MTLNOVEL Chapter 243
Episode 243. Special Forces ‘Kunai’ (2)
[Communication from the Command Center of the Aircraft Carrier ‘Torch of Truth’.]
[Author: Command Center of ‘Torch of Truth’.]
[Currently monitoring the situation of the Osaka Branch in the northwestern Pacific, east of Japan. Awaiting deployment.]
[Additionally. We are searching the area to track and eliminate any ships or maritime artifacts utilized by the Supernatural Artists or their allies.]
[It has been confirmed that key personnel and combat assets have been deployed to the Osaka Branch. We are mobilizing electronic warfare and surveillance assets available to the fleet to control the situation.]
[Please remain calm and cooperate with the higher-ups as much as possible.]
The second isolation room was even colder. Two humanoid supernatural phenomena, ‘Sculptor’ and ‘Screenwriter’, were contained here. I frowned.
This time, it’s a relatively safe experiment. It should be easier to handle than catfish or humanoid supernatural phenomena.
“Report the progress.”
Hanako nodded.
“Yes. One of the Supernatural Artists was split in half and frozen, while the other… it’s hard to say if they’re alive or dead. It’s a bit ambiguous overall.”
“What’s their condition?”
“All limbs are detached from the torso, and there’s no bleeding. But the limbs still seem to be moving. We froze them separately just in case.”
It was exactly as I had seen.
“Good job. Did you interrogate them? Or did they not respond?”
“We considered their responses meaningless.”
I nodded.
“These things have already caused dozens of casualties within the Foundation. If the Osaka Branch had been destroyed, who knows how many would have died or been injured.”
No need to feel sorry for them.
They would have been happy if we were all eaten by bugs. We need to research everything we can and then kill them thoroughly.
“Wake that one up.”
“Yes.”
The body was moved onto the dissection table.
It was the corpse of a humanoid supernatural phenomenon subdued at the scene. There were a few talismans attached to the torso. Probably some kind of seal.
“For now, we’re calling the humanoid supernatural phenomena secured at the scene ‘Screenwriter’ and ‘Sculptor’. They seem to call themselves that too.”
I shook my head.
“Let’s call them Bug-1 and Bug-2. Why bother using the fancy names they gave themselves? So many people have died.”
I’ve seen Supernatural Artists multiple times.
They respect nothing. In a way, they might be following the direction of modern art, challenging existing authority.
But it manifests in the ultimate taboo—killing or tormenting people.
Dr. Hanako nodded.
“Ah, yes. We’ll consider changing the designation. They still haven’t answered any of the Foundation’s questions. We’re in the middle of some experiments.”
There are many chemical means to use for interrogation. But the fact that they don’t bleed is a bit concerning. Don’t we need to inject drugs into their blood?
“Is there no way to wake them up?”
“I don’t know.”
“Let’s try stimulants. If intravenous injection is difficult, we can use subcutaneous injection.”
“Ah, I’ll try that now.”
I waited for a while. The Foundation’s scientists and medical staff, dressed in white coats, argued for a bit before finally pulling a syringe from a cart.
The medical staff administered a subcutaneous injection. A few seconds later, ‘Sculptor’ opened their eyes. The soldiers nearby pointed their guns at the subject.
I looked at the subject.
“Do you know where you are?”
“AAAAAAAAHHHH!”
A scream came from the subject, but I decided to ignore it. The goal was to get an answer. I’m not even sure if they’re really in pain.
“Answer me.”
“The Foundation, the Foundation’s lab. I won’t tell you anything. You don’t know anything, you don’t even understand what you’re doing. You—”
I sighed.
The conversation went on for a while, but there was no progress. A normal human wouldn’t be able to endure this.
The fact that they don’t bleed, and the way their body is enhanced, suggests some supernatural means. Not just physically, but mentally too.
“Just kill them.”
“Won’t you continue the experiments?”
“They seem much more resilient than what we saw earlier. I don’t think they’ll talk.”
“It does seem that way.”
There didn’t seem to be any more information to extract from them. It’s also difficult to keep them as they are.
“Just because the subject is dead doesn’t mean we can’t experiment. Let’s end the interrogation here. There’s no way to completely eliminate the risk.”
If they had anything to say, they would have said it by now. Dr. Hanako and a few other researchers nodded. We injected a drug to stop their breathing.
Second isolation room. Experiment concluded.
Dr. Hanako looked around. It seems most of the branch staff are afraid of me. Not many people come close.
That’s why I mainly talk to Dr. Hanako. As a Special Forces Science Officer, she seems less afraid of me than others.
Third isolation room.
This was where the dead bugs were.
I returned to the third isolation room with Dr. Hanako. It was a much stranger sight compared to the previous rooms. There were a lot of bugs.
I looked around the freezing isolation room.
“There are more than I thought?”
“Yes. We incinerated the largest specimens, but we froze the rest. The results are here.”
“Good. Let’s take a look.”
The isolation room was bustling. There were at least thousands of bugs discovered this time.
Each one regenerates, and they’re not just mindless bugs—they specifically chase supernatural phenomena. Thinking about how hard it must have been to catch them—
It’s almost a miracle the branch is still standing.
Dr. Hanako looked at her tablet.
“This is… it might sound a bit ironic, but the armor of these bugs has the property of absorbing magic.”
“I see. That could be useful.”
It is a bit ironic.
Thinking about it, the Supernatural Artists mocked the Foundation for devouring and absorbing supernatural phenomena like these bugs. Now we’re planning to dismantle and utilize these bugs too.
It’s infuriating because I understand what the Supernatural Artists were mocking. Is it the power of art…?
“Looking closely, we can see why we struggled so much. Many of the specimens have multiple wounds. Some were shot but not subdued, or they regenerated and came back.”
“We should have burned them.”
“Given that the resistance these bugs have is magical, burning them before subduing them wouldn’t have meant much. The problem was that they were opponents who didn’t follow the rules.”
I partially agreed with Dr. Hanako’s opinion. It’s also true that there were catastrophic misjudgments and command failures at the Osaka Branch.
I sighed.
“What do you think, Dr. Hanako? In this situation, I think the command failure at the Osaka Branch was quite severe.”
“Ah… that’s a bit difficult. There’s some room for consideration since they quickly requested support from higher-ups. It’s also true that they didn’t have the equipment or training to fight insect-like enemies.”
[Foundation Tokyo Branch Command Center. Internal Meeting.]
[Author: Tokyo Branch Command Center]
[C1: It’s a catastrophic containment failure. Many civilians were injured in this incident. It’s also hard to understand how multiple supernatural entities managed to infiltrate the facility.]
[C2: Combat is combat. What’s important is why the containment failed, not that it couldn’t have failed.]
[C3: Isn’t that obvious? They weren’t prepared for that specific situation. Combat situations are rare. The problem is the bureaucratic mindset of avoiding responsibility as long as nothing goes wrong.]
[C1: Speaking of avoiding responsibility, shouldn’t we prevent the fallout from this incident from reaching the Tokyo Branch?]
[C2: That’s ironic.]
[C1: Let’s think practically. We need to explain to the Foundation Headquarters why this happened, and we also need to understand it internally.]
[C3: There are plenty of excuses. First, Osaka isn’t a large branch. There were misjudgments early on. The opponents were tricky to deal with. Resources were drained due to the recent increase in supernatural activity in the area.]
[C2: Increased supernatural activity. That might be the easiest explanation for the higher-ups to accept.]
——–
[C1: What kind of supernatural activity increased?]
[C2: Since the ‘Arena of the Gods’ incident, I think the boundary between the world of the gods and the real world has weakened.]
[C3: Are you talking about that incident? The one where a small city disappeared from the map, and multiple divine entities were summoned in one place.]
[C2: Now that you mention it, there were some strange scientists. They said most gods are the source of supernatural phenomena, parasitic entities that distort providence and need to be periodically culled.]
[C1: Culling. That’s one way to understand the Yulje-myeon incident.]