76. Cheonan Warlord (4)
76. Cheonan Warlord (4)
GP Biotech factory.
The place where the INSS truck entered.
The interior was quiet.
And, a bit complicated.
What I saw... were footprints.
Well, obviously.
Those INSS guys were just walking back and forth here earlier.
Several black footprints. They were heading towards the back.
'......'
However, the entrance was blocked.
Is this some kind of inspection zone?
Or should I call it a preparation zone?
A zone with an airlock.
'Something I'd only ever seen in movies.'
I ripped it off and entered.
Tap
Tap
Once inside, I saw rows of mysterious machines arranged according to specifications.
Reagent processing.
Drug processing lines were all lined up.
I mean, are reagents and drugs even different?
Next to them was something that looked like a large refrigerator, and in front of me, the words "Clean Room."
A tank for storing metal materials.
The walls were plastered with all sorts of pipes.
'It is pretty fascinating, though.'
I mean, when would a regular person ever get to visit a biotech engineering factory?
However,
There were no people—no INSS agents or soldiers to be seen.
But there was a way to find them.
There were footprints all over the place inside, too.
I examined the black footprints on the white floor of the abandoned factory.
INSS.
The place where those bastards from the Sejong Branch, who succeeded in transplanting superpowers, had moved.
It seemed they had indeed come here, fitting for a transit point.
'......'
I walked slowly.
I didn't bother touching the drugs or reagents. Messing with them might cause problems.
The manufacturing of drugs or reagents had already stopped, but just the word "drug" makes me feel uneasy.
It was clear that the interior had been cleaned up, so I couldn't rule out the possibility that IN Company had been up to some shady business.
Tap
Tap
First, I opened something that looked like a refrigerator lined up in front.
Creeeak
What I saw were reagents in transparent flasks and beakers. Fitting for a biotech engineering place, they seemed to have stored reagents inside.
'I thought they might have put corpses or something in there.'
Did they really just use it as a transit point?
Next to it, I saw a large tank made of metal.
'What's this for?'
Curious, I opened it.
Pshhh
I heard the sound of air escaping.
Looks like they had some kind of sterilization process set up.
Then I saw small reagent containers, and pieces of flesh inside round reagent containers.
Is this like... flesh cultivation?
They do this in Korea?
'Right, they did.'
Maybe this is similar to that stem cell stuff some doctor was talking about on the news when I was a kid.
I picked up a piece of flesh, but I didn't feel anything strange.
I guess this is the kind of stuff inside these tanks.
'......'
I did a lap and opened the Clean Room.
Since it had double doors, I ripped them off and entered.
The Clean Room was clean, living up to its name.
The ceiling was plastered with strange but clean white machines, and the processes on the side also seemed to be machines for making drugs.
It wouldn't open, so I ripped it off with my ability, but there were only drugs inside.
The flasks containing the blue liquid I saw in the previous extractor weren't visible either.
Tap
Tap
I opened the Clean Room on the other side, too.
I checked the inside one by one, but it was the same.
'......'
Except for the fact that this side had a place for storing purified water, it was the same.
I went to the back area.
A place divided into sections.
This was an open space with several large machines lined up, but there were only manufacturing machines.
'......'
This means there's nothing on the first floor, at least.
All that's left is the upper floor of the factory.
'Doesn't look like there's a basement.'
There seemed to be a door leading to the second floor right to the right.
'The footprints are marked this way, too.'
Since there were stairs going up, I took them and went up.
#
I came up to the second floor.
What I saw was a long hallway and several rooms.
Steel stairs.
And...
"What the."
Four INSS agents.
As soon as they spotted me, they raised their guns, but obviously, no shots were fired.
Grrrrk
The metal disassembled here and there.
It clung to their bodies and subdued them.
Thud
Thud
"Hey."
There were no other humans.
Seeing as only these two were left, they must be the personnel waiting here.
However, when I tried to get the personnel I subdued to talk, they were already dead, just like at Cheongju Elementary School.
Gurgle gurgle
The INSS agents collapsed with blood leaking out.
'......'
No matter how I look at it, it's that.
Brainwashing ability.
They must have used a brainwashing ability on these INSS agents to make them commit suicide immediately upon being subdued.
'Well, this is strange too.'
Suicide isn't easy, and it's weird that they could commit suicide while being subdued by metal.
Whatever.
It's safe to assume I can't interrogate these bastards at all.
I checked their faces.
Unlike before, they looked like foreigners.
'......'
Foreigners?
IN Company is a foreign corporation, but I thought the researchers at the Sejong or Cheongju branches were Korean.
Anyway, it's certain that there's something going on here too.
If I get a little closer to them, I'll be able to find out.
'Is it Park Young-ho?'
I'll just have to ask Park Young-ho, who managed to get cooperation from a place like this.
There were no other INSS agents after that.
True to the name "transit point," they seemed to have left only minimal security personnel and gone somewhere else.
The second floor was also empty, except for those guys earlier.
However, the atmosphere was different from the first floor.
The second floor had a slightly eerie vibe.
The floor was also much dirtier than the first floor.
There was a lot of black stuff, sticky stuff like blood, and sand and dirt everywhere.
Tap
Tap
It's certain they did something here.
'Ah, should I have just gone in with those INSS guys when they arrived back then?'
I couldn't see anything now, as they had already escaped somewhere.
Creeeak
I opened the door.
What I saw was a large room.
And drums piled up inside the room.
'......?'
Why are there drums here?
And drums that look like they'd be used at some industrial site.
'......'
I used my ability to crumple and rip the top of the drum.
Then what I saw was...
#
Inside, there were strange, flesh-like things.
'Is it human flesh?'
I thought, but there was no decomposition at all.
If this were a human corpse, it would have decomposed.
I heard you're not supposed to put human corpses like this in drums.
'Did they say it explodes?'
Or maybe it implodes, anyway.
That's not important.
The certain information is that there's something resembling flesh in these drums.
'What on earth is this?'
Next, I saw something like a laptop? A tablet? And papers inside the office.
I examined them.
The tablet wouldn't even open.
Obviously, it was password-protected.
So, the only thing I could check was the paper.
The paper had a table drawn on it.
Something like a chart.
A paper with names, compatibility, abilities, and levels written from late March to early May.
One, two, three... is the count 24?
=============================
22-year-old Yu-na Kim 91.3 Paralysis lv1
45-year-old Min-woo Hong 74.4 Healing lv1
32-year-old Seong-jun Jin 96.4 Vibration lv2
34-year-old Min-seok Go 97.1 Psychokinesis lv1
20-year-old Na-rin Yu 89.3 Hypnosis lv2
27-year-old Yu-jin Kang 88.7 Fortress lv2
25-year-old Se-a Kim 75.2 Plant Manipulation lv1
36-year-old Yun-tae Jin 89.4 Cult Leader lv2
.
.
.
62-year-old Gwang-sik Hwang 85.5 Truth Detection lv2
27-year-old A-young Seo 81.2 Bunker lv2
=============================
What I need to look at here is the ability.
They are all ability users with over 70%. There are also people with powerful abilities over 90%.
There were abilities I had never seen before.
Vibration, Psychokinesis, Fortress, Cult Leader, Bunker, Truth Detection, Plant Manipulation, etc. There are abilities I've never seen until now.
'And there isn't a single person with level 3 or higher.'
Then that means they identified the ability users here at Cheonan University and brought them here.
24 people.
I counted the drums without thinking.
'1, 2, 3... 24'
It matched perfectly.
Is this a coincidence?
'Have they become able to extract superpowers from humans?'
Well, I guess so.
Since January or February, they've been going around to various places extracting superpowers.
They ordered each branch to conduct experiments on transplanting those superpowers, and some succeeded.
The next experiment is probably an experiment on extracting superpowers from humans.
'And now that they've succeeded, they're catching people and extracting them like this.'
I think this is something left over after the extraction.
Maybe flasks aren't visible, but the fact that they're doing this here means they've already completed the extraction.
Maybe they've become able to extract faster in the region, and now it's possible to extract from ability users too.
Then is the reason for cooperating with the warlords to gather more high-grade ability users?
'That must be it.'
If they gather people under the guise of the military, it's obvious people will be easily hooked.
Besides, even if they have high-compatibility superpowers, as long as they are human, they can't help but be afraid of the Infected.
Especially since superpowers are extremely weak at lv.1 and lv.2.
If they didn't do anything and just holed up in their homes or places like that, they're just like regular people.
Then it seems right that they're catching such people and extracting them.
How? In what way are they extracting them?
I don't really know.
Since INSS can't be interrogated, I'll have to target other people.
It would be good to find researchers or people like that whom I saw at places like the Sejong Branch, but they aren't where they're supposed to be.
I haven't seen anyone like that.
Then it's the soldiers.
'......'
I picked up the paper.
Bunker ability with 80s compatibility.
'Bunker?'
Even if they extracted this one, they might already have a Bunker ability user or a bunker they've built.
Well, they probably do.
If they have something like a bunker, it's plausible they've really built a safe bunker somewhere underground and are holed up in it.
Since there wouldn't be any Infected underground.
'That's really it.'
IN Company Cheongju Branch... I saw them die.
IN Company Sejong Branch or Cheonan Branch, and other branches, and even Colonel Park Young-ho, who isn't at the GP Biotech factory, are all in a bunker.