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• Team Leader! Are you on your way? I don’t know why, but our assigned search area is the widest, so I think we need to coordinate traffic with the night shift… Team Leader? Are you listening…? –

“……”

The subordinate combatant, suddenly burdened with a heavy responsibility, was still groaning on the communication channel… but Helena no longer answered.

Instead, she thought of the fugitive she had told to hide in the bathroom.

If she could have gotten help from at least one of the two engineers, she would have tried to hide him in the control room… she felt a little sorry.

Half of the explanation she heard from the man, or what he overheard while imprisoned.

…No, even if only half of half of half of it was true, she no longer wanted to contribute to Paradise in any way that would benefit them.

But she could start something and run away, but there was no guarantee that those who had only been earning Credits without knowing anything would do the same in the same situation.

Hence, the chosen silence.

Quietly listening to the reports being exchanged.

…Of course, even though she had decided to ignore all regulations and laws, it would be foolish not to use her still valid combat police identity and activated authority….

• Access authorization confirmed. Moving to the medical area. –

In the elevator that began to rise smoothly, she calmed her agitated mind.

She feigned composure on the outside, but inside… she was festering slightly.

She remembered proudly lecturing Asha not long ago that being a police officer wasn’t so bad, not knowing what kind of shit was going on under her feet.

The self-contradictory hatred weighed heavily on her heart, and she found it hard to suppress her condemnation of Paradise’s cruelty, which boasted the largest asset size among the five Mega Corps.

…But all of that would have to wait until she had seen the HA floor with her own eyes.

It wasn’t being leisurely. It was already too late to save the victims, so she was being careful not to make the situation worse.

“Aigoo~ I’m going to die… you crazy cop bastards!! Look at this crushed prosthetic hand! How are you going to take responsibility?!”

“…The police exist to protect the safety of the city and innocent citizens. Unfortunately, it seems difficult to compensate for the accident caused by extending your iron prosthetic hand out the window before the vehicle came to a complete stop….”

“Good heavens…! These guys are ignoring even Blue ranks now! I’m going to make this public in the citizen community right now…!!”

“…I’ll just connect you directly to the Social Order Maintenance Department so you can talk to them. …You son of a bitch.”

As the doors opened, the usual noisy hospital scene of groaning and arguing greeted her.

Helena naturally passed by the reception desk, where the injured visitors and the person in charge were busy arguing, and entered the staff-only ward inside.

She used to volunteer as a mediator in such difficult situations… but she couldn’t afford to now.

Her current goal was the researcher and worker, commonly known as a doctor, who the man had used as a shield when he escaped from the underground.

He had released the hostage, thinking of the barracks area as somewhere in the city, and pressed a piece of glass, his only weapon, tightly against his neck, causing an injury. If he was a non-combatant who couldn’t even put up a decent resistance, he would have been so panicked by his own blood gushing out that he would have been hospitalized immediately.

Besides, no matter how secret the project was, they wouldn’t have tolerated a breakout just because an employee’s life was in danger, so the other party must be one of the big shots in the underground area.

“A wound on the neck….”

She scanned the rows of beds and the transparent windows of the hospital rooms, glancing sideways.

…The only problem with this forced breakthrough was that the biggest landmark in finding someone in a haphazard way was their appearance.

In that regard, there was no information because of the anti-contamination suit the researcher was wearing, and as for the clothes… if he had already changed into a patient gown, the only way to distinguish him would be the injuries on his body.

But as if by some twist of fate, the answer to the final crossroads leading to the truth was given to her quite easily.

“Ugh…?! …I’d rather treat myself.”

“I’m sorry, but the surgical equipment here can only be used by authorized medical personnel….”

“…I know that, so I’m holding back.”

A doctor, flustered as if wondering if there was a department that wore such clothing at the gate, continued the treatment in response to the smooth-flowing rebuke from a fellow professional.

And a middle-aged man who had taken off the cumbersome upper part of his protective suit and was lying diagonally, receiving treatment for a wound near his carotid artery.

“…Found him.”

Knock knock…!

After knocking strongly on the treatment room door as if she had urgent business, she stood up straight.

She also carefully fixed her gaze on the man presumed to be the doctor, making sure to get his attention.

“…Ahem! I guess I should leave you two alone.”

“…Do so.”

The doctor, sensing the unusual atmosphere, fled to avoid the disaster first.

The doctor, after confirming that the wound on his vital point had been stitched up by touching it with his hand, twitched his mustache and retorted arrogantly.

Only after carefully mimicking the doctor’s departure and looking around, did Helena bring up an excuse she had never been ordered to make.

“Doctor, um… there’s a problem in the harvest area that you need to take a look at regarding the project….”

“?! It’s not the good news that they caught that damn stray dog, but another problem…? I don’t know what the collection unit is doing! …And it’s ridiculous that they sent someone to pick me up instead of communicating, as if they were ashamed.”

…Originally, she had tried to gain firm trust by mentioning the specific name ‘Re-commercialization Project,’ but she couldn’t bring herself to do it.

The Re-commercialization Project… the very idea behind it was devoid of humanity.

All manpower is a resource, and resources can be processed into products.

Paradise Corporation turns a blind eye to the trading of citizenship for a price that is almost dirt cheap compared to Metropolis prices… but even for those citizen-friendly people, humans who have no use or benefit are defined as worthless and completely ‘disassembled’ in an experimental business.

The doctor and other superiors openly called this an interview.

The process of confining people who have no relatives and paying less than a million Credits and conducting various tests.

A process of calculating the value of a person’s talent and body to contribute to the company.

…Ultimately, humans who do not meet any criteria are either consumed in medical technology research, or, if that is not possible, dissected while they are as fresh as possible and all organs and parts are distributed to the necessary buyers.

It was truly the ultimate exploitation that would be impossible unless they saw humanity outside the wall as ownerless objects.

People who passed the series of interviews may still be alive somewhere on Harvest Planet, even if their future is mortgaged. Those who failed, of course….

“But… a police officer… could it be that the higher-ups planted someone like the field manager girl in case there was a problem with the transport of test subjects? Tsk, confidential projects should always be careful.”

“……”

The doctor, who eagerly took the bait and poured out what he wanted to say, jumped up and moved his legs without hesitation.

The doctor was pleased with Helena’s loyal posture, silently following behind him, but only for a moment.

Even after boarding the elevator together, the doctor, who didn’t even try to hide his discomfort when she, his subordinate, didn’t press the button, moved himself.

• Access authorization confirmed. Moving to the harvest area. –

“…Hoo.”

A deep breath after confirming that she had achieved her goal.

The reason for deliberately staging such a terrible farce was nothing special. Helena Valentine needed the cooperation of an insider to formally set foot on the HA floor.

……The doctor is still spouting nonsense, saying that her attitude towards her superior is arrogant?

Perhaps he will be used as a guide, and his treatment will be determined according to the severity of the crime revealed…?

Koogung…!!

The underground floor, disguised as a heavy weapons armory, was really built at the bottom of the gate. At the same time as the grating metallic sound, the elevator landed.

You can’t judge anything just by looking at the entrance.

In any case, it was a far cry from a warehouse full of explosives or combat robots.

A clean internal passage, a sterilization facility and protective suit rack to go through before entering, and collection unit members guarding the front.

As Helena finally witnessed it and bit her lip, the doctor, who had confidently preceded her as if telling them to learn from them, was immediately stopped, contrary to his position.

“…Stop. I understand that you are uncomfortable due to the recent incident… but even if you are a doctor, you cannot bring in unauthorized personnel as you please.”

It seems that getting away with a reasonable excuse is over.

The tragedy that would unfold afterwards was bound to be bloody, so she slowly loosened her stiff joints.

“What is this… wasn’t this the person the field staff sent to bring me here on purpose!”

“……? Doctor, Combat Police DS3-1 does not exist on the list of those who can access this place.”

The gap created by each other’s small misunderstandings… is fatal in combat.

This time, it was not a generous scabbard, but a blade so sharpened that it would sting the eyes of those who saw it, that was drawn.