Chapter 182: One Hundred and One Percent

Living in the wild was a pleasurable experience in itself.

Getting off from the vehicle, the first to greet me were the Ares Mountains.

As mighty as ever.

"Sir!"

Then it was the soldiers who greeted me as I made my way towards the entrance of the base.

Within some minutes, I was standing in the research facility, with the white laboratory coats moving before my eyes.

The number of researchers seemed to have increased since the last time I had visited this facility.

"Ah! You are here."

A very familiar yet unfamiliar voice made me turn to the right, only to find No. 1 approaching me—well... former No. 1.

Since Lonatu had been brought under the umbrella of D.X., the entire rankings of the former had changed, making former No. 1 lose his position of prestige.

I had thought the guy might have been happy to be relieved from his position as the assistant, but—

Seeing the unpleasant look on his face, all my assumptions were proven wrong.

"The Boss is busy with his experiments, so keep your business quick. If I see you disturbing the boss unnecessarily in any way, then—"

"Then?"

I interrupted his advisory, while releasing a small amount of mana pressure.

Thud.

It didn’t take more than a second for the former No. 1 to drop to his knees.

But—

The moment I had released the pressure, I withdrew it, as I knew that No. 1 was just a researcher, not a combat expert.

If my mana pressure had been any higher, the guy could have even dropped dead from it.

"Haa... Cough... Cough."

No. 1 coughed twice before trying to stand up, but his body had lost all its previous strength.

I looked at a soldier who stood nearby, and upon making eye contact with me, the guy immediately moved to help former No. 1.

Hm?

I didn’t really know his name.

"Your name?"

As No. 1 stood up with the soldier’s help, I asked him the question while walking in his direction.

"Huh? Xy—"

"Never mind. Take me to Alfred."

Former No. 1 was the only way this guy was worth remembering.

On my words, No. 1’s face began to turn displeased again, but quickly remembering the dynamics of power between us, he immediately turned in the direction of where Alfred was.

Walking behind him, I kept observing my surroundings.

No matter where my gaze landed... some experiment or another was in progress, with the researchers having tense expressions, as many of those experiments were kind of lethal for everyone in the area.

Soldiers stood on the perimeter of the testing area in order to help the researchers in any way they could if a problem requiring their combat prowess arose.

"You may go in."

No. 1’s voice brought me out of my thoughts, as we had reached a secured room which had a big door closing its entrance.

I glanced at No. 1 once to motion him to open it, but—

"The door is opened only with permission from the boss. I have not been called, so even if I enter my credentials, the boss would not open it. You will have to add your own credentials."

Alfred was quite an isolated guy.

Nodding my head at No. 1’s words, I walked towards the door and pressed my hand on the panel beside it.

My fingerprint and other details were scanned immediately, including my mana signature—or at least the device had tried to scan it but failed miserably.

Once you had decent control over the mana in your body, you could easily stop your mana signature from being detected.

It was the same as erasing one’s mana presence in the surroundings to disappear from the senses of other individuals.

As for why I had blocked the device from scanning my mana signature... well, for the fact— I hadn’t exactly registered my signature in the database.

And why would I?

It would have been foolish to present my mana signature—something that was an important part of my combat strength—in a database that could be hacked anytime in the future.

Though only knowing my mana signature wouldn’t cause any direct harm to me... still, precaution was always better than a cure.

A beeping sound echoed across the area as the door before me slowly opened.

Alfred seemed to have granted me permission to enter... in my own base.

Well... I wasn’t petty enough to get riled up over such things.

As I walked in, I could see Alfred working on a small metallic orb which was the size of a peanut—or maybe even smaller.

"You sure took your time to visit me."

Alfred spoke without shifting his focus from the orb, which glowed every now and then.

"Missed me?"

"I certainly missed your body—one of the most interesting things I have found to date."

"..."

I didn’t reply as I simply stared at Alfred.

Maybe it wasn’t the best thing to joke with him.

"Have you completed the things I—"

"See this."

Alfred interrupted, motioning me to walk closer.

Following his gaze, my eyes landed on the orb again.

"Is it for my core?"

I asked, moving closer to the orb.

"No."

Alfred’s indifferent voice made me raise my head to look at him.

"It’s for the other thing that you had asked for a year ago."

So... it was for that, huh.

Looking at the orb once again, I finally felt all the efforts over the two years showing at least some results.

"How effective is it?"

At my question, Alfred walked away from me and sat on a chair placed beside a small table.

"Hm. It’s effective. The success rate for the device to work is—one hundred and one percent."

"What’s the extra one percent for?"

Alfred paused, looking at me for a while.

"The device... it’s more effective than the predetermined standards that I had set while making it. So... it’s better than my expected outcome."

That... seemed to be great news.

"And the one that I had asked for my core?"

"Follow me."

Alfred’s voice was as indifferent as ever, with no change in it.