Chapter 155 - Donor

Chapter 155 - Donor

translator: xiin

editors: apricot & juurensha

“Are you sure Shao Yu is there?” The suspension car rushed towards the star ship. The private star ship that belonged to the Floating City guard team had already been prepared. Wei Shi spoke in a deep voice.

This situation seemed to be driven by a strange series of coincidences. Ever since Shao Yu’s first appearance, this six year old event had been torn open by forces beyond their control.

On the other side of the video call, Mao Dongqing nodded. “He shouldn’t have discovered the surveillance cameras.”

Mao Dongqing sent over a video clip.

Shao Yu carefully used his terminal to scan around the Warehouse #6 on the Blue Star where the R-Code Base’s genetic samples were stored. Wei Shi could even see the blood seeping through the bandage wrapped around the left side of his body.

Floating Star Harbor.

Wei Shi jumped out of the suspension car and strode towards the star ship through an auto sealing port connection. Guard team four personally opened up the door for him.

Mao Dongqing: “Also, a weak R-Code S-level emotional lock current has been detected near Warehouse #6.”

The S-level emotional lock current was basically the identification mark for the three major human-shaped weapons from the R-Code Base. Wei Shi and Shao Yu were both unable to escape from detection under this highly sensitive detector.

Wei Shi ordered, “Go.”

The virtual star map in the cabin opened up fully. The borders of Floating City were still under martial law. The star ship flew into the sky like a meteor, sailing towards the Blue Star at full speed.

At this time, at the Floating Base.

Wu Jin’s terminal lit up briefly. It was a message from the big boss.

“Will be back later. Don’t worry.”

Wu Jin immediately expressed 100% understanding. The big boss had many things to be busy with, and thousands of credits were accumulated or lost every minute. He was unlike Wu Jin, who was just an ordinary and common little trainee!

The receipt for a ‘customized pocket pen gun inscription for couples’ was pressed down to one side of the bed, and the terminal lit up again briefly with the shop owner’s message, notifying him that the gun had been engraved and could be picked up at any time.

Wu Jin spread out on the spacious bed and continued to think about the surveillance video from the Crosson dorms that was taken during the fifth elimination match.

Crosson’s logistics team was quite efficient. In addition to the video, they had also opened up the monitoring access authority for Wu Jin from the backend. Wu Jin could access and check the monitoring for the living room of their four person dorm as well as his own bedroom.

Wu Jin clicked open the living room’s video stream. At first, everything appeared as usual on Camera A. The black cat entered Wu Jin’s room twice, its movements once again exactly the same––

Wu Jin stilled.

This ‘repeated’ footage wasn’t obvious. If it wasn’t searched for deliberately, nobody would have noticed it.

He then turned on Camera B.

The monitor was very calm. After going through one third of it, a cat’s paw appeared on the screen, and the screen started whirling and turning.

Wu Jin then remembered that he had seen this segment before, with the Crosson logistics team. It was the camera that the black cat had picked up and played around with.

Soon, the camera was almost disconnected from the cables. Because it was behind a potted plant, it was difficult for even the long-term dormitory residents to notice it. A rounded, enlarged cat face appeared, and the black cat happily bit off the cable and started playing with its new toy.

After that, the camera underwent many fierce storms. The black cat played with it all the way until the afternoon before kicking it under Wu Jin’s bed with a paw and snatching up Brother Rabbit, licking at it crazily.

Wu Jin rewound the video.

The Crosson Base that the program producer had created was quite simplistic in all aspects. The camera had its own storage chip, and the media that was streamed in was connected to the Crosson intranet through the wiring behind the walls. Accessing the data to read or overwrite it could be done remotely. After the black cat bit off the camera, it had spontaneously gone offline, and the field of vision it captured had dimmed slightly.

The time when the black cat licked the rabbit the first time was consistent with the footage from the previous two camera streams.

That meant that the second time the black cat licked the rabbit––

On the only ‘offline’ camera, the screen was empty and blank.

Wu Jin was stunned and quickly pulled the timestamp for the three camera recordings to the same point. He looked at them from left to right.

Cat, cat, no cat.

Wu Jin sucked in a breath of cold air.

He directly shut down the first two camera monitoring streams and focused on the offline recording that represented ‘reality’.

Five minutes later.

There was the faint sound of a door opening. It was almost like a hallucination to Wu Jin’s acute hearing and could be mistaken for the night wind––

On the screen, in the thick of the night.

Wu Jin squinted at the camera recording that had been taken from under the bed. The screen was dim, but he could still distinguish two legs in the dark.

It was silent, but someone stood there quietly in front of the bed.

It seemed that they were facing his pillow.

Wu Jin: “……!!!”

In the recording, he heard a faint ‘beep’ from the man’s terminal. It was as though it had detected the camera beneath the bed. So, the man who was standing in front of the bed moved slowly, his legs bending.

For a moment, Wu Jin didn’t even dare to breathe. He was almost certain that if the man stood at the head of his bed with a knife in the middle of the night, he wouldn’t be able to discover it and would end up directly chopped up into a Little Witch patty!

The movement of the man’s joints were very strange. When a normal person squatted down, his knee would move forward, but this person’s knees never went past his toes, and there was no internal or external rotation. It was like some kind of humanoid machine.

Wu Jin’s brows twisted into a frown.

This perspective made it seem as though he was the one hiding beneath the bed rather than the camera, and there was a murderer beside the bed––

The man crouched down, revealing his shoulders and neck.

The neck twisted in a boneless fashion, and the man looked at the camera.

A face appeared beneath the bed. The pale moonlight made his features seem extra pale and grim.

“!!!” Wu Jin was shocked. How come this surveillance video seemed like a horror movie?!

The man’s terminal no longer made any noise. The camera covered in cat fur and dust had somehow escaped the man’s second probe. Or maybe––the man felt that the camera beneath the bed could also be tampered with later.

He stood up again, still facing Wu Jin’s pillow.

Wu Jin remembered this face.

Countless memories flitted through his mind. When he’d filmed the variety show, he’d always felt a cold gaze at his back. There was the snake-like touch across the back of his hand, and the fragrance of roses made his head dizzy––

Wu Jin jumped up.

In his terminal contact list, the big boss’s communication line showed that he was temporarily blocking calls. He quickly went to call Mao Dongqing instead.

It took Mao Dongqing a full half minute to pick up the connection, “Little Witch, what did you say?! It was Shao Yu in the surveillance recording?”

One o’clock in the morning.

Blue Star, Warehouse #6.

Wei Shi disembarked from the star ship, and an investigation team immediately reported to him, “There are two doors to the warehouse. New movement has been detected inside, and from the camera, it appears that Scout is still attempting to crack the second gate.”

Wei Shi nodded indifferently.

As the first sharp blade of the Federation and the only voluntary, ‘noble blooded’ person to accept the genetic transformation at R-Code Base, Shao Yu had more information in his hands than either himself or Wei Yan.

It would be easy to accidentally destroy the genetic samples inside the R-Code warehouse if they forced their way inside with violence. If Shao Yu could solve this problem––

The team leader, “Brother Wei, what do we do now?”

Wei Shi: “Wait.”

The night wind was somber and heavy.

Wei Shi looked through the night at the warehouse, rubbing his fingertips against his particle gun.

Genetic reproduction and modification.

The light in Wei Shi’s eyes was cold and hard, and a chilly flash swept through his pupils, making them appear as cold as an inorganic substance. Wu Jin was undoubtedly a finished ‘scabbard’, but the transformation details were still a mystery.

Excessive drug injections, erased memories, a strange identity, and an instrumental music and dance muscle memory that had nothing to do with genetic transformation.

The gun safety for the particle gun was pulled down, and Wei Shi wrapped a finger around the trigger, his gaze disappearing into the darkness in the distance.

Wu Jin was the most perfect emotional container. Extroversion E, affinity S, and pressure bearing capacity S. He could channel emotions for the treatment and even replace others in bearing the emotional lock. If the sharp ‘swords’ were the epitome of physical fitness and combat ability transformation, then the ‘scabbard’ was focused on the spirit and personal character.

Wei Shi narrowed his eyes slightly.

In the second monitoring feed, Shao Yu finally opened the door to the warehouse.

The interior was pitch black.

Just before Shao Yu was about to step inside, Wei Shi didn’t hesitate to hesitate to heft up the gun and aim it at the warehouse in the distance. The scene was dark, and what he could see along with his combat instinct allowed Wei Shi to simply rely on a ‘rough estimate’ of the position based on the monitoring to snipe without any pause at all!

There was a ‘bang’ at the entrance to the warehouse!

A black shadow ran off in a hurry.

Wei Shi glanced at the signal scanner that was installed in their temporary bunker, “Can you catch up?”

The team leader nodded, “Yes!” The two red dots in the center of the screen were the two targets that could be detected via the S-level emotional lock current. It showed Wei Shi, who was in the bunker, and Shao Yu, who was running away.

Wei Shi made a sound of acknowledgement and then headed straight to the opened warehouse, “You guys follow Shao Yu.”

The guards obeyed, and left.

Warehouse #6 was located on the outskirts of the city, at the edge of a wheat field. It was like a dark beast that had devoured everything around it. Wei Shi and a small technical team stepped inside. The dust that had been accumulating for over several years was stirred up, stale and cloying.

The interior held well-made shelves filled with long, numbered silver metal boxes.

Inside the boxes were biological extracts from countless dead or even living people. It could be frozen saliva, preserved hair, or a voluntary micro-tissue slice.

Everyone knew the slogan of the Federal genetic industry: Forever treasured, passing on new life.

After the 28th century, genes no longer belonged to ‘private citizens’ and were now ‘strategic Federal reserves’, resulting in countless genetically modified people. So, the ‘HeLa cells’ nightmare that started in 1951 gradually happened to everyone.

Life was short, but death was long.

The cold metal boxes on the shelves were connected, like tombstones with an unknown date of birth or death.

Wu Jin’s original genetic donor was one of them.

Wei Shi: “Go and find the C72235AY8 sample.”

The researchers, who had been left with no way out in the Federal Institute of Biology and had then been dug out by Floating City, quickly searched through the shelves. “My Lord, there’s a password lock here––”

Wei Shi bent over on one knee in front of the locked box. His terminal chip was disrupted by the chaotic signals inside the warehouse, but Wei Shi calibrated the chip to the password locked box; there was a click, and the box opened.

There was only a single dusty notebook inside.

Wei Shi picked it up.

2999.10.6 – The 17th batch of Class B genetically modified subjects reached adulthood. The ‘scabbard’ experiment was declared a failure again.

2999.11.7 – 600 million credits in research funds have been made available. C72235XXX’s genetic samples were purchased, checked, and placed into storage. The research on Class B genetically modified subjects was restarted, and Professor Alfaso joined the team. The direction of the experiment changed dramatically.

There were scribbled notes on the side: The ‘sword’ has a strong level of exclusion and independence, so the affinity and effectiveness of the scabbard should be above the SS level, and their extroversion should be F or below. This batch of gene samples are basically compliant with these requirements (checked).

2999.11.25 – Preparation for the experiment began. According to Professor Alfaso, the genes and ‘growth experience’ jointly determine the subject’s personality and performance. The new batch of ‘scabbard’ experiments will re-experience their original genetic owner’s life through ‘immersion scenario reproduction’.

2999.11.29 – Project approval completed.

3000.1.2 – Millennium. Young Master Shao visited the warehouse to select and customize genes for his ‘scabbard’. The hair color, pupil color, and specific matching genes were recorded. The name of the ‘scabbard’ has been determined.

3000.2.14 – Experiment started. The C72235AY8 sample was confirmed as an experimental donor.

In the quiet Warehouse #6, one of the researchers exclaimed in surprise, “I found it! C72235AY8’s samples and related materials––”

Wei Shi turned. His eyes were violent and turbulent, but the emotion was soon hidden away.

The C72235AY8 genetic sample was a strand of dark hair. It was thicker and softer that Wu Jin’s, and it was straight.

The materials that accompanied the sample occupied half of a shelf. It seemed that many people had thoughtfully collected things relating to the original owner’s life.

Wei Shi picked up the first set of data.

“A certain idol group main dancer, debuted in a talent show in 2017.”

“Affinity SS––twice rated as ‘the most popular of XX’ and ‘the most eye catching artist’. Has participated in charity events hundreds of times…”

“Effectiveness SS––abducted on tour in 2023. The criminal turned himself in 10 days later. According to the records, the hostage-taker was a repeat offender, but during the kidnapping, he displayed symptoms of Lima syndrome. He was moved by the victim, developed goodwill towards him, and felt a sense of dependence and guilt…”

Wei Shi set down the information.

It was clear that he had no interest in the life of Wu Jin’s ‘genetic supplier’.

There was a folder beneath all the materials.

Inside was a yellowing but well preserved piece of paper, stuck to a piece of carbon paper. It looked like there should have been several copies, but for some reason, there was only one sheet left.

<XXX Idol Talent Show S City Registration Point Trainee Registration Form>

Signed, Wu Jín.

Not quite the same.

Wei Shi’s eyes paused. Countless clues poured in and connected.

Young Master Shao, the name of the ‘scabbard’ has been determined, the ‘immersion scenario reproduction’ that had subjects experience the growth environment of the original owner of their genes––

Immersion.

––“How old were you when you learned to dance?”

––”Seven years old!”

The man quickly pulled out the only photo in the pile of materials.

That Wu Jín had exaggerated eyeliner around his eyes as he smiled shyly in the crowd. He was about 70 or 80% similar to Wu Jin––

But their temperaments were quite different.

He didn’t look like a rabbit and was even quite feminine-looking.

To the side, the bodyguard team leader didn’t even dare to breathe loudly, “Brother Wei, should we destroy these?”

Wei Shi finished flipping through it and pulled out one sheet that had been accidentally mixed up with the data. It was Wu Jin’s millennium birth certificate. There was a little red footprint on it, and it was unknown who it had been that had remembered to do such a thing for him.

It was a soft, small, and cute little footprint that poked at the heart no matter how one looked at it.

This single little footprint was already countless times better than that other Wu Jín.

Wei Shi tucked it away expressionlessly, placing it into the chest pocket of his combat uniform, “Send the rest back to the research institute.”

So, the bodyguard team packed up all the information.

When Wei Shi arrived at the warehouse exit, his terminal abruptly began to beep.

The team leader: Brother Wei, we followed the emotional lock tracker and found him. It’s not Shao Yu…

Team leader: It’s Wei Yan.

Wei Shi’s face changed suddenly.

There had only been two dots on the detector. If Wei Yan had been in the warehouse, then Shao Yu wasn’t there. That meant that the monitoring feeds had been forged.

The team leader reported hurriedly: Wei Yan said that Shao Yu had asked him to come tonight. He wanted to seek justice from Shao Yu on behalf of his mentor, Professor Alfaso…

Wei Shi abruptly turned around and opened up his terminal to send a message. His voice was tense and rough, his eyes as sharp as burning knives, “Retreat, to Floating City.”

The suspension car rushed out like a stream. Wu Jin’s communicator rang with a busy tone.

Mao Dongqing interrupted the line, his voice sounding flustered for once, “Brother Wei, Little Witch is gone.”

“Nobody saw him go out.”

“There’s a small amount of blood in the room.”

There was a click.

On the other side of the communicator, the terminal headset had been crushed to pieces by an enraged Wei Shi.

Juurensha: NOOO has Little Witch been kidnapped??? Shao Yu, you’re going to potentially get stabbed by Little Witch before WS ever gets there!

xiin: *hands over box of tissues and/or stress balls*