In the wake of the evening's unsettling events, Erik perched on a nearby rooftop, the fantastic night breeze gently caressing his face. The distant hum of the city served as a backdrop, filling the air as he grappled with the revelations he'd uncovered.
Doran Stedman had always been an enigma, but now he loomed even larger and more menacing in Erik's mind. Erik wrestled with the motives behind Doran's dark operations.
What could drive someone to engage in such heinous activities—kidnappings, experiments, and the trade of brain crystals? Was it the allure of power, the greed for money, or some other insidious goal that Erik couldn't quite fathom? The thought that people like Doran existed harboring such malevolence was deeply unsettling.
Yet, what had truly rocked Erik to his core was the unexpected involvement of Uncle Benjamin. The image of him in that video replayed incessantly in Erik's mind. Uncle Benjamin had been a pillar in his life.
This trusted figure had offered some semblance of stability during his formative years. What could possibly link him to a man like Doran? And why?
The face of Benjamin in the video was familiar yet altered. The rugged features, the chiseled jaw, and the signature goatee were all there.
Still, his eyes held a new hardness, a grim resolve Erik had never seen before. It was evident that Benjamin was more than just an observer; he was deeply implicated.
This led Erik to question the very fabric of his past. How had their lives veered so far apart that they found themselves on opposite ends of a perilous situation?
Could it be that Benjamin had always harbored this latent darkness, and Erik had simply been too young or naive to perceive it?
Frustration surged through him as he ran his fingers through his hair. The questions were piling up, and answers were in short supply.
Sitting high above the city, Erik's eyes looked distant as he sank deeper into his thoughts. The whirlpool of memories and newfound information made him feel on the brink of an abyss, teetering dangerously close to falling in.
<Is all of this connected?> Erik pondered, his thoughts turning inward. <That day, when Uncle Benjamin took me to lunch, I returned to find my home ransacked. Was someone searching for something specific? Maybe the biological supercomputer?>
The memory of that violation, of seeing his personal space invaded and belongings strewn about, came flooding back. Even then, a younger and less experienced Erik had sensed that there was more to the story.
<Could that incident be tied to my father's sudden return?> he wondered. His dad's unexpected reappearance had been jarring, and now the timing seemed too coincidental to ignore. His father had always been a mystery, burdened by some unspoken secret he never shared.
<Is it possible that what those intruders were looking for is connected to what Uncle Benjamin is up to in Etrium?> Erik's mind raced, drawing lines between dots he'd never thought to connect.
The enigmatic circumstances surrounding his father's return, the unsettling incident at his home, and now Uncle Benjamin's association with Doran Stedman seemed to be pieces of a larger, more ominous puzzle.
Erik had looked up to Uncle Benjamin for years, placing unwavering trust in him. Now, he was wrestling with a jigsaw puzzle whose pieces refused to fit neatly together.
<There's so much I don't understand. So many hidden truths...> A tightness gripped Erik's chest, each heartbeat amplifying the storm of emotions within him.
<Who originally created the biological supercomputer? Why did my dad speak in such cryptic terms about the future of humanity?>
As the night wore on, Erik felt he was standing at the intersection of truth and deceit. He knew he had to delve deeper, to peel away the layers of history to make sense of the present.
Uncovering these truths would undoubtedly be challenging, but he was steadfast. The search for answers had become deeply personal, and retreat was no longer an option. The mysterious video was merely the beginning.
Erik's thoughts circled back to the building where he had encountered Doran. Within those walls, he had stumbled upon Doran's dark operations and, potentially, Uncle Benjamin's involvement.
He would have to rely on his biological supercomputer to get a closer look. <Connect me to the building's internal cameras,> he mentally commanded.
[ACKNOWLEDGED. INITIATING SEARCH FOR DEVICES THROUGH THE INTERNET. SEARCH COMPLETE. ESTABLISHING CONNECTION.]
Erik waited for the biological supercomputer to complete the task. The wait was terrible, as Erik couldn't wait to see the guild do its job and kill these fuckers as soon as possible. In the meantime, his biological supercomputer combed through the plethora of electrical pulses around the building and successfully gained access to the building's surveillance camera feeds.
Corridors, rooms, and stairwells were some of the things Erik could see through images that flooded his mind. The complex layout of the building was laid out before him in front of him like a digital maze. He saw security personnel patrolling the corridors, their conversations apparently normal.
However, the young man knew that something was bound to happen sooner or later, maybe in a couple of seconds, and these people, these pieces of shit, were unaware of the destiny awaiting them.
The technicians appeared deeply involved in time-sensitive conversations or examinations in the other rooms. Their posture seemed okay, indicating that, at least on the surface, these people didn't find out about Erik's recent incursion. That was a good thing.
He zoomed in further, searching for Doran, who was likely still in the underground lab. At moments, Erik felt a jolt of anxiety as if he'd been discovered—a guard staring directly into a camera, a technician tweaking a feed. His heart leaped into his throat each time.
Still, it was clear that these people, or no person in the world, could detect the biological supercomputer unless they were in front of him and detected the weird mana fluctuations it released.
It became increasingly clear that whatever was happening inside that building was of monumental importance. Erik realized that the intricate web of deceit and subterfuge was far more extensive than he had initially thought.
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