Chapter 6: A Level Mission
[Number 15's Desire completed. You gained 12,000 EXP.]
[You have received an Excellent evaluation reward: bonus EXP +50% [6,000], Random Reward x1.]
[Randomizing reward type…]
Hodell's eyes flickered.
"Excellent?"
Only a few seconds had passed between the mission appearing and its completion. If he wanted an evaluation even higher than that, he would probably have needed to kill everyone in the laboratory on the spot.
That was obviously impossible.
At least, for now.
[Reward type obtained: Talent Specialty.]
[Randomizing…]
[Randomization complete. Please choose one of the following three specialties:]
[Call of the Wild: Initial affinity with beast type life forms increases. Grants a chance to communicate. The Charm attribute provides a success rate bonus.]
[Marksmanship Mastery: Agility +6. Firearm attack power +8%. Fire rate +4%.]
[Solidified Mind: Mystery +5. Mental resistance +8%.]
As the system interface floated before his eyes, Reed's face had already gone dark enough to seem covered in frost.
"Good… good… very good…"
His voice came out slow and low, each word ground out from between clenched teeth.
Having one of his own men killed right in front of him was humiliation enough. If word of this got out, he would become a joke within the organization.
What unsettled him even more was something else.
Hodell had endured all the way until now, perfectly deceiving his perception, only to explode at the exact moment Reed was most relaxed. If Dr. Moore had not suddenly called for him, Reed might have remained fooled indefinitely.
That thought left behind a trace of genuine fear beneath the towering rage in his chest.
The guards around him instinctively shifted back a little, carefully avoiding the range of his temper. Their expressions turned complicated, carrying equal parts fear and resentment. If Reed wanted to settle accounts later, he might survive with his position intact.
They would not be so lucky.
Because of that, the looks they cast toward Hodell became increasingly poisonous.
Hodell ignored all of it and focused on the system.
Talent Specialties had never been rare in the original work. With his Luck stat sitting at six, it was not surprising that he had drawn one.
[Call of the Wild] did exist in the original. Unfortunately, the protagonist had only used it to raise a bear for a while before handing it off, and after that it had basically become background decoration. If he were not trapped here, Hodell would have been somewhat interested in trying it.
As for [Marksmanship Mastery], the bonuses were solid.
The problem was obvious.
He was not even sure whether firearms existed on this planet in any meaningful capacity.
That left only one choice.
[You have obtained the specialty: Solidified Mind.]
A faint chill spread through his mind.
It was not pain.
More like a stabilizing force, as if some invisible frame had just been fitted around his thoughts.
Hodell quietly exhaled.
His previous life had already left too much resentment buried inside him. Now he had transmigrated into this place and personally witnessed blood and cruelty on this level.
He had no desire to leave regrets behind.
That did not mean he was fearless in the simple, heroic sense.
It just meant that he had already accepted one thing.
If he fell, then he fell.
Life itself was a gamble.
Originally, his plan had been straightforward. Endure. Pretend to be useless. Accumulate strength in silence. Wait for the day he could rise and kill everyone
But reality had no interest in giving him that sort of development window.
In the original story, the protagonist could disappoint the supporting cast and still be given months to play dumb, lie low, and build his strength.
Hodell got stress tests, psychological torture, live demonstrations of cruelty, and a looming threat that if he proved worthless, someone would crack open his head for research.
The difference was so ridiculous it was almost funny.
And now Dr. Moore, the man even Reed revered, had specifically summoned him.
If he kept pretending to be harmless, would he even survive this meeting?
Big shots rarely dirtied their own hands for no reason. If Moore wanted to see him personally, then there was definitely a purpose behind it. Showing his claws now might not be a disaster.
It might even create an opportunity.
Of course, if it ended up provoking suspicion or getting him killed…
Then so be it.
Hodell found, somewhat to his surprise, that he was quite calm about that.
In the end, Reed only squeezed a few furious "goods" through his teeth and said nothing more. Yet the look in his eyes grew deeper and darker.
This bloody outburst, this scene that had caught everyone off guard, had become Hodell's ticket to the inner layer of the organization.
The guards pinned his arms firmly and dragged him out of the laboratory. Blood dripped from his body as he went, leaving a winding trail down the corridor toward the darker depths where Xavier Moore resided.
They passed through areas he had been absolutely forbidden from approaching over the past few days.
The deeper they went, the quieter it became.
Finally, they stopped before a dark metal door engraved with unfamiliar characters. Reed stood there for a moment, taking a deep breath as if to smooth over the emotion still clinging to him, then raised a hand and pushed it open.
The room beyond was nothing like what Hodell had expected.
This was not a laboratory.
Not an office.
Not an interrogation chamber.
It was closer to a study, yet far more refined than any simple reading room had a right to be.
Tall bookshelves stretched from floor to ceiling along all four walls, packed with leather bound volumes, ancient tomes, rolled scrolls, and sealed cases whose contents were impossible to identify at a glance. In the center of the room, a soft light source glowed from somewhere unseen, illuminating a patch of vibrant, unusual plants that seemed to thrive under its nourishment.
A man stood with his back to them.
He was pruning a blue glowing orchid with a silver instrument shaped like a pair of elegant shears.
He wore tailored dark casual clothing. His posture was tall, relaxed, and perfectly upright.
"Dr. Moore, the subject has been brought."
Reed's voice had shed all previous emotion. What remained was pure respect.
The man set down the shears and turned.
Xavier Moore.
He looked to be around forty. Handsome. Clean featured. At first glance, there was nothing especially threatening about him.
That first glance did not survive the second.
His gaze brushed over Reed, and he gave a small nod. Then it settled on Hodell.
Steady.
Measured.
Far too calm.
"Thank you for your hard work, Reed. I am already aware of the situation."
His voice was gentle and strangely magnetic, the sort that made every word sound naturally worth listening to.
Then he smiled.
"Go and take care of the aftermath first. Make sure our guest is not disturbed by unnecessary noise."
His gaze did not leave Hodell.
"Mr. Eli and I need a little private time."
Mr. Eli?
Hodell's peripheral vision swept the room in an instant.
No one else.
The "guest" Moore referred to was him.
A chill quietly climbed up his spine.
Reed's lips twitched, as though he wanted to say something, but in the end he only shot Hodell a long, heavy look, bowed, and withdrew. The door shut softly behind him.
Now only two people remained in the room.
Xavier did not speak at once.
He walked to a cabinet carved from a single piece of dark crystal, took out two tumblers, and poured a small amount of amber liquid into each. Then he pushed one glass toward the empty chair across from his desk.
"Please. Sit, Mr. Eli."
The smile on his face was flawless.
It was also completely without warmth.
Hodell remained standing for a moment before speaking.
"You are calling me Eli. I do not remember that name."
Xavier lifted his own glass and gently swirled the liquid within it, studying it like a piece of art.
"That is unfortunate."
His tone carried just the right amount of regret.
Then he looked up.
"Eli was your former name."
A small pause.
"More unfortunately, you may also have forgotten that you came here of your own free will."
Hodell's face remained unreadable, though his mind sharpened at once.
Xavier did not seem to expect an immediate answer.
"You volunteered yourself for the experiment," he continued in the same calm, attractive voice. "You offered this slave's shell to our research willingly. You wished to explore the ultimate mystery of life."
His eyes deepened slightly.
"You once told us that this was the last hope and value left to you."
That gave Hodell pause.
If the original owner of this body had truly been a Hybrid crushed by the world, then falling into the orbit of a group like this would not have been hard to imagine.
Voluntary.
Dedication.
Was this really the predecessor's past?
Hodell believed it halfway at most.
Xavier continued smoothly.
"You have just witnessed an… unnecessary tragedy. But that tragedy proves once again how fragile and brittle existing life truly is. A trivial current. A foolish moment of violence. That is all it takes for a life full of possibility to be snuffed out."
He took a small sip of the amber liquor.
"Like glass. Beautiful, perhaps. Exquisite, even. But one touch is enough to shatter it."
Glass.
That word stirred something in Hodell's mind, but he cut across Xavier's rhythm before the man could continue further.
"No matter how powerful a life form is, it still dies. Under violence, the only difference is how long it takes and how much pain it suffers before the end."
Xavier was not annoyed by the interruption.
On the contrary, a glint of appreciation flashed through his eyes, as if he had finally seen the reaction he had been waiting for.
"You are absolutely right, Eli."
He gave two light claps.
"Death is the destination of life. A cold law of the universe. We cannot defy it, nor do we intend to."
Then his tone changed.
The softness remained, but an invisible pressure rose beneath it like a tide building in deep water.
"But have you considered something?"
He leaned forward slightly.
"It is precisely that difference in duration and suffering which creates nearly all of life's sorrow and injustice."
His voice remained calm, but the emotion inside it deepened.
"Why are some born only to struggle in filth, to be destroyed by disease, poverty, and violence before they can even understand the world? Why do others receive health, power, privilege, and time?"
"That random, crude distribution of life is itself the greatest imperfection."
He took another step closer.
"Think of yourself, Eli. Why did you volunteer? Why did you willingly submit to the experiment?"
Then, for the first time, fervor entered his voice.
"The New Humans we pursue are not monsters who reject death. That is not our goal."
He spread one hand.
"What we seek is liberation. Liberation from passive fragility. Liberation from arbitrary weakness. Liberation from the random cruelty that determines who suffers and who does not."
His voice rose further, not into shouting, but into conviction.
"We do not seek immortality. We seek the end of unnecessary, premature death. We seek the end of meaningless pain."
He gestured lightly toward the direction of the laboratories below, toward the place where Number Fifteen had died.
"That tragedy you witnessed should not exist in a world of New Humans."
Hodell cut in again.
"But it happened in your organization. It happened because you wanted to stimulate an experimental subject who might have an ability."
Xavier's passionate expression slowly receded.
What replaced it was something even more dangerous.
Compassion.
Or rather, the imitation of compassion worn by someone who believed himself completely correct.
He sighed softly, the sound strangely clear in the quiet study.
"Eli. You are seeing only the surface."
He shook his head.
"Tell me. If a fruit tree is to bear sweet fruit, must the gardener not cut away diseased and redundant branches? When a great building is to be raised, must the land not first be cleared of rubble?"
He did not wait for an answer.
"What we are doing concerns the fate of the entire race."
On the words entire race, his voice carried the kind of certainty that left no room for opposition.
"On the great voyage toward the New Human, individual sacrifice is sometimes an unavoidable cost. To gain, one must pay. This is not cruelty, Eli. It is necessary rigor."
He stepped slowly through the room as he spoke, like a scholar lecturing in a hall that only he truly owned.
"The death of that Hybrid boy is, from an individual perspective, a tragedy. I do not deny that. But from a greater perspective, his death provided valuable data. It advanced our research. It may even have indirectly led to your present lucidity and willingness to question."
His gaze returned to Hodell.
"His death was a stone thrown into still water. The ripples from it may lead to discoveries far beyond him."
A faint smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
"Is that not another form of value?"
Hodell fell silent for a beat.
Not because Xavier had convinced him.
Because the man's logic was tight.
Twisted.
Monstrous.
And carefully built to turn atrocity into necessity.
Xavier saw that silence and pressed forward.
"As for the stimulation you mentioned, that too is part of the research. Potential must be tested under extreme conditions. A precious blade is not forged without repeated tempering."
"Loss during the process exists for one reason only. To achieve final perfection."
He stopped directly before Hodell.
"I acknowledge the cruelty in this. But to halt because of pity would be the true waste. It would be the true insult to life's potential."
His eyes seemed to darken.
"Precisely because we have seen so many unnecessary deaths, precisely because we understand the injustice and fragility of existing life, we must continue."
Each word became heavier.
"Temporary. Local. Controlled sacrifice."
He spoke those words as if they were a sacred formula.
"In exchange for the possibility of fundamentally ending the majority of senseless suffering."
"That is true benevolence, Eli. Not the shallow hypocrisy of those who would condemn us while doing nothing."
Then he extended his hand slightly, not in invitation exactly, but in presentation, as though showing Hodell a tool lying upon a velvet cloth.
"Now tell me."
His voice dropped again, returning to that gentle magnetic cadence.
"Will you drown in grief over individual sacrifice and remain where you are…"
"…or will you pick up the blade, even if it is stained with filth, and use it to carve open a new era?"
He held Hodell's gaze without blinking.
"Will you help me create a future in which life no longer falls so easily into tragedy?"
At that exact moment, the system chimed.
[System Notification: You have triggered an A Level mission: Glass New Star Project.]
.....
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