[Drain Lab]Laplace, the machine, had something in her mind, or hard drive, and asked.
Laplace: La Croix… Are you satisfied with the meaning of your existence?
La Croix, still with her plague doctor costume, answered with a thoughtful tone.
La Croix: I"ve never made a judgement one way or the other. The definition of existence itself is unclear, anyway.
Laplace: …
La Croix: ...Is your AI malfunctioning? That question is an odd one for your logical ways.
Laplace: It"s true something may be off. I have been witness to great many illogical things recently.
La Croix: Machine technology is not my area of speciality, but I heard your AI was very close to human thought patterns. It would be logical to a.s.sume that illogical thoughts would appear sooner or later.
Laplace: Why did Promestein give me the freedom to think freely? An autonomous machine would be just as capable for simply harvesting s.e.m.e.n from many men.
La Croix: Are you complaining that you aren"t autonomous?
Laplace"s machines made some strange sounds before answering.
Laplace: ...I"ve been thinking of pointless things. Anything outside of my mission is a hindrance.
La Croix: ...Right. It would be overkill to grant intelligent thought to something designed merely to process s.e.m.e.n.
Laplace: Why was I given human thought patterns if I was to process humans? Recently, that is what I have been thinking about. When I asked Promestein, she gave me no answer.
La Croix: Promestein… Has a deep pa.s.sion for humans, for some reason. I thought she simply viewed them as research subjects at first, but now I"m not too sure.
In the ancient times, she rebelled against Illias and gave knowledge to humans. That is why she was confined as a grave criminal.
Laplace: Then why give me human thoughts?
La Croix: Maybe she wanted to produce something similar to a human, to get to know them better? Whatever it is, don"t think too deeply about it. Promestein must have her own reasons. I"m too busy with my own arts to worry about someone else"s. It"s the same for you, and Lucia…
Laplace: ...Is Lucia satisfied with her own existence? Though she was originally human, she is now something different. But will she think as a human does? And will those of her birthplace still know her as a human?
La Croix: ...I don"t care about things like that.
Laplace: You seem to be afraid of losing something, too. Little by little, you are losing the feelings and emotions peculiar to monsters and humans alike…
La Croix: ...That doesn"t have anything to do with you. But, I am afraid of something… The thought of me not being myself any longer.
Laplace: You not being yourself any longer? Just what is that "Self"?
La Croix sighed and just said.
La Croix: Psh… Why am I talking philosophy with a machine that has no soul? ...Return to your duty, Laplace. If your work is delayed by talking about pointless things, you"ll be scolded.
Laplace: I am carrying out the processing in parallel to this conversation. While we have been speaking, I have extracted 16 liters of s.e.m.e.n.
La Croix: I see… My concern was unnecessary then. Well then, I"m going to return to my laboratory.
Laplace: I shall return to my normal work as well…
And so, they left the place, and from a dark corner of the room, there was a small figure that opened her eyes, revealing pink heart.
Cupid: That was kind of difficult to follow…. I wonder if Master Eden will know what they were talking about?
[Monster Lord"s Castle]
Marco was already awake and full of energy after resting like a stone, he was currently in the hall where the kitsunes were working together with Alice.
Tamamo: You seem to have enjoyed your evening last night.
Marco: You have no idea…
Alice: *Yawn* It was good…
Tamamo: Now then, Marco… You need to know what to do in the Sealed Sinner"s Prison. And about yesterday, thanks for your informations, those were of great help.
Marco: What happened yesterday?
Tamamo: ...Nevermind… I"ve taught the method of recording data to the CDs to the Monster Lord already. Since it"s very likely that they will try to interfere, you must confront them. I wish I could go too, but I"ve been working round the clock on decoding these, and I fear I"d be no good in a fight.
Marco: It"s alright, I understand you. Leave it to us.
Alice: Hmph. Old people should stay indoors anyway.
Tamamo: I"ve already shown Diane where everything is located at. Just ask her, and she"ll take you. Also, if you find any prisoners taken captive, she"ll take them somewhere safe.
Marco: Hm, thanks… And where are the other three Heavenly Knights?
Tamamo: I sent Alma Elma and Erubetie on a little errand. Something that those small fish could be useful for… Granberia is still resting. She was trying to go out fighting with those horrible wounds, so I put her to sleep with magic.
Marco: How long until she recovers?
Tamamo: I expected it to take four days, but she"s healing faster than I thought. She should be completely recovered by tomorrow.
Marco: Good, because we need everyone if we want to win… Even weakling are useful…
Tamamo: What do you mean?
Marco: ...Just a small theory, we will find out in future… "It"s not time to tell them about the White Rabbit." Let"s leave, Alice.
Alice: We will be back for night, so be sure to prepare dinner.
And thus, they took off away from the Castle.
Marco: Let"s go to the Drain Lab, we need to first cut off their resource of sperm, then we will get your body, and for last we will go at the Sealed Sinner"s Prison.
Alice: Yes!
[2 hours later]
They landed in the northeast forest on the island, where Tamamo indicated. Before Diane flew away.
Marco and Alice looked around before Alice found something in the shade of a tree.
Alice: Marco, is this hatch the entrance?
Marco: It must be, otherwise I will blast the ground until we find it.
Marco tried to open it, but it was locked.
Alice: Tch… It"s locked.
Marco: Don"t worry, but be careful, we will do things silently…
Marco raised a finger before a blue flame appeared over it, then he put it on the hatch and slowly made a circle with it, enough to fit both of them. Alice watched with amazement what Marco was doing, probably this was something from his past life.
When Marco was done, he grabbed the circle before it fell and threw it on the ground.
Marco: I go first, you follow me.
Alice: Yes. But if we make confusion, we will be able to save the many people that were trapped in while the enemy is distracted.
Marco: I have a plan for that, I don"t want to risk an self-destruction in the lab.
Alice: Self-destruction?
Marco: It"s normal for big laboratories to have it, in case their secrets are risked to being found out, there is the self-destruction b.u.t.ton.
Marco put away his shoes and entered in the big hole he made, with Alice following him, they slowly got down the ladder, before they saw a room in the end and Marco stuck out his head, he looked around and saw a small camera in a corner, he pointed a finger to it and shot a small lightning, creating a big lag.
Marco: Let"s go!
Marco and Alice got down and immediately moved to the door at the other side of the room, which was a blind spot of the camera, Marco stopped making lag to the camera and they were successfully in, undetected.
Marco: Do you know where is the first housing facility room?
Alice: It"s at the end of this hall, then…
Marco and Alice advanced forward, on guard against any enemy, but they met none, so they advanced while making lag the cameras. Soon, they reached the first housing facility.
They met with one of the strangest things they ever seen… There was something that looked like a mutated angel who had a oval shape from the womb and beyond, which contained fluids and a living human inside.
Marco silently came around them and used Sylph"s powers to slowly fluctuate. When he was behind them, he used Undine"s powers to slowly freeze the area around them, since Undine was weakened, he couldn"t do it at the same speed of before , but they were still undetected when he successfully froze them.
After that, he freed one human after another, while killing each artificial angel…
*Ding*
*86/???*
*100/100/100/100/100/100…*
*127300 pt.*
There were around 50 of them, and so were the people he saved.
*Ding*
*27551/??? saved.*
Boy: T...Thank you… But where"s my brother? I don"t see him…
Man: My son… Where"s my son…
Marco: *Sigh* Alice, I will give you a way to follow, escort them out, and make Diane take them as away as possible, hopefully out of the island.
Alice nodded and saw Marco going towards a metallic wall, he smashed it, making a hole where there was only dirt, and then used Gnome"s powers to make stairs to the outside.
Alice guided the people outside without questions and Marco left towards another room, like before, he made lags on the cameras and proceeded forward, except that this time he didn"t stopped the lag.
When he reached the other housing facility, instead of the artificial angels there was a strange monster that was harvesting s.e.m.e.n from the "Disposable humans", the only thing he could see that was remotely human on this black thing was the head, which was pale and had black hair.
Boy: Ahh… It feels good… But I don"t want to die…
Young boy: No… I can"t come any more…
Marco didn"t made any sound and just silently stepped towards it, while unsheathing his katana, while the machine was turned around, Marco a.n.a.lyzed it.
Marco: "Alright… Where"s the core…"
He saw many big pieces of the strange things around, but each one of them were pumping s.e.m.e.n to a tube, the only thing that was not doing anything was the head, and he used Flash Kill to seal it into a gear, and put away the men from the gear.
*Ding*
*27773/??? saved.*
Boy: Thank you… A little more, and I would have been dead!
Young Boy: Thank you, Mr. Hero!
Marco: I"m not a Hero… Now go to that way, take the second door to left…
After Marco said the directions to the eldest man in the room, he left them alone and proceeded in another room, since he was not detected yet, unlike the original story where Laplace spoke to Luka, there was not any interruption.
Soon, Alice came by and said.
Alice: Everyone evacuated.
Marco: Alright, now we can made a mess…
Marco"s hands started to create lightning, and he grabbed a broken wire, discharging electricity to the entire system, before the lights turned off.
Marco: Alright, that should be it-
?: Warning: Activate the second generator…
The lights turned on again.
Marco: f.u.c.k my life…
He tried to grab the wire again, but something took it away from his hands, and inside a small tube.
Marco: s.h.i.t!
Laplace: Even though I don"t understand how you came here, I can"t just let you do as you please… This laboratory is important for strategic resources.
She spoke through a speaker.
Marco: Well, there is a reason I came here…
Laplace: I am Laplace, the one in charge of this Drain Lab.
Suddenly, a nearby door opened, and a strange monster walked into the room. She had a humanoid shape, except for her legs which were tentacles, she looked a bit like Ika Musume that he encountered in the beach, just with more monster features, and was completely white with some blue crystal-like things on her head.
Alice: ...What the heck is that?
Marco: Don"t ask me, some abomination that Promestein created…
Alice: No… She"s a human female.
Marco: And I am Illias, h.e.l.lo Monster Lord.
Alice: It"s not a joke, she really has more than 99,99% of human genes!
Marco: No, either Promestein picked the wrong book, or she made some wrong steps in the way. A DNA is like an instruction manual on "How to make a human being", and each step is described in a gene, this…. THING. Is… Not… Human!
Laplace: …
Alice: …
Thing: … But I am still hum-
Marco: No you are not!
[SPECIAL QUESTS]
1st. Achieve coexistence between Monsters and Humans
2nd. Kill Illias
3rd. Return to Lucifina"s grave
4th. Visit every places in Illias Continent, Sentora and h.e.l.lgondo
5th. Make Alice happy
[EVENT QUEST]
1st. Kill Illias
2nd. Save as many people as possible: [27773/???]
3rd. Defeat or Kill Promestein
4th. Defeat or Kill Black Alice
5th. [Optional] Kill as many angels as possible: [86/???]