“My God…….”
And yet Mid had torn it off and given it to the child of its own accord.
The child’s body had not been severely injured or mutilated. He had merely retched once, and Mid was acting as though it would gladly hand over its liver, gallbladder, and everything else it had.
The researchers had gone beyond excitement and were practically on the verge of fainting.
“Tell him to bring it over! This is the perfect chance to find out what kind of tissue that thing is made of!”
“I’ve always wondered whether it works on humans too……!”
“Shh, everyone calm down.”
After settling the researchers down, Director Park crossed his arms and watched the child.
Unlike Mid, which kept circling around him and urging him to hurry up and put it in his mouth, the child could not bring himself to move. He merely stared silently down at the thing in his hand.
The longer he hesitated, the more visibly his fingertips tightened.
The petals compressed beneath the child’s fingers, only to spring elastically back into their original shape.
After watching the child hesitate for quite some time, Mid seemed to realize something belatedly. It tore off another organ and pushed it into its own mouth.
It was personally showing him that this was something to eat.
As though he had no choice now, the child opened his mouth wide and took a bite out of the flower.
MUNCH, MUNCH.
As his lips moved, his expression gradually brightened, and a rosy flush spread across his cheeks.
“At least it doesn’t seem bitter.”
“Maybe it’s sweet?”
“Judging by how springy it is, it might feel like jelly.”
“Ah, I’m so curious too……. I want to try it.”
While the researchers groaned with curiosity, the child finished eating the entire flower under Mid’s watchful protection.
GULP.
Once he swallowed the final petal, Mid stroked the child’s head several times as though praising him, then gently guided him toward a corner of the laboratory.
It was called a laboratory, but that area was actually Mid’s nest.
Mid liked water and could breathe in it, but it was fundamentally a creature that lived on land.
Naturally, an appropriate environment had been prepared for it as well.
There was a large, smooth stone, an infrared lamp installed above it, and several roughly textured structures positioned here and there for Mid, who liked rubbing its body against coarse surfaces.
The researchers naturally assumed Mid would place the child either on the smooth stone or beside one of the structures.
Instead, Mid suddenly froze as though it had malfunctioned, only its tentacles slowly writhing.
TAP.
A tentacle touched the smooth stone, then lifted away.
It touched one of the rough structures as well, but the tentacle shuddered sharply as though irritated before returning to the smooth stone.
PRESS.
For a while, Mid repeatedly pressed down on the stone as though testing the floor, then released it.
After that, it approached the side where the researchers were observing and tapped against the glass wall.
TAP, TAP.
Then it returned to the child, circled him once, pressed against the floor again, and lifted its tentacle.
TAP, TAP.
There was unmistakable intent behind the tentacle tapping against the glass.
“Looks like the floor is too hard. Could someone bring a cushion?”
At Director Park’s words, the researchers looked at one another for a moment, then hurriedly returned with a large cushion and thick blanket from the lounge.
They placed them in front of the innermost door among the multiple layers of transparent safety barriers, then stepped back.
The moment the researchers were completely clear, Director Park operated the control panel and opened the door.
Mid immediately stretched out a tentacle and pressed firmly against the cushion.
Only after confirming that it sank wherever it pressed did Mid let out a pleased trill.
MRRRP.
Then it carried the cushion away and placed it on top of the smooth stone.
The entire sequence—laying the child down on it and covering him with the blanket—was remarkably natural.
Rather than sighing at the ever-growing list of experiments they would now have to conduct, the researchers could only grin from ear to ear.
Mid had spent its entire life here, so it could not have learned by watching anyone else.
That would mean it instinctively knew that humans were supposed to be raised like this…….
Was such a thing even possible?
“Considering it tried to feed him another human, it definitely doesn’t know much about humans…… So how does it know it’s supposed to do that?”
“We’ve got a mountain of things to check.”
“Let’s start by seeing how the other monsters react.”
Mid carefully curled itself around the child as though embracing him and lay down on the floor.
Only after seeing all the flowers close into buds and the tentacles spread loosely across the floor did Director Park finally look away and speak.
“Contact Building S.”
At those words, the researchers’ eyes widened in surprise as they looked at one another.
The faces that had been animatedly discussing one experiment after another only moments earlier hardened instantly.
“Director, if you mean Building S…….”
“C11 might actually die. Wouldn’t it be better to run all the other experiments first and check that afterward?”
“No.”
Worried that they might lose the chance to conduct even a single one of the experiments they had already thought up, the researchers all tried to stop him.
Director Park remained firm.
“I think it would be best to check the reaction of the most violent subject first.”
The researchers looked at one another.
If he meant the most violent subject in Building S, where only dangerous monsters were housed, there was only one possibility.
“Surely…….”
“Yes. Let’s have him meet Arachne.”
“…….”
“If Arachne is fine with him, we’ll put two, three, or more subjects in together and test them. I’m curious whether they’ll try to protect the child even among hostile subjects, or whether they’ll become possessive and tear him apart fighting over him.”
After saying that, Director Park fell silent for a moment.
From the outside, he looked like an adult who had made a cold, rational decision.
But the faintly raised corner of his mouth never quite settled.
That tiny crack in his expression made it perfectly clear that he regarded the child as nothing more than a test subject.
“Are you going to check right now?”
“Let’s do it tomorrow morning.”
“Then before that…….”
“Yes. Simple experiments are fine.”
Yet no one there found any of it objectionable.
The researchers were delighted merely by the fact that they had been given time to conduct their own experiments. Abandoning whatever they had been doing, they came rushing over in a crowd.
They needed to draw blood first.
They needed to decide what to test.
Most importantly, they should tell him to secure one of Mid’s organs.
Their hushed voices overlapped and filled the laboratory.
The fact that such a valuable test subject might be dead by tomorrow only made their hands move faster.
The researchers cared about only one thing.
They had to check everything they possibly could before then.
And because of that, not one of them pitied the child.
Nor did anyone hesitate over Director Park’s decision or feel the slightest aversion to it.
The child was finally taken out of there when Mid briefly returned to the water to hunt.
Still drowsy as he sat on the soft cushion, the child was led out of Building M by the researchers.
There were a few minor examinations along the way, including a blood draw, but nothing particularly remarkable.
To the child, they were no different from everyday life.
Rather than crying or becoming frightened, he simply held out his forearm first without saying a word.
On the way to Building S, every researcher was curious about how Arachne would react.
Some of them even made bets, laughing and talking noisily among themselves.
But all that laughter stopped the moment they arrived at Building S.
Screams and sobbing burst out from all directions.
No matter how accustomed they were to using fellow humans as test subjects, and no matter how numb they had become to death, there were still sights difficult to endure while fully conscious.
Unlike the researchers in Building M, who focused exclusively on managing and studying Mid, Building S housed three dangerous subjects.
Accordingly, the facility was larger, required far more test subjects, and demanded considerable effort simply to keep the creatures under control.
The person desperately fleeing beyond the glass wall was merely one of the ‘objects’ placed inside to manage the monsters.
It was not for hunting experiments.
Nor was anything being harvested from him.
He was simply a stress-relief toy for a monster frustrated by being confined inside the laboratory.
“Oh, so this is C11-404? Cute little thing, isn’t he?”
While the Building M researchers watched the scene beyond the glass wall, a man who appeared to be the team leader approached, scratching at his messily tangled hair.
“Right?”
“Oh, Director, you came too.”
“Of course I had to see this personally. It’s a precious moment. Where’s Arachne?”
“Over there.”
At Director Park’s question, the man immediately pointed to one side and began leading the way.
Only then did the researchers, who had been watching the surrounding commotion with stiff expressions, follow behind him.
The child walked between Director Park and the man.
“How has it been lately?”
“Same as always. Violent and sensitive. You really notice the difference when you’re working with creatures that’ll eat basically anything……. If something’s even a little dirty, it spits it out and won’t so much as look at it. And if something smells? You have no idea how irritated it gets. Good grief, it acts like some kind of lord and master.”
“Anything else?”
“Nothing particularly noteworthy beyond that. It hates crowds, likes things quiet, hates being treated like a spectacle…….”
“It acts almost human.”
Director Park’s voice was filled with mockery.
What did it matter if it played king inside its cage?
It was still trapped there.
“Well, that’s why it’s a monster, isn’t it?”
“True…… Ah, we’re here. Everyone should watch from here.”
Director Park stopped walking and did not approach any farther.
Instead, he pushed the child lightly on the back.
The child turned around and blinked at him.
Then, after seeing Director Park gesture for him to hurry inside, he diligently moved his short legs toward the entrance.