“You can’t. This is as much as you’ll know,” Sir ZiL stated before tapping on a holographic keyboard.
Trrooiiinnn~ Zhrrrii~ Zhrriii~
The holographic squares began to disappear one after the other and returned back to the holographic file stationed by the side.
“Why don’t you continue the research in secret?” Gustav questioned.
“Because I can’t… First of, it’s too risky, I don’t want them threatening me again. Secondly, I just can’t because the third and fourth quarter of my research was confiscated by the government,” Sir ZiL stated.
“They confiscated it?” Gustav was surprised since Sir ZiL didn’t mention this before.
“Yes, they really wanted me to stop. I was able to hide away the second quarter in another facility located in Brihuman City, but without the collective information from the third and fourth quarters of my research, it would be impossible for me to continue it,” Sir ZiL explained.
“Oh, I see,” Gustav understood now as he stood by the side with a contemplative expression.
“I spent a lot of time and resources in gathering all those information… Alas this happened,” Sir ZiL chuckled lightly with a tone of disappointment.
“Can I get the second quarter of your research?” Gustav asked.
“Hmm, why?” Sir ZiL asked.
“I need it… As well as the third and fourth quarter too, I’m going to continue your research,” Gustav voiced out boldly.
“What? Are you looking to get yourself in trouble?” Sir ZiL questioned with a worried tone.
“It’s necessary. I find out more on this,” Gustav responded.
“Not at the expense of getting yourself killed,” Sir ZiL shook his head in disapproval.
‘Pretty much at the expense of getting myself killed since I will get killed if I don’t gather more information on this,’ Gustav thought since he couldn’t voice it out.
“I’m not so easily killable… Just tell me where I can find them,” Gustav insisted.
Sir ZiL could see the look of conviction on his face, which was the type that said, ‘I have nothing to lose,’
Sir ZiL, on the other hand, had a lot to lose which was one of the reasons he never went against the government.
*Sigh*
“Alright then,” Sir ZiL finally gave in.
“The second quarter doesn’t have a lot of information. It’s mostly contains footage from my journey across space, but it’s still crucial to get it…” Sir ZiL began speaking.
“You’ll need to visit the pharmaceutical branch I have in Brihuman City to get that. I don’t want to have it moved due to the risk of getting the research stolen or anything bad happening to it. I hid it safely there, encrypted and protected, but I’ll give you the passcodes so you can extract them when you visit,” Sir ZiL stated.
Gustav nodded in appreciation, “How do I get the third and fourth quarters of your research?” He proceeded to ask.
“Like I told you before, it was confiscated by the government so unless you can break into the bureau of cities research center, you can’t get them,” Sir ZiL said with a dismissive expression.
“The bureau of cities research center? The one at the epicenter of earth?” Gustav inquired.
“Yes… As you may know it is heavily guarded and have so many sections so it’s borderline impossible to get in and find my research,” Sir ZiL stated.
“Hmm, I never knew I’d have to go against the government this early… I guess it was inevitable,” Gustav mumbled.
“What was that?” Sir ZiL asked.
“Nothing… Thanks for the information,” Gustav smiled in response.
Sir ZiL was a bit creeped out by the smile since Gustav never smiled.
“The third and fourth quarter of my research are the cream of the crop. The third one explains how a warp demolator comes into existence, how it looks, and a few untested prediction methods.
The fourth quarter is uncompleted, but that was when I was tracing planet Humbad’s supposed new location using the specs of matter left in space by the warp demolator,” Sir ZiL explained.
The first half of Sir ZiL’s statement made Gustav very intrigued, but the second half truly got him on his tippy toes because that was something he truly needed to complete one of his five-year quests.
“Interesting… Looks like I need to visit Brihuman City soon,” Gustav voiced out.
Sir ZiL could not understand why Gustav was so interested in this, but a part of him was glad that his research might finally be continued.
He was still astonished that Gustav was able to grab onto everything and understand so soon when they had only been speaking about this for an hour or so.
With this newly gathered info, Gustav left Greyscale Pharmaceuticals and went back to the penthouse.
He wanted to digest the info more and bring up his own theories from them as well.
–
He arrived back in the penthouse and moved straight to his room after a brief discussion with Boss Danzo and Charisas.
‘This was why the clue said to speak to Sir ZiL… You knew about his research,’ Gustav said internally.
(“Not knew, per se, more like I perceived it,”) The system responded.
‘Is it safe to say you know everything about the research… It would save us a lot of trouble if you reveal everything to me right now,’ Gustav voiced in his head.
(“Unfortunately no, I do not. Some encrypted data are set to detonate and scramble their contents if I try to extract info from them so you have to do this yourself,”) The system responded.
‘Bummer,’ Gustav sighed internally.
[Yearly Quest Has Been Issued]
Just as Gustav was thinking, a system notification appeared in his line of sight.
[Successfully Infiltrate The Bureau Of Cities Research Center and get Scientist ZiL’s confiscated research]
‘As expected,’ Gustav wasn’t really surprised to see this quest.
pan,d a-n0vel,c-o-m This just meant the system was practically aware of everything going on in the world but would only reveal some things to Gustav or lead him using quests if it was related to their goals.
Gustav knew it would take longer if he had to infiltrate a government-based facility and steal confiscated research.
He would have to make good plans so he could get away without any consequences.
