The noise from the past images in the room became the background sound, and the boy stood there, looking at Tran with sparkling eyes.
Tran looked at the pair of pitch-black pupils that were looking at him brightly, and it was rare for him to feel what it meant to be dumbfounded. However, it was precisely because of this dumbfounding feeling that the feeling that he had been gripping his heart just now was washed away.
He looked at Mute and shook his head helplessly.
"It's impossible to have different sexes with the same genes," he said.
Mute, who couldn't restrain his brain opening for a moment just now, immediately came to his senses. Chromosomes determine sex, and chromosomes are composed of countless genes, and identical genes cannot have two sexes.
Although he remembered this kind of biological common sense, the boy still didn't give up.
"Well, mutations or something, sometimes genetic mutations, chromosome changes, and female... uh... this is also possible."
In fact, Mute really didn't think too much about it. He scratched his heart and lungs to know, just to satisfy his curiosity.
It's good to be able to take a look, the appearance of a major general with a female body-that's absolutely goddess-level!
"... Maybe there is."
Tran was silent for a moment, and answered like this.
really have
Obviously he brought it up out of curiosity, but now that Tran said that, Mute suddenly felt inexplicably horrified.
…Suddenly I didn’t dare to look at it again.
The young man who didn't even dare to imagine the appearance of a "goddess" in his head held his head and felt a little tangled, and he didn't know why he felt a terrible feeling.
Mutt was still struggling here, but Tran had already walked towards him. The man stood in front of him, stretched out his hand, and touched his cheek with his fingertips.
Such a shallow touch that he could hardly feel the tactile touch.
Tran looked down at him, his dark blue pupils reflected his shadow, and the expression in his eyes was so complicated that it was hard to see clearly.
"Aren't you hiding?"
Tran asked him.
Mute, who was suddenly asked such a sentence, was a little confused.
Why hide
He answered Tran's question with blank eyes, Tran looked at him, and suddenly smiled lightly, the fingers that seemed to touch him fell down and slid down his cheek into the hair behind his ear, His fingertips brushed gently through his hair.
I thought you were disgusting.
I thought you'd think we were monsters.
I thought you wouldn't want to touch monsters like us.
Tran looked at the child who stood quietly and looked up at his own child. The child's eyes were as bright as when he first saw him.
At that time, he turned his head, and the first thing he saw was the eyes of the child looking at him, like the night sky he had gazed at countless times on the planet, it was obviously the deepest pitch black tone, but somehow it had the brightest light .
He likes when the child's eyes look at him intently, he likes the way the child smiles at him, he doesn't know what that feeling is called, but as long as he thinks that the child will look at others with these eyes, He is not reconciled when others smile.
Very unwilling.
He lost, and it was not Tran who survived, but Trol.
He knew what kind of feelings Troll had for the child. At the moment when Mutt was taken away, he and Troll looked at each other for a moment, and he saw the man looking at him at that moment. Scary eyes.
He thought he knew what it felt like to look in that way.
He was never willing to admit it before, but at the moment when they looked at each other, he had to admit that he and that person were still the same person after all.
They were born in the darkness and grew up in the darkness. What they long for is the same thing.
"really have?"
"... maybe, but..."
"but?"
The man stared at the boy in front of him with dark blue eyes.
He said: "Gene mutations are all failed experiments. Once the situation you mentioned occurs, that experimental subject will be disposed of immediately."
The boy froze for a moment.
He didn't seem to understand, and looked at Tran in astonishment.
"What to do?"
"The mutated experimental body is a defective product."
Tran said, in an understatement, as if he was saying a perfectly normal thing.
"Defective products are not eligible to survive." He said, raised his head, and glanced lightly at the densely packed culture vessels around him, as well as those experimental subjects soaked in the liquid that had exactly the same face and body as him.
He looked at them as if he were looking at a mass-produced object in a factory rather than a person.
"With tens of thousands of experimental subjects, there will always be some defective products, and they will be disposed of before they become conscious."
Mutt's breathing paused for a moment, he raised his head, and followed Tran's gaze to look around.
There are countless people in the countless culture vessels, with young faces and young bodies, each of them looks like a child who is only six or seven years old. These children were immersed in the liquid, their bodies undulating in the water, and occasionally they could see the blinking traces of the eyelashes immersed in the water.
Thousands of experimental subjects, thousands of living people.
[Defective products will be disposed of.]
The young man looked at the countless children immersed in the culture solution with blank eyes. He didn't know what he should think at this moment, maybe he couldn't think of anything.
His eyes slowly swept over the thousands of children who were still alive, and he watched the researchers who shuttled through the culture vessels record the data of these children, as if they were picking out the malnourished from the good and bad cabbages that part of the
His eyes widened suddenly, and he saw not far from him, a brown-haired researcher shook his head at the culture vessel in front of him, and then reached out to close something. The light of the culture vessel suddenly dimmed, and the level of the culture fluid inside dropped little by little, exposing the body of the child whose arms were obviously thinner than the others.
Almost instinctively, he rushed over and put his hand on the glass of the petri dish.
But he couldn't do anything, he could only look at the painful expression on the face of the young child wearing a breathing mask, as if he couldn't breathe, his body twitched and struggled for a long time, and then he stopped breathing with a gray face , There is no ups and downs in the chest.
Mute watched helplessly as the brown-haired researcher ordered others to open the oval container that had run out of culture fluid, dragged the dead child out, and randomly threw it into a large cylinder. the bodies of the other two children.
The boy's face was extremely pale at this moment.
Why
he thinks.
Why can these people do this kind of thing with a smile and nonchalantly—why, as human beings, they can so easily label those children who are also human as 'defective products' and discard those children like waste products To the dump
These people created life and then trampled on life wantonly.
Why can humans do such cruel things
Mutt looked at the densely packed culture vessels, suddenly, his pupils contracted forcefully, and a terrible thought that suddenly appeared in his mind made him shiver all over.
He turned his head to look at Tran. Tran, who was looking at the scene in front of him calmly, seemed to have noticed his gaze, and turned to look at him. The dark blue eyes were bottomless.
"You said... Dispose of defective products..."
Mute looked at Tran without blinking, and swallowed uncontrollably.
"And what about the others, the ones who didn't have a problem?"
"Leaving the petri dish alive."
"yes."
The answer he got made Mute slightly relieved, but Tran's next answer made his face freeze again.
"Successful test subjects will be numbered for learning and training." Tran said, "The unqualified ones will be disposed of."
"..."
"Only excellent experimental subjects are eligible to survive. In order not to waste resources, experimental subjects with ordinary qualifications will also be dealt with."
"..."
"The land of this planet is the proving ground. The things in the forest are all artificially cultivated and feed on humans. Experimental bodies that have successfully passed the training are sent to the proving ground from time to time. Only by killing those monsters can they survive. .”
Tran continued to speak one sentence after another. When he said these, his expression was very calm, and his tone was also very calm, as if he was talking about something that should be taken for granted.
"Only excellent genes can be passed on, and only powerful experimental subjects can survive."
What he said has always been taken for granted for him, and this truth has been rooted in his thinking almost from the day he became sensible.
"… It's not like this."
When Tran spoke, the young man whose throat seemed to be choked and unable to make any sound finally found his voice after a long time.
His vocal lips twitched uncontrollably at this moment.
"Survival of the fittest, the jungle of the jungle, this is the law of biology."
"But we are human!"
"Man is also a kind of creature."
"It's not like this!"
The teenager shouted uncontrollably, he looked at Tran, his pupils were trembling.
"If what you said is right, then what about me, what am I? I don't have good genes, and I'm not as strong as you. According to you, people like me should be eliminated, and weak people like me should not be eliminated. Eligible to live—in that case, why do you want to protect me? Why do you want me to live?"
"..."
The black-haired man was silent for a moment, and after a long time, he replied like a sigh.
"If only I could know the answer..." he said, "You can't get any answers from a monster."
"You are not."
Mutt said, gritting his teeth.
"You're not, and neither is Major General Troll."
"yes."
Tran suddenly smiled again. He had a handsome and picturesque face, but this smile inexplicably sent chills down the spine.
"It's come to this point...it doesn't matter anymore...then let you see what I, that person...have done." He said, Mo Lan's pupils stared at Mute, reflecting the virtual light, glowing A strange arc.
"I lost," he said, "but I won't let that man have you. I know you're too young to understand me."
he said, keeping his eyes fixed on Mutt.
"You're not going to like that person, and never will be."
This was his biggest purpose for bringing Mute to this place.
He is that person, that person is him, they are actually the same person, so he understands what that person fears most better than anyone else.
The unbearable past, the darkest memory, the monster-like self—when all these were nakedly displayed in front of this child—
If he loses, that person will live, but it doesn't matter, because what that person gets is a hopeless future that will always be feared and rejected by this child.
...
[The Last Trial]
The hot sun was blazing the earth, and what the sun shone was a vast expanse of white land.
Gray and white rocks rise and fall on the ground. This is a barren land made up of hard rocks. There is nothing but rocks here.
Looking around, there are gray and white stones as far as the line of sight is concerned, without any other colors.
The sun was still scorching hot, evaporating the water vapor in the human body.
In the shadow of a huge standing rock, someone was breathing heavily.
A black-haired young man shrank in the shadows, as if taking a short rest, and after a while, he walked out of the shadows. His face was exposed to the sun, it was an extremely handsome and delicate face, but at the moment it was covered with dust, black and white, and two long scars on the sides had just scabbed over.
The black-haired young man's footsteps were not steady, he seemed a little staggering, a little shaking, as if he would fall down at any time.
His breathing was very rapid and heavy, showing a bit of pain. Just look at his lips, and you can know the reason why he is in such pain now.
His lips were terribly dry, with bloody cuts all over his lips, and the scorched outer skin was turned out. On his scorched lips, even if he was next to him, he could feel the pain of extreme thirst.
The appearance of this young man staggering forward appeared on the huge light curtain.
There were a dozen or so people sitting in the hall, who looked like researchers. They were sitting in a room with a moderate temperature controlled by the brain, some were holding hot tea, some were holding drinks with ice cubes, chatting while watching the young man who was about to be killed by hunger and thirst staggering forward on the screen. OK look.
There are twenty or thirty light curtains open in the hall, and each light curtain displays a different picture, and the job of these researchers who are drinking and chatting is to pay attention to the living experimental subjects inside the light curtains.
With a beep, the door opened, and another person walked in, casually glanced at the scenes on the light curtain.
"How many days?"
"The eighth day." Someone took a sip of the drink and replied, "Even 'they' who have undergone special training, their physical fitness is already at their limit."
"There are still sixteen people left, hey, here are two more people bumping into each other."
...
The throat is so dry that it seems that the throats are rubbing against each other, and even a little saliva cannot be secreted. Every breath, the oxygen inhaled is like a knife cutting the throat, tearing that place and bleeding.
His consciousness has begun to blur.
This is an isolated island with nothing but rocks, and the seawater surrounding the island is extremely salty, so high that no living things can survive. The island is actually a huge gray-white rock.
How long he had been in this place, he could not remember.
The only thing he remembers is a sentence, a sentence given to him by the person who sent him in.
[Only one person has the right to live.]
He didn't understand the meaning of this sentence at first, but soon, he understood. Not only him, but other people who were sent to this place together also understood.
Someone told them that this is the final test, and those who pass will be free.
No one asked what would happen if they were not qualified. Everyone knew that the only result of being eliminated was death.
There was a sound of wind, and even if he was in a trance, he could still feel that someone was attacking him. It was an instinct he had trained in countless battles. His body, which was shaking when walking, suddenly became agile the moment he was attacked.
He got entangled with that person.
The bright sunlight shone on the daggers in the hands of the two of them, and the metal blades collided with each other to make a clanging sound.
In the desperate fight between each other, he won a step and pushed the opponent to the ground. The dagger in his hand cut the opponent's throat fiercely, and the blood spurted out and splashed him all over the face.
The pupils of the man whose throat was cut by him suddenly dilated and lost focus. The man just opened his eyes wide open, lying quietly on the ground, blood flowed from his throat, staining the gray and white stones under his body red.
He half knelt beside the man he had killed, panting heavily, his throat was like a broken bellows, as if he was about to cough up blood.
He hung his head, his blood-stained black hair fell down, and under the black hair was a handsome face with blood scabs, and this face was exactly the same as the corpse on the ground.
He killed the man who had the same face as himself.
This is not the first time, he has killed six people with the same face as him with the dagger in his hand.
[Only one person can survive.]
...
... ... ...
"Oh, this wins again."
Those who watched the duel in the hall of the institute said that this battle scene was not unusual for him.
During these eight days, his task was to watch these test subjects kill each other.
Only the best and most powerful experimental body is needed.
"The chances of 'it' winning the final victory do not appear to be small, and it is important to pay attention."
As he said this, the other person next to him continued to speak.
"That being said, 'it' is fine without food for eight days, but without water, it's not just 'it', I'm afraid the rest will almost be unable to hold on."
"Hmm... No way, it took longer than expected. I thought five or six days would be enough. I didn't expect these experimental subjects to be stronger than imagined, and their abilities are similar. It is difficult to do anything to each other, so it has been delayed until now. "
"But we can't interfere."
"But… "
"Even if all the experimental subjects are dead, they can't intervene. The adult said that he only wants the strongest one, and no one can intervene."
"Also, it doesn't matter even if all the experimental subjects here are dead, just re-cultivate a batch, there will always be success."
...
…………………
The sun was still shining hotly, making people dizzy. The black-haired young man knelt beside the corpse he had killed, gasping for breath, his eyes were already turning white, and he felt dizzy again and again.
Extreme hunger and thirst ravaged his body crazily, his arm holding the dagger began to tremble, as did his legs, and he could hardly stand up. He didn't know how long he could hold on, maybe he would fall to the ground in the next second, and then become a corpse.
Instinctively, he licked his dry and scorched lips. He had licked countless times in the past few days, but he could only lick the cracked bloody skin. There was nothing else, and this time he was ready to accept everything. Unfeelable results.
But what surprised him this time was that his tongue licked a little wet liquid.
After a long drought and nectar, the already numb tongue was suddenly stimulated to come alive—he licked the corner of his mouth again, and felt the long-lost moistness again, but there was a weird rusty smell in that moistness.
His pupils contracted forcefully, and then his eyes fell to the ground. Right in front of him, the young man with the same face as him was lying on the ground, blood was still gushing from the cut neck. When he slit that throat not long ago, blood sprayed all over his face.
He stared at the blood that flowed out, and swallowed in his throat.
There seemed to be a flame burning in his throat, urging him to find a source of water to quench the flame.
His hands were digging hard on the ground, and his fingertips rubbed against the rock, almost bleeding.
His eyes were fixed on the cut throat, and he couldn't take his eyes off the bright red liquid no matter what.
The scorching sun shone down on the entire earth, making the rocky island as hot as a frying pan.
Under the bright sunlight, the young man leaned over slowly, his blood-stained jet-black hair fell down, blocking the front, so that people could not see his face buried in the neck of the corpse.
...
……………
There was a moment of silence in the hall, and those people stared at the scene on the light curtain dumbfounded, all showing disgusted and disgusted expressions.
"It's actually... too disgusting."
"Just like a monster."
Everyone said this one after another, pursing their lips with disgust on their faces. They sat in the comfortable hall, drinking hot tea or cold drinks at hand, and criticizing the experimental subject.
"It's easy to understand. We all know that wolves will eat the corpses of their dead companions. Even when they are extremely hungry and can't find other food, they will attack weak companions and use their companions' flesh and blood. Eat. Not only wolves, but many wild beasts have this habit."
An old researcher with white hair said, with a look of naturalness on his face.
"'They' have accepted the theory of the survival of the fittest since they were young, so they have developed this animalistic thinking."
He sat in front of the light curtain, talking to everyone like he was teaching.
"That is to say, when their own survival is threatened, 'they' will use animal thinking and follow instincts similar to wild animals to ensure their own survival."
The discussion among the people in the room became more and more heated for a while, and the atmosphere that had been cold for a moment became hot again.
No one noticed that above the light curtain, the black-haired young man who was half-kneeling on the stone floor had raised himself up again. He raised his head, facing the sky, his messy black hair scattered around his eye sockets, making it difficult for people to see his eyes clearly at the moment.
The scorching sun was extremely bright, illuminating the glaring blood on the corner of his upturned face.
Not long ago, his lips were extremely dry, slightly whitish, with almost no color, and the cracks all over his lips looked particularly terrifying. But at this moment, the lips moistened by the blood were extremely bright red under the sun, showing a strangely beautiful red.
The bright red liquid slid down the corners of his lips, the kind of burning blood that made people's eyes ache slightly, making his snow-white skin look sickly pale at this moment.
The blood slipped from the corner of his lips, from his chin, and fell to the ground drop by drop.
The young man who was killed by him with the same face as him was lying on the ground, the blood on his neck was still flowing, staining the gray and white stone ground red.
The blood red seeping into the gray and white rock is the same bright red as the lips of the black-haired young man who raised his head.
The black-haired young man raised his head, like a beast that had just eaten the flesh and blood of his companion.
He half-kneeled on the ground, looking up at the sky, silently.
... That silent and quiet posture obviously makes people feel chills from the bottom of their hearts... horror, fright... but it also gives people an incredible and weird aesthetic feeling.
...
... ... ...
[The Last Trial]
Only one subject can survive.
Only the one who survived by killing other people, stepping on other people's corpses and devouring other people's flesh and blood can have the name of Troll.