Chapter 14: Burnt
The sounds of beeping and clicking of machines filled the air of the medical facility of V-002's Laophonen Corporation Laboratory.
Room 1878.
"Subject-775, the Soulless Human, Gregory Vonhatten, status normal, expected date of awakening is tomorrow yet…"
A senior researcher muttered under his breath as he monitored the condition of Gregory which showed that he would wake up that day.
"Call the Head Researcher, he's about to wake up."
The researcher commanded his junior.
As the time passed by, Vole stood behind the reinforced glass and standing beside him were all the members of the mercenaries that he hired to capture Gregory.
"He really is special, it has only been the 2nd day."
Vole muttered in amusement as he turned his head towards a researcher.
"Have you sent his sister the fabricated letters? How long can we possibly keep him?"
He asked.
"A week at most. So we only have around 4 to 5 days depending on whether he wakes up today or tomorrow."
The researcher casually replied.
Vole nodded in understanding as his gaze locked onto Gregory's still figure.
"He's pretty much awake now."
Jacob muttered as his gaze was locked onto the monitoring screen showing his condition.
"Let's enter, turn off all of your EGO, we don't need to antagonize him."
Vole commanded calmly as he opened the metal door and walked into the medical room followed by the mercenaries.
"Whatever you say, employer. Though, are you that confident about being the one in front?"
Vindell asked sarcastically.
Vole turned his head towards the mercenaries, his gaze cold.
"If I die then so be it, I'm just a meaningless pawn and if my death could further the scientific development then I shall sacrifice myself."
He paused then added with a faint laugh.
"Ah, who am I kidding? I really just want to possibly die according to my own accord, and if this one fails then it just locked me into the execution route. Another point is that I'm confident that this subject wouldn't act out and you guys can protect me."
Philipe questioned.
"Execution route?"
As they stopped before Gregory's body, Vole explained.
"All of the 12 Research Facilities need to finish their respective experiments in just under 10 tries, and I mean finish as in deciding if it's possible or not, if possible: you must succeed, if not then you better pray that no one would find out it's actually possible in your lifetime. If this one failed then it means my last attempt would fail too, I mean it's better to die on the job."
"Is that so?"
Gregory muttered as he listened to the explanation quietly and added.
"You must be quite relieved that I'm a-"
He was interrupted.
"Silence, did you hear a rambling of something, a God, a Demon, or whatever it is, that false ethereal and divine sound?"
Vole harshly questioned, no air of friendliness, just a cold and hostile voice.
So much for turning off our EGO to appear non-threatening…
The mercenaries thought simultaneously as they let out a faint sigh.
Gregory was unfazed as his mind connected the dots.
Is he talking about Akashic Record's voice? I guess so.
"Yes, I did."
Vole let out a sigh of relief.
"That's great."
He paused then added.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to appear too antagonistic but I need to follow the procedure in terms of handling anyone that had just recently been injected with Mental Strainers and didn't immediately turn into a monster."
"Well, anyway, now that you have woken up ahead of schedule, we would have a lot of time to experiment with that new EGO of yours."
Before Vole could continue, Gregory asked.
"What about my sister? She'll be worried now that I'm gone for a pretty long time."
She also knew about V-002's increased activity and the threat of me being kidnapped due to Dorian's letter.
The timing of my disappearance and the warning is too close and even if they sent a false letter about me not going home for a while it wouldn't work.
Dorian is smart enough to notice something if my sister didn't suspect that it was a false letter.
Vole was calm when faced with the question.
"We already have sent her a letter informing her that you'll be absent for a week."
Bingo.
I'm right.
Gregory thought as he began to get up to sit, his head still pulsed in pain as he drifted his gaze towards Vole as he was about to speak.
"Anyway, what's your EGO's ability?"
Snap!
He snapped his finger to signal the mercenaries to show them.
Jacob let out a sigh.
"Mine's the six-eyed massive monster you saw before, the one I call, Buddy."
Vindell transformed his monocle into a magnifying glass.
"Mine is this, it enhances accuracy when used to see through it, and can turn into any optical instrument. I really like using it as a monocle. The gold coin's bullet is the effect of my glove."
Philipe and Arceon looked at each other.
Then, Philipe spoke.
"Well, me and my brother's EGO is that we can synchronize our aura or presence to someone so that nearly everyone may not be able to discern which is which. It works best on each other but it's not limited to just us."
It finally landed on Gray's turn as he smiled in response.
"My EGO is that I am able to hack into an object and alter them, that's how I managed to make the camera appear unchanged by turning its state into a state where it hasn't recorded us yet."
So that's how it is, I wonder has he 'hacked' into this facility?
"If your question is if I have hacked into this facility is no, I couldn't because I wouldn't dare offend a whole Zone, I'm just a small mercenary. Not only that, the structure of this facility was made with an alloy of a normal metal and a certain anomalous material that wouldn't really allow itself to be affected by an EGO, at least not an EGO of a mere Grade 5 like me."
Grade 5? How does it convert into Ranks?
Gregory thought, curious as he expected an answer.
Suddenly, before his eyes a circular, holographic, translucent screen shimmered into being.
[ Loading… ]
Its form glitched before morphing into a more elongated, rectangular-shaped form.
[ Conversion completed. ]
——————————
Grade to Rank conversion:
Grade 10 = Rank F — Both of them are considered to be the unofficial spot for entities that exist below the hierarchy and as mundane beings like ordinary humans without access to their world-specific powers.
Grade 9 = Rank E — The start of the Bottom-class of each system, the weakest of the hierarchy.
Grade 8 = Rank D
Grade 7 = Rank C
Grade 6 = Rank B — The last Bottom-class of each quantitative system as beyond Grade 6 and Rank B are the pseudo-qualitative leap in strength or where you can consider the upper class.
Grade 5 = Rank A — The start of the Upper-class of each pseudo-qualitative hierarchy of leap in strength.
Grade 4 = Rank S — The second pseudo-qualitative leap.
Grade 3 = Rank SS — The third pseudo-qualitative leap.
Grade 2 = Rank SSS — The last known pseudo-qualitative leap, Grade 2 is the last Grade known to be actually possible and have been seen in the wilds.
Grade 1 = Rank EX — The illusory Grade and Rank that put on a limit on the world Grades and System, though it obviously didn't end there.
——————————
Wow, this guy's pretty strong, huh?
"So? What is your EGO's ability?"
Vole asked once again.
"Mirror. I can mirror an EGO ability that's used before me."
Of course, it was a lie.
Both Vole and Gregory thought at the same time.
But… I'll play along, I'm not planning to anger some mysterious existence anyway…
Vole thought as he let out a sigh.
"How about a little test run?"
He proposed as his hand pointed at Jacob.
"Jacob, you do it."
"Why me?"
"No specific reason."
"Alright."
Soon, they entered the training facility.
Holy moly, how do they even have this? How big is this facility?
Gregory thought in awe at the huge white cubic room.
"Alright, look closely."
Jacob said with a hint of annoyance.
Why must it be me?
He inwardly complained as he summoned his EGO.
"Buddy, come out."
From Jacob's back appeared a tumor-like growth that exploded into a muscular figure with six eyes and a gaping maw dripping with drool.
"Your turn."
Copy.
[ Do you want to copy the: Companion EGO: Humanoid Monster (B-Rank) ]
Yes.
[ EGO successfully copied. ]
From Gregory's back, a blackened tumor-like growth appeared and quickly exploded, forming into a muscular, six-eyed, four-armed creature covered in hard black-scales.
"Is it something like an evil reflection of someone else's EGO? Boo~"
Vindell commented jokingly.
Is it a copy ability?
Vole wondered.
"Hey, Buddy, don't associate with a thing like that, he's a bad influence for you."
Jacob says to Buddy.
"Let's do some more testing, we'll let you leave in a few days."
Vole said to Gregory.
Well, it's not like I could brute force my way out of here.
Gregory thought as he began to test his newly acquired EGO with others.
Time passed by in a blink of an eye, Gregory stood before Vole, surrounded by all the mercenaries and the other researchers.
"I have one last question."
Vole's gaze locked onto Gregory's empty eyes.
"You have an EGO that has the power of mirroring an opponent's EGO, am I right?"
He tried to perceive any change in Gregory's micro-expressions, in his heartbeat, in anything to indicate he was a liar.
No, that is false.
Gregory's thought spoke the truth as his mouth spewed lies.
"Yes, that is true."
"Are you sure you are not lying?"
Vole asked once again.
With a faint smile that never reached his eyes, Gregory replied calmly without hesitation.
"I am not lying."
Vole stayed silent as Gregory walked out of the facility.
"It's a shame that you let him leave that easily, though, I already put the method to have more soulless being like him into the Super-Computer, so we better get prepared to have mercenaries on his level."
A researcher said, amused.
"His situation is impossible to replicate."
Vole didn't even look at the researcher and he knew that his expression had just shifted.
"What do you mean? Certainly, there's a way to artificially create something like him."
Vole let out a sigh.
"No, there's none. He wasn't a natural thing, the thing that caused him currently is not from our world, it's maybe a God, a malevolent or benevolent one? I do not know."
He paused then added.
"He was an intelligent man, he probably already created some escape plans to escape, not only is he intelligent, that something that is currently backing him is not going to be anything we could handle."
Not only that he was a liar too.
The mechanism activated, he must know that we would have a truth-detector or that at least I have something like that.
Which I did but he still lied, I don't know if he's confident that he would win or that we wouldn't dare to attack.
Gregory walked outside and went into an alleyway, turned his head behind and activated an item from his pocket.
"Liar, liar pants on fire."
He muttered as he brushed his pants off the dust.
What a childish way to find out a liar, and a pretty funny one.
He was engulfed in blue light as what was left of him was a cube, the Space Displacement Cube.
To be continued…