Became a Dragon kidnapped by Humans

“What in the world is going on?”

FPL’s new researcher, Kan Hana, was at a loss for words.

It was certainly shocking to wake up and find an overwhelming number of missed calls and messages.

But what came next was so astonishing that it almost overshadowed the initial surprise.

Had she made a mistake by not using her proper bed and instead sleeping on the makeshift bed tucked away in the corner of IF-017’s isolation room observation area?

Was she dreaming some terrible nightmare? Kan Hana opened the door leading outside and looked down.

A precipice greeted her eyes.

“Huhk.”

The lab, the break room, all the other isolation rooms—everything except IF-017’s isolation room had vanished without a trace.

It was as if a highway had been constructed while carefully avoiding a squatter’s house planted right in the middle of the site.

Of course, the room Kan Hana usually slept in had also disappeared completely.

“…Oh my…”

Kan Hana closed the door again. If she’d slept in her original room in the quarters outside the isolation chamber, she might have vanished without a sound. Clutching her chest with trembling hands, she knelt down and silently cheered for the makeshift bed.

“Phew, wow….”

After barely calming down, Kan Hana checked the many missed calls and messages to figure out what disaster had occurred during her sleep.

Most of them were from Emily Harper.

A fellow department senior from another base whom she’d met not long ago but whose over-the-top compliments were impossible to keep up with.

The gist of what she learned from reading Emily’s messages was shocking.

In short, IF-684 had escaped, spewing fire and punching a hole through the research facility.

There was no sign of IF-684 now, so this information was only just coming to light.

Had it already flown off somewhere?

Or was it hiding somewhere?

At least, there was no way for Kan Hana, isolated in the IF-017 observation room, to know such details.

Kan Hana called Emily.

All she got back was a TTS voice informing her that the call couldn’t be connected due to being in an unreachable area.

“Hmm….”

Kan Hana quickly abandoned the futile attempt to call and instead gleaned a few facts by carefully reading the messages.

One thing she noticed was that the messages abruptly stopped at a certain point.

The last message read: “Siegfried unit has started firing Level 2 ‘No-Tung.’ If you’re still there, EMP will likely disrupt communications with Lab 4 for a while…”

“So external communication is currently impossible…”

Kan Hana began searching for ways to survive here.

Could she escape using magnetic forces?

After briefly pondering, Kan Hana shook her head.

The current state of the isolation room as captured in photos sent by Emily was eerily unrealistic.

Hundreds of square meters had evaporated, leaving only the IF-017 isolation room intact in one corner.

It was like something out of a classic cartoon—a single house floating mid-air, tethered by nothing but balloons.

“Ah, so this is what they mean when they talk about spatial fixity regarding the IF-017 isolation room…”

Kan Hana recalled something said by Senior Giselle long ago.

She was lucky to be alive thanks to that, but how could she escape this aerial prison?

Looking around nearby, Kan Hana wondered if anything could help.

Snacks and water cooler bottles caught her eye.

They were utterly useless for escaping.

Still, seeing those items gave her a sense of clarity about which path might lead to survival.

Kan Hana decided to wait it out and hope for rescue once things settled down. She checked her charger.

Even though the fluorescent lights were on, she confirmed that her smartphone battery was charging normally.

Despite the EMP from the atomic bomb, everything in the isolation room seemed unaffected, much to Kan Hana’s amazement.

She mused that spatial fixity must be divine, and the makeshift bed invincible, as she passed the time scrolling through her smartphone.

“I hope Senior Giselle is okay…”

Though worrying about others while dealing with her own situation, Kan Hana couldn’t help but feel concerned.

—–

Temporary Operations Room.

Commander Long Weilan entered, pulling aside the tent flap.

She had come here after hearing that someone knowledgeable about IF-017 had been summoned.

A demurely seated woman turned around as Weilan approached.

Seeing the familiar face of someone she had seen not too long ago, Weilan chuckled sarcastically.

“So, are you the ‘person who knows IF-017 well’?”

“Yes.”

The woman turned to Weilan, nodding slightly.

This tired-looking woman bowed slightly.

“Hello.”

“Hmph. Of course, if it’s related to 017 in Lab 4, it would naturally be you. What did I expect? And I can’t just dismiss you either…”

Weilan sat down in a chair without acknowledging Gamma Rank Giselle Hartmann’s greeting.

Before Giselle could even ask why she was summoned,

Weilan cut her off.

Placing something on the table—a Tsuchinoko.

Giselle gasped and glared at Weilan.

“So, IF-017 left me this little guy. Do you know what it means?”

The creature was furiously biting into the coat sleeve with all its might, as if determined to get chewed up itself.

Giselle casually pointed out,

“Why is it chewing your coat?”

“It kept biting, so I figured it’d break its teeth soon enough. Thought I’d let it gnaw as a makeshift gag.”

Weilan shrugged her mechanical shoulder.

Giselle hesitated before responding,

“… It doesn’t run away like a regular IF-098 and is highly aggressive, indicating it may possess some unknown anomalous properties. According to regulations, we should neutralize and contain it immediately.”

Though the content was strange,

“Is that correct? Should we dismantle something IF-017 handed over?”

Weilan retorted incredulously.

However, Giselle nodded matter-of-factly.

“According to regulations, yes.”

“You’re just saying that because it’s not your problem, huh? There’s no need for us to fight IF-017 tooth and nail. We’re Siegfried, not King Munmu.”

Weilan slammed her fist on the table, gritting her teeth.

Yet, careful not to startle the Tsuchinoko, she gently moved it aside beforehand.

Its jaws were still clamped onto the coat.

“Do regulations include ‘how to handle when IF-017 leaves an IF-098 behind’?”

“There’s no such clause.”

“Then why are you blabbing about useless rules? Did I bring you here to hear about regulations?”

Weilan grabbed Giselle by the collar and grilled her.

But despite looking troubled, Giselle’s eyes remained wary of the Tsuchinoko on the side table.

This didn’t go unnoticed by Weilan, whose eyes widened in irritation.

“Ha, so this pathetic excuse of a lowest-tier anomaly is making you look down on me now…”

“But, Weilan. Regulations must always be followed…”

“And you’re talking back to me, huh?!”

As Weilan’s mechanical arm heated up with steam, ready to react,

She suddenly stopped shaking her hand.

Through the broad chest pressing against her collar, she could hear an unusually rapid heartbeat.

Giselle was panting.

“Following regulations isn’t wrong. Even if we can’t trust HQ, we must believe in the regulations they set without question. Otherwise, if I don’t trust the rules… Unknown phenomena hide their true nature. Me, my team, even you, Weilan, and even the clueless rookies—all of us could fall prey to it. So we must follow the rules…”

—Click, click.

Weilan’s multi-layer safety-locked mechanical arm struck Giselle’s head.

Immediately, Giselle bit her tongue and fell silent.

“Gah.”

Indeed, the prosthetic limb of an Alpha Class individual performed admirably.

“Damn coward. You’re losing it again.”

Weilan grabbed Giselle’s cheek and turned her face sideways.

Giselle’s gaze was fixed on the Tsuchinoko.

The Tsuchinoko, having bitten too hard into the coat, had grown exhausted within that short span, and its jaw movements had slowed to one-fifth of its previous speed.

“Do you see every insignificant snake as equal to IF-017-1? How long will this go on? Your reputation is dropping because of this kind of behavior.”

“…I’ve acted disgracefully. My apologies.”

Giselle bowed her head.

With that, Weilan returned to her seat, crossing her legs.

“So, disregarding the rules, what do you think, Giselle, former supervisor of IF-017 research? Why do you think IF-017 left this behind?”

“IF-017’s intention, you say….”

Giselle thought deeply with a blank expression before finally speaking.

Just as Weilan was about to listen intently,

“I don’t know.”

“What?”

“I don’t know. The current junior researcher responsible for IF-017 probably knows more about its thoughts and tendencies than I do. I apologize for being unhelpful.”

“You damn woman! Was that all you had to say after keeping me waiting for so long…!”

Just before grabbing her collar,

Weilan clenched and unclenched her mechanical arm repeatedly, asking Giselle,

“Isn’t there a regulation allowing severe punishment for a Gamma Rank mocking an Alpha Rank?”

“…No such clause exists.”

“What am I supposed to do then?”

About five minutes later,

Long Weilan, gently stroking the exhausted Tsuchinoko with a subtle smile, lingered behind.

Meanwhile, Giselle Hartmann exited the tent with the assistance of a medic from the ‘Siegfried’ unit, dabbing at her bloody nose.

“Even though there’s no such regulation…”

—–

The Betrayer Snake hid from the unprecedented existence.

A white, small creature that inexplicably walked on the surface of lava with loud thuds.

There was only one place it could hide from such a being:

Inside the lava.

The Betrayer Snake, known as IF-684 to lesser beings, chose self-recontainment.

‘Only one left now; shouldn’t I stop here?’

Thud-thud.

The presence drew closer.

Since it needed to breathe, its face remained partially above the lava.

It couldn’t stay hidden forever.

Especially since the approaching presence was heading straight toward it.

The Betrayer Snake finally leapt out of the lava.

—Bang. Creak, bang. Creak, bang.

The sound of its forelegs stepping forward had an unusually long interval.

It couldn’t be helped;

The Betrayer Snake had only one remaining leg—its left foreleg!

All the others had been severed.

All by that unprecedented being. In an instant.

It approached, stepping lightly on the lava surface.

“No… Nooo…!!”

The Betrayer Snake couldn’t escape.

Before it could even think of fleeing, its last remaining left foreleg was already rolling on the ground.

It hadn’t died.

With the fragment of the gem held securely, dismemberment wouldn’t kill it.

Thus, it felt all the more wretched.

Once capable of resurrecting everything beneath its wings with fire and death, it was now reduced to flailing helplessly on the ground.

With a thud.

The Betrayer Snake, finally reverting to its primordial form, crawled along the ground and shed hot tears.

“This is too cruel…”

The unprecedented being stood before the Betrayer Snake.

Unreasonably, the gem was still nowhere to be seen.

Having already realized it couldn’t be possessed,

And knowing it couldn’t be destroyed,

It simply wanted to avoid it.

Which seemed impossible.

Upon meeting the Betrayer Snake’s eyes, the unprecedented being paused, resting its chin in thought, then transmitted this notion:

“Ah, now you look more familiar. Your limbs were too long before.”

The expression on its face was far too cheerful.

Like…

…someone who had finally dealt with a mosquito buzzing all night.

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