## Chapter 204 – Will It Be Overturned, or Will It Be Defended? (2)
One of the major problems in modern society is the issue of regional extinction.
People leave to find work in the cities, reducing the population living in rural areas, and as the elderly population that protected those regions passes away, it creates a phenomenon where the region itself seems to disappear.
Regional extinction is becoming a problem not only in rural areas far from the capital, S City, but also in cities located on the outskirts of the metropolitan area.
However, there are those who welcome this regional extinction phenomenon and see it as a new land of opportunity.
J City is a small, quiet city that maintains some distance from S City, the center of modern South Korea, while still barely considered within the metropolitan area.
A huge factory began to be built in the area, where most of the residents were elderly, a few years ago, and the factory was dedicated to production activities, emitting smoke day and night without rest.
The residents simply thought that the land was cheap, so they built the factory taking advantage of that, and since they were planning to live out the rest of their lives quietly anyway, they didn’t try to make an issue of it.
No one paid attention to what was happening inside the factory, but that was exactly what the owner of the factory wanted.
“It seems like… it won’t be long before I get out of this godforsaken backwater.”
If you go inside the factory, which looks like an ordinary manufacturing plant on the outside, you will find futuristic, high-tech equipment that doesn’t match its appearance.
Even more surprising is that there are living people inside the high-tech equipment, and they are undergoing some kind of unknown process.
The owner of this factory, where horrific bio-experiments are constantly taking place day and night, is none other than Kaiser. She is the former head of the Dark Knights and currently the president of the Shadow Company she founded.
“What happened to the managing director and the executives?”
Next to her, who is smiling as she watches the brutal bio-experimentation site, is someone else, not Chaeryeong.
“As you ordered, Madam, all emotions and consciousness have been extracted and are being stored.”
The woman who answered Kaiser’s question clearly has the appearance of an ordinary person, but she has an expression that doesn’t show any sense of her own will or emotions.
“They’re all old and useless, so… use them all as materials to make modified humans.”
“Understood.”
What Kaiser mentioned as ‘modified humans’ are what are being made in this factory.
After kidnapping prisoners, criminals, and even ordinary citizens to the factory, they undergo a process of inserting special drugs and microchips into them.
Those who undergo the process are transformed into bizarrely deformed and destructive figures, and gain power and regeneration far exceeding that of humans.
But at the same time, emotions and self-awareness disappear due to the microchip, and they become human weapons loyal only to the commands of their master, Kaiser.
“What is the number of modified humans we have?”
“Including the process up to this production line, it is approximately 4,000 individuals.”
“Production efficiency has improved since before… increase the production line further.”
“Understood.”
Kaiser smiles contentedly and boards the elevator in the center of the factory. She moves to the upper floors of the factory with the emotionless woman who appears to be her secretary.
“Hehe…♥ They’re such lovely children…♥”
Unlike the lower floors of the factory, where numerous modified human production lines are moving, the upper floors have only a few large cylinders.
The cylinders, which are so large that they reach the ceiling, also contain people.
Unlike the modified humans on the lower floors, they have superpowers, and for that reason, they have become Kaiser’s weapons through a more special and delicate process.
Therefore, their bodies have not been grotesquely transformed like the modified humans, and they have maintained almost the same body shape as before they were modified into weapons.
“Once we completely occupy the Union… there will be more than enough guys to go into the empty cylinders.”
Superpowered individuals are exponentially more difficult to capture than ordinary citizens, so even Kaiser, who has conducted modification experiments on thousands of people, has only two.
“At first, the resistance was fierce. She was like a beast.”
Kaiser greets the female test subject with red hair, one of the two test subjects who are quietly closing their eyes and sleeping in the cylinder.
The test subject is one of the high-ranking executives of the villain organization that Kaiser founded in the past, and the superpower user who controls chains, ‘Crazy Chain’.
Just a few months ago, she rendered the A-class hero ‘Punch Lady’ incapacitated and used her as a toy to unleash her masochistic desires.
When the hero died after enduring abuse that was difficult to describe, she wandered the streets in search of another toy.
That figure caught the eye of Kaiser, who had abandoned the Dark Knights and was secretly establishing a new organization, and Crazy Chain, who was subdued by her superpower, became a test subject.
“I almost had my hands torn to shreds by her chains. Well… when she opens her eyes again, she’ll be a weapon that obeys my commands.”
A considerable powerhouse who even Kaiser had to take risks with, not to mention an A-class hero. It is clear that she has become even more powerful now that she has been modified by Kaiser.
“But there’s an even more wonderful masterpiece here than this one… hehehe…♥”
A chilling laugh that seems to feel affection beyond madness. Kaiser moves to the cylinder next to Crazy Chain with a sinister smile.
“Some heroes… will probably be surprised when they see this face… Khee hee hee…!”
A former A-class hero who was active under the name ‘Kinetic Girl’, and an attractive woman with silver hair that has a refreshing blue light.
She was clearly recorded as having suffered serious injuries and died in a villain organization extermination operation seven years ago, but in fact, she was barely alive.
At the time, Kaiser was secretly planning something else after founding the Dark Knights, and she needed a test subject with powerful superpowers.
She offered her a deal to save her life in exchange for participating in the experiment, and the silver-haired woman gladly accepted the offer.
She became the first test subject for modification experiments targeting superpower users rather than non-superpower users, and after a successful experiment, she was able to output her superpower much more powerfully than before.
She thanked Kaiser for healing her body and creating a strong power, but Kaiser’s real purpose was not just that.
Kaiser confirmed that her body’s regenerative power and superpower output had been greatly enhanced, and then inserted a microchip that was slightly different from the one used for modified humans.
Soon after the chip was inserted, she lost her emotions and intentions like an android, and became a biological weapon that only moved her body according to Kaiser’s commands.
“Now that these children are perfectly prepared… there’s no need to wait any longer.”
Kaiser, who admired the cruel masterpiece she had created, got back on the elevator.
– Woooong…
The door of the elevator, which went down to a deeper underground level than the lower floors of the factory, opened to reveal a space filled with luxurious furniture rather than mechanical devices.
“Can you bring me a glass of warm milk? I’m so tired.”
Kaiser sat on a black leather sofa and ordered her secretary to bring her milk, then picked up a frame placed on the table.
“It’s been years since I left home… and haven’t seen my sister’s face.”
The frame contains an ordinary family photo.
Next to the father with a large build and robust impression and the mother with a kind smile, the young Kaiser and her sister are hugging each other.
“Everyone… is just smiling like an idiot.”
The photo of the family’s happy appearance makes everyone smile, but Kaiser never feels good when she sees the photo.
It was her family that made her think that human emotions and thoughts were hindering progress, but on the other hand, the happy memories of the past kept making her hesitate.
“I don’t need it anymore. It’s just a memory that’s already broken.”
Kaiser took out the photo in the frame, just like she took away the emotions and thoughts from the test subjects she was going to make into modified humans.
The photo that had been set on fire began to burn neatly at a rapid pace, and soon turned into black ashes.
“I’ll go see you soon. Sister Sua.”
