Inside the research outpost.
Oliver and the soldiers waited, seated along the side, for the researcher's explanation. The demon was subdued; they needed more information to understand the situation at the research outpost.
"What exactly happened? Explain without omitting any details," Achara, who had been silent until then, stepped forward and asked.
The chief looked distressed as he was questioned. He sweated profusely, making his way to a nearby chair to sit.
"The demons attacked the base."
"When?"
"Yesterday evening. It was an attack from within. We realized the problem late at night when the communication systems malfunctioned."
"This was around the time another team from the base came here, correct?" The team leader interjected.
Another team had been sent to the research outpost to collect blood samples, in the name of a routine check-up. In reality, they were sent to collect samples for testing to detect demons.
"Yes, that's right."
"Continue."
"Yes," The chief wiped off the sweat from his forehead. "The demons had infiltrated the military and research personnel. Their target for this attack was the healing accelerant we were developing and the synthesis mechanism."
The chief paused after saying that.
His eyes lost focus as he tried to put his thoughts in order.
"They began their attack by disabling the communication system and temporarily freezing the authentication system while we were in our quarters."
As the chief spoke, the researchers' hands trembled slightly, a detail that didn't escape Oliver's notice.
Oliver quickly grasped the situation.
The chief was lying. The lab coats they wore served as evidence that they were concealing something.
'I understand why they would disable communication and authentication. But they claimed the demons attacked while they were in their living quarters. That might not be true. They were likely engaged in something else at that time. However, why would they hide it? Were they doing something they had to conceal from the military?'
'This is becoming complicated,' Oliver thought.
However, he didn't outwardly display his mistrust. It wasn't the right time.
Let them weave their lies before dismantling them piece by piece. Achara and the team leader also showed no outward reaction. Like him, they seemed to have detected the lies and were waiting for the researchers to make further errors.
"The outpost commander immediately responded and took action. He noticed unauthorized personnel within restricted areas and dispatched soldiers to subdue them. But at that time, we had no idea they were demons."
"We realized they were demons when one of the soldiers killed them."
"However, by then, it was too late. The demons had seized control of the monster storage facility in block 8. To gain time, they released the monsters into the tunnels connecting the facility."
Suddenly, the chief's face showed intense fear. Stuttering, he recounted the subsequent bloodbath.
There were approximately twenty researchers and forty military personnel in the facility. Most of them perished within minutes of the monsters' release.
The outpost commander rescued those he could and brought them to the command centre.
The chief and the others were among those he saved.
Then, he initiated the lockdown procedure and went to neutralize the monsters and demons before they could inflict further damage.
"That's all we know. The camera feeds inside the facility are non-functional, and there has been no communication with them since then," the chief concluded with a sigh.
As a vulnerable researcher, he perceived the events that transpired past few minutes as a descent into hell.
'Threw all the blame to demons and the commander that mismanaged the situation washing his hands clean. This guy was intelligent.' Oliver praised in his mind once the chief stopped speaking.
'If we didn't know any better, we would have believed it all.'
"Now, speak the truth." The team leader stepped forward and asked.
His eyes blazed as he scanned the faces of the research team.
Many people had died.
The researchers were involved, as much as the demons. Why else would they lie?
Furthermore, why were there so many monsters, a number capable of overwhelming the stationed soldiers?
There were numerous points of contention.
Normal soldiers would have believed them because of their limited understanding of the demons and military. But they were a special team who had worked under the headmaster, the S-ranked Thunder Emperor.
They had hunted and killed a lot of demons in their time of service.
For them, it was hard to believe that demons would take such drastic actions for healing solutions and some odd technology they were developing. There might be more to the story than meets the eye.
"..." The researcher's eyes sharpened showing wariness when the team leader said that.
"Why were there that many monsters inside the storage you speak of?" The team leader raised concern.
"They were part of our research."
"That many?"
"Yes." The chief quickly said to shoot down the doubt.
"Why are you wearing lab coats when wake up in the middle of the night?"
"We always dress this way."
"Where is the data for the healing solution stored?"
"Inside the computers in block nine, where the demons are."
"How many demons were there?"
"About five."
"Five demons created all this mess?"
"Yes. They used the monsters to do the dirty work."
"Ha ha…" The team leader laughed.
He was getting nowhere, and by the looks of it, the chief was uncooperative as ever. They were a tight-lipped bunch. When the soldiers isolated the researchers and asked similar questions, they were parroting the same thing the chief was saying. It seemed like they were prepared.
Meanwhile, Oliver quietly approached the chief and asked from the side, "Were you collaborating with the demons?" He closely observed the chief's expression and body language as he asked.
The chief's legs twitched.
"I can't understand why a demon would stay hidden with you. And when dealing with demons, people always show distrust against each other. But your team didn't care about any of that. When we entered, you acted scared, but were secretly happy, right?"
One by one, words flowed out of Oliver's mouth.
"Why else would you let us enter that easily? It was as if you didn't care if we were demons or not."
Oliver's accusation shook the chief. His body instinctively reacted and avoided his eyes.
'Got you!' Oliver said in his mind.
The rest of the soldiers, Achara included focused on him.
Although it seemed preposterous think that a human would collaborate with the demons, Oliver knew that something like this would become normal in the future. For greed, humanity was willing to do anything.