Chapter 164
Chapter 164
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 164
Chapter Title: Why Did You Do That? (1)
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A laboratory filled with blue lighting.
The clinking sounds of flasks echoed loudly through the quiet space.
In the center, a man in a white coat was adding various substances to the flasks and observing the reactions.
Through the transparent flasks, black bubbles could be clearly seen bubbling up vigorously.
Squeak! Squeak!
A rat lay wriggling, unable to move properly.
Its entire body was paralyzed.
The man drew a small amount of the drug from the flask into a pipette and carefully administered it into the rat's mouth.
At first, it seemed fine, but after a short while, the rat began convulsing violently with shrill cries.
Yet unable to go anywhere, its muscles rapidly withered away, and it soon foamed at the mouth and died.
"Hmm. Side effects are still appearing."
Inventing something of the century was no easy task.
On the floor beside the man lay dozens of rat corpses, all skin and bones in death.
"Experiments on rats are proving difficult. Being such fragile creatures, they can't withstand the drug's vitality."
The man muttered in disappointment.
If only he'd administered it to a human, he might have gotten better results. Unfortunately, the recent one had died, which was a real shame.
That subject had been deeply greedy and easy to manipulate, but as an early EX model, the side effects had been at least ten times stronger than now.
He'd managed to mitigate it somewhat by mixing in EXS, but it hadn't even lasted a week.
Inevitable, really.
Still, thanks to the data it had left behind, he could continue his additional research.
History would surely judge its sacrifice favorably one day, so he hoped it wasn't too sorrowful in the afterlife.
"Shall I take a short break?"
The man looked somewhat fatigued.
He'd been immersed in research without rest for the past few days, so it was only natural.
"Hm?"
At that moment, his pocket vibrated.
It was a communication orb. Upon pulling it out, he saw an incoming call from someone. When he answered, a familiar voice came through.
-Doctor.
"What is it?"
-Ashtar is dead.
"...What?"
At the sudden news, the man called Doctor's expression hardened.
"I need a precise explanation."
-I don't know the exact situation either... It seems someone is digging into us.
"That was expected from the beginning."
Things were still quiet for now, but as the side effects of Apophis became more apparent, it would inevitably become the talk of the town.
Of course, those who'd seen the forest for the trees would applaud, but ordinary humans who only saw a single tree would surely curse Apophis.
Yet where was success without trials?
If he succeeded in developing the new drug, all disparities and inequalities in the world would vanish.
A world without victims among those oppressed for lacking talent.
Equality and happiness.
For that, the current sacrifices were mere specks of dust. He was certain that when the time came, everyone would praise all those involved in Apophis's development.
But Ashtar's death was unforeseen.
He was a powerful warrior of the Kalain race, a combat people, and an expensive mercenary they'd hired.
"Find out exactly what happened."
-Understood.
The voice on the other end cut the communication.
The Doctor's face twisted viciously.
How dare they.
Interfere with his great undertaking.
Sinister mana rose from the Doctor, tinged with a murky aura.
Jamie gazed at Sophia, her eyes vacant.
Her brain was now completely overtaken by black mana, reduced to a doll that responded only to his commands.
"State your name."
"My name is Mary. Mary Valentine."
"So Sophia was an alias?"
"Yes. A fabricated name."
The one teaching children had hidden her true self all this time, pretending to be cheerful.
All her lessons with students and interactions with fellow teachers had been fake.
Even on the first day, she'd fawned over him like a starstruck fan, asking for an autograph.
All of it lies.
What a repulsive person.
It wasn't because her claim of being a fan had been a lie.
"Why infiltrate the academy?"
"Because children express emotions most purely."
"Pure emotions?"
"Yes."
"Why did you need to confirm that?"
"To recruit children with the purest jealousy and feelings of inferiority."
Jamie furrowed his brow.
Even after hearing her answer, nothing made sense.
So she'd infiltrated the academy because children best expressed pure emotions like jealousy and inferiority?
He understood the meaning, but couldn't guess why it was necessary at all.
"...Why?"
"To awaken their deficient talents and bridge the gap with the talented."
"Be more precise."
"To overcome the irrationality where the talented bully, torment, and scorn the untalented."
"By what method?"
"Through a drug called Apophis."
At the mention of 'Apophis', Jamie frowned.
It was a name impossible to ignore even if he tried. The nutritional supplement making waves lately.
A drug that boosted concentration and facilitated mana absorption.
He'd even seen its video ads on massive airships a few times.
That was supposed to eliminate talent gaps?
The thought brought Ann's words to mind.
'My friend's mana capacity definitely increased a lot.'
The friend who'd stayed in the elementary division until fourteen.
That was Pin, and Pin was here with Ann.
"Name everyone in the academy who took Apophis."
Mary listed all the Apophis users she knew, and Pin's name was among them.
Jamie let out a low sigh before asking,
"Side effects?"
"Rupture of the heart and mana veins due to rapid core amplification. Muscle contraction, reduced blood volume..."
And a host of other side effects besides.
In short, anyone addicted to Apophis would soon have their body destroyed.
She'd induced students to take that.
The face of Teacher Silver came to Jamie's mind. The man who'd suddenly stopped showing up and faded from teachers' conversations like a lie.
"Was Teacher Silver one of yours too?"
"He supplied us students in exchange for the drug."
"Any narcotic effects?"
"It includes Kyphora."
Kyphora was a type of steroid. For mages, it amplified the core.
But it brought horrific addiction symptoms. Without redosing, one suffered nightmarish hallucinations and auditory delusions.
"Name all the involved parties."
"......"
"Speak."
"Kughhhhh!!"
At the command, Mary clutched her throat and began writhing in agony.
A restriction spell, as expected.
He'd anticipated it. Villains committing such heinous acts wouldn't skip gag orders.
But it didn't work on Jamie.
"What do these bastards take me for."
Jamie applied 'Perfect Cell' to Mary's arm.
Then, placing his hand on her head, he continuously eroded her brain with black mana while activating Perfect Cell.
"Erase the restriction."
Perfect Cell was a divine artifact capable of nullifying all curses and abnormalities.
Vast mana drained away as Perfect Cell began stripping away every restriction on Mary's body.
It even tried to devour the brainwashing he'd imposed, so he maintained the black mana as much as possible and released Perfect Cell the moment the restrictions vanished.
"Huu!"
Though only a brief moment, sweat poured from him like a waterfall.
As a result, Mary's once-smooth skin had cracked and dried like desiccated earth.
With Perfect Cell reapplied to his wrist, Jamie asked,
"Name every involved party you know."
"......"
"?"
"??"
"???"
"????"
But Mary said nothing.
She merely tilted her head.
No matter how powerful the restriction, Perfect Cell—an absolute immunity artifact forged by Diablo Volpir—nullified all curses.
What had been imposed on Mary was at best a human-made gag order.
Yet he sensed no restrictions on her at all.
And still she wouldn't speak...
"It's not that you're refusing. You don't know, so you can't speak?"
"Yes."
"...Then how did you communicate?"
"With this."
Mary retrieved a communication orb from her sub-space.
Jamie took it and examined its structure.
It was laced with anti-tracking, anti-recording spells, and more.
He considered canceling them all, but the potent security magics made him worry the crystal orb might shatter if forced.
"Who did you contact with this?"
"Teacher."
"...Teacher?"
"Yes."
"You don't know Teacher's identity?"
"I've never seen them."
"...Does your organization's leader know?"
"It's the Doctor."
Doctor this, teacher that—what nonsense.
Jamie barely swallowed the curses rising in his throat.
"You're just a grunt?"
"I'm an executive."
"An executive who knows nothing?"
"Trinity is composed of multiple teams. I'm the team leader for the magic world sector."
"So there are more like you across the world?"
Jamie sighed at her affirmative response.
A cell organization.
Cell structures were a pain. So compartmentalized that even members knew little of each other.
Normally, you'd crush from the bottom up, but cells didn't work that way.
Cells had gaps since they had to share minimal info to function, but exploiting those was incredibly tough. Fortunately, Jamie had turned Mary into his slave.
'If I squeeze her more, I can uncover something.'
He wasn't sure of the organization yet, but pulling off something this big in the magic world meant substantial backing.
At minimum, high-ranking magic officials were involved. Possibly one or more elders.
That would complicate things greatly.
'Zigfried...'
He'd known Silver was taking Apophis.
But Jamie doubted his involvement. Simple reason: Zigfried fundamentally ignored others.
The same applied to why he took no disciples.
'Above all, he wouldn't drop hints for me to investigate personally.'
Linmel was the same.
He hadn't taken Ann as a disciple due to her lacking magical talent.
Such a man wouldn't care for a talent-gap-bridging drug like Apophis—especially a narcotic.
'No reason to.'
As one of humanity's top archmages, why take such risks?
'I need to talk with Zigfried.'
Before that, one more question for Mary.
He'd been most curious since hearing about Apophis.
"How did you plan to reduce Apophis's risks? That had to be the ultimate goal."
Magic was founded on equivalent exchange.
Absorbing vast mana via core amplification demanded a fitting price.
That was why Silver had died.
"No matter how I think about it, humanity's current technology can't reduce Apophis's risks. Unless some miracle occurs..."
Jamie's eyes gleamed with fierce purple light.
Mary's expression remained unchanged, but her body began trembling instinctively.
Her master's fury transmitted through the black mana.
In a flat yet subtly quivering voice, Mary answered,
"Demonkin. Demonkin."