Chapter 879
A horrific sight that looked like a piece torn from a nightmare.
The soldiers, tough and strong of stomach, were sent down, knowing they might encounter rotting corpses, but it was rare to maintain composure in front of such a gruesome scene. They couldn’t easily leave since they had descended via rope, leading them into a panic as they felt the emotions of the victim who had entered the monster’s den from the “Shan Hai Jing.”
Was it mere luck?
The officer leading them quickly regained his senses.
Sure, he had momentarily lost focus, but unlike the other soldiers running away in a frenzy, he still had some rationality left.
He worried more about the reprimands he’d face for failing the mission and the impact on his career rather than the nightmare unfolding before him. He dreaded being marked as incompetent and hindering his future prospects.
He swiftly calmed the panicking troops.
He did so through authority, shouting, and beating them with a stick.
It was a crude method akin to soothing beasts rather than people.
Nevertheless, this ignorant approach worked, and the soldiers escaped their panic to successfully complete their ‘mission’ at an astonishing speed.
The fear that something terrible might leap out and extract their brains.
Monsters from the “Shan Hai Jing,” evil spirits, and so on.
All conceivable fears seemed to watch them from the darkness below, and the fleeting peace of rummaging through corpses felt like the leisurely enjoyment of an evil spirit. The occasional sound of wind felt akin to the licking of lips from a malevolent spirit watching them.
The stench of decay assaulted their noses, akin to the fetid breath of a monster with its mouth agape, while the corrupt gases from the corpses seemed to echo their dark amusement at the terrified sight before them.
It wasn’t surprising they wished to escape this place as quickly as possible and finished the task with remarkable speed.
Once the mission was completed, those who carried the bodies fainted as they emerged.
They had endured, thinking they had to faint only after distancing themselves from this terrifying place to survive, so once they got out, their tension released, and they completely lost their senses.
And here, another coincidence overlapped.
A drone soldier had accompanied them just in case.
When the soldiers who went inside fainted, the superior realized something was wrong and ordered the drone soldier to scout the sinkhole, deploying a military drone equipped with a camera. The drone captured the exact scenery that the soldiers had witnessed… the lit monitors and the floating brains in tanks.
Had it not been for the drone soldier, that facility would have been left unattended for at least a few hours. With all the soldiers fainted, there would have been no one to testify about what had happened inside.
Logically, one might conclude that toxic gas leaked, there was a severe lack of oxygen, there was a problem with their equipment, decaying gases or toxins from the corpses made it difficult to operate, or that evil spirits or phantoms arose from the discarded bodies and attacked them.
Had they been unable to scout with the drone, they would have distanced themselves from the potentially dangerous sinkhole. And in that time, the brains would have been left unattended…
Fortunately, this dreadful discovery was reported immediately above, and the handler of this secret mission contemplated the possibility that it might be the facility of a secret research institute run by the Communist Party of China. Judging it to be significant, they secured the facility right away.
Upon securing the facility, the responsible party confirmed that its power supply had been cut off and that the monitors and brains were barely maintained by the Uninterruptible Power Supply system’s battery.
The power left in the battery was only enough to last another hour, so had even a little more time passed, the monitors would have gone dark, and the tanks preventing the brains from decaying would have ceased to function.
A continuous series of coincidences.
Quick decisions.
All these factors intertwined.
It was nothing short of a miracle, one that would not have been achieved had even a single element been missing.
If the soldier who loved Mahjong had not discovered the sinkhole.
If they hadn’t tried to use the sinkhole as a place to deal with dissenters.
If no special person had fallen in to be executed.
If they hadn’t sent people in just to salvage a corpse.
If the drone soldier hadn’t accompanied them.
If upon seeing the facility, instead of fainting, they hadn’t immediately thought to secure the secret research institute, all of it would have become a rotten meat chunk, decaying and reeking.
However, due to a sequence of coincidental luck as if heaven intervened, they managed to obtain ‘it.’
『 Gebura Archive 』
Data within a biological server made from human brains.
The truth, stored within the product of madness.
A data repository named after the fifth sefirah, Gebura, from the Tree of Life.
It was filled with luscious data.
『 Research on Rejection Prevention Techniques Using Artificial Modification of Organisms Suitable for Organization 』
『 Study on the Mechanism of Trichinella Spiralis 』
『 Research on Artificial Organ Transplants via Nutrient Cell Conversion 』
Research related to organ transplants.
『 The Correlation Between Abilities and Genes 』
『 Is it possible to artificially create Ability User babies through gene editing? 』
『 Research on Cultivating Acquired Ability Users Using Radiation and Mana Projection 』
『 Consideration on the Conditions for Ability Users: Is Ability Suitability an Expressed Trait?』
『 The Ability Suitability Gene in Non-coding DNA 』
Research on the correlation between Ability Users and genes.
『 Can a True Magic Swordsman Exist? : Exploration of the Potential Fusion of Warriors and Wizards 』
『 Research on the Fusion of Dantian and Magic Circuits 』
『 Research on the Fusion of Warrior and Wizard through Gene Manipulation for Exoskeleton Generation 』
『 Research on the Possibility of Magic Usage by Warriors through the Transplantation of Wings and Tails Serving as Biological Artifacts 』
Research aimed at merging Warriors and Wizards.
『 Experiment on Efficient Mutagenesis Using Sesquiterpene Compound for Cell Division Inhibition 』
『 Research on Creating Human Bombs Using Artificial Cell Collapse Through Mana Over-saturation 』
Research to utilize humans as biological weapons.
『 Measurement of Bio-concentration Factor Related to Cannibalism 』
『 Does the Energy of Abilities Exist?: Correlation Between Types of Abilities and Bio-concentration 』
『 The Possibility for Energy Accumulation Through Cannibalism: The Potential of Cannibalism Observed in Mana 』
And even research related to the taboo of ‘cannibalism.’
The Gebura Archive contained abundant materials, most of which lightly disregarded ethics and transcended taboos.
Even just looking at the titles invoked a sense of horror, making one feel as if merely accessing them was a sin, and realizing those topics felt like corrupting the soul.
What if the contents inside had been harmless, even if the titles were gruesome?
What if it was all a prank meant to trick those who would dare look through the materials?
If what they found was nothing but taunting commentary from a playful author differing from the titles, wouldn’t that have been better?
『 …To observe how the larvae of Trichinella Spiralis stimulate antigens using pigs and humans as specimens, adult female Trichinella were placed efficiently onto the mucosal villi. The structure of the placement refers to Dr. Clan’s method for increasing volume through efficient placement of Trichinella… 』
『 …Successful infection of the entire bodies of the specimens efficiently. The spread of Trichinella larvae transformed muscle cells into nutrient cells, forming a venous plexus for nutrient supply… 』
『 …Confirmed the potential for organ transplant advancements via the mechanism of the nutrient cell-parasite complex displayed by Trichinella. In addition, 30 pairs of pig-human specimens were procured, and experiments were conducted to swap organs between pigs and humans. To confirm the differences due to the immune system, references were made to Dr. Amir’s research on ‘stimulating the adrenal cortex using liquid metal golems’ and ‘the potential use of biological experiments utilizing interleukin-12 and interferon-gamma mutated by over-saturation of life force: a study to prevent specimen mortality in states of immune reaction suppression through life force.’… 』
The materials contained in the Gebura Archive were horrifyingly dreadful in every regard.
And what made it even more horrifying was that these materials had been damaged.
Whether it was the wicked existence harboring unending malice toward humanity that did the slicing, the damage to the materials in the Gebura Archive was… crafted in a truly cunning and bizarre manner.
It was possible to know what the research was about, its content, and how it could be studied, but… excruciatingly detailed figures, trial and error, results, and other information were irreparably ruined.
It felt as though the malevolent being whispered:
…If you want to verify this, you must do it yourself.
If you wish to validate this, you must do it yourselves.
If you want to utilize this, you must research with it as your guide.
Just like what is written here.
By committing the same sins they did here.
You will have to stain your hands with blood to achieve it…
Malice.
What they obtained through that miraculous coincidence was not a gift.
It was a collection of taboos packed with the wicked being’s malice, a temptation of corruption.