Chapter 268: a fulfilled dream

Clark felt like he was captured and trapped in a cage where he was being tortured for a thousand years. His eyes were already leaking blood but the strange healing fluid kept on healing his injuries.

Being restrained to a bed and having to take so many painful and traumatic sensations was worse than hell.

To the current him, dying now was better than persevering.

He already tried various ways to commit suicide but the healing fluid was relentlessly pumping inside his blood, making sure that his body kept functioning optimally.

His consciousness was already on the verge of shattering numerous times, but another strange liquid pumped inside him kept on stimulating his brain. His adrenal gland was at work, keeping him conscious against his will.

“Stop!” “Please, stop!!”

He already yelled this countless times along with his screams but no one seemed to be listening to him. His voice was already hoarse, a sign of what he was currently going through.

Tears rolled down his eyes but the electric current going through his body zapped him, quickly evaporating it from existence. He was in pain!

His slightly dark-tone skin was now glowing red like molten lava, now he understood what the A. I meant by calling him a test subject. All Professor Granit said was lies, he was just a test subject to him.

Though he wanted to die now, at the back of his mind, the urge for revenge for this treatment kept on blazing like fire.

He didn’t know how long he was suffering this already; his brain was already fried dull. Perhaps, he was here for hours already, days, weeks, or even months, he felt like wailing when he thought of it.

“Will this suffering have no end? Granit, I curse you!”

Sometime later, he no longer screamed in pain. His body was already numb to the pain, his brain was already turning to toasted meat, now he was only waiting for when death would come.

This continued for some more time before he finally started feeling a change.

His originally numb mind started spiking in brain activity again, he started experiencing feeling in his fried and tired muscles again, he started seeing slightly from his blood-red eyes again.

What was happening? Has the suffering stopped? Was he dying? Was he dead? He didn’t know.

As this new feeling started growing stronger, he finally started seeing the blue electric currents that were flashing through his body for the first time.

His red veins stuck out of his skin, lining his muscles like slithering pythons. He felt that his physique improved a bit but he could not pinpoint by how much and what caused it.

As time went on, he started adapting more to the sensations brought about by the Professor’s experiment. He finally saw the Professor again.

To his surprise, Professor Granit was not watching him like a crazed scientist. The old man was actually crying, his head was buried in his hands, Clark could now even hear the slight sounds emitted by his crying.

“What farce is this?” Seeing this sight did not bring any complicated emotions to him, only murderous intention filled his heart.

He didn’t know for how long but as time progressed, he started feeling more strength enter his bones. He could feel his brainpower and brain activity increasing, he felt invisible shackles being broken from his body.

His bloodshot eyes gradually widened in disbelief; this was the process of breaking through. For the first time since this evil treatment started, he felt excited.

As his brain activity kept on climbing up, his strength also climbed up.

He now felt that if given more time and if his power kept on growing, he would be able to break out of his restraints.

Click!

At the last moment when his expectations were at the zenith, he suddenly felt something click in his head, making him close his eyes reflexively as the sudden spike in strength left him.

At this exact moment, the electric current flowing through his body stopped. The restraints that were holding him in place also made a click sound and retracted themselves back, he was now free but his eyes were still closed.

Clark didn’t know where this was, it felt like a virtual domain but had some differences from the one he knew.

Inside this strange domain, he saw himself hovering in mid-air just like the way he did in his dreams.

“Where is this?” He was shocked.

At the farthest side of this domain, a white light suddenly erupted like the explosion of a nuclear bomb, spreading its shockwaves to all corners of the domain.

He squinted his eyes to avoid the glare. When he did this, a golden substance suddenly flew out from the shockwave and entered his brain.

He was shocked, he could not react at all, the golden substance already fused with his brain. Thinking that it was something dangerous, he immediately started panicking.

But what happened next surprised him, unlike what he expected, a fuzzy feeling suddenly enveloped his brain after the substance fused with his brain.

He felt…, strong! That was all he could use to quantify what he felt.

Blink!

As he looked on in wonder, his eyes suddenly blinked and he was awake again. The first thing that greeted his eyes was the excited face of the mad scientist, Professor Granit.

Whoosh!

He could not control himself, seeing this face that he was dreaming of murdering for the past hour his hands reflexively punched outwards.

The next moment, he was surprised before coming to a realization.

The punch went through the Professor harmlessly, he finally remembered that the Professor was only existing as a modified brain and that this was just a projection.

Noticing that he was no longer strapped to the bed, he shot up immediately and looked at the Professor man to man, his eyes burning with a vengeance as they seemed to bore a hole into the Professor’s face.

The old man sighed. “I know you’re angry…”

“I’m angry!”. Clark bellowed, his fists expanding and contracting as his increased heartbeat made blood rush into every part of his body.

If he could, he would have punched this old man to death right there and now.

Both of them stood rigidly, looking at each other silently.

For Clark, only resentment for the suffering that he just passed through blazed through his eyes, while for the old man, complicated feelings flashed through his eyes.

“I’m sorry”. After an indeterminate time, the Professor finally spoke out.

Clark kept quiet, glaring at him directly in the eyes.

“I’m really sorry, it’s desperation to not let my life work die in obscurity, that’s why I went as far as using a 4th rank high-grade soldier for my experiment, even my only son”.

“I have a lot of things to say to you, I have a lot of questions also, but sadly there’s no time”.

Clark frowned a bit, but he still kept his mouth tightly shut.

“I didn’t expect such tenacity from you. I didn’t know how you did it, but you succeeded”. The Professor seemed to heave a sigh of relief.

“The only problem is that you depleted almost all the remaining energy reserves in the process, this research base will turn into a real underground ruin in 20 minutes”.

“Yes, I know you’re still angry but think of the bigger picture. I don’t know exactly what happened, but I didn’t lie to you, fusing with my biological device can make you the best soldier in the world”.

“I’m not in your head, but I know that you’re probably feeling extremely strong mentally now. It's just my theory, but I think if the fuse is successful, you’ll feel freedom like you were shackled before”.

“Your perception of your surrounding will improve a lot, the advantages that you have now are numerous if you really fused with the quadrant enhancer”.

“Please, can you tell me how it felt? That way, I’ll know if it was successful”. The Professor reduced his voice to a pleading tone.

Clark badly wanted to keep quiet and glare his resentment away, but he could not as almost everything that the Professor just said about him was correct.

Still keeping a cold face, he finally said something. He was also curious; he knew that he was stronger somehow. “I felt like I was remolded- like my brain was mysteriously enhanced somehow”.

“The pain disrupted my perception a lot before, but now when I think about it, I feel freedom. It feels like my brain was a car that I was driving before, but now I’m the car”.

Professor Granit was excited. “It worked!”

“That means it worked, Clark. You don’t know what you are now, you’re practically a superhuman already. My gosh, I can’t imagine what the current you can do”.

“All the advantages that I told you about are possible, the possibilities that are available for you to excel are too numerous to quantify”.

The Professor’s enthusiasm-filled words slowly slowed to a stop as he detected that Clark still had a cold look on his face. He finally paused and turned his head to the side, sorrow filling his heart.

“I don’t care how exceptional I am right now, what I know is that what I just went through is unforgivable”. Clark’s cold voice finally sounded.

The Professor suppressed his emotions and turned back after a few seconds. “Major Clark, nothing in this world is without a price. To get power, there’s an equivalent price to pay”.

“I never asked for power from you”.

“But you came for my invention!” The Professor became agitated.

“Why are humans so gullible. You expect something good but you don’t want to experience the pain that will lead to it. That’s why humans can never be the best species”.

“When the invasion finally comes, humanity will remember me”.

“Which invasion?” Clark frowned again.

The Professor finally paused. “You’ll know when you get to the equivalent rank, I can’t spill humanity secrets to anybody”.

“Ok, release me, I need to meet my friend”.

“He is alright, you don’t need…”

“I said release me”. Clark’s tone grew cold.

“Ok,” The Professor relented reluctantly. “But please allow me to give you a medical check-up”.

“No”.

The Professor closed his eyes. A minute later, he opened them again. “What of your power? When I checked the parameters, it indicated that you were about to break through, so why are you still a 2nd rank high-grade soldier?”

Clark hesitated. “I don’t know. I also felt it, but at the last moment something yanked me out from that realm”.

“Ok, do you plan to pilot a mech in the future?” Sensing Clark’s doubt, the Professor smiled. “I told you that you can now pilot a mech, your brain now has much more power than you ever imagined”.

“Oh…”

“If you decide to build a mech in the future, please I want you to name it Magnus. I know this is farfetched, but please do it just to honor my experiment, at least it meant that I was not wrong”.

“Who is Magnus?”

“My only son”.

“Ok”. Seeing the look on the Professor’s face, Clark understood. He finally turned to walk down the passageway that the Professor just showed him.

“Thanks, Major Clark.

Clark did not answer.

“A little tip for you; there’s a secret passage to the right of this hall. If you take it with your friend, you’ll be able to escape before this place collapses”.

“What of you, what will happen to you?” Clark paused his steps and asked.

“What else? I already fulfilled my life dream; my brain will finally rest in eternal peace. I just hope you utilize my quadrant enhancer to its fullest potential”.

Clark said nothing, he walked out of the laboratory room the next moment.

[Phew! Finally done.]