Chapter 179: Open It Already.

Larry led the way down the basement, and Dante followed closely after him. In stark contrast to the area outside and the building itself, the interior was not only clean but looked rather pristine, giving the illusion that the heavy blast door outside led to an entirely different world.

The floor tiles were uncracked and uniform, and the white walls appeared freshly painted, with not a single blemish on them. If there was a problem with the place, it would be that the silence and lighting gave it a rather unnerving atmosphere.

The ambience matched that of nightly hospitals that are used as the setting for various horror movies and video games, and though he wasn’t very familiar with such things, Dante couldn’t help but feel nervous walking through the quiet hallway, hearing only the sound of his and Larry’s footsteps.

“I… see that you renovated the place.” In an attempt to reduce his nervousness, Dante tried to strike up a conversation.

“Hm?” Larry glanced over his shoulder. “No, no I didn’t.”

“Seriously? I remember it was far worse last time I came here.”

“Well, it has been almost two years.” Lingering for a moment, Larry followed with a question. “How are you feeling?”

“I have seen better days,” Dante replied.

“No doubt about that.” The lanky doctor said. “I don’t know what you’ve been doing, kid, but if you keep it up, you won’t live to see next year.”

“Yeah, I can tell that much.”

Though he wore it for no more than a second, Type 8-5 almost crushed and ripped him apart at the same time. The strain it exerted, which was nothing compared to the lower-level versions of its type, had been greatly amplified by the use of Teleportation. Adding to that all the stress born from the extended use of Type 5-1 and its Instant Acceleration, it became another reminder that Volcan’s armors weren’t something humans were meant to wear.

While he was in deep thought, the two of them arrived at a large gray door. It had no windows, and going by its frame, it seemed tightly sealed to avoid allowing the air itself to enter. Dante recognized the room, and because of that, he knew exactly what the underground doctor was going to say next.

“Get yourself cleaned,” Larry said. “Once you’re done, change into the robe I left for you. Keep in mind that the door will only open once you’re done.”

“Got it.”

Staring at him for a moment, the underground doctor turned around and left for a different room at the end of the corridor. The large grayish door slid open just then, the sound of pressurized air escaping from the hidden actuators.

Once he entered, the door closed once more, sealing him inside a small cubicle space barely two meters across. A small compartment opened on the wall to his left, and from it came a small empty box. The screen right above it instructed him to take his clothes off and place them there.

[This is not what I expected from an illegal facility.] Volcan spoke as Dante went about stripping himself. [Aren’t such places supposed to be dark and filthy?]

’Yeah, I was surprised the first time I came here, too.’

Removing everything, including his shoes and underwear, Dante approached the door opposite to the one he entered from. The room beyond it was only slightly larger than the last one. The walls were covered in alloy plating, and each corner had long rails connecting the floor to the ceiling. At the bottom of each rail was a cubic device with a spherical lens at its center.

Once the door closed and the room was once again sealed, the screen attached to the wall facing it lit up and displayed a list of instructions. Following them, Dante walked in and stood inside the square carved into the floor with his legs slightly parted, making sure that he was facing one of the corners. He then raised his arms beside him and left his fingers parted as shown on the screen.

Once he took the correct form, the devices in each corner activated, and the spheres at their center lit up with a bright red light. The floor suddenly turned red, but the glow wasn’t spreading to the surroundings, taking on the shape of a clear square.

The devices began to move a second later, and as they rose along the rails, the red square followed them. Dante felt a faint prickling sensation as the thin screen passed over his body. Though it was entirely harmless, he couldn’t help but grimace at how annoying it got. Once it reached his head, he closed his eyes and just waited for it to be over, gritting his teeth when the red line passed over his eyelids.

’I just took a shower, Damn it…’

[I believe this is a more effective way of removing any contamination.] Said Volcan. [Besides, the area you passed through on your way here is far from clean. Though it might not look like it, you have come into contact with countless germs and-]

’Okay okay, I get it.’

No matter who tried to sell it to him, Dante didn’t think that he would ever get to enjoy laser showers, as they call them. Unfortunately, Larry had made it a mandatory part of his work, and so he had no choice but to bear with it.

A small compartment slid out of the wall once the red screen was gone. Reaching inside, Dante grabbed the green hospital gown that it contained.

’I really hate these…’

It wasn’t that he wanted to proceed butt naked. He simply saw no point in wearing those gowns, considering they barely hid anything, and since they would be removed soon enough anyway.

Now that he had been cleansed and wore the pointless gown, the last door opened up and he was allowed to proceed to the next room, which was far wider in comparison to the previous two.

Its walls were similarly covered in clean, white alloy, and most of it was empty save for the surgical table at the center and the movable stands surrounding it. Right above them, a massive cylindrical contraption hung from the ceiling, the lines going through its outer shell indicating that it had yet to be activated.

Dante stared at the scene for a moment and felt his body slightly shudder. His eyes were then drawn to one of the tables and the item lying on its surface. Recognizing what it was, his heart jumped with excitement and he quickly made his way toward it.

An intricately designed rectangular box lay on the metallic surface of the table. Its edges were round and smooth, and its bluish gray surface was smooth and clean without a single scratch or blemish, as if the whole thing just came out of the factory.

As impressive as it was, what interested Dante wasn’t the box but its contents. He wanted to pry it open and look through its contents, but then he noticed the digital screen on its top face and remembered that he did not have the code for the digital lock.

What’s more, the lock didn’t have any signal receptors, so he couldn’t even ask his resident AI to open it for him. The only way to do it would be through a direct wire connection, but that required a Mind Link Port, something he didn’t have at the moment.

“I would say happy birthday, but that isn’t today, and you paid for the present.”

The voice came from the other side of the room where a different door was closing behind a man dressed from head to toe in a blue surgical gown. Even though most of his face was hidden behind the surgical mask, there was no mistaking his identity.

“C’mon! Open it already!” Dante tried and failed to hide his excitement.

“Alright, give me a moment.”

Walking over, Larry reached out and tapped the digital screen with his gloved hand. A faint beep and a click announced the opening of the lock, and a moment later, the top part retracted to reveal the contents. Dante looked inside with sparkling eyes, but then confusion overtook his face.

“Not what you expected, huh?” Larry said.

“Yeah…”

The contents of the box should have been the KAPSU-L15, or the 15th generation Kinetic Absorption Protective Sub-Layer, a top-shelf product made by Kapsule Corp. It was the brand new subdermal armor he had ordered the other day, but instead of a single, torso-sized piece of armor, the box contained several dozen small hexagonal pieces, some long, others short.

“You’re probably thinking of a different type.” Said the underground doctor. “The one you chose is a newer model. It takes into account the shape and movement of skin and muscles and greatly reduces the discomfort you would feel from having a foreign solid object right under your skin.”

“I get the concept, but…” Looking away from the box, Dante smiled wryly. “Are you really going to put it in piece by piece?”

“Yup.” Larry nodded. “Why do you think I charged you 250K for this?”

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