Chapter 3: Dormancy Period?
"Come. Eat."
The guard's face was as stern as ever, as if smiling would violate some regulation carved into his bones.
Hodell paused for a moment, then rose and followed.
He had already decided not to spend his experience points leveling up for now. In a place like this, any sudden change in his condition could easily become a death sentence. Surviving came first. Everything else could wait.
A bowl of porridge sat on the table.
It was thin and steaming, dotted with pale purple grains that gave him a strange sense of familiarity the moment he saw them.
Have I eaten something like this before?
The thought had barely surfaced when his attention shifted to the man standing opposite him.
A thin, pale, middle aged scholar in a white lab coat was watching him without the slightest attempt to conceal his scrutiny. The man's stare was sharp, invasive, almost aggressive, like a scalpel poised above skin.
The moment their eyes met, Hodell's heart skipped.
Strong.
Very strong.
Since becoming an Esper, his senses had sharpened. Before his class change, he would not have been able to judge much. Now, however, every instinct in his body screamed the same warning.
This man could kill me.
Easily.
Hodell sat down as though nothing were wrong and picked up the spoon.
The porridge tasted plain, with only the faintest trace of sweetness beneath the blandness. It was smoother than ordinary porridge, almost slippery on the tongue.
So this is a test too?
He ate without haste, his expression calm, but his thoughts were racing.
According to the logic of the original story, shouldn't they be trying to brainwash me by now? Or at least interrogate me properly?
Unless this organization hasn't unlocked that particular technology tree yet.
Or maybe Cayris really meant what he said.
No rush. Observation first. No stimulating measures.
The scholar watched him for a while before finally speaking.
"How do you feel?"
Hodell stopped his spoon halfway and lifted his gaze.
Instead of answering, he asked, "Where is this place?"
As he spoke, he took the opportunity to observe the man more closely.
The white coat was layered over a robe with silver patterns embroidered into the cuffs. No, not patterns. Script. Some kind of runic text, perhaps. His smile was polite, measured, and so perfectly arranged that it felt less human than a laboratory procedure.
The man did not seem surprised by the question at all.
"This is your home," he said gently. "You may call me Reed."
"Home?"
Hodell let confusion show on his face and carefully studied Reed's reaction.
Nothing.
Not even a flicker.
Reed merely continued, "Do you feel any discomfort? Any abnormalities in your body?"
That gaze again.
Hodell had seen eyes like that before, though never directed at himself. It was the look of someone drowning in curiosity, utterly absorbed in the thing before them. The kind of intensity that could appear on a hardworking student facing a difficult problem, or a researcher standing at the edge of a breakthrough.
Only in Reed's case, that focus was aimed at a person.
"No."
"Is that so…"
For the first time, something genuine crossed Reed's face.
Disappointment.
It was not even hidden.
Then, as quickly as it appeared, it vanished behind that mild smile.
"You are fortunate. Dr. Moore is willing to meet you. Though you will have to wait a while."
"Who is Dr. Moore?"
Reed fell silent.
Again.
He simply kept watching Hodell, as if his answer mattered less than the way he asked.
Damn riddler.
Hodell cursed inwardly and turned irritation into appetite. In a place like this, anger solved nothing. Food, on the other hand, at least had measurable value.
He lowered his head and finished the porridge.
When he was led back to his room, several new books had been added to the shelf.
…
In another room, Reed was reviewing the latest behavioral log handed over by the guard.
"No sign of awakened abilities at all?" he asked, brows furrowing.
The guard straightened immediately. "None."
Reed's fingers began tapping the table unconsciously as he pulled out Hodell's experiment record.
"After an experiment like that," he murmured, "not awakening anything is stranger than awakening something…"
…
Back in the bedroom, the new books had already been categorized in Hodell's mind.
More theory. More fragments. More stepping stones.
That suited him perfectly.
A prompt flickered before his eyes.
[Consume 1 Potential Point to learn the Effect branch [Enhanced Cell Engineering]?]
Hodell did not hesitate.
"Confirm."
The world swayed.
An enormous stream of knowledge poured into his mind once again, faster and more violently than ordinary reading. Since he had experienced it once before, he remained outwardly calm, but that did not make it pleasant. A deep throbbing pain spread through his body, pulsing from flesh to bone as though every cell were being kneaded by invisible hands.
He clenched his teeth and endured it in silence.
Ten minutes later, the pain finally faded.
Hodell exhaled slowly and steadied himself.
Whatever this mysterious organization intended to do with him, one thing was clear for the moment. They had not cut off his access to knowledge. They still wanted to observe his "learning ability."
Good.
As long as they kept feeding him information, he could keep growing.
He had no intention of remaining a specimen forever.
He was already planning for the long term.
…
Elsewhere, Reed stood before a crystal ball, listening to another report.
"Dr. Moore, the experimental subject still shows no sign of possessing any manifested ability. Should we proceed with a full physiological and motor function test?"
A calm voice came from within the crystal.
"Reed, take it slowly. We have time."
Reed lowered his head slightly. Though he stood before nothing more than an ordinary crystal sphere, his eyes shone with near fanatical devotion.
"Doctor, his existence proves your theory. Just as you foresaw, existing life itself is a kind of genetic disease, and we are the cure." Reed's voice trembled with excitement. "I believe that in a few days, you should unveil him. Let those decaying fools see your success with their own eyes."
"No," the voice replied. "There is a better use for him. How is the research on the Gene Specialization Potion progressing?"
"Inspired by your vision, its side effects are now almost negligible."
"Excellent. Well done."
That simple praise made Reed tremble as though blessed by a god.
"We are only walking the road you opened for us," he said reverently. "At best, we have caught a glimpse of scenery you saw long ago."
…
Morning.
Or something close enough to morning.
Hodell was awakened by the strange sensation of something brushing against him over and over.
He opened his eyes and immediately saw a large snow white tail.
He nearly jumped.
Then reality sank back in.
Right. Not a dream.
He sat up and rubbed his forehead.
It was strange. In an environment this oppressive, he should not have been able to sleep at all. Perhaps the complex energies in the room had some subtle sedative effect. Otherwise, his nerves would have kept him awake through the night.
The entire organization carried the same suffocating atmosphere.
Dark architecture. Narrow corridors. Air heavy with stillness. Guards whose eyes were colder than drawn blades. His allowed range of movement remained tightly restricted, which only deepened the sense that he had been buried somewhere underground, far away from the sky.
Under this kind of long term pressure, anyone would start doubting their own senses.
So for a brief moment after waking, Hodell felt disoriented.
Then the door opened.
A guard entered first. Reed followed behind him, wearing that same warm, bloodless smile.
"After a preliminary observation, your body appears to be recovering well," Reed said. "To ensure your health, and to help us better understand the miracle that occurred within you, we need you to undergo a comprehensive physical assessment today. Rest assured, the process will be painless."
Just like yesterday, he delivered his lines as though reading from a script and never seemed interested in any reply Hodell might give.
Hodell was led down the corridor and into another room.
This one was stark white.
Too white.
The silence inside was so complete that even the breathing of the guard beside him sounded unnaturally loud. Metal plates of unknown purpose were embedded in the walls, along with crystal lenses, glass tubes, and rune lined sockets whose functions Hodell could only guess at.
He was told to lie still.
Cold metal electrodes were attached to his body one after another. A transparent crystal was placed over his chest.
"There is a subtle flow of mana," Reed noted quietly, eyes fixed on the instruments.
Hodell stared at the ceiling and briefly entertained a truly idiotic thought.
What happens if I level up right now?
He dismissed it immediately.
That was not courage. That was suicide with extra steps.
The tests continued for a long time.
Even without technical expertise, Hodell could roughly classify them.
Tissue activity and regenerative response.
Environmental tolerance.
Energy resonance.
Mental pressure and stress response.
Since he had no realistic avenue of escape, he simply cooperated and stored away every observation he could.
When the session finally ended, Reed reviewed the report with a deeper frown than before.
"You truly have not awakened any ability?"
"No."
Hodell's answer was simple and steady.
Reed rubbed his chin. He did not seem to suspect a lie. Physiological testing could not directly verify the presence of an Esper ability anyway, especially if nothing obvious had manifested.
At that moment, another researcher in white approached and spoke in a low voice.
"Lord Reed, at the very least, we have confirmed that the experimental subject is not the result of necromancy or simulation magic. A reconstructed body after gene chain collapse might simply require a great deal of energy to restore itself."
Reed nodded slightly, then glanced toward the nearby guard.
"I know. Make sure his food supply remains sufficient."
With that, he turned and left.
The following days passed in silence and oppression.
At first, Hodell had hoped to use the room's complex energy flows to repeatedly farm experience. Unfortunately, after two days, it stopped yielding any further gains. The environment was clearly not ordinary. It almost certainly had surveillance or suppression functions woven into its magical structure. But because he knew nothing about Magic itself, he could not analyze it in detail.
By cross referencing his panel with his memory of the original work, he estimated that the current date should be around Star Sea Calendar Year 687.
The Star Sea Calendar was the universal time standard jointly established by the three great Universal Civilizations. It was used across the galaxy for interstellar coordination and communication, though many local civilizations still kept their own native systems, much like a person might speak a regional dialect while still understanding the common tongue.
If his estimate was right, then the original protagonist's transmigration should be near in time.
But Liuli Star…
He had no memory of it from the novel at all.
That uncertainty was a weight pressing constantly against the back of his mind.
Meanwhile, the observation never stopped.
Reed's assistants recorded everything.
If Hodell drank a mouthful of water, they wrote it down.
If he paused for three seconds while eating and looked at the wall, they wrote it down.
If he turned over once at night, someone somewhere wrote that down too.
The dry scratching of pens on paper became a permanent background noise to his days, as constant as breathing.
His range of movement remained restricted.
Once, he heard a scream from somewhere deeper in the facility and instinctively moved toward the corridor it had come from. A guard with the same severe face as always immediately stepped in front of him and "advised" him to return to his room.
Hodell did not argue.
But he remembered the scream.
It had not sounded human by the end. More like something choking on its own transformation.
It vanished quickly, swallowed by the labyrinth of the facility.
Hodell understood his situation very clearly.
His better treatment came from two things only.
Unknown value.
Unknown risk.
He was an unearthed relic sealed in a sterile case, carefully preserved only until the day he could be fully deciphered.
But observation went both ways.
While they studied him, he was also learning about them.
At first, Hodell had assumed he simply had not found the right method to trigger his Esper ability. Or perhaps he had been too cautious, too afraid of exposing himself, and had subconsciously restrained it.
Then came the best opportunity he had seen so far.
The organization prepared some kind of ritual supplementation process for him.
He was placed at the center of a magic array made of cooled silver wire, dormant crystals, and stretched animal hide inscribed with living patterns. When the researchers activated it, the markings pulsed like veins waking beneath skin, and for a brief instant the entire formation erupted with brilliant white light.
At that moment, everyone's attention was on the array.
Not on him.
It was, by far, the best chance he had ever had to conceal a reaction.
And yet even then, he sensed no hidden ability awakening inside him.
What he did receive, however, was something else entirely.
[You have been infused with [Blood of Origin Principle]. Endurance +1. You have gained Talent: Accelerated Healing.]
[Accelerated Healing: In a normal state, Health recovery speed +100%. When using energy, recovery speed +200% to +400%.]
[Blood of Origin Principle: Life essence extracted through crude methods using 9 ordinary people as fuel.]
Hodell's eyes lingered on the final line.
Nine ordinary people.
Fuel.
The warmth spreading through his body suddenly felt filthy.
Even so, the fact remained. The process had worked. His body had strengthened. His panel had changed.
But his ability still had not surfaced.
That forced him to look back, once again, at the only truly abnormal part of his class information.
Main Class: Esper Novice Lv.1 [0/200]
[Path of Chaos] [0/1]
Hodell's gaze fixed on the final set of brackets.
And slowly, he fell into thought.
.....
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