AutoTerra: Operating Systems

Chapter 71: Weird Records

It's been about 15 minutes that Edrick, Astan, and Bery have been through almost the entire area of the Medical Deck. Now, they have reached the Biological Laboratory area, precisely in the Genetics section. There are various giant tubes lined up along the rather dark area, containing various types of creatures in the greenish liquid, appearing still unconscious. Some of the tubes were also destroyed containing nothing more.

The three of them watched each tube, looked around at whatever creatures were inside, and read the data plate in front of the tube.

“Waaah…. I think the monsters that attacked us came from— Eh, chicken!”

Bery latched when he turned his head, found the spooky face of a reptilian humanoid monster, his eyes were still glaring, his mouth slightly opened with many sharp fangs, and his body size was about 2 meters.

“Ish! The form of this monster just ngaggetin,” said Bery annoyed.

Astan approaches a tube near Bery, curious as to what kind of monster is being kept there. He read the tube data plate while trying to remember something.

“Reptilico, Code-3314? Hmm...” Astan. “These monsters are similar to some monsters in Dungeon.”

“Monster Dungeon?” Edrick was curious, approaching Astan.

“Monster Dungeon?” Bery looked at Astan suspiciously. “Kok do you know about Dungeon monsters? Isn't the military forbidden to go to the Dungeon?”

Edrick glared, Astan almost slipped. The man who owns the orange mane has never been to the Dungeon, but he works as a hunter.

Hunters usually learn things about the types of monsters that roam every hunting area, including in Dungeons. That's why Astan feels familiar with the forms of monsters here.

But if Astan says he knows, then Bery who does not know Astan's true identity must feel suspicious. The reason, the Galactic Union Government issued a policy for all military members from various units throughout the galaxy prohibited from hunting into the Dungeon.

This was based on an agreement between the Galactic Union and the Galactic Hunters Association, where only hunters could conquer the Dungeon, while the military focused on security tasks.

Then, how can military soldiers level up their AutoTerra System? If the hunter is given a task and gets a reward from the Guild, then the soldier gets the obligation directly from the government. If they could complete missions, whether it was from expeditions, wars, to ambushes, then they would obtain an official score in order to level up.

Although it could not obtain any good Items from the Dungeon, the military could still obtain all of them by purchasing from the Guild or its hunters directly. Sometimes there were also many people who were not hunters selling all sorts of such Items as well as the much needed Crystal Core as an energy generator.

“Eee…. Bery.” Edrick's trying to help Astan lie. “At headquarters still store data about Dungeon monsters that had been purchased from former hunters. Maybe Astan learned it, so he knows.”

“That bill, right! I learned it in my spare time. That's why I memorized the types of Dungeon monsters.” Astan.

Bery looked back and forth at Astan and Edrick alternately, making the two soldiers almost sultry. Initially, Bery was suspicious, but it made sense that soldiers like Astan studied various types of Dungeon monsters even though it was not important to be studied by military members.

“OK. Makes sense too. Means your hobby is useful also in times like this.”

Edrick and Astan immediately breathed a sigh of relief. They still can't uncover Astan's true identity, as warriors like Bery don't guarantee they can keep a secret.

“So, you think the monsters here look like Dungeon monsters?” ask Edrick about Astan.

“Yes, I just realized that they look alike,” Astan replied. “I don't memorize the names of monsters in Dungeons, just feel their shapes are almost the same. I speculated that the monsters on this ship were actually from the Dungeon, they kept bringing it here to be used for experiments.”

“For experience?”

Edrick approached the tube of the reptilian monster, watching it from head to toe.

“What kind of experiment?”

“Perhaps the experiment that made those monsters now become aggressive, like all the monsters that attacked us earlier.”

Bery nodded in disagreement. “Entahlah. Did they do experiments to make aggressive monsters?”

“Yes, it's possible that it was done to create a biological weapon,” Astan said anyway.

“It's too early to speculate like that.” Bery gave another opinion, “In my opinion, these monsters were taken from the Dungeon because they wanted to be studied first, researched for various purposes. It's not for making biological weapons. Just because of a mistake, eventually these monsters became aggressive and began to attack the entire ship. It's too risky to make a biological weapon on a spaceship like this. It is more suitable if biological weapons are created in natural satellites, or in remote areas of a planet.”

“Your estimates are equally reasonable,” said Edrick, “but even better if we can find details of data about this creature. The existence of monsters on Feron Ship 072 is not included in the official agenda of Feron Company and BioEmerald, this could be one of the strong evidence in the trial later.”

“Siap, Chairman!” respectful Bery.

Astan and Edrick immediately exit the area leaving Bery who began looking for data according to Edrick's orders. The two decide to split up into other areas, but Edrick has a chance to talk to Astan.

“Almost got caught. Bery wouldn't believe you if he knew you were a hunter.”

“Ya, sorry,” says Astan is not feeling well. “But, we do not want to understand that these monsters may come from Dungeon.”

At first Edrick was silent, watching Astan with a sharp gaze until the one he stared at had sipped his own saliva.

“I thank you for your speculation. But, don't be careless. If there is anything about your memory problem, please contact me.” directly

“Good, good, Chairman,” says relax Astan.

They both walked in different directions. Sending in and looking for what they can get.

...~*~*~*~...

“Hmm…. The recording is too much.”

Now Zered is trying to find various surveillance camera footage that occurred three years ago on this ship, while Wirma is trying to keep an eye on the situation through the latest footage.

It was difficult for Zered to find the recording data about the beginning of the chaos. The footage he got only showed the state of the ship had gone awry.

His hand was trying to scroll through the touch panel, getting rid of the list of unimportant footage. A few minutes passed, Zered finally found a recording of the incident that was still calm. There was no chaos, all the ship's occupants were still casually passing by in a corridor.

Feeling that part of the recording was not important, Zered sped it up to the recording section which showed the condition of the corridor was already quiet. Zered narrowed both eyes behind the helmet, noticing every suspicious incident that happened back then.

Early footage shows a man walking through a corridor approached by another man. From the uniforms they wore, Zered believes these two men were from the Ribelo Orbit Army military unit. They are seen chatting casually, sometimes laughing together until something happens.

Three other men came, shooting the man who approached him to death. One man allegedly tried to retrieve the weapon from the storage system, but was unable to due to a shock wave that made him unconscious. The man was immediately taken by the three men through the corridor.

“Emm, Vice. Looks like I found a weird tape here.”

Wirma approached Zered. “What recording is it?”

“Try you see.”

Zered turned the tape back on. Wirma looked from the beginning until the incident was over. According to him, something like this is very suspicious happening on a company ship. Maybe this has something to do with the case being handled by their military units right now.

“Wait first! Try backing down the recording.”

According to Wirma's orders, Zered rewinded the recording time to the part one man was about to pull out the weapon system.

“Stop there!” wirma's orders again. “Try magnifying.”

Zered zoomed in on the footage. It looked vague, but Wirma felt something familiar with the face of the man who was about to be arrested.

“It looks like, I've seen that face.”

Wirma's eyes swelled in disbelief behind the helmet. He clearly recognized the shape of the face, the color of orange hair, the skin is slightly tan, until the color of his yellow eyes.

“Astan?”

...~*~*~*~...