-Test Subjects
It was dazzling to look at.
Dozens of apple trees were laden with golden apples.
The golden apples sparkled so brightly that they lit up their surroundings.
“Are these real Golden Apples, or are they Golden Apple products developed by Vanaheim?”
I stepped closer to a tree and peered intently at a golden apple as I asked. I had never seen a real Golden Apple before, so I had no way of telling the difference.
“They are, of course, Golden Apples developed by Vanaheim.”
“When you said product, I thought you meant pills or potions. I didn’t expect them to look exactly like Golden Apples too.”
At that, Kim Seonho chuckled and answered.
“Beautiful, aren’t they? The prototypes used in clinical trials didn’t need to be beautiful, so they were potions made only with the necessary components. But when we launch them, we plan to release them in two forms. A potion product, and a Golden Apple perfect even in appearance, like this. Naturally, the prices will differ, as will the content and efficacy. People have different levels of wealth, don’t they? But even those who aren’t rich should be given the freedom to dream of eternal life.”
Was it because of the light of the Golden Apples? Kim Seonho’s eyes were glittering. To me, it looked as though the madness within him was giving off light.
Kim Seonho seemed thoroughly insane.
‘He intends to spread it far and wide.’
I understood that Kim Seonho was a madman, but I was curious as to what direction his madness leaned.
Did he truly dream of eternal life for all? Did he want to become a hero? Or had he, like Samir, become a demon out of a desire to become a god?
Kim Seonho was an entrepreneur, but it did not seem that he was doing this simply to make money.
In any case, whatever desire had seized him, to me, his madness felt white.
‘Black mages aren’t the only cancerous existences in the world. Someone like this may be even more dangerous.’
A man with the ability of a scientist, the money of an entrepreneur, and a warped sense of heroism.
He was dangerous enough.
To begin with, eternal life was something no living being should dream of.
The moment a human desires eternal life, he will sell his soul even to a demon. No, he becomes a demon himself.
Blinded by desire, he becomes a demon who thinks nothing of the sacrifices of others for the sake of his own goal.
“So this underground cavern is where you produce the Golden Apples. Then what I’m supposed to protect from Yashin is these Golden Apple trees?”
I hid my inner thoughts and emotions and asked calmly.
“No. There are already plenty of Golden Apples elsewhere besides here. They’re in the research labs and laboratories, and we have a separate production factory as well.”
The unexpected answer left me a little flustered. I could not help but ask again.
“Is that so? Then what else is here? What am I supposed to protect?”
The answer to my question revealed itself from deeper inside the cavern before it came from Kim Seonho’s mouth.
First, a bizarre sound rang out. It was a low-frequency roar that made my hair stand on end and sent a chill tingling down my spine.
‘A beast?’
Soon, the owner of the roar appeared.
It was a massive tiger. Since it was about twice the size of an ordinary tiger, perhaps it should be called a monster tiger.
On top of that, its entire body was shining with a golden light. The energy radiating in all directions even carried a distinct pulse of mana.
“What is that…? Why is there a tiger here?”
“A test subject. It’s one that grew up eating our Vanaheim Golden Apples.”
Kim Seonho answered with pride in his eyes.
“A test subject? It’s become a magical beast, hasn’t it? It’s emitting mana waves from its body.”
“It’s fine. Watch.”
Whatever he meant by fine, Kim Seonho remained completely composed.
I drew up my mana and watched the golden tiger’s movements.
The tiger sauntered out, paid no attention to us, approached an apple tree, and began crunching away at the Golden Apples.
“How is it? It’s fine, isn’t it? It loves Golden Apples. It’s only interested in eating.”
I was at a loss for words.
It seemed they had even tested the Golden Apples on animals.
Of course, ordinary new drug trials were also conducted on mice first, and then sometimes on primates.
But a tiger? This could not have been merely to test the efficacy of the product. It was an experiment that went beyond such a category.
Besides, just how many Golden Apples had they fed it for a tiger to change like that?
“Then did you feed Golden Apples to those bats from earlier too?”
“Yes. That’s right. We’re conducting experiments on a variety of life-forms.”
Had the words variety of life-forms ever sounded this dangerous before? Goosebumps rose all over my body.
Kim Seonho’s words were neither lies nor exaggeration.
When I extended detection magic and examined the cavern, I sensed several kinds of life-forms. Various mana waves could be felt.
“May I look around?”
“As much as you like.”
I walked toward the area behind the rows of apple trees.
There was a bend in the cavern, and when I rounded it, an even wider space stretched beyond.
For a moment, I inhaled sharply.
I saw a gigantic body.
It lay completely still, as if asleep, but just seeing that enormous body, large enough to fill the cavern, was enough to tell me what it was.
‘The tentacle monster?’
It was the one I had dealt with at Seolleung Station.
The very tentacle monster that Gil had drained of mana and that I had then frozen with ice magic.
‘Why is that here?’
That was when heavy footsteps sounded from somewhere.
I quickly looked around. From behind the glowing pillars over there, a group of orcs came running out.
They were orcs far larger than ordinary ones, and they wore nothing on their bodies. Letting out strange cries, they ran toward the apple trees.
Then they began plucking and eating Golden Apples with abandon.
Neither the tiger nor the orcs paid any attention to each other, focusing only on eating the Golden Apples.
Kim Seonho, who was over there, beckoned for me to come.
As I approached him, I thought,
‘Those orcs… they’re the ones who smuggled themselves in during the Incheon Port explosion incident, aren’t they?’
Orcs that could not speak and only let out strange cries, looking utterly deranged at a glance.
Their behavior was the same as the orcs I had seen in Incheon.
The only difference was that their bodies had become larger than those orcs back then. That was probably because they had been fed Golden Apples.
‘The tentacle monster and even the orcs. Why are all the life-forms the Hall took away here? They’re using them all as test subjects?’
This was no ordinary serious problem.
Even using a tiger as a test subject was absurd, since it was an endangered animal. But orcs were an entirely different matter altogether.
They were using a different race, one capable of building a civilization no different from humans, as test subjects.
Moreover, the fact that the life-forms the Hall had taken away were here meant that the Hall was also cooperating with Vanaheim’s experiments.
“See? They all like Golden Apples, don’t they?”
When I approached, Kim Seonho spoke in a cheerful voice.
This man was the one carrying out all these deranged acts.
And yet he was smiling casually, as though he were showing off his pets.
“The tentacle monster, and even the orcs. How did they all come to be here?”
I asked evenly, but a chill ran down my spine. The thought had crossed my mind that these might not be the only life-forms here. The cavern was deep and vast.
Suddenly, I remembered the dwarves the Hall had arrested. Perhaps they, too, had been meant to be offered up as test subjects for Vanaheim.
I felt anew how fortunate it was that the dwarves had escaped.
“As for the process by which they came to be in this cavern, it would be better for you not to know, Mage. You came here to protect them, so you need only protect them.”
He was speaking with a smile, but the content was gradually approaching intimidation.
“So what I’m supposed to protect from Yashin is them? All the life-forms that have changed after eating Golden Apples?”
“That’s right. Each and every one of them is precious experimental data. Vanaheim’s experiments are not yet finished.”
Kim Seonho answered brazenly. Then, still smiling, he put on a troubled expression and continued.
“I’m sorry, but you’ve already crossed the river, Mage. Since you’ve decided to work for us anyway, please stand firmly on Vanaheim’s side.”
In other words, he was telling me not to question why the tentacle monster and the orcs were here in this cavern, and simply protect them.
Including keeping the secret, he was telling me to become fully one of them.
Along with the contract, I had signed a nondisclosure agreement.
If I revealed this cavern to the world, I would have to pay an astronomical penalty. Not only that, but Vanaheim would surely try to hunt me down.
‘Don’t worry. I’ll keep the secret for you.’
I, too, had no intention of reporting what was happening inside this cavern to the government or the Hall, nor of informing the media.
The government and the Hall had clearly joined hands with Vanaheim. Otherwise, the tentacle monster and the orcs could not be here. What would be the point of telling those who were practically on the same side?
I would deal with it myself. So that the secret of this cavern would not be unleashed upon the world.
Suddenly, Yashin came to mind.
It had been Yashin who caused the explosion when the orcs entered Incheon Port.
What had Yashin been doing back then? I had thought Yashin was the one who brought in and released the orcs, but perhaps that was not the case.
Had Yashin been trying to intercept the orcs? Or had he tampered with them somehow to ruin Vanaheim’s experiment?
Perhaps he had been waiting for the orcs to pass through the Hall of Magic and fall into Vanaheim’s hands. Perhaps he had marked them in order to find this place.
“By the way, isn’t this dangerous? The tiger and the orcs have all grown far larger than normal. They also contain mana. And the tentacle monster was a bizarre life-form that was exceedingly dangerous from the start. Chairman, are you sure it’s all right for you to be here without any precautions?”
I skipped over the pledge of loyalty Kim Seonho was forcing on me and asked a question.
“That is why I came in with you, Mage. Aren’t you the one who disposed of the tentacle monster?”
Kim Seonho smiled broadly, then continued.
“But as long as there are Golden Apples, there should be no danger. All of them are interested only in Golden Apples. As you can see, they have no interest in us at all, do they?”
That was true.
The life-forms here were not paying even the slightest attention to us.
But that did not mean the situation was all right. It was merely proof of just how dangerous the Golden Apples were.
The Golden Apples seemed to possess an intense addictiveness. An addiction powerful enough to remove even the aggression of predators was, viewed another way, an enormous weapon.
What would happen if the Golden Apples were taken away from them? They would surely attack as if their lives depended on it.
My prediction was soon proven correct.