"How is it going? Any particular news that you might have about the project?"

Claus fixed his tie and dusted off his shoulder as he quickly walked through the long corridor, hurriedly followed by a guy who was donned in a completely silver suit that covered his whole body which seemed to be made of a material similar to plastic…

"Yes sir, there have been a few noteworthy happenings over the last month. However, it's better if you hear it from the head researcher himself…"

The suited guy was holding some report papers as he walked beside Claus, promptly refusing to explain anything himself.

"Mhm."

Claus didn't bother to ask anymore, he was already on his way to the research center to meet the head researcher anyway. He had only wanted to be briefed about the few important things so that he could get some understanding about the situation before he discussed it in detail, but since the guy refused to talk, he could only wait for a few more minutes…

...

As they finally reached the corridor's end, they faced a black glass sliding door, which was auto-opened as soon as the guy accompanying Claus scanned both his card and his retina...

As they made their way into the wide room that had screens almost covering every part of the walls, they finally stopped in front of another silver suited guy who was sitting on a chair and writing down notes.

"Professor…"

The guy looked up only after he was slightly shaken by the researcher and revealed his face which appeared to be quite old, with special glasses added to the face part of his suit.

"Hmmm...? Ah yes, today is the day for... inspection! But where is the inspector…?"

The old man's face seemed confused at the start, but then he raised his index finger like he discovered something amazing before once again looking around in confusion as if he didn't see Claus at all...

"Professor, this is the project's head coordinator, he is here for the inspection…"

The researcher had a wry smile as he pointed at Claus who was standing just beside him in a presenting gesture.

Though he didn't know exactly why he was like that, the researcher and his other two colleagues were already familiar with the head researcher's eccentric personality which seemed to be slightly 'mental'.

Still, even if he didn't notice people who were standing right beside him, or suddenly doze off in his place, he was still completely a genius when it came to work! His ability to recognize data was several notches above normal people unlike his ability to recognize people and he would usually connect the dots in a weird yet perfect manner as if he could predict the future.

Any of his research characteristics would make any researcher a top star in the field, yet they weren't the actual reason as to why he was assigned as the head researcher for such a vital and secretive project. The true reason was that he was actually the one who saved the 'AL' project when it was about to get terminated!

Not only was he the one to revive it by setting up the 'Lost Realm' from scratch, but he was also the one who promised to make it reach a stable state and have it ready for market as long as he had enough data. He was already making substantial progress even though barely a month from the test period had passed!

As these thoughts wandered through the mind of the researcher, Claus, who didn't seem offended by being ignored, was looking at the screen which directly faced the old researcher with interest before voicing out a question.

"You seem to be eagerly interested in this exact candidate, may I know the reason why?"

The screen was transmitting live footage of one of the capsule rooms which were accompanied by rows of encrypted data and observation, it seemed like it was the point of interest that the old researcher was taking notes on...

"H-he… It's nothing much really, I was just rotating observations between all of the candidates…"

The old man slightly stuttered before giving a simple explanation, but it didn't seem like Claus was satisfied by the answer as he asked once again.

"Does it have something to do with his 'Integration'?"

"Y-yes! All the others are amazing on their own, but he especially has an unprecedented degree of integration! He is simply out-"

As if it was a natural reaction to the question, the old man's answer seemed to be quite impulsive, before he stopped as if he said something that he shouldn't have…

"Thank you."

Claus nodded as he took a mental note before turning around and looking at the center of the room where nine screens of similar footage were situated in spiral fashion alongside a blank one.

"Then, is there anything that you want to add to your first-month report regarding the other candidates?"

"Y-yes, it seems like the progress of the events is much faster than we expected it to be, there is already one out… They are all also exhibiting amazing brain waves that are even higher than predicted which proves that one of my conjectures is right, we… we might not have to wait as long as we expected…"

As the old researcher took a quick look at one of the screens which had exactly identical footage to his screen, he pointed out a few things without saying too much, it seemed like he was slightly 'afraid' of Claus…

"Oh… isn't that great then? It seems like everything is aligned with our goals and things are even turning out to be more in our favor! I would have recommended a small celebration for making such great progress within this little time, but it would probably be better to not be interrupted now…"

Claus took one last look at the wide room as he smiled, the submitted weekly reports were already sufficient to report for the higher-ups, his visit this time was hardly for the sake of the progress check, he was mostly just confirming a few things that he had in mind under the guise of that.

"Don't worry, I will put out a few good words for you with the higher-ups, you deserve it after all…"

As Claus turned around and left the room, the old researcher kept standing in his place for a long while before he started mumbling to himself…

"You… don't understand anything at all… you don't understand…"

However, before he acted weird enough this time by freezing in place for a long while, he was shaken wildly by one of the other researchers…

"...Prof… Professor! Professor!"

Having been in a trance just a moment ago, his hearing which was 'switched off' slowly returned as he finally realized that the researcher that was shaking him was almost screaming at him as well…

"Hmm? What's the matter?"

The other researchers looked at each other and sighed, this wasn't the first time the head researcher had gone into similar trances anyway, neither was it the first time he acted like it was nothing, it was already quite nice that he responded without too much effort this time.

"Thank god! Professor! Something major has happened, it's that candidate…"

"What about him…?"

The old man quickly looked at his screen to try and understand what happened…

"He seems to have already cleared stage 2…"

The old man's face looked to be quite interesting at this exact moment as he stared into the screen, although his eyes clearly showed signs of being shocked, his mouth was somehow… inexplicably smiling.