Chapter 186: Game
Aria blinked twice before looking at him with complete confusion. "...What?" She stared at Asher for a few seconds, trying to understand what he had just said. "What kind of reason is that?" she asked. "Shouldn’t you be unhappy about not being at the Master Rank?"
Asher simply smiled and shook his head. "Normally? Probably." He took another bite of his breakfast before casually adding, "But today... I’m very grateful that I’m still not there."
Aria looked at Asher for a few moments before deciding not to ask anything further. Knowing him, it was probably just another one of his strange reasons to be happy, and she had long since given up trying to understand every thought that went through his mind.
Instead, she quietly observed him and instinctively checked his emotions.
There was happiness.
Not the faint, restrained happiness he usually carried, but something much clearer and more genuine.
Her expression became slightly puzzled.
Over the past few days, Asher’s emotions had become noticeably easier for her to perceive. It was as if something that had been suppressing them had weakened, allowing his feelings to become far more vivid than before.
Asher smiled faintly before saying, "Well, there’s one more reason. Today is the day the final completed version of the model your family and the Silvermere family have been working on is being delivered. It’s also the delivery day for the latest model here at the Academy."
Aria nodded at first, but then her eyebrows suddenly rose.
"Wait..." she said, looking at him in surprise. "Is the delivery just for you... or for the Academy as well?"
Asher shrugged.
"I don’t know." He took another bite of his breakfast before continuing, "The brother of the guy who caused trouble at the restaurant messaged me earlier. He said the delivery would arrive today, and that the latest model would officially launch across the entire continent at midnight."
Aria looked at Asher with a speechless expression before asking, "You already forgot his name?"
Asher frowned slightly and genuinely thought about it for a few moments.
After a brief silence, he nodded.
"Well..." he said with a helpless smile, "I guess I really did forget his name."
Aria sighed before saying, "His name was Cedric. Though, I don’t think you’ll ever meet him again, so I guess there’s no real reason for you to remember it."
Asher simply nodded.
"Fair enough."
After finishing their breakfast, the two left the cafeteria together. When they reached the main pathway, they went in different directions.
Aria headed toward her classroom to attend the morning lectures.
As for Asher...
He had no intention of going anywhere in particular.
With his hands in his pockets, he casually walked toward one of the Academy’s parks, planning to spend some time wandering around the grounds while thinking about something.
Meanwhile, inside the Church facility, Lucifer, one of Asher’s vessels, arrived at Dr. Samuel’s office. After meeting with Dr. Samuel and Klein, the three of them headed toward the special ward where Rooms 1 through 8 were located. They walked through the quiet corridor before stopping in front of Room No. 4.
As Dr. Samuel opened the door, the three entered the room.
Inside, the female Empath demon was standing exactly where she had been before, motionless like a puppet. Her expression was completely blank, and her lifeless eyes stared silently ahead without the slightest trace of emotion or resistance.
Without wasting any time, the Dr Samuel immediately resumed his work on the parasite. The female Empath demon remained standing in place, silently following every instruction given by Dr. Samuel without the slightest delay, just as she always had. Whenever he ordered her to move, stop, or perform a specific action, she obeyed instantly, showing no hesitation or resistance.
Hours passed one after another as they continued refining the parasite, making every adjustment they could think of and carefully recording the results of each experiment. Before any of them except Asher realized it, evening had already arrived.
None of them had even gone for lunch.
Dr. Samuel didn’t seem to care in the slightest. Once he immersed himself in an experiment, everything else ceased to exist. Food, rest, and even the passage of time became meaningless to him. To a scientist like him, there was probably nothing more important than his weird experiment before his eyes.
Asher, on the other hand, definitely cared about lunch.
Unfortunately,He couldn’t exactly stop the experiment just because he was hungry.
So he simply endured it in silence, following every instruction Dr. Samuel gave without complaint.
Finally, after confirming that there was little more they could improve for the moment, Dr. Samuel slowly put down the notes in his hand.
A smile gradually appeared on his face.
"It’s time."
The room fell silent.The next stage of the experiment was about to begin.It was finally time to test the parasite... on human subjects.
Just as they had done in every previous experiment, a human test subject was brought out from one of the storage chambers that seemed to exist behind almost every room in the facility. The subject was then administered a sedative, ensuring he wouldn’t struggle during the procedure. Along with it, another drug was given to suppress deception, making it far more likely that every answer he gave during the experiment would be truthful.
Once the preparations were complete, Dr. Samuel implanted the parasite into the subject’s body. After confirming that it had successfully established a connection, they proceeded to the next phase of the experiment. Through the female Empath demon, who was linked to the parasite, they began attempting to generate and amplify different emotions within the subject while carefully observing every reaction.
To Dr Samuel satisfaction...it worked perfectly.
The subject’s emotions began changing almost immediately, becoming noticeably stronger under the influence of the parasite. Every shift matched the commands transmitted through the Empath demon with remarkable precision, causing Dr. Samuel’s eyes to light up with excitement as he rapidly recorded the results.