The outer shell of the Cultivation Pod opened.
The entire pod was constructed from reinforced glass and an alloy framework.
The exposed portions beneath the casing still retained their smooth Ether Plating.
Using such plating in a place like this was enough to show that the device itself was extremely valuable.
But what lay inside the Cultivation Pod left both Russell and Tsukishiro Yanagi silent.
The pod was filled with pale green nutrient solution.
Floating within it was a girl who looked no older than fourteen.
Her long black hair spread out around her like aquatic plants.
Infusion tubes were connected to both her wrists and ankles, and the liquid flowing through them emitted a faint Ether Fluorescence.
“Um…
that industrial corporation does this sort of thing too?”
After one glance over the girl’s body, Russell immediately turned away out of courtesy.
“No idea.
We originally thought this was merely a routine case of illegal human experimentation.
I never expected it had reached this level.”
A trace of darkness crossed Tsukishiro Yanagi’s face.
However, she didn’t elaborate further.
After all, up to this point, Russell’s identity was still only that of a civilian who had stepped forward to help.
As Russell lowered his head after turning away, he noticed a faintly glowing screen beneath the Cultivation Pod.
He crouched down and wiped away the dust covering it.
“Endo – Subject Zero.”
“Endo?”
Tsukishiro Yanagi frowned slightly, clearly having thought of something.
“Yeah.”
The screen automatically activated under Russell’s touch.
“She seems to still be alive.”
The reason Russell said so was because, besides displaying the name, the screen also lit up with two rows of data:
Heart Rate: 62
Blood Pressure: 90/60
Ether Erosion Index…
93
Tsukishiro Yanagi crouched beside him.
Adjusting her glasses, she carefully examined the data.
“She’s alive, but she’s been kept in a prolonged state of infusion with some kind of Ether Adaptability Agent.
But…”
“But what?”
Russell asked curiously.
“But what’s going on with this erosion index?
Ninety-three?
Even people with relatively high Ether Aptitude enter irreversible Corruption once they reach eighty.”
Tsukishiro Yanagi frowned.
“That doesn’t seem that strange, does it?”
Russell didn’t think much of it.
Mainly because he knew there was a guy named Seed in the Defense Force.
If she were going to become Corrupted, wouldn’t it have happened already?”
“Even inside an Ether Hollow, it’s possible to remain there for a long time if the Ether concentration is effectively reduced.”
Tsukishiro Yanagi immediately corrected him.
But after saying that, she glanced around the vault.
“Though while this place is sealed, there doesn’t seem to be any corresponding treatment system installed.
The fact that she hasn’t become Corrupted after all this time means her Ether Aptitude is truly extraordinary.”
“So what now?
Do we rescue her?”
Russell asked.
“With her current condition, it’d be best not to—”
Tsukishiro Yanagi was only halfway through her sentence when a device they had previously ignored suddenly emitted a piercing alarm from the other side of the vault.
The sound was so shrill that Russell briefly worried whether the girl inside the Cultivation Pod might wake up and suddenly transform into some kind of monster that would leap out at them.
Uh…
Wrong franchise.
This was New Eridu, not Raccoon City.
The alarm continued uninterrupted for ten seconds while the two remained tense and silent.
In the end, Russell was the first to walk over and investigate.
Once again, he wiped away the layer of dust covering the display and activated the screen.
Then Russell froze.
“What is it?”
Noticing the strange expression on his face, Tsukishiro Yanagi approached as well.
The moment she saw the screen, her eyes widened.
Because a line of crimson text was continuously scrolling across the display:
[H-037 Zone-wide Ether Concentration Monitor]
[Current Concentration: 4.7μg/m³]
[Rate of Increase: 12.3% every ten minutes]
[…]
[Warning: Regional Ether Activity is projected to exceed 100 in 59 minutes and 22 seconds.]
Silence.
Even though Russell couldn’t understand most of the parameters, he could understand the beginning and the end.
Tsukishiro Yanagi’s face had gone pale.
“This is…
an Ether Concentration Monitoring Station…”
“So the readings are real?”
The implication behind Russell’s question was obvious.
Tsukishiro Yanagi didn’t answer immediately.
Instead, she tapped the screen several times, switching through different interfaces as if verifying additional parameters.
When she finally stopped, her voice was trembling involuntarily.
“The readings are real…”
Her fists had already clenched tightly.
Whether from fear or anger was difficult to tell.
There’s no time to explain the technical details.
In theory, it reduces Ether concentration within an area by lowering Ether activity.”
She paused.
“And what’s happening right now is the reverse application of that technology.”
“They intend to increase Ether activity throughout the entire Hollow and drive the Ether concentration here up to one hundred in a short period of time.”
The maximum Ether concentration was one hundred.
A concentration of one hundred meant that no normal carbon-based lifeform could avoid becoming Corrupted.
Russell more or less understood.
It was like increasing temperature to raise humidity.
Except in a Hollow, reaching one hundred percent “humidity” meant that 99.9% of carbon-based lifeforms inside would be finished.
“Got it.
They can’t catch us.
They can’t beat us.
So they’re going with indiscriminate extermination.”
Russell summarized the situation succinctly.
His words became the final straw.
Tsukishiro Yanagi suddenly turned and walked toward the Cultivation Pod.
“Aren’t we running?”
Russell asked while watching her back.
“We are.
But it can’t be just us.”
Without hesitation, Tsukishiro Yanagi began disconnecting power from the Cultivation Pod.
“You take this child out of here.
I’ll go rescue my teammates.
Under these circumstances, those rebels probably won’t have the time to stop us.
If we’re fast enough, we might still have a chance to escape…”
She rapidly laid out her plan.
Though it was obvious that in her plan, she herself would be the one taking the greatest risk.
“I don’t think it’s that simple.”
Russell calmly voiced his opinion.
“In a situation like this, either those rebels are waiting at the exits for us to walk into a trap, or they’re expendable pawns who have already been abandoned.
If it’s the latter, then whoever hired them probably prepared a backup plan outside the Hollow.
Even if we manage to escape by the skin of our teeth, we’ll only be running straight into another ambush.”
Tsukishiro Yanagi’s hands stopped moving in the middle of the pod’s safety separation procedure.
She realized she had been grasping at straws.
Slowly, she looked up at the man wearing the Fox Mask.
…He’s so calm.
Maybe he has a solution?
The moment that thought appeared in her mind, Tsukishiro Yanagi—someone who had always been the team’s support specialist, the one responsible for cleaning up after others and compensating for their mistakes, someone who had never expected to rely on anyone—
Suddenly felt an inexplicable sense of embarrassment rise within her.
★ ★ ★
Shilling time!