*
GenTek’s sealed research sector was already as chaotic as an overheated factory, despite it being morning. A heavy metal door opened with a clank, letting out a low, dry sound.
As that single sound echoed through the entire corridor, the researchers and Blackwatch soldiers began moving at once.
Everyone’s steps were quick, their movements rough, and their faces uniformly stiff. It was as though the entire facility were being pressed down by an invisible countdown.
Yet amid that turmoil, there was one person who did not move.
Alex Mercer.
He sat alone at a desk in one corner of the laboratory.
On the surface, he was merely turning over reports on his desk, but his eyes were bloodshot with the red veins characteristic of someone who had not slept all night.
But even through his exhaustion... his gaze gleamed strangely. Looking as if he had forgotten all fatigue, he read the documents again and again.
[10:00 A.M. M-01 Test Commences.]
When that announcement rang through GenTek’s internal broadcast system, the research sector immediately stirred. Some people drew in breaths, while others openly grimaced.
"They’re... really doing this?"
"They’re insane. They’re basically striking a match over a bomb."
Several researchers exchanged frightened looks as they whispered among themselves.
Rather than a conversation, it was closer to the noise of fear spilling out.
"He’s still just a child. He can barely even walk properly... and they’re giving him stimulation at that level?"
"What if he goes berserk? We could all be wiped out in this room!"
"Then we need to find a way to stop him! That’s the problem right now!"
Their voices kept rising, and some were trembling so badly they could not even continue speaking.
The accompanying Blackwatch soldiers pretended not to see the spectacle, letting out only deep, brief sighs.
"Enough. Save the complaints for later and get moving, Doctors."
One soldier said it as though he could not be bothered.
"We’re not here to stop this."
Yet at the center of that confusion, the person maintaining the greatest calm... no, a calm closer to madness, was Alex Mercer.
He shut the report with a smack. Then the corners of his lips rose ever so slightly, too faintly for anyone to notice.
"At last... it begins."
No one heard that brief murmur.
Even as he forced his exhausted body upright, Alex walked toward the laboratory with curiosity and greed mingled in his eyes, like a child standing before a new toy.
*
Morning in GenTek’s containment ward began as it did on any other day.
But... the air had a different density. Something thick and clammy blanketed the entire corridor. Not the smell of virus or blood...
It was the peculiar atmosphere people gave off when they were trying to hide their fear.
I sat up in bed and listened carefully.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
The sound of someone’s combat boots.
There were far more than usual. As though the whole corridor were covered in armed troops,
the sound of heavy metal pressing into the floor continued without end.
"...It’s especially noisy today."
I rolled my shoulders. The body beneath my hospital gown was still light and small. But the sensation writhing underneath it was as ominous as ever.
Something shifted ever so slightly beneath my skin.
The faint movement of the unidentified virus growing inside me. My father and some of the researchers called it DX-1118 M.
As always, it reminded me of a strangely familiar alienness, and of something that had not yet awakened.
Then it happened.
Clank.
The containment room’s lock disengaged. The door opened, and three Blackwatch soldiers entered. All of them wore full protective gear, and their armaments were a grade above the usual.
The soldier at the front spoke as if issuing an order.
"Test Subject M-01. Prepare to move."
"...Now?"
"That is an order. Follow us."
They had neither the intention nor the need to answer my question. As I slowly put on my slippers, I spoke.
"My father isn’t coming today."
Without even turning his head, the soldier answered curtly.
"The doctors are already standing by. You’re the only one we need."
The doctors.
For some reason, those words sent a cold sensation down my spine. Something was subtly trembling in the air around me.
‘Anxiety... anticipation... and fear?’
Only now could I sense why the researchers could barely breathe.
I quietly let out a breath, then raised my head.
"All right. Lead the way."
The Blackwatch soldiers surrounded me from the front and rear as we headed into the corridor.
*
The moment I stepped out of the containment room, I immediately felt the changed atmosphere.
Troops were stationed throughout the entire corridor.
The researchers were pressed against one wall, whispering among themselves, and some would not even meet my eyes. Either way, I could hear all their emotions.
Anxiety.
Disgust.
Fear.
Or... anticipation.
I let those foul-smelling emotions wash past me and walked slowly onward.
Then, at the very end of the corridor, I felt two familiar gazes.
One had eyes as red as blood.
Minazuki Kir, whose emotions always seemed gentle and relaxed, yet could never be read.
And beside him was another gaze, quietly watching me as though analyzing me. Cold gray-blue eyes. Another GenTek researcher, who did not bother concealing his unmistakable madness and genius.
Alex Mercer.
The two of them looked as though they had awaited this day for a long time.
Kir smiled gently.
That smile still held the warmth of a father, but somehow... it looked gloomy and dark.
"You’re here, Kiria."
Alex Mercer, by contrast, had an eager gleam as though he had no need to hide anything.
"Good. Everyone’s here. Now it truly... begins."
I silently looked at the two of them.
Kiria, what is inside you?
Eyes that looked like they were going mad with the desire to know.
And conversely, eyes that had no intention of giving up anything.
The two were looking in completely different directions... yet they resembled each other strangely.
I quietly opened my mouth.
"...A test, right?"
The corners of Alex’s mouth curled up slightly.
"That’s right. The first one."
Looking into my eyes, Kir spoke softly.
"Don’t worry. Today’s... is a very simple test."
But somehow,
those words did not reassure me in the slightest.
And I knew it. Today’s test was not a simple experiment.
Too much preparation.
Too many troops.
Air that was far too suffocating.
This was the moment something was about to move for the first time.
And it would move...
in a direction no one could predict.
*
On the way to the testing area, the atmosphere between Kir and Alex changed first. They appeared to be walking in the same direction, but the two had never held the same purpose.
Kir’s gentle smile remained in place.
But somewhere within that smile,
there lingered a repressed shadow, concealing something.
Alex Mercer, on the other hand, did not hide his emotions at all.
As though he had lived for this very moment, he openly displayed his faintly trembling fingertips, darting eyes, and mad curiosity that could not be concealed.
I walked quietly, watching the two of them.
It was strange.
Though both were interested in the unidentified virus inside my body, their approaches were completely different. They were symmetrical, like water and fire.
Kir seemed to want to protect me,
while Alex seemed to want to dig me open.
And just as the tension between them was about to reach its peak—
the iron door opened.
Slowly, yet with an overwhelming presence. Heavy equipment, with specialized armor plates layered over a black tactical uniform. Flowing black hair, but with a distinctive two-tone streak of white running through it.
A military helmet concealing her face. And a grenade launcher mounted on her left arm, quietly emitting mechanical sounds.
A Blackwatch Specialist.
But... she looked different somehow. Long hair, a protruding chest, a narrow waist—there was no way she was male.
Judging by her appearance, this had to be Captain Cross from the original work. But she looked different.
‘A woman?’
Captain Cross was not a woman. The Specialist who had driven Alex into a corner in the original PROTOTYPE game was definitely a man.
‘Why? I only set up the protagonist. I never particularly changed the settings of original characters like Cross, did I?’
His thoughts were a tangled mess. But before that...
Kiria looked at the female Specialist approaching him.
*
Gina Cross.
When she appeared, even the air in the passage seemed to freeze. Even the soldiers unconsciously straightened their backs, while the researchers drew sharp breaths.
Gina approached with expressionless steps, then stopped precisely in front of Kiria.
"...M-01."
A moment passed.
Her emotionless voice sounded from behind her helmet.
"I will be your opponent in today’s test."
Kiria swallowed naturally.
The pressure he felt instinctively. She was not someone hiding her strength, but someone who could draw it out and unleash it at any moment.
And above all—
she was a living weapon.
Gina turned her gaze to Kir.
"Doctor. Are you truly going to proceed with this test?"
"Of course."
Kir’s smile did not change.
But his voice was colder than usual.
"The child is strong. He’ll adapt faster to this sort of thing, if anything."
Gina tilted her head ever so slightly.
"Adaptation... Have you considered the risks if he fails to adapt?"
Alex immediately cut in.
"Risk is the natural price of research.
And he will not fail."
Cross glanced at Alex, then looked back and forth between Kir and Kiria.
"...Understood."
Yet the subtle tension did not leave her posture.
Gina Cross was the elite of Blackwatch’s elite. A human weapon unmoved by emotion. The very fact that she was talking about a test subject’s safety meant the situation was already abnormal.
Kiria looked at her silently.
Then it happened.
When Cross’s eyes swept over me, an electric sensation ran with a snap along my spine.
Dangerous. It was not the reaction of a child’s body; the instinct of the virus writhing beneath my skin was warning me.
‘This woman...
is the strongest human I have ever met.’
Then Alex spoke with a satisfied smile.
"Good. That expression... that’s it, M-01."
I turned to look at him.
"What do you mean?"
Alex whispered coldly, yet happily.
"It means your body has begun to react."
Kir furrowed his brow slightly at those words.
"Mercer. You’re rushing things."
"No."
Alex stopped walking as he spoke.
"A virus does not rush. It simply... awakens naturally."
As he finished speaking, Cross’s left-arm grenade launcher quietly made a single activation sound.
Ready.
Kiria drew a small breath.
There was no avoiding this now.
—Today, for the first time, something inside me would be tested.
*
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