Volume 2 Chapter 28 Teleporter No. 47
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
The next day, I headed from L.A. airport to Harry Reid airport near Las Vegas, and from there, we jumped into an army chopper and dove into the Nevada desert.
And sure enough, there was just one runway that looked like it was smack dab in the middle of nowhere, and the chopper landed there.
All there was around was the runway, a control tower building, and a hangar for aircraft──nothing else in sight… Guided by Mr. George, we entered the control tower, and right in the middle of the hall was an elevator.
”This is it. The whole facility is underground.”
Mr. George explained with a chuckle, and I got it──this was a secret base.
I can’t believe such a place actually exists.
We kept going down, and when we finally stopped with a thud, the elevator’s meter pointed to 20 floors below ground, where a middle-aged woman in a lab coat was waiting.
”Colonel George Anderson. We’ve been expecting you. And you must be Sir Yuuta and Lady Claudel. Lady Claudel is… an elf, right? First time I’ve seen one. Oh, my apologies!”
”Ah, well, since they’re our guests, let’s be polite, Dr. Mathius. So, where’s No. 47?”
”Yes. They just finished lunch and are currently napping in their room.”
”Wow. Sounds like they might get a bit chubby.”
Mr. George joked.
”But my weight hasn’t changed since I got here.”
Haha, this guy.
Dr. Mathius, right? He seems pretty serious.
Led by Dr. Mathius, we moved deeper into the facility, but for being so far underground, it didn’t seem that big.
”I thought a secret base would be larger, but it’s surprisingly small.”
”Yes, Mr. Yuuta. There aren’t many researchers here, and the research is highly classified and limited. So, we don’t need a large facility just yet. The reason it’s so deep underground is that it was originally built to contain the otherworldly beings that came here.”
Mr. George explained.
”A containment facility? That doesn’t sound very friendly, does it?”
”True. But now, our goal is friendly research. No. 47 just doesn’t have anywhere else to go, so they’re here in this containment facility, but they’re getting VIP treatment with 3 meals and nap time included.”
”Is that so? So, with No. 47, that means there are over 40 other people who have come here, right?”
”Ah, well, if you meet them, you’ll understand.”
”This way.”
Guided by Dr. Mathius, I and Ms. Claudel entered a small room about 5 meters square.
In one corner of the room, there was a bed, and someone was sleeping with their back turned… a human woman?
No… wait, she’s got a tail that looks kinda like a lizard!
”Lizardman!?”
Ms. Claudel shouted.
”Huh, Ms. Claudel. Lizardman?”
”Darling, just look! This person is a demon race. At first glance, she looks human, but that tail… there’s no mistaking it.”
”Demon race? So she’s not from the Zerlant Kingdom?”
”Seems that way.”
”Hey, Sheena. You’ve got a visitor.”
Dr. Mathius shook the Lizardman to wake her up.
”Ugh… Mathius. I’m sleepy…”
She still seemed a bit groggy, but… oh, she turned to look at us.
Wow, if you ignore the tail, she’s actually quite a beauty.
And she’s got a nice chest… Did Ms. Claudel notice my gaze? She kicked me in the leg.
”You’re a Lizardman, right? What’s your name?”
Ms. Claudel spoke in the local language, and the Lizardman seemed surprised.
”Huh!? Elf language!? Are you an Elf? Eeeeh!? Has help finally arrived!!”
”No, that’s not it. We can’t go home either. So… answer my question. What’s your name and affiliation!!”
”Ah, I’m Sheena. A junior researcher in the teleportation research team of the Apocalypse Empire’s army.”
”Empire? Teleportation research team? Huh. When did such an organization come about… well, whatever. So, Sheena. You’re also stuck here, right? How about we team up?”
While Ms. Claudel and Sheena were chatting away, Mr. George and Dr. Mathius were watching with their mouths agape.
”Hey, Mr. Yuuta. This is amazing. They’re actually communicating! Can you understand that conversation too?”
”Ah, yeah. I totally get it. So I figured out that person’s name is Sheena, but why No. 47? That’s a Japanese reading, right?”
”Oh, that’s just a pun from my dad, who’s a bit of a Japanophile. Sheena is the first resident of this facility, but he thought No. 47 (Sheena) would sound more prestigious than just No. 1…”
Haha, I see what you mean. Ms. Claudel was still chatting with Sheena, so I jumped into the conversation.
”So why are you back here again?”
”Our team from Apocalypse Kingdom was conducting fixed experiments on a naturally occurring gate. We messed up the experiment, and a few people got sucked into the gate. Next thing I knew, I was thrown into this world.”
”I see. But it’s impressive you made it out okay. I think I heard Sistemador say that naturally occurring gates are unpredictable…”
”Huh, you know Sir Sistemador? I worked with him for a bit at the military joint research institute.”
”No way!? What a small world. I mean, even in another world, it’s still small. Sistemador is now the top gate technician in the Zerlant Kingdom. We were sent here through him.”
”Really? Oh, but I’m so relieved to be able to talk to someone from my original world. These past few years, I’ve been treated well, but I couldn’t really communicate at all. But you know, I had this, so at least I managed to get by. Without this, I might’ve been shot or something.”
Saying that, Sheena showed me a tattered piece of paper. And looking at that paper, I was surprised again.
”Is this an excerpt from the Panarail dictionary?”
”Where did you get this?”
”Oh, this was made from a dictionary created by the Elves. Someone bought it at a bookstore in the Zerlant Kingdom, and then my team extracted it from there.”
Ha. Copyright doesn’t mean much, but maybe it helped someone over there.
Ms. Akari and Mr. Panarail would probably be happy to hear that.
”Hey, Mr. Yuuta. Ms. Claudel. I know you guys probably have a lot to talk about, but it’s a bit of a problem if you just run off on your own. Can we get Dr. Mathius involved and figure out how to move forward together?”
Mr. George said with a wry smile.
* * *
In the end, when it came to the technical stuff about the gate, Sheena was way more knowledgeable than me or Ms. Claudel, and I was just translating while she kept answering Dr. Mathius’s questions.
Sheena had this modern, trendy way of talking, but she was definitely a pro in her field.
”I see… Mana and tags… This is all new to me. So, how do you measure this Mana?”
Sheena answered Dr. Mathius’s question.
”Well, the folks over there have their differences, but most of them can feel Mana, and there are quite a few plants that react to it too. We use that property to…”
Whoa, that’s interesting.
This is really helpful for me.
For a few days, we went through those technical explanations, and for now, Dr. Mathius’s questions came to a halt.
Finally, the topic turned to our return.
”Hmm. Even with the tag, if there’s no gate… but I get it. The tag is like a directional indicator for dimensional coordinates, right? You set the coordinates for the return location first and then take it with you, but what if we jump into a gate that naturally appeared here with the tag? Would the coordinate specification not work?”
Sheena said casually.
”Is that really true?”
”Wait, hold on. But what happens if the specified coordinates are invalid? Ah, that’s not good. Your body would disappear.”
”What the heck? That wouldn’t work.”
”But, you know, if we know there’s a gate open over there, we can reset the tag’s specified coordinates to that.”
”Oh, that’s good. Then we can go to the underground of the Royal Palace…”
”But that’s not gonna work. Just because it’s closed here doesn’t mean it’s still valid over there.”
”…So, does that mean we just have to wait until the original gate opens again? I brought extra tags just in case something like this happened…”
”Don’t lie! You didn’t think of this!”
Ms. Claudel shot back at me.
”Haha. But Yuuta, 3 tags is really a job well done. Once we get a handle on the gate, I can safely head back over there. Ah, I wonder if my parents and sisters are doing okay,”
Sheena said, sounding nostalgic.
”Yeah, I guess. If only Yuuta had brought the measuring device he uses over there…”
”Don’t say crazy stuff.”
”Well, then there’s no choice. As soon as we find a naturally occurring gate, let’s all jump in without tags!!”
”Don’t say crazy stuff… or maybe you should. I mean, Ms. Akari and I did fall into the gate without tags at first.”
”Hmm. But still, that’s risky. Yuuta really made it over there like that. Well, a good number of people ended up over there too, but if things went south, they could’ve been wandering in another dimension.”
Sheena said that, and I couldn’t help but feel grateful again for the luck that Ms. Akari and I had.
Man, we finally meet with Sheena, but it looks like the road back is still going to be tough.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.
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