The Author's POV
chapter-258

"Excellent!"

Joyously shouted Joseph as he stared at a small monitor before him. Extending from the monitor were multiple wires that attached themselves towards an individual. Subject 876.

"Who would've thought that patient that I had put the least hopes on would end up being the one that I have the most hope for."

Joseph was truly delighted.

Out of all the promising patients he had, 876 seemed to be the one displaying the most obvious signs of success.

At the moment, subject 876 was going through a virtual simulation. Inside of the virtual simulation, the 876 was put under multiple different trials. The trails although different were all things that would cause any sane man to feel fluctuations in their emotions. From killing civilians to committing terrorist acts, or dying in multiple different ways.

At the moment, both the MRI machine and Holter monitor were currently showing no unusual fluctuations. This meant that subject 876 was currently in the exact state Joseph was trying to achieve.

A state where the user held no emotions.

This was great news for Joseph. Especially since he had been pressed for time recently. With the higher-ups getting impatient, he knew that he needed to get results.

He had finally got something.

—Beeereeeeeep! —Beeereeeeeep!

"...Hu?"

Startling Joseph out of his thoughts was a rhythmical beeping sound coming from the holder monitor.

"What's going on?"

Rushing towards patient 876, Joseph looked at the small Holter monitor. The fluctuations were no longer constant but were now extremely erratic.

—Beeereeeeeeeeeep! —Beeereeeeeeeeeep!

With each passing second, the fluctuations became more and more erratic.

"Stop the simulation!"

Joseph turned around and shouted.

"Yes!"

Heeding his command, his assistant arrived before patient 876 and pressed on the side of the headset he was wearing. Slowly the helmet turned off.

—Beeereeeeeeeeeeeeeeep! —Beeereeeeeeeep! ! —Beeeeeeep! —Beeeeep!

Upon turning off the headset, the beeping sounds coming from the Holter monitor calmed down.

"Damn" Joseph cursed slightly. "How long was he inside of the simulation for?"

"Reporting. About 13 minutes and 45 seconds."

The assistant promptly replied.

"13 minutes and 45 seconds..." Joseph murmured to himself.

After a while, he eventually shrugged his shoulders.

"Oh, well. 876 has only been here for a week. This result is understandable."

Even though 876 had only lasted for a little bit, Joseph wasn't disheartened. Given that 876 had only been with him for about a week and was already showing signs of being the one most compatible with the serum, Joseph knew that it was best not to rush things.

"Haaa...haaa..."

Staring at 876 who was breathing heavily on the table, Joseph rubbed his chin slightly as he pondered to himself, 'Hmm...I guess it wouldn't hurt to invest a little more in him.'

If he could nurture 876 properly, who'd care about the little money he'd lose off of investing in him.

Heck, by then he would be so rich in funds that he would only consider such a minuscule amount of money as spare change.

Convincing himself that this was the right choice, Joseph looked at his assistant.

"You."

"Yes!"

The attendant's back straightened. Pointing at 876 who was laying on the table, Joseph fatly said.

"Speed up his treatment."

"S-speed up his treatment?"

The assistant replied in a flustered manner. For the treatment to be sped-up, without using potions, it would be with modern technology.

However.

It was extremely expensive. The news of the office getting their budget cut in a few months had already reached his ears.

Simply put, it was a waster of money.

"Sir in my opinion that is a bit too ha—"

"Shut up, and do as you're told," Cutting him off, Joseph shouted in annoyance. "Treat him well, he's going to be one that's going to save our project!"

876 was his hope. Nothing could happen to him.

"Ah, don't forget to give him his shots. We can't be forgetting his shots..."

***

After taking the shots and taking a couple of more tests, the guard that was in charge of me escorted me towards somewhere I had never been before.

Clank—!

"Tsk, I don't know what you did but don't think you're getting rid of me."

Arriving in front of a room and opening the door, I was thrown inside of the room. Mentally exhausted, I fell face-first on the floor and stayed there.

My mind was too exhausted to properly formulate any thoughts.

"I'll be back in six hours for your meal."

Throwing me a look of disgust, the guard turned around and smashed the door behind him.

Clank—!

Silence enveloped the room. This continued for thirty minutes before I finally decided to stand up. My mind had sobered up enough for me to think properly.

"Hm?"

Once I stood up, blinking a couple of times, I realized that I was in a different room from before. To my surprise, it was much bigger and more luxurious than my previous room.

Although it wasn't anything fancy, it had a lot more things than my previous room. A wardrobe, a desk, a bed, toilet, and a most surprising of them all, a bathtub.

Yes.

A bathtub.

Though surprised, I quickly lost interest. With the current state of my body, a bathtub wasn't something I could use.

'Thank god I didn't hide my bracelet.'

Recalling the fact that I never hid my bracelet and just swallowed it, I sighed in relief.

'Fortunately, I was cautious.'

Had I not done this, my bracelet would've been lost.

"huuu..."

Sitting on the bed, I exhaled.

'Sucess!'

Shouting inside of my mind, I clenched my fists tightly.

'I have successfully gotten Joseph's attention'

By using Monarch's indifference to erase my emotions, I reproduced something that closely resembled one of the soldiers that Joseph was aiming for.

One that wouldn't react regardless of the situation presented before them.

Inside of the Virtual machine, the only reason I was able to do those horrifying acts was because of Monarch's indifference. If not for it, I would've never been able to do them.

Another thing. During the virtual simulation, thirteen minutes in, the effects of monarch indifference ran out.

I had done this on purpose.

Since I couldn't cut off Monarch's indifference whenever I wanted, doing some calculations beforehand, I purposely consumed some of my mana before meeting the professor.

I didn't want Joseph to think that I could last long in that emotionless state.

I had done this so that in the future, as the tests progressed he would see noticeable improvements in the time I could stay in that emotionless state. As long as I showed signs of 'improvements' he would invest more in me.

This was my aim.

The more important I was, the greater my treatment would be. This was a necessary step I needed to take for my future.

Only when I was fully healed could I escape.

***

Since then, another week passed.

Ziiiiii—! Ziiiii—!

Two mechanical arms hovered above 876's head. Strapped on a metal table, a red laser scanned his body from top to bottom.

He was unable to move at all.

Even then, he showed no signs of struggling. Dully staring at the ceiling, the laser beam continuously moved up and down. Shockingly, although slow, 876's injuries were showing signs of healing. Slowly but surely, his burnt skins showed signs of improving.

"How are the results?"

"Everything seems to be alright, professor. He may be able to recover within a month's time."

"A month's time, huh?" Joseph scratched his nose. "Any way we can speed up his recovery?"

"Ehmm, not unless we use a potion...and well, we can't really use those, so I unfortunately we can't."

Although technology had advanced to levels where they could pretty much treat most injuries, they weren't perfect. Unlike potions that could treat patients almost instantaneously, treatments like this took much more time.

"Alright, have you given him the serum yet?"

Somewhat accepting the circumstances, Joseph switched the topic.

"Yes."

"How many grams?"

"We've upped the those from 2mg to 10mg as you've suggested."

"Oh? Let's test its effects."

Click—! Click—!

Walking up to 876 and removing the restraints off of him, Joseph helped him up.

"Alright."

Seizing him up, Joseph nodded his head in satisfaction.

He then looked at him straight into the eyes. Noticing the indifference oozing off of him, Joseph smiled.

"From now on, you're name will be 876. You're my first successful subject, and your purpose from now on is to faithfully serve the Monolith and me. You are to never betray us nor have any other thoughts. From today onwards, you are the Monolith's faithful dog. Is that clear?"

Joseph grinned from ear to ear.

"Now tell me, who are you?"

"..."

"Who are you?" he repeated.

Not getting a response the first time, Joseph wasn't disheartened. It was only the second week of testing after all. Still, a little part of him hoped for 876 to answer him.

"..."

After a couple of minutes had passed and still not getting an answer, Joseph shook his head.

"Well, I guess we can try nex—"

"...876."

Joseph abruptly stopped speaking. Snapping his head right, towards 876, he raised his voice.

"Repeat that! Repeat to me your identity."

"....My...name...is...876"

Once again opening his mouth, 876 stuttered. The reply was slow, but, even then, the meaning of his words was easy to understand.

He had acknowledged himself to be 876.

"Hahaha, perfect!" Joseph burst into a fit of maniacal laughter "It worked! My experiment worked!"

He had finally gotten one step closer to creating his first super-soldier.

"This is great! With 876, I now don't have to worry about the funding! Ah, 876 come with me! I need to present you to the higher-ups."

Walking back and forth, Joseph bit his nails. Quickly redirecting his attention back to 876 and staring at his body, he stopped himself before shaking his head.

"No, I can't rush things yet. He's still not ready."

Joseph forcefully tried to suppress his emotions.

He was too high on success. Since he had been given three months, he might as well make full use of that time and develop 876 even more.

Added with the fact that they wanted to question him, it was best to thoroughly brain-wash him before going to the higher-ups. With their tempers, he wouldn't know what they'd do.

Thus, he turned towards his assistant whose name he still did not know.

"You."

"Professor?"

"What about the other subjects? How are they doing? Is there anyone else that is promising"

"Other subjects...hmm, let me check"

Taking out a tablet, the assistant scrolled through some files. Not before long, he answered.

"Hmmm...Out of the 1743 subjects we are testing, only 47 show a similar reaction to 876. Although not as prominent, they are the best next thing after him. From the data that we have analyz—"

"47? That little?" Joseph cut in the middle. "That's only like a 3% success rate."

This number was a lot lower than he had expected. not even 2.7% of his subjects managed to succeed. This just showed how difficult the project was.

It was no wonder why the higher-ups were getting impatient. At the rate he was going, they'd never see results. At least not within a short period of time.

"Yes." Used to being cut off, the assistant patiently explained. "A lot of the subjects either turned insane or died. The only ones that we could count on are these 47 subjects. Even then, they are only showing similar signs as 876. We can't guarantee that they will turn out like him."

"I see..." Joseph muttered.

Though the numbers were low, he had somewhat expected this. Especially since all humans were different. Not all could withstand the potency of the serum.

'...fortunately, I have 876 with me'

Recalling the successes he had with 876, Joseph calmed down a bit.

Using him as a reference, he should be able to create even more soldiers.

The more soldiers he created, the greater the impression he would leave on the higher-ups. This of course also meant a greater budget for future endeavors.

"Hehehe."

Thinking thus far, Joseph once again laughed. Things were starting to brighten up for him.