A scientist should be a witty character. Just looking at the names of the theories created by scientists made that quite clear.
I was no exception.
“You are…?”
“—Hello. Dragon Bone Soldier. Evil Scientist here.”
“Oh, an Evil Scientist? What for?”
That was a 100-point response.
“Please release me immediately. My body is the private property of Dragon Corp, and damaging or forcefully subduing it is illegal—”
Dragon Bone Soldier Subject 33 woke up and realized he was tied up and started flailing his arms and legs wildly. On paper, he had enough strength to flip over a car effortlessly, but unfortunately, those bindings weren’t designed to be broken by sheer force. Quite the opposite. The more strength he exerted, the tighter they became.
If Subject 33 had some kind of hidden superpower, he could break free, but honestly, it seemed he was exactly as specified on the website, and there was no sign of any hidden powers.
“Subject 33? That’s unfortunate. I don’t have a grudge against you, but… I need your body for something.”
“My body… I wasn’t created for that purpose.”
“Don’t worry. Nothing like what you’re imagining will happen.”
Of course, the very act of kidnapping Subject 33 was a highly risky move. If it were revealed that 33 was human and had undergone special ability development measures by Dragon Corp to acquire superpowers, it would spark huge controversies around human rights.
“However, that’s only if you were human.”
But I suspected that the 33 in front of me was not human. Not even a humanoid creature, but instead an unauthorized synthetic being devoid of human rights.
Every circumstance and instinct screamed that at me.
“Let’s begin the experiment.”
“Please stop. Right now, you are committing an illegal act against the private property of Dragon Corp…”
“Yes, yes, Unauthorized Synthetic Being.”
I knocked Subject 33 out again and activated various devices I had attached to his body. Tools to prove he wasn’t human…
If this test proved that he was indeed a being without human rights, not human at all—
“Then I’ll have to put City D under surveillance.”
Creating a creature that resembles a human but isn’t one is illegal. This holds true in both this world and on Earth. In that case, no matter what actions I took against City D— the Union would back me up.
* * *
“—Hmm?”
At the Dragon Tower in City D. As usual, Hisberk was enjoying his leisure time at the top floor when he felt an unidentified psychic disturbance and frowned. A toothache started bothering him in a place where it shouldn’t have.
Before long, Hisberk discovered the source of the pain. Something was probing his draconic essence. More precisely, it was trying to ascertain its source.
“—How dare you?”
Creatures born of dragons are sacred beings, even if not on the level of dragons themselves. They’re untouchable entities that inferior beings should never dare to carelessly poke. Not only that, but they had the audacity to attack him, too?
How disrespectful! Hisberk seethed with anger. The wrath of a dragon manifested into reality. The energy of a dragon surged forth, striking at whatever had the gall to probe him.
Kwahng—! With a sensation akin to piercing through fortress walls, the gaze that had been scanning him disappeared. Realizing this, Hisberk began searching for its source in return. He was a Dragon. The master of magic. Such exploration magic was child’s play for him.
‘Let’s see what kind of insolent face this is coming from…’
As Hisberk attempted reverse tracking, he was halted by a mental defense structure he had never seen before. Not quite accurate; he was familiar with this structure.
A Firewall. A defensive system more at home in computers than in magic. If Hisberk hadn’t been well-versed in modern science, he wouldn’t have been able to penetrate this barrier and would have been thwarted. His pride as a dragon would have taken a significant blow.
Fortunately, Hisberk had extensive knowledge of firewalls and modern science. Breaking through this level of defense was child’s play.
‘How novel to try inserting something like this into a mental barrier… Is there a specialized psychic defender out there?’
As of this point, Hisberk had only thought of his opponent as a superpowered individual with somewhat unique abilities. Naturally, he could think that way. He hadn’t encountered a magic-wielding being in over several hundred years since he fell into this world.
He was the sole owner of true magic, the only magician in this world.
He figured that this incident was just another feat accomplished with superpowers that mimicked magic, merely the antics of monkeys. He thought so right up until the last firewall was breached.
“What the…?”
Defensive formulas made of intricate symbols filled his sight. A myriad of codes that would take thousands of years to compute on a supercomputer assembled, requiring him to decipher two codes simultaneously, which could not be seen at the same time, creating a barrier unintelligible even to Hisberk, who had comprehended most modern science.
His opponent was teasingly raising the bar, gradually escalating its level. Realizing that this was a test against him only fueled Hisberk’s anger, but now, that anger had nowhere to go.
“Am I… faced with another singularity? Has magic or science vastly advanced somehow?”
While Hisberk instinctively realized his opponent’s identity, he had yet to acknowledge that his thoughts were, in fact, correct. Overwhelming data flooded into his mind, causing him to frown involuntarily.
Faced with data superior to mere humans, Hisberk’s brain couldn’t cope, and he unwittingly abandoned his reverse tracking entirely and sealed himself off.
With that, his opponent disappeared without leaving a trace, engulfing Hisberk in a rage he hadn’t felt in centuries.
“Hoo-haa-ha-ha-ha-ha!”
Startled by his laughter, an ordinary human secretary burst into the meeting room. Not Ausilio, but a regular secretary.
“Chairman! Are you okay?”
“Am I okay? Did you really just ask that? Ha-ha-ha.”
“I-I’m sorry! I spoke without thinking…”
The sharp-witted secretary realized the chairman was in a foul mood and scrambled to apologize for having made a faux pas. The chairman waved his hand dismissively and pulled the secretary closer.
As the secretary approached, he was met with a gaze filled with the wrath of a dragon and began to tremble. The aura around Hisberk was intimidating enough to make it challenging for an ordinary person to endure.
“I’m fine. This is quite delightful. I haven’t felt such joy in a long time…”
“Th-That’s a relief…”
“But you know, you just shattered that enjoyment.”
“—P-Please forgive me!”
“Forgive you?”
After contemplating the secretary’s plea for mercy for a moment, Hisberk shook his head and firmly delivered the verdict.
“Nope.”
“Wha-! Please!”
“Secretary, you are going to be placed on a three-month pay cut starting today.”
Upon hearing those words, the secretary staggered back in shock. But Hisberk didn’t stop there.
“And I’m going to change all your current paid leave to unpaid leave.”
“That… That can’t be…”
“Spend your time reflecting on the day’s events and wallow in regret.”
With that, Hisberk issued a curse upon the now-downtrodden secretary. With his head hung low in despair, the secretary exited the meeting room. This was the secret of mercenary tactics that Hisberk had realized over the past decades.
Centuries ago, humans moved to protect their lives, but nowadays, they were different. Nowadays, humans moved to protect their money. It often appeared that they cherished money even more than their lives.
Thanks to that, when Hisberk commanded humans, he no longer needed to resort to threats or demolish their heads to keep them in line. Why bother resorting to such costly measures when he could govern humans with a mere piece of paper? They were all merely Hisberk’s sheep and subjects.
‘By the way, who the heck was that…?’
Recapping the earlier scenario, Hisberk turned his gaze out the window, striving to ignore the lingering headache.
It was a singularity he hadn’t stumbled upon in several hundred years after falling into this world. He couldn’t help but be curious.
“—Secretary’s office? I have someone I need to find.”
[Yes, Chairman. Just name anyone—]
“I don’t know the face or name, nor what they do, but what’s certain is—.”
Hisberk ordered the secretary’s office to locate another singularity. Just as he had become the powerful chairman of a conglomerate dominating City D—
Singularities couldn’t hide their existence.
Absolutely not.
* * *
‘As expected, an unauthorized synthetic being.’
I gazed into the cylinder where the experiment had just concluded. Inside was something that used to be Subject 33. As I tinkered with the apparatus, things began to refine within the cylinder.
Once the refining process was complete, the machine spat out a pristine white object. Picking it up, I tilted my head and checked the components of the item that had been ejected.
“Dentin?”
What I had obtained from refining Subject 33’s body was a tooth. One that belonged to a creature that had never existed in this world.
reminds me of the Dragon Bone Soldiers from another novel called Solo Farming in the Tower where the soldiers also came from a dragon tooth