When Head Researcher Yukio Shiraishi arrived at the control room with security in tow, he found a scene of total chaos. One of the employees had opened the door that sealed off the underground village. Not stopping there, she had continued to open all the doors blocking ＡΩ’s progress along the way. It was unexplainable. A scenario where the staff went mad and simply let ＡΩ out into the world was beyond anyone’s imagining. They had no procedures for dealing with such a complication, so all they could do was address the developments as they came.

A young woman was operating the console intently. Occasionally, they would hear ＡΩ’s voice, and she would do as he said, like an idiot. The other staff members who had tried to stop her were lying on the ground around her.

“Can’t we lock her out of the console somehow?” Yukio asked the other employees standing nearby.

“We could, but...we can’t. Anyone who tries to get in his way ends up like that! Would you take that risk?!”

“This was ＡΩ’s work?”

There were no external injuries on the collapsed employees, and the woman operating the console wasn’t particularly athletic-looking, yet everyone around her was lying motionless on the floor. They were likely all dead.

“Yes. Anyone who even tried to stop her died the moment she looked at them!”

“That’s impossible...” Yukio muttered in shock. If ＡΩ was capable of that, there was no point in sealing it underground in the first place. Any time it wanted to leave, it could. He turned to one of the guards. “Do you have your gun?”

“Yes, but...”

“This is an emergency. I’ll take responsibility. Please shoot her.”

The guard was clearly nervous, but this wasn’t a normal research facility. The fact that a situation like this might occur was the reason they had guns in the first place, and they were trained well in the use of them.

The guard pointed his gun at the woman handling the console. But before he could even put his finger on the trigger, he fell to the ground.

Yukio immediately threw in the towel. “Well, we’re out of options, then, aren’t we? I never imagined he would be capable of doing something like this.”

-Volume 2 pages 254 and 255