Chapter 18: Illegal Alien (16)
Archeon Genetics.
A subsidiary of Archeon and one of Magiterra's Top 100 corporations.
True to its name, the facility primarily conducted research and development on genetics, biocompatibility, artificial organs, and circuit compatibility rates.
At that very moment, a meeting regarding a new project was underway in the top-floor conference room.
"Therefore, the new candidate selection process is expected to improve efficiency by 3.7 percent compared to—"
Holographic data hovered in the center of the vast conference room.
Every attendee in the meeting nodded, eyes fixed on the presenter.
Except for one person.
Rhea Valencroft rested her chin on her hand, staring out the window.
As the eldest daughter of Valencroft—the elite family that led Archeon—and the current CEO of Archeon Genetics, she found the meeting utterly boring.
To be precise, she found the people attending it boring.
They were too busy showing off their business cards rather than demonstrating actual performance.
It was only right to cut off rotten roots that no longer held any value.
"—Consequently, we believe maintaining the current research team structure is the most stable approach for this quarter's budget adjustment."
As the presentation ended, a few executives were about to clap as if they had been waiting for the signal.
When Rhea raised her right hand, the room fell silent.
She slowly straightened her back and looked at the presenter with an empty expression.
"That material you just presented."
The presenter looked up, nervousness written across his face.
"Yes, director?"
"Summarize it in three lines."
"Pardon?"
"What you've been babbling about for twelve minutes. Summarize it in three lines."
Faced with the unexpected demand, sheer panic washed over the presenter's face.
"T-that is… While maintaining the stability of the research team structure, the budget allocation—"
"One line."
Rhea cut him off.
"So you just want money like usual."
The air in the conference room began to freeze.
The presenter shut his mouth—or rather, found himself utterly unable to speak.
Rhea pointed a finger at a few people.
"You."
The face of the first executive chosen turned pale.
"You."
Then the second executive.
"And you."
Down to the third executive.
"Pardon?"
Rhea spoke with utter indifference.
"You're fired. Get out."
In the suffocating atmosphere, a few people glanced at each other, trying to process what was happening.
One of the executives who had received the termination notice barely managed to speak.
"Director, no matter the circumstances, a decision like this goes against protocol."
"Protocol?"
Rhea tilted her head slightly at his words.
"Fine. Let's do it by protocol."
She lightly tapped her wrist terminal, and the performance records of the three individuals soon appeared on the central hologram.
Project delays, budget overruns, increasing researcher turnover rates, and missing failure reports.
There were plenty of valid reasons to throw them out.
Rhea flicked through the records that had been put on hold during internal audits.
"By protocol, you should have been fired much sooner."
The wrist terminals of the three men turned red simultaneously.
[Access privileges revoked.]
[Executive authentication invalidated.]
[Security escort requested.]
The conference room doors opened, and security personnel in black uniforms entered to forcibly drag them out.
Some might call this tyranny, but she had full authority to do so.
Rhea Valencroft had never relied on her family name.
Everything she possessed, everything she had built… had been accomplished entirely on her own.
She personally revamped money-losing departments, dismantled frequently failing research teams, and reorganized three long-term projects to nearly double Archeon Genetics' net profit.
She had heard plenty of people call her ruthless, but she had never been called incompetent.
Rhea scanned the remaining people in the room with cold eyes.
"Get your act together."
Operating her wrist terminal, she transmitted a new file to the terminals of every attendee.
[Project: Helix Gate]
[Bio-Circuit Compatibility Rate Redefinition Plan]
[Clearance Level: A-7]
Rhea kept her instructions brief.
"Read through it all by tomorrow."
At that, someone asked cautiously.
"Director, this project hasn't received board approval yet."
"That's why I told you to read it. I didn't tell you to approve it."
Having answered, she stood up from her seat.
"Anyone who fails to understand this material by the next meeting can pack their bags too."
With those final words, she left the conference room and walked into her private office.
The moment the door closed, all outside sound was cut off.
Leaning back in her chair, she planned to clear her head for a moment.
"Boring."
She could get anything she wanted, and as a perfectionist, she succeeded in her plans by instantly cutting away anything that didn't work.
As a result, the only sentiment left was that everything was boring.
Just as Rhea was about to close her eyes—
RUMBLEEE—!!!!
With a massive roar, the building shook violently.
Rhea opened her eyes without her expression changing in the slightest.
A second impact.
BOOM—!
This time, the protective barrier outside the window began to activate.
In the distance, mana defense barriers flared up instantly on the outer walls of other corporate buildings.
Automated defense systems were reacting across the entire city.
Sensing that this was hardly an ordinary occurrence, Rhea stood up.
When she opened her office door, the corridor was already in chaos, with employees running everywhere.
Rhea quickly scanned the scene and grabbed a data analysis team employee who was running past her.
"What happened?"
The employee bowed his head, gasping for breath.
"D-director. Our department doesn't have the full details yet—"
"Summarize it."
Her favorite phrase.
At that single sentence, the employee immediately straightened his posture.
"An absurdly high mana output was detected in the Lower Level."
For the first time, an expression of confusion crossed her face.
"The Lower Level?"
"Yes. The exact level is still being analyzed. The detection grid was momentarily saturated, so the coordinates fluctuated. Other corporations are having a hard time analyzing the data right now as well."
"The source?"
"We don't know. It doesn't match any registered ACU signature."
At those words, Rhea's eyes shifted.
"It's not a registered ACU signature?"
"Yes. That's why it's even more of a problem."
As the employee brought up the data screen with trembling hands, a holographic graph appeared.
Most mana emissions were rapidly categorized through the corporate network.
It was designed to easily identify incidents such as ACU power outputs or runaway magitech devices.
Because those had set waveforms, even if they were unstable, it was possible to roughly identify which technology branch of which corporation they belonged to.
However, the waveform displayed on the screen was bizarre.
An outlier.
More accurately, it was a brand-new waveform that didn't exist among those countless data points.
And above all else, the output had briefly spiked to an unnatural height.
A pattern resembling a lightning strike flashed across the data graph.
Rhea stared closely at the screen and offered a comment unlike her usual self.
"Interesting."
The employee froze.
"Pardon?"
"The Lower Level, huh?"
The phrase lingered oddly on her tongue.
It was the undercity of Magiterra—a dumping ground where all the city's trash drained, crawling with failed test subjects, illegal circuit users, and dead data.
And an anomaly had flared up right in the middle of it.
Rhea asked the employee in a low voice.
"What's Seraph's reaction?"
The employee blinked in confusion, then hurriedly checked his terminal.
"Part of Seraph Industries' internal network has been temporarily closed off. They aren't responding to external requests."
The corner of Rhea's mouth rose slightly.
"I knew it."
For better or worse, Seraph was definitely involved in this somehow.
Her long-honed intuition was telling her so.
Either way, it was enough to spark her interest.
Rhea let go of the employee.
"Summon the entire analysis team. Secure the original detection waveform. Before any other corporation does."
"Yes, director."
"And open the unofficial data regarding the Lower Level."
The employee's face hardened.
"If it's unofficial data…"
"Find it."
She spoke firmly.
"Whatever that is, Archeon will check it first."
Rhea's eyes sparkled even more vividly.
"I have a feeling there's something interesting down there."
* * *
The corridor of Abandoned Residential District C-9 could no longer be called a corridor.
Only after the dust settled did Kael slowly exhale.
His fingertips trembled.
Ever since breaking the fourth ACU, the pain inside his circuits had become distinct.
It was the price for forcibly igniting dried-up mana circuits.
He could feel his circuits closing back up.
He looked down at Pale, left with nothing but his head and a fragment of his neck—a state Kael had deliberately inflicted.
Since a Tier 6 ACU was embedded in that area, he figured this could serve as an important hidden card.
Kael bent his knees to check the back of Pale's neck.
Inside the shattered protective suit, the Tier 6 ACU was glowing faintly.
Red warning lines blinked on the outer shell that was white-hot from overload, but the core circuit was still alive.
It's still intact.
Just as Kael was about to reach out his hand, Pale's dry voice rasped out.
"…Wait."
Kael froze.
Pale was still alive, though on the verge of death.
Yet his consciousness remained.
Clicking his tongue, Kael wondered how on earth the people of this world managed to hold onto life for so long.
He knit his brows slightly.
"How remarkably persistent."
Pale spat out a blood-laced breath.
"You…"
Even with his life fading away, Pale wanted to know his opponent's identity.
"What… are you really?"
Kael didn't answer.
"I'm… dying."
Pale spoke slowly.
"So… you can tell me now, can't you?"
Kael looked down at him with a look of reluctant surrender.
"Tell you what?"
"Your identity."
"Hah."
"You're not… an agent from another MegaCorp… are you?"
Pale swallowed a breath with great difficulty.
"Not a test subject… either."
"…"
Pale's voice grew fainter and fainter.
"A monster like you… shouldn't exist in this city."
Even so, he continued to throw questions.
"Tell me…"
"It's repulsive, so stop talking."
Kael cut him off briefly and let out a sigh.
There was no need to answer, but…
Telling a dying enemy his name was an old habit left over from the battlefields of long ago.
So he indulged him one last time.
"I am the Archmage of the Hero's Party."
Pale's eyes froze, staring at Kael with utter incomprehension—right up until his final moment.
"What kind of…"
His lips trembled.
"…bullshit is that…"
With those final words, the light faded from Pale's eyes.
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