Prohibited Experiment
"Aaaah!"
"Ohhhh!"
"Help!"
On the way to the broadcast room on the third floor was truly like hell.
Everywhere, there are students with cracked heads, and clones standing upright and immobile on the spot with smoke coming out of their heads. The survivors sat there, some wetting their faces until their tears ran dry, others vomiting, and others simply twitching in fear.
"Oh my... Do you think the experiment ends here?"
Minami said in a weak voice mixed with sobs to Risa, who is walking next to her.
"Hopefully."
Risa, like Kazuhiro, is extremely calm even in this situation. I really admire them.
"I guess this game continues."
Kazuhiro looks dignified at the head of the line.
"Suguru Anzai, was it? Who is he?"
"But he's in the broadcast room right now, isn't he? Why don't we just tell him to stop the experiment and that'll be the end of it?"
It was a reasonable conclusion for two idiots, but I knew it wouldn't work out that way. We regained logical thinking from a sense of relief that we survived the first experiment.
"I also think this experimentation continues."
Despite her own words earlier, Minami blurted it out. It seems that Minami also thinks this experiment is not over yet. However, she probably doesn’t know why she feels that way either.
The superficial feeling of wanting the experiment to be over, and this spine-chilling sensation deep in our hearts, are disturbing our minds.
"I wonder where his true intentions lie."
Kazuhiro did not even turn his head to look at us as if he is talking to himself.
"I don't know. Because he still only said human experimentation."
"But it is pretty futuristic, isn’t it? Like the clones and sound waves sent to our brains."
I forcibly joined Kazuhiro and Risa's monologue-like conversation. Because I do not want to be put in the same category as Keisuke and Shōta.
Yes, all humans are like this. Humans always think they can do more than others.
We all do it unconsciously, so we don't pay much attention to it, but maybe such human's dark traits hidden in ourselves will come to the surface in the near future.
Because earlier, the experiment was a confrontation in the genre we are best at. We all boast and show off to others what we are good at. Some people laugh it off, but others might feel sarcastic. If bringing these feelings out is the purpose of this experimentation…
I didn't say it out loud because I still had no evidence for such a theory of mine.
"Maybe they are testing to see who is more needed in this world, the clone or the human."
Kazuhiro said with a small voice.
While we were quietly considering our theories one by one, we arrived at the broadcast room.
"Let's get inside. Shōta and Keisuke, secure the door."
"You mean like using the cement?"
Keisuke's blithe face broke everyone's silence.
"What are you talking about? He means don't let anyone out."
"Haha, I’m just joking, you know."
While I was watching Keisuke and Shōta's comic dialogue, Kazuhiro already had his hand on the doorknob of the broadcast room, and slowly opened it.
"Nobody is here."
"Did he escape?"
"Hey, there is a door here."
Without me noticing it, Minami, who had been looking around inside pointed to the innermost wall.
"A secret door…"
Kazuhiro, Risa, Shōta, Keisuke, myself, and Minami entered the hidden door in that order.
Inside, the room is dimly lit like an attic and has a low ceiling. So Shōta, and Kazuhiro, who are pretty tall, had to bend down.
Kazuhiro groped for the light switch.
When the lights came on, we all turned our attention to one place at once.
It was written in blood-like red letters.
"Body, intellect, mind, obedience, strength, and technique."
Another word was written in katakana next to that mysterious text.
"Singularity?"
"What’s that?"
"If I remember correctly, it refers to a society dominated by AI."
Kazuhiro now spoke in a loud voice so that everyone could hear him clearly.
"Hey look! This is the mustard-flavor gas from earlier."
"What!"
"No! I don’t want to die here."
After saying those, a coward Keisuke, and Minami ran out from the hidden room.
"No, that's not what I mean. How do we call this? It's in the stuff you use for scuba diving."
"It’s a gas cylinder."
Risa was calm enough that she understood what Shōta was trying to say.
"That means Anzai was here, right? Is this room his hideout?"
"Hey, come here."
Minami's voice was heard from outside the room.
"Oops."
Shōta who first tried to leave the hidden room after hearing the voice, stumbled over a trash can that was right next to the hidden door and kicked it toward the entrance of the broadcast room that is on the left side.
"What are you doing?"
"It should be the guy who puts the box here to be blamed, not me."
Shōta and Kazuhiro quarreled with each other.
When I walked out of the hidden room, Keisuke was touching a radio-cassette player.
"Where did you get that?"
Minami answered my question cheerfully.
"I found it. Look, there's a cassette tape inside."
"Okay, let’s play."
Keisuke pressed the play button.
Then the tape inside began to spin and emit sound.
"zzz, my experiment was a success. As I predicted, humans will win this first showdown overwhelmingly... now let's start the next experiment."
It was the same mechanical sound as before, a robotic tone without emotion. The voice was then caught by a microphone that remained turned on nearby.
”Just now, I have revived the twenty-four human clones and instead stopped the clones that had triumphed over the humans. Among the total of forty-eight, I’ve sent half of them a new wave, instructing the humans to capture their own clones and the clones to capture their own humans. It is a game of tag in the common sense. In other words, those who can think normally should run away from the clone of themselves that is being manipulated. The time limit is approximately two hours from now until the school closes. Whoever loses this match will have their waves raised and be brain dead. Good luck."
We stood there, with eyes wide open.
There were two reasons for this.
One is that another new human experimentation has begun, which means our expectations have been betrayed. And the fear that Suguru Anzai can manipulate us at will at any time based on the content of the new experiment.
Another was the startling truth that by the time we arrived here, Suguru Anzai already knew the results of the first experiment and had recorded this tape in advance.
