Experimental Subject

Xilin had an exceptionally keen nose. He could separate and identify the different scents in a mixture, which was exactly why he was so surprised.

Was whoever used these reagents bored out of their mind, researching them as a hobby, or doing it for some other reason?

The scent hadn't drifted in from the rain outside. The wind direction and the other odors mixed into the airflow made it clear that it was coming from inside the building. But who would use those ancient reagents in an abandoned building like this? Or, in this day and age, who would still use such primitive methods apart from a few eccentric research departments?

Following the scent, Xilin found a thumb-thick pipe among a pile of junk. He hadn't gone far along it before discovering that the section beyond was hidden inside the wall.

It was hidden remarkably well.

He opened a Light Projector barely the size of his finger. Its pale blue beam shone on the wall, revealing the pipes buried within. After examining them, Xilin grew more and more curious.

Interesting.

Aside from this pipe, Xilin found several others, all very well concealed.

Xilin grew increasingly cautious. Leaving would have been the best choice, but he had a strange feeling that made him desperately want to find out what was going on.

Following the pipes downward, he passed through a maze of twists and turns. A few times, he even had to crawl through ancient ventilation shafts. When he reached the first floor of the building, Xilin lifted a concealed hatch and made his way down a narrow staircase.

It was quiet all around, but not completely silent. After carefully sensing his surroundings, he concluded there was no one nearby. He continued onward with the Light Projector in hand.

The pipes became more numerous. Xilin knew he was getting closer to his destination. He took a deep breath and switched off the Light Projector. He couldn't sense anyone ahead, but his instincts told him things wouldn't go smoothly. The projector's energy fluctuations only reached ten meters, but to be safe, he turned it off without hesitation.

Darkness surrounded him. Xilin relied on the faint movement of air to find his way and avoid obstacles. After about half an hour, the space around him gradually widened. Tiny electronic lights, no bigger than fingernails, began appearing here and there. Their glow revealed that the place had been around for quite some time. Dust had settled on the Electronic Light Boards. It wasn't very thick, but no one had walked through here in at least a month.

As he watched the patches of light on the walls, Xilin grew more and more uneasy.

Something was wrong. Very wrong! This place was like... a trap! A trap!

An intense sense of danger swept over him. Without another thought, Xilin turned and ran back. His instincts as a Hunter told him he wouldn't be able to handle whatever danger might lie ahead.

But something was faster than Xilin: a thick Special Steel Plate that sealed off his escape route.

A Metal Knife appeared in Xilin's hand in a flash. He could cut through the steel plate with a Laser Knife, but it would take a great deal of time, and the Laser Knife's intense energy fluctuations would constantly give away his position.

With his back to the steel plate, Xilin watched the way ahead in silence. He knew someone was there.

Tap, tap, tap...

Footsteps approached at an unhurried pace. The person made no attempt to hide, but instead seemed utterly confident.

Click.

A beam of light shone out, illuminating the passage.

Xilin narrowed his eyes and quickly adjusted to the glare after being in the dark. The person standing opposite him didn't seem to be in a hurry. He waited for Xilin to recover.

It was an Old Man. He looked much like someone with an F-class Gene Type who was nearly a hundred years old, as if he might be buried at any moment. His skin was yellowish brown, and his body was gaunt. The exposed arm showed signs of muscle atrophy. The Old Man wore goggles, so Xilin couldn't see his eyes. Yet this withered old man made the hair all over Xilin's body stand on end.

The Old Man slowly walked toward Xilin, as leisurely as if he were out for a stroll.

Strike first!

Xilin sprang forward, moving so fast he left no afterimage. His speed was astonishing, no weaker than that of a D-class Gene Type.

Clang!

A piercing metallic ring sounded.

Beside the Old Man's carotid artery, a withered, branchlike hand clamped firmly around the tip of the knife, as easily as if it were pinching a twig.

The energy fluctuations produced by either an ion blade or a Laser Knife were too strong. With Xilin's physical condition, using one would make it even easier to expose himself. That was why he preferred cold weapons, killing silently and without a trace. But even this specially made Alloy Blade was effortlessly stopped by the seemingly near-dead Old Man. No, it had been effortlessly pinched between his fingers!...

Three years of hunting for his life had taught Xilin not to waste time thinking. This man was more than he could handle. Escape!

But before Xilin could move, his body was suddenly bound tight by strands of something like Liquid Metal. Following them to their source, Xilin was astonished to see the strands sprouting from the five fingers of the Old Man's other hand. More precisely, they were extensions of his fingers!

Human? Machine? Mutant? Or some unknown species?

The cold touch made Xilin smell death. Chills seemed to seep from every pore.

Crack!

The Alloy Dagger, which had taken the lives of countless wanted criminals, was crushed. The Old Man's bony fingers closed around Xilin's neck and lifted him off the ground as easily as if he were a chicken.

All four limbs were bound, and the pressure on his neck was nearly cutting off the blood vessels.

"Heh heh, you've come at just the right time." The Old Man sounded delighted, even a little impatient.

An ordinary person would have already been rolling their eyes, but Xilin still had enough presence of mind to think of a way out.

The Old Man looked at Xilin, even more satisfied.

Door after door opened and closed. Xilin grew more and more alarmed. Who would have thought that a place like this was hidden beneath Slum Town!

This underground Secret Room had been here for far more than thirty or fifty years, and it was much more complicated than Xilin had imagined. Its security and concealment were both excellent. Otherwise, someone would have discovered it by now—or perhaps everyone who had discovered it was already dead.

Xilin caught sight of an open room. Inside, people were preserved in liquid tanks like specimens. The twisted expressions on their faces sent a chill through him. It was clear that they had suffered unbearable torment before they died.

Perhaps in the next moment, Xilin would become one of them.

The Old Man had no intention of killing Xilin right away. He controlled his grip carefully: tight enough to prevent Xilin from escaping, but not tight enough to damage his bodily functions.

The reason the Old Man had said Xilin came at just the right time was that the previous Experimental Subject had died and had just been placed in a liquid tank. Then Xilin had walked right into his hands.

Xilin was taken to a room full of instruments and tools of various sizes. On a table in one corner sat many bottles and jars. Xilin had recognized some of them from the gases released through the pipes. They were reagents used to Purify DNA.

In this era, almost no one apart from old scholars still used or even understood such primitive methods of Purifying DNA. Xilin had performed similar experiments too, but only out of curiosity. He had never studied them in depth.

With modern technology, DNA could be purified using a palm-sized device. It was fast and precise, and could even analyze the functions of a genome. However, every kind of purification and analysis device required Real-name Authentication Registration. Each device had a Registration Code, Chip Binding, and a Data Connection.

Since the Old Man had chosen Manual Purification, and seemed to be doing Large-scale Purification at that, he must be conducting Illegal Research and should have been wanted. But Xilin searched through all the Wanted Information he could remember and found nothing about the man before him. The planet's Wanted List was public, regardless of how dangerous the wanted person was. Each warrant contained only two things: a picture and a reward amount.

Since the laboratory was underground and covered by a rare Isotope Shielding Layer, it hadn't been detected by Sky Eye. The laboratory's instruments must not have been connected to the outside world either, which would have helped it evade other forms of detection.

What exactly was this Old Man trying to do?

The Old Man placed Xilin on a Suspended White Platform and pressed a button on a nearby instrument. Restraints sprang up from the platform and fastened around Xilin's wrists and limbs. Thin Filaments emerged from its surface, pierced through his clothes, and entered his body. In an instant, Xilin had become an Experimental Subject covered in tubes: red filaments on one side, blue filaments on the other. Data raced across the display beside him.

Since the platform had restrained Xilin—even his fingers—the Old Man withdrew his hand, and his fingers returned to their original withered branch shape. After injecting Xilin with a tube of something like a viscous, Cold Liquid, he rapidly pressed the instrument's buttons, combining and analyzing data from more than ten other instruments.

Pain—pain that bored into his bones. His fingers twitched, and the blood throughout his body flowed irregularly. Every moment pushed his nerves to their limit, nearly scattering his thoughts on the spot. After a brief blank, Xilin struggled to gather his thoughts again. Otherwise, it wouldn't be long before he became one of those specimens himself...

Those viscous, liquid-like things were actually Tiny Custom Biochips. Some of their properties were similar to those of a Gene Carrier. They could integrate into the chromosomes in the human body and undergo Synchronous Replication and Division.

The red tubes handled Main Induction. While supplying nutrients, they induced the subject's metabolism and sped up Cell Division. The blue tubes handled Main Apoptosis, killing off the Lagging Cells that couldn't keep up.

The Old Man stared at a peak rising on the screen and chuckled a few times. He turned the knob beside him ten degrees clockwise. Every ten degrees raised the Induction Level by one stage, and the Chip Excitation Level rose accordingly.

Changes in the hippocampal region of the brain, Methylated Regions on chromosomes, communication frequencies between cells, and more were displayed as data across the constantly flickering screens. It left the Old Man tremendously excited.

Another, more intense wave of pain struck Xilin's nerves. Afterward, he struggled to gather his thoughts once more.

"Impressive, impressive! To think a mere F-class Gene Type could go this far!" Watching the knob, now turned one hundred and eighty degrees, the Old Man began muttering to himself, his words charged with unmistakable excitement.

One hundred and eighty degrees meant that the chips had been activated to fifty percent. And this person was still alive. The data flashing across the screens made the Old Man's voice tremble. In his previous experiments, fewer than half of the subjects had made it to one hundred and eighty degrees. This meant that this mere F-class Gene Type had a physical endurance comparable to a D-class.

But how long could he hold out? Every additional ten degrees would produce another set of data to excite the Old Man beyond measure, but he didn't care whether Xilin lived or died.

Amid the relentless waves of pain, Xilin searched for a chance to escape.