Chapter 49: The Foundation’s Playground (１)

***

I watched Popo climbing the cat tower in the corner of my office. Those things are smart. When I’m working, they don’t bother me.

Good thing I fed them and trained them.

Popos aren’t ordinary organisms. They were made with the same components, the same genes as humans.

They say the gods created humans in their own image—so isn’t that why the gods can appear in this world by borrowing human bodies?

That’s what Popo is. I tossed a few pieces of dog food to the Popos. Smart things. There are three of them in my office right now.

They’ve saved my life multiple times.

There are some suspicious aspects, and there’s still a lot I don’t know about Popo, and they were born from a terrible sin…

I let out a sigh. The questions I have about Popo, and the things I need to look into, just keep piling up. Nothing to do about it—I’ll have to learn slowly.

Anyway, Popos are my friends.

***

Anomalous space, the Garden.

One of the subspaces the Foundation secretly manages. There are probably several other subspaces managed in a similar way.

“So, Nanami. Foundation Headquarters wants the people of Facility 82 to manage one of the Garden’s entrances?”

“Yeah.”

I have no idea what that’s about.

“There are a lot of strange points here. Isn’t it a facility the Foundation Headquarters built? Why don’t they manage it themselves and instead hand it to us? It’s not dangerous, is it?”

Nanami tilted her head.

“I don’t know either?”

Let’s think positively for now.

“Okay. What else did the HQ bastards say?”

“You know how it is? HQ bastards only ever say what they want to say. They dodged every question I asked. Just gave me the required personnel count.”

Thump. A brown manila envelope landed on my desk. Nanami shrugged.

“Anyway, the bottom line is, they built the facility, so they want us to come manage and explore the subspace. Are you going to say you can’t?”

Rude bastards at HQ. Too cheap to use their own people to manage the Garden?

“No. Of course I’ll try it—I’ve never actually entered a subspace myself.”

“Huh, you’re not going in yourself, are you?”

When I encountered the Garden last time, I couldn’t enter the Garden’s gate. In other missions too, I’d never crossed over to another dimension myself.

I stared at Nanami.

“Miss Nanami really isn’t a scientist, is she. Of course I have to go myself. Aren’t you curious?”

Nanami narrowed her eyes slightly.

“Fine… Just don’t die. Even if you’re going into some strange place, make sure you secure an escort and an escape route.”

I’ll take that as a word of encouragement.

***

Preparation, preparation, preparation.

The most important issue first: studying up on the Garden. I need to look at the anomalies related to the Garden, and the vegetation samples recovered near it.

Let’s check the existing literature. Let’s see. Most things related to the Garden are classified. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible for me to look into it, though.

Anomaly L-1000.

To most Foundation employees, it’s just a dangerous subspace with restricted access, but in reality, it’s one of the Foundation’s key strongholds.

Naturally, the more I study up, the more people—and the more hours—survive.

I thought for a moment, then picked up the phone. The dial tone rang exactly 2 seconds later. She must have set a 2-second delay on my number.

Good.

“Head of Research. Are you busy right now?”

“Uh, um… No.”

“I’m going to hold a conference on Anomaly L-1000. Gather biology, ecology, and anomalous space experts, plus anyone who wants to come.”

“Yes. By when should I have them gathered?”

“Can you do it by 10 AM tomorrow?”

A small sigh came through the phone. Apparently, getting it done by 10 AM was going to be difficult.

“Understood. I’ll do my best.”

Well, nothing I can do about it. When the Director says jump, you jump.

The Head of Research is probably still on edge. Her personality’s been pretty beaten down too. She probably still remembers being dragged into a containment cell because of me.

“Head of Research, do you have any relevant knowledge on this?”

“Hmm… It’s not that I know nothing professionally, but my specialty is humanoid anomaly. I’ll start preparing regardless.”

“Thank you for your effort.”

“Thank you, Director.”

The call ended before long.

***

Lee Seah sent over the conference plan around that afternoon. Let’s take a look at the speaker list.

First, one presentation on anomalous space.

One presentation on vegetation—that one’s being given by Science Officer Min. Bishop Oh will present on the symbolic artifacts discovered in the area last time.

Ah, I have to speak too?

She must have thought it’d be good for me to say something, even briefly, since I went to explore the anomaly myself last time. What did I do back then, anyway?

“…”

Let me think.

At the time. After returning from the operation, I conducted molecular biology research on the secured plant and animal samples. And I did it personally.

What was I doing back then?

I briefly searched through my computer.

First, the giant centipede I saw back then.

Its genetic information was similar to a normal centipede’s, but not identical. A different species resembling an existing organism. Contrary to what I’d originally worried about, it wasn’t to the point of warping the local wildlife.

However. Looking at the ecological reports for that area, accelerated evolution and anomalous vegetation have been continuously appearing near the anomaly. That much is true.

The problem is plants and microorganisms more than animals.

Plants and microorganisms are capable of horizontal evolution. They can exchange genetic information with each other, and a plant or microorganism with unknown genetic material mixed in could cause serious problems.

Though I suppose we’ll only know once we see it.

I kept skimming through the data.

The Foundation installed thousands of insect collection traps around where the Garden’s gate opened. A considerable number of them reportedly turned up strange insects.

“…”

I read a bit more of the ecological analysis.

The anomaly first appeared a few years ago. No, wait—I don’t actually know how many years. The anomaly started causing these problems within the last few months.

Fortunately, most of the anomalous vegetation apparently froze to death over the winter. Well, that area does drop to around minus 15 degrees Celsius in winter.

Anyway.

Let’s look at the list of collected insects. They’re not species you’d find in Korea—they’re specimens resembling insects from all over the world. Every single one is a new species. But they don’t look like completely novel organisms.

I scratched my head.

It’s true that this could be dangerous. But compared to other anomalies, I’m not sure it’s all that threatening. There must be a management plan for this.

Let’s look at the facility the Foundation Headquarters built. For whatever reason, Headquarters doesn’t seem to have any intention of just burying this rift.

Sealing the whole thing in a concrete sarcophagus would solve the problem easily enough. But they’re deliberately maintaining a passage big enough for trucks to drive through.

What a hassle.

The reason is obvious. They’re probably planning to set up some kind of scientific or military base there, like an Antarctic research station. There might already be a few.

But. What’s visible on the surface isn’t everything. Foundation Headquarters is hiding something. What they’re hiding, I still can’t tell.

I turned off the computer.

I’ve prepared my presentation. See you at the conference.

***

[Regarding Popo’s teleportation.]

[Filed by: Humanoid Division, Kang Cheon]

[Um, so, were these anomalies capable of teleporting from the start? Isn’t that extremely dangerous? Who was watching when they teleported?]

[No, honestly, I don’t understand. Is it true that the Biology Department allowed Dr. Geum to train the Popos as her personal hunting dogs? I’m very confused. Is this also a type of cognitohazard…?]

[There are too many strange things here.]

***

[Re: Regarding Popo’s teleportation]

[Filed by: Biology Department]

[We don’t know exactly either. We thought the Director just came to feed the Popos. We had no idea the Director was training them as hunting dogs. We’ll review the operation records.]

[We’ll ask when she comes next time.]

***

[Re: Re: Regarding Popo’s teleportation]

[Filed by: Humanoid Division, Kang Cheon]

[No, you don’t just ask when she comes next time…]

[Are you people idiots?]

[You need to figure out what Dr. Geum did and how she did it. What kind of research have you people been running? None of you in the Biology Department knew the Popos could teleport, did you? Well, I suppose it makes sense—you’re the ones who handed the Popos over to the Director’s Office as pets in the first place.]

[And yet Dr. Geum knew.]

[Ah. Damn it, now that I think about it, the Head of Research has been keeping her head down lately too. There’s no one to go ask… I’ll ask her myself.]

[The more I think about it, the more absurd it gets. Does it make any sense that the Director personally came to feed the Popos…? Think. Use your heads. Obviously she came for anomaly research, or for utilizing the anomalies.]

[Ah. Now that I think about it, I already want to die. Let’s just leave it at that, if the Director’s Office doesn’t mind. Sorry for sending such a rambling message.]