The Forbidden Zone (2)

"But doctor, it's too dangerous for a kid like him to—" Commander Eric looked quite dismayed as he tried to protest against the doctor's decision, only to be interrupted by the latter mid-sentence.

"If someone as professional as yourself can't even handle one additional kid in my detail, why protect me in the first place?" The doctor scoffed, looking quite whimsical as he gave Daniel a smug face.

"That's not the point! Besides, the entire forbidden zone is classified Code Red, we can't—"

"Minerva, please give me the profile of Daniel over here." Doctor James ignored the commander and simply spoke to the nano-chip within his brain out loud, so other people would know what he is doing, specifically the commander.

<To view a non-related civilian's profile, Level 2 authorization is needed. Detected that host's authorization is above Level 2, now displaying the profile of subject Daniel 0777.>

"Good, please give Daniel here temporary authorization to enter the forbidden zone inside District X-23." The doctor iterated before Eric could even get the chance to protest.

<Acknowledged.>

"Oh and remember to cancel the authorization the second he leaves the forbidden zone, just in case." The doctor added.

<Acknowledged.>

Only after doing this did James turned towards Commander Eric again. "Now that we've settled the confidentiality issue, can we move on? We're kind of in a hurry here. Oh, and taking Daniel with us is an order, not a suggestion, is that clear?"

Commander Eric gritted his teeth and glared at Doctor James only to be responded by the other's indifference. Sighing, the only thing he could do was salute before the doctor before stating in a loud voice, "Acknowledged, sir!"

Doctor James gave a smirk, winking at Daniel meaningfully before heading back inside the truck, moving himself to the other side of the door to make way for Commander Eric and Daniel.

The both of them naturally followed, with Eric sitting in the middle, and Daniel seated next to him, allowing for the commander to protect the two civilians on both sides. After Daniel closed the door, the security detail finally headed into the forbidden zone as the force field in front of them slowly opened before them.

Some of the reporters wanted to sneak in during this commotion only to be captured immediately by the policemen that ran out from within the forbidden zone, instantly capturing them and cuffing them before moving them towards temporary police station built on the side of the road. It was only after a few such cases that the reporters and other onlookers know to back off.

***

The forbidden zone within District X-23 was much larger than Daniel had initially anticipated. As he looked out the window from the army truck, he found debris scattered along the road that seemed to be the remains of the glass windows from the skyscrapers above. Some furniture were also seen on the side of a few buildings, which originally belonged to several offices above.

"Wow, I didn't know the impact zone consisted of such a huge area." Daniel exclaimed, subconsciously turning himself towards Uncle Eric as though asking for an explanation from him.

Commander Eric looked quite reluctant to tell Daniel anything substantial, but his motive was instantly shattered when the doctor seated on the other side spoke first.

"Yes, after the meteorite passed through the atmosphere, the pressure caused it to be broken into several thousand pieces. Surprisingly, instead of disintegrating from the heat and turning into a crisp, the fragmented meteorite maintained in solid form as they collided onto the earth. While in the atmosphere, the meteorite fragments diverged, spreading the surface area of the impact zone, thus causing such damage as you can see outside." James spoke in a matter-of-fact manner, garnering a look of annoyance from the commander.

The doctor simply ignored him and looked at Daniel with a smile as if to ask if he had any more questions.

"So this means there are many more forbidden zones close to here, right? How big is this forbidden zone again?" Daniel asked with a look of curiosity.

"Zone X-23, where we are right now, has a relatively larger radius of impact, with the entire zone spanning around four blocks. Other zones usually have an impact radius of about 2 blocks, while the total amount of forbidden zones is around 500, spread out within three provinces including our own."

"Since its just a normal meteorite impact, why does the army need to cordon off the entire place down? Why send in a specialist like you, Dr. James? Wouldn't it be fine to send some mechanical units to retrieve the meteorite fragments before sending them to the lab for experimentation? It would make rebuilding more efficient as well." Daniel continued with another barrage of questions.

Eric wanted to tell Daniel to stop bothering the blabber mouth that is the doctor, but he was instantly cut off again.

"That's because we found a rather weird sort of residue located in all impact sites that are made from a metal that we've never seen before." Doctor James was about to continue when Eric finally managed to cut him off.

"That's enough, Dr. James. If you were to tell Daniel anything further than that, it would endanger Daniel's life. Also, even if you gave Daniel temporary authorization to enter the forbidden zone, he still have not gained access to any classified information from Minerva, so if you were to speak about 'it', that would be illegal." Commander Eric warned the doctor with a stern look. Afterwards, he turned around and gave Daniel a rather helpless smile and said with a soft tone, "I know you must be curious about what's happening since this is such a rare event, but not knowing anything is also for your own good. There's too much about the world that is unknown to us even now, so I don't want you to encounter any danger."

Daniel looked a little disappointed but still replied, "It's okay, Uncle Eric. I get it."

He turned his head back to the window, looking a little dull, which made the commander feel slightly dispirited as well. However, little did Eric know, Daniel was simply acting depressed. He's actually conversing with the system inside his head right then and there.

"System, it seems like this scientist is sent here to research this adamantine of yours. Are there going to be any problems?"

[Reporting to master. Since this world knows nothing about adamantine, they must not have know that you cannot touch the material with your bare hands, as the metal would be instantly absorbed into your body. I'm sure that's why the scientist next to you needed to get dispatched here instead of researching it from the confines of his own lab. My guess is that some people had absorbed the adamantine, making humans here think that they must have gotten infected by something. As a result, they were forced to cordon off the area and turn this place into a forbidden zone, which is actually a quarantine zone to prevent the spread of this non-existent virus.]

Daniel subconsciously nodded slightly. "Makes sense. I can get why Uncle Eric is so reluctant to bring me in here now, but looking at how confident Dr. James was, I'm sure they have already realized that the so-called 'virus' is non-contagious. Now I just need to know where they stored all the adamantine, as I didn't get to see even a single chunk of it when I looked out the window just now."

[They must have used some equipment to harvest all the adamantine and transported them somewhere, Master.]

"What a pain in the ass." Daniel gritted his teeth. "If the adamantine is really transported into a secret military facility somewhere, how am I going to gain access to it?"

[Logically speaking, I don't think the military would be that hasty to bring the adamantine elsewhere, since they still haven't confirmed whether it's dangerous to humans or not. Also, if they were really taken to the facility, they would not have brought someone like Dr. James here instead. Therefore, I would say that there's a higher chance for the adamantine to be placed somewhere safe within the quarantine zone. Maybe it's within a makeshift lab so the scientists can research them while being protected by the army?]

"Wow, it's great that you finally used your brain for once, system." Daniel sneered. "Did the realization that you might die with me in less than 24 hours make you smarter?"

[Rude! I've always been this intelligent, or else people like you wouldn't call me an artificial intelligence! Just because I've lost most of my functions doesn't mean you can bully me like that, Master!]

Daniel simply sneered within his mind in response while thinking to himself. "With the Minerva System constantly looking from above, I don't know if I can even steal a gram of adamantine off from the army without being instantly discovered. I think the best method for me right now is to convince Dr. James to bring me to his lab with him so I can 'accidentally' absorb some adamantine within my system."