Even though they had finished their battles at the same time, Izayoi had spent the better part of the day just undergoing examinations. His injuries were severe, but he was still basically up and about, with enough energy to chat and joke with them.
The Typhon avatar, however, had been in emergency care from the very beginning, and six hours later, the procedure still wasn't over.
The Salvation Group knew the Typhon avatar's condition was likely bad, but not even Izayoi had expected it to be this severe.
Without the BDA, that opponent could have easily crushed the Salvation Group with one hand tied behind his back.
How could such a terrifyingly strong individual be so fragile that he could drop dead at any moment?
"Was I too rough with him…?"
The thought instinctively crossed Izayoi's mind.
The opponent had held back, yet he had inflicted such grievous harm. Wasn't that his fault?
But before he could finish, Saigō Homura shook his head.
"It has nothing to do with you, Izayoi. The injuries you caused were all physical. Even if you pulverized the Typhon avatar's entire arm and shoulder, we can fully heal that with cloning and cultivation technology. It's not a problem."
"The real issue inside his body is the various irrational genetic engineering experiments. They've caused irreversible contamination and damage to his very genes, to the point that his internal organs and immune system are all experiencing violent rejection reactions."
"To use an analogy, his organs no longer belong to his own body. Instead, they're fighting and consuming one another, causing his internal hormonal conditions to spiral completely out of control… If it weren't for his powerful will to live, which has kept him secreting adrenaline and endorphins, he never would have lasted this long!"
As he spoke, Saigō Homura clenched his fists so tightly that the veins on his slender arms bulged.
"Even if you're going to conduct human experiments, under current protocols, there are a hundred ways to protect the test subject's safety as much as possible."
"Even setting aside moral and ethical factors, and considering only the output, other methods of care could have been used to reduce the side effects."
"Cost wasn't even an issue! Many of these care methods are incredibly cheap, with almost no cost at all. Even if it was just for the sake of their experimental results, they shouldn't have abused a test subject like this…"
"But why?! Why didn't these bastards implement even the most basic protective measures? Why wouldn't they even use basic antibiotics, when the cost of the drugs they misused would have been enough to pay for a hundred rounds of basic medical care?!"
As a researcher, the more Saigō Homura spoke, the more furious he became.
It wasn't that he didn't understand that people who would abandon morality for money existed in this world, nor could he not comprehend that some would ignore ethical limits for the sake of scientific progress.
What he couldn't understand were the reckless, nonsensical research methods he discovered in the Typhon avatar's medical report.
Even if you have no humanity and treat a person like a common lab mouse, you should at least try to make the best use of your resources and not be wasteful, right?
Even with lab mice, researchers adhered to that basic requirement.
But with the Typhon avatar, he saw not a single shred of humanity, nor even the rationality of maximizing profit.
The messy, half-abandoned experiments and the lingering side effects from the lack of post-operative care proved that the researchers at the facility hadn't just failed to treat him as a precious specimen—they had treated him like a worthless rag or a piece of trash.
It was less like research and more like torture and murder, done purely to vent their emotions.
Saigō Homura couldn't understand how such stupid, vicious, and cruel researchers could exist in the world.
What was the purpose of your human experiments?
Faced with Saigō Homura's confusion and rage, the others fell silent for a moment. Then, Izayoi spoke with perfect calm.
"It was a cost issue, wasn't it?"
"What?"
Saigō Homura didn't understand and asked for clarification.
"When you have a small number of test subjects, you make the best use of them to save on the cost of acquiring them," Izayoi explained in a cool voice.
"But if the resource pool of human experiment victims is vast, and you can discard one and get another at any time, the cost of an individual test subject drops to its lowest point. The researchers naturally wouldn't cherish them. It's even possible they were used as practice dummies for novices."
At his words, the expressions on everyone's faces grew even darker.
"Those animals!" Saigō Homura cursed aloud.
To view human test subjects as cheaper than lab mice… so many victims had been living in a hell like this all along.
He suddenly understood the full depth of the hatred harbored by the Typhon avatar.
After experiencing such a hell, it would be far too difficult to hold any goodwill toward the world.
After a period of silence, Kudō Asuka spoke up at the right moment.
"It's a good thing those experimental facilities have been completely cleaned out. Otherwise, who knows how many more hells like that would exist in the world."
"Yeah." Izayoi nodded.
"If we'd known, we should have acted years ago… But this isn't the time for that. The human experimentation facilities are basically dealt with. Now we have to solve the Typhon problem. He's our second trial, isn't he?"
Kudō Asuka nodded, then glanced behind her.
"Black Rabbit isn't here… Does that mean the Typhon matter isn't fully resolved?"
When the Bull of Heaven incident ended, Black Rabbit had appeared to formally notify them.
"Most likely not," Izayoi said, stroking his chin.
"Putting aside the fact that I didn't achieve a complete victory in our battle, the main content of our trial is to overcome the coming apocalypse. Just fighting is meaningless if we don't grasp the key point."
"The Bull of Heaven incident represented the willfulness of the powerful. That is, a crisis where a ruler, having obtained power centered on the Third Stellar Particle, nearly caused a world-ending disaster with their overwhelming might."
"This Typhon avatar incident, then, must represent a victim of human experimentation who, after mastering the power of the Third Stellar Particle, goes on a rampage, despairs of human society, and seeks to destroy the world."
The power of the Third Stellar Particle was so terrifying that whoever mastered it first gained an overwhelming advantage over the rest of the world.
Even if others had the ability to research the same results, the one who mastered it first could use military force to interrupt their progress and conquer the entire world.
The Bull of Heaven incident was a crisis sparked by a ruler mastering the Third Stellar Particle.
The Typhon avatar incident is a crisis sparked by a victim mastering the Third Stellar Particle.
All things considered, the Typhon avatar would be harder to deal with.
Because, compared to the powerful who prefer to wield safe, established power, it is the victims of human experimentation who, in the crucial matter of timing, are closer to the greatest violence in history.
Therefore, the crisis of the Typhon avatar has a greater impact than that of the Bull of Heaven.
"So how do we pass this crisis?" Kasukabe Yō asked, puzzled.
"We can't just kill the victim, can we?"
The willfulness of a ruler can be solved by getting rid of the ruler, but a victim's anger cannot be erased with violence.
While there was the approach of eliminating the problem at its source, using it now felt like a dark joke.
Even disregarding morals and ethics, given the scale of the human experiments, they couldn't possibly kill all the victims, could they?
"Of course not!" Kudō Asuka immediately shook her head.
"Don't forget, while the victims we rescued have been settled for now, they're still in an unstable state. The slightest risk could trigger them."
"They trust their fellow victims more than they trust us. If we can't earn their trust and they go on a rampage, the scale of that would also be enough to destroy the world."
Don't think that the Typhon avatar was just this one individual, and that killing him would solve everything.
If the destructive factor he symbolized was the anger of the victims, then even if they killed this avatar, another victim would simply become the new Typhon.
Ultimately, as long as the victims' anger was not erased, given their numbers and the Third Stellar Particle power they held, they could unleash a world-ending cataclysm at any moment.
No one could guarantee that among the victims who had sacrificed so much, one wouldn't erupt with destructive power.
And it was obvious that the members of the Salvation Group were fundamentally incapable of being ruthless with these victims.
"Though we can't just go along with everything he wants, in case he really does want to destroy the world… I get the feeling he doesn't actually bear much hatred for other people. Even if he talks about destroying the world, he probably couldn't bring himself to do it."
Recalling the Typhon avatar's previous actions, Kudō Asuka proposed an idea.
"Instead of making wild guesses, why don't we wait for him to wake up and ask him what he wants?"
"If there's a way to appease his anger without destroying the world, whether it's bringing the culprits to justice or something else, we can help."