Chapter 55
Chapter 55
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 55
Chapter Title: The Crystal Coffin
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The secret base's gate loomed in the darkness like a ferocious giant maw, towering and eerie from afar, sending chills down the spine.
The Glory Legion's flagship hovered over the plains as a combat shuttle detached from it, its searchlight piercing the night as it descended to the base entrance. Karyan then led a squad of Alliance soldiers off the shuttle, hurrying toward the gate.
"First, destroy the database—every file must be completely pulverized. All materials, instruments, failed specimens, and cultivation pods must be obliterated. Once that's done, head to the bottom-level lab and retrieve the 'crystal coffin.' Rendezvous at the entrance."
Karyan issued the orders in a rush, took an ID card from one of his personal guards, and swiped it across the gate. The doors slid open with a hiss.
"You two, get ready." Karyan handed the card back to the guard and instructed, "The moment we come out, collapse the entrance immediately."
The two guards nodded and crouched at the gate, beginning to assemble their device. Karyan led the others swiftly inside, and the gate clanged shut behind them.
Behind a nearby rock, Gavin's expression grew subtly peculiar.
These exiles probably didn't know they'd already been pinpointed by the Empire—combat troops would arrive soon... But a lab? Why destroy it?
And the crystal coffin... It couldn't really be a crystal casket, could it? What the hell was it?
His mind flashed to his own awakening: also on a sparsely populated planet in Ophiuchus, in a plains-side lab, where he'd woken up inside a transparent cultivation pod...
Gavin had a sudden thought and grabbed the hovering Gryphon light brain.
"You going in?" Gryphon whispered.
Gavin signaled it to be quiet, then transformed it into a crimson dagger, gripping it reverse in his hand. Using the cover of night and the rocks, he stealthily approached the two guards tinkering at the gate.
"...This one's a failure too. Can only use it as a decoy..."
"Even a decoy's valuable—gene catalysis doesn't succeed every time..."
The two guards chatted idly when suddenly one felt his throat seized from behind. His eyes bulged, a gurgling sound escaping as he collapsed.
"What happened?" The other turned at the noise, only to sense a whoosh of air behind him. He spotted his comrade on the ground and barked, "Who's there—"
Clang!
The second guard took a heavy blow to the back of his neck and slumped limply without a struggle.
Gavin dragged them behind the rock, quickly stripping one of his uniform and donning it. The man was a Beta, not as massively built as an Alpha, and with Gavin's recent growth spurt, it fit just barely.
He searched the body for the ID card and swiped it across the gate like Karyan had.
Ding!
The access panel shot out a web of blue light. "Please scan iris data."
Before Gavin could react, the blue light auto-focused and snapped his right eye. The panel shifted, displaying: "Access granted."
Gavin: "..."
It worked?!
The gate opened silently. Gavin's mouth twitched for a moment before he stepped inside.
Though the base had been deserted for ages, it wasn't abandoned. Basic lighting and ventilation still hummed along. The corridor glowed faintly, and at the end, labs were visible where soldiers bustled about, hauling gear and talking.
Gavin hugged the wall as he advanced. Suddenly, Karyan's voice echoed from the stairwell around the corner:
"How much longer? The Empire's en route... I know—no need for scans; they'll definitely come after us... Time's short. Move faster. After the armory, we head to the bottom level for the 'crystal coffin.'"
The group rushed down the stairs. Gavin squeezed into a twenty-centimeter gap at the corner, watching Karyan brush past just two meters away.
Gavin held his breath.
"...Take everything we can, especially the nuclear and electromagnetic power sources—the exile government is short on resources..." Karyan paused mid-sentence, halting and glancing back.
"What is it?" a subordinate asked curiously.
Karyan raised a hand to silence him, his sharp gaze sweeping the surroundings. After a moment, he muttered, "Strange."
Just meters away, Gavin froze, blending seamlessly into the shadows.
"...Feels familiar..." Karyan murmured.
His subordinates exchanged uneasy glances. Finally, one ventured, "We're running out of time, Major General. The Empire's closing in—if we don't hurry—"
Karyan nodded at last and continued downward.
Only when the group vanished at the stairwell's end did Gavin exhale almost soundlessly.
"Where to now?" Gryphon whispered.
Gavin gestured downward, listened a beat to confirm no one else was coming, then darted down the stairs in a crouch.
Bottom-level lab, crystal coffin. Those words stirred an oddly specific feeling in him. What exactly had the exiles been researching in this secret base?
While the Empire and Dark Star Hall clashed in all-out war outside, the exiles rushed here to grab stuff—what was this "decoy" for?
And whose corpse lay in that so-called crystal coffin?
No elevator in a secret base like this was pure torture—likely shut down to run indefinitely without power, leaving only lights and vents operational.
The stairs twisted for dozens of flights. Gavin's legs nearly gave out on the last few, tumbling down. Sweat-drenched, he slumped on the floor gasping. Gryphon shifted to light brain form, floated up, and flicked his forehead twice disdainfully. "Pathetic. An Alpha would've breezed through this!"
Gavin panted a laugh. "Sorry, just an Omega..." He took the ribbing in stride without embarrassment, pointing at the password lock on the door. "Unlock it. I need to see inside."
Gryphon huffed prissily, leaped into the air, and projected a beam into the lock's core. Equations cascaded in the air, collapsing into a hundreds-digit code.
Gryphon inputted it. The door shuddered and swung inward.
The all-metal floor gleamed icy white. Life-support machines lined the walls. Tubes snaked from them to a massive transparent cultivation pod nearby.
Inside the pod, a human silhouette floated quietly in seawater-like nutrient fluid.
Gavin's heart pounded wildly.
He approached step by step, the door sealing silently behind him. The short dozen meters stretched like a century; by the pod, his clothes were soaked in cold sweat.
In the pod was a youth, about eighteen or nineteen, pale-faced with eyes shut tight. His features were deep and handsome, glowing faintly like jade.
Gavin knew that face well.
It was his own.
"Gavin..." Even Gryphon's voice trembled. "W-what's going on..."
Gavin bit his tongue hard, the sharp pain snapping him alert.
Silence reigned. The youth floated unconsciously in the solution, like a cold, rigid corpse.
"That's the 'decoy'..." Gavin whispered, a faint rasp hidden in his tone. "The exiles made a Gavin Celia here, probably to parade him publicly and harness his massive political clout for their goals... Decades ago, Ophiuchus was exile territory; the experiment must've happened then. But Dark Star Hall forcibly occupied this planet later. When the exiles retreated, they couldn't take the specimen, so now with war between Dark Star Hall and the Empire, they rushed back to seal the base."
Gryphon went still, then asked cautiously, "But... you're Gavin Celia, right? You're the Alliance commander, aren't you?"
Gavin fell silent a moment. "I don't know."
He stared at the youth's face awhile, then scanned the room, noticing a chair oddly placed by the pod. A lab coat draped the back, yellowed with age.
The scene felt eerily familiar. Gavin snatched the coat—its name tag read:
Gavin.
"...Why..." Gavin gasped, slowly lifting his head.
He suddenly recalled waking on Red Earth Star: gloomy skies, the pod shattering in an explosion, a lab coat nearby that he'd grabbed and thrown on in haste.
That coat's tag had borne the same name.
"I'm... I'm one of their... specimens too." Gavin murmured, eyes shifting to the youth in the pod.
He could almost picture the boy waking in shock, bewilderedly rising and grabbing the nearest clothes to throw on.
Every detail had been meticulously set, guiding events along a predetermined path.
And he'd unwittingly become a pawn in their game.
"He's an Omega too... All the specimens are Omegas, so they could easily control Celia—maybe even make him—"
Gavin cut off, his face twisting unnaturally. After a beat, he slammed a fist into the pod!
Clang! The massive echo stunned Gryphon!
"G-Gavin..."
A tremor rumbled from the floor, cutting off Gryphon's timid cry. Gavin's eyes bloodshot, he whipped around—the door vibrated faintly, about to be shoved open from outside.
It was Karyan.
They'd finally arrived to retrieve the specimen from the pod.