Story Reader / Main Story / 16 Evernight Beat / Story
No... No, hell no!
Collins throws the thick stack of files into the air before lying on the black walnut table in the study, his arms and legs stretched like a snow angel.
The stuff we made with Luna's data is nothing but an empty shell.
That thing won't help us evolve, not even for a bit.
Is that so? All the data entries from the reports I've seen have suggested that it's better than any frame in existence.
USE—LESS.
With his sluggish tone, Collins sits up from the desk, loosening his tie and looking at the person reporting to him.
I've never wanted another powerful Construct.
What I want is to get humanity to evolve closer to the Ascendants.
Don't you get it? If a Construct is an improvement on a human's flesh and bones, then an Ascendant is an extraordinary leap of progress.
And that possibility of evolution, the chance to free humanity from its limitations of the last few hundreds of millennia, is hidden inside that agent.
It is how we give humanity more leverage on this planet—no, in this universe.
It's clearly not something we can decipher for now.
Perhaps.
But as long as we have Luna with us, we will figure out a way to unlock this treasure trove.
See, I've been meaning to ask you—are you not avoiding saying that name anymore?
That's not necessary with you.
After all, we're tentative partners during this exciting journey of opening a treasure trove.
Sigh...
What? You don't seem excited at all.
Because this is not the time. Based on our eyes and ears in the Parliament, our situation is quite dire currently. We won't be able to touch the commandant for a while.
That's fine. Don't you think this whole ordeal is one of the gifts of the trove as well?
That feeling when you have the treasure chest in your hands, but not a single thing you do will budge it. The anxiety and thrill when you can't even find the keyhole.
As if ants and insects are crawling and gnawing all over your body, or being engulfed by fire... Hahaha...
Collins cries a dramatic tear, it gliding along his wrinkles and the two hands covering his chest, leaving a wet mark on his dark-colored suit.
It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience, I'm telling you, because you will know that the wait is worth it. You'll know that once you open that chest, you will gain riches that can topple the world.
But we've lost the only one who can unlock that chest, and this key is being protected by the Parliament right now.
And you don't look distressed at all.
Ouch. How can you say that about me?
I'm one of those shepherds that care about their herd, after all.
One of those that carry a butcher knife, I suppose.
Haha! Regardless, charging into a herd of sheep to snatch one is just going to cause us trouble.
One day, our dear [player name] will find a way back into our sack.
One day.
Collins chews over his words, his gaze traveling past Rebecca into the distance.
How about waiting for that day with a little class?
Hahaha, of course.
Collins takes his time to jump off the table, taking a bow in a way he thinks elegant, before heading to a compartment to the side.
A few moments later, he steps out with a new suit that looks identical to his old one.
Do you only have one style of suit?
Clothes are just cages of morality that humanity locks themselves in.
All it does is distinguish us from the monkeys in the zoos, making us look more civilized.
Would you care about what your cage looks like?
I can't agree with that.
That's alright. I was just expressing my opinions, not looking for approval.
Everyone expresses themselves with their eyes, their actions, and their posture as long as they live. I simply choose to express myself with words.
How about you? What do you think?
What do I think about what?
This "floating treasure" the Parliament is hiding.
I'm still not sure what it is, but thanks to what you did, the Parliament has retrieved quite a number of things.
Oooh, loots!
Collins closes his eyes, his figure gently tapping on his temple.
How dare you, Nicky...
Now I'm even more eager to see what you will reap. Oh, the anticipation!
I'll leave it up to you, our dear socialite, the time we collect the fruit of their labor.
Everything is at your disposal; nothing is off the table. I'll wait for your good news.
...
Collins laughs as he pushes open the door and walks away, leaving Rebecca alone in the study.
She takes a look at the terminal Collins has left on the desk. The monitor keeps flickering as it refreshes the different confidential journals the Science Council has submitted to the Parliament.
Seriously? He's still the same after all these years.
Shaking her head, Rebecca grabs the terminal from the desk and departs this opulent room.
...
...
Hassen and Nikola have been silent like this for the last ten minutes as they read through the content in the terminal.
They read it over and over, making sure that they had not skipped even a single footnote nor misinterpreted the meaning of any single line.
Due to the clearance level required, we have monitored the entire process of researching the Omega File.
During the process, the Science Council followed the experiment approaches recorded in the Omega File.
Combining the research data Lustrous and the rest left behind, they were making attempts non-stop day and night.
Eventually, they reproduced the phenomenon the Atlantis researchers observed.
That means... the Punishing Virus can indeed be "absorbed"...
Hassen can feel his voice shaking as he says it out loud.
Everyone in the room understands what that represents.
The Punishing Virus, the bane of humanity's exile from Earth, is now something that can be eliminated.
This long, drawn-out war has finally seen a hopeful glimpse of victory. Humans finally have a chance to reclaim Earth.
And the prices paid in the past have not been in vain. All those sacrifices can finally see redemptions.
Atlantis has passed us a torch of hope, and its flame will light the fire that burns away the Punishing Virus on our planet.
(Exhales) ...
Nikola also expresses a hint of being moved. He closes his eyes slowly, remembering all the little things from the past.
Exhaling a deep breath, he breaks the shock and silence in the Parliament room with his resounding voice.
We know the how, and we can see the finish line.
We don't have any reason to waste time here, then.
Exactly. The Omega File is humanity's treasure. Move the Science Council's resource distribution to the highest level, and prioritize all their needs.
The moment we develop the devices that can absorb the Punishing Virus, humanity will have their strongest weapons to end this war.
After Hassen issues his command, Nikola's expression returns to his usual coldness.
Mr. President, don't forget that making a move this big will draw the bloodthirsty sharks lurking underneath.
Kurono wants our research, but we also want their data.
As long as we put on the proper defenses and take the right steps, we can use this opportunity to figure out what Kurono has discovered behind our backs.
So for our upcoming operation, we just have to...
Play along.
That's about it. The details have been sent to your terminal.
I'm sorry to get you involved in our conflict with the extra requests.
That's fine. I just have to make some adjustments to the encryption protocol, and you will have what you need.
The coordinates of the Omega File will now change every millisecond, and the data recorded inside is encrypted every minute.
With all these encryptions overlapping each other, Kurono would have to decrypt tens of thousands of times after just a day if they want to learn anything from it.
If they do decrypt it, the virus I planted inside will trigger, and data from the Kurono network will be sent to a set of data chips on my end.
Asimov speaks fast, but he codes even faster. A series of coding commands appears on the monitor soon before he eventually presses the "enter" key with force.
You've got what you need.
Asimov has not stopped typing even when he speaks. To him, nothing can interrupt his research on the Omega File now.
But in order to progress on the actual application of the Omega File, we need more Punishing Virus samples to study.
I see. Knowing the enemy is the only way to make sure we don't miss anything.
Apart from known Corrupted and Ascendants, we also need data from the Hetero-Creatures and the Hetero-Hive Mother. Given the Polyphage is beyond salvaging, the Hetero-Hive Mother remains we got from the sewage are far from enough.
Those remains have all been transferred to the Science Council. I'm afraid we can't give you more.
If we don't have it, we'll just find it.
Hilda waves the miniature terminal in her hand.
This is a terminal Asimov sent to the Control Court. Allow me to explain the rest.
It records the abnormal data captured by the Inver-Device from the Glory frame.
During the investigation, the Science Council determined that this abnormal Punishing Virus overload stemmed from the fight between Chrome and the Hive Mother.
During the fight, the Hive Mother maintained a faint connection with an entity beyond the sewage system. That connection was the reason Chrome's Inver-Device overloaded when it shouldn't have.
A similar connection has existed before between the Polyphage and the Pterygota Queen.
Damaging one affects the other, and the wounded side will send out an alert to the surviving side in a way to accumulate experience. Like a defensive mechanism a tribe develops to make sure of its survival.
To know to do that means the Hetero-Creatures have evolved to a fairly high level of intelligence.
The abnormal behavior of Chrome's Inver-Device gave us the data to support that idea. There may be more than one Hetero-Hive Mother... or, frankly put, having multiple bodies is a shared characteristic of all Hetero-Creatures.
The Punishing Virus emulates Earth's ecosystem to establish its own tree of life.
Every branch, every leaf on that tree represents the same Hetero-Creature species at different levels of evolution.
The Task Force has indeed mentioned in their record that Vonnegut said that Hetero-Hive Mother was just a "test subject."
Then we can deduce that there is a "completed" or "most evolved" Hetero-Hive Mother out there, and it's hidden somewhere on the surface.
...
I see. We'll send our forces to search for data on that advanced subject.
Hassen waves his hand, and the image of the Babylonia hangar appears in the middle of the Parliament.
A massive number of Task Forces have already gathered before the hangar, all prepared to march for Earth before the conversation in the Parliament even started, ready to send their blades across the enemies' throats.
Right now, all they are waiting for is an order to turn the safety off. That order is in the hands of the Parliament, locked and loaded.
Asimov understands that this is the Parliament showing how much they value the Omega File.
He turns his gaze away from the projection, only to notice a pink-haired Construct in the scene.
She stands on a stage, observing the Constructs gathered before the hangar, and compare them with the names on the list in her hand.
The icon of the Control Court on her body establishes her identity and the role she has there.
As the scene of the hangar is recorded and projected to the Parliament Hall, this smiling, pink-haired Construct looks directly at the camera.
Asimov feels that she is not looking at the camera. Instead, her gaze crosses the countless cables and reaches the Parliament, or maybe somewhere even further.
The thought bemuses Asimov. By the time he tries to confirm his feelings, the pink-haired Construct has already finished her inspection and left the hangar.
...
Shaking his head, Asimov focuses back on the terminal before him.
If you're done with what you have to say, I'll go back to work.
Asimov is about to hang up when Hilda's voice interrupts him.
Before you go, there's a question I hope you can answer honestly.
As the leading researcher on Babylonia, your stance is far more important than every other research personnel.
Science is a torch that lights the way to humanity's future, not a wind that fans the flame of some civil war.
That's where I stand.
