<927 – Titosso's Test (8)>
Regardless of the purpose of the lockup room, Jiang faced Tetraphos directly and realized that he indeed faced an equal opponent.
The Tetraphos now was no joke.
Previously, it seemed they had gone easy on him since he was just a first-year and avoided using their territory.
“Much stronger than I expected.”
It’s difficult to guarantee who would win if it came down to a strength fight. Especially since the strength of the Mosquito Master senior, who had stolen 30 liters of blood in a campus bustling with instructors, added a few variables to the mix.
[Are you going to fight?]
[You’d better find a way to bypass it. We’ve got a long way ahead.]
Jiang quickly adapted.
“The weekly event is over, but who brought you here? I didn’t hear about any prisoners being transferred to this hellhole.”
“Are you serious? You didn’t know that people were thrown into this kind of hell? You should just kill them already!”
“Sorry, but I really don’t know.”
“Why haven’t the administrators shown up yet?!”
“The campus got totally wrecked during the weekly event. It’s likely they’ve been demoted in priority since there aren’t many free hands for now.”
“What kind of crap is this…?”
“I’ll let the administration know on my way back. Just wait patiently. I’ll recommend good behavior for your release.”
As Jiang impersonated an administrative employee, he even mimicked the identification spell that instructors often used to authenticate each other. As an assassin who traversed various facilities on campus, that information was necessary, and part of it included the identity verification spell from the patrolling security instructors.
“Ugh. Please come back quickly.”
“But I feel like I’ve seen you somewhere before…”
Unlike Yumi, who was whining and urging him, Tetraphos looked at Jiang’s fox mask with a questioning expression.
Feeling uncomfortable, Jiang shot back coldly.
“Hurry and put on your shackles. We need to get into ‘in’.”
“Hurry up! If the staff gets mad, there’ll be no release!”
As Yumi urged, she fastened her shackles, and Tetraphos reluctantly fastened his as well.
[Do we know each other?]
[A really strong senior who was trapped in that library’s lockup room a while back. If he’s moved up a grade, he’s probably a fourth-year now.]
[…No wonder I felt something was off.]
[If we face him again, that’ll be a problem for another day. Mos senior. Just ignore it for now.]
Once they officially entered the internal facility, Mos warned them with a serious expression.
[Multiple life signs detected. The numbers are insane.]
[What, suddenly?]
[The barrier level around the lockup room has drastically changed. In the previous level, we couldn’t even approach the next stage.]
There were various areas installed, making it impossible to approach, much like the ‘Dual Domain’ spread by the God of Death.
What kind of cruel experiments had taken place in these research labs, and how extreme must the environments of those test subjects be?
Jiang finally witnessed the answers with his own two eyes.
“Wh-when will… water be supplied…?”
“Drink it.”
“Can you drink water worth 1000 points in a single gulp…?”
“You won’t need to buy an exit pass. Why buy a million-point exit pass?”
“You madman. You think you can last in this hell without any outings…?”
Even though the seniors looked like they weighed over 90 kg with muscle, their bodies appeared emaciated and dried out.
Chapped lips and sunken shoulders, the frightened seniors looked at their watches and sighed.
“You idiot. Don’t you have to go do point missions? If you don’t drink water, collect points to buy an exit pass. You’ll die like this!”
“But… it’s scary. Analyzing and dissecting monster cells… all these are corpses brought up from below. One even had a name tag on the research coat. People actually die here.”
“Shut up, you fool. The ones who went down are morons thinking they’re having a blast. Stop babbling and get ready to grab a scalpel. I’ll take care of the bloody parts.”
Listening to the seniors’ conversation, Jiang slowly began to grasp the operational policies of this facility.
[The lower the tier of the lab, the more enhanced benefits and lowered costs await alongside dangerous and expensive point missions.]
[Do you think Titosso would be here?]
[Titosso would… be somewhere down there.]
Jiang thought it over.
What would Titosso do?
First, they’d probably be extremely nervous.
Hiding in a corner and watching like a small animal.
And then they’d likely start thinking.
Dissection isn’t anything big.
Compared to Professor Sadako’s undead, it’s practically nothing, isn’t it?
The seniors here are completely weak.
I bet even I could dive down without hesitation!
[They’re probably below us now.]
[True. They wouldn’t just dump someone floundering at the entrance here.]
[I’m glad we’re aligned on that.]
With that, Senior Mos and Jiang stealthily crossed over into the next district of the isolation area.
━━━
↑ Upper-tier Research Lab (B1 B2)
↓ Middle-tier Research Lab (B3 B4 B5)
━━━
The middle-tier research lab, unlike the apocalyptic ambiance of the upper-tier research lab, was cleanly maintained and felt more like a place where people lived.
But through experience, Jiang learned that a lab giving off a ‘lively’ vibe was even scarier since he’d seen the conditions that teaching assistants were in during tests while sneaking in to steal answer sheets.
“Any new monsters today?”
“I saw on the display screen earlier that a Behemoth type joint delivery request came up. We just need to collect cells from the corpse, analyze it, and send the leftovers up top, right?”
“Exactly. Man, you really are stepping up since coming to the middle-tier lab.”
“Haha, I’ve been working in the lab for three years now. This is nothing for me.”
“But why don’t others want to do this good work?”
“Good question. The principal is going crazy, saying the world is burning from the weekly event, and the sea is surging in, sweeping buildings away into hell. Surely competition is so fierce that not everyone can get in.”
“Must be. We’re lucky. We’re the survivors who caught the professor’s eye.”
Hearing their conversation made Jiang feel sorry for the seniors’ sad delusions.
[Don’t get sympathetic. If they judge you as an illegal intruder, they might attack us.]
[Worrying about assassins? You’re barking up the wrong tree.]
Jiang cooled his gaze and analyzed the facility.
━━━
[Upper-tier Research Lab]
B1 : Specimen Observation
B2 : Dissection and Data Collection
[Middle-tier Research Lab]
B3 : Monster Cell Collection and Remains Transfer
B4 : Monster Cell Cultivation and Analysis
B5 : Monster Corpses Acquisition and Classification, Production Delivery Oversight
[Lower-tier Research Lab]
???
━━━
Collecting and cultivating cells at Titosso’s level is no big deal.
Moreover, the system for descending through the tiers was fundamentally based on performance achievement or point payments.
Sadly, Titosso must have an absurd amount of points.
Thanks to the tremendous support received from rulers of various nations as the government’s saintess and the large-scale rewards from exterminating the undead in the Death Zone while playing a lighthouse role.
If there was even a slight delay, they’d realize they’d been thoroughly misled by the professors, and this was no proper place at all.
‘What… they probably just passed it by.’
Titosso had a hidden competitive streak.
With the motivations being Oknodie and Jiang himself, it would make sense.
The two top-tier champions in the upper class are friends keeping it serious in their studies to not lag behind.
Jiang even occasionally helped Titosso with assignments.
That kid has an insane amount of mana, so whatever they do, the professors keep piling on bonuses because they can’t fail this rare specimen, but that doesn’t mean they’re completely foolish either.
[Senior Mos. We need to go down to the lower tier.]
[Your friend looks like they’re genuinely in danger now.]
[I expected as much from the start. This is within the expected range.]
Right before they crossed beyond the isolative zone leading to the lower tier, alarms blared.
“A monster that pretended to be dead is awake! Head to block B4-25 immediately!”
“Everyone below-assigned, evacuate to the shelter! The rest grab suppression gear and get ready to kill!”
Thanks to the commotion, Jiang was able to slip away from the researchers easily.
[Guess we got lucky, senpai.]
[Luck doesn’t exist. Only thorough preparation matters.]
[Senior Mos, you didn’t… cause this, did you?]
[If I hadn’t awakened it, it would have probably blown up to B1. They should consider themselves lucky to have been discovered early.]
[You’re starting to show your third-year side here, seniors.]
Mos scoffed and crossed over into the isolation zone.
Jiang had a faint smile as he followed the senior.
Then his expression hardened.
Gugugugu.
The lower-tier research lab, spanning from underground floor six to eight.
In this core facility of monster research, all the researchers discovered were grotesque monster cells attached to their bodies.
Deformed bodies, randomly protruding unnatural organs, abnormally twitching, and moving eyes.
[These guys have really lost their marbles.]
[This is it. If Titosso’s around, they must be hiding tight somewhere here.]
[What are the chances they might feel ‘this is doable’ and modify their bodies?]
[None. They know they’re strong from the start and they can get stronger without doing that.]
Jiang began to search for any hidden empty spaces or dark rooms that Titosso might like.
