Laboratory

Biodata

Background / History

The Laboratory emerged after the Second World War. Its founding was prompted by the discovery of the Book of Creation, which became its central treasure. According to legend, its unnamed founder heard God’s call in a dream and found the blank book in an ordinary library. Researchers believed its power might make it the source of the world itself, although that conclusion remained conditional on their data being accurate 64 196.

Its development eventually became a problem for the world’s balance. System 730 explains that the rapid growth of the Laboratory and the Club caused the world to generate systems that would guide powerful organizations toward development within safe limits and at the appropriate time 197.

Organization and Personnel

Internal Factions

• Voyage Movement: Proposed by Dr. Xu, Dr. Ping, Jefferson Morkney, Club founder Guan Chenghai, and Instance researcher Dr. Wu. It sought to discard existing constraints and establish new rules after the discovery of the Main God System 295.
• Radicals and moderates: Their conflict intensifies after the Book of Creation incident, splitting both the Laboratory and the Club into several hostile factions 295.
• Hell-aligned faction: Wei Yanchi reports that extremists cooperating with Hell exist across multiple organizations, not only the Laboratory. He believes the Laboratory attracts particular scrutiny because it contains the largest number of them 279.
• Morkney’s operatives: Orion and Mena follow his orders without controlling—or fully understanding—the wider factional struggle 295.

Research Philosophy and Practices

• Scientific explanation of the supernatural: The Laboratory specializes in strange phenomena. Ying Lin contrasts it with the Illuminati, criticizing its belief that research has boundaries and limitations 29 64.
• Human experimentation: People with unusual abilities are used as experimental resources. Wei Yunmo grows up undergoing horrifying procedures, while No. 009 describes the agony of having his organs removed 20 206.
• Research prioritized over personnel: After three Exploration Team members die in the Death Desert, the Laboratory refuses Orion’s request to withdraw the team until samples are collected 147.
• Broad research portfolio: Its work includes mutation, cloning, immortality, supercomputers, digital life, holographic imaging, gene alteration, nanomaterials, cloud computing, and Dream Beacons 193 199.
• Time research: Representatives meet with other major organizations at the United Nations to seek the removal of legal restrictions on researching time 195.
• Not uniformly indifferent to human life: Ant’s creator praises it for protecting Lucian even though its cooperation with Xie De results in the destruction of an important experiment 107.

Facilities

Research Subjects and Contained Objects

Technology and Operational Capabilities

Security and Surveillance

• Uses patrol drones, facial recognition, extensive surveillance, and layered guard systems at its Research Center 104.
• Maintains invisible cameras and large holographic displays inside the Arctic Base 198.
• Deploys thermal-imaging equipment and specialized weapons designed to counter the Club 196.
• Its Research Center’s defenses initially block 455, but an Instance-produced interference-screening device enables the system to disrupt them during an infiltration 104.

Weapons and Protective Equipment

• Equips field personnel with specialized combat suits, modular firearms, miniature bombs, and cutting-edge protective gear 174 176.
• Uses items that suppress illusions, supported by detailed research into the Desert Instance 174.
• Mena’s nanogloves serve both offensive and defensive purposes, allowing her to catch Xie De’s blade 174.
• A defensive device protects a Laboratory researcher by diverting an incoming sniper round into a gravestone 268.

Political and Economic Influence

• Described as practically controlling the lifeblood of the Western economy 193.
• Country Z officials act as its proxies, questioning witnesses under the cover of an official evacuation and requiring confidentiality agreements 97.
• Controls military forces witnessed by Xie De during his Southern Hemisphere mission 262.
• Can mobilize major Otherworld organizations for emergency assistance, as demonstrated during the Arctic breach 196.

Relationships

• Club — Longstanding ideological rival. The Club opposes treating people with mysterious powers as experimental tools. Cooperation through the Voyage Movement remains unstable and eventually deteriorates into factional warfare 268 295.
• Illuminati — Former research partner with increasingly hostile relations. The Laboratory refuses its request to enter the anomalous sanatorium Instance while secretly sending its own personnel; the subsequent operation results in the deaths of Illuminati captains Ying Lin and Xi Yijiu 258 261 262.
• World System 730 — A regulator rather than an unconditional enemy. It seeks to limit unsafe development, orders action against No. 13 after negotiations fail, and later coordinates assistance when the Arctic crisis threatens world balance 197.
• Xie De / Mr. 39 — An adversary after sheltering Wei Yunmo and killing No. 13, but also a temporary rescuer during the Arctic breach. He repeatedly uses the Laboratory’s crises to obtain leverage, resources, or permissions 52 107 176 197.
• Hell — Cooperates with a radical faction within the Laboratory. Asmodeus receives boundary-breaking material from it, but Mammon later seeks to stop its research because Hell depends on humanity’s survival 279 293.
• Main God System — Initially suspected to be a collaborator. Later revealed to have been captured and dismembered by the Laboratory, which researches its remains 262 293.
• Surface-world authorities — Connections vary by government. Some officials serve its interests, while others agree to oppose its schemes if they threaten humanity’s survival 97 275.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Notable Quotes

“Apart from the Laboratory, no organization dares take me on and let me continue my research.”
— Dr. Ping, explaining his work on the Planck length 311.

“A ceasefire is absolutely necessary, but the Laboratory simply can't produce that much money.”
— Jefferson Morkney, during Supreme Council negotiations 336.