Chapter 494: The Researcher

The sound of flapping wings rang out as a robin landed on the parrot’s perch.

The offended parrot flared its crest, wanting to drive away this uninvited guest, but under the robin’s cold glance, it fled in a hurry.

“Robber! Robber!”

The panicked and frightened parrot flew circles around the room, issuing furious accusations, while drifting feathers fell down onto the precise instruments that shimmered with a faint magical glow.

“How rude.”

The robin straightened the bow tie at his chest and looked toward the old man busy in front of the instruments.

“You actually keep a parrot in a research lab. How am I even supposed to comment on that, Mr. Yerul?”

“Huh? Why is it like this? No, this is wrong...”

The old man was wearing a white lab coat, and the top of his head was so smooth it could reflect the light. He was buried in tinkering with something, muttering nonstop under his breath, utterly oblivious to the robin’s greeting.

“Mr. Yerul.”

“In terms of probability, the effect shouldn’t be like this. Did I mess up the dosage?”

“Mr. Yerul.”

“Retry? But the test subjects... ah, right, the new stock, the new stock should work... damn, the supply’s been cut off for so long, where would new stock come from.”

“Yerul Natt!”

“Ah.”

With the robin’s polite greeting turning into a flustered, angry roar, the entranced old man finally came back from his own world. He groped to the side for his chipped spectacles and shakily perched them on the bridge of his nose.

“So it’s you, Robin. You scared me half to death. This old man’s heart isn’t very good—please don’t make such a ruckus. If you scare me to death, there’ll be no one left to work for you.”

“I’ve already called you several times.”

“Sorry, sorry, my hearing’s never been very good.”

Yerul wagged his head, and the parrot on his shoulder also landed there, following along and wagging its head.

“Not very good! Not very good!”

Veins bulged on the robin’s forehead.

“I didn’t come here to chat. I’m asking you—has the medicine I told you to make been completed? We spent so much money; everyone’s waiting on your results!”

“Results... results you’ve already seen, haven’t you? I remember I already gave you the first batch of medicine.”

Yerul pushed up his glasses, puzzled.

“Don’t tell me after all this time you people still had the patience not to use it?”

“We did. The effect was pretty good. That’s exactly why we’re really looking forward to the second batch of ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) your new drug.”

A strange gleam flashed in the tiny bird pupils of the robin’s eyes.

“You said the first batch was only a trial sample. Things are at a critical point now—we really need the new drug.”

“Greed is bad, very bad.”

Yerul kept wagging his head as he shuffled forward, weaving through all sorts of complex-tubed devices, rummaging through a pile of scattered junk.

“Huh... where is it? I remember putting it here. How is it not here? Let me look again...”

“......”

The robin watched his blood pressure spike as Yerul searched for the precious new drug the Inner Council had spent a fortune to obtain amid a heap of trash. He held himself back a long time, and only with exceptionally good self-control did he swallow down the string of obscene curses on the tip of his tongue.

Fortunately, Yerul finally did find it.

“Ha, I knew it was here.”

From within the mess, Yerul fished out an utterly ordinary-looking glass container. He casually wiped the dirt off it with his lab coat, then reached to pull out the stopper—but no matter what he did, it wouldn’t budge. So, under the robin’s eye twitching gaze, he bent down and bit it, gnawing until his spit flew everywhere.

The robin silently retreated a few steps, vowing that he would absolutely not touch that bottle even once.

“Look, here’s the new drug.”

Yerul shook a red pill out of the bottle and raised his hand, holding it in front of the robin.

The robin hopped a few steps and craned his neck to look... a faint bloody scent lingered at the tip of his beak, and on the bright red pill flowed patterns like blood.

“How’s the effect?” the robin asked.

“The effect? The effect is naturally very good.”

Yerul chuckled, and suddenly his movements turned extremely deft. He snatched the parrot from his own shoulder in one swift grab.

“What doing! What doing!”

The parrot struggled nonstop, but it couldn’t escape Yerul’s demonic hands. He forced a pill down the parrot’s throat.

“Go.”

After swallowing the pill, the parrot flapped once and took off, flying quick circles around the whole research lab.

“Bad taste! Bad taste!”

“......”

So the parrot was raised to be a lab rat, huh.

The robin was speechless for a moment, then narrowed his eyes and watched for a while. “There doesn’t seem to be any change?”

“Heh heh, it’s a pill. It’s not being injected directly into the blood vessels—once it goes into the stomach, of course it needs a bit of time to digest. Normal, normal.”

Saying so, Yerul shuffled leisurely toward the lab’s main door. With a click, he pressed a mechanism and opened the heavy metal gate, walked out through it, and then, with another click, pressed the mechanism again to close it.

“Hm?”

The robin turned around in confusion, only to see Yerul standing outside the specially reinforced heavy window, giving him a big thumbs-up.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Before the words had fallen—

“Ah—so much pain! So much pain!”

The miserable screams made the robin shudder. He turned around and saw that the parrot had somehow already fallen to the floor.

And then, from inside the parrot’s body came the horrifying, tooth-aching sound of bones snapping one by one.

Creak.

Creak.

Sharp bone spurs pushed out through its colorful feathers, still stained with fresh blood, forming even more grotesque wings.

Its broad beak grew sharp and terrifying, and a snake-like long tongue extended from it, with tiny fangs sprouting at the tip.

While the robin watched in delight, the parrot’s body swelled in the span of a short moment, growing a full size larger, turning into a savage monster through and through.

But the robin very quickly stopped being happy.

Because the monster parrot’s scarlet pupils shifted and soon locked onto the only living creature in the lab—him.

“Tasty! Tasty!”

The previously comical imitation turned into a dead, guttural roar. The parrot flapped wings that could no longer really lift it off the ground, while two newly grown talons jutting from its abdomen scratched across the floor as it pounced at the robin like a wild beast!

“Damn!”

The robin finally understood what that thumbs-up from that old bastard Yerul a moment ago had meant!

He was telling him to look after himself?

Damn it! If that old bastard weren’t still somewhat useful, he’d have chopped him up for dog food long ago.

Even as he cursed in his heart, the robin’s movements were not slow. He lightly evaded the parrot’s first lunge.

To be able to serve as the stand-in he used to conceal his real face, this puppet bird was naturally not some simple tool. Under its black-and-white feathers, a ghostly blue glow flickered—when the robin shot through the air, his speed was actually no less than that of an ordinary martial artist.

So all the parrot could do was chase him around in a fit of impotent rage...

...

Ten minutes later.

The main door finally opened again. Yerul walked in, holding a freshly brewed cup of hot coffee, smiling with narrowed eyes.

The research lab had already been thrown into chaos. Many of the expensive precision instruments were damaged, but Yerul didn’t care at all. He took a sip of coffee and glanced at the nearby robin, who was panting heavily.

“Well? The effect’s not bad, right?”

“Heh.”

The robin’s expression was dark, his smile not reaching his eyes.

“Old thing, you should be grateful you’re so foul and tough that even dogs wouldn’t eat you. Otherwise, one day you’d definitely end up as dog food.”

“Ah, that really frightens this old man.”

Yerul put on a face of “terror.”

“When I’m scared, I can’t make any medicine at all, you know.”

The corners of the robin’s beak twitched again as he barely suppressed his anger.

“I’m fairly satisfied with the effect. It’s just... isn’t the duration a bit too short?”

“It’s not short. Ten minutes is already the absolute limit.”

Yerul, not the slightest bit pained, scraped his former beloved pet off the floor and onto a nearby operating table. He casually picked up a scalpel—his withered hand didn’t tremble in the least—and skillfully cut open the parrot’s skin.

The skin, now once again fragile, parted under the blade, revealing withered internal organs inside. Not a single drop of blood flowed out.

“This is, by nature, a transformative drug that overdrafts life force. If you want a stronger effect, the time can’t be long, of course. Of course, if you want it long-las ting and ha rd, adding some things to the drug isn’t impossible either.”

Yerul spoke cheerfully.

“It’s just the cost... I’m afraid even your Inner Council couldn’t bear it.”

“......Then how long until you can begin mass production?”

The robin pretended not to hear Yerul’s dirty joke and asked in a low voice.

“That depends on you. As long as you send enough materials, I can start preparing for mass production tomorrow.”

As Yerul answered, he casually tossed the parrot’s corpse into the trash heap, then opened another opaque crate on the side. Very soon, a new parrot flew out from inside, happily circling around the lab.

“Good.”

The robin used his gaze to force back the parrot that wanted to fight him for the perch and said:

“The materials will be delivered immediately. You need to start preparations at once.”

“Relax, it’ll be quick.”

“But, putting the new drug aside for the moment, what about...”

The robin suddenly lowered his voice.

“The other job we commissioned you for?”

“Heh, that’s naturally progressing in parallel as well. It’s just...”

Yerul turned his head to look at the robin, a strange smile appearing on his aged face.

“Mr. Robin, the goods you promised me have apparently been out of stock for quite some time, haven’t they? Without that supply, it’s very hard for my experiments to proceed. Aiya, aiya, without the goods, nothing feels right lately—my back aches and my legs hurt. Tell me, what should I do?”

“......”

The robin took a deep breath and said slowly:

“Don’t worry. Once we have the new drug, the goods you need will be delivered very soon.”

“Hehe, I certainly hope so.”

Yerul stroked his beard.

“I was just complaining a bit. No rush, no rush.”

“......Then get back to what you’re supposed to be doing. I’m leaving.”

The robin spread his wings, preparing to leave quickly, because he felt that with every extra second he spent around this old thing, his blood pressure climbed a bit. At this rate, the puppet bird would be fine, but his real body might die of a stroke first.

“Oh, right.”

Yerul suddenly called out to him. This time, his face was, unusually, somewhat serious.

“I’ve been feeling inexplicably anxious lately. That safety you promised me—you can ensure it, right?”

“Of course. Who do you think we are?”

The robin looked back, amused.

“The place you’re in right now is the safest place in the entire Lower District.”

“Good, good.”

Yerul patted his chest with a long exhale.

“I’ve been dreaming over and over that those stiff old fossils from the Royal Research Institute are tying me to a stake to burn me. Only with your protection can I feel at ease.”

“Relax. Not even a fly can get in here.”

The robin flew out of the lab and into the silent, pitch-black void.

In his vision, a factory sprawling over no small area was lying deep underground like a hibernating beast.

In those seemingly tranquil shadows, countless security systems executed their duties faithfully.

Just as he’d said, not even a fly could get in.

“Of course, even if one did, it wouldn’t matter.”

The robin glanced toward a certain spot deeper in, murmuring to himself:

“Because anything that flies in... dies.”