“So…” Samantha began, pausing to chew and swallow before continuing, “you’re saying that this Harold guy made all those zombies and giant robots?”
“Essentially, yes,” Lucas replied, nodding as he wiped his mouth.
Samantha jabbed her spoon at the
“Once again, yes,” Lucas nodded, then added, “I suspect that a dungeon may form when certain factors are met. One of them being the presence of concentrated Mana Energy.”
“And all of this is based on…” Her sentence trailed off as she stared at Lucas.
Sighing, Lucas replied, “Me being a Second Class.”
“How are you already a Second Class?!” Samantha growled, spitting out the food in her mouth.
Unlike Samantha’s grumpy demeanor, Chloe was thrilled. “Wow! I’m only Level 31! How did you level up that fast?”
“I get experience when I craft things. And I crafted a bunch of them, so it wasn’t too surprising for me to gain an extra level or two,” he shrugged, taking another bite of his food.
“This is not an extra level or two, it’s more than ten extra levels,” Samantha grumbled. “Maybe I should craft something using Rune Language too.”
Putting her plate down, Chloe suddenly asked, “By the way, Lucas, did you know we’ve been inside this dungeon for more than two whole days?”
Hearing Chloe’s words, Lucas perked up and swiftly pulled out his long-dead phone. Charging it with a tiny jolt of his Psionical Force, his phone rebooted. On the screen, it showed 19th October 2023.
“Hmm. Either we were too engaged in the fights and lost our sense of time, or time runs differently in dungeon space,” Lucas rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “By the way, who cooked this curry? It tastes pretty nice.”
Samantha pointed at a scrawny man with unkempt hair, who was running around tending to the injuries of people. “That’s Flynn. He used to be a nurse at some local clinic, and now he’s a White Mage. He’s the one who cooked this curry.”
“Flynn, huh? Interesting,” Lucas smiled as he watched Flynn casting a healing spell on some injured people in another camp.
As if sensing Lucas staring at him, Flynn subconsciously turned before jerking his head back when he realized Lucas was watching.
Lucas placed his plate down and told the girls, “I’m going to enter the building to look for anything useful. Do you want to tag along?”
“I’m not going this time. I want to study this Codex of Infinity,” Samantha replied, waving the book in her hand.
He turned to Chloe, and she immediately nodded. “Sure, I’ll go with you. It’ll be a date,” she giggled.
“Alright then, I’ll leave Jager and Manuel here with you, Samantha,” Lucas said, sending a streak of Psionical Force to the two mechanical soldiers guarding them.
Their eyes flickered to life as Jager bowed slightly. “Very well, Master Lucas. We will prioritize Miss Moon’s safety.”
“Boo-yah! No one will touch Boss Lady Two’s hair! Not even an inch!” Manuel cackled as it flexed its mechanical arms.
***
19th October 2023, Town of Mount Mor, Hexxen Tower.
“There are eleven floors here. It’s going to take a while if we want to check the entire building,” Chloe said as she stared at the directory.
Lucas, also looking at the directory, replied, “We’ll just go to a couple of eye-catching places, but you’re right. It’s going to take a while.”
“Well, let’s head to their R&D Department first. It’s on the fifth floor.” Lucas grabbed Chloe’s hand and started walking toward the elevator. Chloe’s cheeks reddened as her hand was held.
When they reached the elevator, both of them froze at the sight of it, it was crushed like a soda can. “It’s busted. Let’s go for the stairs,” Chloe said, tugging on Lucas’s hand.
But Lucas remained unmoved, smiling at her. “Don’t worry. Check this out.”
Aiming his free hand at the elevator, streaks of Psionical Force extended from his arm and flowed into the elevator. Soon, the elevator began ‘uncrushing’ itself, returning to its original form.
“There, it’s fixed,” he chuckled, leading Chloe into the elevator.
Staring at the now-pristine elevator, Chloe hesitated. “It won’t fall on us, right?”
“Nah, pretty sure it’ll work,” Lucas shrugged as the elevator shuddered before ascending.
Upon reaching the fifth floor, the elevator doors slid open. The moment the couple stepped out, the elevator plummeted, crashing into the ground with a deafening noise.
“Eek!” Chloe yelped at the sudden crash, only to find Lucas laughing at her. Kicking him in the knee, she scolded, “You’re doing that on purpose!”
Lucas rubbed his knee with a playful smile. “Ow! It’s the machine’s fault! Why are you blaming me?”
Snorting at him, Chloe turned her attention to the surroundings. The R&D Department was vast, with rows of high-tech equipment and workstations scattered across the floor. Glass walls separated individual labs, and some of the equipment was still flickering, seemingly abandoned mid-work.
“This place is insane,” Chloe murmured, her eyes wide as she approached a disassembled machine laid out on one of the lab benches.
The components weren’t arranged properly, as if someone had been in the middle of testing when they fled. “I guess the movie wasn’t lying at all, huh?” she giggled as she picked up some tools.
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
She suddenly thought of something and asked, “Hey, Lucas. I thought this place was abandoned, right? Didn’t you or Samantha say this place was shut down due to some accident involving their company’s higher-ups?”
Meanwhile, Lucas was making his way to a row of computers when Chloe asked him. “That’s what was on the news. But I guess they’ve secretly continued their research. Some of these looks quite recent,” he answered as he looked at the workbenches.
“I see. So why are we here?” Chloe added as she approached Lucas.
“To see if there’s any usable information on that Mophalite thing,” he answered as he examined the monitors. Most of them were either cracked or flickering, but one caught his attention. Its outer appearance seemed to have weathered the chaos unscathed.
He tapped a few keys, and the monitor lit back to life.
“Nice,” he muttered under his breath while his fingers danced across the keyboard as he navigated the interface. “Let’s see what you guys were doing before abandoning this place.”
“Really? Doors OS?” Chloe arched an eyebrow when she saw the icon on the monitor. “You’d think a secret lab would have their own operating system, but I guess not.”
Chuckling at Chloe’s familiar reaction, Lucas smiled. “That’s why Cash Windows is the richest man alive. Even a super-secret research lab is using his creation.”
While Lucas was busy playing with the computer, Chloe wandered deeper into the sprawling R&D Department. Her attention was drawn to a section labeled ‘Virology Lab’ in bold letters above a glass door.
Pushing it open, she was met with eerie stillness. The air was sterile, with a faint chemical tang that tickled her nose. Rows of lab benches stretched out before her, cluttered with peculiar equipment she couldn’t even begin to name.
“Okay, if someone told me this was a film set, I’d hundred percent believe them,” she muttered as her fingers brushed against a strange apparatus with tubes spiraling around it like a metallic snake.
In the far corner of the room, a metal shelf caught her attention. It was lined with rows of vials, each one neatly labeled with cryptic codes and glowing faintly under the soft blue light of the shelf’s built-in illumination system. The liquids inside varied from color to color. Some were vibrant, while some were ominous.
Chloe hesitated for a moment before reaching for one of the vials. It was a neon green liquid that seemed to pulse faintly as if alive.
As she marveled at its strange beauty, a translucent blue system window appeared in front of her.
<>
Experimental Viral Compound - SC-17 Beta
Rank: Unknown
A prototype viral compound designed to enhance overall constitution and cellular regeneration.
Special Note(s): Testing incomplete. Consume at your own risk.
<>
“What the…?” Chloe gasped, nearly dropping the vial as the window hovered before her. Her eyes darted between the system window and the vial in her hand.
“Experimental viral compound?” she mumbled, her mind racing. “Enhance resilience and regeneration? But… ‘unknown effects’ doesn’t sound that reassuring.”
“Lucas might be interested in this,” she smirked. Her eyes scanned the shelf again, eyeing the other vials. Deciding to grab a few more samples, she carefully selected three more vials, one glowing red, another metallic silver, and the last an inky black.
The system presented similar descriptions each time, hinting at enhancements and risks, but with different code names.
By the time she left the Virology Lab, her pouch held a small collection of experimental compounds. Her pace quickened as she returned to Lucas, eager to share her discovery.
When she returned, Chloe wasn’t surprised to find Lucas still fiddling around the computer, but that wouldn’t stop her from showing her loots.
“Lucas! Check this out!” she exclaimed as she pulled out the vials from her pouch, placing them in front of Lucas.
Looking at the vials, Lucas paused his work and picked up one of them to examine. The same system notification appeared in his sight. “Where did you get these?” he asked, rotating the vial and inspecting the sloshing liquid inside.
“In the Virology Lab. There’s still tons of them,” she hurriedly answered before adding, “Do you know what they are? It says they can enhance our bodies, but with side effects. Can we drink them?”
Lucas’s lips twitched at Chloe’s words. “Yeah, sure. If you want an extra pair of eyes and arms.” Still, his fingers moved on the keyboard as he brought up a file on the monitor. “Here, check this out.”
Curious, Chloe leaned toward the monitor.
Experiment Log: Human Trial - Code SC-17 Beta
Date: 6th September 2023
Conducted by: Dr. Harold Mopha
Objective:
To evaluate the effects of SC-17 Beta on human physiology.
Subject:
Designation: Subject 17
Demographics: Male, 31 years old
Health Status: Average fitness level, no pre-exisiting conditions
Observation Log:
16:00 - Injection Adminstered. Subject remained calm during initial administration. No immediate reaction observed.
16:02 - Initial Reaction. Subject reported mild burning sensation in the injection site, escalating to full-body discomfort. Heart rate spiked to 140 BPM.
16:05 - Severe Pain Onset. Subject began screaming and convulsing. Thermal imaging indicated a rapid spike in body temperature. Attempts to sedate the subject were unsuccessful as the compound appeared to neutralize sedatives almost instantly.
16:08 - Cellular Mutation Begins. Biometric scans detected widespread cellular anomalies. Subject’s skin began to darken and harden, resembling keratinized tissue. Musculature swelled disproportionately, particularly in the arms and torso.
16:12 - Loss of Cognitive Functon. Subject ceased responding to verbal commands. Eye pigmentation shifted to a pale yellow, and pupils dilated fully. Vocalizations became animalistic.
16:15 - Aggressive Behaviour. Subject broke free of restraints, exhibiting extreme physical strength. Subject attacked the containment chamber walls, causing significant structural damage. Emergency protocols initiated.
16:17 - Full Mutation. Subject’s body mutated grostequely. Additional appendages began sprouting from the back and shoulders, resembling malformed bone and muscle.
16:20 - Termination. Subject breached the first layer of containment. Security personnel engaged using live ammunition. Subject demonstrated high regenerative capabilities, with gunshot wounds healing within seconnds. Containment fialure risk escalated. Lethal countermesuares deployed. Subject was neutralized with mana rounds.
Post-Mortem Analysis:
Samples of mutated tissue were successfully collected post-termination, preserved during cryogenic methods to prevent further degradation. Further experiments will be carry out on the isolated cells.
Conclusion:
SC-17 Beta demonstrated catastrophic failure during its first human trial. Unintended mutations and loss of cognitive function pose unacceptable risks for further testing. All existing samples of SC-17 Beta are to be secured and cataloged under Level 5 clearance until further notice.
Signed:
Dr. Harold Mopha
Lead Researcher
“So?” Lucas’s voice broke Chloe’s attention. “Still eager to try it?”
Chloe laughed sheepishly. “Heh, heh. I’m sure you can make do with something, right? You are a Mechanic, after all.”
“I’m a Mechanic, not a Biologist,” he gently slapped the back of Chloe’s head, but his eyes were glinting. “But still, if we can somehow remove the side effects, it might be a great thing for us. Let’s keep them first, I’ll think of something later.”
‘I remember in his early days, Great Mechanic Han did chuck down a bunch of drugs, didn’t he?’ he pondered as he recalled the scene in the novel.