Etranger

What will happen will surely happen.

A road always splits into two different paths.

All one has to do is choose.

Whatever way one goes, it’s one’s destiny.

Sad!

Why am I always unhappy now? Clouds cover the sun, but

Don’t you know it will soon be scattered away?

The innocent bride lights the candles and waits for her groom,

But the groom doesn’t know where his bride is.

Oh! Oh!

Good betrayal!

Ecstatic mistrust!

Expensive despair!

When the last bell rings

Will someone be awake until dawn to hear?

Yeria shook her head vigorously. Her eyes turned to the summer sky. A flock of birds leisurely passed through the soft clouds floating in the deep blue sky like clean cotton.

‘What would Captain San say if he had heard that oracle’s words?’ she thought. She suddenly came up with an appropriate answer. The edge of her mouth gently rose.

‘Don’t act smart. You’ll get hurt.’

Yeria was still a proud company commander and crew member.

***

[A30245, G40872] 

[A30246, G40873]

… …

[B10004, H20123] 

[B10005, H20124]

… …

San and Biyeon’s conversation never stopped.

***

A huge square with a side length of over 100 meters. The place felt more like a well-organized high-tech factory than a square. Inside, a faint light spread out. It seemed to be artificial. The ceiling was covered with a translucent membrane, where light leaks in like a skylight. Jewel-like objects were fixed on all sides, shining brightly, and translucent lines of varying thickness densely filled the walls and floors, like interwoven spider webs.

This place was an all-weather biological composite laboratory and was also located within the mightiest being in the world. It was the inside scenery of a dragon’s main body.

Among the dragons in existence, three giant dragons are said to be the strongest powers. One of them was this dragon, which had a secret laboratory space in the core of its body. This was ‘Siluone,’ a dragon that combined the biological features of a dragon with various technologies incorporated into its body.

As such, the experiments being carried out here were proof that this being also had a great interest in its specimens. The two specimens were floating in the air, separated from each other.

However, if one looked closely, one would find that they were surrounded by thin lines and transparent membranes that wrapped around them like cocoons, and over ten thousand lines connected their bodies to outside machines.

“What is their state?” the Sage, Sil asked. She, too, was connected with wires all over her body. The wrapped wires were connected to Biyeon through the body of her mother, Siluone.

“We have complete control. All their brain waves and nerve functions have been properly contained. We have full control over them,” Sul, who was connected to San the same way as Sil was to Biyeon, replied.

“Shall we start step 1 now?” Sil asked.

“Start!”

“First off, basic physical abilities…”

San’s body fluttered. His fingers and toes moved, and his small and large muscles began to move one after another. They measured the limits of their outer muscles and skeleton structure, internal organ functions, and endocrine scaffolds. Limits for destructive power, persistence, and instantaneous speed were also measured. This process was usually painful for the specimens. It was no exception for Biyeon.

“Raise the Acceleration stages,” Sil directed.

“1st Stage…”

The two bodies Accelerated. The fact that humans can Accelerate by external stimuli was proof that these beings had been studying Acceleration systems for a long time. It would take at least a day on each stage of Acceleration to measure all the combinations of variables they sought out. It would usually take around 4 days to get into the Awakened Warrior Stage.

Four days passed.

“What’s the result up to step 2, the 2nd Stage of Acceleration?” Sil asked. 

She was accurately ‘emulating’ Biyeon’s body condition with her own body. Biyeon’s consciousness was suppressed. She was closer to a machine than a living being.

All the experimental data was precisely gathered, interpreted, and analyzed in the mother dragon’s system. She possessed this space and its technology, so the results naturally went directly to her.

“There’s no big difference from other people. They’re in the same condition as copied specimens. Just… the energy barrier was considerably lower than average until the 2nd Stage of Acceleration?”

Sul was reviewing the analysis sent by Siluone.

“Does it mean that they easily transited into the 2nd Stage of Acceleration?”

“I believe it’s said that it’s a characteristic of Episode 285 humans…?”

“That’s probably why Episode 285 was sealed…” Sul replied.

“Shall we go to step 3?” 

“Will it be a little different from now on?”

Their experiments were proceeding slowly and being closely monitored. However, Sil and Sul would have never guessed what was happening in the lab at the same time.

Signals from completely different systems and principles flowed secretly through the channels connected to them. Furthermore, these signals were piggybacking off the Sages’ connections to the dragon’s mainframe, Siluone’s body. These signals were entering into the mainframe, causing a major danger for system error and theft…

Also, they didn’t know that another experiment was progressing, hidden from their view. In addition to these Sages, there were human beings in this world who could fully interpret biological signals and visualize all organs and structures of living things.

Episode 2. Book 4: Choice – Chapter 11

“This is the first time I had to conduct such a terrible experiment!”

Sil plopped on a plush chair with her coat haphazardly put on. She leaned back as far as she could in the chair and took a deep breath. Her long hair poured down the back of the chair. Through her messily put-on clothes, her inner skin was exposed here and there, but she didn’t care.

“I thought my body was being dismantled, too.”

Sul was also roughly dressed and lying on a bench while drinking purple liquid.

“How long has it been?” Sil asked in a weary, tired voice. Her head was still leaning behind the chair.

“15 days have passed…” Sul answered briefly. 

A long silence ensued. They didn’t say anything for over an hour.

“What do you think?” Sil asked, breaking the prolonged silence, as she straightened her body.

“You still can’t communicate with mother yet, right?” Sul asked instead of answering Sil’s question. 

“I’m still in a severed state. It seems all communication has been cut off,” Sil said as she shook her head.

“What do you think is the problem?”

“I… I can’t even venture a guess. This is the first time this ever happened, right? Mother disconnected from us first. Those two humans are still connected…”

“Do you think Mother is conducting the experiments herself?”

“Is that reason enough to disconnect us?”

“What do you think?” 

A long silence ensued again.

“Did you see it, too?” Sil asked while she stared at the floor.

“I saw…”

“It was amazing. It was really…”

Sil closed her eyes. She tried to recall what she last saw…

***

- This is interesting. Obviously, they’re still in a state of unconsciousness… Why did the alarm go off in my body? It was also a special-level emergency alarm…

Siluone, the ‘Mother’ magical dragon, constantly reproduced, interpreted, and analyzed different signals. The interpretation and analysis used the linguistic knowledge and grammar system of all human races, which she had accumulated over 9,000 years of living. But…

- There are fragmented words, not sentences. It’s not a conceptual virus… Should I consider this as background noise? Or is it an intended search? That’s also interesting, but…

Siluone couldn’t shake off her feeling of anxiety. There was no being who could search her own body by reversing the connections in her system. In particular, the type of connection in this special room of hers was impossible to reverse, even for a system with the same design.

This sort of reverse-engineered information pathway was not allowed except for the ‘Creator’, the ‘Original Human’, who created all things. Only he knows his code well enough to reconfigure its meaning and pathways. It was not something that insignificant humans could find out by chance.

But what if they could and did? Then these two would be related to the ‘Original One’. They may be prototypes for the reincarnation of the ‘Original One’, the so-called ‘Original Humans’.

However, the information conveyed to her by the Master’s messenger assured her that they were ‘living material’ summoned from Episode 285. The ‘Master’ was known as a person who didn’t lie. So, unsure of what was happening, she took precautions.

- It’s a contradiction… Then there’s only one possibility. There’s also only one way to find out…

Siluone made her decision.

- It tickles. Can you stop now? Clever humans! I know you both are already awake.

[…]

[Damn, we got caught…] Biyeon’s mischievous voice rang through the line connected to the dragon.

[Hey, didn’t you say let’s not go there?] San started to complain mischievously. 

Siluone clearly heard San’s playfully spiteful voice. Siluone laughed out loud. Although she couldn’t see their expressions, she could tell how the two were interacting.

- So, did you find anything out about my body, brave humans?!

[Well… not really… anyways. It’s really big and complicated. I got motion sickness while walking around. It was the first time a monster was over 500 meters tall. Are we in your stomach?]

Biyeon replied and then asked.

- To be precise, it’s my womb. Well, you weren’t surprised?

[There was nothing more surprising since we came to this world. Everything else is insignificant compared to your body.]

- Good. Now I’ll ask you both a few things. I look forward to your sincere answers.

[We also have a few questions…]

- What an interesting way of conversing. Would you like to test my patience? Did you know you’ve been caught by me? I want you to know that we’re not in an equal position, right?

[…]

- Have you met the ‘Creator’? How did you find the ‘ways’ inside my body?

[Fuck you…] San said before laughing out loud.

- Do you want to go through eternal pain? To never die but also not live, is that what you want?

Siluone growled.

[Do whatever you want. Would you like to see what we saw in your body?] San asked.

[The lines connected to our bodies really helped us search every nook and cranny of your body. There were so many interesting things, you know?] Biyeon added on.

- Have you seen my body?

Siluone, the mother of Sages, a magical dragon, growled. Were there such foolish humans? However, her threats had very little effect on San and Biyeon. Heartbreakingly…

Siluone began to objectively analyze the situation. She looked back on what had happened over the past 15 days from a new perspective. Suddenly, a creepy feeling passed through her whole body. A signal from one of them must have touched somewhere in her core. Was it a powerful demonstration?

‘It could be true!’

Now, the millions of lines connected to these ‘specimens’ were directly connected to her ‘Kernel’, the backbone of her system and being. In terms of humans, the Kernel corresponds to the cerebrum and cerebellum. They were the brain organs that controlled knowledge and sensory processing.