Chapter 242
"The actual space on the fourth floor seems to be larger than it appears on the engineering drawings—I had sensed that before; the drawings seem incomplete."
"I feel the same way..."
Efnir thought for a moment, then gestured on the drawing with her hand. "That's about right."
"It looks like a tree."
"Um..."
Efnir looked up at the "Shard" suspended in mid-air, her finger pressing down on the drawing, lost in thought.
Just then, a soldier ran over.
"Sir, we've made some discoveries here; you might need to come and take a look!"
Efnir and her adjutant exchanged a glance.
"You lead the way."
They followed the soldiers to the middle level, which was located towards the rear of the center. From there, the view was excellent, offering a clear view of the entire Central Well area.
Here stands a "central control console," a circular control room-like space with four transparent glass walls in front—strings of characters scroll rapidly across the glass; these are actually several large display screens.
Several researchers and engineers were huddled together, all focused on their work. One of them saw Efnir and his adjutant and immediately came over.
"The data here has been deleted."
He looked anxious and got straight to the point, "Several data disks are missing—we've searched the entire floor but haven't found them. Someone must have taken them."
Efnir frowned slightly and lowered her voice, "As expected, someone has been here before."
She wasn't surprised at all.
She had this feeling as early as when Efnir first came to investigate: someone had gotten there first.
Furthermore, that person's arrival predates the explosive growth of plants within the tower—meaning it was likely Maesakagawa Garrison District was attacked.
"We were trying to recover the data by tracing the data transmission Trace, but we discovered this while reconstructing the encoding..."
The researcher pointed seriously to one of the screens, "'Angel' —that word seems to have appeared on it..."
173. Birth
"'Angel'?"
Efnir frowned. "Are you sure the person mentioned in these records is really codenamed 'Angel'?"
"It's absolutely true. Based on the fragmentary descriptions we've pieced together, we're quite certain that the 'Angel' mentioned here is the one controlled by the Apostle..."
Seemingly considering that the two Angel discovered so far were former agents, the researcher paused, without uttering a word.
"It's okay, please continue."
Seeing that Efnir had no reaction, he carefully chose his words and continued, "In short, it is because we discovered a connection between the two, and that the 'Angel' described here are even more powerful than the 'Angel' we know, possessing immense power capable of directly confronting S-Rank Erosion Entity..."
"No, I think you're mistaken. The Apostle ' 'Angel' are absolutely not capable of fighting the Erosion Entity."
Efnir countered.
Angel —this word was all too familiar to her. For the past month, the word "Angel" had appeared in her mind every day, constantly reminding her that a powerful enemy was eyeing the city.
One of the characteristics of Angel is that their attacks, or rather, their energy output and application, are directly linked to and connected with Corruption Energy. Their methods of action are more focused on energy effects and conflict reactions than physical ones. Therefore, the suppressive power that Angel exhibit on the front lines is not as terrifying as originally imagined.
Of course, even so, it is by no means something that an ordinary army can resist. While an army cannot inflict substantial damage on Angel, the power of Angel cannot be resisted by simple armor alone.
Conversely, the applications of Angel are far more numerous than imagined, and the way to achieve this is through the simple and clear path of "war"—its existence could even shake the very foundation of the entire Human Federation.
In conclusion, Angel do not exist solely to combat the Erosion Entity; at least, the Angel Efnir saw were like Qinglan and Flying Swallow.
"Sir, what you say makes a lot of sense... However, we have also considered this issue. Although there are some disagreements, all other descriptions match the description of an 'Angel'..."
"Is that so...? In that case, it is indeed possible."
"Wait... Angel?" The adjutant frowned. "Why... no, I mean, could it be that the Apostle were indeed involved? But the Apostle don't seem to have been here. The data was erased, but isn't the most crucial thing still here?"
"But it would make sense if it were related to the Apostle," Efnir shook her head. "Or perhaps, it's not impossible that other forces are involved."
Why did the Apostle choose the Maesakagawa Garrison District? Efnir had been troubled and pondered this question, but it wasn't until the reappearance of the Apostle, the rampage of the "Mutated Entity," and the discovery of the "Shard" that secrets once hidden in the shadows began to surface, discovered but not fully revealed... As the large number of Shard were pieced together, everything seemed to make sense again.
But something still felt missing, Efnir's intuition told me.
"Sir, you mean Codename J?"
Efnir didn't answer, but instead asked, "This facility existed during the wars of the Old Era... I don't know much about the history of the Old Era. May I ask how many years have passed since that era?"
"Based on verifiable records, it has probably been more than a hundred years..."
More than a hundred years...
Efnir seemed lost in thought.
"Forget it... it's been too long, even if we wanted to trace it back, we couldn't go back to that time."
Efnir shook her head, dismissing the fleeting thought.
"So it really is because of something else... Putting aside the 'Shard,' I'm more curious about why the 'Angel' appeared in these records—even headquarters knew nothing about Angel before we were attacked by Angel."
This is what Efnir's finding most strange.
Why would the research conducted within the Underground Research Institute involve "Angel"? Did the researchers here know of the existence of "Angel" before headquarters, or even the Human Federation?
"Continue your decoding. We still have too little information. We need to know as soon as possible the extent of their understanding of the 'Angel,' at least to know the full picture of the project, or rather, whether this 'Angel' is not that 'Angel'..."
Efnir took a deep breath and turned her gaze to the "Shard" in the Central Well. "In any case, continue your work."
The most crucial clue is still missing.
More and more things are happening, and there must be some inherent connections between them. We have already grasped some of the information so far, but we still need a trigger, a clue, to piece together these pieces of information to make it a complete reproduction.
Efnir lowered her gaze, her eyes falling on the light blue hair ribbon on her wrist.
She had a premonition that something had been lurking in the dark shadows, ready to awaken.
Is it Apostle? Or some other being?
"In addition, we have also discovered clues about 'Mutated Entity'..." The researcher handed a small notebook to Efnir.
The notebook is slightly larger than the palm of your hand. The cover is clean, but you can clearly see Trace that it has been frequently flipped through.
"What's in here?" the adjutant asked.
"Some research on 'Mutated Entity' has been documented, which is exactly the data we were missing."
"Why is this thing here? I remember most of the data should have been destroyed..."
"It looks like a log or something... It seems to have been overlooked because it wasn't a research record but rather a collection of random thoughts. Perhaps it was just a researcher's little scheme..."
"Is that so...?"
Efnir took the notebook and opened it.
"'The team leader is a hopeless idiot; I just can't get along with her. Oh, by the way, the dinner she treated me to tonight was pretty good, and the weather was perfect too. I'll make a mental note of that.'"
Efnir read it aloud, frowning slightly. "Isn't this a diary?"
"Hmm... It's a bit rude, but it contains details of some experiments, so it might still be useful."
Efnir flipped through the pages. "'I have a feeling we're heading in the wrong direction. The team leader is still too conservative. She can't understand what's truly crucial for the surviving humans. She insists that the Erosion Entity must be completely eradicated, but is that really the case? We've always coexisted with bacteria and viruses for thousands, tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of years. The Erosion Entity have been with us for at least several centuries. Why can't we escape the shadow cast by the Erosion Entity today?'"
"'What a boring day. Why did she take me to see the rice paddies? Is she an idiot?'"
"If those guys at ICS are all dimwitted idiots, then I am one today. I suddenly think their research on plants is feasible."
Efnir paused for a moment, then simply flipped to the back.
"'Great, now I'm a team leader too. She'll probably be shocked, right?'"
"'Although I've heard of plant Variant elsewhere, it's a fact that plants are generally unaffected by the Mutation of Corruption Energy. What exactly is at play in the process of plants resisting Dregsification?'"
"She didn't seem very happy..."
"' Corruption Wave... I'll call it that for now. It shouldn't be selective, but compared to other animals, plants, and microorganisms, humans seem to be the most severely affected. 'Shard' seem to be able to act on it.'"
These kinds of random thoughts happen every day, and occasionally the date and time are noted, which provides a clear timeline and direction for the investigation.
Efnir scrolled down and paused.
"'This characteristic should be able to be adapted to function within the human body.' -- This is probably the original origin of the term 'Mutated Entity'."
Efnir sighed softly.
She didn't know who the notebook belonged to, but there was no doubt that the person who left it was probably dead.
Efnir flipped through the pages again. The initial ramblings gradually decreased, and the content about experiments increased. A large amount of data and calculations filled the pages, and the diary almost became an experimental logbook, until it abruptly ended a month ago.
"Take it."
Efnir closed the notebook and handed it to her adjutant.
"Return this to the relevant people and begin the investigation."
It must be said that such an experiment is groundbreaking, but it is also fraught with difficulties.
As for what happened during the project and when Maesakagawa was attacked, Efnir had no way of knowing, but the final result was that the owner of the diary had not yet achieved final victory, and the "Mutated Entity" had already been born.
174. Hostage handover
One hour later...
The parsing process went relatively smoothly. Although it took some time, there were no major problems.
The light of the Shard suspended in the Central Well gradually dimmed until it completely disappeared. Then, it was carried to the front of the platform by a mechanical arm, where the adjutant and his men carefully placed it into a square metal box.
"Since someone else was here before us... why didn't he take the 'Shard'?"
"It's also possible that he won't be able to take this thing with him at all."
Or perhaps they have other intentions.
"Well, in short, the 'Shard' is ours now," the adjutant examined it for a moment, his tense nerves finally relaxing a little. "If you look closely, the 'Shard' really does look like a broken ring."
The Shard was a semi-circular, metallic object that looked like a ring, but only half of it—the cross-section looked strange, as if it had broken naturally rather than been cut. Looking at the Shard, it was easy to Human Federation that it should have originally been a ring-shaped object, like an incomplete ring.
But it's clearly not the kind of thing you wear on your finger.
"This is too big for a ring."
Efnir stretched out her hand and compared the "Sacred Relic" on her finger with the "Shard" in the box. "And for a bracelet, this thing is too small."
"Is there something engraved on its inside?"
If you look closely, there is a neat row of dim symbols on the inside of the Shard.
"Perhaps it's Ruin Script... I've seen similar symbols inside the Boundary Stele; this thing isn't a creation of humankind."
"Ruins...?"
The adjutant remained silent.
He knew very little about the Ruins, and even among high-ranking officials, very few people had access to the Ruins and related information.
The Ruins are the greatest secret of the Human Federation, and also its very foundation.
Efnir withdrew her hand.
As she brushed her hand over the box, Efnir could clearly feel a sticky, stagnant sensation, as if the Order Force within her was being drawn to something, stirring restlessly.
Efnir looked at her adjutant.
"Do you feel anything?"
"What?" the adjutant asked, puzzled.
The air felt warmer... That's not quite accurate, but you could definitely feel that something was different.
Efnir didn't know how to describe the feeling. Even through the box, she could clearly feel the murky, viscous energy writhing in the air as the Shard moved.