The laboratory that had provided Sun Ji and Yin Lu with Contaminated Crystals had yet to be found. Perhaps these people could provide some clues?
"Contaminated... Crystals?"
Confusion flickered through the Locust Man's compound eyes. He genuinely seemed not to know.
Was the laboratory researching Special Monster modifications different from the one researching Contaminated Crystals?
No, perhaps these "lab rats" simply did not know much.
After all, Fake Magical Girls had only been revealed to the public after the recent riot. Since these people were lab rats, they had likely been illegally imprisoned long before that.
"This lead is extremely important. If we can prove that laboratory was producing 'Contaminated Crystals,' then it means it wasn't a laboratory directly under the Association."
I tried to guide them into thinking about it.
"Please think carefully. Have you ever seen Star Crystals that looked blackened, moldy, like they had passed their expiration date?"
My question plunged the Monsters into silence, but none of them could say for certain whether they had or had not.
Even now, they were still hiding things from me.
After what they had gone through, that wariness would not be easy to dispel.
"Then let me ask something else. When you were held in the laboratory, were you kept in separate rooms? Were you restrained?"
The Snake Woman looked at the Locust Man and answered only after receiving his approval.
"We were separated and isolated. Before we escaped from the laboratory, none of us knew each other."
"On what pretext did they take you in?"
"Medical treatment. We all originally had illnesses that were difficult to cure... mostly terminal diseases. They claimed that implanting a Black Crystal into our bodies could cure us and restore our health..."
So they had not lied about that.
"And the price was