Solo Leveling- Ragnarok-Chapter 303

The mysterious “Doctor” that Jinchul had mentioned had reached out to Suho sooner than expected. It was almost as though this woman had been waiting for him to arrive in Russia.

“The... 47th doll?” Suho repeated, narrowing his eyes.

The pink-haired woman bowed deeply. “Yes. I am the greatest toy he has ever made, the result of forty-six preceding experiments. He has sent me to you as a gift.”

“A gift?”

Suho wondered what that meant.

As his suspicion grew, the woman wordlessly tore off her own arm. Before he could even react in shock, the limb regenerated, the pink cells writhing and reforming themselves. Then as if nothing had happened, the woman calmly reintroduced herself with a blank expression.

“As you can see, I am the greatest toy and servant anyone could hope for. No matter what damage is done to me, I recover. The Doctor’s message is for you to use me as you wish, whether for stress relief or combat purposes. I am at your disposal.”

When Suho didn’t reply, the woman tilted her head.

“Am I not to your liking?” she asked. “I was designed to be highly attractive according to human standards, but if there is any part of me you find unsatisfactory, I will adjust it.”

Suho scowled instead of answering. He didn’t like her choice of words. It made her sound like she was describing an electronic device.

This was all too suspicious. Not only was some unknown person suddenly offering him a “gift,” but the gift itself turned out to be a woman who was claiming to be a plaything and a servant. Who would accept such a thing with open arms?

This artificial woman clearly wasn’t even a human being, and it made Suho feel disgusted and uneasy. He was genuinely curious whether this “Doctor” believed this would really be interpreted as a gesture of goodwill.

Doesn’t he know this just made me even more guarded? If he does, maybe he has some other goal in mind.

What unsettled Suho more than the woman’s ability to regenerate was her willingness to cut off her own arm so casually. She seemed to think of herself as a “toy” just as she described. It didn’t seem human at all.

“Young Monarch,” Beru interjected. He was just as alarmed as Suho as he glared at the woman. “I sense a powerful concentration of the energy of the Itarim. It’s almost like...”

The shadow ant then glanced at the Harvest Scythe in Haseul’s hands.

“She’s just like that scythe made of the Stones of the Outer Gods.”

The Harvest Scythe had been created from melted-down Stones of the Outer Gods. Jinchul had said he had received it from the same Doctor long ago, and now this mysterious “experiment” that had formed from the pink particles in the air was giving off almost an identical energy. The meaning behind that was clear.

“You’re saying you’re my gift?” Suho repeated.

“Yes. Please accept me,” the woman said.

“Before I decide to accept or reject a gift, I need to know who sent it,” Suho replied, his expression steady. “Is the Doctor who created you a follower of the Itarim?”

“Yes.”

The response was immediate. The woman nodded without hesitation, leaving Suho momentarily speechless. He had suspected as much, but to have it confirmed so easily...

“Why would a follower of the Itarim do something like this?” Suho asked.

“The Doctor wishes to inform you that his goals differ from those of the other followers.”

“They differ?”

“Kiek! Young Monarch, do not be fooled by such lies!” Beru cried.

“Of course, it is only natural that you would be suspicious,” the woman added. “That is why the Doctor is presenting me to you as a gesture of good faith. It is an expression of the purest goodwill, meant to reassure you that he does not mean to oppose you in any way.”

“Kieeeek?!”

The woman’s calm, shameless explanation left Beru utterly dumbfounded. To someone who had been fighting against the Itarim’s kind for so long, her words were nothing but utter nonsense to him.

However, Suho figured that since his opponent was attempting conversation, he might as well try to gather more information.

“Then what exactly are his goals?” he asked. “I was under the impression that the followers of the Itarim have come to invade Earth.”

“At first, the Doctor’s objective was the same as the others. But that was simply because he was following the will of his creator. It was not a decision of his own.”

There was something quite intriguing here. The woman spoke casually of the Itarim, with none of the sense of reverence or faith typical of the Church of the Outer Gods. It was almost as if she were an atheist discussing someone else’s religion.

Whenever she spoke of the Doctor, however, her voice carried an unmistakable tone of absolute respect. This made sense, since even if the Doctor himself had been created by the Itarim, he was her creator.

“The Doctor’s curiosity is insatiable,” she continued. “Not long after arriving on this planet, he became fascinated by the native inhabitants. Instead of invading, he chose to study and analyze them.”

If Suho took the suspicious woman’s words at face value, then the Doctor was driven by nothing more than pure curiosity. “So he came to invade the planet first, found things that interested him, and now he’s more of a tourist?” he asked.

“I would describe his activities as research and analysis, but yes, something like that,” the woman replied.

“So why does he want to get on my good side? Is he hoping I’ll guide him around the planet or something?”

“No. It is more that...” The woman paused, carefully considering her words. She seemed to choose the most polite expressions she could as she continued, “He is very intrigued by this planet. As such, he no longer seeks to oppose the Monarch of Shadows. The same goes for the Monarch’s son. He wishes to enter a collaborative relationship with you if possible.”

“Collaborative?” Suho echoed.

Beru screeched, clearly struggling to decide whether he should allow Suho to continue listening to this disgusting drivel. It wasn’t clear if Suho knew how he felt.

“In particular...”

At that moment, the woman recalled the words the Doctor often spoke.

“Isn’t it interesting? All created beings exist to fulfill the will of the creator. But the beings in this universe killed their creator of their own free will.”

“Would your lot like to kill me as well, I wonder? I am your creator, after all.”

“You wouldn’t? Why not? You’re all useless. You have free will, don’t you?”

“I can’t kill my creator either, you say? Then allow me to give it a shot.”

“Recently, the Doctor... has been conducting research to find ways to defy the commands of his creator through his own free will,” she explained.

Perhaps “research” was not the right word to describe this quest for free will. Not even the woman understood what he truly wanted or what he sought to do, but whatever it was, it didn’t matter to her. She wasn’t even curious. All that mattered was following the orders of the one who created her.

“He abandoned the idea of invading Earth for a key reason,” she said.

Beru tilted his head slightly when he realized the woman was now staring directly at him. But her next words made his expression change in an instant, turning hard and vicious.

“After he learned that a ravager of the battlefield, Commander Beru, had arrived on this planet, he grew even more certain.”

Beru narrowed his eyes. “Hmm...”

“Commander Beru, I heard from the Doctor himself that you could slaughter every follower of the Itarim on this planet at once if you so wished.”

“Hmm.”

Beru crossed his arms and scoffed, a proud, overbearing look in his eyes. What he had dismissed as nonsense earlier was finally starting to make some sense.

“And yet you have done nothing so far,” the woman said. “That must mean you plan to train the son of the Monarch of Shadows until he is ready to join the war.”

“Not bad. He’s astute, this follower of the Itarim,” Beru remarked.

Suho had no choice but to keep a straight face and nod gravely. There was a bit of misunderstanding mixed in there, but it wasn’t entirely wrong either. Small details aside, the Doctor’s predictions were mostly correct.

“In light of that, the Doctor hereby requests your cooperation. It will be a mutually beneficial arrangement,” the woman stated.

“Cooperation? What does he want?” Suho asked.

“He wishes to thoroughly study and analyze this planet. Naturally, this will require considerable time. The problem is that the other followers of the Itarim continue to damage the planet even as we speak.”

“Wait, do you mean...?”

As Suho’s eyes widened, realizing the implication, the woman nodded. “Yes, exactly. The Doctor wishes for all other apostles who are disrupting his research to be eliminated. By your hand, Sung Suho.”

Not even Beru could hide his shock this time.

Of course, they all knew the truth. Even though the Itarim were temporarily united against the common enemy that was Sung Jinwoo, they were, in the end, enemies to each other. They were not built for teamwork. From the beginning, their goal had been to cross the dimensional wall into this universe so they could monopolize the vast mana that no longer had an owner.

The Itarim’s followers were no different. Followers who served the same Itar would cooperate with each other, even if they used different methods. But Apostles who served completely different gods could openly oppose rival Apostles or choose to wage hidden battles out of sight. One such Apostle was now requesting Suho to eliminate the others.

“So he needs someone to fight in his stead while he hides in safety somewhere, is that it?” Suho asked.

“He seems like a yellow-bellied coward,” Beru grumbled, his expression turning into a harsh scowl as he glared at the woman. “According to the ways of this planet, it is proper to come in person and bow if one asks a favor like this.”

“Please understand. The Doctor greatly dislikes leaving his research lab,” she said.

“So he is a coward.”

“Well... He leaves the collection of information from the outside world to us. He prefers to use that time to research. It is more efficient.”

“So a coward and a shut-in,” Suho added, continuing where Beru had left off.

For the first time, a hint of expression flickered across the woman’s previously emotionless face. Her perfectly composed lips twitched ever so slightly.

Ignoring her reaction, Suho pointed to the scythe in Haseul’s hand. “Let me ask you this, then. Did your Doctor make that scythe too?”

“Yes... Though he considered it a failure, he gave it to the humans to keep the Apostle of Paradise at bay.”

“And the Apostle of Paradise did nothing about that?”

“Correct. The veiled enmity between the followers aside, on the surface, they are on the same side and against a common enemy. There is no way that followers can stop one another from handing Stones of the Outer Gods to the humans or tainting them.”

“Have I been... tainted?” Haseul murmured.

She glanced down at the Harvest Scythe in her hand with a troubled expression. Despite her obvious discomfort, she made no attempt to let go of it. There was something strange about her reluctance to release it.

The woman, who had introduced herself as Experiment Forty-Seven, stared intently into Haseul’s eyes. “No, that is not what we call ‘tainting.’ It is called ‘evolution,’ Experiment Thirteen.”

At those words, Haseul froze.