## Chapter 192 – Crumbs (10)
“…..”
“….We’ll be there soon.”
I feel the elevator carrying me away from Yuri Unni slowing down.
I sit in the corner, waiting for the elevator to stop before getting up. Beyond this door is that man…
“…Security wall disengaged. It’s opening now.”
I nod silently at Minjung Unni’s words as she connects a small device to the elevator panel.
And through the gap of the slowly opening automatic door seeps artificial light.
I leap through the doorway, now wide enough for my small body to pass completely.
I stretched out my hair, preparing for an attack, but what awaited us wasn’t robots or the mechanical humans Yuri Unni had been fighting, but…
“…Oh, familiar faces. How interesting.”
A man with blood soaking his dirty white gown and one arm in a cast, sitting in a chair, greeted us with a familiar, low voice.
I extended my hair around him, but there was nothing hidden.
After confirming there were no traps, I nodded to Minjung Unni as a signal.
She glanced at it, pulled out a pistol, aimed it at the man, and walked forward.
Even as we approached, the man didn’t move, just smiled.
This man… knows me…
“Of all people, it had to be you. I don’t believe it, but maybe God really does exist.”
“Shut your mouth. And put your hands above your head, don’t try anything.”
“…Minjung-ssi, I really did a terrible thing to you. But I hope you understand.
I needed you to get this far, that’s all.”
“You speak as if you know me. Do you think that will save you?”
“Oh dear, it seems you’ve completely forgotten about me. Chanwoo-ssi is so cruel…”
I glare at the man, who acts like he knows me, with a cold, hateful expression.
Unni presses the gun against the man’s forehead as he tries to stand up, and the man looks somewhat bitter.
The man sighs, stares blankly at the ceiling for a moment, then turns his head towards me.
“…Number 3, you look much cleaner than you did in the lab? Good to see.
It’s like seeing you when we first met, it brings back memories.”
“…You…! You do know the old me?”
“Of course, I do. I was the one who performed the memory wipe on you.”
The moment suspicion turns into certainty. The low, relaxed voice I heard endlessly in the dark lab.
And the owner of that voice. The man who knows me from before I lost my memories. This man, this man.
“Ugh…? Nabi-ssi?”
“From now on, you’ll answer my questions truthfully. Or I’ll cut your throat right here.”
I push aside Minjung Unni, who was pointing the gun, and grab the man sitting in the chair by the collar.
I extend my hair, wrap it around the man’s neck, and pull it slightly, tightening it.
“…What do you want to know? I’ll answer as far as I know.”
“…You erased my memories? Then you know my past…?”
“To be blunt, I don’t know. I was the person in charge of managing you,
but I wasn’t the one who brought you here. I don’t know your past or your name.”
Blood rushes to the hand gripping the man’s collar without me realizing it.
“…Then… my family…? What happened to them…? Did you kill them…?!”
“No. You didn’t have a family to begin with.”
“….What?”
“You were an orphan with no parents or siblings. We took you from the orphanage.
You had no relatives looking for you, nothing that could cause trouble, so you were perfect as a test subject.”
“…Then I am…”
My hand loses strength. I haven’t lowered my head, but I’m already looking at the floor.
I just wanted to know the reason I was born. Not the current me, but the old me.
I wanted to remember the past and the faint happiness I had.
…It was all just my imagination. Why did I think I wasn’t alone?
Why did I delude myself into thinking I was happy? Why did I think I was special?
I was just an ordinary human living on this small piece of land.
The past me that I wanted to know was just ‘Test Subject Number 3,’ someone they could use.
“…Nabi-ssi…”
“…..”
“Your sense of futility, I understand it too. Number 3, I know how painful and lonely you are.”
“…Shut up, what do you know… It’s all you guys, it’s all you…”
…No. Did this man, did the research group really make me like this? Was I happy before that?
If I hadn’t caught their eye and had lived as an ordinary human, would I have been happy?
I don’t even have the strength to stand anymore. What am I, in the end?
“…When we first brought you here, you were 12 years old.
Two years have passed since then, so you would have entered middle school.”
“…What…?”
“That’s all I know. Age is necessary information for managing test subjects.”
The man’s eyes looking down at me are emptily vacant.
“…Why are you telling me this?”
“I don’t know, I don’t know why either. I’ve never felt this way before.
Am I just getting old and changing? Haha… It feels so futile, everything feels so meaningless.”
The man leans back as if lying down, still looking at the ceiling, and lets out a big sigh.
And with a weak, hollow laugh, he slowly turns around and turns on a large monitor.
“….! Sunbae-nim!”
On the screen, Chanwoo Oppa was fighting that woman in the white gown in a wide lobby.
Unlike what I was worried about, Chanwoo Oppa was completely overwhelming the woman.
The man, who had been watching all of this on the large monitor, turned his chair to face us.
“…I can grant you whatever you want. But please wait a moment.
I want to see the masterpiece that I, as a human… created with everything I could.”
—————————–
Iron scraps and various shining spheres floating all around.
When Theresa reaches out, the steel instantly gathers and transforms into various weapons.
From cannons emitting high-voltage currents to giant spears and harpoon guns.
“….Haa, just chasing after you is tiring. How long are you going to keep running away?”
“It’s not running away, it’s pattern recognition. I don’t know anything about your powers.”
Theresa throws a giant axe with a blade heated to high temperatures into the air,
then it disassembles again and scatters into steel parts floating in the air.
She’s gathering her strength to create the next weapon with a bored expression.
Her power, which I’ve learned while running away, is probably the power to create something.
Weapons so enormous they can’t be described, iron walls that withstand even telekinesis,
and the power to instantly create robots and other things lying around.
There seems to be no limit to size or power, as she’s been creating ridiculous weapons since earlier.
Certainly, unlike Yuri, the creator herself is directly exerting the power,
so the way she uses it and its power are incomparably stronger than Yuri’s.
But the limitations are also clearly visible. She can only create one weapon at a time,
and once she disassembles a weapon, it takes a long time to create the next one.
So, now that she’s already disassembled her weapon, it’s the perfect timing to attack.
“…I don’t know what you’re talking about, but running away like that won’t end this… huh…?”
Just before Theresa finishes creating her weapon, I take advantage of her carelessness and gather golden light on my legs.
Then, I move my enhanced legs and instantly rush into her, throwing a punch.
But Theresa doesn’t intend to just take it, so she breaks the weapon she was making,
and instantly gathers small parts to create a small, forearm-sized knife and swings it at my fist.
“…Ugh?!”
The blade she swung was blocked by a blue vine that grew from under my feet-
“Kuh-erk…?!”
Without incident, my fist landed directly on Theresa’s abdomen.
With a dull sound, Theresa’s feet leave the ground and she floats into the air.
She falls powerlessly to the floor, succumbing to gravity.
“Kuek…! Ugh…! Cough, cough!!”
Theresa spits out watery saliva on the floor, gasping for breath in pain.
Too easy. Although Theresa has been imperfectly resurrected in a human body, it’s still too easy.
Yuri, whom I fought in Busan, and Piadels, who tried to steal her body and resurrect, come to mind.
Piadels, the creator who had a power stronger than Virgilago and Lapus combined,
and me, who was unilaterally defeated in the fight against Yuri, who couldn’t fully control his power.
Back then, the fight wasn’t even a fight, it was such a complete defeat, but now…
I easily defeated Theresa, the creator who supposedly started a war with Piadels.
It must be thanks to the power of Virgilago and Lapus, and Hir, the King of the Root. The power of four people…
Of course, the ‘golden power’ has the strongest presence among them.
“…Anyway, I’m in a bit of a hurry. Sorry, but I need to read the secrets in your head.”
The moment I reach out towards Theresa, who is still lying on the floor, groaning in pain.
A small, ball-shaped piece of metal rolls under my feet. I could immediately tell what it was.
‘Bomb!’
‘It’s going to explode!’
“Shit…!!”
Using the golden power and the blue power at the same time, I instantly grow blue vines.
The vines, which grew at an incredible speed, quickly wrapped around the metal pieces, but…
Soon, a tremendous explosion that shook the entire building occurred, blowing me away.
Fortunately, I defended quickly, so I didn’t take any damage,
but the impact of the explosion sent me flying far away from Theresa.
“…You, how do you have Hir’s power? He should be dead…”
In the thick dust, I can see Theresa’s silhouette staggering to her feet.
The composure she had earlier was already gone from her voice,
and she was staring at me through the dust with cold eyes.
“……”
“It doesn’t matter if you don’t answer. Now that it’s come to this, I’ll definitely get my hands on you and make you mine.”
Theresa, now showing a madness close to obsession, takes out something that looks like a syringe from her chest.
“…It’s a bit unreliable since it was made by humans… but this isn’t the time to be picky.”
‘Don’t let her!’
‘It’s dangerous!’
By the time the dust cleared a little and her figure became faintly visible, I was already running.
I pointed my index finger at her and shot a current made of green power, but it was blocked by an iron wall that had been created in the meantime.
I don’t know what that is, but the feeling that I shouldn’t let her do that runs down my spine.
“….!!”
The moment I ran right up to her and raised my fist, a tremendous shockwave washed over me.
I quickly get up again, having been blown away after running all that distance.
And through the dust that had cleared away in an instant due to the shockwave, she revealed herself.
“…Ahaha! Amazing… better than expected. Huhu…! Humans in this era are quite useful…♡”
Her black hair was dyed yellow, and her eyes were a beautiful golden color.
She was shorter than before, and her features were not the same as before,
but her arrogant and loud voice told me that she was definitely Theresa.
“…To think you’re just a newborn Creator.
To not even be able to use 10% of that great Hir’s power… Huhu…♡
Let me reintroduce myself, I’m Theresa. This is my true form as the ‘Inventor Who Implements Wisdom.’”
More pieces of metal and all sorts of electronic devices than before float in the air.
Theresa had transformed into a younger version of herself, but the power emanating from her had become even greater.
