The Deputy Director of the 7th research center, Brian, had ignored the corporation’s orders and went ahead with his own recklessness. The militarized monster avatars driven by soldiers — the secret beta testers — had been overcharged far beyond the allowed values, and nearly all of them had been deployed into the fight at Yggdrasia.
And at that battle, they had been wiped out by a large-scale frost attack. The majority of the soldiers had begun to display signs of mental instability. They had to be hospitalized in an isolation ward affiliated to the facility.
And the man behind it all, Brian. Possibly as a reaction to improper use of a VR device, his old wounds had abruptly worsened, leading to the loss of both his eyes and arms. Combined with the delirium he showed, Brian had been transferred to a specialized isolation ward.
“Well then, do your best, Audrey.”
She sighed.
With Brian now hospitalized, his secretary and chief researcher, Audrey, had been appointed the interim Deputy Director.
Despite her youth, being only in her late twenties, she was chosen thanks to her familiarity to the current experiment and workplace. But more importantly, she was chosen after most of the other candidates had run away with tails between their legs when they learned of Brian’s fate.
The Director, an old man who had gained his station through politics, showed up at the research center after about half a year’s absence, looking like he was about to go golfing afterwards. And after handing the metaphorical keys of the facility to Audrey, he immediately made himself scarce.
As the 7th research center’s acting Deputy Director, Audrey was practically the boss now. All the same, things weren’t looking optimistic.
The World Tree’s Saplings, precious mana sources for the corporation, were being destroyed. Attempts to stop the culprit didn’t so much fail as blew up on their faces. If things didn’t change, the 7th research center’s mana avatar development project would soon find itself in trouble.
“…no other choice, I suppose.”
Audrey made the decision to offload a part of the work to another department, even if the researcher inside her was railing against the prospect.
More specifically, the 7th research center would now only be working on the development of militarized monster avatars. The magical weapon project, which had been expanded thanks to Brian’s savviness, and the capture of the rabbit beastman girl responsible for it all would now be inherited by the 4th research center, the original owners of the magical weapons project before it was transferred to the 7th.
“Hah! Brian snatched the project out of our hands, and now look at what happened! That world had dragons with over ten thousand combat power. You people should have expected the same sort of opposition. Well, it’s back in professional hands now. Just watch us,” a plump man said, sneering.
Audrey had turned the magical weapon project data over to the Deputy Director of the 4th research center. He heaped snide remarks and sarcastic complaints at her all the while, but considering it was all true, there was nothing she could say in response.
But she had something else more important to worry about. She needed to foist the job of capturing the rabbit to some other research center, no matter what else she must give up.
The 7th research center had had their data ransacked by the 4th, yet the staff members had stayed strangely quiet about it.
All of them, including Audrey, had once been the target of the White Rabbit Girl’s displeasure. And none of them wanted to be her enemy.