Chapter 383: At the Technology Research Institute (2)
Chapter 383: At the Technology Research Institute (2)
A human being cannot remain in a state of high tension indefinitely.
This applies even to former Awakened who have transcended humanity—the current Heroes.
While they can surpass the limits of reaction speed by enhancing their brains, and their mental endurance has improved to the point where sleep is almost unnecessary, it simply means they can endure mental fatigue longer than an average person. Ultimately, our minds still fall within the human category.
The reason I’m thinking about this is...
"I'm bored."
Because, in the end, I failed to maintain my tension and composure and ended up sprawled out on the floor.
This is all because of that Al-whatever... the Director... uh... right.
It’s all because of the AO Institute Director.
She spoke as if she were going to deploy me against a terrorist group at any moment, yet she hasn't given me a single task for an entire week.
On the first day, I was so tense that my disciples asked what was wrong. On the second day, I relaxed a bit, but even Un-ho was watching me with a suspicious look, going Poyo. But no matter who you are, after five days, you just end up idly scratching your belly like usual.
Sure, peace is a good thing.
Idly scratching your belly is a good thing, too.
...Unless you know you're supposed to be heading out on a terrorist hunt soon.
If it were truly peaceful and I was just relaxing with a can of beer, watching TV, and scratching my gut, that would be one thing.
But even now, as I scratch away, the fact that I have to go hunt terrorists soon is floating in the back of my mind, making it impossible to truly rest.
To soothe this uncomfortable comfort, I wanted to spend time doing something, anything—but the people who would usually do things with me were gone. My two disciples, Un-ho, everyone had vanished somewhere.
Even the tentacles.
As if her previous tantrums before arriving here were a lie, Baek Si-hyun disappeared every morning with sparkling eyes the moment she woke up, only to return at dinner to give a heated report on what happened that day.
Han A-bin followed her on the second day, saying she’d try to restrain Baek Si-hyun, but she immediately discovered a neuroscience lab or something and has been "interning" there ever since, commuting back and forth.
Un-ho was rolling around in the hallway when he was kidnapped, screaming, by some team of mad scientists. The tentacles are currently undergoing safety re-inspections by researchers who are far more diligent than I am.
Since everyone is busy doing their own thing...
I, the bored one with nothing to do, am just scratching my belly in the dormitory.
"I wish some terrorists would just show up already."
The moment I muttered those words, unable to bear the boredom any longer—
—Terrorist alert! This is not a drill!
"..."
—Repeat! Terrorist alert! All personnel within the institute are to remain in their laboratories and wait indoors...
My words had come back to haunt me. I listened to the alarm in a daze for a moment.
"Oho."
But soon, a smirk spread across my face as I bolted out of the room.
"It's hunting time!"
Hahahaha! You damn terrorists. You finally showed up.
Become the sacrifices that will cure my boredom!
Laughing like that, I sprinted through the Research Institute.
An alarm blared, telling personnel outside to evacuate to nearby buildings and those inside not to leave.
Like I give a damn.
* * *
Numerous explosions scattered outside the Research Institute.
The source of those explosions was the AO Director's invention: the Room-Temperature Fusion Reactor.
I wondered what the AO Director was thinking as she watched those Regressionist terrorists.
Seeing the objects she created being misused for terrorism.
They weren't as terrifying as strategic weapons, but they were throwable weapons the size of grenades with firepower exceeding that of a mortar.
If used by hand, the user would surely die, but that problem is solved if they're launched by a machine.
Right now, the terrorists were using what looked like modified baseball pitching machines to fire Room-Temperature Fusion Reactors toward the institute.
The terrorism looked clumsy, as if a local amateur baseball team had gathered for a drunken brawl, but the firepower was the real deal.
Amidst the continuous blasts, flashes and roars erupted incessantly.
It was a relentless bombardment that scorched the earth, as if a mortar battalion had arrived.
It truly felt like a battlefield.
The sight of them using two or three modified pitching machines and loading the "ammunition" by hand was laughable, but that firepower was no joke.
Yes, it was definitely a massive terrorist attack.
An attack of a scale that would have wiped out an ordinary military unit.
And yet.
"They're quite lively today. Those idiots with no sense of reality."
Why was a researcher belonging to the institute currently under such a massive attack so nonchalant?
The Former Researcher of the Future Food Creation Society, who was muttering such things right next to me, even showed the audacity to watch the explosions while sipping coffee, as if this scene were just part of his daily routine.
Right, you're just the person I wanted to see.
"Let me ask you one thing."
"I'm busy going to pester Team Leader Hans."
Hey, don't use honorifics for Hans when he's not even here.
Why don't you just call him "Master's student" or something?
Anyway.
"The reason those explosions aren't reaching us... it's not a Protective Barrier, is it?"
Not a single explosion was touching the institute's grounds, let alone the wire fence.
"Yes, it's not a barrier."
As if finding my agony amusing, the former villain gave a short answer with a smirk on his coffee-scented mouth, withholding the information I actually wanted to hear.
I briefly considered punching that face, but soon I had no choice but to voice the answer I had come up with.
"Is the Research Institute moving?"
I know it sounds crazy.
But no matter how much I racked my brain, I couldn't come up with any other answer for this situation.
The amateur baseball team uncles were getting further away, and the scenery beyond was flowing past as if we were on a train.
The conclusion drawn from this was that the Research Institute itself was moving.
But it's still a crazy thought.
This wasn't some Castle in the Sky; how could a Research Institute with such a vast site grow legs and scurry around?
I expected him to deny it, but...
"Yes, that's correct."
The former villain uttered a single word full of satisfaction and tilted his coffee cup with a smile.
"...No, how the fuck?"
Is this really a Castle in the Sky?
Or if you look from the outside, does it have legs like a centipede running across the land?
I thought it was strange that it came here from Europe in the first place, but it didn't just move—it's actually capable of mobile transit?
Amidst those questions, as I stared blankly at the baseball bat terrorist geezers disappearing over the horizon...
"Do you know what is here and what we study?"
A question, a characteristic trait of those damn high-educated bastards, reached my ears.
"I don't know, you brat."
I promptly kicked the shin of the researcher who was subtly trying to act friendly.
"Gah! My bone!"
"I know it's not broken."
How much experience do I have in limb destruction? You think I wouldn't know?
So stop overacting and just spill what you know.
I glared at the researcher with that intent, but...
"Um. Isn't an act of violence against a researcher quite a crime?"
The researcher, who stopped his overacting of clutching his leg, asked back in an annoying tone, as if he dared to threaten me—though he was likely joking.
Hearing that tone, two idiots crossed my mind.
One, Al’shel. Two, Magic Weaver.
Two people whose brains were as good as their personalities were bad.
And now there were three.
"Sigh."
Why does my life only attract guys like this?
And for guys like this, I always have one answer.
"Fine, I'll remind you what real violence is."
Namely: a demonstration of force.
I'll make you realize that if your strength is lacking, your brain had better be good.
I'll show you the skills of an expert in crushing limbs.
The moment I spat on my palms and summoned my hammer while uttering those words—
"This institute primarily researches space, laws, and conceptual foundations. You know that, right? Of course, we handle many auxiliary things, but that is our main field."
Words poured out of the researcher's mouth at an incredible speed.
A reaction I had never seen from Al’shel or Magic Weaver.
He knelt before power and spilled everything he knew.
It might be due to PTSD rather than just my strength, but anyway.
"Roughly?"
"Then do you know about the AO Institute Director? About the singularity of her body. If you don't, please give me a moment to think. I need to organize my words..."
Endless long sentences followed my short answer.
...This is interesting.
At this rate, wouldn't he blabber about anything I asked?
"I know, but what does the Director's power have to do with this?"
Thinking that, I threw a question back along with my answer.
And at the same time.
"Then you must also know that the AO Director is a living Reality Anchor. Currently, the law stating 'this Research Institute actually exists in a certain space' has been deleted. Therefore, the Management Bureau can adjust where the Second Research Institute exists, and the points that can be designated are anywhere in the world where the Management Bureau has extended its information network."
Our cowardly villain poured out information that was likely top-secret.
...Not that I could fully understand it.
Let's see. So...
"You're saying this Research Institute can spatially teleport anywhere on Earth?"
"You could see it as roughly similar. However, it's a more efficient method. Spatial Teleportation requires a massive amount of energy every time, but with this method, the base itself can be moved by simply overwriting the coordinates. It's fast and cheap."
I see. They were moving away from the terrorists by doing that in real-time.
While I wasn't looking, the Management Bureau’s technology has developed to an absurd degree.
They said they wouldn't build aerial battleships because they weren't efficient, but instead, they built a crazy Research Institute that teleports entirely.
If this technology were applied and an entire military unit teleported, a base would be completed just like that.
A fairly impressive scene played out in my mind.
Management Bureau towers and Heroes suddenly sprouting up in an empty plain.
A scene you'd believe even if it were from a movie.
While swimming through such imaginations, a question suddenly raced through my mind.
"But what does that have to do with the AO Director?"
For someone who brought up the AO Director, she hadn't been mentioned once.
A follow-up question born of that doubt.
"Because this technology is extremely unstable."
The researcher gave a diligent answer.
"Permanently deleting the definition of a specific area's location information means, conversely, that the area exists nowhere in the world. In short, the moment the definition of location information fails, the Second Research Institute will be completely annihilated."
A quite terrifying answer.
And the moment I heard that answer, I was able to reach the truth immediately.
A Reality Anchor. A phenomenon that shouldn't happen in reality.
Even for someone like me, if given that much information, the answer comes easily.
"...Is the one maintaining the Second Research Institute the AO Institute Director?"
"Yes, that's correct. For that purpose, the AO Director's body is biologically connected to the institute. Since you'll ask again, I'll be honest. I performed that surgery, and it was done according to my theory."
At those words, I said nothing.
"...The AO Director volunteered. I was against it, but the Director gave a bitter smile and said this was all she could do..."
Was he uneasy because of my silence? He quickly began to defend himself, but I knew this wasn't his fault.
How did the conversation end up here?
A question I threw out as a joke had turned quite grim.
"...Is that also why the AO Director can manipulate the Second Research Institute at will?"
When we first met, she had moved us in an instant.
Even when guiding us to the Director's office, she had distorted space as she pleased.
"Yes, regarding space, that's true. However, unlike Reality Manipulation, the restrictions are quite large, and things like severing biological entities are impossible. Nevertheless, by moving the entire space containing each individual to another area, she can similarly..."
I didn't need detailed information about the AO Director's specs.
However, those words made me certain.
"AO Director. You're listening, right? Come out."
That she had been watching me all along.
The moment I called her—
"Two days. That was a larger margin of error than I expected."
She appeared before me and spoke.
Unlike when we first met, she had a slightly sad expression on her face.