NOVEL NEXT Chapter 347
Chapter 1 – Before the Training
Heavily armored warriors thundered down the white corridor. Their grim gray armor and sealed helmets emitted a heavy clattering sound.
The white soldiers, bustling about, suddenly stood up and began firing their guns. The sharp crack of gunfire sliced through the air.
Monomolecular arrows flew towards the girl at the front line.
The girl quickly raised her shield, and the shield, radiating a golden glow, clashed with the arrows.
– Keeing!
The arrows lodged at an angle before snapping and bouncing away. Immediately afterward, a golden spearhead ruthlessly shattered the target’s center.
The following girls mercilessly smashed down soldiers with axes and battered them with flails.
For a moment, that scene was repeated over and over until the scenery before my eyes blurred.
[Training Program Ended]
As the mechanical voice signaled the end of training, the girls began to drop their weapons one by one. The last girl to put down her weapon sat down comfortably.
With a clank, the helmet was removed. Irene gently brushed her hair aside.
“How was it?”
Violet asked. Irene caressed her shield and replied.
“It’s definitely lethal. I think it could withstand concentrated shots from any ordinary crossbow or a barrage of shells. But this weapon? It’s insane. It poured everything into penetration power. Plus, it’s layered with Ether, making it a bit too much to take multiple hits.”
Indeed, Violet nodded. Even with her innate toughness and the powerful blessing of sunlight, the weapons from Luminexa were still horrifyingly strong.
In fact, when she was first asked by Irene to shoot a weapon directly, Violet hesitated a lot.
She knew her friend was sturdy, but the thought of losing an arm was not something one could take lightly.
Suddenly, Violet wondered if Irene was starting to resemble her reckless nature.
She didn’t mind if she were to die or lose limbs, but that was something she could never recommend to someone else.
The thought of Irene becoming like her was unsettling.
Then a peculiar thought crossed her mind.
“No, let’s think positively. This is an opportunity for Daphne’s medical technology to advance!”
“True, Daphne should also try treating others from time to time.”
Violet recalled how monotonous Daphne’s treatment methods had become lately.
When limbs were severed or when there was serious organ damage requiring significant time and magical power for regeneration, Daphne would say with a blank expression,
“Please bring me Clone 421, 6771, and 5211. They’re beyond recovery by emergency classification standards.”
And then she would cut off Violet’s perfectly fine limbs while she was unconscious and attach them in place of the lost ones. Like assembling toy blocks.
Since they were the same body, the procedure was quick. It took less than ten seconds for a miraculous thing to happen.
“Repair complete!”
“Good job. Now, the next person!”
Violet was worried about Daphne’s carelessness.
Not everyone could swap out their bodies like she could. Having a variety of treatment experiences would certainly be beneficial to her.
While Violet was momentarily staring into space, Irene’s voice brought her back to reality.
“So, you haven’t tested the energy weapon you’re holding yet? If I get hit by that, the chances of me being safe seem slim.”
“That’s true.”
Irene moved away from the training ground. Something caught her eye. She spotted some captured plasma rifles off to the side.
Energy weapons were not entirely unknown in the arms market. Growing up alongside her father, Irene had encountered various weapons and combat relics.
However, she had never seen a weapon with such terrifying power allocated to an elite unit.
The reactions of other Helios members upon seeing the weapon ‘fished out from some dungeon’ by Special Operations Division members were even more intense than Irene’s.
Thus, Irene found it even harder to comprehend.
“Why does she want to use something like that all by herself?”
“Exactly.”
It wasn’t about pure sharing or charity.
“The main products of Restraid are high-strength metal materials. You can tell just by looking at that boss’s personality that he’s difficult. But he does distinguish the public and private interests to some extent. He sells ultra-high-strength alloys like Carbonite or Megasteel even to the Federal Army or other companies that aren’t on good terms with them. He also releases outdated armored suits to the market without hesitation.”
The twins from the foundation were rational in this regard.
“That infamous Laplacian is also stingy about releasing products or services made with their technology. The aim is money, but surprisingly, they don’t exploit excessively.”
“Ew, that’s weird.”
Irene muttered.
“But the foundation oddly doesn’t pursue profits to a strange degree. Yet they obsessively collect and secure technologies they won’t even use. Why is that?”
“They said it themselves! Those incompetent ones don’t deserve to possess dangerous technologies or knowledge!”
Violet’s grievances echoed in her ears. Behind their confrontation with the foundation, there lingered the practical motive of provoking and drawing out new friends.
Yeah, the foundation’s movements undeniably had their irrational aspects.
“Still, it’s ironic that Luminexa discusses risks. Dr. Balance, the founder of the foundation, was the first person to develop an atomic bomb and deploy it in combat.”
Irene momentarily shook the doubts from her head as the secret meeting place, invited for the victims of the foundation, approached her eyes.
“There are a lot of people!”
“That means there are a lot of victims, Violet.”
Fortunately or unfortunately, there were many who would do anything if given the chance to stick a knife in Luminexa’s back.
“Damn bastards! Our research director has completely turned into an idiot! Why?”
“…It was supposed to be the child who would be the hope of our family… My son, my son…”
“Those damn bastards, the quarantine enforcement team pointed their guns at us, nattering about laws and regulations. We had no choice but to acknowledge the technology theft. They took it for peanuts, haha…”
Despite being selected as allies based on their abilities and trustworthiness, the scale was still considerable.
The actual help they could provide was uncertain, though.
“…We fully understand your anger. Because of that, we’ve summoned you here. This gathering is prepared to reclaim your rightful rights taken away by the foundation. Do not forget this.”
The task entrusted to them was to gather information across multiple fields and to outsource tasks after securing technology. For them, it was as if they were resuming the work they originally should have done.
“So, is there any other information?”
Irene’s voice, masked, resonated heavily. A man with a tense expression raised his hand.
“…Well, I’m not sure if it’ll help, but I’ve heard the Board of Directors is all gathering for a meeting. They say it’s a significant agenda. I couldn’t find out the exact location, but… it might be…”
A meeting… Irene organized her thoughts. Crushing and neutralizing the members of the board was also one of the key points for this operation.
After considering it, it would be suitable to assign this task to Violet.
“…There’s talk of renegotiating with Linecruf University.”
“Hey, Laplacian executives decided to remeet with us.”
The more channels of contact, the better. As long as Violet seizes the opportunity for contact, neutralizing the foundation wouldn’t be that difficult. But the issue was the vagueness of the information.
“Indeed, they are far removed from espionage. Perhaps the best might be to simply get our research technology back and acquire the results. At this rate… Are we still being followed?”
“Yeah, if they pull something suspicious, they’ll toss them straight into the ocean!”
In the end, the key was to find a way to approach the foundation’s stronghold. Thus, they had to gather all sorts of information to catch any clues.
Then, Violet recalled a forgotten fact.
“Ah, I left it behind!”
“What did you leave behind?”
Seeing her friend’s puzzled expression, Violet instinctively knew that the explanation would take some time. Above all, she would have to unravel the knowledge related to the foundation first.
Violet opened her mouth.
“Have you ever heard of a Stagnation Corridor?”
**
The Stagnation Corridor is a gutter-like place that exists perfectly isolated between the second dimension and reality.
The organization that discovered it first was Luminexa. Most people, when discovered, suggested using it as just a warehouse or shelter.
“But after the foundation decided to take a more active role in violent measures, the Stagnation Corridor became a sort of shortcut! If applied properly, a journey that requires walking a hundred steps in reality can be reduced to just one or two steps through the Stagnation Corridor!”
In simpler terms, the foundation could use limited methods to employ a sort of short-distance teleportation.
This was the most headache-inducing problem when fighting against the foundation.
We didn’t know their important stronghold locations or how to enter their base or facilities, but when things kicked off, the chances were high that their support would arrive in the blink of an eye.
“The Stagnation Space undergoes a reactivation period every so often. During that time, the branches and facilities are isolated! About 30 minutes? Just think back to Circle Cliff.”
In any case, despite having clear disadvantages, the ability to rapidly move large forces via means different from planes, cars, or expensive and complicated instant teleportation magic was threatening.
But now she recalled leaving her clone behind.
She thought they had all been reincarnated and converted into magical power. The Hibernating Violet remained.
“Ugh! Where am I?”
One Violet opened her eyes in the endlessly repeating concrete corridor.
The time for exploration was approaching.