these were far less valuable. After all, they were merely computer room maintenance records.

Yet after searching for the portions that had not rotted away and carefully examining them, Ivette still found one record that caught her attention.

It was an experiment record from 2128, three years after the original owner had participated in the Metamorphosis Project.

Amid the widespread decay, only one blurred line of writing, charged with intense terror, crossed time and entered Ivette's sight:

"My dear heavens..."

"The Firefly Core..."

"It... it came alive..."