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The flavor spreads in my mouth, reminiscent of a rare delicacy I was lucky enough to taste long ago.

“I can’t believe I can actually do this…”

I smiled as I rolled the altered candy around with my tongue. Back on Earth, to try something like this, I would’ve had to submit a request for hypnosis or brainwashing approval to the administration at the lab, and of course, a request just to change the flavor of a candy would have been rejected immediately.

Getting scolded by my professor for trying something strange would have been a bonus.

But right now? There’s no frustrating regulations or managers to restrict the use of science and technology in this world—and this technology of perception alteration was something I invented (well, technically it was the Fairy Queen’s, but still) myself.

In other words, there is no one here to stop me.

“Well, I still shouldn’t use it on others.”

The reason I could use the perception alteration technology freely was that I was applying it to myself. Whether I indulged in drugs, engaged in prostitution, or even killed someone, as long as no one else found out, who would punish me?

However, things would be different if I used it on others. What if a rescue team was sent from Earth to save me after I’d fallen into this world? And what if that subsequent team investigated what had happened here?

If it got revealed that I had been brainwashing the people of this world, I would head straight to prison. The degrees I was struggling to earn would go down the drain, along with the life I had worked so hard to build.

I absolutely couldn’t let that happen. No way.

─“Scientist? Are you in there?”

“Yes. Come in.”

─“Excuse me!”

While I was rolling the candy around and giggling, a combatant suddenly showed up in the lab. I looked at him, wondering what was going on, and he immediately folded his arms and spoke up.

“The boss is calling for you! She said you haven’t been answering your phone….”

“Oh, really? I’ll go right away. Thank you.”

“It’s nothing!”

After hearing the combatant’s words, I casually glanced at my smartphone. That’s when I recalled I had turned off all my electronics to avoid the effects of perception alteration.

It seemed that after tasting such a treat from Earth in a while, I had become a bit too relaxed.

Right now, I was no longer just a grad student; I was an executive in an evil organization. I was an Evil Scientist. Remembering that fact, I headed straight to the chairwoman’s office.

* * *

“Well then─ let’s end this executive meeting here. You’re all dismissed.”

After concluding the regular meeting of the evil organization, the boss, as if forgetting something, opened her mouth again.

“Oh, Scientist, you stay. I have something to discuss.”

“Me?”

“It’s nothing bad, so don’t worry.”

I thought about what it could be after hearing the boss’s words, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t guess. I hadn’t caused any incidents lately either.

Once all the executives had left, the boss cautiously gestured for me to come closer. When I got closer, she reached out her hand toward my face.

Thud— the boss grabbed my face and began poking and prodding all over it.

“Hm… no traces left.”

“…What are you doing?”

“Didn’t you use my face at will? I just wanted to check if any traces were left.”

Not long ago, during the boss’s parental observation class, I received all sorts of nagging from her when I participated.

And there was also the question about how I managed to make a face that looked just like hers.

So, I had informed the boss about the secret to creating my duplicate face. I had used her genes. The boss had certainly been surprised by that revelation.

“The reason I kept you here wasn’t just that… We received a proposal for a technology exchange.”

“A technology exchange?”

“Right. A technology exchange.”

I tilted my head in bewilderment at the boss’s words. A technology exchange? Who was my evil organization going to exchange technology with?

Usually, a technology exchange meant that you give something on your side, and the other side offers something in return. There was no way anyone in this world would have something to exchange with me.

The boss should know that, so why on earth was she bringing this up?

“I don’t think there’s anyone who can exchange technology with me…”

“Even so, the proposal that came in wasn’t to an evil scientist like you, but rather to Eight.”

“What does that mean?”

“There are people who want a genius scientist, not the evil scientist we have hidden.”

Only then did I realize why she was bringing up this subject. An Evil Scientist. To put it simply, the boss wouldn’t let me roam around freely.

However, the already revealed genius scientist Eight, a member of Scholar, who was likely to win the ABC Award for discovering the soul, was different.

It was a widely known fact that the genius scientist Eight was a researcher at the Evilus Corporation. So, this technology exchange proposal wasn’t directed at me, the Evil Scientist, but to Eight, the genius scientist…

“What’s the matter?”

“It’s research on souls. To be precise, they want us to help them put a soul into a machine…”

To put a soul into a machine─.

That’s something I had already accomplished once. I had incidentally given feelings to Lucia, the android Dr. Kuroid always carried, and thus a soul had been born.

So, this research didn’t pique my interest. A study that I had already done and could replicate didn’t quite captivate a scientist’s curiosity.

However…

“What are the conditions?”

“Great. Very good. These guys seem to want this technology so badly that they’ll crawl over each other to get it. Thanks to that, I see no reason to negotiate just once for this tech.”

“So, if I accept, it’ll turn into something like that?”

There was a way to forcibly include a scientist in a research project that they weren’t particularly interested in. That method was simply money.

Since time immemorial, scientists had been bound to research funding, and the one who threw money was the one that scientists had to bow down to.

“I’ll do it. Let’s go for that exchange.”

“Mm. Take two people with you safely.”

“Two people? If they find out my identity…”

“It’s fine. What’s more important is to make sure you don’t get taken away by mistake.”

“Hmm… understood.”

Thus, I ended up being dispatched to City P.

Not as an Evil Scientist, but as a genius researcher from the Evilus Corporation.

* * *

The first thing people feel upon entering City P is the excessive desolation. Countless factories are crammed everywhere, and the smoke belching from them fills the air.

Some people complained of dizziness just from looking at the complex, tangled factory structures.

This city was built for machines, not people.

That was the identity of City P.

“Cough, cough-! Gack, what kind of air is this?”

“Is it really that bad? This is bearable…”

“Only for you, as a human. If a beastman were here— cough!”

Galm, who entered City P as Eight’s guard, inhales the smoky air and starts coughing violently.

Seeing the mucus fill his nose, it was clear that for beastmen, this polluted air was truly terrible.

Of course, for Eight, this level of pollution was everyday life.

‘Not bad enough to wear a gas mask, so what…’

Though the air in Earth, where Eight lived, was relatively clean, that only applied to the overall atmosphere.

The air in the factory-laden industrial area was like hell itself. It was a place filled with toxins where not even humans could survive.

Compared to the factories where passing by without a gas mask was perilous, this amount of smoke was merely cute.

“─Welcome! Welcome!”

Before long, a staff member from Evilus Corporation, the company requesting the technology exchange, came to greet them. After a cheerful handshake with him, Eight headed straight toward the location where the technology exchange was needed.

“That’s the Evilus Corporation, right? The one that recently made a huge fuss with that giant robot.”

“Ah, yes. That’s correct.”

“Is it real? I’ve seen opinions online that it’s fake…”

“Well, I personally haven’t seen it either.”

“Aha— Right? So it’s probably fake then.”

Eight held back the truth about the robot being real and instead tilted his head at the employee, who seemed unusually cheerful about the giant robot’s presumed falsehood. Normally, people would be disappointed when learning something hyped up was false, wouldn’t they?

As they thought and entered the research facility, the staff handed over a few documents that needed signing.

“This is a Non-Disclosure Agreement. As you can imagine, it’s linked through our superhumans. If it’s violated, you die.”

“…If I reveal the secret, I die?”

“Yes. It’s that important a study. If you really don’t like it, you may refuse.”

“No, I’m curious about what research would require this level of secrecy.”

However, only Eight signed the document. Galm refused to sign just in case; as a guard, he figured signing could be risky if this turned out to be a prank.

While they couldn’t enter the lab without signing, Galm didn’t care much. If Eight were in danger, he was confident he would smash the lab to get in.

Having signed the document, Eight was finally allowed to uncover what the research requesting his technology was about.

“This way, Dr. Eight.”

After passing through several security facilities, the moment Eight stepped into the secret lab, he understood the reason for such meticulous security and why he’d been happy about the giant robot being false.

“……This is.”

“Yes. It’s our key research project at Punk Technology.”

“Haha—! So this is what you’ve been working on?”

Inside the secret lab stood a massive robot towering over dozens of meters, not a fake robot with no real parts like the one he had showcased on the playground.

The employee, proudly showing off the robot, grinned and spoke to Eight.

“Dr. Eight, we’d like you to put a soul into this robot.”

That was research that piqued his interest immensely.

If he had known this earlier, he would have happily accepted even without payment.