Chapter 230

“Goddammit, Director! Director… Hey, Electra! Stop spacing out and get your act together!!”

“……”

Screech…

Gibson dragged Electra, who was too weak to walk on her own, with the help of the security chief who had rushed in upon hearing the broadcast, pulling her along while he shouted harshly.

Although the soldiers surrounding them provided immediate safety, the situation was dire. It was hard to believe it could get this bad in just a few minutes.

Just when it seemed they were getting a handle on things, she suddenly got slapped by a friend, and as she clutched the painful spot, an external offensive followed.

Moreover, what? The scale and manner of attack from the enemy were nonsensical, making it even harder to respond than before? They might even have to activate the complete evacuation protocol?

Gibson had no idea what kind of chaos was unfolding on the surface. He could only hope to unleash their firepower and get through safely.

Even the connection to the headquarters, which had just been restored, abruptly cut off again after that damn kid regained her senses.

Now the other side would either be firmly believing the last message they sent, “The situation is under control,” or would be sending a maintenance team to check the communication network, which had been failing extraordinarily today. If the soldiers assigned here failed, the entire facility could fall.

…Damn, is this real? Unless Elysium is seriously planning to drop something like a dirty bomb onto the network, wouldn’t Exatech, having the upper hand in a power struggle, still have the advantage even in an all-out war against Heyrong?

Asking Gibson, who had rapidly climbed two or three ranks thanks to Electra’s favor, to calmly understand all this was unreasonable. He had focused more on building something other than results or vision.

In the end, all the final decision-making power lay with someone whose personality had its flaws, showing strong personal opinions in work priorities, but could at least handle tasks well. It would be nice if the command center could get its act together.

“This is insane!”

Should I just slap her a few times?

Right now, I’m concerned about someone else, but it’s clear that once the situation calms down, I will be the one to pay for taking on the role of a love messenger—an intermediary—while Leonard was being off-track for all those years.

That twisted resentment would be hard to resolve based on old friendships or bonds, so it’s best not to provoke her unnecessarily. For self-preservation too.

“Mr. Gibson! What on earth is going on inside!? The intruder has surrendered, and proper measures were taken! Why is the director in such a state…?”

“Tch, I’ve only sustained minor bruises! Most of this is psychological! She’s not even unconscious, so she must be hearing everything we say.”

“In that case, I’ll go ahead and administer the spare combat awakening agent.”

Before the injection, the security chief, taking a portable medicine with a needle and cylinder concealed well in a case from his pocket, rolled up Electra’s sleeve, who was still mumbling incomprehensible fragments of words in her mouth.

If Electra were completely unconscious or dead, it might be a different story, but in this ambiguous state, it was hard for the chief to take action on his own judgement.

In the aftermath, he’d rather get a definite answer now to avoid any potential punishment for insubordination later.

“……No.”

“Huh!? Are you alright? No, first, since we’re in an emergency state, let’s check the report…”

But suddenly, just before he could insert the syringe into her exposed forearm, Electra, having finally regained her senses, grabbed the chief’s wrist and started expressing all the emotions and ideals she had been mulling over.

The haze in her eyes regained focus, filled with sticky resentment.

Crack! Her slightly parted scarlet lips closed tightly, and a horrible sound of teeth grinding escaped from within.

It was almost self-harm as her nails dug into her palm, leaving scratches on herself.

“No.”

While others complicated the situation too much, piecing together various metrics to run simulations, Electra saw the outline as simple.

If the enemy’s power was unknown, they could continue to delay combat while accumulating observational data.

Facility defense? If the loss of life was severe, they could pull back the front line, and even if they faced scorn later, it would suffice to evacuate staff or initiate an evacuation operation entirely. What need was there to obsess over minor disadvantages? Exatech had enough resources worldwide to withstand this much.

As long as they could survive, worrying about one or two failures or mistakes was a waste.

However, for Electra to let go of all this coolly, there was one condition that had to be met first.

“That girl. That cunning bitch…!!”

Anastasia must die. Without fail. No matter the cost, she must be killed. If necessary, she would collapse this vast underground floor, burying her alive to make it happen.

While her unfathomable abilities and value as a specimen weighed heavily, Electra also had a deeper reason on her mind.

As long as that brat kept her mouth shut, only she and Gibson knew the specific fact that “Log Agent Leonard” had defied Exatech.

Thus, the girl must be eliminated, and as for Leonard, whom she couldn’t yet let slip through her fingers, she would detain him and carefully… over several years, truly ‘persuade’ him to fulfill her personal desires.

The satisfaction of punishing the sinner who blurred her brilliant husband’s judgment and caused this rampage would be a secondary gain.

“Why the hell is this damn elevator failing to recognize passengers like this!? It’d be faster to take the stairs!”

“Currently, it seems the work capabilities of the maintenance staff are widely dispersed, causing delays in recovery, so I’ve contacted them to prioritize the route for the director, and it should be resolved soon.”

Bang, bang—!!

While Gibson and the chief were talking, soldiers who were tightly on edge, receiving reports of the advancing enemy droid squad, suddenly fired towards the corridor.

He was approaching. Leonard was coming for her.

Could she capture him here? But if they openly suppressed firepower, with this level of forces they might struggle to restrain his rampage. The thought of accidentally killing him in the process was unbearable.

“……..No. I will not give up on him.”

But right now, regrettably, she had to retreat.

She had to pull the forces unnecessarily being consumed at the front to safely subdue and isolate her beloved. After entering a containment status, they could restore the communication network and the dispatched commander from Headquarters would take care of the rest.

With that resolve, as Electra prepared to give the order to move to the stairs with tears in her eyes, she crossed glances with a girl who was disturbingly and annoyingly sticking close behind Leonard’s smooth figure, glancing this way.

That wretched girl, where does she think she’s going…? She hasn’t even had the chance to touch his metallic skin while still conscious!

Her shoulder trembled, and her arm raised.

Ignoring the blood dripping down her face, Electra opened her mouth. Just as she was about to shout to shoot a small grenade inside and tear through the delicate skin of the girl, it happened.

Snap!

“……What?”

The world shifted.

The backdrop, the landscape, the scenery, the appearance.

The ground, the floor, the position, the coordinates.

In the moment she blinked, the solidly designed Exatech underground corridor and elevator, along with the lights and electronic devices disappeared.

All the noise caused by Gibson and the security staff that had been distracting her vanished.

Instead, what filled this strange realm was a never-ending expanse of pure white land and a void of the sky. Depending on one’s perspective, it could also be seen as an infinite abyss filled with synapse connections.

Electra knew where she was.

Occasionally, when her connection wasn’t strong enough, she would end up here, forcing her way into someone’s mind. The recent experience came vividly to mind when she had wandered while trying to glimpse Leonard’s memories during a brain transplant surgery.

…But why? How?? What brought her here out of the blue? There wouldn’t have been any interference devices or agitators set up around the elevator since there was no brainwave lab.

Could it be that everything she had experienced right before dying and fleeing with Gibson was just a vivid hallucination, and she was still operating the surgical equipment?

No, her self-awareness was far too solid to be a mere afterthought. If it were just a simple dream or illusion, she would have realized it long ago.

Other researchers were not intimidated by her ability to handle practical neurobiology and neuroscience equipment with virtually no side effects for nothing.

Then this meant that somehow, the consciousness of a fully awake person had been forcibly separated from their physical body in an instant… How?

“!!”

Her contemplation didn’t last long. There was no time for that as the curtain was about to rise on the stage.