Story Reader / Main Story / 23 Wintry Shackles / Story
After the last security robot fell to their blades, a brief moment of silence has returned to the empty lab.
Two of them start to check undamaged documents on the desks and terminals while maintaining a certain distance in between.
What's this...
A report has caught Alpha's attention.
Hah... How ironic...
What's the matter?
Read it for yourself.
Alpha hands over the report.
City 023, Conservation Area 112, Depot D56... These are all small-scale bases destroyed by Hetero-Creatures.
Hetero-Creatures weren't the only things behind those deaths.
The attacks... They had planned everything...
As Lucia reads through the detailed attack plans, her hand starts to shake uncontrollably.
Only in a chaotic environment can they accomplish their shady businesses.
They also need more missing persons for their experiments.
Alpha activated the self-destruction program of the cultivation tanks. Without a sound, the test subjects have dissolved in the transparent liquid.
What are you doing?
Alpha looks at her other self on the other side of the cultivation tank. Through the rippling liquid, Lucia's reflection gradually merges with her own.
I was giving them a peaceful ending. Do you want them to continue serving Project Winter in these forms?
...
Without a word, Lucia puts away the report.
Rest in peace.
Submitting this report won't do anything to those people behind the curtain. It will only bring trouble to yourself instead.
But that doesn't mean I should let this darkness continue to spread.
It will continue to feed on mankind's greed. As long as humans still long for the Ascension-Network, your efforts will only be futile.
Alpha lets out a self-mocking laugh.
Even the specialized frames that helped you through the crisis were the product of these plans, weren't they?
...
I still don't think that's right.
The past mistakes can't be corrected, but it doesn't mean we should continue doing the wrong things.
I don't think the situation is bad enough for us to give up all the good things.
