The Author's POV
chapter-256

Opening a large metal door, was a tall and muscular guard. Wearing a gray uniform, the guard stood beside me.

"Test-subject 876, this is where you will be staying."

Grabbing me by the shoulder, the guard shoved me into a small 20x20 room.

"...khh"

Falling face-first on the ground, a dull sound escaped from my lips. My mind was a mess at the moment. I could barely formulate any thoughts.

After every couple of thoughts, I'd forget everything that I was thinking about.

Multiple different illusions flashed before my eyes. No matter how many times I blinked, or closed my eyes, the illusions would never stop. It was never-ending.

This was what the serum did.

It fed the brain with different kinds of illusions and vision, and in the process, it would slowly damage the neurons of the brain.

"You will receive food twice a day alongside your shot. In a week's time, if you're not dead, the professor will call you up."

The guard's cold voice echoed across the room.

Pui!

"...why the fuck do I have to deal with this shit."

Glaring at me, the guard suddenly spat on the ground. Turning around, he smashed the door behind him.

—Clank!

"..."

Once he left, silence enveloped the room.

"haaa..haaa"

Mustering every last bit of strength in my body, moving forward, I leaned against a wall. Just that much movement caused me to be at a loss for breath.

Turning my head slightly, I looked at the room I was in.

Though the room was small, it had a small bed by the side, coupled with a sink and bathroom. A large metal door stood in the middle of the room, and at the bottom was a small compartment where I presumed the food would be pushed in.

Looking around, I knew that there was no way out for me. Fortunately, there didn't seem to be a camera monitoring me.

Perhaps it was because I wasn't particularly important, but this worked in my favor. At least for now.

"Khhh..."

A groan suddenly escaped from my lips.

With the effects of the pain killers waring out, every part of my body started to ache. The pain wasn't unbearable though, so it wasn't the worst. Although most of my mana was sealed, not all of it was sealed.

The reasoning behind this was my injuries.

Unless mana circulated inside of my body, my injuries wouldn't heal as quickly. And given that they wanted for me to heal, they decided to only seal my mana up to rank.

This was enough.

Mustering every last bit of mana inside of my body, I muttered.

"M-monarch's...indifference."

***

Tok To—

"876, it's time for your meal."

A voice suddenly called out.

"..."

Unfortunately, the voice was met with no response.

—Clank!

"Fucking answer me when I'm talking to you."

The door flung open, and the same guard from before entered the room.

Staring at patient '876', the guard raised his brow.

"...so you've already gone insane?", The guard muttered.

Only six hours had passed since he had last seen him, and test subject '876' seemed to have already given up on life.

Leaning against the side of the wall, 876 was dully looking at the ceiling. Even after putting a tray filled with food in front of him, he seemed to be completely unresponsive.

"Let's get this over with."

Taking out a long long syringe, the guard shook his head. Bending down, the guard tightly grabbed 876 by the arm, completely not caring about the fact that it was burnt.

"...hm, no reaction? I guess the effects of the serum are pretty strong."

Uncapping the syringe, the guard pricked 876 in the shoulder and injected him with the serum.

—Squeeq.

"Khh..."

A light groan escaped from 876's mouth.

"Alright, we're done with the injection. Eat up your food."

Finished injecting 876, the guard stood up. Lowering his head, and looking at the tray of food on the floor, the guard once again bent down and grabbed the food with his hands.

"Eat up."

Grabbing 876 by the cheeks, he forcefully shoved food down his mouth. Even then, as he shoved food down his throat, 876 showed no reaction.

"Fucking eat!"

Annoyed by 876's reactions, or to be more precise, lack of reactions, the guard kicked the food tray away. The food spilled everywhere.

Blamp—!

"When I tell you to eat the food, eat the food!"

The guard suddenly threatened.

"By the time I come back, you better have finished all of the food, or else..."

Crack. Crack. Crack. Cracking his fingers, the guard sadistically smiled.

"Ho, ho, if not, we're going to be having a lot of fun."

The guard laughed out loud.

Being a low-level guard, the guard had a lot of pent-up stress built up. Seeing how responsive 876 was, he thought of using him as a way to relieve himself of the stress he had built up.

Since he was one of the many patients, he doubted they would care if anything happened to him. Furthermore, looking at the state he was in, he was sure that no one would notice if he suddenly go injured.

"hur,hur, what fund days."

Buzz.

Disrupting the guard out of his thoughts was a small buzzing sound coming from his wrist. Turning his wrist slightly, the guard cursed.

"Ah, shit. Guess it's time for me to leave."

Taking one last look at 876, he stepped on some of the food and made his way out of the room.

"I'll see you in a bit 876."

—Clank!

Smiling in satisfaction, the guard turned around and left the room. Once the door closed, silence enveloped the room.

In the midst of the silence, slowly lifting his head, 876, coldly looked at the metal door opposite to him.

***

"I'm hungry."

Having taken care of subject 876, the guard, who went by the name Mark, rubbed his stomach.

"...it's a little bit early, but since I'm done, I might as well go eat.

Licking his teeth, Mark turned his wrist slightly, Looking at the time, 18:50, he decided to head to the canteen to eat. After turning a couple of corridors, Mark arrived at the canteen. Because it was still early, the canteen was still quite empty.

"One fried chicken with some rice please"

Walking up towards the counter, Mark ordered something quick. Within a couple of minutes, a hot dish was presented before him. Taking the tray, Mark turned around and looked around the canteen. He was looking for anyone he knew. Soon his eyes lit up.

"Alvaro."

He called out.

Suddenly being called, a rather skinny man wearing the same uniform as Mark, turned around. Spotting Mark, he quickly swallowed his food and waved slightly.

"Hm, Oh, Mark!" Putting his fork down, he smiled. "haven't seen you in a while, how are ya doing?"

"...eh, I'm alright."

Putting his tray on the table, Mark sat down.

As he sat down, he let out a long exhausted sigh.

"Something up?"

"...no, it's just that I have been put on babysitting watch."

Mixing the rice with the chicken, Mark let out another depressed sigh. He was exhausted.

"Babysitting watch?"

"Yeah, you know that crazy professor?"

Alvaro's brows knit. After a bit of thought, he carefully said.

"Crazy professor?...you mean Joseph?"

Mark nodded his head.

"Yeah, him. I now have to take care of a couple of his subjects."

"Ah."

At Mark's words, Alavaro had a look of understanding.

Within the Monolith, everyone knew just how tough working under Joseph was. Especially taking care of his crazy patients. They were all insane, and difficult to deal with. What made it even harder for the guards was the fact that they couldn't use too much force on them. They were precious subjects after all.

A trace of pity flashed Alavaro's eyes as he looked at Mark.

"...must be tough."

"Tell me about it. Most of them are completely insane. If not for the fact that I'm getting forced to do this, I'd never take this crappy job." Mark suddenly recalled something, "....oh, right! I got a new patient today."

"New patient? Looking at how happy you are, the patient must be a good one?"

"...hm, out of all the patients I got, he's probably the best."

Mark responded after a bit of thought.

"The best?"

Alvaro tilted his head.

"Yeah, his whole body is burned and he can't even talk. hahaha, he's the easiest one to take care of."

All he had to do was give him food and a shot. That easy. Unlike the other patients where he had to restrain, 876 was different.f He was very docile. It was understandable though, given how weak subject he was, it'd be hard for him to struggle.

"For him to be this weak..." Alvaro wondered, "how badly burned is he?"

"Oh, you'd be surprised. The first time I saw him, I was shocked. Half of his body is pretty much burned to a crisp. It's crazy. I don't even know how he's still alive."

Describing subject 876's features, Mark couldn't help but shiver slightly.

The extent of his injuries was very severe. It was no wonder that by the time he saw him, 876 had pretty much already turned insane. If he was put through the same thing as 876, he too would've gone insane.

"...why don't they just heal him? I mean, if they give him a simple potion, he'd be healed in no time."

Listening to Mark's descriptions, Alvaro's brows knit.

Since he was treated as a test subject, it would only be natural for them to be in optimal condition. If they were completely injured, they'd be useless.

In response to Alvaro's point, Mark waved his spoon slightly.

"Tut. tut. tut. No can do. According to the instructions, we're not allowed to give him nor any other patients any potions."

"Why? Wouldn't his injuries heal faster? I mean, even low leveled ones would help speed up the process."

"No, that's strictly forbidden. According to what I've heard, if a patient that was undergoing treatment takes a potion, the effects of the serum they are injected with would be negated."

"Negated?"

"Yeah." Taking a spoonful of his rice, Mark took a few bites before continuing. "A-mhmg-lthough I don't kn-mhmg-ow much, according to the professor, only once the brain is damaged to the point of no repair can we give them potions. If not, everything would not work."

"Ah, I don't really get it, but sure..."

Nodding his head, Alvaro scratched the side of his neck. No longer interested in the topic, he decided to tell Mark about the latest gossip he had heard recently.

"Oh by the way, have you heard about the..."

***

"Ha...Cough!...cough!"

One hour after the guard left, opening my eyes, I coughed up blood. The blood spilled all over the ground and food that had now become cold.

"D-damn it."

Staring at the blood on the ground, I weakly cursed.

Although I had used Monarch's indifference to suppress the effects of the serum, it wasn't enough.

Monarch indifference, from what've I've tested after taking the first serum, could only slow down the effects of the serum. It wasn't a solution.

It could not heal my damaged neurons. Only something like a potion could do that. Furthermore, because of my low mana capacity, I could use Monarch's indifference for at most an hour and a half.

Thankfully, since I had only taken two serums so far, my brain was still not badly affected. However, if given time, I would without a doubt slowly lose all sense of reason.

Therefore.

Whilst my brain was still not fully damaged, I had to come up with a proper plan to escape this place.

"Huuuu..."

Taking a deep breath, and trying to suppress the pain that was engulfing my body, I started thinking of my circumstances.

'Alright, so far I'm stuck inside of the Monolith and I'm currently being treated as a test subject for their project.'

This I understood as soon as I learned of Joseph's name. Since he was a major character, I knew about him and his project.

'Another good is that I'm currently disfigured. They don't know who I am. That is good."

Had they known who I was, there was a high chance I'd be suffering even more. The Keiki style was that tempting.

In a way, getting burnt to a crisp was advantageous for me.

'Though not clear, I do remember them saying that my injuries would heal within three months...therefore, during that time I need to find a way to hide my identity.'

Realistically speaking, escaping within three months was almost impossible. At least not in my current state. Furthermore, I had no clue about the layout of the place.

...fortunately, I wasn't completely helpless.

Closing my eyes, I grabbed the food that was on the ground and stuffed my mouth. Even though it had now turned into mush and was covered in blood, I forcefully ate the food. This was a must.

If I wanted to escape this place, eating the food was something I had to do.

"Gkhhhh"

A groan escaped from my mouth. Saliva spilled on the floor.

Despite my stomach's attempts at throwing the food back out, I persisted and continuously ate the food.

'Two more days.'

"...hafjhfh...jfh"

I muttered whilst taking another bite of the food. Unfortunately for me, I still couldn't speak properly. Thus, only weird noises came out of my mouth. Even so, I persistently shoved food down the throat.

"At most two more days till I can turn this around."