NOVEL NEXT Chapter 8
In the early dawn of Area 2 of the Research Laboratory, Kalia was unable to sleep due to the dizziness swirling around her.
“I’m thirsty…I’m hungry…”
It had already been a week since she was subdued by the mercenaries of Laplacian and dragged here. During that time, she hadn’t eaten or drunk properly.
“I was such a fool. Even when the Brotherhood warned me, I walked straight into the trap…”
It had been over a month since her uncle, who was investigating the suspicious activities between Laplacian and other clans, went missing.
Tormented by anxiety, she hastily rushed to a location based on an unverified piece of information she had overheard. Despite her companions and friends urging her not to go, the result of her reckless decision was a crushing defeat.
The place she went to gather clues was ambushed by Awakened Ones. Of course, the minor enemies stood no chance against her Unique Ability.
However, just as she was feeling proud, she was suddenly overwhelmed by an attack from a giant wielding a hammer.
“Is there truly a way to escape?”
The Research Laboratory greedily craved her Unique Ability, but they weren’t foolish enough to give a beast its chance to break free. She was restrained with several devices.
Her arms were bound with restraints that disturbed the flow of Ether, chained to the wall, and a collar that delivered electric shocks was fastened around her neck.
To drain her strength, there was no nutrition provided except for a weak fluid flowing into her left arm.
With no way to reach out, she couldn’t hope for rescue from the other members of the Brotherhood. In fact, Kalia had half-given up. She didn’t think the Brotherhood would ever find her.
Suddenly, she recalled the girl ghost from last night.
Who on earth was that girl?
“Hello!”
Hearing a voice calling her, she lifted her head. To her surprise, her eyes met those of a girl with strikingly cute features and red eyes through the ventilation grate.
The excited girl waved her hands vigorously and opened her mouth to say something, but in the blink of an eye, she vanished.
“Did I just see something?”
Maybe that girl was the vengeful spirit of a poor victim wandering this laboratory.
As she mulled over this thought, Kalia suddenly detected a strange noise from the direction of the ventilation grate. A quiet dragging sound across a metal plate.
“….?”
As she looked towards the grate, the sound grew closer. The girl with red eyes appeared between the bars. Kalia’s eyes widened in shock.
“A ghost…?”
***
The next night, as I crawled back to the secret room through the ventilation grate, I heard a strange noise.
“A ghost…?”
I immediately protested.
“I’m not a ghost!”
Calling someone as cute as me a ghost? How ridiculous…!
No. I was thinking weirdly again. I needed to stop that cute girl talk.
“…Hey, who are you? Are you from the laboratory? How did you end up there?”
Kalia questioned me again, and despite showing signs of exhaustion, she was calmly scrutinizing me.
“If I explain, it’ll take too long. First, I’m not from the laboratory. I’m a test subject here.”
“…Are you kidding? How can I believe that? You popped out of the ventilation!”
Oh no, Kalia misunderstood right away and started suspecting me.
In typical novels, it usually goes like, “Oh! You must have come to save me! No, I’m also captured!” and they become friends immediately, but this doesn’t seem like it’ll be easy.
“This is, this is proof.”
I showed her the black, stiff electric shock collar around my neck. Kalia shook her head.
“That’s something I have too, right? There’s a chance you could be cosplaying as a poor girl. Do I look like an idiot?”
“Well, if you don’t want to believe me, there’s nothing I can do.
But Kalia, isn’t it more likely that a poor test subject girl wandered through the ventilation and happened to run into you rather than a villain deliberately entering the vent to taunt you?”
Kalia countered.
“Don’t joke. The security of Laplacian’s laboratory can’t be that incompetent…”
“Yeah! It’s actually worse than you’d think. Thanks to my Unique Ability.
Oh! When talking to you, it’s really not the ‘true’ me.”
“Not the true you? Then what’s in front of me? An illusion?”
Her sharp gaze scanned me.
“I misspoke. So, what’s talking to you is a Clone. A clone, doppelganger, got it?”
At my simple explanation, Kalia seemed to understand and exclaimed, “Ah!”
“Right, I’ve heard there are rare abilities among Unique Abilities that can imitate or clone people.
But I was told they only mimic appearances or behaviors.”
“Right, isn’t that fascinating? I got lucky somehow.”
Kalia fell into thought for a moment.
“That’s strange. I’ve heard that Unique Abilities aren’t generally developed after birth. Hold on… you’re…”
“Yeah! That’s what you think. I obtained it through experimentation.”
It didn’t take long for the emotions in her green eyes to change from curiosity to shock and then back to pity.
Why is she looking at me like that?
“…I’m sorry. Did I touch a sore spot?”
“Are you worried about me? Thanks! But I can’t remember anything!”
To be honest, I was a bit touched. As expected of a main character, she had a gentle side too.
Her demeanor seemed to soften slightly. In a moment of panic, I hurriedly opened my mouth.
“Oh! Kalia. By the way, is there like a camera inside?”
“I haven’t checked that while being trapped. But don’t talk too loudly. There’s a guard near the door…”
As Kalia was continuing her sentence, she abruptly froze and stared at me intensely.
“Wait. How do you know my name?”
Right. While I knew Kalia, she didn’t know me!
I tried to lie as calmly as possible.
“I saw you being dragged down the hallway the day before yesterday while crawling through the ventilation! They were calling your name out loud.”
“I’ve been locked up here for over a week.”
“No, three days! I mean, four days…”
Anger swelled in her emerald eyes. I averted my gaze in shock.
Oh no, this is bad.
Kalia grit her teeth and furrowed her brow, tossing her head in annoyance. Her light pink bob hair swayed.
It seemed I wouldn’t be able to converse with this fiercely strong girl any longer.
Soon, the time to maintain the Clone ended, and my vision shifted to the dark bedroom.
This was a serious matter.
***
I never expected to meet Kalia Blaze here.
She is a character that you essentially receive if you progress through the story without using resources in the game. However, she’s quite exceptional in performance and is particularly unremarkable, earning the title of savior or “gukbap character” for newbies.
Her personality is a bit rough and blunt, leading to initial friction with the protagonist “Investigator,” but later she shows boundless trust and actively supports and helps the Investigator.
Her tsundere behavior and personality, along with her slender and beautiful appearance, have earned her significant affection from users.
Title: Has Kalia’s new skin dropped??
Content: It dropped, so I’m posting it lolol
└Whoa! Kalia’s got it going on!
└This is what true slender looks like ㄷㄷ
└Sister, I’m dying
└Hehe
But why is she in a laboratory?
I can’t pinpoint the exact timeframe, but based on the information I’ve gathered so far, it seems to be 25 years into the Federal Era. About 4-5 years after the main story begins. What happened?
I recalled Kalia’s backstory.
[…A freelance hunter and savior of the streets. Once part of a notorious gang known as the Ospri Brotherhood, she fled it in disappointment and despair.
Though she fundamentally harbors resentment towards all authority and order, her hatred towards the biotechnological company Laplacian, stemming from years of suffering as a test subject in their laboratory, is incalculable…]
Right. Now that I think about it, it seems she had an experience of being abducted by a lab in the past.
But it just so happens that this laboratory is the same one. Who would have thought that Witch Violet and Kalia were once cellmates in the laboratory? Fate is truly unpredictable.
But a variable has emerged.
“You idiot! I shouldn’t have gotten all excited and pretended to know her there!”
Based on the game’s setup and my conversational experience with her, I concluded that rather than hastily asserting my innocence, I should calmly and slowly approach to dispel her doubts.
With that resolution, today I swung my sword at the approaching Skullcat.
“Kwaaak!”
“Ahhhhhh!”
Once again, I offered an arm and stabbed my sword into the back of its head. After a lot of practice, I had gotten somewhat used to the pain.
[Critical Hit!]
[You attacked the enemy from behind, triggering the Resonance Trait: Backstab. Damage is increased!]
“Ughhh…ugh…”
In pain, I drooled as I stabbed the back of that little dog-like creature. The Skullcat toppled over.
Whereas before I had to stab it multiple times to win against struggling monsters, now with the Resonance Trait, I just had to aim for the back once, and it went down right away.
This is the greatness of passive skills!
In any case, my clothes and face were drenched in blood. I wiped the sweat away with my bloodied hands.
As the moment for a break came, I carefully tested my abilities elsewhere.
“Sure enough, there was a path on the ground!”
Of course, there would be a ventilation grate or an empty space on the floor. Whenever I had enough Magical Power, I stealthily continued to create Clones and scout around.
—————————————————————-
Unique Ability:
■■■■:???
Lv2 Clone Technique:???
┖ The speed of Clone creation and maintenance time has slightly increased.
┖ You can now move small objects below a certain weight to other Clones.
—————————————————————-
“I’ve used it a lot, so my Clone level has raised.”
While exploring the ventilation, I realized that while the distance for creating Clones has a limit, there doesn’t seem to be a limit on the distance for moving or controlling Clones.
The speed of clone deployment was getting faster as I used it more. That’s natural since I was using it frequently, which helps skill level.
However, one noticeable thing caught my attention.
“Moving objects? What does that mean?”
Could it mean I can transfer objects I’m holding between the Clone and my main body?
“Wait, if that’s the case…”
An excellent idea suddenly popped into my head. As evening approached, I left the distributed plastic bottle of powdered milk untouched.
When night fell, I crawled back through the ventilation to meet Kalia.
“Hi. I’m back.”
Kalia raised her head and slowly opened her mouth.
“…Yeah, I thought about it after you left. I don’t think you’re one of those Laplacian brats. They only use drugs or torture, but they wouldn’t pull some ridiculous theater like this.”
Seeing my expression brighten, she quickly continued,
“But I still think you’re suspicious.”
I cheerfully responded to Kalia’s wary posture.
“Then don’t trust me!”
“…What?”
“I also think it’s strange to trust someone I just met right away. Honestly, I think I look suspicious too.
And I don’t think I can clear that misunderstanding immediately.”
“…Alright. So what are you gonna do?”
“Are you thirsty? Not hungry?”
“Do I look like I’m fine right now…?”
She grumbled helplessly.
Awakened Ones can endure extreme situations longer than ordinary people, but that doesn’t mean they’re free from the pain of starvation and thirst.
I decided to try out the improved Clone ability I had obtained. Holding the plastic bottle filled with water with my main body, I concentrated.
It really works.
In the Clone’s hand was the bottle of powdered milk that was in the bedroom earlier. Teleportation, it’s ridiculously overpowered.
“Hey, can you come over here for a second? I’ll give you something!”
Kalia looked at me in confusion. I extended the plastic bottle through the bars. She couldn’t hide her surprise.
“Here. Open your mouth!”
I poured a little of the milk.
“Wait…uh…ugh!! Plop!”
Oh no! The timing was off, and I just dumped it all over her face! Kalia’s expression twisted from being splashed with water.
“…Hey, are you an idiot?”
“Sorry! I’ll pour it slowly!”
I tilted the bottle carefully. Tiny drops of water trickled into her mouth one by one. How long did we do this? Eventually, the bottle was emptied.
Life came back to Kalia’s previously dull face. Giving this to a hungry person was a brilliant choice.
“Wow… I feel much better now… Thanks. But what was that you gave me?”
“It’s a mixture of protein powder, powdered milk, and vitamins.”
“No wonder it tasted weird.”
She bowed her head and expressed her gratitude to me.
“Right, this is really appreciated. But… why are you helping me like this? Is it some kind of seduction?”
I smiled brightly.
“It’s a deal!”
A question mark appeared on Kalia’s face.
“What deal?”
“I’m going to escape from here. Do you think you might help?”
“…That’s a bit grand, isn’t it? For just a bottle of water?”
“Of course, this is just the beginning. I can help you, and you can help me. You can decide whether or not to cancel once you hear my plan!”
I extended my hand. Since Kalia’s arms were bound, she nodded instead of shaking hands.
“Alright. I’m Kalia Blaze. I’ll at least listen to your plan. What’s your name?”
“I’m Violet! Nice to meet you! Please take care of me!”
Two lovely girls faced each other.
Her expression was still blunt, but it felt slightly softer than when we first met.
I, Violet, have gained a companion!