Gu Chi's voice trembled slightly.
"You mean our lord is... being researched? Suffering?"
He had no idea what was inside the laboratory, but going by the words alone and putting the pieces together, he could guess at some of it. If he compared it to something familiar, then his lord's current status was similar to the animals kept in the medical bureau for researching and analyzing Word Spirits—or even death-row prisoners?
He had never imagined in his life that any of this could have anything to do with his lord.
The girl said, "That's right."
Gu Chi blurted out, "Why? Why?"
What he wanted to ask was why anyone would treat his lord this way.
The girl's expression held neither sorrow nor joy, as though she were describing something that had nothing to do with her. "Why? Probably to preserve humanity. Or perhaps to survive. It's like a drowning person grabbing even a single straw—they won't let go easily."
Gu Chi didn't understand. "What could this possibly have to do with—"
As he spoke, he realized it himself.
The girl had earlier revealed that the frenzied, shambling corpses that hunted the living everywhere were called "zombies." Zombies could infect others through blood and saliva, turning them into their own kind.
And his lord was the exception.
The girl's calm voice rang clearly in his ear. "If they could develop a 'zombie virus' vaccine by studying me, they could solve the 'zombie' crisis at its root. That would be the best course. If they couldn't, they could use me to mass-produce a new humanity immune to the 'zombie virus.' That would be the middle course. Unfortunately, they could only choose the worst course..."
Gu Chi asked her, "What is the worst course?"
The girl said, "Cloning me."
For human civilization, as