Arknights, but the sickly pretty girl starts

As the relief ended, Noya finally arrived at another door. This time, it wasn't a stone door, but a familiar one. She reached out, but before she could even touch it, it opened. The structure inside reassured her that she hadn't strayed from the right place. This was Area Zero, the first and final research lab established by the former civilization on Terra.

Stepping into Area Zero, Noah actually felt a sense of familiarity... This sense of familiarity was different from the feeling of being home.

It feels like... returning to my mother's womb.

It is really difficult to describe this feeling, but Noah has tried her best. Apart from this description, she can't think of any other way to describe it.

"You're here--" At this moment, a small drone appeared in front of Noah. It hovered naturally in front of Noah, then opened the Rubik's Cube-like structure underneath and projected a petite human figure using holographic projection.

She was very familiar with this person...

"Miss Administrator."

"You can also call me an outsider."

Chapter 82: Son of the Star

"Outsider, no, Miss Administrator." Noya returned to her original title. After all, in the minds of most Eden members, her name was Administrator. Although Noya was not a member of Eden, she had also experienced Miss Administrator's memories. In her memories, Eden was an inseparable part, a treasure in her memory. She felt that Miss Administrator must prefer this title.

After hearing this name, the figure of the petite girl wearing a mask, which was made up of a holographic projection, flickered. It seemed that even the holographic projection was considering what kind of expression it should project to match her current mood.

"Actually, I'm not really an administrator—after all, as you probably already know, the administrator has completely vanished." However, the administrator finally gave a wry smile and said to the girl before him, "I'm just a small echo of the administrator's brain scans. You can even think of me as an ordinary AI imitating the administrator's thinking. You don't need to worry about what to call me. I don't care."

[Outsider], this name was only heard from the doctor before he lost his memory. This should be what the administrator called herself before she chose to step forward and establish the Garden of Eden.

Outsiders... have always been detached from everything, peeking at the growth of mankind. Perhaps this is the origin of the so-called outsiders.

Noah recalled the story described on the relief, the story of the lonely Him searching for companions and those who understand Him. She always felt that this Him was most likely the administrator from the past. This also explained why the administrator was so mysterious, because she did not belong to human civilization at all. She came from Terra, she was a creation of Terra, and she was supposed to stay here.

But she was like Eve in the Garden of Eden. When she saw the arrival of humans, out of loneliness, she chose to follow humans and leave.

It was because of this that Terra lost its guardian, and the remaining behemoths also lost their backbone. It was not until humans retreated to Terra under threat that He followed human civilization and returned to His home planet.

This makes sense logically... except that there is no evidence left to prove who He is.

After all, the Administrator has become the firewood of the future like a yin-yang beast. So, if He is really the Administrator, then He really loves humans and regards the continuation of humans as His mission. He even brought the desperate humans to His hometown. She should know how much disaster the arrival of humans may bring to Terra, but she turned a blind eye. Most of the blame for Terra's current state should be thrown to the previous civilization, or in other words, to the Garden of Eden.

Fortunately, Noah now understands that proof is meaningless. What really matters is that she finds a way to help Terra overcome her difficulties in the Area Zero laboratory... Perhaps it's a solution to the mineral sickness, or the location of the three Origin Stones, the control method of the Deep Blue Tree, or the key to the control of the Heaven's Fulcrum... But before Noah could ask, the administrator told her a piece of news that was like a bolt from the blue.

"If you're looking for emergency solutions to other salvation plans, then I can only tell you that you've come to the wrong place." The administrator looked at the girl in front of her and shook her head. "What you're looking for isn't stored here. After all, the purpose of Area Zero isn't to control these remaining artifacts. Area Zero was once used to complete your facility. Besides that, it also preserves some human genetic blood samples."

"Genetic blood sample?" Noah was stunned. "What does this mean?"

"In addition to you, the administrator has also prepared a final plan. If you are the product of Plan Zero, then this laboratory also stores the [Final Work]." The administrator turned around. All the facilities in the laboratory were under her management. The laboratory, which was originally dormant, revived again with the wave of her fingers. The screens lit up one after another. The laboratory sunk into the earth seemed to show this vitality that transcends time at this moment.

"What's this?"

"..."

"I say, what the hell is this?!"

Noah's emotions were out of control. She stared at the administrator in front of her, as if she was meeting her for the first time. She had never thought that she would see this scene here.

The administrator's expression did not change. She just stared at the girl in front of her. Her voice was electronically synthesized, without any fluctuations, cold and straightforward.

"This is... the future."

What appeared before Noah was a scene that was difficult to describe in words and beyond imagination. Countless pipes were connected to each other, and the huge [sarcophagus] was quietly displayed in the center of the huge laboratory. Inside the sarcophagus was a sealed [administrator]. Yes, it was the body of the administrator. What was sealed by the confinement position was the body of the administrator who had lost her soul. She had lost her soul, but her life reactions still existed. Through the screen, Noah could see her weak vital signs.

The Administrator... is still alive?

Noah took a deep breath. She had never thought that this scene would appear... She originally thought that the administrator was completely dead, but if that was all, Noah would not be so out of control.

What really made her unacceptable was that there were countless tubes on the administrator's body. These tubes were deeply inserted into the administrator's body. Noah originally thought that these were used to transport nutrients and maintain the administrator's health, but she soon realized that these tubes did not give the administrator anything. On the contrary, they were extracting something from the administrator's body... The administrator's body was completely different from what Noah had seen before. She was dead - even if her body was still alive, she had indeed lost her soul.

Her soul was completely destroyed, and even Noah couldn't save it... because the foundation of her soul was the administrator's soul.

After extracting the soul, she never thought that the administrator's body would also be [used]. She seemed to understand why the administrator left Area Zero and an AI to manage it.

Because her soulless body was also part of her plan...

Miss Administrator... not only gave up her soul and life, but also... her body, that incorporeal shell, seemed to have turned into some kind of [resource] in her plan.

This extreme exploitation of herself has exceeded Noah's inner bottom line, and she even feels puzzled and angry - she has given everything for mankind, and even her body cannot get a rest?

"...Miss Administrator's body... why..." Noah subconsciously clenched her hands, causing the iron bars under her hands to twist. "She should be able to rest in peace... not like this..."

"...You should have seen the image on the relief...Do you know why the Terrans are Terrans? Why are they so similar to humans?" At this time, the [Administrator] finally revealed the truth, "Because He wishes it so."

“…He…”

——What flows in the pipes is a bright red liquid, which is similar to blood, but completely different from blood.

It was born from the body of the Administrator, an immortal body possessing self-repair abilities beyond those of ordinary life. He... or rather, the Administrator, from the very beginning, was like the Behemoth, a being beyond life itself. She could mold the Behemoth like clay, granting it power as if playfully. All of this was based on His own uniqueness. Long, long ago, there was a doctrine.

Gaia Theory——

This means that the Earth is a self-regulating living organism, and it can be said that the planet itself is also considered to be alive.

Of course, when this theory was first proposed, its original intention was not to do so. Scientists at the time never thought that the Earth was truly alive. They were just making a metaphor to illustrate the complex and coherent interactions between living organisms and the natural environment, including the atmosphere, oceans, polar ice caps, and the rocks beneath our feet. However, they were actually partly right.

The Earth may not have the so-called "consciousness", or most planets are indeed unable to produce the so-called "will".

However, Terra is an exception.

Because this planet is indeed [alive], or in other words, this planet did have [will].

And this will is Him.

Terra was His body, so He lost most of His power after He left Terra, but when He returned to Terra, He naturally regained these powers.

It can't be considered a power... After all, controlling his own body is not a strange or difficult thing. He can easily create a giant beast that can command power. For this reason, in essence, he is Terra, so Terra distributed some of his rights to other giant beasts. This is also easy to understand.

A big part of the reason why Terra is experiencing frequent natural disasters is that it is in a half-dead state. The planet is on the verge of death.

The death of a planet does not happen overnight, but slowly, so slowly that there may be no change for hundreds or thousands of years. This is why the residents of Terra did not realize the crisis of the planet itself.

They would never have thought that Terra was actually on the brink of destruction.

And Area Zero is actually not just a simple laboratory. It is the place where He was born, the womb of the planet, and the place where the Child of the Star cried for the first time.

When the soul of the Child of the Star dissipated, it was the AI ​​that was responsible for placing the Administrator's body, which had only been deprived of its soul but not lost its vitality, into the sarcophagus. This sarcophagus itself was also specially made, and through human technology, it maintained the Administrator's life state to prevent him from actually dying. This was also to buy time. If the planet Terra really died, then the last hope of mankind would no longer exist, so... she chose not to rest in peace even after death.

"Then what are these pipes extracting?" Noah frowned and asked in confusion.

"Of course, we won't sit idly by and wait for death, so we regularly extract the still-active cells from this body for research. To put it in a way you might understand... we're attempting to clone a Star Child," the administrator explained. "If the Star Child's death will trigger the death of the planet, then can we give the Star Child a new life? In fact, if it weren't for Noa Kyrielet's accident, these clones would be the best material for your fusion."

The administrator explained that if Noah was born with a perfect combination with the clones of these Star Children, he could almost be called a [God].

This is completely different from low-end creations such as the Behemoth or the Deep Blue Tree. The level of the material of the Star Child is far higher than that of secondary existences such as the Behemoth. It is no exaggeration to say that if this plan succeeds, all human beings will have the immortality of the Star Child per capita and truly create an eternal race.

The Administrator's vision has far exceeded the vision of all members of the Garden of Eden. According to the plan, even the Star Child Cloning Project existed long before the establishment of the Garden of Eden.

Indeed, as long as all humans are resurrected through Noya's ability and then combined with the clones of the Star Children, humans can completely take another path through their immortal bodies and even confront the threat of the lumberjacks head-on.

No wonder this plan is called the "Final Work".

"Star Child, the cloning project..." Noya felt as if her mind was suddenly filled with so much information that she didn't even know how to complain. "...I didn't expect to learn all this here...Administrator, did she really figure all this out on her own?"

"Of course, she is always alone. She studies alone, proves alone, is born alone, and dies alone." As an AI, [Administrator] should not have any feelings, but the words just said still touched Noah's emotions. That's right... lonely. From beginning to end, Miss Administrator is lonely. She is not human. She has an immortal body and spirit. She must have witnessed countless life and death. It is precisely because of this that she cannot be honest with her companions in the Garden of Eden.

Perhaps it was because of this...that she chose to sacrifice her soul in order to complete Zero.

"...Don't be sad, Noah." The administrator seemed to realize Noah's sadness and offered comfort. "Her soul is immortal. She simply transformed into a human, living among humans and experiencing everything among humans. You are her, and she is you. Her wish has already been fulfilled. Because of you, she has shed her identity as a Star Child and become a true [human]."

"…A real human…"

Noah touched his chest, feeling the resonance coming from deep within his soul—perhaps, it was really as the administrator AI said.

This is what she wants... a short but brilliant life.

"That being said... where are my teammates now?" Noah suddenly realized something and turned around to ask.

Faced with this question, the knowledgeable administrator smiled meaningfully.

"Do you remember those treasure chest monsters you encountered before you came here?"

"certainly……"

"Then your teammates are actually in a similar situation as you." So, a screen appeared in front of Noah at the call of the administrator, and on the screen... there was the scout mace holding two swords, the knight Margaret in heavy armor, the archmage Prisses who was in charge of the backup, Chloe and the doctor who were protected in the center, and the swordsman who seemed to have regained the power of the deep-sea hunter and stood in the front of the team holding the [Holy Sword].

——They are really playing RPG?!

Chapter 83: Me? Fight Nightmare Khan?

"What the hell is this thing..." After using her sword to kill the monster in front of her that looked like a large QQ gummy, Skadi couldn't help but start to reflect. Since entering the tomb, a huge two-winged dragon fell from the sky and grabbed Noah who was standing there in a daze for some reason. In order to rescue Noah, they picked up various weapons that appeared on the ground for some reason and started their adventure in this mysterious dungeon... This is probably the situation.

First, let's put aside why Noah stood still and was captured. Miss Noah must have her own ideas. Then, why did these weapons appear out of nowhere? I can't think about it for now. The sudden disappearance of my original weapons is barely acceptable. But... why is there a broadcast announcing how much experience points are dropped when killing the monsters that rush towards me, and why can I even level up? What's going on...

"...Slime, a classic monster in RPGs...don't you know?" Precious was probably the person who understood the current situation best here, but even she was a little confused at this moment. This confusion was not because she saw the classic monsters in RPG games, but because she inexplicably lost the ability to control the Originium and could only use the [magic] inexplicably instilled into her head.

"RPG? Slime? What on earth is that?" Skadi, who had never been exposed to RPG culture, was even more confused. Priss also felt that it was too troublesome to explain, so he summarized.

"Anyway, it's a monster that often appeared in popular games from pre-civilization times—that's roughly what it means."

"Then why are we encountering monsters from this game?" Koror, who was now surrounded, finally asked. "And why am I the only one whose mission is to survive?"

"Perhaps it's because your fighting ability is practically nonexistent," the mace-wielding twin swords protecting her responded. "Don't leave my side, and you should be fine."

"Even if it's an RPG, the class assignments aren't quite right...Scout, Hero, Magician, Knight...Where's the Priest?"

"We are not really in the game, and we don't have any medical operators among us." At this time, Margaret used a sword and a gun to kill a short green-skinned humanoid creature that tried to pounce from the blind spot of the maze. As they moved forward, they actually realized that they might have been pulled into a special illusion. After all, these things were too magical for them.

——Professions, experience points, and gold coins dropped after monsters die, these elements that can only be seen in ordinary games, now appear in reality. As the saying goes, there must be something wrong when things are abnormal. What they see and hear is enough to tear their worldview apart.

"Where did Miss Noah go?" As a brave warrior, Skadi felt that her strength had recovered a little. Although not much, it was enough. Every time she killed these strange monsters, she always felt that she would actually get an improvement in [attribute value] because of the so-called [experience value] and [level]. As a brave warrior, she even had a special skill called Protagonist Correction. This correction allowed her to gain more experience points and also made her level ahead of the entire team, and she was the first to reach the level 20 mark.

"I don't know... but Noah can definitely protect herself. What we have to do now is to quickly complete the strategy for this strange dungeon." At this time, the calmest person was Jian. She knew very well that Noah no longer needed protection. Her own strength was enough to protect herself, so she was the least worried one. In fact, given their current situation, they might even need Noah's help.

Skadi held the sword in her hand and moved among the monsters. She thought she had completely forgotten how to fight, but after holding the sword again, she realized that these things would not be forgotten with a peaceful life. The gene of fighting had been engraved in her DNA. As long as she held the sword again, she could recall it instantly, and she would swing the sword like a conditioned reflex to kill the enemy and exert her strength.

She indulged herself in it, enjoying the feeling of regaining her strength, feeling that every cell in her body was cheering - completely different from the powerless state before.

Unfortunately, this is probably an illusion. After leaving here, she will turn back into the powerless... Skadi.

How great would it be if she could regain her strength, if she could protect Miss Noya like she did in the past?

The long sword in Skadi's hand drew a graceful curve, and the blade cut through the flesh, just like a scalpel cutting through the skin, fat, and even bones. The monster's body fluids splashed in the air. These liquids that looked like blood had turned into a fine rain curtain in the air. After the battle, Skadi stood in the blood rain, silent, letting the blood stain her clothes red. She was a little dazed... When bathing in the warm blood rain, she seemed to be able to forget everything.

It wasn't until Margaret came to her side that she came to her senses...

"…Sorry, I was spaced out."

"...Skadi, are you really okay?"

Margaret was a little worried about the mental state of her teammate. After all, if the action of bathing in the rain of blood just now was not a result of the second-year syndrome, then it might really be a mental problem.

Skadi smiled awkwardly, finally revealing her earlier shyness. She took off her glasses, wiped them carefully, and then said with a smile, "I...I was just distracted."

"Distractedness on the battlefield is not something to be commended," the doctor beside her said. After the battle, she began to study the corpses of the monsters that disappeared moments later with great interest. "Skati, among all of us, only you were given the profession of a hero. Perhaps it's no surprise."

"Hero..." Although Skadi didn't quite understand the meaning of the word "hero", for her, the feeling of regaining strength was indeed very good. However, she was also worried. She was afraid that this was just a dream. After waking up, the power she regained would gradually dissipate. This space that seemed like a playful place was obviously very different from the real world... But they had not found a way to escape from the illusion yet.

"Doctor, do you think we should do something... to leave this space?" Margaret asked, looking at the smartest member of the team, the Doctor, who had been assigned the Sage class. "We can't just keep killing aimlessly, right? There's no telling how big this dungeon is."

"Actually, our levels are about the same. How about trying to challenge the [last boss]?" At this time, the doctor smiled. From the very beginning, she realized that this world was not dangerous. If she had to say why, it was probably because before entering this world, a voice told her that she needed some time to talk to Noah, so she threw them into this world to play.

Although she didn't know who the voice belonged to, she could feel an inexplicable sense of familiarity, as if it was an old friend, someone she could trust wholeheartedly, so she was probably the calmest person here.

The doctor trusts her intuition very much, just like when she saw Amiya for the first time after waking up, she believed Amiya wholeheartedly that the other party had no ill intentions, at least no ill intentions towards them.

So, she had been playing house with this brave team until now——

"Last boss? What's that?"

"The final boss is probably the key to completing this game." The doctor raised a finger. "The level cap of this game is probably around level 20. You see, after playing for so long, Skadi's level hasn't continued to rise, which proves that this game has a level cap. And your levels have almost all reached level 15 or above. According to the rules of the game, a team of our level is already capable of challenging the final boss—"

"...Although I don't quite understand it, Doctor, since you said so, there must be a reason." Margaret, who lacked understanding of the game itself, nodded a little confusedly. Of course, Margaret also had absolute trust in the doctor, so when the doctor proposed to challenge the final boss, she also nodded to indicate that she would follow the command.

"...I don't want to be stupid with you guys." Precious curled his lips. "Besides, even if we defeat the final boss, it doesn't matter. As long as the owner of the illusion doesn't want us to leave, she won't let us leave."

"Since it's a game, there must be a way to complete it." The doctor shook his head. "Besides, they've prepared such an interesting world for us, why not have some fun with it? That would be in line with the owner's intentions, right?"

Precious was completely helpless against the Doctor. After all, he was a member of Eden, someone she valued. However, she felt alienated from the other members of the Brave Squad. This was no surprise, given her belief that those who were not her kind must be different. The fact that she could barely unite with Noah was a testament to her dedication.

While they were discussing whether to challenge the final boss, Noah was also watching their adventure story through the screen... This world was of course simulated by the administrator AI, and the place they were in was actually deep in the Womb of the Stars, or in other words, the entire laboratory was deep in the Womb of the Stars, and what the doctor and others were playing was the game that the administrator AI had created out of boredom over the past few thousand years.

The bodies of the doctor and others were lying quite obediently in several cabins side by side, sleeping very soundly.

"...So those treasure chest monsters I encountered..." Noah was a little confused, "are they also fake?"

"Pretty much. You were in these hibernation chambers at first, and I was planning on having you talk to me directly. But then I figured, since we finally finished the game, I should let you play it. That's why I added those treasure chest monsters—" The administrator put his hands on his hips, looking very proud. "How is it? Interesting, right?"

"So Miss Administrator, you... have been playing games here alone for so long?" But Noah found the highlight. This kind of patchwork monster that borrowed from countless games and forced others to experience it did not seem like something a creator god would do. Instead, it looked like a game author who made a game for the first time and thought he did a good job, so he actively recommended it to everyone around him.