Chapter 253

Words : 1438 Updated : Sep 29th, 2025

C253: The Truth of That Day (3) The researchers told Rudger everything about what was going on here. The Steel Chapel was a project to create a terrifying strategic weapon automaton for use in war. By injecting the human soul into the automaton, it gives it more detailed and autonomous movement while at the same time, even trying to make them obey their owners’ orders unconditionally. Originally, such a project was to be kept confidential, and researchers should not talk to outsiders even if their mouths were torn. However a monster that killed all the security inside the laboratory was in front of their eyes and threatened them so they had no choice but to speak. Nothing was more important than their own lives. Of course, some researchers rejected Rudger’s proposal with loyalty alone, saying they would not speak so Rudger immediately killed them in public and after seeing his cruel methods the other researchers said even what he didn’t ask. “Is that all?” “Yes, yes, yes. This is really all we know.” “I see. Compared to the data here, nothing seems to be left out.” After hearing the whole story, Rudger nodded as if he understood. “Well, then we’ll.......” “Oh, yes. You told me everything I was curious about, so I’ll have to give you a reward accordingly.” The surviving researchers had a ray of hope on their faces. “But before that, I’ll ask you one last question. If you answer that, I’ll let you live.” “Yes, yes!” “The names of the children you kidnapped and used in the experiment. Do you remember?” The faces of the researchers, who were initially full of hope, slowly began to harden at the question. “What? What the hell is that?” “You don’t know their names?” The researchers were silent as Rudger eyes scanned them. “You don’t know? Not a single person?” “Well, that’s.......” “I’ll tell you, I hate lies. You saw what happened to the person who lied a little while ago.” There were researchers who lied to Rudger’s questions so they also became cold bodies on the floor of the laboratory. “There’s no one?” “What are you doing? Remember! Remember!” “Shit! You have to do that! I only measured their vitals in the first place!” “You useless brats!” In a hurry, the researchers stared at each other, pointing fingers and uttering abusive language. No one seriously tried to recall the names of the children who were used as experiments because they didn’t want to and didn’t need to know they didn’t pay attention to anyone even if they died. They thought it didn’t matter. “Ah.” “Well, well...” The researchers who realized the situation turned pale and looked back at Rudger with fear-filled eyes. Rudger was sitting in a chair and watching them with his legs crossed, was smiling coldly at the researchers. “Thank you.” A creepy, cold smile appeared on his face. “For not remembering the names of the children.” Shortly after, a giant shadow engulfed the researchers. * * * Hans came into the bloody lab while frowning at the bodies scattered around him, he reached Rudger with big steps to avoid them. “Is it all over?” “Yes.” “But didn’t you need to keep a few alive? I think you should’ve done that so that we could proceed with the experiment.” “No need.” Rudger looked back at Hans and said, “I’ll do it myself.” “...is that possible?” “The research materials are here.” Rudger unfolded the data he had taken from the researchers. It was an experiment to transfer the human soul into an automaton. The Steel Chapel Project was only in the early stages of implementation, but Rudger alone could fill in enough of the remaining parts now. “The researchers caught the children because a child’s soul was easy to transplant into an automaton.” “Then the person in the experiment did that.......” “The body collapsed due to the soul being separated from the body but unlike adults, children wouldn’t collapse. They are still small and slender in spirit, and above all, pure.” Hans remembered that he saw something similar. “Rare metal mine, but I heard it’s closed because there’s no more rare metal?” “It’s a trick. Rare metal is still mined there and used for the automaton production here.” “Then it’s strange. No matter what, rumors about rare metal are bound to circulate, can they hide them this tightly?” It is not enough to have only a few people to mine rare metals. Large-scale manpower is needed, and it is virtually impossible to cover up information while controlling all those people. “They don’t use people when they mine.” “Then.......” “Yes, that’s right.” Rudger put the word that came to Hans’ head in his mouth. “They are illegally enslaving sub-species and use them to mine rare metals.” * * * Hans’ face hardened in front of the rare metal mine, which was said to be the largest in the Delica kingdom after receiving information from the mouse he sent in. “......What a coincidence. I checked and found that there were a lot of people inside. Most of them are subspecies, and there are many Suins and Dwarves.” “Most probably they kidnapped them and used them as slaves.” “They’re crazy. When was the abolition of sub-species slavery?” “If they cared about that, they wouldn’t have kidnapped people and tried to do a biometric experiment.” “That’s true, too. Damn it. I can’t believe you’re doing this kind of crazy thing on a national level. How the hell are they different from the Black Wizards?” Hans was annoyed for no reason and kicked a nearby tree. He also saw many things normal people wouldn’t usually see, but it was disgusting to kidnap children and use them as experiments. “So what are you going to do?” “What do you mean? What we have to do is decided.” “I know that. This time, unlike the automaton laboratory, I see a lot of armed forces.” Unlike laboratories that did not need that much security, rare metal mines required a lot of manpower. Most of the mining is done by slaves, but there were more troops than expected that guarded against the slaves rebellion. “What would you do?” “Let’s go inside first. I don’t know what else they’re doing in there.” After making a decision, Rudger and Hans headed into the mine. They showed that the mine was closed by blocking the shaft in the middle. However, the two people who already knew where the secret passage was were not fooled by such a shallow trick. After walking for a long time the road was cut off and a huge cliff appeared. “Down here.” Using floating magic, the two slowly went down. When they arrived deep in the mine, there was only darkness around them and nothing was visible. Then a faint sound began to be heard from afar. Hans opened his mouth to the sound of iron colliding with iron. “Brother.” “Yes, it’s that way. The two people killed the sound of their footsteps and headed to the place where the sound was heard from. As they chased the sound, they began to see a light from beyond and soon they discovered a huge underground mine. Inside, there were people with guns monitoring the slaves of the subspecies who were mining. “That’s a lot.” Hans was tongue-tied on an unimaginable scale. Slaves are slaves, but the number of watchmen alone was almost over 100. “Yes. Besides, it’s not just soldiers.” Rudger’s keen gaze turned to a side where he saw a man wearing a wide robe and a cane around his waist. It was a wizard. “I think it’s going to be a little hard.” When Hans was beside him at a loss, Rudger looked elsewhere. “Hmm?” He saw a slave of unusually small size, unlike other slaves. It was a young girl, but seeing her in this place, she must be subspecies, and considering her body size, it was clear that she was a Dwarf. She was swinging a pickaxe eagerly while sneaking the mined by-products into her pocket. Her actions were so secretive that even the watchmen did not notice it, but Rudger was different. “Hans.” “Yes, brother.” “Maybe I can get help.” “What?” Hans looked back at Rudger, asking what that meant. “I found a strange person.”

Chapter 253

Comments (0)