5 Room 80

After getting inside his office, the PAD slowly wheeled his master towards the front of a huge screen that dominated the wall. The screen showed a straight line with a phone symbol in the middle, which means the calls are connected and that it's someone important on the other side of the line.

One turned to his side and gave a gentle smile. "Thank you. You may leave now."

The PAD was stunned for a moment when seeing the man's ethereal features. His silver hair was left loose from the knot and flowed gently over his shoulders. He wore an expensive looking suit that perfectly contrasted his pale complexion.

"Your welcome, Leader." The PAD gave one last bow before leaving the room.

Once the door closed, One went focused on his front. "My apologies for keeping you waiting, sir. We were just finished with the last experiment."

['How did it go?']

When the voice from the speaker came through, the straight line changed and moved like a wave made up of vertical lines with another horizontal line forming in between.

"Unfortunately, we once again failed to get the result we wanted. However, the results have proven to be beneficial in the end."

['And what results would those be?']

One smiled. "We managed to successfully extract a large amount of quantities inside the subject's brain."

['How much?']

He took a deep breath before answering. "At present, the total quantity is currently eighty percent which took us about twelve minutes for the subject to absorb the energy before taking his last breath."

['So our last subject was a male?']

"Correct. Two and Four were the ones who brought him in."

['I see, and I assume he was your main target?']

"Not quite sir. Actually they were choosing him on impulse since he was the witness to the murder of a mortal they were targeting. I already sent the pictures through your mail, in case you might want to take a look at both of them."

['What kind of crimes does the first target commit?']

"From what we found in his case files, the first target was an arsonist who had murdered two pensioners in their home around the rural area."

['What about the subject? Does he also committed a crime?']

One went silent for a moment thinking about the question until he spoke up again. "Yes he did. Before he could finish his primary school, he was sent to juvenile detention for seven years..."

Slowly, One lifted his head. "...His crime was a first degree murderer and the victims were his own classmates. All nine of them were found murdered."

The room remained silent as the only sound remaining was from the ticking clock that hung on the opposite wall.

['And where did you take the subject?']

"Eight decided to put him in Room 101."

['Changed the location.']

One was taken aback by that response. "Pardon, sir?"

['Instead of that place, put him in the Room 80.']

"Are you sure you wanted us to put him there? He has already passed away and it would be cruel of us to add more grief on him."

['You can not speak kindness after everything we have done to all those previous subjects. We have been taking most of innocent lives and we will never be forgiven for it.']

One nodded. "I understand, sir. Then, I shall let Nine's PAD be informed that the subject will be placed into Room 80."

['Good. Now if there is nothing else we need to discuss, I believe you should proceed with the experiment procedure.']

"Of course sir."

Silence filled the room as the screen went black. After taking his time listening to his surroundings, finally One letting out a deep sigh.

For unknown reason, One has lied to his master when in fact, all of them have decided to stop the experiment. They have no need for new subjects anymore since the machines are no longer used. Even if Eight wanted to repair it again, it would take another few years to fully fix it and the possibility for it to succeed is lower.

One pushed the button on the right side of the wheelchair and after a minute of waiting, the office's door once again opened.

"Were you expecting me, Leader?"

"Yes. I need you to send a message."

Hearing that, the PAD immediately understood his meaning and quickly took out the pager from his pocket. While listening to the Leader's instruction, he typed something on its small screen before his thumb pressed the send button.

<<5>>

BZZTTT~

The vibration coming from the right side of 98's pocket. The buzzing in her hand stopped as she dug into the pocket when the screen flashed to life and a message appeared right on the top right corner.

98's jaw dropped when looking at the pager and slapping her friend on the back. "Hey! There's a white text message coming. Does this mean it was send from the Leader?"

"Ow! Why did you hit me? White text? Yeah, I guess so. What does he say?"

Both of them read the message on the screen.

[Put the 25th subject in Room 80.]

"Room 80? I had never heard of this room before. Do you know where it is?" When 99 looked up, she could see the sparkles in her friend's eyes.

"I don't know why but I think today is the luckiest day for me."

99 frowned. "How come a person's death can be considered as your luck? Are you out of your mind?"

"I didn't mean that, geez! Don't you remember that Room 80 is a very restricted place where a lower class PAD like us wouldn't even get in. But now that we got the order directly from the great Leader himself, we are gonna go visit this forbidden location! Oh my God... I'm about to have an encounter that I'll never forget!"

99 sighed and rolled her eyes when her friend started screaming and jumping up and down with excitement. "Alright, alright. Calm down. Since you have saved this building map inside your system brain, then you should lead the way."

"Most pleasure! Come on! Oh I'm so excited!"

They left together with a skip in their step while pushing the stretcher towards the freight elevator, going up to the eighth floor.

"But why do you think the Leader suddenly changed the location? What's the difference between Room 80 and Room 101?"

She glanced at 98, who's making a thoughtful gesture.

"Well... hold on a second. How come you didn't remember everything that has been told to us in the first place? Were you not focusing on the Professor's lesson before?"

"I may have failed at my studies in the past but I still listened to my teacher's lecturer. It's just, I don't pay that much attention to other things after I get this job."

"Sigh! Next time, try to get out of your own world and pay attention to your surroundings. You might as well lose a chance if you ever missed some important things. But I guess, you are very fortunate since both you and I are the chosen ones where we will enter the rumored Room 80. Let me wash your memories a bit."

98 cleared her throat before she began talking. "In Room 101, that's the place where the subject's corpses reside, or in our terms, you can call it a mortuary room."

"You mean, all of them were being kept there for God knows how many years?!" 99 widened her eyes with disbelief.

"No, no, no! What kind of nonsense are you spouting right now? I haven't explained yet, calm down girl! I must have said it wrong but the corpses were kept there for a few days. As you can see, most of our superiors were busy so all of them are trying to find free time, only to pay respect for the subjects before burying them at the Tranquil Tomb."

"Wait. I've heard that name before. That's the cemetery right? Where were most of the subjects buried there?"

"Yes and no. It's not for the subjects only. One day if we both were destined to leave this world, that's where we will be buried too. Not just us but everyone inside this premise."

DING!

Their conversation stopped once they arrived at the destination. When the elevator's door opens, they can see a sign above them showing 'Room 80'.

99 gives a quick reminder to her friend to control her excitement before pushing her card on the scanner next to the door. In a few seconds, the metal door swung open slowly, creating a sound of metal screeching against its wall. As soon as the two entered, they froze immediately as they saw the inside of Room 80.

"I've never seen anything like this before." 99 mumbled to herself and her friend nodded in agreement.

"Well, of course we don't because Room 80 can be considered as a sacred place, at least that's what Professor told us before we took this job."

"The sacred place? Is this really a holy site or something?"

"Of course it is!" 98 began to whisper to her with a very low voice. "From what I heard, Room 80 is a place where they kept the machine capsule, the Informant's new project. And if you want to know what's the purpose behind it..."

98 moved her gaze forward with a wide smile. Among ten PAD walking around, three people looked stand-out the most and could be seen walking towards both of them with their powerful demeanor.

"...You might find out sooner."