Chapter 136: Countdown (I)

Having confirmed that there was no longer any valuable intelligence left inside the research facility, Varen led the others away from the dangerous place. Eluca continued to drive the Harmony toward a nearby settlement for resupply, while Chris remained outside to keep watch on the surroundings. Meanwhile, Kurona and Franka sat opposite each other on the sofa, staring wide-eyed. The two girls, who looked to be of a similar age, had begun whispering softly to each other.

None of these, however, were of concern to Varen. His focus was solely on the name he had just extracted from Franka.

Iron City.

Settlements in the wasteland were mostly difficult to find because they used casually self-assigned names. Due to the development of networks, the locations and names of settlements remained confidential between different regions. After all, in this wilderness, no one knew who might be an enemy or a friend. Aside from the central settlements of powerful factions which were widely known, other settlements were basically famous only to those in their immediate vicinity.

And the Iron City mentioned by Franka evidently belonged to the latter category. Varen had never heard of such a settlement in his memory, meaning it was not located within the wasteland. Yet when he contacted Lady Yue, attempting to leverage the Fortune Society's resources to gather intelligence, Lady Yue informed him that even within the map data compiled by the Fortune Society, there was no record of any settlement named "Iron City."

Thus, the trail had once again gone cold.

"It seems our opponents are even more cunning than we imagined."

After ending the communication with Lady Yue, Varen smiled as he looked at Delline, who was tending to the elven girl beside him, and spread his hands in a helpless gesture.

"You know what, Delline? I am increasingly convinced that we are facing aliens. Hmm... perhaps the Cataclysm itself was the handiwork of these aliens. I think you could send this information to the other familiars so they can thoroughly reconnoiter the near-Earth orbit. Maybe we'll find an alien spaceship in hiding... The more I think about it, the more logical it sounds. Aliens destroyed our world, and then, to avoid discovery by us, used some method to create this fog to obscure our vision. Maybe they even want to use us for some kind of experiment, just like white laboratory mice."

Faced with Varen's rambling, Delline's expression did not change in the slightest. She merely lifted the elven girl's hand and looked at Varen.

"Master, if you wish to dream, please do so at night... Have you truly decided?"

"Of course."

Fiddling with the syringe in his hand, Varen nodded.

"If the canary refuses to sing, you must find a way to make it sing. Do you think we have any better options right now?"

"However, we are not clear on the composition of this serum, nor do we know its effects... We don't even know if it was prepared for her in the first place. What if something goes wrong...?"

"Then we will have a pristine corpse available for dissection."

At this, Varen stared at the elven girl's body and instinctively licked his lips. "I've been looking forward to this for a very long time... You know, Delline, life in the apocalypse is tough. Finding a volunteer for vivisection isn't easy, and I've grown quite tired of ordinary corpses. If I could have an unconscious living body placed right before me, allowing me to touch her skin, enter her body, and feel her heartbeat and warmth... how delightful of an experience would that be?"

"That sounds like a terrifying nightmare."

Delline's expression remained completely unchanged. Having followed Varen for so many years, she possessed a deep understanding of the young man's bizarre and extreme fetishistic tendencies, knowing that no amount of persuasion on her part would be of any use. Therefore, she merely sighed and raised the elven girl's arm. Varen opened the needle cap of the syringe, inspected it carefully, and then drove it straight into the elven girl's arm. A vial of blue liquid was swiftly injected into her body.

Then... the elven girl's head tilted to the side, and she lapsed into total unconsciousness.

"It seems my luck is quite good."

Watching this unfold, Varen whistled softly, his right fingers twitching slightly as a scalpel materialized at his fingertips.

"Very well, Delline, assist me in beginning the dissection... No, research."

"Isn't that a bit too hasty, Master?"

Seeing Varen so excitedly gesturing over the elven girl's body, the cat-eared maid had no choice but to step forward and halt his further actions.

"Right now, she has merely fallen unconscious, and we have no idea how her condition will develop... I believe we should wait patiently... until we are certain she truly cannot wake up, and only then proceed with your research. Besides, didn't you hope to uncover the secrets of the Cataclysm?"

"...…"

Hearing the cat-eared maid's words, Varen closed his eyes, pondered for a moment, and then shrugged.

"To be honest, I am indeed interested in the Cataclysm itself, but that is all. Regardless of how the Cataclysm occurred, at least the world has already become this way. Perhaps it will get even worse, so exploring the origin of the Cataclysm is not an absolute must-do for me. For me, living each day happily is quite enough. Humans do not abandon progress and life simply because they cannot find proof of human origins, and neither do I. Very well, we truly shouldn't extinguish a life so hastily. Even those vegetative patients who have lost self-awareness possess the value and right to survive. Upholding a spirit of humanitarianism, I shall place her under observation for the time being... Ah, let's say three days. If she hasn't awakened after three days, we can begin the next phase of our plan."

Once Varen made his decision, the unfortunate elven girl was placed in the observation room by Delline. As for Varen and his Harmony, they continued racing across the wasteland. This region was entirely Caesar's Legion territory. While Varen was not afraid of Caesar's Legion, he couldn't be bothered to deal with that pack of bandits either; after all, they were filthy, vulgar, unhygienic, and crudely impolite... Wait, why, upon second thought, did he suddenly feel like he *should* go deal with them?

"Eluca, how much further is it to the next settlement?"

"About fifteen minutes away, Commander."

"Is that area within Caesar's Legion's sphere of influence?"

"Let me check..."

Glancing at the map displayed before her, Eluca quickly provided an answer.

"Yes, Master."

"Splendid."

Hearing Eluca's reply, Varen nodded with satisfaction.

"Let's head over there and see if we can find some amusement."