NOVEL NEXT Chapter 6
I, the girl-loving pig, desperately wanted to eat the French fries that were generously given to me on the floor.
However, those French fries, more precious than gold, were now in the hands of the girl-abusing ponytail bimbo.
“U-uh… my French fries…!”
“Oh no! Fast food is harmful to your body! Instead, let’s eat this!”
Hey, you’ve eaten too! I can smell the grease wafting from your clothes!
As I desperately reached out, the ponytail girl raised her arm to dodge me. When I stood up and struggled to snatch them away, the ponytail girl swiftly tossed the fries behind her. The flying fries arc-ed through the air, hitting the wall and bouncing into the trash can.
Even the pig researcher seemed flustered, saying, “Uh, Doctor, that was what I gave…” but stepped back when the ponytail glared at him.
“French frrriieees…!”
I was about to dash toward the trash can. I wanted to eat! But that bimbo with the ponytail blocked my path to the trash can.
“Violet. Didn’t I tell you no?”
“Please… I want to eat the French fries…”
As I begged, the ponytail girl’s eyes momentarily lost their spark, and she pulled a necklace switch from her lab coat pocket.
“I said no, didn’t I?”
She held the switch up in front of me. I flinched and stepped back. Only then did the ponytail girl smile. Her eyes still showed no vitality.
“Violet, if you don’t listen to your sister… you’ll make her a bad person. Do you understand?”
“I’m sorry…”
‘No, do you really hate giving that to me that much?’
“Right, from now on, you can’t make your sister a bad person~ Instead, eat this and behave. Promise!”
She pulled out a plastic bottle from behind her back. A cursed protein powder bottle was thrust in front of me.
I returned to my seat, sadly downing the tasteless baby food.
The scent of fries hung in my nose, torturing me. I called out the names of the longed-for foods one by one.
Hamburger, pizza, chicken, ramen, tonkatsu, lasagna, pasta, tteokbokki, beer, the tangy bite on my lips, and the burning cold screwdriver down my throat, and French fries, French fries, French fries…
“French fries! Hash browns!!”
What?
“Pancakes!! Bacon!! Fried egggg!!!!”
– Kooong!
“What… what’s that?!”
“What’s going on?!”
At the sudden shout and noise, everyone—researchers, guards, and test subjects—was taken aback.
Soon, the source of the noise was revealed. A sturdy adult man dressed only in shorts burst through a glass partition.
– Crash!
“Hey, you trash! For how long are you going to keep giving this as a meal?!”
The muscle man, filled with fury, hurled a milk powder can at one of the nearby researchers. The struck guy fell over with a yelp. Hahaha, serves him right.
Still not calmed down, the guy smashed the nearest table with his hand, breaking it apart and huffing in frustration. Soon, a person who looked like the head researcher rushed in hastily.
“Stop! 12-5-10! You wouldn’t be trying to break the experimental contract, would you? You chose to come here!”
The muscle man glared at the researcher with eyes aflame with rage.
“Shut up! Nobody said I’d be given garbage that even dogs wouldn’t eat! Get me proper food right now!!”
“That’s health food…”
At the researcher’s excuse, the muscle man exploded.
“Bullshit! You can eat that goat crap yourselves! Give me steak! Or sushi!”
Right? I agree! I watched the situation unfold with a sense of support for the muscle man. The researcher, flustered by the muscle man’s momentum, pulled out the electric collar switch.
“Well, it seems words have failed. 12-5-10, I will consider it crossing the line if you don’t back down.”
“Really? You desk-job bastard. Go ahead! Try it out!”
“You’re crossing the line.”
Calmly, the researcher activated the switch.
– Crackle!
“Gaaaah!”
A powerful electric shock struck the muscle man’s body. He went down on one knee, collapsing. The hero of the test subjects’ rights had fallen.
However, to everyone’s surprise, he stood up again!
“Fuuuuuuuuuuu!!! Steak!!!”
“What? What’s going on? That was set at maximum output!”
The head researcher gasped in horror. Other researchers watching us also widened their eyes in shock.
The muscle man was, after all, an awakened one focused on physical enhancements. Even in the midst of smoke rising from his body, our muscle hero raised his arms toward the collar.
– Snap!
And he broke the collar. As the electric collar snapped, loud sirens began blaring down the hallway a few seconds later. It had a function similar to an electronic monitoring anklet.
The head researcher’s face turned pale as he looked at the collar debris on the floor.
“Uh? Uh… Wait…! 12-5-10! There seems to have been a misunderstanding…!”
He tried to recoil in fear.
“Misunderstanding? What do you mean, you bastard?!”
“Calm down..! We are civilized beings, aren’t we? Let’s talk this out…!”
The muscle man strode forward and grabbed the head researcher’s arms.
“Talk? Yeah, physical talk, you bastard!!!”
Then something incredible happened.
– Crackle!
“Ugh? Gwaahhh!!”
The muscle man twisted the researcher’s arms as if wringing out a wet cloth! How was it possible for human arms to stretch like that? It was a grotesque and astounding scene!
The muscle man then kicked the screaming researcher away.
“Goowaaack!” with that sound, the researcher crashed through several glass partitions and disappeared beyond.
“This is justice, you bastards!!”
Other researchers and test subjects who had snapped back to their senses screamed and fled. Sensing the situation was growing more strange, I quickly hid behind a wall to watch.
“Emergency! Emergency! Area 2! Test subject violence incident has occurred!”
Guards who rushed down the hallway quickly aimed their guns at the muscle man.
– Tatatatatat!
From handguns to shotguns and rifles, a barrage of various bullets rained down on the muscle man. He cried out in pain.
“Arghhh! You’re all going to die too!!”
Yet amidst the relentless violence, he didn’t fall. Weak threats like bullets bounced off, reflecting the swirling light emitted by the ether that enveloped his body.
Indeed, was he an awakened one? A few bullets wouldn’t take him down.
‘I believed in him!’
In the blink of an eye, the muscle man charged at the guards.
– Bam! Whoosh! Thud!
Amidst the punches and kicks he unleashed, the guards fell before they could aim.
Oh? Perhaps the laboratory would collapse here? That would be great! Riot! Chaos! Destruction!
Then, the atmosphere shifted.
With a thud, a heavy vibration shook the ground. Around the corner of the hallway, a hefty sledgehammer-wielding guard in all black, face fully covered by a helmet, appeared, causing the muscle man to freeze.
“Everyone, step back.”
It was the ogre guard I had seen in the morning.
The other guards quickly retreated behind the ogre, creating a 1:1 standoff between the muscle man and the ogre.
“Who the hell are you, you bastard!”
The muscle man charged at the ogre. His fists, filled with ether, tore through the air and landed accurately with multiple straight punches to the ogre’s chest.
– Thud! Bam! Bam! Bam!
As the muscle man delivered his flurry of punches, he stepped back, bewildered.
The ogre remained standing. The impact felt akin to smashing a concrete wall with a rubber hammer. The only marks left on the black vest were slight scratches.
“What the… are you?”
The muscle man’s eyes widened in shock.
“Submit.”
“Damn!!!”
After glancing back for a moment, the muscle man clenched his teeth and swung his fist once more.
At that moment,
– Kooong!
I blinked, and upon witnessing the next scene, I covered my mouth.
“Ugh…!”
The spot where the muscle man had stood literally exploded in red.
‘He got crunched by the hammer!’
From the floor to both walls and the ceiling, it was smeared with blood and red remnants of a person. Something crumpled, a mix of upper and lower body, collapsed onto the floor.
“Clear it away.”
The ogre simply muttered and vanished. The guards finally scrambled to collect the injured and the dead. The researchers hidden in the room also popped their heads out one by one.
Eventually, the situation was more or less settled. Watching the guards mopping the red floor, I thought that the vision of the giant holding that sledgehammer would be hard to forget.
‘Ah, right!’
Suddenly recalling something I had forgotten, I hurried back to the trash can.
‘The French fries… have they disappeared?’
They’re gone..! The trash can had been knocked over amidst the muscle man’s rampage, scattering its contents everywhere. They were gone. I really wanted to eat them…
“Violet. Are you okay?”
Wait, when did that ponytail girl escape?
Feeling downcast, I quickly sucked my index finger when the ponytail wasn’t looking. I faintly tasted oil and salt.
I was dragged along with a gloomy heart into the next tasks.
*
Despite the earlier commotion, the afternoon schedule of the test subjects proceeded smoothly after lunch.
In the morning, they had engaged in playful fighting, while in the afternoon, they were made to study something akin to lessons. It was a kind of night school during the day for them. Of course, they conducted experiments too. During that time, we gathered with the kids I’d seen earlier in a room with a blackboard.
Mostly, they conducted psychological tests. They presented multiple choices and checked them to understand the psychological state.
I looked at the monitor of the tablet PC. The survey questions looked somehow familiar and similar to each other.
Honestly, I felt a bit uneasy here. What if the results of the psychological or intelligence tests turned out well? What if my clumsy cosplaying as a fool to hide my true identity was exposed here?
Wouldn’t the ponytail and the girl with the slicked-back hair start to suspect me? Unlike the muscle man earlier, I didn’t know how to endure electric shocks. If I broke the electric collar, the sirens would blare.
I had only one thing to rely on. I drove my brain into overdrive, recalling the shallow psychology I had learned during my academic years. Help me, long-term memory!
Naturally, I didn’t forget to think of electric stimulation while recalling the French fries. No, there was no need for acting. I want to eat fries… That grudge will never fade!
– I have a lot of friends: Yes No
– I am happy: Yes No
– I know more than 100 types of Skullcats: Yes No …
-………
After the test was over, we mostly watched various random videos. For example, promotional videos about the Laplacian Corporation’s social contributions, or footage of the hunters fighting against monsters—that is, the hunters from that genre.
The other test kids stared blankly at the tablet. The atmosphere was such that I felt a little dazed too.
With a beep, the monitor shut off. Learning time was over.
Fortunately, it seemed the researchers didn’t keep the rat race going all day. They seemed to all leave before late at night.
After the daily tasks ended, the researchers took the test subjects to the shower room. Laplacian seemed to value hygiene, as they portrayed themselves as a bio company.
Furthermore, the precious test subjects were treated with care, and they didn’t trick us into undergoing chemical warfare experiences. How relieving!
We stripped down and staggered in like zombies with the other pre-teen test subjects.
“Uuuugh! It’s cold!”
Though they called it a shower room, it was essentially a car wash with no hot water. We’d get doused once, spray soap bubbles midway, then rinse off again.
As I silently endured the cold water, the scars on the backs of the test kids were striking. Some kids had scars running from the back of their heads to their foreheads. What kind of experiments had they undergone?
A strong wind blew upon exiting the shower. We each picked up an old towel and dried off.
After all of that, we went out to grab a new patient outfit and underwear.
Finally, I returned to my lodging. There was a milk powder bottle inside the room. I drank some. With nothing to do, I sat at the desk.
How much time had passed? The sound of a music box resonated from the speakers. An announcement told the test subjects not to think of other things and just sleep.
‘Another day survived.’
I had repeated this rat race routine dozens of times already. It felt just like the military training routine from my previous life.
Yeah, it was the first time I had faced an ogre guard smashing disobedient folks with a sledgehammer or a girl-loving pig playing with French fries. And leveling up and acquiring new skills was certainly something noteworthy.
Sure, a clear path was visible. There was a way to escape from being a powerless girl.
However, separate from the achievement, if I couldn’t escape this routine quickly, I would go mad someday.
Exhausted, I flopped face down on the bed. Yet I stood up again. The reason was in my chest.
‘It’s uncomfortable…’
Even I could see that my voluptuous, firm breasts were truly beautiful. Though I had only eaten baby food so far, how could I still maintain such firmness and size? It was really incredible.
Moreover, it felt pleasant to touch. Not in a strange way! I occasionally touched myself at night when I was feeling tired, so I knew. I swear it’s not weird.
But it was heavy and sluggish.
There was one major problem. When I lay on my stomach like this, my breasts got squished, making it hard to breathe due to the stuffiness.
If I adjusted my position to lie on my back, this time my breasts jiggled above, spreading out gently under their weight. Like two bouncy puddings sitting on a shaking plate, they swayed with the slightest movement.
While I was trying to find a comfortable position lying down, I ultimately ended up lying on my side. It was the most comfortable sleeping position I had found since becoming a woman.
As I lay down and covered myself with a blanket, thoughts that had been dormant in my mind during the busy day began bubbling up like foam. Sleep wouldn’t come.
‘What should I do from now on?’
The terrifying thing about military life is that even if you’re flustered at first, you eventually adapt. And I was in the process of getting used to this strange laboratory world.
Getting zapped by electric shocks, witnessing people die or turn into bloody messes, and fighting strange monsters, I was getting familiar with being teased by strange middle-aged women.
I had fallen into the routine of daily life.
‘And sometimes it feels odd, like I’m experiencing a manic episode.’
Though my body was definitely female now, I had lived as a man for dozens of years. So even going to the bathroom still feels a bit unnatural.
But lately, I’d been finding myself muttering, ‘I’m a beautiful girl,’ while doing bizarre things. It felt as if my emotions were fluctuating suddenly.
Was it a change caused by hormones? Or maybe someone else was sharing my head? The original body’s owner? Or just psychological confusion?
No, don’t think too complicatedly. If I want to break it down, I’d have to discuss dualism, the existence of the soul, and the truth of dimensional transfers, so there would be no answer.
It was more pressing to focus on what I needed to do now.
Let’s remember what I witnessed today: the electric collar, the muscle man, the ogre, the siren, and those grudges…
I pulled the blanket over my head and closed my eyes. The footsteps of the patrolling guard faded down the hallway.
The day at the laboratory had come to an end.
“Alright, they must have left now?”
The laboratory’s day was over, and now my night was beginning.
There was a lot to do starting today.
“Violet’s escape plan starts now…!”