“Acelin Oga? The chairwoman?” Rosalyn exclaid in surprise, covering her mouth as Yvette read the contents of the notebook.
She had seen that woman in her dreams, of course, on the large television in the Light Apartnt, where Acelin sat elegantly at the podium during a charitable event, gracefully soliciting donations for local orphans. Her speech was captivating; when she spoke of touching stories, her eyes glistened with tears, evoking similar tears in Rosalyn watching from the screen.
Although her impressions of Black Tower Pharmaceuticals had dulled during her ti in the Blackwater District, they did not diminish her positive feelings toward Acelin.
In a sense, Acelin and Rosalyn both belonged to the nobility, sharing similar social standings and goodwill toward the lower classes. If soone accused Acelin of being hypocritical and performing for show, Rosalyn would empathize and feel upset about it.
—Of course, this was on the premise that Acelin was truly a good person.
Yvette nodded, not surprised. If the apocalypse were to descend suddenly, the Abyssal Base hidden within the volcanic lake would indeed serve as a natural refuge. As the CEO of Black Tower Pharmaceuticals’ Ish branch and a “granddaughter” of the powerhouse family, Acelin had every right to seek shelter in the Abyssal Base.
What truly intrigued Yvette were the last two sentences.
The “Divine Transcendence” beneath the God Erosion—what could that be? It seed related to so sort of “godly” presence. Was it sothing that even Black Tower Pharmaceuticals couldn’t fully comprehend, leading them to refer to it as a divine entity?
The aberration that arose from the sea implied that the transformation began in the ocean. When it spread to land on a massive scale, it ultimately led to the destruction of the origin civilization.
That was a possibility worth pondering… she hesitated to venture into the sea precisely because it resembled a potent cauldron filled with danger. One never knows what gigantic aberrations lurked beneath the waves, ready to take a bite out of a naive adventurer.
Flipping to the next pages, she discovered nothing more. In other words, Acelin’s final words before dying were disappointingly scant, with an absence of the theories and musings that should have been present.
So, was proving her family’s innocence Acelin’s sole obsession in her final monts?
Yvette closed the notebook and caught sight of Rosalyn rummaging through the boxes like a little detective, her enthusiasm evident.
Suddenly, Rosalyn withdrew a hefty file folder from a dark corner. Most of the docunts inside had decayed and beco moldy, but a few readable fragnts managed to survive. She carefully extracted so pages with legible text and handed them to her teacher.
Yvette took them and began reading aloud while translating for Rosalyn.
“Experint log F#933, August 9, 2146, near the end of Phase Six of the Everlasting Project—results summary.”
“Recorder: Leo Klaus.”
“…(illegible)… Success rate: 33% (See attachnts), a significant increase of 14% compared to Phase Five.”
“The new generation of tamorphic potions, Variant 7, has greatly improved the success rate.”
“Note: Dillon Dempsey’s ntal state has returned to normal and can resu leading the experints.”
“Request: Expand experintal permissions and rapidly advance to Phase Seven.”
“Board Resolution: Approved.”
Undoubtedly, the information in this experint log revealed far more than Acelin’s will, prompting Yvette to ponder for a while before extracting the key details.
August 9, 2146?
She distinctly rembered that when she first entered the dream, awakening as an orphan in the Abyssal Base, the date was 2125. The year prior coincided with the second ti she dreamt and interacted with the Hoffman family.
Thus, this report was written 21 years after the original host first participated in the tamorphic project?
In that span of 21 years, the apocalypse had not yet co?
And “Phase Six of the Everlasting Project” and “New Generation tamorphic Potion Variant 7” instantly reminded her of her own uniqueness and the dication involved in the tamorphic project.
However, the potion she consud back then was Variant 2; here, it referred to “Variant 7”—an upgraded version?
Could it be that the tamorphic project was rely a public na for the Everlasting Project? Was curing genetic diseases a farce, while the true research focused on achieving immortality?
Was her potential immortality a successful product of this plan?
But if that were the case, why was she the only one to survive after the apocalypse?
Was there a more profound mystery behind the success path of immortality that could neither be glimpsed nor replicated? So that even Acelin Oga, the granddaughter of the Black Tower dical family, had no choice but to wait for death?
Given this interpretation, a 33% success rate—could it really refer to the potion of immortality? That sounded quite high…
With these thoughts swirling around in her mind, Yvette’s eyes landed again on the na “Dillon Dempsey.”
She recognized that na; during her first dream, the lady who took care of her, Tabitha Clovelorn, was a student of Dr. Dempsey.
Yet Dr. Dempsey seed unrelated to the tamorphic project, at least she had never encountered him in the ninth underground level. She only heard Tabitha and other researchers ntion him in passing conversations.
In this log, Dr. Dempsey had experienced a ntal breakdown but had recovered… was there a connection between his ntal issues and the Everlasting Project?
…
“Teacher, are you… alright?” After seeing Yvette remain entranced by the experint log, staring blankly as if turned to stone, Rosalyn finally couldn’t help but speak up after waiting for more than ten minutes, her concern rising.
“Hmm… I’m fine.” Yvette shook her head. The information contained within this docunt was vast, revealing to her a re glimpse of the hidden secrets within the Abyssal Base before the apocalypse. Although it couldn’t explain the origins of the apocalypse, it did serve as so reliable evidence regarding her own origins.
Sure enough, the original host was very likely a product of the Black Tower Pharmaceuticals’ creation, hence why she awoke here.
Only, she was perplexed as to why the people who created her were all dead while she managed to survive the apocalypse alone, a mystery surely containing further layers.
Yvette began to peruse the remaining readable experint logs.
The rest of the logs seed to focus on the final stages of “Phase Six of the Everlasting Project,” devoid of the “results summary” format, rendering the content unremarkable. They rely docunted the monitoring of subject statuses, without delving into deeper secrets or ntioning the mysterious “Divine Transcendence” from Acelin’s will. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ novel⁂fire
Setting the logs down, she inquired, “Are there any places we haven’t searched?”
“None left,” Rosalyn shook her head. Although she was sowhat clueless about the potential implications behind the experints and dicines, she found the archaeological investigation quite intriguing. Thus, she had searched thoroughly and even found several dical specialized books, intending to take them back to the manor.
“Then let’s proceed to the next level,” Yvette suggested.
Exiting from the eleventh level, they descended to the twelfth, where the remnants of life grew scarce.
But this was to be expected; this level served as the “Main Control Hub” of the Abyssal Base—essentially, the server data center.
This was a sprawling, mostly empty tal room with few functional divisions. The cold tallic walls were covered with a gloaming of magelight vines, entangled and coexisting with “cloud containers” that had gathered dust for hundreds of years, illuminating the entire room.
At the center stood a colossal column-shaped machine, encased in a durable glass casing. The exposed, obsidian-like surface was patterned with nurous fine lines. They looked decorative, but Yvette was certain those lines concealed countless intricate arrays of runes, representing the proud knowledge and power of the civilization of origin.
She attempted to activate it, but there was no response, and even injecting mana through the magical conduits yielded no results. She had no idea what the issue could be.
Nevertheless, the resourceful Rosalyn managed to find so logs tucked away in a file folder, presumably left behind by maintenance personnel of the hub. Several were still relatively intact.
Compared to the experintal logs of the Everlasting Project, this was of significantly lower value as it dealt solely with maintenance.
However, after thumbing through the remaining intact portions ticulously, one record caught Yvette’s attention.
It was an experintal record from 2128, three years after the original host had participated in the tamorphic project.
Amidst the extensive decay, only one line of text remained vague yet unmistakably infused with overwhelming terror, crossing through ti and space to reach Yvette’s eyes:
“Oh my god…”
“The Firefly Core…”
“It… it lives…”
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