-43- It Came Alive

"Aisling Omega? That chairperson?" Rosalind covered her mouth in surprise after hearing the teacher read the contents above.

During her dream, she had seen that lady—on the large television in the apartment on Wright Street, of course. At that time, Aisling was dressed in splendid attire, sitting with poised elegance on the podium of a charitable event, passionately raising funds for local orphans. Her speech was extremely infectious, her eyes turning red at emotional moments, earning plenty of tears from Rosalind in front of the television.

Although her impression of Black Tower Pharmaceuticals became somewhat unfavorable during her later life in the Black Water District, this did not prevent her from maintaining a fair impression of Aisling.

After all, in a sense, both she and Aisling could be considered aristocratic young ladies of similar classes, both full of goodwill and sympathy for the people at the bottom. If anyone attacked Aisling for being hypocritical and putting on a show, she would instantly empathize and feel quite uneasy about it.

—Of course, provided that Aisling truly was a good person.

Yvette hummed in response, not feeling particularly surprised. If the apocalypse were to suddenly descend, the abyssal base hidden within the caldera lake would indeed be a natural sanctuary. As the CEO of Black Tower's Yish branch and the "imperial granddaughter" of the Black Tower's ruling family, Ms. Aisling certainly had the right to take refuge in the abyssal base.

The truly core part remained the last two sentences.

The "Divine Molting" at the bottom of the divine corrosion—what was that? It sounded as if it were related to "gods." Could it be some transcendent existence beyond the comprehension of even Black Tower Pharmaceuticals, thus necessitating the use of a word like "divine"?

The anomaly originating from the ocean meant that the mutation began in the sea first? And when it finally spread to the land, the scale was so immense that it caused the destruction of the origin civilization?

That was a strong possibility... The reason she had been hesitating to cross the ocean was precisely because the sea was a super incubation dish, far too perilous. Heaven knows what level of ultra-large mutant entities were hidden within, swallowing people whole.

She continued flipping forward, only to find nothing more below. In other words, Ms. Aisling's last words left behind before her death were so pitifully brief, with everything else that theoretically should have appeared in a last will and testament completely absent.

So, proving the family's innocence was her sole obsession before death?

Yvette put down the notebook and then caught sight of Rosalind rummaging through boxes and cabinets like a thief—ah, no, like a little detective—filled with enthusiastic curiosity.

Next, she pulled a heavy file bag from a dark corner. Most of the documents inside were already rotted and moldy, but some fragments were barely legible. She carefully sorted out a few pages of barely readable handwriting and handed them to her teacher.

Yvette took them, reading them as she translated for Rosalind.

"Experiment Log F#933, August 9, 2146. Phase VI Engineering of the Immortality Project nearing conclusion, results summary."

"Recorder: Leo Kraus."

"...(Indistinct)... Success rate: 33% (see appendix for details), a significant 14% increase compared to Phase V Engineering."

"The new generation of Molting Potion Type VII has been tremendously helpful in improving the success rate."

"Note: Dr. Dillon Dempsey's mental state has returned to normal; he can return to continue leading the experiment."

"Application: Expand experimental privileges and rapidly commence Phase VII."

Without a doubt, compared to Ms. Aisling's suicide note, the information revealed in this experiment log was vastly greater, causing Yvette to pause for quite a while before extracting the details worthy of attention one by one.

August 9, 2146?

She clearly remembered that during her first dream, waking up as an orphan inside the abyssal base, the date was 2125. Going back one more year prior was the timeframe of her contact with the Hoffmann family during the second dream.

So, the birth date of this report was 21 years after the original host first participated in the Molting Project?

During that span of as long as 21 years, the apocalypse had not yet arrived?

Meanwhile, the two new terms, "Phase VI Engineering of the Immortality Project" and "New Generation Molting Potion Type VII," immediately reminded her of her own special nature and the medication she had ingested when participating in the Molting Project.

It was just that the medicine she originally took was Molting Potion Type II, whereas the terminology here was "Type VII"... Was this an iterated product?

Could it be that the Molting Project was merely a public pseudonym for the Immortality Project? That conquering genetic diseases was fake, while researching immortality was real?

Was she, who possessed a body suspected of being ageless and immortal, the successful product of this project?

Yet if that were truly the case, why was it that only she alone survived past the apocalypse?

Could it be that, much like the American moon landing, the path to success was unobservable and irreproducible, leaving no one except herself—not even imperial granddaughters of Black Tower Pharmaceuticals like Ms. Aisling—able to do anything but wait helplessly for death?

Viewed in this light, when a 33% success rate was mentioned, could it possibly be referring to the Immortality Potion? It already sounded quite high...

At this thought, utterly baffled, Yvette's gaze fell once more upon the name "Dillon Dempsey."

She knew this name because during her first dream, the female physician responsible for taking care of her, "Tabitha Cloverlan," was a student of this Dr. Dillon.

Yet Dr. Dillon did not seem to be in charge of matters related to the Molting Project. At least on Sub-level Nine, she had never seen that Dr. Dillon, only hearing him mentioned when Dr. Tabitha chatted with other researchers.

In this log report, Dr. Dillon's mind had encountered problems but had since recovered... Was there any connection between his mental issues and the Immortality Project?

...

"Teacher, are you... alright?" Seeing Yvette staring at the experiment log, frozen like a statue in deep thought after finishing reading, Rosalind finally couldn't help herself after waiting for more than ten minutes, calling out with some concern.

"Mm... I'm fine." Yvette shook her head. The information revealed in this document was far too abundant, allowing her to catch a glimpse of the tip of the iceberg regarding the secrets hidden within the abyssal base before the apocalypse. While it could not explain the origin of the apocalypse, it provided some reliable arguments regarding her own origins.

Sure enough, there was a high probability that the original host was an immortal created by Black Tower Pharmaceuticals, which was why she had awakened here.

Only, for reasons unknown, the people who created her had all died, leaving her alone to survive the apocalypse. There must surely be other mysteries concealed within this.

Next, she browsed through other readable experiment logs.

The remaining logs constituted the concluding part of "Phase VI of the Immortality Engineering." Because they were daily records rather than "results summaries," the content appeared much more mundane, merely recording normal status monitoring of test subjects. They neither involved more deep-seated secrets nor mentioned the mysterious "Divine Molting" from Ms. Aisling's suicide note.

She put down the logs and asked, "Are there any places we haven't checked yet?"

"No." Rosalind shook her head. She was completely clueless about the potential meanings behind those projects and potions, but archaeological investigation was still quite interesting. Therefore, she had searched around very diligently, even finding quite a few professional medical books, intending to pack them all up and take them back to the manor later on.

"Then let's proceed to the next level," Yvette said.

Leaving Sub-level Eleven and continuing downward to Sub-level Twelve, the lingering traces of daily life suddenly decreased significantly.

That was normal, too; this was the "Main Control Hub" of the abyssal base—in plain terms, the location where the server data center resided.

This was a relatively spacious metal room with few functional partitions. Cold metal walls crawled with glowing magic-vines, entangling and symbiotically coexisting with the centuries-dust-covered "Cloud Containers," illuminating the entire room.

At the core of the room stood a giant columnar machine, encased in a sturdy glass dome. The exposed obsidian-like mechanical surface on the inner side was covered in a vast array of fine lines. Although they closely resembled decorations, Yvette could determine that those fine lines must be filled with dense, naked-eye-invisible rune arrays, representing the pride, knowledge, and power of the origin civilization.

She tried activating it, but there was no response. Finding a magitech cable to input magical power didn't work either. As for exactly what had gone wrong, it was completely unclear.

However, right here, that expert at rummaging through boxes and cabinets, Rosalind, still managed to find log records placed inside a file bag. They must have been left behind by server room maintenance personnel, and quite a few of them were relatively well-preserved.

Compared to the experiment logs of the Immortality Project, the value here was much lower, given that this was merely server room maintenance.

Yet, after searching through the unrotted portions and carefully reviewing them, a single record still managed to catch Yvette's attention.

This was an experiment record from 2128, three years after the original host participated in the Molting Project.

Amidst widespread decay, only a single line of blurry yet intensely terrified text crossed time and space to enter Yvette's sight:

"Oh, my dear Lord..."

"The Firefly Core..."

"It... It's alive..."