Chapter 20

Black Screen

Taking a cautious glance at the corpse on the ground, Lan couldn’t help but close his eyes. After a moment, he forced himself to open them again but didn’t dare to look down, instead focusing on the smiling face of the boy across from him. Seeing the other’s smile again, Lan couldn’t help but swallow hard.

“You… you’re a guard?” He trembled as he recalled the boy’s earlier use of the word “release.”

“Not really; I guess I’m also a product,” the boy thought for a moment and said, “You all can leave.”

As he spoke, he waved them off.

“…You… you can let us go?” Leading the group, Lan and a few other young people looked back at him.

The boy’s smile while killing terrified everyone, yet they realized he was saving them! Thinking this, they felt a bit grateful toward him.

Still, fear was the dominant emotion; only Lan dared to approach him, while the others didn’t move at all.

“It’s naturally not possible, but I wanted to let you go, so I did,” he said, frowning slightly, and after a moment, he waved his hand again: “Go wherever you want; you’re free now.”

“And you?” Lan asked again, watching him turn toward the front of the aircraft.

“Going back,” the boy replied, not looking back as he crossed through the cabin door to the co-pilot seat.

He quickly pulled the corpse of the researcher who had been sitting there away and took the former occupant’s place.

He moved swiftly; the other hadn’t even realized what was happening before he was dead.

Sitting snugly in the spacious chair, he said to the frightened pilot in the driver’s seat: “Wait until they leave and then take off; just head back. Don’t worry, you’re not assigned to guard me; I’m handling everything, and they won’t punish you.”

The pilot nodded anxiously, wiped the blood off his face, and stiffly turned his gaze forward, preparing to adjust the map for the return flight.

Wrapping a blanket around himself, S11 closed his eyes, ready to sleep.

Just then, he heard footsteps—the sound of the people from the rear cabin, moving stealthily and slowly… He couldn’t understand why these people were being so slow even in their escape.

Just a bunch of weaklings; he couldn’t even be bothered to open his eyelids.

Then, he felt a footstep come closer and stop beside him, and he heard the voice of one of Juan’s classmates:

“Thank you, but… I have a small request…” the person stammered.

Since it was a request, there was no need to say it out loud—thinking this, S11 pulled the blanket down from over his head, revealing a pair of light brown eyes that stared coldly at the other.

Under the gaze of those eyes, Lan’s hard-earned courage almost faltered, but he still pushed through, steeling himself as he blurted out, “The others want to leave, but I plan to go back, to go back with you.”

“Back?” S11 raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah, back. I want to expose them,” Lan declared loudly. “If I leave here today, I won’t even know how to go back. Even if I’m lucky enough to survive, just thinking about what happened there would make me regret it. It’s better to go back!”

After he finished, he sat down in the chair behind the boy.

Hearing his words, the few young men and women who had already stepped through the hatch paused.

Looking at the unfamiliar outside and then at Lan, who seemed resolute in facing death inside—

The first person turned back, then the second, the third…

Finally, they all sat back down on the floor of the aircraft in unison.

“We… are going back too.”

“Yeah, even if we go out, we wouldn’t know where to go. I want to go back.”

“My sister is still in the city; I recognized her when I was in the city. We share the same paternal genes.”

Everyone was chattering, each trying to find reasons for their return.

“Do whatever you want,” S11 replied lazily, pulling the blanket up over his head and closing his eyes again.

For the entire journey, no one spoke, whether it was the soldier-like Lan and his group, the serious pilot flying the aircraft, or S11, who was resting.

Just before they reached the city gate, at Lan’s request, the aircraft descended once, letting them off, and then ascended again, this time heading straight towards Eden.

The aircraft landed once more, and the boy first heard the sound of the pilot jogging away, followed by the sound of high heels.

When the blanket above him was suddenly pulled away, S11’s cold gaze met a pair of heterochromatic eyes.

The woman smiled, but there was no warmth in her eyes.

“11, you’re being naughty again. It was hard for your sister to feel like you had become well-behaved, and now you’re back to your old self.”

“Elder sister?” The boy scoffed sarcastically. “At your age, I’d be worried that calling you ‘grandma’ would make you sound younger.”

The boy’s black and green eyes darkened simultaneously as the woman stared at his pale face, her smile slowly fading.

Seeing her like this, the boy’s sarcastic smile deepened. “Haven’t you figured it out? Heh, let me tell you, abilities are innate. Even if you dig out someone else’s eyes and implant them into yourself, or edit your genes… it won’t work. The original just isn’t usable.”

The woman narrowed her heterochromatic eyes, and with her right hand gloved in black leather, she slapped the boy hard across the face and then smiled again.

“What does it matter if you don’t have abilities? Being able to slap the face of someone with the greatest potential for abilities and make him unable to fight back is enough.”

“Occasional cuteness is charming, but it becomes unappealing when overdone. Don’t push me to lose my patience with you; remember, you’re not irreplaceable.” As she spoke, she turned to the old man beside her and said, “16, I’m leaving him in your hands. Today, however you treat him, I won’t be angry.”

The old man, who had been waiting, slowly drew a folded cane from his uniform pocket. As he extended it, he walked toward the boy.

“You’re quite resilient, aren’t you? The gene toxin started to take effect after you killed those two researchers, right?”

“They needed to input a confirmation code regularly. If no one confirms for a set period, it defaults to you being in an uncontrolled state, and the toxin begins to take effect. Although it’s not as much as the dosage I usually give you, with this long period of continuous infusion, the accumulated amount should have exceeded your limits by now, right?”

“Are you in quite a bit of pain now? Oh, that’s right, you’ve been so still that you can’t even move, can you?”

The old man laughed as he struck the boy repeatedly with the cane, and before long, the boy was covered in blood.

Seeing the boy still staring at him with icy eyes despite everything, the old man pressed his lips together, and the next strike went directly for the boy’s eyes.

Watching the boy’s eyelids tear and bleed, the old man chuckled: “Do you understand why Dr. Maria isn’t protecting you today?”

“Because they found a replacement.”

“I made one using the same gene pairing as yours. S12 is about to be born. Although it’s still in the womb, it’s already showing extremely strong ability fluctuations. It’s expected to be even stronger than you.”

“So, how does it feel? Are you scared? Your good days are coming to an end.” Seemingly delighted, he lashed out at the boy with a few more strikes.

Struggling to open his battered eyelids and seeing the old man’s arrogant smile, the boy once again wore a sarcastic grin.

“What does it matter? At least I’ve had good days; you’ve never experienced even a single good day like this.”

“However, to call this kind of life a good day, do you have some thoughts about that old lady? It’s a pity she doesn’t fancy you; first, you have no abilities; second, you’re too old; third, besides being obedient, your brain isn’t particularly useful.”

The boy’s eyes, stained with blood, no longer showed their original color, looking like mere blood holes. Nevertheless, he managed to keep his eyelids from drooping, smiling as he stared at the old man.

Gasping heavily, the old man was about to continue striking him, but seeing the boy’s increasingly smug face, he suddenly opened the nearby holographic console and pressed a few buttons, bringing up an image.

“I heard you and your new tutor are getting along well?”

As he spoke, the old man turned the screen toward the boy.

Seeing the smile on the boy’s face vanish the moment he looked at the screen, it was now the old man’s turn to laugh.

The young man on the screen was none other than the boy’s tutor—Juan.

He seemed to be in the staff dormitory, with a bed visible in the image, along with a small TV on a desk.

Juan was sitting on the bed, watching TV.

He wasn’t wearing the suit jacket he always wore when Lan saw him; instead, he was in a shirt. Although the top button was still fastened, without a tie or jacket, Juan looked much more relaxed than usual.

This was a version of Juan that the boy had never seen before.

Pleased with the boy’s suddenly serious expression, the old man mocked: “You’re not very bright, are you? Knowing these people were sent by us to cultivate feelings with you, how could you still fall for each other?”

“Dr. Maria was right; you’re all a bunch of love-starved pitiful souls. Sooner or later, someone will make you foolishly give your heart.”

“Don’t tell me you don’t have feelings; otherwise, why would you come back? If it were the old you, you wouldn’t have returned even if there was such an opportunity; you’d rather die out there than come back, right?”

“However, the old you wouldn’t have been allowed to go out like this either.”

“Your expression has changed! Haha! Did I hit the nail on the head?”

Laughing wildly, the old man pointed the cane at the boy’s face and maliciously said, “You should know that these cameras are not just cameras. What do you think about me blowing them up?”

“What do you think about me using it to blow up your tutor—”

The boy’s eyes shifted, and his previously motionless fingers twitched slightly. Looking at the old man’s face, he was about to channel his gathered strength into that face when suddenly—

On the screen, right before the old man and the boy, Juan’s face suddenly enlarged.

It seemed he had noticed the camera.

Then, expressionless and without warning, he swung a punch with all his might.

The next second, the screen went black.

Juan had smashed the camera.

Seing the old man staring in shock the boy burst into a laughter.