Transcendent Gene-Chapter 274: First Clue [2]

’They gave up easier than I thought, but I guess it’s not that surprising.’

Gio was glad that they didn’t have to do anything too extreme. Neriah mostly only needed to threaten their safety to get them to spill.

’It’s also because none of the questions have anything to do with them.’

Gio’s party had no personal grudge with the enemy. In fact, if Gio was willing to give up some money, bribing them would’ve been easier.

Nevertheless, the same information was received in the end. The group spilled everything Gio’s party needed to know if they were going to get more involved in the main scenario.

At this point, they’d been knocked unconscious by Serene’s abilities and would remain that way until Gio’s party was long gone. They were bound to awaken to nothing but the loss of their goods.

’First off, the Old Duke.’

The Old Duke was the leader of the djinn forces in the quest. He’d established dominance over any and all djinn groups who wanted to aim for real benefits instead of moving north with the other rogues.

He was using these various djinn groups as his arms and legs to cover more ground and find clues as fast as possible. Currently, he was focusing on the eastern lands of Lyverne.

’He’s strong enough to force everyone under his wing, so he can’t be a nobody. The "Old Duke" title isn’t one I recognize, but he must be someone with a name outside. He’s worth looking into.’

With so many people working under him, he was bound to become a main contender for victory.

’But those arms can fail on him at any time.’

He wasn’t the one finding anything on his own. It only took one person to ruin his flow. The easiest way to take him out of the race was to topple the weak hierarchy he’d established.

’And then in the south near Fischel and Astarune, you have the forces of good.’

In other words, the military, affiliates of NEXUS, rogue Sequencers who didn’t agree with the ways of djinn, and others of similar standing.

’They’re working more as a collective. Their leaders are leading them together, and their members are putting aside differences for the sake of victory. I thought it would be a much more individually-focused quest, but it’s become a conflict between groups.’

The Old Duke brought the djinns together and forced the other side to do the same. Now, the leaders of the "righteous" factions had no choice but to share benefits.

’But from the way they described it, they’re putting up a good fight. If that’s the case, they must’ve already set aside their differences.’

There were many reasons for those who stood against the Old Duke to turn on each other, but they prioritized the big picture over personal grudges and doubts.

’They also realized the severity of this realm’s secrets, huh?’

Gio walked up to a specific table in the lab where Serene, Neriah, and Shiro had been placing their most important finds.

Along with a few biological masses that Gio couldn’t identify, there were new records and illustrations he hadn’t seen before.

"Hybrids."

The word took some effort to breathe from his lips.

[We didn’t think it was possible.]

He felt the same way Leonidas did.

[The remains we found weren’t from primitive humans. We dated some of them back millions of years, while some are only centuries old. We have human skeletons from several periods, and none of them match the skeletons we put together.]

They could only ever come to one conclusion. The world didn’t give them the freedom to dream optimistically.

[They’re hybrids. We did more research into the makeup of those bones and realized that they’re only partially made from elements that are easily accessible on Earth. Within those elements, there are also many that we haven’t discovered or named at all. You could even say they don’t exist in our newly-crowned Gehenna Complex.]

’Hmm...’

But just like Gio’s Leonidas had a nagging question in the back of his mind.

’Finding hybrids is one thing. Though it has almost never ended well, monsters have made it...abundantly clear that they’re capable of interspecies breeding. This isn’t technically new information.’

The questionable aspect was the timeline itself.

’Whether it’s the fact that they existed so long ago or the assumption that they continued to exist into and even beyond the Forthcoming, none of it makes sense.’

There had to be a moment when someone found out. After all this time, after saving so many digital and physical references from the past, they had nothing that could mildly support the argument?

[If hybrids have been walking among us for ages, their genes would already be a part of our human genome. We can entertain the theory that this is the case and Sequences are a product of these people. There are a couple people at the lab right now who like to focus their research in that direction.]

Leonidas smelled something interesting, and it did not come from the decision those few people made.

[The rest of us decided to latch onto something more fun. It sounds improbable now, but trust me. We’re going to find the evidence to support our fantasies.]

Leonidas’ team didn’t believe in finding ways to desperately justify the timeline. They accepted that it was broken and started looking for ways to fix it.

There wasn’t a logical explanation for all of it. The teams chasing after more concrete theories found themselves encountering roadblocks in places they least expected.

What looked like an honest and straightforward problem with nothing of the sort. There were lies and deceptions hidden within what seemed to be the absolute truth.

[It took some time to establish something that could be called a theory. We barely have enough to present it to other people without sounding crazy, but I believe in our research. I believe that these hybrids didn’t come from the time we know. I believe in the existence of a separate instance that collided with our own.]

Leonidas’ team theorized about the possibility of a secondary timeline that potentially existed and potentially didn’t.

From what Gio could understand by reading through the text, they didn’t have the basis to make such nonsensical claims. However, if it was a matter of words, then Leonidas certainly had a way with them.

He made a very convincing point for something that should never have been convincing in the first place. He made Gio see the veracity in his claims.

’It’s a little strange to consider the possibility of something so wild, but how am I supposed to knock it? Of all people, I’m the last one who can talk shit about timeline nonsense.’

He caused some timeline nonsense himself

’There are ways to do it. If this theory is correct, it means someone else did it before me.’

He hoped that wasn’t the case.

’I’d rather not know if someone tried and failed before I came along.’

The job he accepted was the one they put down, after all.

’Which theory is the truth isn’t important right now.’

Evidently, there would come a time when he’d have to focus on it, but the holographic window to his left told him that now wasn’t the right moment.

It appeared when he finally saw the biological matter for himself. After going over Leonidas’ notes for a bit longer, he started to see it.

These specimens, pieces of once-living creatures that seemed to match the descriptions of these hybrids...

When he looked at them and wondered about how they came to this world, the window in question appeared.

[Congratulations! You have found a clue.]

The first line was worthy of celebration. They found something the quest considered important enough to specifically mention.

[Clues: 1/6]

The text in itself was a clue, but what came after was much more important.

[Humans have entertained relations with beings beyond their current understanding for as long as time in the human eye has existed.]

It was only technically a summary of the information Gio just uncovered. In reality, the clue written on the holographic screen was a clue in itself.

’As long as time in the human eye has existed, it says.’

It didn’t make any bold claims about a relationship that spanned the entire river of time, but time in the human eye was by no means a short measure.

Was it talking about the birth of human sentience, or the birth of written records? When it spoke of beings beyond their current understanding, was it implying that humans once understood those same entities?

Gio was becoming more and more interested in seeing where everything came together in the end.

’But if we want to see that, then we’ll have to work harder than this.’

Gio’s previous plan only accounted for smaller groups and people who were moving alone. The revelation that this Scenario Quest was a confrontation between two factions forced him to change his plans.

They had one major clue out of six necessary to reach the end of the scenario and almost no hints to lead them where they needed to be.

Gio couldn’t say his party was in a particularly advantageous position, however, he was always a fan of underdogs.

Despite the strengths of their enemies and the risks of their actions, Gio was always always prepared to give his all to defeat them.

That was the mentality that supported him in the tower, and it was the same mentality that supported him today.