I created a foundation

When the feeling of weightlessness finally disappeared and the vehicle started moving smoothly again, Saeko was lifted out of the car by two investigators.

She still kept her eyes tightly closed, but the completely different cold and clean air, full of a sense of futuristic technology, and the subtle humming sounds of countless precision instruments operating around her, all told her—

She has come to a new, unknown and unfathomable world.

"The target has been delivered, requesting instructions." An investigator's voice sounded.

"Follow the procedure and send it to the seventh laboratory in area D-3 for preliminary testing and sample collection." Kasumigaoka Utaha's cold voice sounded without a trace of emotion.

As she was being carried through the white corridors filled with metallic texture that looked like a space base, Saeko finally couldn't help it and quietly opened her eyelids to an almost imperceptible, tiny gap.

Then she saw it.

She saw a divinely magnificent scene that made her sword heart, which was as hard as steel, tremble wildly.

This...is not a secret base at all!

This is an extremely huge underground city built deep in the earth's crust, hollowed out from the entire mountain!

The dome, so high it seemed as if its top was invisible, was covered with a massive panel that perfectly simulated the light and shadows of the sky. Countless fully enclosed aerial corridors and high-speed transport tracks crisscrossed like a spider web, connecting to the vast, sci-fi-inspired buildings of various shapes in the distance.

On the ground, countless people wearing uniforms of different colors are hurrying around and working in an orderly manner at their respective posts.

The white ones were researchers. The black ones were combatants like the ones who had captured him... The gray ones were engineers responsible for logistics and maintenance.

Everything is in good order, full of professionalism and efficiency, like an extremely sophisticated war machine running at high speed.

And in the deepest part of the entire base, what made Saeko feel most uneasy were the hundreds of huge black containment chambers that stood quietly like giant mountains.

On each containment chamber, a red or yellow signal light flashes, indicating "danger", and is marked with meaningless numbers such as [SCP-003] and [SCP-004] in cold fonts.

Although she didn't know what was imprisoned inside, Saeko could clearly feel that from those containment chambers, there was a constant emanation of an ominous aura that was more terrifying, more evil, and more despairing than any monster she had encountered before.

At this moment, she finally understood everything.

I didn't fall into the hands of some secret organization at all.

Instead, he accidentally broke into a place... a prison for gods, located beneath the human world, specially built for the purpose of "imprisoning gods and demons"!

Her brain, which was originally frantically calculating how to fight back, completely gave up all unrealistic fantasies at this moment.

In front of such an unfathomable steel fortress filled with overwhelming power and order, any individual resistance seems so... ridiculous and powerless.

She was led all the way to the door of a huge laboratory with a sign that read "Laboratory No. 7."

Kasumigaoka Utaha and others handed her and her "Muramasa" sealed in a box to the researchers who came to receive her.

The person in charge of reception was a petite girl who looked about the same age as them, wearing a somewhat sloppy white coat and looked like she might fall asleep at any moment.

Yawning, she took the tablet with a listless look on her face and said weakly, "Thank you for your hard work, everyone in the field department. Now, let me see what interesting guinea pigs we've caught this time..."

However, when her eyes fell on the preliminary energy reading report about Saeko and "Muramasa" generated by the tactical terminal.

Her originally sleepy eyes suddenly burst into an incomparably bright light, like Columbus who discovered the New World, full of fanaticism and excitement!

"Oh--! Ohhhh! What is this?! What kind of perfect energy reaction is this!"

She let out an ambiguous exclamation filled with ecstasy, and her whole body instantly switched from "energy-saving mode" to "high-performance mode". She snatched the tablet and rushed to Saeko who was tied to the mobile restraint bed.

"This highly symbiotic and synchronized reaction between the human soul energy and the anomalous core of matter! This perfect cycle of human and sword becoming one! It's simply... it's simply a living, most perfect 3.3 work of art!"

The newly appointed genius researcher of the foundation, named Oyama Miharu, looked at Saeko with eyes that were like a glutton who had been hungry for three days and three nights and saw a top-notch, delicious and fragrant Manchu-Han banquet.

She immediately turned around and submitted her research application to Kasumigaoka Utaha who was about to leave, in an irresistible and extremely excited tone.

"Captain! I want this specimen! In the name of the head of the Seventh Research Laboratory, I request a comprehensive, top-level physical examination of this perfect specimen of human and sword!"

"Inspection items include, but are not limited to: analysis of cell activity and energy conduction efficiency, determination and extraction of special gene sequences, and recording of the resonance frequency between souls and objects..."

She licked her chapped lips, her eyes flashing with the undisguised fanaticism of a "mad scientist", and she mentioned the last examination item that made Saeko, who was in a "coma", freeze all over.

"...and, in order to explore the inner workings of its energy cycle, it is necessary to perform a vivisection of its neural connections without anesthesia."

Kasumigaoka Utaha looked at the application report she submitted, then glanced at the kendo girl who was tied to the bed but still exuded an indomitable spirit, and frowned slightly.

Although this request may sound cruel, it is indeed the standard procedure that best serves the Foundation's interests when dealing with a humanoid anomaly of unknown danger level and great research value.

She picked up the electronic signature pen and was about to sign her name on the "Agree" option.

Chapter 0048: Stop cutting, send her to my room! It's not a demon sword, it's your soul

Just as the cold tip of the electronic signature pen in Kasumigaoka Utaha's hand was about to touch the virtual button representing "Agree" on the data tablet.

The black tactical communicator on her wrist, which looked like an ordinary sports watch, suddenly made a slight vibration that only she could hear.

Immediately afterwards, Lin Qing's voice, which was emotionless and sounded like a divine command, echoed clearly in her mind directly through bone conduction technology.

"Stop checking."

"Send that kendo girl and her sword to my private villa where I am now."

Kasumigaoka Utaha, who was about to fall, suddenly froze.

She glanced at the crazy researcher Oyama Minari in front of her, whose eyes were shining and almost drooling because she was about to get the perfect "experimental material", and then glanced at Busujima Saeko, who was tied to the restraint bed. Although she had her eyes closed, she still exuded an aura of indomitable spirit.

Without the slightest hesitation, she immediately put away the electronic pen and spoke coldly to the expectant Oyama Miharu in the unquestionable tone of a commander on the scene.

"Change of plan. Chairman, I've become interested in this specimen. Hand it over to me immediately."

"Huh?! Why?" Oyama Miharu protested. "What does the president want with a living specimen? This kind of symbiotic relationship between man and knife can only blossom into its most beautiful flower on my operating table!"

"This is an order." Kasumigaoka Utaha didn't explain too much to her. She just used three words to completely block all of Oyama Minari's complaints.

……

Busujima Saeko felt like she was having a bizarre dream.

First, she was taken away from the laboratory, which was filled with the smell of disinfectant and as cold as a morgue. Then, she was sent to a maglev train that traveled at high speed through an underground tunnel, with an interior full of science fiction.

Finally, when she was lifted out of the car again and stepped onto solid ground, a fresh night breeze with the fragrance of grass and soil brushed her cheeks.

She was taken to a huge villa on the top of a mountain, as luxurious as a European royal palace.

The villa's living room was as large as a small banquet hall. Outside the huge floor-to-ceiling windows that stretched from ceiling to floor, one could see the magnificent night view of Tokyo, as bright as a starry sky and stretching as far as the eye could see.

And in the center of the living room, the mysterious young man, called "President" by Kasumigaoka Utaha and others, was kneeling quietly in front of a set of quaint tea sets, brewing tea with an elegant posture.

He changed out of his ordinary school uniform and put on a set of exquisite, comfortable-looking home clothes.

It was very quiet in the room.

There is only the crisp sound of the tea sets colliding, and the refreshing tea fragrance that rises when hot water pours into the tea leaves.

Saeko was untied, and the Muramasa, which had been sealed in a box, was placed next to her. But she did not act rashly.

She just stood there quietly, using her purple eyes, as deep as an ancient pond, to vigilantly and carefully observe the man in front of her, who was out of tune with the luxurious surroundings, yet strangely and incomparably harmonious.

She could not sense any murderous intent or malice from him.

He gave her the feeling of a bottomless, peaceful universe. You could see it, but you could never see through it.

Finally, the tea is ready.

Lin Qing placed a cup of clear and fragrant tea on a tray on the coffee table in front of Saeko and motioned her to sit down.

Then, he finally raised his head and looked directly at the kendo girl who had been absolutely alert since she entered the door, like a female leopard about to attack.

He spoke.

His first words contained no tentativeness or pleasantries.

He simply said something in a calm tone, as if stating an objective fact, which made Busujima Saeko's "sword heart" which had long been sharpened to be as hard as iron go crazy and tremble violently.

"You're afraid of yourself."

boom--!

Saeko's pupils shrank suddenly. Her hand holding the scabbard clenched tightly due to excessive shock.

Lin Qing ignored her eyes which had suddenly become extremely sharp and continued speaking to himself.

"What you fear is never the knife in your hand. What you fear is the evil spirit lurking in the deepest part of your soul, the one that craves battle, enjoys killing, and revels in destruction."

"You practice rigorously day after day, trying to suppress it and confine it with the Dao of the sword. But the more you suppress it, the stronger it becomes. The more pain you suffer, the more excited it becomes."

"So, you live a more tiring and conflicted life than anyone else. This is because you can't find a reason that would allow you to wield your sword with dignity."

Every word he said was like an invisible, extremely sharp scalpel, precisely and mercilessly cutting open the deepest, darkest, bloody wound in Saeko's heart, the one that even she dared not face.

At this moment, all her disguises and strength became completely shattered and exposed.

This man...

How... could he... know?

Saeko's breathing became rapid, and her body trembled slightly due to the violent fluctuations in her emotions.

"Your nature is neither a disease nor a sin." Lin Qing looked into her purple eyes, which were filled with shock, pain, and confusion, and said slowly, "It's not you who's wrong. It's that you're not using this power in the right place."

He stood up, walked to the huge floor-to-ceiling window, stood with his hands behind his back, and looked down at the mortal world below that was as bright as a sea of ​​stars.

"Do you see?" His voice became distant and profound. "Beneath this seemingly peaceful and prosperous light, countless true evils are hidden. They feed on human fear and take pleasure in spreading disaster. They are the natural enemy of all of us ordinary people who live in the light."

He slowly turned around, and at that moment, his deep eyes seemed brighter and more dazzling than the entire Tokyo night view outside the window.

His blazing gaze penetrated the barriers of space and looked directly into the depths of Busujima Saeko's soul.

"I'll give you a chance."

"I'll give you a legitimate reason to completely liberate the evil spirit in your heart."

"I will allow you to kill with dignity and dignity in order to protect."

"I will allow you to wield the blade in your hand freely against the true evil."

He extended to her an invitation from God, full of devilish temptations.

"Bukujima Saeko, tell me..."

"Are you eager?"

Are you eager?

She gripped the knife tightly, her breathing quickening due to the violent fluctuations of her emotions. Within those beautiful purple eyes, there flickered struggle, fear, and a flicker of a flame called "desire" that had been suppressed for so long and now finally found an outlet.