Honestly, at that exact moment, whether Otto was dead or alive didn't really matter.
No one cared about Otto.
Everyone's eyes followed the meandering "blood trail" flowing from Otto's fingertip. The horrifying crimson streak painted a stark line across the floor, pointing directly at the "culprit."
Slowly, their gazes trailed upward, finally locking onto a haggard silhouette standing in the shadows.
The air froze.
It was an incredibly familiar figure, yet in this moment, she seemed completely foreign.
"Why..."
Kiana's knuckles turned white from clenching her fists so hard. She stared at the figure, her voice trembling uncontrollably, as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing.
"Why you?
"Dr. Schrödinger?!"
Schrödinger simply stood there, perfectly still, looking like a soulless statue drowning in the dark.
Her eyes were cast downward, obscuring her emotions. One hand was tucked casually into the pocket of her lab coat; the other tightly gripped a paring knife.
The blade was coated in fresh, wet "blood."
The thick red liquid slid slowly down the steel, pooling at the tip before finally succumbing to gravity. With a soft plop, it hit the floor, blossoming into a sinister crimson flower.
"Dr. Schrödinger... assassinated Overseer Otto?"
Bronya's pupils contracted violently, as if she had just witnessed an impossible logical paradox.
This was the deepest level of the Fire Moth headquarters. This was Otto Apocalypse's domain.
And yet, the supreme Overseer who held the fate of the world in his hands was currently lying face-down in a pool of blood like a dead fish. And the person standing over his corpse was Dr. Schrödinger, a fellow high-ranking executive?
Was this the collapse of morality, or the twisted depths of human nature?
"Hey..."
Just as everyone's imaginations began to run wild, constructing an 800-episode prime-time soap opera titled The Doctor's Revenge: Slaying the Tyrant or The Mad Scientist Sacrifices Her Boss for a Forbidden Experiment, Schrödinger—the eye of the storm—finally reacted.
"Don't look at me like that. You're making it seem like I actually betrayed you..."
"What?! So Otto was doing something evil again, and the Doctor stopped him just in time?!" Theresa, who had been genuinely devastated a second ago, instantly flipped her expression, glaring angrily at the "corpse" to condemn him.
"Why is this Otto so evil?!"
If Otto heard that, he'd be so angry he'd come back to life.
Standing next to Kiana, Shu, who knew exactly what condition Otto was in, had to bite his lip to keep from laughing.
Through his perception, he distinctly felt the "corpse" lying on the floor suffer a minor heart palpitation upon hearing Theresa's accusation. The emotional damage inflicted by those stereotypes was clearly quite severe.
"So, what actually happened?" Mei decided someone needed to at least pretend to care about Otto. After all, he was currently the Fire Moth's only nuclear-powered workhorse.
Even if this was all a misunderstanding, leaving Otto face-down on the floor wasn't ideal. The floor was filthy.
"Ah... about that..." Schrödinger casually tossed the paring knife onto a nearby desk. She rubbed the bridge of her nose, revealing eyes that were exhausted beyond human comprehension.
"I'm not entirely sure myself. He was already like this when I got here.
"But based on the crime scene, I can offer a preliminary analysis. Do you want to hear it?"
"Yes!" Kiana immediately raised her hand, looking incredibly invested.
Meanwhile, Shu volunteered for manual labor, dragging Otto's limp body over and slumping him into the only empty chair in the room. While he was at it, he ran a quick diagnostic on Otto's physical condition.
Mhm... exactly as my remote scan showed. His condition is terrible. So terrible, in fact, that collapsing on the floor like he just did is completely normal.
However, based on my scan... Otto is currently fully conscious. He just has his eyes closed, taking advantage of the situation to pretend he's still in a coma.
Shu didn't intend to expose him. Otto's physical state genuinely was atrocious. Letting him pretend to be unconscious for a while was basically the closest thing he'd get to a break.
Besides...
When Shu expanded his perception earlier, he had inadvertently scanned the massive piles of documents as well. Although his brain couldn't fully process all the dense, complex data, he could tell that Otto had actually completed the vast majority of his critical tasks.
The remaining paperwork was mostly trivial administrative details. Delaying them for a day or two wouldn't cause any harm.
In other words, Otto had successfully fulfilled his duties for this phase of the plan. He had earned his rest!
Thinking about this, Shu couldn't help but feel a profound sense of awe. Otto's workload was truly staggering. Just quickly skimming through those documents had made Shu's head spin, making him feel like he was forgetting how to read.
Yet Otto had brute-forced his way through all of it. He deserved this vacation.
"Firstly, I will not deny my motives or my intent. Yes, I came here to assassinate Otto. Unfortunately, he managed to achieve the desired result on his own before I could strike."
Schrödinger stated this shocking truth with a deadpan expression, her tone as casual as if she were reading a breakfast menu.
"Wait, you were actually trying to assassinate him?!" Kiana gasped. She had genuinely thought it was all a big misunderstanding!
Dr. Schrödinger really did come here to murder Otto?!
"Don't look at me like that, Kaslana," Schrödinger shot her a glance, her eyes reflecting the weariness of a seasoned veteran as she addressed Kiana by her surname.
"If you were forced to work for a month straight, averaging only eight hours of sleep every five days, staring at thousands of sets of experimental data until your eyes bled, taking your datapad into the bathroom with you, and having absolutely no one qualified to assist you... you'd want to murder someone too."
As she spoke, Schrödinger shakily reached into the pocket of her lab coat, pulled out a handful of colorful pills, and dry-swallowed them like candy.
"It's not like I didn't try to resist." Schrödinger swallowed the bitter residue, took a deep breath, and pointed at the mountain of documents in the corner.
"But our esteemed Overseer Otto is a relentless, unadulterated capitalist. That demon dumped the entirety of our scientific research workload directly onto my shoulders.
"Heh... 'The pioneer of a brand-new field,' 'a new milestone in the scientific world,' 'the pursuit of absolute truth'...
"My only truth right now is that I want to sleep! And then I want to dream about hanging that bastard from a streetlamp outside the base using an arresting cable!"
Seeing Schrödinger looking as if she were about to ascend to a higher plane of existence through sheer sleep deprivation, everyone felt a chill run down their spines.
Eight hours of sleep every five days?!
Does that mean she stayed awake for five days straight, physically collapsed, and was in a coma for eight hours before waking up to work again?!
If he squeezed you that hard... Otto, your death was totally justified.
Thinking this, the group turned to look at the ash-white, thoroughly burnt-out husk of Otto slumped in the chair.
Hiss...
The group's gazes slowly drifted back to Schrödinger's face, a hint of genuine scrutiny appearing in their eyes.
You say Otto squeezed you dry, but why does Otto look even more miserable than you do?