She rolled out of bed.
She looked at her door as she wiped the grime from her eyes. She looked at the mirror in her room. Even with the dark circles in her eyes, she was stunning. All this beauty was lost on her though – the only thing she saw were the red marks of ink, denoting her last thought before sleeping.
With that her eyes gained more colour. She brushed her grey hair down. With her special skill [Reset], she put each hand to the side of her head, then her hair instantly braided itself to the same style she had been using for the last couple of decades. The skill needs her to put her hands around something, record it and restore it later. She hated braiding her hair, although she liked how neat it was, but additionally it made it difficult for her to get proper rest.
After getting ready she left her room and headed for the main area. She focused for a second and right before entering the area of research, she placed her hands floating on her sides, and instantly the body suit was equipped, so was the state of her body returned to the clean state of using the cleaning rooms in the lab. She actually despised wasting time so much so that she got this as her special skill.
She then walked into the main area, quickly passed through it and headed for the quarters that held the captive forest folk. She glanced at them and just kept walking; she found it regretful that she never trained to reach a level where she could use her skill to restore anything that is not her. She could restore their eyes, but she has chosen to dedicate her time towards the increase of her knowledge stats – not shabby considering that she is the lead researcher of the night shift in one of the most complicated fields.
In the room she had reached were guards who waited for the person inside to verify the password and let her in as the door could only be opened from the inside.
"Good day madam."
She then continued to speak some gibberish – a combination of phrases, and progressive details, like the number of times she had come here. This was an ever-shifting password. Only people at her level could interpret and decipher. And the only reason the person inside knew it was the correct password was because he possessed a skill that allowed him to store the ever-changing password in his head, even if it was the only thing that was in the guard's head.
A doorway appeared on the wall then she entered, then it vanished once more. This was an advancement made by the researchers at the Knight Academy in OIlan city – A human city on the southern continent. It was shared over decades ago and is used for securing secret areas – Temporary doors. Even the doors in and out of this place are inscribed with similar carvings and a person at each to verify every entry, and every exit.
Once inside she saw it. A simple copy of the book used by the Headquarters. It contains only a fraction of the information – but she knew how valuable each page was and why a copy warrants such caution. It arrived during the day shift when she was asleep. She had been requesting it for ages, and the previous night her request was approved.
She grinned in glee.
"I can't believe those stubborn fools finally made a copy for me. If I had known that threatening to restore my mind to that of an infant would work – throwing away years of research, I would have done it ages ago. Hmmmm, maybe I went too far, but then again, they didn't send me the real book."
She then placed her hands next to the pages of the book and began reading. This way she could reset the pages at any time she felt like it. Then she activated her [Paced] reading skill, this allowed her to read at any pace she required. After saving the state of the book as an extension of herself, she began to use the third skill that allowed her to flip a book at supersonic speeds.
A thousand times per second some pages would become incinerated, then she would instantly restore them once more. And like this she read this book multitudes of times, becoming acquainted with every page. She managed to clear information that would have taken her years of analysing in a few minutes.
She turned around and left the room. As soon as she was out, they burned the copy of the book, it had no real use other than being read by her after all.
"I know why they finally gave in and gave me the copy – it has something to do with that new test subject coming today, they told us to be more careful with him, I guess that means they finally let us have a go at the blood of a knight hero's descendants"
She then smiled and walked to her observation deck. Just like usual, the night staff, which all followed her lead were up, the labour crew set the equipment to their last night's progress and made sure the day data had been fully backed up. Then they checked on the status of the forest folk. Soon everyone was ready, but two things were different about today.
She began an announcement. "Just as I have said things are going to change today, the new subject is of higher value so use the measurements sparingly. Secondly, I have come upon some new information."
Her mind had already created a detailed report, for each individual member of her staff. To believe she only just saw the book about thirty minutes ago. The reports appeared in the form of mental displays on the screens on the work desks of all affected staff.
"As you will note, the information is not really significant, but when combined to our years of data gathering you will notice the major leaps in understanding it puts us."
They all began to sigh and intensely stare – while not as capable as her, they could almost immediately see the change. So much so that it prompted one of them to ask.
"Excuse me, Lead R. Guilos, but if this information had been here, what were the last couple of decades for?"
"I can see that you are relatively new to this…"
"I have been here for half a century Ma'am."
Everyone began laughing so hard, you would think he made a joke.
"Boy, that neat looking man next to you has been at it for two centuries, and he's on the younger side. Dniz over there and his wife Yellow have been here for a few centuries, but that's only because they used to work elsewhere, and that time is lost to them.
You asked me why the research – simple, the only reason you understand even a single thing written in those reports is because you understand little about the research but a respective amount about what doesn't work.
Let me ask you this, you took one look at the report and even without trying you knew that the material covered was valid, right?"
He lowered his hand and nodded.
"But let me answer you in a clearer manner, the boss expects no mistakes, not even a single one, I repeat, you will be slaughtered on sight should you waste a single resource. Most of the research we did, not only prepared your mind for the information but also prepared it for the toll of doing everything perfectly.
As you have seen, you will probably never leave this place, unless you are alive when the research is completed. Let me tell you this – Your skills have been sharpened, and your minds have evolved to impossible hights, this place is a heavily guarded fortress, and the information each of you have been warranted is so valuable, many would kill you to burry its implications – but keep in mind one thing – you are replaceable.
With that out of the way, let's get todays work rolling, I hate wasting time."
Then everyone's attention turned to the blue haired boy, with the life gone from his eyes, and then on came the energy fields.