Laboratory Assault
"Huaaah..."
"You seem pretty nervous."
"Eek! M-M-Maker, sir..."
Inside the organization’s helicopter racing toward District D. We had taken a military transport craft and modified it into something far larger than a normal helicopter, easily capable of carrying dozens of people. Yet the only passengers aboard were me and her.
Swish.
"...Hm? Ah! Th-thank you, 42..."
"Combat Unit Sixth Squad, 42. It’s nothing."
Correction. There was one more person I had deliberately inserted into this mission—42.
‘One last thing. For this operation, I’d like to add one more person.’
‘A person?’
‘Yes. Looking at the mission, I’ll need to stop the researchers from deleting their data. That means we’ll split into two teams, and I’ll have to locate the control room.’
‘Right?’
‘Until the Training Officer finishes cracking the password, she’ll be completely defenseless. I believe it would be wise to have someone protecting her.’
‘Hmm… that makes sense. Do you have anyone in mind?’
Swish.
The man with the stiff expression who had offered water to the Training Officer now handed me an iced tea as well.
"Thank you, 42."
He gave a short nod, then returned to his corner and sat down without another word.
He’s probably giving us space to talk comfortably.
Just like during the last terrorist incident, his ability to read the room was outstanding. I liked that about him.
I turned my gaze away from 42 and looked at the Training Officer, who was sipping her water in small, hesitant gulps.
"Training Officer."
She turned her head at my call. But even after hearing me, she kept her lips pressed together for a moment as if thinking, then straightened her back and opened her mouth just a little.
"...Yeri."
"Sorry?"
"I-I’m An Yeri… my name…"
"?"
I was puzzled why she had suddenly given me her real name.
Why is she telling me her real name all of a sudden? Is she asking me to call her by it?
"P-please… just call me comfortably…"
Exactly as I thought. It was her own shy way of signaling that she wanted to get closer. I smiled at her.
"I’m afraid I can’t do that right now. After all, we’re in the middle of a mission."
"Ah… I see…"
The spine she had bravely straightened drooped again at my words.
"When we’re not on a mission, I’ll call you Yeri. It’s not like this will be the only time we work together."
"...!! Yes…!"
An Yeri’s eyes widened, and a bright, bashful smile spread across her face.
"U-um… why did you call me…?"
"Oh, nothing major. I just thought it was important for us to have a clear understanding of each other’s abilities before we deploy."
"Ah, I understand…!"
Since I knew the original story, I already had a rough grasp of her power.
When I first decided to join a villain organization, I spent a lot of time thinking about the most efficient ways to use special abilities.
Whether it was consuming elixirs to increase my mana capacity, searching for items that could support my ability, or finding people who could do the same—I had racked my brain to gain the minimum amount of combat power by making full use of my knowledge of the original work.
At one point, I had even considered approaching the Training Officer—An Yeri.
"...M-my ability is knowledge sharing…! I can connect with a target and share my knowledge, and… also…"
Knowledge Sharing. The ability to pass on information possessed by an ability user to another person.
The better I understood the target and the more knowledge I had, the less mana my Creation ability consumed when making objects, and the longer I could maintain them. It was the perfect complementary power.
But there was a reason I never reached out to her.
"...B-but if I transfer too much knowledge at once, the recipients’ brains get overloaded…"
Exactly. The more knowledge there was, the greater the strain on the recipient’s brain as it tried to accommodate information that had never existed there before.
On top of that, what I needed was technical knowledge of complex weapons and machinery. Receiving that kind of data from her would cause an enormous overload.
So I gave up on the idea after considering it.
That said, it wasn’t as if she was completely useless.
"...S-so I thought about how to adjust the output of my ability."
"Adjust the output. Reducing the amount of knowledge transferred wouldn’t be ideal, so instead of moving the knowledge permanently, you make the effect fade after a certain amount of time?"
"Y-yes…! That’s right… Y-you really understand it well… Wow."
Of course I did. I had watched every possible application of her ability throughout the novel. An Yeri’s eyes sparkled as she stared at me. I gave her a gentle smile in return.
"It looks like we’ll make better comrades than I expected."
I’ve already been thinking nonstop about ways to strengthen my own ability using hers.
"I’ll be counting on you."
"Y-yes… I’m not very good, but… please take care of me too…!"
She clenched both fists tightly in a cute show of determination.
That’s right. Just trust your oppa (who’s actually younger), Yeri! Your oppa (I’m the younger one here) will borrow your strength and carry you the whole way!
"Will I… really be able to do it…?"
"You’re an executive of Eclipse. It would be unacceptable if you couldn’t handle something like this."
Still, something feels off.
The plan itself was perfect, yet I couldn’t shake the feeling that a huge variable was lurking somewhere. …Was it just my imagination?
"Ah! Hero sirs and madam! Over here, over here!"
At a certain laboratory in District D, a man in shabby clothes came out to greet the heroes with a bright, sunny smile.
"Are you the researcher from the facility we’ve been assigned to protect?"
"Yes! Nice to meet you! I’m Choo Seo-ho, head of the research team at Regener Laboratory in District D!"
Regener. A research institute with the dream of restoring people who had lost parts of their bodies or bodily functions due to accidents or injuries, returning them to healthy, whole selves.
This was the laboratory that Ice Queen and around a dozen other heroes had been tasked with protecting today.
"Is it really okay for someone as important as the research team leader to come out and greet us personally?"
One of the heroes widened his eyes in surprise at the man’s title.
"Hey, I’m a person too! Of course I need to rest. This is the perfect chance to slack off openly, so I volunteered to do it myself!"
The heroes burst into laughter at Choo Seo-ho’s ridiculous attitude. In a much more relaxed atmosphere, they followed his lead into the laboratory.
"Welcome to our institute, heroes!"
The heroes were stunned by the sheer size of the building once they got a closer look.
"W-whoa."
"It’s this huge?"
"Haha, the surrounding area is basically a slum, so we bought it cheap and expanded as much as we wanted."
Apparently pleased by their reactions, the man grinned slyly.
"Then, let’s divide you into teams and—"
Ice Queen had been watching the whole exchange. She was about to gather the heroes to begin the actual mission when—
"Ice Queen, ma’am, are you going to start working already? You can rest a little first!"
"Pardon? But…"
"No, no! Come, I’ll show you around myself!"
Choo Seo-ho’s words blocked her at every turn. With no other choice, Ice Queen turned to ask the other heroes for their opinions.
Honestly, she had wanted to draw up strategies in preparation for a possible raid.
Knowing the layout was important, but if they stayed clumped together and an attack began, their response time would be far too slow.
It would be far better to pair up, move at set intervals, and memorize the geography that way.
"Ooh, that sounds fun?"
"I’m excited!"
But the rookie heroes, completely unaware of her concerns, simply followed Choo Seo-ho in high spirits.
"......"
Ice Queen had no choice but to join the laboratory tour.
"This is our office. We mainly use it to send and receive documents, but honestly? The researchers secretly play games here, so it’s a real headache for me."
"This is the break room. There are many nights we have to pull all-nighters, and this room is a huge help then. Haha!"
"This is our laboratory’s…"
"Ah, I can’t possibly introduce our institute without showing you this!..."
"And over here…"
"Oh, and that place…"
The hero group was dragged around by the research team leader for a long time.
"...Haa. Let’s end the tour here, Team Leader Choo Seo-ho."
When it seemed the tour would never end, Ice Queen finally stepped forward.
"Eh…? But…"
"We came here to protect this laboratory, not to participate in a field trip."
I understand that you’re proud of your workplace, but I would appreciate it if you showed some restraint. The extremely blunt and direct words left Choo Seo-ho speechless.
"The same goes for all of you. We are not here to have fun."
"“......”"
"I played along at first to lighten the mood, but does it make sense to stand here completely defenseless when we could be attacked at any moment?"
"“......”"
Ice Queen turned her gaze to the other heroes and voiced her thoughts. The previously warm and friendly atmosphere instantly grew cold and heavy.
Was I too harsh…? But someone had to say it…
Ice Queen felt a twinge of guilt, but quickly steeled herself.
Her mission today was to act as one of the safety supervisors. It was her job to ensure these still-green rookies could complete their task safely and grow into proper heroes. That was why she had spoken sternly.
Yet—
"Ice Queen, ma’am… don’t you think that was a bit much?"
"...Pardon?"
She had never imagined such a ridiculous response.
"He was just trying to be nice and show us around. Saying something like that was a little…"
"You seem way too serious by yourself."
"Nothing’s even happened yet. Why are you overreacting like this?"
"It might come in handy later, you know~ What’s the big deal?"
Seeing them completely devoid of any sense of crisis or even the minimum heroic awareness, Ice Queen was at a loss for words.
"Are you all saying that seriously right now?"
"Come on, Ice Queen, don’t be like that."
While she stared at the heroes in disbelief, one man called out to her in a familiar tone. He was Iron, the B+-class hero assigned to the same mission as her.
"If you stay that rigid, you’ll freeze up when something actually happens, you know?"
"...Iron. Are you even aware that we’re on a mission? We’re supposed to be supervising and educating the rookies."
"Well, what’s wrong with this kind of atmosphere? It’s not like the villains announced they were coming in advance. They might not show up at all."
"Conversely, they might show up. That’s exactly why these people were called in."
"Man, you really are stiff~"
No wonder he got crushed by Maker.
Twitch.
The lightly tossed remark made Ice Queen’s face harden in an instant as she glared at him.
"What did you just—"
WEEEEEEEEEEENG!!!!
INTRUDER DETECTED. INTRUDER DETECTED.
"W-what the hell!"
"Are the villains here?"
"What do we do…"
The rookie heroes jumped at the loud noise and began to panic.
"Th-this is bad!! It looks like the villains have arrived!"
"Everyone, focus!"
At the research team leader’s loud shout, Ice Queen—who had been glaring at Iron—turned with a hardened expression and began directing the heroes.
"...Tsk. They really came."
Ice Queen led the disorganized heroes.
Clink.
Iron, who had been staring at her beautiful figure from behind, clicked his tongue in disappointment and fiddled with the bottle hidden in his pocket.
"That’s the target laboratory."
A lone clean building standing proudly amid a sea of ruined houses. Today, we would destroy that place.
"Training Officer."
"Y-yes…?"
I reached out to her and smiled brightly.
"Could I borrow some strength?"
"...Wh-what knowledge should I give you?"
"Something that can easily break through the laboratory’s outer wall. Can you set a time limit as well?"
"To some extent…?"
"Then give me the knowledge for a plasma bazooka. One minute should do."
An Yeri nodded and took my hand.
Zap.
Along with a slightly stinging sensation at my fingertips, a flood of knowledge rushed into me like a tidal wave. I activated my ability.