CHAPTER 115 - FALLEN GARDEN
[Initializing Neuron Link, Standby…]
When I opened my eyes, I realized that I was no longer on the dark highway. I'm in a pure white place. Nothingness. Numbers and cybernetic circuits are crawling in the white walls. Another message popped up in front of my face.
[Neuron Link Complete]
[Subject: Raynevere Treenity]
[Accessing Core Memories]
The pure white nothingness submerged into something similar to a simulation. The white walls transformed into a glass that gives a view of the towering buildings of Saltside City. I was immediately surrounded by hologram plants. Butterflies are flying around, and I can hear the birds chirping from the artificial trees around me.
I just realized that I am at the center of an artificial garden inside a glass dome, or at least, the simulation of it. I remember this artificial garden back when I was a kid. It was part of the Treenity Innovation rooftops for about five years ago until the corporation demolished this garden and transformed it into a helicopter landing pad. This garden no longer exists in reality.
"Grandpa! Grandpa!" I heard a familiar feminine voice.
When I looked behind, I saw a cute teenage girl with flowing long black hair and purple eyes. It was Raynevere Treenity, but I am not quite sure if it is Rayne. She was about to bump me but then she passed through my body, firming my conclusion that everything right in front of me is just a simulation.
I looked where Raynevere had gone, and then I saw the founder of Treenity Innovations: Gawainus Treenity himself. He is standing tall at seven meters, his white hair and beard giving off an elderly yet superior aura. He is wearing a white tuxedo, and he is supporting his standing posture with a cane.
"Rayne. What's the matter?" Gawainus Treenity asked.
"I finally did it! Our Cyberdemon samples on human trials have succeeded! We can create Cyberdemons that can be controlled! I'm so happy, Grandpa!" Raynevere's purple eyes twinkled and she gave an innocent smile.
"Good work, Rayne." Gawainus Treenity struck his granddaughter's head. "Continue with human experimentations."
"Yes, Grandpa!" Raynevere replied jollily.
I was taken aback upon witnessing such dialogue. It was already given that the Raynevere in front of me is the messed-up one. And the Gawainus Treenity in front of her is the real deal. Why is that old man consenting to these screwed-up activities?
"By the way, Rayne. I have more toys for you to enjoy." Gawainus Treenity said as he snapped his fingers.
The simulation immediately reset back to pure white nothingness, but this time, there are pixelated glitched bugging out. Nonetheless, it was also transformed into another simulated surroundings: much more sinister than before.
I find myself inside a lab, each wall filled with gigantic test tubes big enough to be filled by a single person. I remember this place, the Archive Room. As Himeno has said back then, the Archive Room was the main base of operations for all of Raynevere Treenity's crazy human experiments.
And she did not lie.
"Help! Help me! Help!"
"Aaah! Let me go! Let me go!"
"Mmmmph! Mmmmmph!"
Several screams of poor people can be heard at the experimentation site. When I turned around, I saw people trapped in glass tubes. And in front of those trapped individuals is Raynevere Treenity herself.
"So, you are the new toys my Grandpa sent to me, huh?" Raynevere smirked. "I love it! Don't you love it too, my dear test subjects? You are living in the streets like trash, homeless, devoid of any purpose in life! Don't you feel honored to be caught by Treenity Innovations' grand ambition to advance humanity further?"
Raynevere pushed a button from her tablet, and the test tubes started filling up with liquid mystical nanomachines. Without any breathing apparatus, the poor people started drowning until most- if not all of them lay dead.
"Ahahahaha! This is the best! You shall now be reborn as Cyberdemons under my command once you wake up!" Raynevere danced around and proclaimed her evil plan.
The simulated surroundings started to bug out. The experimentation room shifted back to the garden inside the glass dome, but this time, the garden is filled with flames. There are corpses of corporation employees all around, and blood oozed in every dent in the broken glass walls, in the burning trees, and on the floor.
I almost puked out at this sight, but I managed to hold on. This is not the second time I've seen a massacre, and it's sad to say that I can get used to it.
"Ah. Ah. Aaaaah!"
I heard Raynevere's voice writhing in pain. I turned around once again, only to see Raynevere sitting on the ground, hugging her knees. Her white dress is filled with blood, and she's covering half part of her face.
"Ahahaha! This is fun! This is fun! The Cyberdemon experiment is a success! It may have gone haywire for the first few minutes, but I managed to control them using the Numbered Kaiser's Code!"
Raynevere removed her hand from her face, revealing the freshly burnt mark that destroyed half of her beauty.
"This is a success!"