Chapter 243

One person was turned into a Harvester, greeted the person inside, and went home the next day.

The next morning, countless packages arrived at my house as a gift.

Most of them were clothes.

I mean, fashion trends change every half year anyway… is giving this much really okay?

Anyway, the clothes I was wearing were given to me by the Royal Family, so I doubt they meant for me to be wearing rags.

If they give it, I’ll wear it, but shouldn’t all thanks go to Highpion?

Or maybe this is what’s left after getting everything they wanted.

Anyway, Tiana Amphibia isn’t returning to her country; she’s going to attend the academy here. From what I overheard in a conversation with her father, James Amphibia, it seems that even if she returned now, there’s a chance it could become dangerous again.

By the way, the person who had been inside me along with the light is dead too.

He was a Shaman by profession.

How do I know? Well, when we made the contract, it wasn’t like all the memories flooded in, but when warmth came, so did some memories.

So the memories I gained from the Shaman’s warmth weren’t complete.

Still, what I managed to figure out was that he was a Shaman and used to curse people for money.

But Shamans don’t work alone.

While the curses themselves were cast by the Shaman using magic, it means he was part of a group.

In other words, there’s a Shaman Group.

Apparently, in this world, shamanic rituals aren’t instantaneous like reciting a spell. The preparation process is complicated and takes a long time.

So during that process, Shamans formed groups to gain benefits, and these units are called Clans.

Clan.

Yeah, considering they use things like insects, it would be hard to create them from scratch whenever needed.

Thus, clans take commissions and use their Shaman members like ammunition.

The Shaman whose memories I obtained only knew how to use magic. So I couldn’t understand the clan system accurately.

If their style is to complete a commissioned task once it’s accepted, then even if the two of us returned home, it’d probably just become dangerous again.

Knowing this, Tiana Amphibia has decided to enroll in the Royal Academy.

Hmm…

It’s fascinating.

Not only the mother-daughter duo from this country, but also the kingdom where they live, Moldovia, is similar. In this country too, Aurora, who regained her health through the Harvester, is enthusiastically preparing to enroll.

This semester, many high-ranking individuals from various countries will be entering.

I wonder what kind of spectacle it’ll be.

By the way, upon hearing this news, Kanna sighed deeply right away. A few days later, Polaris, who also heard the news, lamented about wanting to survive.

The start of school is approaching step by step.

This morning, Victoria was practically pushed onto the train by her parents.

Beatrix and Maurice somehow seem to be trying to restore the relationship between Victoria and me.

Though, something they said back then was pretty funny.

Certainly, they were suspicious and not quite human-like, yet they both said the same thing.

All true, and Victoria is correct.

But what can I do? I’m pretending to look human, aren’t I? So it’s not strange for others to see me as a person.

Besides, since I claimed I’m not human, I didn’t lie.

Did you know?

Humans can empathize with objects by assigning personalities to them.

It’s much easier to empathize if something talks and acts like a human.

Of course, there are people who cannot empathize. This is either due to a congenital disability or low intelligence that prevents empathy.

Actually, empathy is an incredibly difficult skill.

First, you must be able to distinguish between yourself and others. A classic example is the mirror test. When a creature that perceives its surroundings visually is placed in front of a mirror, recognizing the reflection as itself indicates intelligence.

Next, you need to be able to calculate the future. At the very least, understanding causality is necessary. Not many creatures comprehend that jumping into muddy water will dirty your clothes and potentially make you sick from bacteria in the water.

Finally, you need to be able to see the world from another’s perspective. This is truly difficult because it requires imagination. Lower intelligence makes imagining hard. That’s why humans were considered the sole rulers of the world in the Faded Memory era.

Just that, in other worlds, there are many beings more intelligent than humans due to magic power.

Anyway, only after doing all that can one barely empathize.

Ordinary people can do this. Meaning, the average human intelligence is quite remarkable.

That’s why people can project emotions onto objects and interact with them.

However, this causes problems.

If something looks human, any behavior becomes understandable.

That becomes a loophole for monsters like me to exploit.

There’s this minimal safety feature called the uncanny valley that applies to other animals, but if there are no flaws in appearance, it doesn’t work well.

Don’t you often hear that being pretty reduces guilt?

Like how it feels different when an ugly uncle puts his hand on your shoulder compared to a beautiful woman doing the same.

Even if someone isn’t extremely beautiful, having clear skin and symmetrical features makes them not seem too ugly.

Rapidly grown clones end up looking unusually clean because there’s almost no distortion during growth—they come out exactly as the genes dictate.

This body is similar.

So I act human. There’s no need to be overly evil. If I act nicely enough and throw in a bit of mischief, everyone assumes I’m human.

They don’t suspect the horrors beneath.

After all, despite revealing all my actions, nothing bad has happened, right?

Of course, if humanity understood what it means to have one’s warmth stolen, like the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign or Daegon, they’d change their attitude.

But when will they realize that?

Hehe.

By the time they do, Harvesters and their descendants will fill the world.

Speaking of which, because I acted too human, every three days, people—well, maids working at the dormitory—come by.

“Ah, you’re here! We can’t leave this as it is!”

“Let’s organize things properly. Last time I came, there was nothing in the wardrobe.”

“This is what I hinted at the other day. Good timing!”

They swarm into the empty room where I piled up clothes and start sorting them out. One of them tells me how to handle each fabric type while explaining laundry methods.

After I explained everything, they looked extremely satisfied.

Hmm…

We barely talked during the vacation when I stayed at the dormitory, so it’s strange.

I don’t know what happens after graduating from the Royal Academy.

Thus, these people aren’t approaching me for ulterior motives.

I’m not sure, but…

It’s nice to get along.

I casually invited them to stay for dinner, and we went out and bought a bunch of stuff.

There’s a commercial district near my place.

Shopping was convenient.

Prices for food aren’t cheap, and half the stores are empty, but I’ve got plenty of money.

And I don’t have much use for it otherwise.

So I splurged.

That night, we had dinner around a noisy table.

***

Meanwhile, in the Fourth World.

“Begin.”

Jeber gives the order.

“Purple Mutation Observation Experiment. Experiment Number R008. Commencing.”

The assistant repeats the command while issuing instructions to the Chimera.

When the Chimera operates the controls, a machine descends and removes the steel blindfold.

Standing before me is a trembling person. Beyond them, all I can see is a steel wall. Now, I can no longer see inside the lab with my own eyes.

Machines fill the space, and every action related to me is carried out by mechanical hands.

I’m trapped in the middle of a massive heap of machinery like a ball in an iron cage. At regular intervals, the machine opens and a person is inserted.

Then shocks are delivered through the metal needles embedded in my brain.

I recite the contract.

The person turns into a Harvester.

Their skin transforms into porcelain-like material, cracks, and reveals a pristine white person inside.

Right now, I’m observing the creation of Harvesters, but until recently, I was the one being observed.

After the coward set fire and fled,

Jeber added equipment to completely isolate me.

He started investigating my body first.

They peeled off my skin, removed and examined my internal organs, extracted and regenerated one of my eyeballs, and even attached an arm to my abdomen.

Through this, I learned about my body.

The body I entered tries to maintain an ideal state.

It regenerates missing parts and strongly resists toxins and diseases. Of course, there are limits, and it consumes an enormous amount of energy to do so.

According to information gathered from the Chimera Harvester, the cells separated from my body consume energy at a rate that makes survival impossible with the current input.

Somewhere, it’s drawing energy, and Jeber hypothesized that source is me. However, there’s a problem: he doesn’t know where the energy is coming from.

Even after extracting blood from all over my body with needles, there’s no particularly high-energy content.

To maintain the body, it sometimes triggers impossible mutations. When nutrients were deliberately injected into my abdominal cavity, the body mutated to absorb them.

Normally, they should have pooled in the body, causing decay or various inflammatory reactions. Eventually, even though absorption is possible, bad luck could lead to being covered in inflammatory cells and forming cysts.

This maintenance mechanism is so powerful that hormonal changes don’t occur properly. The body remains unchanged.

Jeber described it as if the body remembers its form and strives to maintain it. Yet, he finds it strange that it moves so desperately to maintain its shape while occasionally undergoing intense mutations when necessary.

Next, experiments were conducted to determine the limits of my body.

Originally, my body is identical to the Chimera’s. It’s a biologically identical clone of the Chimera.

So they tried attaching a Chimera limb to my abdomen instead of its original location.

And?

The arm in my abdomen was slowly sucked into my stomach. According to Jeber, I digested it. The arm regrew up to just before the elbow. Unfortunately, it was soon cut off again.

Here’s what Jeber and I discovered:

One. My body tries to maintain its original form.

Two. If necessary, it mutates to acquire resources for survival.

Three. The cells consume thirty times the normal amount of energy for this purpose.

There’s a note saying that no such amount of energy has ever been supplied, yet I remain alive.

By the way, the “thirty times” calculation comes from comparing how quickly nutrients in a culture medium were depleted when cultivating my cells versus normal cells.

In short, my cells consume in one day what normal cells would consume in thirty.

Not a graphics card or anything, but a slight increase in performance sucks up a ton of energy.

Anyway.

After those experiments on my body ended,

Jeber is now observing the mechanism while creating Harvesters.

Whatever he does with the body I’m in doesn’t matter much to me. But I do have complaints.

Those Harvesters he creates,

Would it be possible to release them as they are instead of grinding them up in a crusher?

Since they’re afraid of me, it’ll probably be tough for now.

They’re cowards.

---