Apotheosis of a Demon - A Monster Evolution Story

75 - TO BE CALLED A DEMON - 1

The project to research the 'Applications and Uses of Technologies and Resources of Yggdrasia', done under the auspices of the government of a certain country, was bearing fruit after decades of work and a ludicrous amount of funding. Its progress could be roughly summarized into stages as follows:

The first stage, information gathering through the dispatch of watcher drones and stabilization of the local area.

The second stage, acquisition and genetic analysis of people with paranormal abilities who were linked to the discovery of the new world.

The third stage, development of a mana gathering system that made use of the aforementioned genetic data.

The fourth stage, development of a basic theory to create avatars that were growth-capable with mana.

The resulting large-scale mana gathering system had been the VRMMO World of Yggdrasia. The game project had proceeded without a hitch. Through the use of around three million players as 'miners', extraction of the new world's resources and development of magical weaponry had begun.

But the corporation had encountered a large obstacle even before a year had passed.

The genetic analysis of one hundred children with paranormal abilities had been completed, and they were deemed no longer useful. They had been sent to the other world as test subjects for the experimental monster avatars, and at the same time to be disposed of.

The experiment had ended with all the test subjects either dead or crippled. The results had been used to develop militarized monster avatars. However, just as they were beginning their test runs, an incident happened.

The destruction of a medical facility and the mass murder of its staff, apparently done by a single girl.

She had also been witnessed in Yggdrasia, and was suspected to be the 'rabbit' beastman girl with abnormal combat power. Her appearance on Earth had shocked all those involved.

The scholars and researchers had determined that she either had a power to allow her to travel across dimensions, or a power to Digistruct herself here from the other world.

In case of the former, then if they could analyze her power, they would possibly gain the capability to transport not just mana, but also resources such as the rare metal 'mythril' and 'adamantite' back to Earth. Even in case of the latter, she would still give them the possibility of mass mana collection. The government had ordered the corporation to either capture her or analyze her genetic information. However, they soon found out that she was powerful enough to be called the Dark Lady in Yggdrasia. Their progress stalled.

And one day, the corporation's center of research into the new world was attacked.

The 12th research center had been the base of the game developers, as well as where the players-slash-resource-miners were being managed. All of their security staff had been killed. The culprit had slipped through the stringent security and surveillance system, leaving no traces of themselves. The attack had earned them the nickname of 'The Ghost'.

No one knew if the culprit was a singular person or a group. As the corporation continued their investigation with the assumption that it had been done by a foreign special task force with the purpose of industrial espionage, the 4th research center, where magical weaponry were being developed, fell. Not only were all of their main researchers murdered and their facilities destroyed, the fifty soldiers on-loan to the center for operational testing had also gone missing. As a result, the government then revised their assumption of the Ghost's goal to be 'information of the other world'. They gave the order for the army to protect the remaining research centers.