Chapter 109
Jin Gaw’s drill came to a stop.
Pop! Crack!
With a horrifying sound, my right cybernetic eye was pulled out.
Blood splattered everywhere. My face was drenched as if I had washed it in blood. My nervous system was adjusting to the flickering, half-formed vision.
Clatter.
Jin Gaw tossed my right cybernetic eye into the analyzer and checked the data.
He didn’t even disconnect the optic nerve connection...
A sharp pain throbbed in my head. It felt like static was spreading through my brain.
Click, click.
The restraints locking my limbs were released.
Wiping away the blood that streamed down like tears, I looked at Jin Gaw. My vision hadn’t fully adjusted yet, so his figure was still blurry.
"Luka, how did I look as I was extracting your eye? Did I appear as something else?"
Jin Gaw spoke without even looking at me.
"No. Director, you looked the same as always."
"My appearance seemed normal to you even as I forcibly removed your eye? Hmm. Then that’s fine. It means the issue isn’t purely neurological but mostly psychological."
I understood.
If my nervous system were completely failing and causing hallucinations, Jin Gaw’s face should have looked grotesquely distorted to me. But he looked normal.
So he wasn’t torturing me without reason.
Whatever the case, his skill was undeniable.
"Then does that mean there’s no problem?"
"I told you, it’s not that there’s no problem at all. Your nervous system is on the verge of falling apart, so you’re prone to hallucinations even from minor triggers. Hmm, the cybernetic eye itself is fine, though."
The analyzer’s graph showed nothing but green.
"So, my brain can still hold out for now."
"That’s one way to put it."
"I tend to be an optimist."
Jin Gaw chuckled, his shoulders shaking. I could hear Ilay laughing behind me as well.
"I’ll make some adjustments before I reimplant your cybernetic eye."
"I'm fine as I am."
I didn’t like the idea of someone else tampering with it and changing it. I had my own way of doing things.
"I’m optimizing it to reduce the strain on your nervous system. A skilled Akies Victima user doesn’t need unnecessary functions. I’ll simplify the prediction features to cut down redundant information. Just that alone should improve things significantly."
...The more I listened, the more it made sense. As expected of a specialist. I nodded without argument.
"You seem well-versed in Akies Victima?"
"I took an interest in it once. It's fascinating in many ways. That said, I have a certain approach in mind..."
Jin Gaw's smile stretched wider.
"You plan to use me for a clinical experiment."
"Theoretically, there's no issue. Of course, no matter how well I review and simulate things in advance, reality always throws in unexpected problems. But I'm not forcing you to use it."
Jin Gaw handed me a sturdy plastic case. I cracked it open slightly to check the contents. Inside were a glass vial filled with liquid and an injector gun. The vial was designed to be loaded into the injector like a magazine.
"If you ever find yourself in a desperate situation, try it with a 'nothing to lose' mindset. If it works well, be sure to tell me. I included a manual."
The injector's needle looked vicious. I hadn't read the manual yet, so I had no idea what it was for, but the needle was as long as my finger.
"I don’t know what this is, but I hope I never have to use it."
"I hope so too."
Jin Gaw lied without hesitation. A strange man. He was both intriguing and someone I wanted to keep at a distance.
Bzzz.
A mechanical arm descended from the ceiling, tasked with reimplanting my cybernetic eye. Forceps pried open my eye socket wide. Then, delicate surgical tools began the meticulous process of reconnecting it to my nervous system.
There was no need for me to describe the process in detail.
While I underwent the procedure, Ilay and Jin Gaw continued their conversation.
"Let me show you something interesting, Ilay. I owe you, after all."
Jin Gaw tapped the wall. A section of the wall slid open, revealing a glass window. Behind the glass was a space just large enough for a person to lie down.
Chzzzt, chzzzt.
A strange, mechanical whimpering sound echoed. As a sharp pain stung my eye, I focused on what was behind the glass.
'A rat?'
It was a rat, larger than a fist. But on closer inspection, its body wasn't covered in fur—it was encased in a hard, metallic exoskeleton.
Whirrr, whirrr.
The mechanical rat, upon spotting Jin Gaw, immediately began scratching at the glass.
'A machine beast.'
It reminded me of the feral, beast-like machine Ilay had captured before. This rat was much smaller than that one, but it seemed just as aggressive, hurling itself at the glass.
Thud! Thud!
The mechanical rat pounded against the glass with all its strength. However, the glass didn't budge, and, unable to contain its rage, the rat started dashing wildly around its enclosure.
"I've seen bigger machine beasts than this."
Ilay spoke with disinterest in his eyes. Jin Gaw smirked lazily and then projected a hologram.
"This rat wasn’t originally a machine beast. But it also didn’t have a cybernetic body implanted."
"What?"
"It was exposed to Hollistone energy for an extended period. The biological tissue mutated and turned into machinery."
A holographic video appeared on the glass window, showing a white rat undergoing mutations over the course of several months, played at high speed.
At first, the rat lost its fur and claws. Then, its eyeballs grotesquely bulged out before falling out completely. Blackish-red intestines spilled out from its anus, dragging along behind it. It looked as though it had contracted some terrible disease.
But the real mutation had only just begun.
The now-hairless skin hardened and transformed into metal. Where the eyeballs had fallen out, lenses pushed their way outward from within. Its metallic claws curved like hooks, allowing it to scale walls with ease.
"This isn’t just mechanization—there’s a fundamental transformation of the material itself. Many of the resulting forms are bizarre. Literal monsters. Even when genetically identical subjects are exposed to the same amount of Hollistone energy, they mutate into entirely different shapes."
Jin Gaw played more footage.
One rat had turned into a grotesque mass of bulging muscles. The mutated beast tore apart a larger predator with ease.
Another rat hardened like solid rock, eventually becoming completely petrified and losing all signs of life.
However, most subjects simply decayed, their flesh melting away as if stricken by disease.
"If we could control these mutations artificially, it would be quite fascinating."
Behind his glasses, Jin Gaw's eyes gleamed with deep intrigue. Beside him, Ilay watched the experiment footage with a mixture of fascination and disgust.
"Have you ever tested these mutations on humans?"
Ilay hesitated slightly before asking. I had wanted to ask the same question.
Jin Gaw kept his smile but gave no direct answer. Instead, he said only what he wanted to say.
"…So don’t dig too deeply into Arcane Civilization and Hollistone. Ilay Carthica, this is for your sake. I don’t need to explain why I’m showing you classified information like this, do I?"
"So, it’s that dangerous."
"Only study Arcane Civilization in books. Getting directly involved isn’t your role."
It was a warning to Ilay, who had an excessive interest in Arcane Civilization.
Creak, creak.
During this conversation, my cybernetic eye reimplantation was completed.
I squeezed the ampoule filled with artificial tear fluid, letting it drip onto my stiff pupil. The liquid washed away the blood while also acting as a lubricant.
"Thank you for everything, Director."
I stood up from my chair as I spoke. Jin Gaw waved his hand with a grin.
"I hope you live a long life."
"I hope so too."
999
As Ilay and I left the 4th Research Institute, we saw a familiar object. It was something that stirred unpleasant emotions and memories.
Researchers, assisted by androids, were transporting the object inside the institute.
Clatter, clatter.
The object loaded onto the cart was a circular capsule, large enough to fit three or four people with ease. Although it wasn’t connected to any power source, bluish light pulsed along its circuits.
A spatial transport device.
It was the same artifact we had seen in the underground ruins of the Arcane Fortress.
Lilian Lamones had planned to use this spatial transport device to escape to Border City in Bellato Federation territory. But that was nothing more than a delusion. She met her end at Ilay’s hands.
"…They really did take it from another research institute like a heist. That guy’s drive and resourcefulness are incredible."
Ilay spoke with a bitter tone, staring at the spatial transport device for a long time. Was it curiosity about Arcane Civilization? Or lingering thoughts about Lilian? Maybe both.
"You should drop your interest in Arcane Civilization. You’re going to be the head of the Carthica family."
"I was already planning to, even without you telling me. And by the way… did you sleep with Giselle?"
I choked, despite not even drinking any water.
"Cough, cough! What kind of bullshit is that?"
"Hmm. So you haven’t yet."
Ilay spoke as if he were asking about breakfast options. His smirk was beyond irritating.
"I think you’re seriously misunderstanding something…"
But Ilay wasn’t listening. He tapped my chest with his fist before pointing a finger at me.
"Just don’t have any regrets, Luka. No matter what choices we make, we’ll regret them in the end… but do your best. I still regret not doing the same."
His words sounded profound, but in the end, he was just saying that regret was inevitable.
"I'm not like you, idiot."
We walked farther from the research institute.
Even within the upper district, the research complex was a high-ranking facility. The scenery was pristine, and the streets were obsessively clean. Despite being outdoors, the high elevation meant the air quality was excellent.
At the research complex’s airfield, we spotted the aerial vehicle we had arrived in. By now, I had grown accustomed to traveling by air.
I gazed out the window as I sat inside the aerial vehicle. My line of sight stretched from below all the way to the horizon. At the far end of my vision lay the lower district.
Once, I too had looked up at this place from the lower district. Even now, some children were probably staring at the sky with longing. But they couldn’t possibly imagine it.
‘…That even up here, you have to live in fear.’
I had clawed my way up, believing that once I reached this place, all my worries and anxieties would disappear.
But the fear I carried was still alive and well. A monster named anxiety stared down at me with bloodshot eyes.
As time passed, that monster grew, feeding on my life as its sustenance. It swelled in size, waiting for the moment I would collapse, its maw open wide.
"Luka, I’m going to become the head of the Carthica family."
Ilay, seated across from me, spoke. He had been handling family affairs through a holographic interface just moments ago. From the brief glimpses I caught, he had already begun to act as the head in practice.
"There’s no need to state the obvious."
I responded indifferently. Ilay smirked, as if he had expected that answer.
"Becoming the head of the Carthica family is just the beginning for me. I intend to seize power."
"So, what? You want to become one of the Empire’s ruling elites?"
"Power and violence are just tools. But without those tools, I wouldn’t be able to protect my will, let alone realize it. A will that lacks strength is easily broken and scattered. You were right—I was once a naive noble brat. I thought things would somehow work out. I had never run into true powerlessness, so I underestimated the world. Because I had never been denied anything I wanted."
Ilay scratched the back of his hand. His artificial skin peeled along the lines of his nails, tearing apart.
"If it’s you, Ilay, leaving the Empire and going anywhere else wouldn’t be difficult."
"I’ve already built up too much karma. I’ve killed many people for my own ambition. If I were to run away now, even my sins would lose their meaning. I don’t want to be that kind of irredeemable person."
Ilay was moving further away from me.
The Ilay I once knew was a boy who pursued grand, unrealistic ideals and dreamed of distant lands.
Since the death of Lilian Lamones, I could no longer grasp what lay beneath his words.
But that wasn’t strange. He and I were walking different paths now.
Ilay didn’t know my circumstances.
And for that reason, he would understand my thoughts even less.
We were reaching the end of our youth. From now on, we could no longer escape responsibility, duty, or the weight of our past actions.
"…Well, good luck with that."
"If I’ve shared this much, shouldn’t you open up a little too?"
Ilay sighed and leaned back into his seat.
"Other than the fact that more people want me dead, nothing much. It’s the usual."
I shrugged. Ilay narrowed his eyes.
"Luka, I owe you. And I’m willing to do anything to settle that debt."
"You don’t owe me anything."
"If I say I do, then I do. So tell me before I change. There might come a time when I go so far that I won’t be able to hear your voice anymore. And when that happens, no matter what you ask of me, I’ll ignore it."
I don’t need your help.
The words rose to my throat, but I swallowed them down at the last second.
Not for my sake.
For Ilay’s.
If I had said it, he would have changed even faster. No—deteriorated would be the more accurate word.
"Fine."
At my half-hearted response, Ilay gave me a weak smile.
"Thanks, Luka. I… I…"
His pupils trembled. His unfocused eyes looked past me, as if seeing something else entirely.
"…I live without remembering my dead subordinates anymore. I barely even think about them now."
Ilay mechanically pulled out a cigarette and placed it between his lips.
Tssssk.
The lighter flicked, and the flame caught. Through the rising smoke, his eyes regained their sharpness.
"Even on the day I killed Garcia with my own hands, I slept soundly without a single nightmare. That same day, I also lost several relatives I’d known for years."
He was talking about the day of the gunship attack. I simply listened in silence.
"You know what’s even scarier? If things keep going like this… I think I’d react the same way if you died."
Ilay exhaled a slow stream of smoke.
"So don’t die before me. I don’t want to see what’s at the bottom of myself."
Ilay was becoming an Imperial Guard faster than I was.