"Please, I'm begging you, don't!"
"My daughter is only five. She can't lose her father!"
"Let go! Let me go!"
"Get that thing away from me! No!"
Ignoring the man's desperate pleas, two Kalleva gangsters on either side of him held his arms firmly in the transparent isolation room. He was about to become a test subject.
No matter how hard he struggled, all he could do was watch helplessly as a third gangster entered through the door, syringe in hand, and approached him.
A short while later,
Squish!
The needle pierced his skin. The ominous dark red liquid inside was slowly forced into his body.
[Corrupted Reagent]
This was Kalleva's greatest research achievement.
Corrupt Calamity came in three forms: gas, liquid, and a solid crystalline form that existed only in legends and theory.
Under normal circumstances, Corrupt Calamity appeared as a gas. It covered a wide area but was poorly absorbed. Now, thanks to their research into the Great Emperor's Relic, Kalleva had mastered the technology to extract and concentrate gaseous Corrupt Calamity, transforming it into a liquid. This was the [Corrupted Reagent].
In an extremely short time, it could infect the user with a massive amount of Corrupt Calamity, subjecting them to intense stimulation. If the subject was an ordinary person, it would forcibly mutate them into a Corrupted.
Just as it was doing to the man in the room now.
The gangsters released the man and hurried out, leaving him curled up on the floor.
"Ugh, ahhh..."
"It's so hot. I'm burning up. Water. Give me water."
For the first few seconds, the man's whole body convulsed. The Corrupted Reagent injected into him began flowing through his bloodstream, and blood-red patterns soon appeared faintly on his skin.
Then he quickly climbed to his feet, tore at his clothes, and clutched his head, shaking it wildly from side to side.
"Stop it! Don't... Don't scream in my ears!"
"My head's going to explode! Get out!"
"Shut up! I said shut up!"
The man clawed at his own eyes and ears. Corrupt Calamity caused intense hallucinations and maddening whispers. When the human body couldn't withstand them, it tried to destroy its own senses to escape the chaos.
Unfortunately, Corrupt Calamity acted directly on the mind. No matter how badly the man in the room tore at his eyes and ears until they bled, it brought him no relief.
Outside the transparent room, a crowd of gangsters who looked like researchers held all kinds of instruments and equipment, seemingly recording data throughout the process.
At their head stood a gaunt man in a gray lab coat, his long hair an untidy mess.
Dr. Loka adjusted the glasses on his nose.
He narrowed his eyes and watched the crazed man inside the transparent room, who was merging with the Corrupt Calamity.
The earlier stages were always much the same. What mattered was what came next.
Could he reproduce the miracle from this afternoon?
Dr. Loka was eager to find out.
"No! I don't want to become a monster!"
"Anna's waiting for me... waiting for her father to come home. I... I..."
"I can't lose! I can't!"
"I have to... go home... go home to Anna... Anna..."
A miracle had occurred!
The strange, glowing red patterns on the man's body stopped spreading. They even seemed to be receding.
His mental state improved as well. He stopped hurting himself and clenched his teeth, as if doing everything he could to fight some final battle.
Several researchers outside the transparent room cried out in delight. One of them even cheered at the gray-coated man in charge.
"Doctor! We might have done it! Your improved [D-01] Corrupted Reagent really does have a higher concentration, and it's much more stable—"
The Kalleva researcher didn't get to finish his excited exclamation. A sudden, agonized scream from inside the transparent room cut him off.
"No! Aaaaaah!"
Everyone's attention swung back to the room. The blood-red patterns on the man, which had just seemed to be receding, now surged back at lightning speed, spreading across his entire body.
The man's body began to rapidly swell and twist. In just a few seconds, he had lost all semblance of humanity, becoming a grotesque, tumorous monster.
This was what happened when a Corrupted transformation failed.
He became
a Corrupted Corpse.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
A few rapid gunshots ended the newly transformed Corrupted Corpse, blowing apart its head. The gangsters had clearly been prepared for this; they carried out the procedure with practiced ease.
"Ha..." Dr. Loka let out a long sigh.
His brow furrowed, his earlier delight gone. With a deeply frustrated expression, he slammed his fist down on the table in front of him.
"Damn it! Even a concentration of 36% is nowhere near enough? Judging by this, we'd need a reagent with a concentration of at least 45% to get the success rate above 50%, but..."
"How the hell are we supposed to purify it to such a high concentration?!"
Dr. Loka repeatedly tugged at his already hopelessly messy hair. From where he stood, he could see many more transparent rooms like the one they had just used.
This was the true heart of Kalleva's most important and secret factory, hidden deep in the gang's stronghold.
Besides the testing rooms, a huge, eye-catching machine stood in the very center of the factory, resembling an enormous boiler. The Corrupted liquid used for the injections was produced here in a steady stream.
At the heart of the boiler's central recess sat a mysterious four-sided object, shaped like a star and wrapped in dense, reddish-brown mist.
It floated in the center of the boiler, enclosed within several layers of specially made [Isolation Shields]. Inside the shields, it rotated at a steady, regular pace.
With each turn, the red mist of Corrupt Calamity it gave off grew denser. The boiler's machinery drew in the Calamity-laden mist as raw material, then processed and purified it further until it produced the reagent.
It was obvious, then—
The four-sided "Scarlet Star" at the center of the boiler was the key to everything, the very foundation of Kalleva's secret factory!
"To make it more stable, we have to lower the concentration. But if the concentration's too low, it won't provide enough stimulation. Isn't this a damn dead end? Damn it! Damn it!"
"How did the Ash Empire manage to produce Corrupted so reliably five hundred years ago? How did that 'Great Emperor' purify Corrupt Calamity? Why can't we do it now? Damn it! Damn it all!"
The gaunt, long-haired man frantically scribbled across the table. Like a scientist whose research had hit a dead end, he couldn't find the formula he wanted no matter how many times he ran the numbers, and his frustration kept growing.
"D-Doctor..." One of the researchers behind him spoke up quietly, trying to bring the doctor back to reality.
A group of new arrivals had appeared behind him, entering the factory. The most striking among them was a burly man at the front, his hair slicked back.
He wore an eyepatch over his right eye and a Kalleva uniform. His broad arms and shoulders strained the fabric, making him look like a hulking, bestial brute. A dangerous, savage aura radiated from him.
He was a powerful figure who could do as he pleased in the Black Cave Settlement: Kalleva's leader and head of its largest gang, Falmu.
"But it wasn't all for nothing. The experiment just now showed that a strong will to survive can indeed improve the odds of evolving. If we could get more test subjects like that man..."
"Doctor! Doctor!"
The researchers behind him grew anxious as they watched Dr. Loka mutter to himself. He was treating the leader, who had arrived in the middle of the night, like he wasn't even there.
Falmu raised a hand to stop the others from speaking. Then he turned slightly toward the Kalleva men he had brought with him.
"Did you all hear what the doctor just said about the test subjects?"
"Tell the scavengers not to bring us any more drifters and looters. Have them capture people with families instead. That way, we'll get better research data. Understood?"
"Yes, yes! Right away, boss!"
The gangster straightened up and answered loudly. The commotion finally drew the gray-coated doctor out of his research.
Loka asked, "Lord Falmu? It's so late. What brings you here?"
"I heard from my men today that you'd managed to raise the concentration of the Corrupted Reagent by another five percentage points. That's wonderful news. I was busy all day, but as soon as I had a free moment tonight, of course I came to see for myself."
Falmu patted the gray-coated man on the shoulder with his thick hand. "Dr. Loka, you've worked hard. Kalleva wouldn't have reached its current position without your efforts and outstanding research."
"Thank you for the praise, boss. But 'outstanding research' is a bit much." Loka shook his head with a self-deprecating smile.
"What I've achieved so far is nothing compared with the Ash Empire five hundred years ago. Even with scarce resources, the people of that wasteland era could produce reagents with concentrations as high as 70%, using technology far behind what we have today. There are even stories of the crystallized solid form of Corrupt Calamity, something I can't even imagine right now. What a beautiful, dreamlike creation that must have been! Unfortunately, I doubt I'll ever see it in my lifetime..."
The long-haired doctor's face filled with longing and regret. To someone like him, who was so devoted to research that he bordered on obsession, wealth, power, and women held nowhere near the appeal of studying Corrupt Calamity.
Falmu had recognized that about Loka, which was why he trusted him so completely and treated him so well. He even gave a reassuring chuckle.
"There's no need to put yourself down, Doctor. The concentration of Corrupt Calamity in the air back in the wasteland five hundred years ago was dozens of times higher than it is now. You could say people back then grew up breathing it. But as the Wasteland era came to an end, Corrupt Calamity grew thinner and thinner, until it nearly vanished altogether. Your achievement in developing 'Liquefied Zhuo'e' is a remarkable breakthrough, even by the standards of the whole world!"
Faced with Falmu's praise, the doctor didn't brush it off again. Instead, his gaze shifted to the enormous boiler at the center of the factory, and to the "Scarlet Star" floating and spinning silently inside it.
"It's a shame about this Great Emperor's Relic. I can tell it does far more than serve as a [Zhuo'e Radiation Source], the way we're using it now. If only we could figure out how to truly activate it..."
"I have a feeling that would lead to another technological breakthrough on the level of the [Corrupted Reagent]—no, even more advanced than liquefaction—something that would let us make much better use of Corrupt Calamity!"
Loka's lament set the Kalleva leader's heart ablaze. He trembled with excitement, his greedy, yearning gaze following the doctor's to the Scarlet Star.
"It doesn't matter. If ten years aren't enough, we'll keep studying it for another ten! And another ten after that!"
"I believe that with your wisdom, Doctor, you'll one day turn this Great Emperor's Relic into a treasure that truly belongs to [Kalleva], and make it serve us!"
As he listened to Falmu's rousing speech, Loka nodded along, pretending to agree. In truth, he scoffed inwardly.
What he hadn't told Falmu was that their constant siphoning of Corrupt Calamity from the Great Emperor's Relic had already depleted it far beyond its original state when it was first unearthed.
Though it still looked the same as before, and its condition wasn't visible from the outside, in reality...
Loka had made a rough estimate. Forget another ten years—it would be fortunate if it lasted three or four more.
Once all the Corrupt Calamity inside the Scarlet Star was used up, this five-hundred-year-old Great Emperor's Relic would stop working completely, becoming a worthless piece of junk. That was why he had sounded so regretful earlier.
It was as if they had been handed a top-of-the-line sports car, but had no idea how to start it. The only thing they could do was pry open the gas tank and steal the fuel. Worse still, they didn't know how to put it back. All they could do was watch the car run dry, break down for good, and become a useless hunk of metal.
And when that day came...
Dr. Loka shook his head inwardly.
There would be no reason for him to stay with Kalleva any longer. The only reason he served the gang now was the Great Emperor's Relic.
He had already made plans for what came next.
Through his connections with Kalleva, he had learned that the priest in the Church in Black Cave had secretly hidden a Great Emperor's Relic deep underground beneath the church.
Rumor had it that the Great Emperor's Relic in the priest's possession was even more precious, rarer, and more powerful than their Scarlet Star.
At the thought, Loka discreetly licked his dry lips.
"All right, that's enough experiments for today. It's getting late, so let's let the boss get home and rest. Shut down the boiler!"
With Falmu there, Loka couldn't concentrate on his experiments. He might as well call it a night and give the factory's gang members their orders, especially to shut down the boiler.
The less Corrupt Calamity they drew from the Scarlet Star, the longer he could continue his research at Kalleva.
Falmu frowned slightly, clearly displeased, but out of courtesy he said nothing. He simply nodded and turned to leave.
But just then—
"D-Doctor! Something's wrong!" one of the researchers operating the boiler cried out in panic.
The Kalleva members on site had shut down the boiler so many times that they could do it with their eyes closed. But this time, when they tried their usual procedure, the equipment seemed to have malfunctioned.
They had pulled down the control lever and shut off the boiler. Ordinarily, the Scarlet Star would sink along with it, stop spinning, and cease releasing its red mist. But now it still floated in the air. In fact...
It seemed to have been provoked. Before the eyes of the hundreds of Kalleva members in the factory, the Scarlet Star, contained within layer upon layer of [Isolation Shields]...
began to shake violently.
The strange sight stopped Falmu just as he was about to leave. Even Dr. Loka stood gaping, his face full of disbelief.
He had studied the Scarlet Star for decades, but he had never seen the Relic this active before.
If the Kalleva gangsters in the factory were merely surprised and curious at first,
then in the next instant,
everyone in the factory, including Dr. Loka and their leader, Falmu, was overcome with terror and panic.
Because—
Crack... crack!
A tiny fissure appeared in the [Isolation Shield]. It was as if disaster had begun, and the crack soon spread into a dense web of fractures. The red mist of Corrupt Calamity surrounding the Scarlet Star seemed like a beast at last escaping its cage, baring its fangs at everyone in the factory.
The Scarlet Star had once been classified as a Grade B contamination source. Though they had siphoned off a great deal of its Corrupt Calamity and it was far weaker than before, the contamination it would release without the [Isolation Shields]...
was still more than they could withstand!
Most of the people in the factory had poor resistance. They could be severely infected in an instant and, like the failed test subjects, turn into Corrupted Corpses in the blink of an eye!
How could this happen? How?!
Dr. Loka had even forgotten to run. He stared at the Scarlet Star, vibrating at high frequency. He knew the [Isolation Shields] weren't the problem. The Great Emperor's Relic had suddenly become extraordinarily powerful—its energy was even greater than the Corrupt Calamity peak recorded when it was first unearthed!
It was almost as if it were... excited!
What...
had happened?!