“At least we tried…” Noah considerately patted Levi on the shoulder, “How about I come over to soothe you before bed tonight?” Seeing the hopeful gleam in the other’s eyes, Noah proudly added, “That’s right! My soothing is back to 100%! I am as good as new!”
Levi’s tightly pressed lips relaxed into a smile, sweeping away the grumpiness in favor of blissful expectation. ‘See that? Baby sending himself to my door! Hmph! I’m dying to see how you’ll prevent your son from sleeping in my bed tonight, father-in-law!’
Cordia daddy, ‘…Challenge accepted!’ (≖_≖)
And thus, the two soon-to-be-newlyweds had their breakfast in a merry mood and then, together with their bodyguard entourage, made their way to the peacekeeper station.
***
Fynn had dark circles comparable to a panda, a clear testament to how little sleep he had gotten last night. However, unlike most sleep-deprived people, he was in an excellent mood. They had picked up Druxa’s S-ranked Fluxer for questioning last night, and the man was, as one would expect, very flexible. When faced with potential charges of terrorism, he was very cooperative and told them everything he knew.
Druxa, as most pharmaceutical companies, had always been interested in the creation of a drug that could be used to restore consumed mental power – a so-called “mana potion”. And sometime last year, they came up with a new idea worth exploring. The idea was to see whether Fluxers, which had the ability to change the state of matter from vapor to liquid to solid and vice versa, could do the same with mental power.
After numerous trials and errors, they did manage to come up with some results. Firstly, they found out that Fluxers could indeed solidify their own mental power, but only S-ranked Fluxers could do it. Secondly, the solidified power could successfully be reabsorbed back by its owner as long as it came into direct contact with its owner. In other words, they had indeed succeeded in producing a substance that could restore mental power!
So, then… if they had succeeded in producing a “mana potion”, how come Druxa wasn’t world-famous by now and rolling in mountains of cash?
It was because they ran into two serious issues.
The first issue was that no matter how the S-ranked Fluxer of Druxa tried, he could not condense the mental power of others. Mental power originated from its owner and only recognized the will of its owner. Thus, even if its owner was willing, it instinctively resisted any attempts of influencing it via external means.
This proved to be a significant roadblock to commercializing their mana potion. Only S-ranked Fluxers could produce it with great difficulty, and yet instead of using all of their mental power to condense mana potions, they needed to reserve the majority of it to BE the mana potion.
Instead of producing dozens of vials, they could only make a single vial of potion each day!
However, one mana potion per day was still better than none. As long as they could hire more S-ranked Fluxers they could naturally produce more, and due to its limited availability, they could sell it for exorbitant prices.
However, the second issue that they ran into, threw that plan into chaos.
In the very first drug trial, what they thought to be a wonderous mana potion proved to actually be a vicious poison.
The Fluxer could safely reabsorb his own condensed mental power. But the same did not apply to other people.
As it turned out, when two different mental powers come into direct contact, a violent rejection is evoked. If someone other than the original owner of the mental power was injected with it, the milder effects caused include the person’s power going out of control and them suffering mental damage leading to coma, while the heavier effects were a straight-out mental collapse leading to immediate death.
Alright, lesson learned! 👍 Do not inject foreign mental power into others, right? (☞゚∀゚)☞
Right! As if!! How would they stop this promising project just like that after a single hurdle?!
No, no, no! Their dreams of a mana potion might not come to fruition, but this catastrophic very informative drug trial actually opened up two new possibilities!
First – if using this as a mana potion wasn’t viable, why not explore its potential as a biological weapon? Surely there would be a market for this.
And second – the power rampage caused by the drug trial led them to remember a very special existence in the world of power users – Soothers.
Soothers were the only power users whose power was inherently capable of affecting the mental power of others. And in order to do that, their own mental power had to play nice with others. Due to this property, perhaps the mental power of Soothers wouldn’t resist the solidification process?
And indeed. It didn’t.
Not only did Druxa succeed in solidifying the mental power of a Soother, but they even found out that this solidified substance could be safely injected into anyone, providing the consumer with soothing effects!
Their initial goal was to produce a mana potion, but instead, they managed to produce soothing that could be sold in vials!
This could change everything, improve the daily lives of so many people! Instead of being forced to hire a severely limited number of Soothers, which could only be at a single place at a time, you could just buy a vial of their soothing for immediate consumption whenever and wherever needed!
Who didn’t sometimes have trouble sleeping or concentrating? Who didn’t sometimes get overly emotional? Who didn’t sometimes have headaches, toothaches, or feel sore? Who never felt dispirited or tired?
This solidified soothing had the potential to be the new aspirin – something everyone needed to have at home, just in case.
So, what research direction should they pursue? On the one side, they had a potion that could turn people berserk, and on the other, they had a potion that could soothe them.
The choice was obvious.
As a result, the second research direction was temporarily put on hold, and instead, they concentrated on exploring the drug’s potential usage as a bio-weapon.
Duh! They had just this one S-ranked Fluxer; how many “calming potions” could they produce? And who would buy them at such exorbitant prices when just hiring a Soother was much cheaper?!
No, the bio-weapon line of research had much more money-making potential!
Thus, Druxa’s S-ranked Fluxer was ordered to produce more of those black bullets of despair, and that’s what he did – made them and knew not to ask any questions about where they were going.
When asked about the two communicators with unknown numbers that had access to that lab, the Fluxer wasn’t of much help either. He could only tell them the names of all the people he knew that had anything to do with the project, which included various Druxa personnel, from other researchers to his direct superior, which happened to be the next in line heir of Druxa, the CEO’s son Asan.
Fynn didn’t get any terrorist-related info from the man, but he did bite into the topic of those drug trials. Not only did he manage to extract incriminating information about hushed-up illegal drug trials and their unpleasant consequences, but he also managed to use the Fluxer’s credentials to access the encrypted data on the computers they had managed to confiscate from the lab, securing enough evidence for a proper trial. Everyone involved would be held accountable, and Druxa would be paying heavy penalties.
There were a lot of records on those computers, and Fynn’s people were still going through them. There was nothing terrorist-related yet, but they did manage to find records of the bullets that were made. Counting the mental power bullets used in the terrorist attacks and the bullets found in the small freezer that they had confiscated, there were three bullets unaccounted for.
“No wonder Asan’s mother was so uncooperative,” Noah rubbed his chin deep in thought, sitting comfortably in his exclusive, premium-quality Levi-seat. “Even if she can avoid being implicated personally, those illegal drug trials will still be causing her a massive headache for quite a while. Also…” Noah’s amber eyes squinted, much like a cat enjoying a petting, which was exactly what his fluffy head was currently receiving from his human chair, “She must have entrusted this project to her son, and now that things went south, she is protecting him in her own way.” Pleased by how well-behaved his human was today, kitty Noah rewarded the other by leaning back into his warm and comfortable chest. “Even if one of them is clean, the other certainly can’t be. Someone with high enough authority had to grant those unknown communicators access to the lab, and the only two who could have done that were the two of them. What else can she do but remain tight-lipped and threaten us with l
The “well-behaved” and “obedient” husband, Astar Levi, noticed his darling’s worry, thus he immediately jumped to console him. His hand flew to gently rub his baby’s waist, and his voice softened, “It could also be that Asan is avoiding the peacekeepers because he has something to hide. He might be holed up somewhere right now, perfectly fine.” The light touch left Noah feeling ticklish. His cheeks flushed pink, and he quickly covered the naughty hand with his to prevent it from further movement. The sight of all this made Fynn’s teeth ache, hence, he abruptly interrupted the lovey-dovey scene with “Aris, how about you two go back home, and we talk about the rest through a video call?” Baby Noah didn’t have mind-reading powers, thus, he turned to Fynn to blankly stare with his head tilted to the side, “…why???” Seeing a confused ginger kitty with wide amber eyes, Fynn almost blurted out, ‘Why??? Because even if I close my eyes, your sugary intents
Fynn nodded with a triumphant smile, “And that’s exactly why they have been just hoarding bullets instead of using them this entire time! They were putting off the full execution of their plans until Swiftrain sent you to the other side!” Noah, “…” ‘I appreciate your enthusiasm, and I don’t want to rain on your parade, but… As a bro that came from the other side, I can confirm that their plan was 100% effective…’ 〒▽〒 Blackie, “Too bad it didn’t occur to them that sending goes both ways, ah! If they can send people to the other side, the other side can send people over right back!” (☞゚∀゚)☞ Noah, “…” (◞‸ლ) ‘I appreciate your attempts of lifting the mood, but that just sounds really creepy… like… rise-of-the-undead level of creepy…’ Fynn’s declaration still echoed in the room, yet Noah remained silent, his expression unreadable. There was nothing wrong with Fynn feeling a sense of achievement and victory due to this big breakthr
Noah had a thin face and hugging in public was embarrassing enough; he really couldn’t handle anything more! And on top of it all, with every minute that passed, the harder it became for him to distinguish the act from reality. He didn’t like this, he didn’t like it at all! Even if it was all an act, his feelings weren’t an act! Everything happening felt real to him, so once the act was over, how would he be able to just pretend like nothing had happened?! Being kissed so gently like this, only a block of wood wouldn’t feel their heartstrings quivering! Levi, whose eyes never left his baby’s face, noticed Noah’s momentary flash of regret and, like a seasoned general, seized this opening to strike. Looking very remorseful, he dropped another gentle kiss on Noah’s supple cheek, “I’m sorry, baby, don’t be angry. Next time I kiss, I’ll make sure others can’t see.” Noah’s eyes widened, and he attempted to turn his head away to avoid further kisses, “Still acting?
Noah just couldn’t enter into this mental state of make-believe. Regardless of the intention behind it, it was still a hug! How could he view it as something other than what it was? But this inability to pretend was his own psychological issue… He shouldn’t make Levi suffer due to it. The right thing to do would be to grit his teeth and pull through these remaining couple of days. Noah let out a long and heavy sigh, but his arms that had been crossed defensively in front of him loosened. He skittishly eyed Levi’s torso, thinking about how to best go about returning the hug. ‘Noah, you can do it!’ He encouraged himself, ‘How come you didn’t feel shy hugging Levi a few days earlier? Why are you suddenly making such a big deal out of it?’ Before he could even finish that thought, Noah answered his own question, ‘How could it be the same?! A few days earlier, I was hugging my good and straight brother-in-law! And now I’m hugging my own not-e
“And?” Noah tilted his brown head. “Since it’s still in development, we don’t have a large database of people to compare it against just yet…” Noah’s nose wrinkled, “So nothing?” “On the contrary,” Fynn’s mouth curled up, “Since we didn’t have a database, I pulled up some footage of the last city council meeting for testing purposes. Who would have thought we’d actually manage to get a match.” Fynn’s smile disappeared, replaced by a frown, “Too bad that the technology is still experimental, and its results aren’t yet considered reliable enough to be used in court.” Noah leaned forward towards the light screen, his little butt nearly slipping off the sofa, “Heh, for testing purposes, you say? Weren’t you trying to check whether this person is councilor Desmond?” Fynn’s frown was once again replaced by a guilty-as-charged look, and he scratched his head sheepishly, “He is one of the shareholders of Druxa, and the main advocate for the monitoring
“… The owner of the other unknown number is not on our footage.” Fynn scratched his head helplessly, “But as you can see, the only way into the lab is through this hallway, and the only way into the hallway is through these doors that are under surveillance. Thus, everyone entering the hallway should be captured on camera. And yet, here we are…” Fynn sighed before continuing, “At first, we thought that the footage had been tampered with, but there are no missing periods of time nor any other signs it had been messed with. Besides for the Ghost, the times reported by the footage and the access logs match up for everyone else.” Fynn shook his head, “Under the assumption that it wasn’t an issue with the footage, we went back and turned the entire place upside down again. But we still did not manage to find another way into the lab. We even considered the possibility of this person being invisible, but there was no footage of the doors opening by themselves. And
“Exactly!” Noah kept nodding his fluffy head encouragingly, “You said that none of the people you questioned had anything to do with terrorists, right? However, you only questioned those that were on the list of people allowed entry into our lab, correct?” The weariness on Fynn’s face was replaced with agitation, “The Ghost is among the people that we didn’t question! He is one of the personnel from the other 4 labs!” Then he slumped back into his chair, “Ah! We worked through the entire night and barely managed to finish questioning all these people, yet now we have to track down and question more than 4 times the amount of others who had access to the other labs!” Noah felt that being a law enforcement officer was very pitiful, thus he mercifully extended a helping hand, “You might not need to do that. We can use the access logs to narrow down the potential suspects. Anyone who, according to the footage, entered the corridor that day AFTER Ghost’s entry was recorde