Chapter 417: A Goldmine of Questions and Horrors

    Late Evening - Mid Winter : Acardi Research Facility | Eastern Bahamut

    -----

    *Beep* "Identity verified. All faculty please treat-" *CrAcKLe* "SuBjEcT #0-" *CrAcKLe* "With respect. Failing to do so will result in-" *CrAcKLe* "Death."No?v(el)B\\jnn

    -Subject.. Zero...- My eyes instantly went wide as I looked up from the computer and glanced around the room, unable to slow the waterfall of thoughts ripping behind my eyes. -Does this facility.. know something about my connection to the Acardi..?-

    Looking back down at my hand, my thoughts wandered and raced, attempting to solve the universe-sized maze of questions and answers that had been built around my memories as Nott.

    But there was only so much I could figure out with what I knew.. only so many turns I could make...

    Turning back to the computer in a hurry, I raced through the endless data directories, both manually entered and automated, sifting through the useless recordings like the reactors power output before eventually finding more useful things, one of which being a log of all the individuals to ever enter the facility.

    At first glance, it was something completely useless to me, a long list of the names of scientists with their specialties attached, however, after looking a little deeper, I found details like their job, age, work history, and even short, manually inputed details. For the most part, the extra detail was indeed useless, however, after scrolling a ways down, I found me: ''Subject #0''

    Clicking on it in a heartbeat, the screen updated with a very small identity panel, detailing my rank as ''Divine Being'', with essentially all other details being blank, and the manually entry being similar, reading: ''Do not disobey.'' -How blunt...-

    I, of course, didn''t give up that easily though. Scouring the rest of the data, I searched for anything that could be related to me, finding all kinds of fascinating directories relating to the results of several old experiments, and discoveries whilst only finding vague details relating to Subject #0.

    But it was still just enough to make my questions multiply.

    *Thump* "Fuck..." Slamming my hand down on the desk, I leaned back in the chair and tried to sort out what I found. By the sounds of things, Subject Zero was a god of theirs, however, considering not just the name, but how they treated and spoke of it, I could narrow it down to two possibilities.

    Either me being recognized as Subject Zero had to do with being recognized as Nott, or it had to do with being recognized as the one who touched the artifact that injected my body with my past life''s genetic material, among other things, right after I hatched.

    -Considering how commanding the details were, as well as how a simple lack of respect would result in death.. it could have been something done out of fear...- Perhaps the Acardi were just scared and set my permissions to max in order to satisfy whatever I wanted in an attempt to ensure the safety of the facility. -But just the same, it doesn''t make sense for me to interact with the Acardi in a friendly or even passive way...- Considering they were essentially at war with Delphi, it wouldn''t make sense for me to leave them be. -So.. why..?-

    Just thinking about that caused turmoil to rip through my mind.

    Idly scrolling through the facility''s precepts, looking at the list of protocols it would take if I appeared, I tried to slow down and sort my thoughts, but it only made me more unsettled.

    Until eventually, I had to force myself to stop and switch gears.

    As I jumped into the half-corroded chair and logged into the computer though, I found it right at my fingertips.

    A goldmine of information unlike anything I had ever seen, a list of diary-like entries from the scientists that worked in this room for things like personal notes and records, all kept classified, and requiring an excessive clearance to view.

    But that excessive clearance was something I had, meaning I had access to every note and scribble of the dozen scientists that rotated in and out of this room from nearly twenty years before the evacuation, with another twenty years following it.. all the way until the day the reactor broke.

    And I was going to read it all...

    Starting with the first scientist to conduct an experiment for Project Re-XK, and the one with nearly eighty-five percent of all the recorded entries...

    ''Head Research Analyst Andrew Borealis. | 18,761 entries found

    Day One: The Origin-Class creature.''

    -----

    Read up to 5 chapters ahead of schedule, and get early access to artwork on My Patreon!

    (In case Embedded Link doesn''t work: /TDOD )

    -------------

    Also, please feel free to check out our discord for all updates related to TDOD releases! https://discord.gg/Dv7G5bQD4v

    All are welcome!

    ---

    Also if you are looking for a new story, check out my new novel! The System''s Harvester

    On RR and SH