"What about you? Chen Tianwu."
"Night Owl."
"What? Are you hungry?"
Chen Tianwu looked at the raven that was teasing him, feeling a little unhappy, but he still patiently explained: "An owl that hides during the day and comes out at night - that's the meaning of an owl, but that doesn't sound good."
"Okay, okay, Night Owl, let's go, I'll take you to have a midnight snack..."
"You..." Chen Tianwu felt a tightness in his chest, but after estimating his own fighting ability, he didn't say anything more.
"Do you want to eat? If not, go back by yourself."
"..."
"eat."
Chapter 66: Lady Jackal
One day ago, Shencheng Pharmaceutical Industrial Zone.
"Your code names have been approved by the snakes, and you are now official members of the World Snake." Raven brought good news to Su Jue and Chen Tianwu. Chen Tianwu was discovered by Raven and was naturally given to her to lead, while Su Jue was introduced by the Gray Snake. However, since the Gray Snake had too many things to do, he was now assigned to Raven's command, and she was responsible for the entry procedures.
Chen Tianwu did not express anything special when he heard the news. He lost his sister and his body was corroded by the collapse and forced to transform. If he had not been supported by the thought of seeing Anna again, he would have chosen to end his life long ago. It made no difference to him that he had been living in the Thousand Fists Club before and now in the World Snake.
On the contrary, Su Jue was a little surprised, as if he couldn't believe that he could get the code name so easily. "I thought there would be more censorship methods, such as investigating family background."
"That's just a constraint for the incompetent. As for the valuable people, World Snake never demands anything from them. Even if they want to resign in the future, it's completely fine." Raven, who once resigned, understood this well. Originally, she was just a mercenary living on the edge of a knife. Even if she stayed at World Snake, it was only because the treatment was more stable and generous. As long as the tasks could be completed, there were basically no constraints. On the contrary, it was not so easy to find a job after leaving World Snake.
"Uh, the World Snake is short of people?" Su Jue asked in a low voice, keenly catching the hidden information revealed by the raven.
But Raven didn't care. "There's nothing to hide. There are only a few officers with code names now, Gray Snake, Raven, Jackal, Feather Rabbit, and your Ink Moth and Night Owl..."
"It sounds like a zoo." Su Jue muttered softly, immediately attracting the attention of Raven.
But before she could say anything, a woman's voice came over the radio in the corridor.
"New guy, the snake is supreme and will not tolerate slander from guys like you. When the Lord comes, you will all pay the price for your words." The woman's tone was full of disdain and arrogance. It was obvious that she consciously tied herself and the World Serpent to the same camp.
Facing the puzzled looks of Su Jue and Night Owl, Raven spread his hands and said, "This guy is the jackal who is responsible for research. How should I put it? Apart from doing experiments, her brain is not very useful..."
"Shut up, you idiot who only knows how to fight." Along with the crackling sound of electricity, the Jackal's voice sounded again, mixed with some angry curses, but Raven ignored her and took the two of them to the underground laboratory in the industrial area.
"This is where we conduct our main research. I believe that with your abilities, you two should already have some understanding of the research content."
Su Jue nodded, with no intention of hiding anything. Thanks to the man's strength, the World Snake never worried about being spied on. They did not ask too many questions about information like Su Jue whose source was unknown. On the contrary, the more he knew, the more he could gain a place in the World Snake.
"The destruction of Honkai is global. If humans want to seek victory, they must make sacrifices. The Lord's choice is not wrong." Faithfully acting as a lackey, Su Jue completely linked his position to the side of the World Serpent.
The voice of the broadcast sounded again. Su Jue's words made Jackal very satisfied. "You are right. We are shouldering the heavy responsibility of saving the world. Compared with the Destiny side, who directly used artificial stigmata to create Valkyries and then abandoned them after use, the Lord's goal is much more merciful. Even if there are more sacrifices at the beginning, one day, when everyone has the stigmata, they will no longer have to worry about the erosion of Honkai, and they will also accept the guidance of the snake and take on the responsibility of continuing human civilization."
"I didn't expect that even though you have just joined the World Serpent, you have already been able to deeply understand the Lord's intentions. You are indeed a moth born from chaos and chasing fire."
"Thank you for the compliment, Ms. Jackal." Su Jue nodded, feeling very pleased. Although Jackal's personality was arrogant, she was also straightforward from another perspective. As long as you agree with her point of view and support her choice, she can let go of her prejudice. People with this kind of personality need others' flattery and recognition the most, and what Su Jue needs to do now is to be a good supporting role, so that she can more easily integrate into the core members of the World Snake. Maybe she can even work with Jackal to form a standard supporting villain combination.
"In that case, are you interested in joining my faction? The current cadres are all guys with ulterior motives. There is not a single one who is wholeheartedly loyal to the Snake..."
"……" Good fellow, he was just saying that jackals are easy to fool, and now he's roasting himself on the fire.
The cadre who invited him to join was Gray Snake, and the one who helped him with the assessment was Raven. If Su Jue had joined the Jackal's camp, these two would probably have eaten him.
"Ahem, Ms. Jackal, I think since we are all fighting for the Lord's goal, we should not get entangled in factions and camps. Helping each other is the best choice for everyone." Su Jue said, and glanced at the raven beside him, and found that she was looking at him with an interested look. Once he just accepted the invitation of the Jackal, his position in the world snake in the future must be worrying.
"Tsk, if you don't agree, forget it. Anyway, I know that you all have your own purposes. But since you have taken the initiative to offer to help, I have just run out of experimental subjects. If you can help me find experimental subjects with high adaptability to Honkai energy, it's no problem to give you, a guy who just joined, some benefits."
Seeing that she couldn't win over others, Jackal simply turned to trading. She didn't really want to win over others. She was the only cadre in World Snake who was fully committed to scientific research. The others were basically responsible for dealing with Destiny and Honkai, or developing the economy of World Snake. People from the two circles would naturally not join easily. It would be better to take this opportunity to let the newcomer find some experimental materials for her and speed up her own research.
"Thank you very much for your appreciation, Ms. Jackal. I will bring you the experimental subject as soon as possible."
……
Back to the present, after having a general understanding of the World Snake's arrangements in Tianqiong City, Su Jue couldn't help but sigh at their madness.
Using the hypermutation factor as an activator, the stigmata hidden in human genes are forcibly stimulated to achieve the expression of natural stigmata.
Although Raven did not elaborate, Su Jue knew very well that this was the Stigmata Plan formulated by Dr. Mei of the previous civilization. Several other plans, such as the Spark Plan, the Ark Plan, the Hengsha Plan, and the Sanctuary Plan, were basically hopeless. Therefore, when the great collapse predicted by Mei was about to come, Kevin would conduct the experiment at any cost, even including the entire Sky Dome City in the scope of the experiment, using the lives of millions of people to activate the Stigmata.
I have to say that he is worthy of being the strongest warrior who has witnessed the destruction of civilization. He would not even blink an eye at sacrificing the lives of millions of people. If this were Su Jue, I estimate that more than half of the thousand Herrschers could be gathered.
Su Jue didn't care about the life or death of Tianqiong City. What he needed was neither a great collapse nor a massacre. If the two major organizations, World Serpent and Destiny, continued to torment people like this, at least half of the human population would be reduced without the Herrscher taking action.
What he had to do now was to send a suitable experimental subject to Ms. Jackal.
The girl with short light blue hair with a hint of red followed him timidly, looking at the surrounding buildings with fear and curiosity. As she went deeper into the laboratory, she could vaguely hear the noise of the laboratory equipment running.
"Ms. Jackal, I have brought you the experimental subject you need."
The little girl's gaze finally focused on the woman in the white coat, and a look of horror appeared on her face.
Chapter 67 Voluntary Experimental Agreement
Behind the glass curtain wall, the jackal was covered in blood, the bottom of his white coat had been completely dyed red, his long brown hair was scattered behind him, and he was holding a needle in his hand and injecting it into the experimental mouse.
Hearing Su Jue's voice, the jackal ignored him and continued to inject all the potion in the injection into the white mouse's body.
The next second, the body of the mouse that had been injected with the drug began to expand rapidly, and a large number of purple lines began to spread all over its body. This was a sign of Honkai energy erosion. As the purple lines continued to spread, a white shell gradually emerged on its body surface. It was obvious that this mouse was mutating in the direction of a Honkai beast.
However, this state did not last long. The continuously expanding white mouse suddenly exploded like a balloon. The shell of the Honkai Beast had not yet been fully formed, and the excess flesh and blood tissue had already turned into mud. The scattered blood further dyed the jackal's clothes red. The half-broken head of the white mouse hit the glass in front of Grayshu, and then slowly fell down after leaving a long bloody mark.
Startled, Grayshu immediately hid behind Su Jue and dared not look at the jackal again.
It was obvious that the experiment had failed again. The Jackal threw the mouse corpses, which had been blown into a pulp, into the laboratory's recycling bin, which was already filled with mouse corpses.
Taking off his dirty coat, Jackal opened the door of the laboratory and greeted Su Jue.
"Ms. Jackal, what are you doing?"
"It's just to test the activator's ability to resist Honkai energy. It seems that the effect on mice is still too insignificant. It needs to be tested on humans." After she finished speaking, she noticed the little girl next to Su Jue, "Is this the test subject you brought?"
"Yes, this is... my daughter."
"Daughter? Are you crazy? I have told you in advance about the dangers of this experiment. Even so, you still dare to use your own daughter for the experiment?" Glancing back and forth between Su Jue and Grayxiu, Jackal's eyes were somewhat questioning. Although she didn't care who the test subject was, Mo Mo was a cadre with a title after all. If the experiment failed, it would be a mess and it would be difficult to end.
Rubbing Grayshu's head, Su Jue showed a helpless smile, "There is no way. I am just an ordinary person. I can hardly protect myself in the upcoming great collapse. If my daughter can't gain the power to protect herself, she will be sucked into the vortex sooner or later. It is better to conduct the stigma experiment in advance. At least with the care of Madam Jackal, the probability of success will be greater."
"I think you misunderstood. Whether or not the experiment was conducted by me personally has nothing to do with its success. At most, it would slightly increase the survival rate."
All along, Jackal has been using Shencheng Medicine's propaganda strategy of claiming to conquer all diseases to trick patients who come to seek medical treatment into signing a voluntary test agreement and becoming test subjects, calling it a "price". Anyway, there are so many sick people that the test subjects are almost endless, so they have never considered whether the test subjects can survive.
"If you really want your daughter to be tested, please sign this voluntary test agreement."
The test subjects have been delivered to her door, and Jackal will not push them away. As long as they sign the voluntary test agreement, she will not care about it.
Looking at the agreement handed to him, and then looking at his daughter, Su Jue was silent for a moment. "Can I have a few words with her first?"
"Of course, you still have a chance to regret it now."
Nodding slightly, Su Jue led the frightened Grace to the small room next door. Of course, he didn't really want to communicate, since both bodies were controlled by him anyway, but he took this opportunity to carefully examine the characteristics of Grace's body.
In the original world line, the Thousand Herrschers all exist in the form of puppets, and the energy that controls their actions is the Thousand Herrscher Core. They have independent thinking, and their ideas and actions are also strange.
But in Su Jue's hands, these puppets are under his control and have flesh and blood bodies. And Gray Xiu is the most special one, because she is the only one who is stained with Su Jue's blood and has a body that belongs exclusively to Gray Xiu.
Su Jue is not a scientist, so he cannot be sure whether her body will retain his genes. He sent her to the Jackal for experiments, on the one hand, to smear the World Serpent on Kiana in the future and to sow discord between them. On the other hand, he is really curious about the Stigmata Project. If Gray Xiu really awakens the Stigmata, then can he also use the power of the Stigmata?
In case the Stigmata Plan really succeeds, Su Jue will go all in and send the puppets to the Jackal for transformation. By then, with a total of 1000 puppets with the Stigmata to bless them, even the End can be crushed directly.
Of course, this possibility is too low, and Su Jue did not hold much hope.
After pretending to talk to Grayshu, Grayshu's face was already filled with worry and fear, and there were even tears in the corners of her eyes - this level of delicate personality simulation was difficult for other clones to achieve.
"Confirmed? Then sign it."
Taking the test agreement handed over by the Jackal, Su Jue signed her name 'Mo Mo'. The Jackal nodded with satisfaction. Through a brief observation, she had already seen that Gray Shu had a basic adaptability to Honkai energy, and whether she had any discomfort after being in this laboratory for so long.
"You helped me find the test subject, so what do you need?" She handed a list of materials to Su Jue. She did not forget that this was a transaction, so she generously gave the conditions.
After a little thought, Su Jue selected one of the reagents.
"HSN-b46 serum."
……
After the deal was reached, Jackal quickly began research on stigma activation. Grayshure's strong adaptability to Honkai energy soon caught her attention. Her tolerance for Honkai energy far exceeded the limit of ordinary humans, which made her gradually transfer all her experiments that she had not yet conducted to Grayshure, and she paid more and more attention to her.
She naturally didn't know that Grayshu was controlled by Su Jue, and the various modulated Honkai energy provided to her by the Jackal was like feeding him a variety of desserts, and Su Jue just happened to have several stomachs.
"[Mo Moth], the Gray Snake has successfully invaded the Hyperion. Next, we need you to go to the Eye of the Abyss for support. It's time to welcome the Lord's arrival."
On this side, after confirming that Grayshu would not be exposed, the clone of [Mo Moth] also received a notice from Raven, asking him to go to Haiyuan City for support.
According to the original world line, the opening of the Eye of the Abyss means the awakening of the Ruler of Reason in the near future, and also means that Kevin, who is trapped in the Quantum Sea, will return. This is a huge test for Su Jue. But it is also an opportunity. It depends on whether Su Jue can get some benefits from it.
The work in Tianqiong City will also be taken over by Su Jue himself.
Chapter 68 The sun sets and the sky is full of stars
The scenery of Sky Dome City was not always so gentle. As the collapse continued, the city gradually began to collapse. After the Great Collapse, ordinary people almost all gathered in large cities in order to survive, and the suburbs of the city gradually shrank until they were eaten away by the collapse bit by bit.
Sitting alone on the edge of the rooftop of a tall building, the sunset in the distance slowly sank, and thick smoke rose from the area destroyed by the Honkai beast. The cold wind, with the faint cry in the distance, brushed the ends of Kiana's hair, and finally dissipated without a trace.
The afterglow falling on her body did not bring her warmth, but instead wrapped her in intense loneliness.
She held the broken star-shaped hair ornament in her hand. The blood stains on it had been wiped clean by her, but it was coated with crimson in the sunset glow.
"You've been staring at it for half an hour. If you really care about it that much, then go find him." Fu Hua's voice rang in her ears. This was not the first time that Kiana was distracted. Since that battle, Fu Hua clearly felt a crack in her heart again.
This situation is very dangerous, because Xilin's consciousness is still being eroded. Once she tears open a crack and occupies Kiana's body again, it will be a disaster for the entire Sky City.
“…” Kiana didn’t say anything, but her eyes hid deep fatigue.
Looking up at the sunset in the distance, the red sun is being swallowed by the dark horizon. It won’t be long before the whole world will be plunged into darkness.
"Was my choice at that time correct?" Confusion and hesitation entangled her heart. She had asked herself this question countless times, but she could never find the answer.
Fu Hua fell into a brief silence, she couldn't answer Kiana's question.
Although Kiana never said it, she has been tormented by self-blame and regret ever since she found out that the little girl was missing.
"Kiana, the disappearance of that child is not your fault. You don't need to blame yourself for it..."
In the end, I can only offer such pale consolation.
Right or wrong is never the answer, it’s just that differences in choices lead to different results.
In essence, the disappearance of Grayshu had nothing to do with Kiana. She was just passing by. She was not the culprit that caused all this, nor did it change the outcome because of her own mistakes. Even when she wanted to help, it was Fu Hua who advised her to put the overall situation first.
But every time I think of the scene on that night, the cool evening breeze blew across the grassland, the creaking swing swayed under the starry sky, Grey painted the cloudless sky, and I and the boy shared our past with each other.
But such beauty disappeared because of her hasty choice, and intense pain filled her heart.
If he had not been concerned about his identity being discovered, but instead helped her find a safe place first and then investigated the smell of blood, would the ending have been completely different?
Grayshu's whereabouts are still unknown, and her life or death is uncertain. Kiana is not only afraid that she failed to save Grayshu due to her own reasons, but also that she will never have the courage to see that person again.
I am afraid that the future is like a broken star, and I can never go back.
"I'm sorry, Kiana, if I hadn't advised you to leave it alone..." In her mind, Fu Hua was still nagging at her, but she couldn't listen to him anymore.
Whether it was Fu Hua's secret surveillance of Kiana for Otto or the wrong choice she made in the Grayshuin incident, it ultimately left a deep gap between the two.
After she allowed Otto to conduct the Herrscher of the Void experiment, which destroyed everything she had and caused the world to fall into a great collapse, all her words had already seemed extremely pale and powerless. And after she escaped, when she needed help the most, she disappeared without a trace.
If I hadn't met Su Jue, who was also struggling in the quagmire of despair at that time, and borrowed courage from him, I would probably have collapsed and completely become the host of the Herrscher of the Void.
Now, I am alone again, but I have to go on. Whether it is for Teacher Ji Zi, for Su Jue, or for the missing Gray Xiu, I can't stop here.
A strong fluctuation of Honkai energy erupted again not far away. Since when, Honkai energy explosions in the city have become more and more frequent.
Kiana forced herself to stand up from the rooftop, looking at the distant sky. The sun had already set, and the sunset glow dyed the sky crimson, just like a sky set on fire.
She felt very confused and her body was in pain, but she had a lot to say, a lot to do, and people she wanted to see but hadn't met yet, so she couldn't collapse here.
There are still many people waiting for my help, and I can't make the wrong choice again.
"Kiana, your body has been severely eroded and you can no longer use Honkai energy. Once it gets out of control, it will be a real disaster for this city." Seeing Kiana lighting up her golden eyes again, Fu Hua tried to persuade her.
"That's enough, stop talking." No matter how many words are said, it can't change the facts. Fu Hua now only makes Kiana feel irritated.
"Your mental state is very dangerous now..."
"I've said enough! Don't you understand? Fu Hua." He interrupted Fu Hua forcefully, not even using the title of monitor. Kiana didn't want to listen to her advice anymore. "You've been with Otto for too long. You've learned to weigh the pros and cons. You keep talking about what will happen to Sky City, what will happen to the world, and what will happen to the future. But have you ever thought about the reasons for all this?"
