Asahi went down beneath the surface.
Compared to a simple basement from the start, the subterranean area had become a massive complex that extended even beyond the Area's surface boundary. Only Asahi himself knew just how vast and structurally complete it was.
After descending nearly fifty meters, the elevator opened, and Asahi stepped out. He walked through long, dark, and cold hallways, past the holding pens for Gastrea awaiting experimentation, and through the areas where research staff were concentrated. However, most of them secretly glanced at Asahi with a deep-seated, extreme terror in their eyes.
Most of these people were spies inserted by other organizations to gather information. Asahi didn't mind using them; he simply severed and isolated all research projects, dividing them among small groups. He then further isolated these small groups, completely separating them from the outside world.
By doing this, they couldn't take his secrets outside.
However, he didn't let these research staff know about this, because if they lost all hope of living, they might very well commit suicide. Who would do his work then?
Conversely, he not only let those inside know, but also those outside. This gave them the illusion that they held something valuable to put on the scale, preventing them from having a fragmented/incomplete understanding of what he was doing.
The Master AI he established had built a network covering the entire Area long ago. Any information entering or leaving this area had to pass through the network. With the scientific and technical level having severely regressed after the Gastrea War, detecting this network was difficult, and cracking it was a delusion.
However, Asahi didn't prevent this information flow to avoid alerting them, except that... these pieces of information had been altered by him.
In research, a single mistaken number can cause failure, let alone modifying a large volume of data. It was astonishing if those outside could dig up anything useful from it.
They only received research and reports that "looked completely correct" but were actually utterly incorrect.
Even now, both sides still thought they were diligently contributing to the other.
However, he altered all the information transmitted outward.
Except for one thing.
That was the analysis of his personality.
Knowing that force could no longer affect the Silver King, those people eventually had to resort to other means.
Similar to the method of training an elephant.
From a young age, an elephant is shackled with iron chains, locked in a fixed spot for a long time. Some will resist and struggle, but over time, being unable to escape, the young elephant loses all hope. Even when it grows up, a mere thin rope tied to it will prevent it from moving, even though its strength is several tons. Because for the elephant, this is the "normal" state.
Compared to the subjugation of the physical body, the subjugation of thought and perception is far more terrifying.
This was also how "humanity controls the Cursed Children." Allowing a child with enough strength to tear an adult apart to be beaten to death by fists and rocks without daring to resist.
However, none of this worked against the Silver King.
If the Cursed Child was the elephant, the Silver King was a meteorite, a world-ending calamity level of disaster. If the thing restraining the Cursed Children was an iron chain, the thing restraining the Silver King was merely a thin thread. More desperately, that thread wasn't even in their hands, and they didn't dare touch it for fear of breaking it.
They were full of anticipation waiting for the analysis results, but the results confused everyone.
It didn't resemble a normal personality at all, but rather a blend of countless gods and demons mixed and stirred together.
It wasn't personality fragmentation because the behavior was extremely consistent, yet each personality trait was overly exaggerated, whereas a normal or "normal" abnormal person usually only had one type.
It was neither psychopathy nor multiple personality disorder. The more they tried to analyze it, the more lost and confused they became, challenging even the top psychological experts.
They fundamentally could not imagine: Was this personality innate to the Silver King? And if not, what exactly did he go through?
In the end, they were forced to give up.
Therefore, the world chose silence, as a final method of self-preservation.
Asahi walked into the deepest area, where rhomboid-shaped cocoons floated in the air. Inside the cocoons were children in hibernation, with all cellular transport having stopped.
"Very soon..."
He murmured. Over the past time, research had progressed. The Gastrea virus absorption device had nearly reached its main goal. However, Asahi still wouldn't use it to save the children because it had one huge flaw.
If he used this on a person infected with the Gastrea virus, that person could be saved. Because that person's gene structure was originally complete, the Gastrea virus was merely a foreign substance that was eliminated; it fundamentally caused no harm.
But the Cursed Children were different.
From birth, the Cursed Children carried the Gastrea virus, or more accurately, the Gastrea virus was a part of the Cursed Children's genes—it was an inherent part of their nature. Otherwise, the Gastrea virus wouldn't have enhanced them so comprehensively, and the children wouldn't be able to use the power so conveniently.
So, what if the Gastrea virus absorption device was used on the children?
At first, everything would be fine. Everyone would be joyful, they would be happy. But over time, when the remaining genes could no longer hold up, the genes would gradually collapse, dragging the body down with them. This would result in deaths so painful they were difficult to describe.
That was when the skin "peeled" off the body, the muscles "melted" off the skeleton, and the lungs were so destroyed that every breath was like a knife cutting into the heart. It was like death by radiation.
That was why Asahi told Sumire that he had only succeeded halfway. Because this thing had only succeeded in becoming a lethal weapon for killing, not yet a therapeutic tool for healing.
That was also the reason why he decided to make this trip.
But before he went, he still needed to complete one task.