LIGHTNOVELONLINE If you were to ask Senior Researcher Arthur about Senior Researcher Sophia,
he would probably defend his superior by saying she’s mischievous but ultimately a good person.
In a way, that wouldn’t be entirely wrong.
Since he rarely shows emotions on his face, he often gets misunderstood as being blunt,
but the version of his superior that he knows is fundamentally good at heart.
She does have a peculiar personality, occasionally teasing people or being unable to resist cute things,
but then again, aren’t most of the humans belonging to the Abnormal Phenomena Research Department somewhat insane?
Compared to that, the odd behaviors of hers are negligible minor issues he could easily overlook.
It’s been several years since he joined this place.
Arthur had gotten quite used to his superior by now.
CLACK CLACK CLACK!
Yeah.
Up until yesterday, he thought that was the case.
CLACK CLACK CLACK!
The loud typing noise filled the office.
Whoever it was, they seemed to be hitting the keyboard with excessive vigor.
Or could you even call it ‘using’ it?
If you just focused on the sounds, it sounded like an unruly little rascal was smashing the keyboard randomly.
“…”
When Arthur glanced at his side, there was Sophia, furiously typing away.
Did she even know how to use it properly? Had she realized what she was inputting was being displayed on the monitor? Her typing speed was so fast it made him question.
He thought he had adapted to most of her antics over the time they had spent together,
but it seemed that the longer he worked in this company, the more peculiarities he discovered about her.
“Uh, senior?”
“Yes, Arthur? What is it?”
“I’m not going to tell you to stop typing, but could you at least look this way when we talk?”
“Sorry. I’ve got something super urgent to handle right now. I can hear you, so can we just chat like this?”
Sophia replied to him, her eyes still glued to the monitor, her fingers moving at a relentless pace.
Arthur felt a bit unnerved by that,
but thinking of her recent behavior, he could roughly guess why she was acting this way.
It was undoubtedly because of that anomalous entity.
Well, he didn’t really care about that.
He wasn’t new to witnessing her antics for a day or two, and it wasn’t like he didn’t know her well enough to make a fuss over a new quirky behavior.
However, one thing was bothering him.
The numerous piles of documents on her desk seemed highly suspicious.
The papers themselves were ordinary; they were mostly standard stacks used in the facility.
Sure, sometimes they contained contents that could lead to death just from viewing unauthorized personnel,
but at the end of the day, they were just plain pieces of paper.
However, the content hidden inside those papers was anything but normal.
The specific records that were spread out unmistakably hinted at what she was working on.
“Senior, is that…?”
Arthur tried to confirm his suspicion by asking her, but before he could finish, she answered him.
“Yes, that’s right. I’m requesting release authorization for the 19th entity.”
Just as he feared.
His suspicions turned into certainty thanks to her reaction, leading him to exhale a small sigh that she couldn’t hear.
The reason being, of course, he knew very well what she was attempting to do.
“I don’t think that’s possible.”
“Well, I wouldn’t know. That’s for the higher-ups to stamp.”
“No, even before getting the approval stamp, it’s just odd to even think about releasing an anomalous entity outside.”
Arthur asked her, slightly pressing for details on her statement.
A release permit for an anomalous entity? Was that even a thing?
Of course, the way the documents on her desk laid out, it wasn’t entirely impossible,
but that was an extremely rare case, usually only for subjects that had undergone safety verification for a very long time.
There had been many bizarre phenomena that still caused numerous damages even after such verification,
so thinking about letting out an anomalous entity that had been confined for less than a month seemed pretty reckless.
Especially considering that it originated from a dimension gate that had caused massive casualties, it just amplified his doubt about it.
“Arthur. If you keep on like this, even if the 19th entity could come out, I won’t show it to you.”
“An anomalous entity isn’t a pet, so why would you show it to me?”
“You won’t get to see it?”
“…”
“You won’t get to see it?”
Finally, Sophia turned her head towards him,
glaring at her junior with half-closed eyes.
Even though there was no sign of pressure in her expression, in fact, it felt quite haughty,
the first one to concede was still Arthur.
“…Fine, fine. I’ll drop it since I want to see it.”
“Hmph, of course you should.”
Sophia let out an exaggerated huff and returned her gaze to the monitor.
Of course, her typing speed didn’t decrease in the slightest during the exchange.
Arthur had a lot he wanted to say, but he decided to hold back for now.
Convincing her in her current state would be a tough task anyway,
and he could roughly guess why she was acting this way.
He recalled an incident he had heard from other researchers;
that particular incident might have caused the trauma that made her invest that much affection into the anomalous entity she was in charge of.
Traumas of one or two might be pretty common in this workplace,
but he wasn’t the type who would lack the common sense to bring it up just after an escape incident had occurred.
Besides, even if she requested to bring out that anomalous entity, it was pretty obvious they’d reject her request from the top,
so he thought there was no need to prolong a pointless argument with Sophia and began to shift the topic.
“Alright, what if we talk about something else?”
“Sorry, but if it’s not important, could we save it for later? As I mentioned, I’m a bit busy right now.”
Arthur attempted to extend the conversation, but Sophia blocked him off as if uninterested.
While she continued her focused typing, she managed to carry on the conversation with him,
however, juggling both tasks was definitely draining her concentration.
Unless it was crucial, she didn’t prefer chatting during work,
and she was making a request from her junior to let her focus on what she was doing.
“Just hear me out. It’s a genuinely important story.”
“Is it really that important? If not, you owe me lunch for a week.”
“Lunch? That much, I wouldn’t mind paying.”
Arthur shrugged.
He did intend to share a genuinely important story,
but it wasn’t such that he couldn’t afford to pay for lunch seven times in any event.
“For something expensive.”
Well, that was based on the premise that it was within a reasonable amount.
“…How much?”
“At least in the three-digit range.”
“No way, who spends that much on lunch?!”
“Wouldn’t you stop talking nonsense if I did?”
Annoyed by the pointless interruption during her work, she purposely set an outlandish condition.
However, if he kept talking to her despite that, it’d undoubtedly mean he had something vital to share.
“So, is it that serious of a matter that you’re willing to risk it?”
“…Can I not just insist that I want free lunch after making up a story?”
“Of course not. Why would I want to take advantage of a junior who’s bringing me necessary information?”
“If only you knew how to speak…”
Shamelessly, Arthur muttered under his breath but quickly started revealing the story he had meant to share.
“Anyway, senior. Do you know a guy named Henry?”
“Agent Henry? Well, I’ve seen him around a few times.”
Arthur’s mouth spat out a name.
He wasn’t a stranger, but they weren’t exactly friends either, just someone he recognized by name and face.
When he confirmed that Sophia knew who he was talking about, Arthur skipped the introduction part.
“Right. So, about that Henry… I heard he went missing a few days ago.”
As soon as the word ‘missing’ left his lips, Sophia’s eyebrows dipped down.
In this line of work, the word ‘missing’ had a much more ominous connotation compared to ‘dead’ or ‘deceased.’
“Missing? Is it the work of an opposing group?”
“No, I don’t think so. He was reported missing while he was still in this base.”
Sophia’s fingers, which had been moving with unnerving speed, slowed down.
A case of someone missing within their current base.
That was enough to evoke not just her curiosity, but a fair bit of anxiety as well.
“Well, could he have just wandered into an isolation room by mistake?”
“Come on, even a total klutz wouldn’t accidentally walk into an isolation room, right? Plus, if he tried to enter, he wouldn’t even have the clearance.”
“Fair point,” she nodded in agreement.
She knew very well that all isolation rooms could only be opened with specific clearance.
Especially those isolation rooms containing things that could make someone vanish in an instant.
“So… he vanished without any records? Here in Base 17?”
“No, there are records. His last appearance entering the security room was caught on camera.”
Thank goodness it was caught on camera.
At least they wouldn’t be left trembling in fear, clueless as to why one of their agents disappeared without a trace.
As she sighed in relief, the next words out of his mouth were bound to betray that relief.
“But the problem is, there’s no footage of him actually entering the surveillance room.”
CLACK! The sound of her keyboard came to a complete stop.
An unexpected silence enveloped the room.
Breaking that silence was Sophia’s voice, looking at her junior in disbelief.
“…How could that happen?”
“Beats me; I’m not the one who watched the footage myself but only heard from the security officer.”
Arthur scratched his head awkwardly.
His job was to research abnormal phenomena, not to search for missing persons.
Not to mention, he hadn’t been eavesdropping what the security officer was saying, so he wouldn’t have known otherwise.
“Then, I also heard something else strange.”
“Something strange?”
“Otherwise, it’s that the place he entered on camera looks different from the original security room.”
Sophia frowned.
The individual who went missing and the moment he vanished captured on camera.
A camera that recorded a person going into the security room but didn’t catch anything inside it.
That was an unspeakable absurdity unless the camera malfunctioned.
“And this is even more important.”
Arthur slowly opened his mouth.
If he hadn’t heard about this, he probably wouldn’t have thought about conveying this to her.
However, after hearing something from someone, he could sense that something was off about this entire incident,
and due to the potential significance, he deemed it necessary to share this with her, someone he had decent rapport with.
“At the time the individual went missing, the 1983rd abnormal phenomenon was closed.”
At his mention of a very recognizable number, Sophia’s face paled.
For anyone working at Base 17, that’s an abnormal phenomenon almost no one could be unaware of, and that certainly applied to Sophia too.
“The 1983rd phenomenon…?”
Her face turned to disbelief.
As far as she knew, that particular phenomenon should never be closed, and if Agent Henry had been affected by it…
Then it would surely lead to a terrible and horrifying end for him.
The name of that phenomenon was undoubtedly―――
Abnormal Phenomena Report
1983rd Abnormal Phenomenon
Also known as “Dimension Gate to a Multidimensional Maze”
Danger Level Classification: III (Very Dangerous)
The 1983rd Abnormal Phenomenon is a door made of an unidentified metallic material.
It was recovered from an abandoned factory where ██ instances of disappearance occurred,
but it was reported that no door like 1983 had ever existed in the wall up until the factory’s closure.
The 1983rd Abnormal Phenomenon leads to completely different spaces, regardless of the facility or space it is installed in.
Moreover, each time it is opened or closed, it leads to another location.
Most of the locations that appear defy existing physical laws,
taking on exotic appearances such as endless hallways, amusement parks, swimming pools, fields, gardens, and skyscrapers where the surface is not visible, [REDACTED].
Experimental results have revealed that these locations do not exist on Earth.
While the 1983rd Abnormal Phenomenon remains closed, its properties can move to another door within █████ km.
This phenomenon automatically concludes when the abnormal phenomenon’s door is opened again.
The criteria for selecting a door to grant the qualities of the 1983rd phenomenon are entirely random,
and the only established method to prevent this phenomenon from occurring is to keep the abovementioned phenomenon constantly open.
Exploration Record
[Exploration I]
Exploration Agent: One Small Exploration Robot
Exploration Site: A street lined with American-style mansions from the year 19██
Exploration Details: The interior of the mansion bore similarities to ordinary mansions; however, no food or other necessities for survival could be found.
The landscape merely lasted with the road and the mansions on either side, with nothing else in sight.
The exploration robot attempted to probe until communication jammed, only to see the same scenery repeat endlessly.
The robot lost contact while returning from exploration.
[Exploration II]
Exploration Agents: One Medium Exploration Robot, Two Small Exploration Robots
Exploration Site: Inside an abandoned hotel
Exploration Details: The specified zone appeared very worn down, featuring aging carpets, wallpapers, and furniture, contained by hallways and doors leading to guest rooms.
No paths to the exterior or windows could be found, nor were there any stairs to upper or lower floors.
The structure of the zone was complex, and due to the navigation system faltering frequently during the probe, the exploration was cut short.
[Exploration III]
Exploration Agents: One Medium Amphibious Exploration Robot, Two Small Amphibious Exploration Robots
Exploration Site: Indoor swimming pool
Exploration Details: During the exploration, a creature could be located within the area.
The creature appeared to be a Latin male human who stated that he had entered suddenly into this place while going into a room in his house a while ago.
They attempted to guide the man to where the 1983rd abnormal phenomenon was using the exploration robots, but suddenly, all devices in exploration robot three went dark along with a horrifying scream heard for about two seconds before losing all communication.
After reviewing the recording video, an unknown body part of a creature briefly appeared in the corner of the screen.
[Exploration IV]
Exploration Agents: Special Task Force, Eight members of Uniform-█
Exploration Site: A vast sewer with complex piping
Exploration Details: [REDACTED]
After Exploration IV, the danger rating of the 1983rd Phenomenon increased,
and since then, internal exploration of the phenomenon has been prohibited.