Chapter 55
Chapter 55
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 55
Chapter Title: The Conveyor Belt
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Gulp.
Shin-ju swallowed hard, his hands raised in the air.
Before him, the horrific, bisected corpse of an alien was held aloft by a mechanical arm.
Through the cleaved torso, mechanical parts were grotesquely connected, throbbing like living organs.
Shin-ju calmly made a hand signal.
[What.Kind.Of.Game.Is.That?]
Whir, clank—
The mechanical arms beside the conveyor belt moved.
The alien corpse spread its arms out like a cross, then swayed gently from side to side in midair.
[Disassembly.Assembly.Birth.Game.]
Mechanical gears turned within the corpse.
[Making.Toys!]
Suppressing a wave of nausea, Shin-ju calmly sent another hand signal.
[I.See.What's.Your.Name?]
[Bol-code.]
[Okay.Bol-code.Nice.To.Meet.You.By.The.Way.Did.A.Friend.Ask.You.To.Play.This.Game.Together?]
Shin-ju crafted his signed sentences to be on a child's level as much as possible.
[What's.A.Friend?]
[Then.Did.Someone.Ask.You.To.Do.This?]
[Yes.They.Asked.Me.A.Favor.]
[Who?]
Ruuuumble—
Suddenly, a mechanical arm reached toward Shin-ju.
A red eye in the center of its palm began to glare at him.
[They.Said.I.Shouldn't.Tell!]
The atmosphere changed in an instant.
Bol-code's arm gestured with a firm, wagging motion.
[Okay.It's.Fine.If.You.Don't.Tell.Me.]
Shin-ju tried his best not to pressure Bol-code.
He sent another hand signal, attempting to gather information naturally.
[That.Game.You.Mentioned.]
Shin-ju took a step forward.
[Can.I.Play.Too?]
Silverfire was observing the illegal weapons secretly confiscated from the Bio Vanguard building.
To produce this quantity, they must have been running a massive factory.
“A factory… a factory…”
He couldn't hide his unease.
No factory on Earth could mass-produce weapons modified in this way, especially while evading surveillance.
Silverfire picked up a bizarrely shaped prosthetic arm.
In other words, these weapons were not made on Earth.
“Either they were brought from the Frontline Planet…”
“Or Bio Vanguard has a separate factory on Taumiel b1 helping them.”
As if he’d made a decision, he raised his own arm.
“It’s been a while since I made this call.”
The graph on the radio receiver in Silverfire’s arm fluctuated wildly.
- Yes, what is it?
A thick voice emanated from his arm.
“Lord Jeg! I hope you’ve been well. I have a few things to ask you.”
“Damn, it’s so inconvenient without the Old Book!”
Jason, who had been investigating inside the Bio Vanguard building, panted as he grumbled.
“Where on earth are Mr. Shin-ju and Mr. Jekovic…?”
Enri murmured, also looking slightly exhausted.
Tweet-tweet~
Meanwhile, Speeder blew her whistle like a sigh, her arms crossed.
She was furrowing her brow, trying to find an easier way.
“Speeder, can’t you open a gate to Taumiel b1?”
Speeder conveyed her thoughts to Enri through sign language.
Enri didn’t know sign language in detail, but she could roughly understand what she was saying based on what she’d picked up.
“Ah, so you can’t open a gate to a place you’ve never been…”
Enri’s expression turned troubled.
Jason, looking weary, threw out a question.
“Speeder, is there any planet you’ve been to that’s near Taumiel b1?”
“Wouldn’t that be too much of a detour?”
“No, I’m just frustrated.”
“Oh, right!!”
Enri turned to Jason as if she’d just remembered something.
“We can just ask Jakal.”
“Ah! Now that you mention it, he said he came from there, right?”
Jason took out his phone.
“I’ll give him a call.”
- Yes, you’ve reached me.
Jakal’s voice came through the speakerphone.
“Jakal! This is Officer Jason. Is now a good time to talk?”
- Yes, it is.
“Pardon me for asking, but do you know how to get to Taumiel b1?”
- Ah… I was abducted from my home planet through a gate. So I don’t know of any other routes that lead there.
“Tsk— Ahh… so it has to be a gate…”
Jason’s face fell with disappointment.
Just then, Speeder’s eyes widened in an instant.
Tweet! Tweet!
As if she’d realized something, she waved her hands, calling over Enri and Jason.
“What is it??”
Tweet-tweet-tweet! Tweet-tweet-tweet!
Speeder quickly began to sign, her hands a blur.
“S… Speeder, a little slower…”
Enri said in a fluster, trying to calm her down.
Speeder took a beat, then began to sign slowly.
Enri and Jason wracked their brains, trying to interpret her signs.
“Wow! Is that for real?”
A look of surprise spread across Enri’s face, her expression brightening.
Speeder shrugged and nodded.
“Oho… so you can track gates…”
That meant if they knew the approximate location, she could track the traces of any currently or previously open gates.
And if that gate was currently open, Speeder could remotely connect her own gate to it.
“Great! No, wait, wait…”
Jason, who had been cheering, calmed his excitement and returned to a composed expression.
“Jakal, how long does it take to get to your home planet’s location from here?”
- From Earth… it would be very far…. Even on a high-speed Frontline spaceship, it would take at least a week.
“Ah… damn it…”
They had hit another wall.
- …Officer.
Jakal’s voice, which had been silent, came through.
- I just heard that illegally modified weapons were discovered in that Bio Vanguard building.
“Yes, that’s correct.”
- In my opinion… those are undoubtedly weapons created through biological experiments. If that’s the case, there’s a high probability that an internal company gate is open on Taumiel b1 for distributing the weapons.
“Oho.”
Jason nodded as if Jakal’s deduction had merit.
“That’s great! I was worried we’d have to find and interrogate every employee here, but if a gate is open…!”
Enri looked at Speeder with an expression of near certainty.
Speeder, as if understanding, extended the blades of her hands forward.
Her sleeves unfurled below her hands.
A moment later, a tiny, blue-glowing gate formed within her sleeves.
Speeder closed her eyes, tracking the gate as if savoring a taste.
Her eyebrows twitched uncontrollably.
Tweet-!
Speeder’s eyes flew open.
She immediately pointed the blades of her hands toward the floor.
She blew her whistle like an alarm.
“It’s on the floor directly below us!”
Enri shouted with a confident face.
Speeder nodded her head vigorously.
“Then the 34th floor! Thank you, Jakal. You’ve been a great help!”
Jason relayed his thanks through the phone.
- Of course. I truly hope you catch all the criminals involved.
After the call ended, the pace of Jason, Enri, and Speeder quickened.
Tap, tap, tap, tap.
They began to run down the stairs.
A moment later, in the 34th-floor hallway.
At the far end, a single, ordinary elevator was visible.
With a look of certainty, Speeder pointed the blades of her hands toward the elevator.
“There it is, finally.”
Enri drew her three-section staff made of dragon bone.
Jason also checked his magazine and drew his pistol.
“Let’s go!”
The trio moved quickly toward the elevator.
Enri, arriving first, swiftly pressed the button.
When the elevator doors opened.
Inside, a pitch-black corridor stretched out, so dark they couldn’t see an inch ahead.
The eerie sounds of a factory process could be heard.
Shin-ju rolled up his sleeves and followed Bol-code’s guidance.
He was frozen in place, unable to move a single step, his whole body stiff from the sight before him.
The scene was reminiscent of a slaughterhouse where animals were being butchered, dismembered, sorted, cleaned, processed, and packaged.
Or perhaps it was a kind of art scene, utilizing the techniques of destruction and deconstruction.
The gooey, chaotic sight made Shin-ju feel dizzy.
The conveyor belt was moving with a chilling mechanical sound.
The slaughtered corpses were flowing somewhere, as if they had entrusted themselves to a calm river.
Meanwhile, Furen watched through her scope as Shin-ju moved under Bol-code’s guidance.
Furen had already anticipated his route and shifted her gaze to a distant area where the conveyor belts intersected.
A corpse burned completely black.
A corpse with only a head remaining, attached to a mechanical body below.
A bizarre corpse, bisected, with one half male and the other half female.
A beast-like corpse, like a chimera, its body pieced together from various species.
On the numerous intersecting conveyor belts, various machine parts and all sorts of alien corpses were being transported.
It was the worst-case scenario.
The corpses of Bluerobic Planetarians and mechanical synthetics were also mixed in here and there.
Furen calmly observed the situation through her scope.
“Furen, how much longer do we have to stay like this?”
Behind her, Sharin fidgeted, her expression one of discontent, unable to stay still.
“Wait. He’ll give a signal.”
Shin-ju’s back came into view within Furen’s scope.
Meanwhile, Shin-ju kept his lips tightly sealed, trying his best not to show any emotion.
Kidnapping, murder and confinement, illegal modification and biological experimentation, and so on…
Ugh, there are so many.
Shin-ju wracked his brain, thinking of all the justifications he had for making arrests in this hotbed of every imaginable crime.
He had to use this as an opportunity to round up everyone related to Bio Vanguard and pull them out by the roots.
Creek, creak.
Beside him, Bol-code’s arm moved.
[What.Kind.Of.Game.Do.You.Want.To.Play?]
Shin-ju snapped his head up.
[Hmm.What.Kind.Of.Games.Are.There?]
He asked calmly.
[Hmm.]
Bol-code picked up the corpse of a Bluerobic Planetarian and an unidentified alien that were being transported on the conveyor belt.
Shin-ju’s eyebrow twitched.
Of all the things to pick…
Bol-code dangled the two brutally butchered corpses in front of Shin-ju and began to explain.
The skulls of the two corpses were separated, their brains clearly exposed.
[I'm.Going.To.Give.You.A.Quiz.]
[What.Kind.Of.Quiz?]
[Attach.The.Bluerobic.Planetarian's.Brain.To.The.Left.Hemisphere.And.The.Jacorde.Planetarian's.Brain.To.The.Right.Hemisphere.And.After.Transplanting.Them.]
Grab—
Bol-code lifted the heads of the two corpses.
[I'm.Going.To.Make.A.Single.New.Life.Form.]
He bumped the two heads together, mimicking a fusion into one.
[So.Will.That.Life.Form.Be.A.Bluerobic.Planetarian.Or.A.Jacorde.Planetarian?]
Shin-ju put on a deeply contemplative expression.
If you separated the left and right hemispheres of two life forms and combined them into one, what identity would it possess?
[Hmm.That's.A.Tough.One.]
Shin-ju stroked his chin.
[Right?Then.Let's.Try.Experimenting.Ourselves.]
At Bol-code's words, Shin-ju’s mind went blank.
Does that mean it can bring the corpse back to life?