[Alliance] You Just Grew Up

Ren Yi stared stiffly at the pair of eyes.

Three eyes faced off, and even the dust in the air seemed frozen by the eerie silence. Every speck's rotation and fall was terrifyingly clear.

He shouldn't have been able to see those things.

Human eyesight had never been so sharp. The unfamiliar perception was like a cold needle, making the back of his neck tighten.

Both sides adhered strictly to the first principle: "If the enemy doesn't move, I don't move," as though competing to see whose eyes would dry out first.

At last, the pair of eyes closed with a hint of resignation and melted into the darkness in an instant.

Before Ren Yi could react, he felt the pressure above him ease. The sofa was abruptly lifted away, and Ren Man's figure came into view.

Ren Yi's "body" tensed uncontrollably, all his unfamiliar senses focused on Ren Man.

He tried to speak, but all that came out was a low, thick, unfamiliar cry.

Damn, I forgot I still haven't found my mouth.

Absurdity and panic churned together, turning his thoughts to mush.

He even found himself thinking, at an inappropriate moment, that compared with a monster that couldn't speak, a talking monster that claimed to be someone's younger brother seemed more likely to scare that person into a mental breakdown.

But now he couldn't even manage to be a "talking monster."

With an effort, he moved the two eyes higher and aimed them at Ren Man, as though awaiting a final verdict.

Ren Man's reaction was somewhat unexpected.

He didn't scream or back away. There wasn't even a trace of fear on his face, only an almost gentle calm.

As though he were picking up his younger brother from school, as he had done countless times before, he called softly.

"Xiao Yi?"

That one call almost made Ren Yi's mind go blank for a moment.

Unease still churned in his chest, but the familiar call was like a sedative, calming his chaotic thoughts a little.

He watched Ren Man slowly crouch down until his gaze was level with Ren Yi's "eyes," then slowly reach out his fingertips.

"Don't be afraid."

The tone was all too familiar.

So familiar that it created an absurd illusion—

As though the one going mad wasn't him, but the world.

Ren Yi watched blankly as Ren Man slowly reached out a hand and placed it on his current body.

The instant they touched, Ren Yi's vision suddenly blurred, as though he had been plunged into water.

The already faint light stretched into distorted lines, and the air vibrated.

Ren Man's outline slipped out of human form, revealing a shadow Ren Yi couldn't comprehend.

Vast.

Silent.

Like a dark cloud about to unleash a downpour.

Ren Yi's "body" began to tremble violently.

What is that? Instinctive fear and trembling took over. He wanted to flee, but found he couldn't move at all.

Ren Yi suddenly realized that it hadn't grown dark outside after all. Something had silently filled the entire room, blocking out the sunlight and completely enveloping him.

Ren Man's voice came through the darkness, carrying its familiar warmth:

"You just grew up."

The next second, the darkness abruptly contracted.

Enormous pressure surged in from every direction. Ren Yi felt as though he were being forced into a narrow mold. Bones, muscles, facial features, internal organs... the parts that had disappeared rapidly sought their places under the pressure.

Does it hurt? It didn't seem to. There was only an intense sensation of twisting and wrongness.

Then the darkness receded, and bright lamplight filled his vision. Ren Yi forgot to blink for a moment, and the glare brought involuntary tears to his eyes.

Ren Yi blinked slowly. Once his eyes adjusted to the light, he looked down at his hands.

His skin was smooth, his five fingers distinct, and his feet stood firmly on the floor.

The body belonging to the human "Ren Yi" was back, and even his clothes were exactly the same as before.

His dizziness and fatigue had vanished without a trace, and his thoughts were much clearer.

But he knew perfectly well that none of what had just happened was a dream. Those unfamiliar, sharp perceptions hadn't disappeared either; something had merely blocked and obscured them.

He was sitting on the sofa, with Ren Man right beside him, his brows slightly furrowed and his eyes full of concern.

"Bro...?" Ren Yi ventured, his voice still trembling a little.

Alive and warm, with no strange shadow or eerie outline... at least not at the moment.

But the suffocating sensation from before still lingered in his memory, leaving him unable to muster even a single thought of resistance.

He wanted to demand answers, to press Ren Man for an explanation. Countless questions piled up in his mind, but when the words reached his lips, he couldn't get them out.

The perceptions just freed from the chaos, the enormous outline that made him tremble instinctively, the concern in Ren Man's eyes—everything mixed together and blocked his questions.

"Dinner's ready. Have something to eat." Ren Man's voice interrupted his struggle.

Almost instinctively, Ren Yi stood up and followed Ren Man to the dining table.

His "human" reason screamed madly: This isn't right! You can't be so obedient! You should be falling apart, running away, finding out what's going on!

Yet his instincts repeated over and over to Ren Yi.

You're at home.

You're safe.

Be a good boy.

The divided feeling irritated him terribly, yet he was powerless to resist.

Then he reached the dining table and glimpsed the empty corner.

A chair had stood there before, the one he usually sat in. Now it was gone.

His lingering hope finally died.

With a certain sense of resignation, Ren Yi looked at the food on the table.

Forget it. I'll eat first. At least I need a full stomach to have the energy to think about anything else.

Ren Yi gave up struggling, picked up his chopsticks, and began wolfing down the food. The red-braised beef, pan-fried tofu, garlicky oil lettuce, and seaweed and egg drop soup on the table were all his usual favorites, and they tasted as good as ever.

He ate with gusto, never noticing that the food melted in his mouth and seemed to vanish into thin air once it reached his stomach, leaving him no feeling of fullness at all. Only after he had emptied every plate did he belatedly freeze.

He looked up at Ren Man in embarrassment and found that Ren Man hadn't touched his chopsticks at all. He was just sitting across from him, watching him quietly.

"Bro, aren't you eating?" Ren Yi asked, his tone carrying a barely perceptible note of probing.

Ren Man shook his head. "I don't need to."

... Great, he's not even pretending anymore.

While eating, Ren Yi's muddled thoughts had cleared a little:

First, I don't seem to be human.

Obviously, my brother isn't either, and he knows perfectly well that neither of us is human.

What are we? Some kind of monster lurking in the shadows of the world?

Wait, why did I turn into this after the Major Assignment Test?

"The Major Assignment Test is one of the New Era Alliance's most essential public institutions."

So... did the test "turn" me into this?

The truth behind any one of these was enough to make Ren Yi break down, yet apart from his initial panic, he felt surprisingly little intense emotion.

Why? Was it because Ren Man's calm had rubbed off on him, or because the "instincts" in his body had long since accepted the fact?

As he wrestled with the question, his phone rang in the bedroom, breaking the silence in the living room.

He glanced at Ren Man, who gave no reaction, merely turning his head slightly to look out the window.

That was his habit when he was thinking, but to Ren Yi, it now seemed as though he were deliberately avoiding something.

Ren Yi got up, went to the bedroom, and picked up his phone.

The ringing had already stopped. The lock screen showed a missed call from a contact saved as "Old Lu, My Son." Immediately afterward, several message notifications popped up:

"Haha, Bench, I'm out of that damn sleep pod!"

"Whoever made this test, I'm gonna punch him."

"Ugh, these aftereffects are brutal. My head's so heavy. My brain's buzzing."

"My mom and dad are calling me out, so talk later. Let your bro know when you're out. I need to have a good rant with you about this test."

Ren Yi's fingers paused, and a complicated feeling welled up inside him.

Lu Zihan was fine. He seemed to have experienced nothing more than the ordinary aftereffects of the test.

Then is Old Lu "human"? Are Ren Man and I the only ones who are different? Or is Lu Zihan just like I was a moment ago, still unaware that anything is wrong with him?

He instinctively typed "Don't go out," then hesitated, his fingertip hovering over the send button.

He didn't know whether Old Lu's world was the same as his, or whether those words would frighten Old Lu.

In the end, he deleted them and replied only, "I'm out already." After the message sent, he discovered that Lu Zihan's profile picture had already gone gray.

He returned to the living room with his phone and found that the dining table had been completely cleared. The plates and chopsticks were gone, and the tabletop had been wiped to a shine, without a single grease stain.

Ren Man sat on the sofa in exactly the same position as when Ren Yi had left, as though he had never moved.

Ren Yi instinctively sat down beside Ren Man. The moment he drew close to him, an inexplicable sense of ease rose from the bottom of his heart, and his earlier unease and fear faded considerably.

Ren Yi grew more and more convinced that he had definitely gone mad.

But his body's reactions couldn't lie. He watched Ren Man pick up the remote and turn on the television. As a dull advertisement flashed across the screen, he finally gathered the courage to ask, "Bro, are there many like us?"

Ren Man looked away from the television, a barely perceptible trace of bewilderment in his eyes. "What?"

"I mean... like us, not human..." Ren Yi's voice grew quieter and quieter. "Are there many more in the Alliance?"

Ren Man turned his head, his tone as flat as if he were stating the most ordinary fact:

"There are no humans in the Alliance."