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Last Embryo Volume 4 Chapter 8 Part 3

「Something? And what would that something be, exactly?」

「What do you think about what we have heard before?」

「Before? I daresay we have heard quite a lot of things today, yo I am afraid that you will have to be more specific.」

「*Sigh* What do you think about the Environmental Control Tower and the catastrophic eruption that is supposed to wipe mankind out? Do you really think that it is true? Do you really think that we only have fifteen years left to finish the research of Star Particle Bodies, build the Environmental Control Towers all over the world and use them to make Star Particle Bodies reach every human in every corner of the globe? Do you think we can really do all of it while adhering to such a ridiculously strict deadline?」

「. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Well, if it was just about building the tower, then I guess it would be pretty doable, but if we want to finish the research on Star Particle Bodies, build the Environmental Control Towers around the world and spread the nanomachines from them, then I am afraid that if we want to meet the deadline Krishna was talking about then we have to be prepared to make some sacrifices, just like he said.」

Izayoi expressed his honest opinion without holding anything back. Yes, it was exactly as he said. If it was just about building the Environmental Control Tower and nothing else beside it, then they would have nothing to worry about. But since they have to do more than to just build the tower, but the real problem here are going to be the strife and inevitable sacrifices that would will have to be made in order to turn that plan into reality. This is not going to be just your average, small-time development, but a huge undertaking on a truly global scale that is going to require global funding and as much support as possible in order to reduce the burden that would be placed upon them before, during and after the construction of the towers would be completed. Not to mention the whole other problem that they will be forced to tackle sooner or later. . . . . . . . .

「I feel incredibly sorry for the citizens of Greece and all the people who had their houses and lives ruined by the {Bull of Heaven’s} rampage, but currently all of the resources that Everything Company can spare will have to be diverted to the Star Particle Bodies research, and I also think it is going to be necessary to increase the amount of authority given to the researchers responsible for it. I am not saying that we will not be going after the masterminds who orchestrated that bio-terrorist attack, but if I were to hazard a guess as to when that would be, then I would say that no sooner than when we will have absolute certainty that the world will be saved.」

「Okay, but now. . . what about distributing all that information to the general public? Is there any specific order you have in mind? And what about finishing the research on Star Particle Bodies themselves?」

「Honestly. . . that is going to be the hardest issue to handle, hands down. If we continue to employ the method of research that we are currently using, then there is no way for us complete the research and successfully implement it in just fifteen years.」

「Is it impossible to shorten the duration of the research in any way?」

「I think we both know the answer to that question already. The only surefire way to shorten the time needed for the research to become completed would be to engage in human experimentation, but choosing that option means sacrificing a lot of lives.」

Expecting that answer, Izayoi bit on his lower lip after exhaling angerly. He was once again reminded that when it came to perception and awareness, he was not the sharpest tool in the shed.

「. . . . . . . . . A lot of lives, you say? I see. So the lives of just these two Albino girls will not be nearly enough?」

「Yes, because the clinical trials and human experiments would have to be repeated countless more times before we could finally announce them to be successful. I think that Krishna was impatient, or perhaps to drunk from their first successful attempt at testing the Star Particle Bodies on human subjects. If he was a genuine scientist, then he would have known that one success does not mean anything. For all we know, that success he took for granted might have just been a fluke. His plan is to probably extract the Star Particle Bodies from the albino girls’ bodies after he kills them and use them in another experiment based on that successful one. Then they could use the extracted Star Particle Bodies to cause another international incident that we would then have no choice but to resolve, thus leading to the promotion of my research by increasing its fame even further. Then, the rest would simply be a rinse & repeat process that would most likely continue until the day when the fully developed mass-produced Star Particle Bodies would have been completed. It is an absolutely shitty tactic, but annoyingly enough it might also be the one that is going to prove itself as the most effective one, causing us to dance at the forefront of my research to the melody they would be playing for us whenever they wanted, haha, hahaha. . . . . 」

Homura had no choice but to laugh weakly at how absurd his situation was becoming. The only silver lining here was that with the amount of information about Homura’s research that has been leaked out, it was now pretty apparent that there has to be a spy in the ranks of Everything Company, and not an ordinary one at that. It has to be someone who knows Homura’s research and has access to it. But now that they knew that there was someone like that in their midst, they will be able to take appropriate countermeasures against that mole.

「Krishna also said it himself, did he not? That many organizations with international reach were involved in the incident with {The Bull of Heaven}. You know what that means, right? That all those organizations were fine with hurting tens of thousands of people if only it meant that your father’s research would end up getting more famous.」

「Yeah. . . and that is something that I just cannot comprehend.」

Homura lifted his hands and rubbed his face with them while simoultaneously hiding his swollen eyes from Izayoi. Out of all the thing he has learned today, that particular information must have been the most shocking to him. Even though Edward Grimnir, the head of the Department of Development at Everything Company warned him that it might be like that, a part of him did not want to believe that any international organization would willingly get themselves involved in something as morally questionable as the creation of {The Bull of Heaven} and releasing it into the world, but apparently he was mistaken. The biggest question now was: is any of these organizations will be dumb enough to announce the news of the catastrophic eruption to the public? Logic dictated that they should not be doing anything of the sort, because that would only cause unnecessary panic among the people, and Homura did not even need any tests or analytics to know that something like that is going to inevitably happen, because it is common sense that when the masses get to know that they might all be dead in fifteen years, the only way they are going to react will be through the violence, riots and denial.

However. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . this and that are two entirely different issues.

No matter the circumstances, allowing innocent people to be hurt and killed simply because someone believed that this was the only possible way to go was definitely not the right answer, even in the face of an upcoming danger, but the true darkness hiding behind that danger was far deeper than Homura could have ever imagined.

「Krishna said that these Albino girls are one of the 「buds」of {Absolute Evil}. And I think so as well. Even if we do manage to stop the catastrophic eruption from occurring, the 「Original Sin」 hiding I its shadow is definitely going to bring down an even bigger crisis upon the future of mankind. So if this is supposed to be mankind’s first step towards its new era, then we definitely have to win in a right way.」