Chapter 101: Subject 46
The shadow beneath the door didn't move.
Neither did Kai.
Silence.
A suffocating silence.
Kai slowly backed away from the entrance.
The office wasn't large.
One desk.
Several shelves filled with rotting folders.
A toppled cabinet.
No windows.
No second exit.
"...Great."
He whispered.
"I'm trapped."
Squelch.
The shadow beneath the door shifted.
Something heavy pressed against the other side.
The rusted doorknob slowly turned.
Kai instinctively grabbed the nearest object.
A broken metal pipe.
"...Please don't come in..."
The door creaked open.
Just a little.
A thick yellow substance squeezed through the gap.
Not flowing.
Stretching.
Like it was forcing itself through a hole far too small.
Kai stared in disbelief.
"...It can do that?"
The slime slowly reformed inside the room.
Its body expanded.
Broken glass.
Metal scraps.
Old bones.
Everything suspended inside the translucent mass floated lazily.
Then...
It stopped.
The slime quivered.
Kai held his breath.
"...Maybe it can't see..."
The slime suddenly lunged.
"Oh, COME ON!"
Kai threw the metal pipe.
It disappeared into the creature with barely a splash.
The slime continued forward.
Kai shoved the cabinet.
It crashed over.
The slime simply flowed around it.
He ran.
The creature blocked the doorway.
He turned.
Desk.
Nothing.
Shelves.
Nothing.
Only one option remained.
Kai climbed onto the desk as the slime surged forward.
Its body swallowed the chair.
Then the desk.
Kai jumped.
His foot landed on a shelf.
The ancient wood immediately snapped.
"...No—"
The shelf collapsed beneath him.
Kai fell directly into the slime.
The world became yellow.
His entire body felt unbelievably heavy.
He tried swimming.
His arms barely moved.
Like trying to move through wet cement.
He opened his mouth.
Immediately regretted it.
The slime flooded in.
He couldn't breathe.
His skin burned.
"...Acid..."
His vision blurred.
His body slowly sank deeper.
The glowing office faded.
The yellow darkness swallowed everything.
...
...
...
Then—
The burning disappeared.
Kai opened his eyes.
He wasn't inside the slime anymore.
He was...
Watching.
A village.
Not from above.
Not nearby.
From someone's own eyes.
"This..."
Kai looked around.
"...Another memory?"
His body moved.
Without his permission.
He couldn't control anything.
Only watch.
The person walked through a burning village.
Smoke filled the sky.
People screamed.
Someone shouted.
"Run!"
The memory skipped.
Darkness.
A laboratory.
Bright lights.
People wearing long coats.
Someone lying on a table.
Magic circles.
Machines.
Needles.
The memory skipped again.
Training.
A young man repeatedly punched a wooden post.
Again.
Again.
Again.
His fists bled.
He refused to stop.
Another skip.
Running.
Someone behind him shouted.
"Don't stop!"
Then—
Blood.
A body.
Someone had fallen.
Kai couldn't see their face.
Only a hand reaching toward the sky.
Everything went black.
...
Kai frowned.
"...Whose..."
Then he looked down.
He couldn't see a human body anymore.
Instead...
A translucent yellow surface.
His surroundings distorted.
"...Wait."
"...I'm..."
He looked around.
Everything appeared through a gelatinous body.
"I'm the slime?"
The realization shocked him.
These weren't simply someone's memories.
They were the slime's memories.
Before he could process that—
The scene changed again.
The slime rested beside someone.
A woman.
Her clothes were torn.
Her body motionless.
The slime slowly nudged her hand.
Again.
Nothing.
Again.
Still nothing.
Kai felt...
Sadness.
Not his own.
The slime's.
It remained beside her.
Waiting.
Days passed.
Nothing changed.
The memory slowly faded.
"..."
Everything became white.
An endless empty space.
No floor.
No sky.
Only white.
Kai looked around.
A person stood there.
Completely ordinary.
Neither old nor young.
Neither tall nor short.
Their face...
Blurred.
"...Hello?"
The figure smiled.
Instead of answering—
They walked forward.
Kai found he couldn't move.
Not because he was restrained.
His body simply refused.
The figure stopped in front of him.
Raised one hand.
Then gently placed two fingers against the center of Kai's chest.
Right above his heart.
A faint warmth spread through his body.
Kai wanted to ask a question.
The figure was already disappearing.
The white world collapsed.
...
...
...
Kai violently coughed.
Air rushed into his lungs.
He rolled across the dusty floor.
"...!"
"...Ha..."
"...Ha..."
He stared upward.
The office ceiling.
The glowing lights.
Reality.
He was back.
The slime...
Was gone.
Not dead.
Gone.
Only a puddle of clear liquid remained on the floor.
Kai slowly stood.
"...What..."
He looked around.
Nothing.
No giant slime.
No movement.
No sound.
Only silence.
"...Was that real?"
He looked toward the desk.
The Subject 46 folder still lay open.
As if waiting.
Kai slowly picked it up.
The next page.
One he hadn't reached earlier.
Contained only a single line.
Subject No. 46
Proceeding with Mana Circuit Integration.
Kai frowned.
"...Mana circuits?"
He searched the remaining pages.
Nothing.
Missing.
Torn away.
He searched nearby shelves.
More folders.
Empty.
Destroyed.
Incomplete.
Whoever removed the records had been thorough.
The answers he wanted weren't here anymore.
Only fragments.
Just like his memories.
Kai quietly closed the folder.
"...Guess that's all I'm getting."
He looked one last time around the forgotten office.
The laboratory felt...
Lonely.
Like everyone had simply vanished one day.
Leaving only paperwork behind.
He slowly climbed the stairs.
The faint humming grew quieter with every step.
Eventually—
Sunlight greeted him.
Fresh air.
Birds.
The sounds of the forest returned.
Kai stepped outside.
The massive laboratory stood silently behind him.
Overgrown.
Forgotten.
As if nature itself wished to erase its existence.
Kai looked back one last time.
"...Whatever happened here..."
"...I don't think anyone was meant to find it."
He turned.
And continued walking deeper into the forest.
Unaware that something had changed.
Deep within his body...
Tiny streams of mana naturally drifted toward him.
So slowly...
So faintly...
That even Kai himself didn't notice.
Far away.
On the other side of the forest.
Andre stood at the edge of a cliff.
He closed his eyes.
Took a deep breath.
Then frowned.
"..."
"...Nothing."
He sniffed the air again.
Still nothing.
"No scent."
Andre looked toward the endless forest.
"...That's impossible."
For as long as he'd known Kai...
He could always find him.
Even through cities.
Rain.
Battlefields.
Now...
It was as if Kai had simply disappeared from the world.
Andre clicked his tongue.
"...You're making this difficult."
Then, without another word—
Climbed down.
And walked into the Forest.