On My First Day Undercover, the Organization Collapsed - Chapter 299

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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First Day of Infiltration, The Organization Was Destroyed Episode 299
Final Evaluation Preparation (4)
“Guuuuh….”
The closer I drew, the more intensely the aura pressed against me.
Yet Ziel’s pace did not slow—if anything, it quickened.
Even in absolute darkness, there was no hesitation.
And so, reaching the iron bars, what Ziel beheld was—
“Hmm.”
Something immensely vast writhed before me.
This sensation of witnessing something without defined form, continuously undulating.
Yet rather than revulsion, Ziel felt curiosity.
“A Magical Beast?”
“Guuuuh….”
“So such varieties of Magical Beasts exist.”
Ziel recalled the 【Magical Beast Encyclopedia】 he had seen in the Library.
At least, no such creature appeared there.
In truth, whether it was a Magical Beast or not mattered little.
Two distinct types of familiarity that Ziel perceived.
That was what mattered.
First, there was this.
“Recently eliminated Magical Beasts are contained within.”
I could discern it through my Olfactory Sense.
The writhing shadow mass carried the scent of recently eliminated Magical Beasts.
More precisely, their corpses.
It seemed the corpses of Magical Beasts that had been continuously expelled from the shadow were stored intact within.
Ziel formulated a hypothesis here.
‘If the shadow is connected, does it use that as its territory?’
Confined beneath the Clock Tower in these Underground Basement iron bars, yet it still exerted influence beyond the Clock Tower—it seemed so.
Darkness, or rather, territory connected through shadow.
‘When night falls, this entire village falls within its sphere of influence.’
Whether it had exhausted itself drawing in and expelling Magical Beasts from elsewhere, there was no immediate threat.
“Guuuuh….”
Before discerning the other familiarity, I needed to investigate further what had transpired in this village.
Ziel attempted to attack the shadow.
Shwik.
The thrown Dagger vanished.
More precisely, it seemed to be sucked into the shadow.
“Physical impact from cold weapons proves ineffective.”
Sling.
This time, I drew the Ether River Sword.
Due to the nature of this black Ether River, Mana flows through it without manifesting on the surface.
In other words, there is no light source that inevitably accompanies a Mana Sword.
A low hum.
I drew up Mana, but the Sword’s surface remained still.
Within the darkness.
A pitch-black void where an ordinary person couldn’t see anything, couldn’t even tell where they were or which direction they were facing.
Yet within it, I thrust my Sword without hesitation toward the Shadow.
Then a scream tore through the air.
“Krrrraaaaaahhhhh!”
The writhing Shadow lunged toward me as if to swallow me whole—
Boom!
My Sword detonated from within the Shadow.
I had concentrated Mana at a single point and triggered an Explosion.
The entire Shadow trembled violently, then fell still.
It wasn’t dead.
The sensation emanating from the Shadow persisted.
But instead, something else began to happen.
Things began ejecting from the Shadow one after another.
They were…
“The dead villagers.”
Skeletal remains of people.
It seemed the creature had expelled them from the Impact.
I let Mana flow faintly through my hand to create a dim light source, then examined the bones carefully.
And I reached this conclusion.
“They haven’t been dead for long.”
At minimum, a few years.
At maximum, over a decade.
Before that, people were definitely living in these Ruins.
I gathered some of the skeletal remains.
Then I followed the strange air current I’d felt since right after the Explosion, moving toward one of the Walls.
There was a Space behind the Wall.
The Impact of the Explosion had exposed Rifts, and the air from inside mixed with the air out here, creating this altered Flow.
Click.
I skillfully located and activated the Device, and part of the Wall rotated, revealing the Space within.
As I stepped inside, leaving behind the mass of Shadow within the Iron Bars, the landscape before me was utterly incongruous with these Ruins.
‘A laboratory.’
Various apparatus and Books arranged inside.
With all manner of Tools besides, it was unmistakably a laboratory.
Most tellingly, there stood a massive glass Tube positioned at the Center.
The writhing black something within it resembled a miniaturized version of the mass of Shadow that had been contained within the Iron Bars.
“It wasn’t a Magical Beast.”
That shadow mass was an artificially created entity.
Something was happening in these Ruins.
Something strange was unfolding.
But Ziel had little interest in it.
Whether I could take the Final Evaluation or not.
That was what mattered most.
Then something caught my eye.
“Research Materials, perhaps.”
There was one extraordinarily thick Book.
Upon opening it to check, everything about the black mass situated at the Center was written there.
As Ziel examined it, the corners of my mouth suddenly lifted slightly.
“An unexpected Reward, indeed.”

* * *
At the same moment.
Gilbert and Kelvin traversed the Ruins where the Magical Beasts had vanished, continuing their Search swiftly.
‘But if the Magical Beasts disappeared, can we even conduct the Kids’ Evaluation?’
Worrying about the Boss was a luxury, but still, it was a shame that such good test subjects had vanished.
“G-Gilbert.”
“What.”
“Th-that, beneath the Clock Tower… what, what could it be?”
“Who knows. It must be something tremendous. It felt like something we absolutely shouldn’t approach….”
“I, I was going to go down. You, you’re a coward.”
“….”
They searched the Houses first.
There was nothing particularly remarkable—just a succession of ordinary dwellings.
Then they discovered quite a large House.
“Is this the Village Chief’s House? Have you been here before?”
“Ah, no. Th-there were many Magical Beasts nearby.”
Now that the Magical Beasts had vanished, they could enter without issue.
“They lived quite well.”
While not decorated like the Nobles’ homes, it was clear considerable Money had been spent compared to the other Houses.
Had it been only that, they would have looked around and left without further thought.
But as Gilbert entered the Second Floor, what appeared to be an Office, he discovered something odd.
‘If I remember what the Boss taught me… there’s probably something behind this.’
Not to the level of detecting another Space through altered air currents like Ziel, or finding it by channeling Mana—
Click.
Gilbert had a decent eye for these things.
“B-behind the Wall….”
“How is it?”
“Well, let’s go in first.”
Kelvin was the type who wouldn’t praise Gilbert even if it killed him.
In any case, once they stepped inside, Gilbert was surprised in a different way than Ziel, who had discovered the secret space.
“How much is all of this….”
The interior was filled with Gold Coins and treasures.
The money alone seemed to amount to several million Cel, and there were countless treasures whose value was difficult to estimate!
“G-Gilbert. We’re rich now!”
“Wait. We should report this to the Boss first.”
Leaving the dejected Kelvin behind, Gilbert surveyed the interior.
“Why would such a house contain this much money and treasure….”
It was an incomprehensible sight.
The Village Chief might have accumulated wealth through frugality, but such a quantity of riches in such an isolated environment was extraordinary.
Moreover, this was Valdrain Empire currency.
‘If there had been contact with the outside world, the existence of this village would have been known.’
The location was far too isolated for trade with other villages, and considering the village’s scale, the amount of money was far too substantial.
As doubts accumulated, Kelvin discovered something.
“Th-this. There’s something written here.”
It was a Ledger.
Everything had been recorded with meticulous care.
“…It hasn’t been long?”
Merely ten years ago at most.
The oldest record dated back fifteen years.
“Then until ten years ago, this place….”
This village was not Ruins.
It was a place where people had lived far too recently to be called Ruins!
Rustle.
Gilbert flipped through the Ledger rapidly.
Besides dates and amounts, there were strange entries as well.
-50,000 Cel. Contact changed.
-150,000 Cel, Bracelet with embedded ruby. Large experiment scheduled.
-120,000 Cel, Imperial Palace’s sacred Sword. Reassured regarding the rampage of the previous experiment.
“Experiment… Rampage?”
Occasionally, such entries were also recorded in the corners of the Ledger.
-3 village residents eliminated. Kate, Rohan, Derek. Handled as missing during Hunting.
-After experiment success, expected to receive offer for executive position.
“What on earth was happening here…?”
Experiments.
Offers for executive positions.
Village residents provided.
Test Subject Rampage.
I had a feeling I knew what was happening.
“Kelvin, gather all the documents you can see.”
“Ah, understood.”
Gilbert collected every document and book aside from the ledger, then slipped back out of the Village Chief’s House.
It was an unsettling feeling.
When I first arrived, I thought it was simply an ancient Ruins teeming with Magical Beasts, but it turned out people had lived here until just ten years ago.
Looking at it now, the wooden structures weren’t in such terrible condition to be called Ruins.
Normally, a place old enough to be called “Ruins” should have rotting wood and collapsed structures.
“Group, this is terrifying.”
“I’m very scared too….”
The two heading back toward the Clock Tower encountered Ziel, who happened to be outside.
“Boss, we’ve discovered something.”
“I found something too.”
Ziel handed over a thick stack of papers.
“When I went below, there was a life form made of Shadow. It was born from an experiment.”
“Good heavens….”
It seemed like the pieces of what the two had discovered were fitting together.
“Then the village residents… could be considered victims of that experiment.”
“There’s a high possibility of that. The life form down there seems to have absorbed people through the Shadow spread across this entire Ruins.”
“Such nonsense… bones, just bones, right?”
“Skeletal remains of a person that emerged from within the Shadow. They haven’t been dead long. At most, around ten years or so.”
This also matched the dates I’d seen in the ledger records.
Questions pressed in upon me.
“The experimental apparatus beneath the Clock Tower are all things that don’t belong in this village.”
“…External interference, then.”
“Yes.”
This village was small.
Though how it began was unclear, the fact that it hadn’t been discovered until now suggested they likely maintained their own society and lived here.
Then someone from outside discovered this place….
“Given its nature as a concealed space, it would be ideal as a dangerous experimental site.”
Pieces were clicking into place one by one.
I came to explore the Ruins to prepare for the Final Evaluation, yet I felt as though I’d uncovered an enormous secret.
“What kind of group could they be?”
“I don’t know. Look at the last page of the Research Journal.”
Rustle.
As I turned the page, a single emblem appeared.
Two Swords crossing diagonally with a serpent coiled above them.
“…I’ve never seen it before. It’s ominous, though. What kind of organization is this?”
“This, this emblem, the group that conducted experiments here….”
My speculation only went as far as what Kelvin had said.
Some external organization had used this village as an experimental space, and the one presumed to be the Village Chief had provided the villagers as test subjects.
It seemed all the villagers had been sucked into the Shadow as a result.
“What do we do, Boss?”
This feeling of being caught up in some massive conspiracy!
But Ziel answered as he always did.
“The students need to take their Final Evaluation.”
“That’s… true, isn’t it?”
Ziel didn’t care who had come from outside or whether the villagers had been experimented on.
Understanding was merely about grasping the sequence of events and drawing conclusions from the current situation.
“We eliminate any elements that threaten the Final Evaluation.”
“The thing beneath the Clock Tower?”
“Yes. As long as that exists, the Final Evaluation cannot proceed.”
The reason for elimination wasn’t about disposing of test subjects or removing threats to the Empire or anything like that.
It was purely for the Final Evaluation!
Ziel remained true to his purpose.
“By the way, Boss. There were quite a few treasures in the Village Chief’s House. Lots of money too. It looks like the one who took the money was also consumed… what should we do?”
“We follow Imperial Law. Our objective is the Final Evaluation.”
“Yes, sir.”
It was disappointing, but the Boss’s word was absolute.
Still, it wasn’t as though we gained nothing.
“Leave the treasures behind, but we take the test subject below.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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