Transcendent Gene
Chapter 228: Asura [2]

Chapter 228: Asura [2]

’There’s no way this can be real.’

No. If the scene he was seeing in front of his eyes was real, then this vault alone was enough to turn this ruin into a matter of international concern.

’This kind of thing...in this kind of quantity...has it ever been found?’

Quickly, he rushed over to the next vault and tore its door off its hinges, glancing inside to see exactly what he thought was impossible.

’Either this is a trap...’

A Holy Land of ancient Gene Alteration Technology.

’...or I just found something massive.’

Shelves on every wall filled with consumables, research papers stacked up in piles, and traces of the past that were preserved so clearly that one would mistake these centuries-old items to have only existed for some decades.

’This can’t be a thing. Nothing like this was recorded. It was a report that was written off-handedly, but not including something like this is more than just that.’

There were only two possibilities that Gio could even entertain in his mind. Everything else broke his understanding of the world.

’The first possibility is corruption, or something much worse.’

If it was ordinary corruption, then these treasures were split amongst a small group of people and used for their own personal gain.

If it was a level worse, this kind of technology focused on the human genome would land in the hands of monsters.

’And the second possibility is that the worst of those two options already happened.’

This ruin was discovered by an asura. The information was spread by an asura.

Gio’s eyes narrowed. He shattered the glass protecting one of the shelves and withdrew a vial from within.

It was fragile. He felt like the glass would melt in his hand if he moved the fluid within it around too much.

’I keep empty vials for this exact reason.’

He kept all kinds of small medical devices, containers, and other useful items in his Storage Hole so he would always be prepared to collect any material he could possibly need.

Once the liquid within was moved to a safer container, he wrapped Hekat’s energy around it. His eyes turned black, illuminating the moving parts within the fluid.

’I knew it.’

It was too good to be true.

If a deposit of ancient research like this was simply available in a ruin, the government would have done something about it even if they had to enter a direct confrontation with an asura group.

The only way a scene like this could exist was if this was never an ancient ruin to begin with.

’It’s a trap. The whole thing is a trap, and it ended with no witnesses left alive to say anything about it. It was swept under the rug and when this place was investigated, it was found empty of anything that could be called evidence.’

The most investigators could surmise was that rogue Sequencers had fought and killed each other out of greed.

’But that wasn’t the case at all.’

Gio stared at the vial in his hand.

Without a doubt, the liquid within was an ancient serum from a long-lost age.

However, the deep red traces swimming around within it were newly added. Their aura of change was still incredibly strong, suggesting that they had been active before Gio moved the liquid and created more change within.

"Can you separate it?"

Vrrr!

Hekat made a sound, saying that it could do so easily.

Its energy leaked from his hands and sunk into the vial, immediately causing a reaction. A foam started to coagulate and drip out of the liquid, leaving a much less muddy concoction in its place.

Gio held the vial in the air with his energy, allowing the foam to drip down and sizzle on the ground.

His eyes narrowed.

’A poison? But that wouldn’t be useful for anything. It must be some kind of drug.’

When everything came together in Gio’s head, he stopped asking questions. This facility may have belonged to an ancient civilization, but everything inside its main body was put in place by others.

’That means my only chance to find Genesis Crystals is in the maintenance hallways. I’ll have to get back there.’

But first, he had to do something about this chamber.

’If these prototype Gene Fluids are the reason why the Sequencers were driven mad, and if all of this is a plan made by asuras to achieve some sort of purpose, then I can’t leave it alone.’

It had been at most an hour since they entered the ruin. Nobody else would be reaching this chamber any time soon.

’Before anyone gets remotely close...’

He swept his eyes around the room. There were twelve vaults on each side. As he started clearing the first one, he estimated that it would take him between fifteen minutes to empty one if he picked the cabinets up and took them all together instead of moving individual vials.

His energy allowed him to maintain enough stability for his plan to work, and once they were in the Storage Hole, they’d be on a safe, flat, and unmoving plane.

He worked as fast as possible. He didn’t think about benefits or consequences in the moment, but with Hekat’s ability to remove the newly added substance from the original fluid, he was practically stealing a national treasure.

He could find out what the asuras were trying to do by analyzing the contaminated fluids in the lab. Right now, he was clearly aware of two things.

The first was that his current timeline estimated that he’d finish looting the chamber in six hours. He needed to finish in four at the maximum.

And the second was that if he was caught at any point, death would be the most painless option.

Gio moved like the wind. He realized that picking up one case at a time was too slow and started doing two. Using [Virtual Manifestation] individually with each hand, he could take two or full shelves and some research materials per trip into his Storage Hole.

The first and second vaults took fifteen minutes each to clear. The third took fourteen, and the fourth took twelve.

By the time Gio reached the third story of the right wall, he had Hekat helping as well, moving the ground itself to position the items he needed to take in front of the door so he could easily pull them into storage without having to move too much.

The best part about the Guardian Runes was their Guardians. The only reason Hekat didn’t appear as something like a summoned creature and stayed on his neck was because it was weakened.

The fact that the runes had their own sense of consciousness and could exert his will without his direct interference was precisely what made them so unbelievable.

Gio only felt the energy being slowly drained from his body. There was no real exertion on his part, allowing him to continue using virtual energy as if Hekat was doing nothing at all.

A six-hour timeline was shortened to five by the time the first wall was finished. That five-hour timeline was only further shortened by half an hour when he started on the second wall, but it didn’t matter.

When he finished, the entrance to the chamber remained untouched.

’Now...’

He looked around and admired his work. Naturally, he worked with Hekat to "seal" the vaults again. Essentially, he welded the doors back on, albeit poorly. The only thing that mattered was that the vaults looked untouched from the outside.

’The problem is that.’

Gio looked up at the ceiling. He could somewhat patch the hole, but a lot of the rubble turned into powder and dust when it crashed against the ground. He wouldn’t be able to hide his escape route completely.

’So the race is still on,’ he thought as he jumped back into the maintenance hallway and patched the floor to the best of his abilities.

’I still need to look for Genesis Crystals, but I also need to get out before anybody uncovers my tracks.’

He knew he was gambling with his life, but he couldn’t help it.

Now that he was moving again, the realization started to set in.

If he could get out safely, he would be sitting on a goldmine the likes of which he’d never seen before.

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