“Victor von Heinrich…”
Master Haber repeatedly muttered this name, his voice full of unbelievable emotion.
“One of His Majesty the Emperor’s enlightenment tutors, the Empire’s top Necromancy master, is actually… the General Director of the Gauls’ ‘Sentinel Project’…”
Obviously, the impact this news brought him was far greater than the impact of discovering a secret underground research institute.
Morin didn’t speak; he just quietly looked at Master Haber’s face, which was twisted by shock and anger.
He could understand the other party’s feelings. After all, this was comparable to XX faking their death…
However, at this moment, Morin’s attention was drawn to another matter.
Because just as the two were talking, a new piece of intelligence also refreshed in the [Intelligence] tab of the system screen.
[Victor von Heinrich is currently trapped on the second floor of the underground research institute, Area D: Monitoring and Command Center.]
Second floor?
Morin was somewhat surprised, but still maintained his expression management.
He didn’t expect this key figure to be on the floor below the research institute, and even “trapped”?
This state was obviously also quite unusual.
And the acquisition of this intelligence also instantly activated the thoughts in his mind.
A living traitor holding all the core secrets of the “Sentinel Project”—his value was far higher than a pile of cold archive materials.
Of course, Morin still calmly suppressed this key intelligence in the bottom of his heart for the time being, without revealing it to anyone.
After all, he couldn’t explain his cheat-like source of intelligence right now, and for someone with a “desire to share,” this was undoubtedly a kind of torture.
Fortunately, Morin’s willpower had improved a lot now, so he quickly adjusted his state and said to Master Haber in front of him: “Master, please calm down a bit. Now is not the time for shock and anger… We must send this news out immediately.”
Master Haber took a deep breath, forcing himself to recover from the massive shock.
He pushed up the glasses that had slipped somewhat on the bridge of his nose, the gaze behind the lenses becoming sharp again.
“You’re right, Lieutenant Colonel Morin… The value of this intelligence is inestimable; it must be reported to the Imperial high command and His Majesty immediately.”
The two quickly reached an agreement.
And Master Haber also immediately called over those Section III intelligence personnel who were still working hard in the piles of files.
It was only at this moment that Morin belatedly realized a detail.
After discovering this earth-shattering file, Master Haber’s first reaction was to come looking for him, instead of notifying these professional intelligence personnel nominally led by him.
This obviously had nothing to do with so-called “trust,” it wasn’t some remote corner, and the two sides had only known each other for a short time…
It instead made Morin realize that the relationship between the mage community of the Saxon Empire and the Imperial military might really be somewhat delicate?
“Everyone, the situation is like this…”
Morin quickly summarized the general content of the file to those intelligence personnel.
Unsurprisingly, the expressions on the faces of the Section III intelligence personnel were no better than Master Haber’s. Each one looked like they had heard a fairy tale.
“Master Heinrich… is still alive, and really defected?”
The Captain leading the team opened his mouth wide enough to fit an egg. The blood drained rapidly from his face, turning completely pale.
Seeing Morin somewhat puzzled by his change in expression, this Captain also added:
“To tell you the truth, Lieutenant Colonel Morin… The Army General Staff has always suspected that Master Heinrich did not die.”
“Oh?” Morin looked at him with great interest.
“It’s just that the direction of our suspicion before was thinking he might have… might have defected to the Britannians.”
“Because at some international magic exchange conferences before the incident occurred, this Master Heinrich had some contact with the Britannian mage representatives.”
“Thinking about it now, this is very likely to be a smokescreen he set up…”
The Captain’s tone became somewhat conflicted, obviously also realizing that the previous judgment of the intelligence department was ridiculously off the mark.
“It was also because we suffered from having no direct evidence, so the authorities could only announce to the public that he died in an accident.”
Hearing this, Morin couldn’t help shaking his head.
“They shouldn’t have directly announced his death back then,” he said in a low voice.
“This kind of official conclusive declaration of death gave him the best cover… allowing him to hide more conveniently in the darkness and do whatever he wants.”
Hearing this, Master Haber and those intelligence personnel all showed expressions of agreement and complexity.
An official death certificate becoming a traitor’s best amulet—this was truly too ironic.
“But it’s too late to say this now.”
Morin waved his hand, pulling everyone’s thoughts back to reality:
“The important thing is to send this news out first, along with the other materials we found.”
“This can be considered the first major gain of our operation this time.”
He looked around this massive archives room and continued:
“This is only the first floor of the underground research institute, and we haven’t even encountered any decent resistance yet. I have a premonition that the subsequent exploration will not be this calm…”
“So for these valuable pieces of intelligence, however much we can send out, we send out.”
Regarding Morin’s proposal, everyone naturally deeply agreed.
With the help of Master Haber, a professional, the intelligence personnel of Section III quickly selected a batch of the most valuable original documents from the vast sea of files.
They carefully packed these documents into the five large leather bags they carried with them, each one stuffed to bursting.
But for the collection of the entire archives room, this was still just a drop in the bucket.
Watching them frantically organizing those bags, Morin suddenly felt that those “loot and extract” games he used to play were not fun at all when applied to reality.
Especially this inventory management part, it was simply a disaster for OCD.
There were too many important materials they wanted to take away, but in reality, there was no operation like “nesting bags”…
After the intelligence personnel and Master Haber packed their bags and everything was ready, the team didn’t stay too long in Area A, but continued moving to the other areas for preliminary exploration.
In Area C, the Magitech Core, Water Storage Station, and Air Filtration and Circulation Center—these key facilities maintaining the operation of the entire underground base—were also completely empty.
All the machines were still running normally, emitting low humming sounds like the steady breathing of a sleeping giant beast.
Especially the Magitech Core, which should have had mages or magitech technicians stationed, one could only see the massive magic crystal stone in the center flashing and glowing like a breathing light.
“This world is essentially a giant RGB…”
But after Master Haber carefully examined that massive Magitech Core, his face became exceptionally ugly.
“This thing… has been running continuously without interruption for at least a month.”
He pointed to some overheated rune nodes on the core casing, his voice also becoming somewhat nervous:
“It’s very likely no necessary servicing and maintenance have been performed during this period.”
“A month?”
Morin, this guy who only knew how to use magic for combat, obviously didn’t know much about the operation of Magitech Cores.
Moreover, in his view, shouldn’t maintaining long-term operation be the most basic ability of this kind of power supply device?
“Is this very serious, Master?”
“Extremely serious!”
Master Haber’s tone brooked no doubt:
“Under normal circumstances, a Magitech Core of this scale needs a minor servicing at most every half a month, to inspect energy circuits and replace depleted magic crystals…”
“Every quarter, it even needs to be shut down for a thorough major servicing. During this period, auxiliary units provide temporary power supply.”
As Master Haber spoke, he pointed to a ring of small crystals around the room where the Magitech Core was located.
“With no mages or magitech technicians performing maintenance for such a long time, yet it’s still able to operate normally, this itself is already a low-probability event.”
His gaze swept over those flickering indicator lights, and he added worriedly:
“This also means that from now on, every minute next, this big guy could have any unpredictable problems.”
Morin felt a chill in his heart hearing this. He looked up at that massive core pulsing like a heart, as if he had already seen the image of it exploding violently and blowing the entire underground facility to the sky.
He couldn’t help but mutter in a low voice: “Please, whatever you do, don’t blow up on me…”
Master Haber seemed to have heard his muttering and shook his head with a bitter smile.
“Lieutenant Colonel Morin, up to now, no country, no mage organization, dares to guarantee that they completely understand all the problems regarding Magitech Cores.”
“It’s like an eccentric goddess; you never know if her next second will give you a smile or a slap in the face.”
This metaphor made Morin’s heart even heavier, and he also made a supplementary entry regarding “Magitech Cores” in the [Information] tab.
Currently, the Magitech Cores used by various countries were all developed independently on the basis of the “First Generation Magitech Core” of the Britannian Highland Mage Order.
So it could also be considered “enemy and us sharing the same origin” from a certain perspective.
As for how the Highland Mages developed the “First Generation Magitech Core,” the statement in the relevant entry was that a Highland Mage was inspired in a dream.
Because up to now, the system’s [Information] and [Intelligence] tabs had never provided any fake news, Morin still had enough trust in them.
So after seeing the content in the entry about Magitech Cores, only one thought remained in his mind.
“This is even more unreliable, damn it…”
Leaving Area C, which was like a buried time-bomb magic crystal, the team rushed to Area B without stopping.
This was the medical and experimental area of the entire research institute. The air was filled with a faint smell of disinfectant.
The first area explored was the Serum and Potion Laboratory.
Pushing open the heavy lead doors of the laboratory, an even stronger smell of potions hit their faces, making the few soldiers walking at the very front unable to help but cough.
For some unknown reason, the Britannians hadn’t explored this floor.
They hadn’t even explored this Serum and Potion Laboratory, which Morin and Master Haber considered highly valuable.
The entire interior of the laboratory could be said to be quite well preserved. Rows of experimental benches were filled with various bottles, jars, and precise glass instruments.
In several magically temperature-controlled storage cabinets, everyone found a batch of packaged new potions.
These potions were contained in glass tubes similar to ampoules. The liquid inside presented an eerie pale blue color, flashing with a bewitching light under the beams of flashlights.
“This is it!”
An accompanying Section III operative picked up a tube of potion, observed it carefully against the light, and an excited look appeared on his face.
“Lieutenant Colonel Morin, this is a homologous product to the samples you captured from those ‘Sentinel’ corpses on the Creil battlefield previously!”
Master Haber also walked over. He took the potion, shook it, and pulled out the stopper.
Then he took out a compact tool kit from his bag, used a slender glass rod to dip a tiny bit of blue liquid, and placed it on a special reagent plate.
As a few drops of different colored liquids dripped in, that touch of blue rapidly underwent a violent chemical reaction, ultimately turning into a deep purple.
“The magic potion test paper reaction is very violent, and extremely unstable.” Master Haber’s expression became serious, “But this also shows that the effect of this potion is no joke…”
On the other side of the laboratory, Morin and several soldiers found some scattered documents and item lists on the floor, as well as things similar to instruction manuals.
Judging from the records in these documents, these potions named the “PF-215” series were iterative products of the “PF-214” carried by those “Sentinels” on the battlefield previously.
As potent combat stimulants, they could indeed provide users with a massive “enhancement” effect for a short time.
They could significantly increase strength and stamina, and speed up nerve reaction times several times over; the effect was better than the previous “PF-214.”
But corresponding to this powerful effect were side effects that increased exponentially compared to “PF-214.”
The documents recorded with shocking text: After the drug’s effect passes, the user will fall into extreme weakness and mental lethargy. Moreover, besides physiological addiction, there was also psychological addiction…
“This is simply madness. So-called ‘iteration’ is just violently increasing the potion’s effects and side effects, right…”
Morin put down the document in his hand and rubbed his throbbing temples.
In order to pursue ultimate individual combat power, the Gauls had completely stopped treating these “Sentinels” as humans.
Compared to this potion, the “Pervitin (methamphetamine)” abused by soldiers during the war in the other world could only be described as child’s play…
It’s just that these two things were essentially the same, both trading soldiers’ lives and futures for temporary advantages on the battlefield.
“Take all these potions and relevant documents!”
Master Haber ordered everyone: “Collect as much as possible! The research value of these things is no less than the data we found in the archives!”
The Section III operatives immediately took action, and Morin also had the instruction unit soldiers come in to help.
Like hardworking bees, they swept away all the finished potions and research records they could find in the laboratory, carefully packing them into dedicated sample boxes.
At this time, the advantage of Morin bringing so many people “into the map” also showed.
If it were a small-scale team, they couldn’t even carry this many backpacks and dedicated sample boxes…
And these potions and documents, along with the materials collected previously in the archives, would be prioritized to be sent out of this danger-filled place.
Next, the team checked the Tissue Culture Room, Operating Room, and Rehabilitation Observation Room, these three areas.
In the Tissue Culture Room, the culture fluid in those huge glass culture tanks had become extremely turbid.
They were soaking some tissue samples that had completely lost vitality and rotted black, looking exceptionally disgusting.
The Operating Room was relatively clean, and several surgical records hanging on the wall proved that a modification surgery had been performed here at least a little over a month ago.
As for the final Rehabilitation Observation Room, they found some rehabilitation observation records of the subjects.
Those records detailed various adverse reactions of the experimental subjects after injecting potions and undergoing modification surgeries.
Including muscle atrophy, nerve necrosis, insanity, etc.; the content of every page was so shocking.
And the number of people who participated in potion experiments and modification surgeries was not a small number.
Or rather, besides modifying people with spellcasting talent into “Sentinels,” the Gauls had always been trying to stimulate the spellcasting talent of ordinary people through external forces, or make them possess magical affinity.
And this was exactly what Morin had been pursuing.
It’s just that the number of experimental personnel consumed on this latter research was more than ten times that of the former experiment.
As for the experimental results, Morin and the others failed to find relevant content on this floor.
After spending quite a bit of time confirming that there was no one else left on this floor and sweeping clean all valuable items, the team began to return along the way they came.
When they passed that spacious corridor again, a squad of instruction unit soldiers also escorted a Section III operative, moving toward the entrance direction they came from.
The backpacks and sample boxes carried by this operative and these soldiers were stuffed full of the core data and potion samples collected from the archives and laboratories.
Their mission, besides safely transporting these preliminary gains out and requesting the 2nd Platoon to detach another half-platoon of personnel to come in for support…
Most importantly, was to transmit the intelligence regarding Victor von Heinrich’s treason back to the rear immediately.
Morin stood in place, watching the figures of that group disappear into the darkness at the end of the corridor.
It wasn’t until the other party arrived at the entrance/exit doors and, according to prior agreement, sent a light signal with a flashlight confirming safety, that he breathed a sigh of relief.
“Alright, it’s time for us to go to the next floor.”
Morin turned around and waved at everyone behind him.
“Let’s go see exactly what kind of tricks that traitor is pulling down below.”
According to the system map and the structural diagram of the research institute found previously in the administrative center, there were a total of two roads leading to the second floor on this level.
One was going straight down from the massive material transit hall outside, through the fork of those two transport tunnels.
And the other was the personnel passage located inside the research institute, specifically for personnel passage.
The design of this underground laboratory was completely different from other types of buildings.
It didn’t consider any convenience of passage, let alone evacuation needs in case of fire.
From the first floor to the second floor, there were just these two lonely passages.
Once these two passages were destroyed, or artificially blocked, then the people trapped in the lower floors basically had no choice but to rest in eternal peace here.
In Morin’s view, although this design was full of danger, it could also be considered a simple and brutal supervision and defense mechanism.
After all, the research conducted here could not be leaked out.
“This way.”
Morin pointed to the fork leading to the personnel passage not far away.
The team continued to advance and soon arrived at the entrance of the passage leading to the second floor.
The layout here was similar to what Morin guessed. To facilitate supervision, a small sentry post was specially set up at the entrance.
It’s just that the sentry post was also empty.
However, on the floor at the entrance, many messy footprints and some bloodstains were found.
“It seems the surviving Coldstream Task Force Company soldiers most likely went down from here.” He turned and said to the others.
Although Morin had a natural resistance to doing any “splitting up” in this kind of environment, the current situation left him no choice.
Because this passage was their only retreat route after exploring deeper.
To ensure the main force could calmly withdraw when encountering danger, he had to ensure the unhindered state of this passage.
“Kahn!”
“Here! Sir!”
“Leave a combat squad, plus a flamethrower team, and control this place for me!”
“Yes! Sir!” Kahn immediately took the order and designated a squad of soldiers and two soldiers carrying flamethrowers to stay behind.
The remaining large group of several dozen people continued to maintain a compact combat formation and, under Morin’s personal lead, carefully stepped into that passage winding downward in an “L” shape.
The relatively dim setting swallowed everyone again.
The “L” shaped downward passage wasn’t long but felt exceptionally oppressive.
The walls and ceiling were all rough concrete, covered with crisscrossing conduits, like the blood vessels and nerves of a giant beast.
The team walked very slowly, everyone tightening their nerves to the extreme.
Morin, bearing [Mage Armor] and [Shield], walked at the very front, turning on a flashlight to illuminate the road ahead—this had almost become a default rule of the instruction unit.
Finally, after turning the last corner, a massive circular airtight blast door appeared before everyone.
This door was thicker and heavier than the main entrance on the first floor. The massive mechanical wheel lock on the door looked indestructible.
However, this door wasn’t completely locked tight but left a crack.
Because structurally, this thing shouldn’t be operable from inside the second floor… so those fleeing Britannians also didn’t have the ability to close it completely.
Under Morin’s signal, Master Haber stepped forward and cast a [Detect Magic], then shook his head at Morin.
After confirming there were no traps, Morin made a hand gesture to the soldiers behind him, signaling them to be on alert.
Then, he and another strong instruction unit soldier worked together, placed their palms on the cold door panel, took a deep breath, and violently exerted force.
“Creak—”
The heavy metal door made a tooth-aching friction sound and was slowly pushed open.
Just as the door was pushed open to a crack wide enough for a person to pass through—
“Bang!”
A crisp gunshot, without any warning, came from outside the door, exploding in this enclosed passage. The echo shook people’s eardrums until they hurt.
“Cover!”
Morin and the soldiers behind him crouched down almost by conditioned reflex, quickly pressing against the walls seeking cover.
Everyone was greatly startled by this sudden gunshot, and raised the weapons in their hands one after another.
Several instruction unit soldiers even directly hauled “VIP targets” like Master Haber and the Section III intelligence personnel behind them.
However, the anticipated rain of bullets did not follow.
Immediately after, continuous gunshots came from outside the door again, but it didn’t sound like they were shooting towards their side.
“Bang! Bang! Bang!”
“Boom!”
The gunfire was very messy, mixed with a few muffled explosions.
Morin and a few experienced veterans in the team listened sideways for a moment, and quickly exchanged a glance.
“They’re already fighting inside.”
A veteran lowered his voice, his face full of confusion.
“Listening to the characteristics of this gunfire, one of the sides should be using Lee-Enfields and Webley revolvers, most likely Britannians…”
“Then what about the other side? Gallic garrison?” another soldier guessed.
Morin didn’t speak. He frowned, carefully distinguishing the source and types of gunfire.
The situation became increasingly confusing.
These remnants of the Coldstream Task Force Company had just fled to the second floor and were already engaging in a firefight with someone?
Who was their enemy?
Although Morin really wanted to be cautious, having his several dozen men blocked here in this narrow personnel passage was undoubtedly also very dangerous.
Once any unforeseen event happened outside the door, or the enemy discovered them, it was highly likely to trigger a team wipe.
Not to mention, the purpose of them risking going deep this time was to figure out the secrets hidden in this underground research institute.
Now the secret was just outside the door. Although accompanied by great danger, there was no reason to shrink back now.
“Combat engineers, prepare to breach!”
Morin made a prompt decision and issued an order to the soldiers behind him.
“The rest follow up, maintain combat formation!”
Following his command, several combat engineers wearing enchanted breastplates and holding MP14 submachine guns immediately came to Morin’s side, forming a compact assault team.
As Morin waved his hand, they also carefully slipped out through the opened door crack.