[An explosion has been detected. All employees, please take cover under your desks immediately.]
The laboratory we arrived at was a complete mess.
Shattered protective glass, blaring alarms, the faint stench of gunpowder, and machines that had lost power were enough to make the severity of the situation clear.
When terrorism is carried out against a Wing, there are usually three ways it succeeds.
First, they have an information advantage over the Wing.
Second, the attackers are highly experienced in terrorism.
Or...
They have the capability to win a direct engagement against that Wing.
Please let the last one not be the case. Otherwise, we'd all be dying like dogs—
Skang—!
What the...
Just as I was reeling from the sudden explosion, a languid male voice came from near the blast.
"Ah... misfired."
A man wrapped head to toe in clothes, wearing a mask so that only the upper half of his face was visible.
Beside him was a vicious machine: a spider-like mass of many legs, a cylindrical pillar stretching upward from the center of those legs to about a person's height, and on top of it, a huge iron sphere.
And that was...
[A second explosion has been detected. All employees, please activate the regeneration ampoules in your possession and... wait, wait, wai... for K Corp security to arrive within 18 seconds...]
A woman with short black hair that turned a dull gold from the middle down, as if it had been dyed.
Compared to the man beside her, her outfit looked more like that of a field technician, with goggles carelessly perched on top... a researcher who worked in the field?
"That line's still the same. Why do they always have to say things like that in such a calm voice?
They should be gasping for breath while they say it. Wouldn't that be more effective at evacuating people?
As expected, once you get blinded by focusing only on technology or science, you stop trying to empathize with emotions."
"...You talk too much. Be quiet."
The talkative woman and the taciturn man. By their clothes and their words alike, they looked unmistakably like terrorists.
Tch. If their firepower is strong, this is going to be a pain.
"Is everyone unharmed? If anyone isn't, please take a regeneration ampoule. We'll need to run a cross-match, but for now it's urgent..."
"...You're awfully calm. Usually, when terrorism breaks out, everyone falls into chaos, don't they?"
"Everyone was scrambling during the first attack. We didn't even have an explosion-detection announcement back then. Samjo hid under a desk for ages and wouldn't come out..."
"As I always say, that was terrorism in the lobby, and I was only trying to pick up a hydroponic pen that had fallen deep under the desk.
You need to take this seriously, Dongrang-nim. An attack on a K Corp laboratory in the middle of the Nest is no ordinary matter."
"Right, this time they somehow made it all the way to the floor where the researchers are. Ah, I think I sprained my left leg a bit, Samjo."
Samjo skillfully injected a regeneration ampoule into Dongrang.
So this wasn't the first or second time this had happened...
"Are those the terrorist group occupying the Lobotomy Corporation branch?"
"That's right. Speak of the tiger, and it roars."
"Those people are terrorists? They don't really look especially suited for combat..."
"Oh? So the kid's got some eye for this now?"
"Of course. They're not the ones who do the actual fighting.
Just look at them. They don't look nearly as frail as Dongrang-nim."
"Rich people get body-enhancement procedures just in case, even if they don't fight personally. Isn't that all just whining?"
"Not necessarily. There are many different methods of enhancement, and depending on the form, some people feel resistance to it or suffer through it.
Depending on the Nest, there are even places where if the resident Feathers aren't qualified, procedures above a certain level of power are taboo."
This time, the answer came from Faust. So she hadn't left the explanation to Samjo.
"So the people below get power and rise up, and that's a problem or something? Right?"
"That possibility can't be denied. Every Nest has its own reasons.
But fundamentally, enhancement procedures are similar to high-output vehicles. If an unverified person handles equipment with output they can't control...
the order within the Nest could collapse at any moment, so I imagine prevention is the larger concern."
Imagining those stupid rich bastards running around not knowing a thing about what they're doing... ugh, I don't even want to think about it.
"Sorry to interrupt the enthusiastic explanation, but for the record, I wasn't whining. I was genuinely in pain, you know?"
"If I call you Dongrang, I assume you know that saying it with that expression doesn't make it convincing?"
"Good grief..."
Dongrang rubbed his head at my words, looking troubled.
Even that somehow backfired against his usual lighthearted air and made it look like a joke.
Step, step, step, step.
After a little while, familiar figures appeared. The crisp, regular sound of footsteps... K Corp security.
"Eek!"
"Th-those are the ones we saw at the checkpoint..."
"Then they're our reliable allies now."
...Huh, what is this. Why do I feel so uneasy?
They should definitely be allies, just as Ishmael said... but something... something gave off an incomprehensible sense of foreboding. Like we were about to be betrayed or something...
"Excessive bleeding within 5 seconds. Spinal damage of 12 cm or more. Extraction of the coronary artery. Skull destruction.
Thus, all enemies die instantly without unnecessary suffering."
"Unnecessary suffering aside, isn't it more that if even a vaguely intact brain is left behind, they'll revive, so it's a problem?
Hey, if it's not too much to ask, could you just pretend to be dead even if you don't die right away? He stayed up all night yesterday upgrading the instant-kill function."
"Be quiet."
Crunch.
"See? I told you. At that recoil, it only goes through to the occipital lobe. Do you really need to learn that through live combat to be satisfied?"
"Damn it... I should've gone through the temporal lobe too."
Are these people... insane...?
They're discussing that kind of thing all the way out here? I was so dumbfounded I couldn't even speak.
"We won't lose. We've got robots on our side too. They should show up soon..."
Then, from the place where K Corp security had appeared, a robot drifted out leisurely.
"Aha, ta-da! It's a regeneration ampoule delivery drone."
"That sounds reassuring. Does it inject regeneration ampoules immediately whenever someone is injured?"
"Yes. As long as it's injected before their head gets blown off... or before they miss the golden window and their brain stops... they're immortal."
Crunch!
"...Kgh."
One person was crushed beneath the menacing iron sphere mounted on the machine.
"If an organ is pierced or..."
Thud!
"...Ghk!"
This time, it was a sweeping strike from the side.
"Even broken bones can be restored to normal within seconds."
"That doesn't mean... they won't feel pain. Why are they all so calm...?
Even when the body of the colleague right next to them is severed, they don't even look over."
Hm... I didn't expect Ishmael to ask something like that. To put it kindly, she's pretty emotional.
"That's only natural. If it can be repaired within seconds, then all judgment becomes secondary."
"If you repeat that countless times... eventually you get used to situations like this. To the point where you won't even glance over unless it's really something."
"That is correct."
"Then... will we eventually become like that too?"
"I don't know why you'd think about such a thing."
"Because I'm curious."
Hong Lu's curiosity really is... well, yes, I suppose that makes sense.
"But... who are these new faces wearing clothes I've never seen before? Anyone care to introduce yourselves?"
"That's none of our concern."
"True. But it's a little awkward to keep staring at each other like this. Shouldn't someone start talking?"
"...Why should we introduce ourselves to nothing more than a terrorist organization?"
Ishmael glared at them with an irritated look.
Hm... but can you really call people who directly terrorize a Wing "nothing more than a terrorist organization"?
"We are not 'nothing more than a terrorist organization.' Watch your mouth."
"I don't dislike that nuance. It's the same as my values and context at age four. I was forced to answer the call of graduate school when my paper on atomic theory won at age eleven..."
"Be quiet. We are the Technology Liberation Alliance."
Technology... Liberation Alliance? Liberating technology how, exactly...?
"What kind of technology are you liberating? Does technology want freedom too?"
"Probably... the animals inside that laboratory...?"
"Did you hear that? She thinks we're some kind of animal rights activists.
Sorry, but that kind of outdated trend ended ages ago. Do you think we spend our nights assembling machines just so we can happily grow up and chew on healthy fried chicken?
Especially since X-32 type bolts are hard to get these days, so we have to order them through other Nests. Do you know how much tax gets slapped on?"
"X-32 type bolts can be substituted by casting c-9 bolts and quenching them at two-hour intervals."
...?
Is that true?
"Who the hell are you to act like you know everything..."
"Oh... oh... no... that sounds plausible."
Is it real?
"Why are you giving tips to the enemy, Faust?"
"You wouldn't understand. Researchers have convictions more important than death."
...Ah, I think I get it, and it's pissing me off. For real.
If only they'd shut up a little.