Chapter 1234 Khristina's Story

Khristina took at least a few minutes to think and better organize her next words, however, once she started telling her own story she didn't stop.

"As you should already well know after hearing about our family's past from my younger sister Ludmila, you could say that while our parents were alive the Ilyinishna family was quite prosperous in economic matters." 

"Working in the most private and secret laboratory in all of Russia as well as one of the most secure facilities on all of Earth, attacking my family was practically impossible so both my safety and Ludmila's were mostly guaranteed except for the rivals of the government group my father worked for." Khristina looked at Bai Zemin and remarked in a matter-of-fact rhetorical voice, "That's what you would normally think, wouldn't you?"

Without waiting for a response from him, Khristina pulled out a small pink flash drive that had a bunny sticker on it. Judging by the condition of the flash drive and the bunny sticker, the USB drive was definitely quite old.

"Do you have a computer?" she asked in her particular baby voice as she looked into his eyes.

Bai Zemin looked deep into her eyes, and after a long moment nodded.

Khristina took the laptop computer that Bai Zemin took out of his space storage ring and turned it on. A few seconds later and after pressing a few keys, she stood up with the laptop in her hands.

After setting the hand-held laptop down on the table so that both Bai Zemin and Shangguan Bing Xue could see the images she was about to play, Khristina pressed the enter button.

A golden-haired, blue-eyed man in his 30s who before the apocalypse would be considered extremely handsome was sitting in front of a desk with a large pile of documents to his left and another to his right. He looked directly into the camera as he spoke in a surprisingly magnetic voice.

"My name is Mikhalev Ilyinishna. This video is being recorded on the 7th day of September in the year 1994 and is the 19th record since the beginning of the secret study under the code name God among humans."

"My only daughter, Khristina Ilyinishna, became old enough to take the genetic surgery two months ago. It was a complete success! Although we knew that the odds of success would increase exponentially after the subject received the Superhuman Serum injection, we are still in the early stages of the project so at best there is only a 10 to 20 percent chance of success. After seeing that even such a young girl could handle the dangerous genetic modification surgery, it is likely that more soldiers will dare to undergo it... The day when our side will take the reins of leadership of the country is near."

The man looked extremely excited and happy when the video stopped.

As Bai Zemin stared at the dark screen with an ominous feeling in his chest, Khristina moved forward and in a few seconds opened a different file that was also inside the small flash drive.

Again, the blond man reappeared. However, there were some changes in the room and his appearance had also undergone some changes that could only come with the passage of a few years.

"Failure. It's a total failure!" The man banged his fist on the hard surface of his wooden desk as he said through gritted teeth, "It's been three years since my daughter Khristina succeeded in undergoing genetic surgery to create an artificial God. I thought that would be enough to make the rest of them brave and fearless, but they are all just a bunch of useless cowards! So what if the mortality rate is 85% or a bit more? Doesn't this mean that they all have a 15% chance of becoming a god among humans?!"

The man named Mikhalev Ilyinishna not only looked frustrated and furious, but Bai Zemin also noticed a distinct glimmer that he had only seen in a few people since the apocalypse began until now; madness.

"The enemy party is getting closer and closer. Once they find out what we have been doing they will definitely wipe us out... There is still a little time and a little hope though."

It was at this point that both Bai Zemin and Shangguan Bing Xue realized that even without watching more they would know what the person in the video was going to say.

"Two weeks ago my second daughter was born... Her name is Ludmila, a beautiful little girl that inherited the color of my hair and her mother's emerald eyes... I am sure that she would also succeed in accepting the surgery to create God in the same way as her older sister Khristina, but I am afraid that this time I will not be able to afford to wait until Ludmila reaches the required age... Although her chances of success will probably be 5% at best, a member of the Ilyinishna family definitely won't give up even with everything going against her!"

After a final slam of the man on the desk as if to prove his frustration, the camera fell and the video cut off abruptly.

Bai Zemin and Shangguan Bing Xue looked at each other in silence as Khristina took her flash drive and put it away.

"Here you go." She stared Bai Zemin in the eyes as she extended the laptop in his direction, and once Bai Zemin took it she sat down and continued matter-of-factly, "I found those two videos when I was about 10 years old. It was an accident, or maybe it's more correct to call it a coincidence."

At the age of 10, children's minds were not yet fully developed to understand things like percentages and probabilities of success or failure. However, there were always exceptions to every rule... and Khristina, who had undergone a bizarre surgery to turn her into a superhuman was definitely a major exception to the rule.

"That surgery my father talked about in those videos not only gave us tremendous physical strength, monstrous endurance, immunity against deadly diseases, and even the ability to fight against low temperatures... It also gave us great analytical and processing capabilities." Khristina explained calmly and softly, "It didn't take me long to realize that my own father submitted me to a freak surgery without my knowledge even if it meant that his own daughter would have more than an 80% chance of dying in the process."

"You..." Bai Zemin looked at her with wide eyes as he finally understood what was going on here.

"I was only a ten year old girl, there was little I could do back then." Khristina regretted as she closed her eyes. Her voice became softer, as if she was immersing herself in those painful memories: "I always wanted to be a big sister. It was my lifelong dream.... So when Ludmila was born I was so happy that I joyfully gave her all my favorite toys so that she would never cry. I know that usually siblings fight for their parents' attention when they are little, but not me. I loved my little sister more than anything in the world."

She opened her eyes, and with a coldness that Bai Zemin had only seen once before in her sweet eyes, she remarked, "I hated my own weakness, so I did what I had to do to increase my little sister's chances of survival. I threw away my dignity, my pride, my purity, my everything... Everything just to increase that 15% to 30%... And I succeeded, regardless of anything else, I succeeded."

Bai Zemin's heart trembled violently. At this moment he was not looking at the Khristina in front of him but rather at that 10-year-old Khristina who in order to protect her little sister had to do things unimaginable to anyone.

Yes, it was true that even after doing what she did there was no way for Khristina to fully or largely ensure the safety of the person she wanted so badly to protect even at the cost of her own life and dignity as a human. 

However, she was only 10 years old back when it all started! 

What was such a little girl supposed to do but give her all using what little time she had left?

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