Chapter 226
Whether the soldiers escorting them thought they had no chance of survival or not, He Muzhi and his companions looked around the whole way and found that no one was stopping them.
He Muzhi still remembers when he was brought into this prison, he was blindfolded and couldn't see anything. The day after the black cloth was removed from his head and he was thrown into the prison, he saw Aldrich standing behind Felix with the rumored Felix's new favorite, the 'Deputy Commander'.
Still in shock, his mind was filled with the image of Qin Su showing no surprise when he reported about Aldrich to Qin Su in the past.
Given the reputation of the Ossotalia Empire, Aldrich's 'glorious' position in Osotaria could mean he was a 'traitor,' or he might actually have become a traitor.
Unsure of the situation, he dared not 'recognize' Aldrich, but two days later Aldrich accurately recognized him from among tens of thousands of people, despite his 'unrecognizable' appearance.
After recognizing him, he didn't report it to Felix or say a word to him. He only gave him some information when he passed by him. Before he came out of the prison, his knowledge of the prison, apart from what he had inquired among the kidnapped people, all came from Aldrich.
He followed the information provided by Aldrich in his plan, but he didn't completely trust Aldrich. He had planned to take this opportunity to go out and confirm things, so that he could adjust his plan if anything went wrong.
So far, the information Aldrich has provided is no different from what he has actually seen.
Whether the people in charge here were overconfident or felt it was unnecessary, this was clearly an abandoned prison. The outside was just like the cells they were in, except for simple Electronic Eyes that only followed fixed trajectories. There was no higher-level surveillance equipment, and even the guards and patrols were few and far between. The area was practically deserted.
The Cyborg Army responsible for abducting them was nowhere to be found. Whether it was the soldiers who fed them some time ago or the soldiers who escorted them now, they were all ordinary soldiers with no signs of modification on their bodies.
'No need to deal with the Modified Humans; things are simpler than I thought. It's just that the Cyborg Army isn't here. Can Aldrich really fool that guy whose name I don't know, who's only called the Deputy Commander, just like we agreed...?'
"Pair up, line up, and when you hear the command, go in in groups of five."
Before the thought could even settle in his mind, He Muzhi heard the sound of soldiers escorting them from ahead.
There were three hundred people in the group. He was in the middle of the line. When he heard this, he looked ahead and saw that the people in the front row, who were originally in groups of seven or eight, were all moving backward at the same time.
Bang!
The crowd had barely moved for a few seconds when the escorting soldiers fired a shot at them, and the crowd scattered to either side of the rusty walls.
"Line up properly!" The soldier's voice was mechanical and cold as he threatened to fire.
With the threat of death looming, no one dared to move.
The distance was too far, and no matter how wide the exit was, He Muzhi couldn't see what was ahead from behind. This affected the morale of the soldiers who had agreed to come out with him after his persuasion. They could only be thankful that those who came out were soldiers, not the majority of ordinary people currently imprisoned, which allowed them to avoid the shot in time.
Only...
Seeing that his companions, who were lining up under threat, were clearly resisting, He Muzhi decisively lowered his body, glanced around, and under the combined cover of the entire group, moved forward quickly like a ghost.
As the initiator, he had to step forward and play a role in stabilizing public sentiment.
Without attracting the attention of the escorts, He Muzhi successfully approached the first five groups and straightened up, returning to normal.
This time, he not only saw Aldrich far away at the exit ahead, but also the unusually conspicuous white, suspended humanoid 'Deputy Commander' to his side. After not seeing him for many days, since the day he kidnapped them, the man had grown a red, thorny, tail-like thing extending from his lower back, the purpose of which was unknown. He also saw a curved wall with layers of red, brown, and white... years of accumulated grime in the middle.
The distance was too great for He Muzhi to see clearly what the grime on the wall was, but he was certain that he could still see the inside clearly through the wall above the waist of a normal human height, which was not covered by grime. He felt a little relieved.
Aldrich hadn't lied to him after all; when he began his operation from inside, he wasn't worried about being unseen by those outside.
Inside the circular Transparent Wall, groups of ten people stood, five groups of people wearing white protective suits. Aldrich and the 'Deputy Commander' were accompanied by six people.
The people standing next to the identical instruments looked at them with indifferent eyes as they appeared at the Passageway. The 'Deputy Commander' was facing the instrument in front of him. Outside the laboratory, separated by an arc-shaped wall, in addition to the dozen or so people escorting them, two soldiers stood every ten meters.
After a brief observation, He Muzhi saw someone inside the Transparent Wall make a hand gesture to the soldiers in charge of escorting the goods.
He Muzhi then heard the escorting soldiers point their weapons at them and give a stern order.
"First five groups, go in."
From the moment they were abducted and imprisoned, none of those who went out for reform never returned. The soldiers who had been persuaded by He Muzhi to appear here knew very well that unless they fought to the death, they would die sooner or later. Now there was no third option. The initiator was also in the front line. Having been imprisoned for too long, their mentality was on the verge of collapse. The people who had initially been hesitant to retreat when facing the Modification Laboratory gradually hardened their eyes and moved forward under the threat of guns.
As they drew closer, He Muzhi finally saw clearly the messy, mixed-color stuff in the middle of the Transparent Wall he had seen earlier. It was the residue left by blood and bone fragments that had accumulated over time and had never been cleaned.
'What level of modification is required to make even fragments of human bone shatter and mix with blood, splattering that far?'
He Muzhi felt a chill run down his spine.
Noticing the stiff figures and pale faces of his companions walking ahead, He Muzhi knew that they had obviously thought the same thing as him.
Whoosh--
After a short sound, a curved, Transparent Wall retracted upwards, allowing He Muzhi to fully see the entire situation inside the Modification Laboratory. Just then, he heard angry shouts from the detainees behind him.
"Go in!"
He Muzhi lowered his head, followed his companions, and pretended to be so frightened that his steps were unsteady and trembling as he stepped inside.
"W-What's wrong?"
Aldrich saw a person covered in soft, white, scale-like metal in front of him, and for some reason, suddenly looked back as he was standing at the laboratory door. His brow twitched, and he felt a pang of worry for He Muzhi face was covered in dirt in the distance.
The person encased in white, scale-like armor remained silent, their gaze fixed on the trembling legs of the samples. Beneath the mask, their brow furrowed before they looked away.
'He's having the same illusion as when he kidnapped people before; it seems he's overthinking things again.'
Is it a mental breakdown caused by a drug overdose? Or... a sequela of someone who is physically dead but whose body's 'flesh' hasn't died?
When will these horrific experiments that arbitrarily modify humans as tools be completely banned? They are so inhumane!
[Doesn't anyone else feel that familiar feeling coming back? (heart)]
[Holy crap, a tail, a red tail covered in barbs! (starry-eyed) I think I'm in love again! (blushing, heart pounding)]
[Checking the fan base, it's you guys again, as expected. You're never going to stop with your niche tastes, are you? Can't you like something a little more mainstream and leave this weird stuff alone? (Sprinkling rice. jpg)]
Seeing this, Aldrich's heart, which had been in his throat, slowly calmed down.
'He was terrified! He almost thought He Muzhi had been exposed. Luckily, it was just a false alarm.'
Aldrich glanced at He Muzhi out of the corner of his eye and saw that He Muzhi's face was still as dirty as before, which reassured him even more. If Qin Su hadn't given him He Muzhi's current photo and his range of activities in prison, he would never have been able to recognize which one was He Muzhi on his own.
He Muzhi was tense all over and dared not relax for a moment. Before he realized that the white strip-shaped humanoid was looking at him, he quickly turned his face. He thought that since Qin Su was not there, no one would see his ugly appearance, so he decided to go all out and pretend to be stupid.
He had originally been worried that before entering the lab, they would be collectively rinsed to ensure a sterile experimental environment, which would risk washing away the dirt on their faces and prematurely exposing their appearance. So he had specially applied dye to his face that could not be washed off even if rinsed. Now it seems that he had wasted his time.
He Muzhi looked at the dirty, muddy ground and smelled the strong, pungent odor of decay.
The environment here is vastly different from the sterile environments his classmates had shown him related to Modified Humans; everything in this Modification Laboratory is practically a microbial environment.
Even the instruments used for the modification were covered in mottled, old bloodstains.
'They're nothing like those soldiers said, tools to provide the 'Deputy Commander' with training experience.' These environments provide the experience of demons. All those kidnapped people are clearly toys for this group to torture and kill for their amusement. If the Ossotalia Empire is like this, is the Body Modification in the Federation's various planets and Military Districts really as humane as their internal propaganda claims?'
He Muzhi harbored deep suspicions.
He had thought the information he had seen on the StarNet about the brutality of the Ossotalia Empire was enough, but now that he had witnessed it with his own eyes, he realized that what had been exposed was merely the tip of the iceberg.
The truth is far more horrifying and sordid than what the world sees.
[Baby, why did your face change so suddenly? (Thunderbolt from a clear sky. jpg) Heaven knows, when I scrolled to this page and saw how distorted you looked, my eyes almost popped out of their sockets.]
[Ugh, that saying "When you see one cockroach, your house is already a cockroach paradise" is still going strong; there's no limit to how bad it can get.]
[There's nothing we can do; the main character in the Protagonist Group just has a knack for absorbing the essence of 'scumbag' villains, so he can only crawl around in a twisted, tearful state.]
[Everyone knows that He Muzhi is the person the God Su values most. The fact that the He Muzhi to peel off the white monster's skin suggests that this was all to force He Muzhi to enter the laboratory now and witness this hellish scene firsthand, so that He Muzhi would fight violence with violence, stop killing with killing. If my reasoning is correct, the God Su does indeed think He Muzhi is too kind, and wants to make him more 'evil,' because this world is far more cruel than He Muzhi imagine?]
[If that's the case, just how much expectation does Qin Su have for He Muzhi? He's going to such lengths to mold He Muzhi into the person he wants him to be—does he expect He Muzhi to take on a major role in the future?]
"To catch the thief, first catch the king." Under escort, He Muzhi lowered his head, endured his nausea, and tried his best to observe everything he could. He silently noted down everything that could be used, and then headed towards the instrument where the modification team was located, which was closest to the white strip-shaped humanoid object.
"Wait a minute." A voice suddenly came from Aldrich's location, some distance away from the target.
"You."
The soldier standing next to the white humanoid figure followed instructions, looking at He Muzhi and raising his voice.
He Muzhi looked up and saw the white humanoid figure with its red tail pointing in his direction. He heard the soldier next to the white humanoid figure say to him, "Come here."
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The super spicy snail rice noodles + durian + Anfu Silkworm Eggs + strong tea worked their terrible tricks again. I'm taking a day off today, I'll come back tomorrow. [Heartbroken]