At that moment when the one eye was completely opened, there was no sound in the air.
There was only a low-frequency vibration similar to the current flowing through tooth acid, which followed the conduit of the reinforced glass tank and instantly covered the entire metal frame of the air fortress.
In the three hundred single rooms on the ground floor of the fortress, the uniform muffled sounds almost overlapped into one.
Plop.
There was no warning, no external pressure.
The three hundred teenagers who had just been deprived of the right to dream fell to their knees as if their spines had been ripped away in an instant.
It was not a tactical squatting position of kneeling down on one knee, but hitting the ground with both knees, with the upper body lying on the ground, and pressing the forehead firmly against the cold alloy floor.
The images on the surveillance screen are horrifying.
Three hundred independent individuals, now like a huge whole organ, made a gesture of absolute surrender to the "embryo" above that was not in their sight.
"Logic error." Chiyo Saori's fingers left an afterimage on the keyboard, his brows furrowed, "I didn't give any physical instructions. The central nervous system blocker is still running. It stands to reason that they can't even lift their fingers at this moment. How can they complete such a high-precision synchronized action?"
"This is not an order."
Uchiha Xuan stood in front of the culture tank, looking at the black eyeball slowly rotating in the turbid liquid.
That eye has no focus, but seems to be looking at every corner of the void.
"This is the fear in the blood." Xuan's finger knocked on the glass wall, making a crisp sound, "Just like when a mouse sees a cat, it doesn't need anyone to teach it to run away. That embryo is the source of all samples, and it just released a simple signal - 'Father' is awake."
Chiyo stared at the physical data on the screen. "Visual suppression effect? Can you bypass the physical blocker and take over the nervous system just by relying on the radiation of chakra fluctuations?"
"It's not just taking over." Xuan looked at the crouched figures on the screen, "This is formatting at the genetic level. They are showing the back of the neck to the Creator - that is the most vulnerable part of the animal. They are begging for mercy and waiting to be used."
The red light on the screen flashes crazily.
"The heart rate is too fast and the muscles are extremely tight. Sir, if they maintain this posture, their knee cartilage will cause irreversible damage within four hours." Chiyo's finger hung above the termination button, "Do you want to force intervention?"
"Don't move." Xuan's voice was as cold as ice, "Maintain the status quo, I want to see the limit."
This kneeling lasted for three days and three nights.
For seventy-two hours, no one moved.
Even if the thigh muscles spasm violently due to the accumulation of lactic acid, even if the sweat collects into small puddles on the floor, and even if someone has nose bleeding due to long-term cerebral congestion, that weird posture remains motionless.
No wailing, no struggling.
In this absolutely oppressive space, there are only three hundred silent heartbeats, beating crazily driven by fear.
"The mood swings are stable, even more stable than usual." Chiyo held the latest report, with a hint of disbelief in his tone, "They seem to... enjoy this state where they don't need to think but just obey."
"Because that's the factory setting I gave them."
Xuan turned around and walked towards the podium, looking at the rows of dead data on the screen, "Since the effect is so good, there is no need to waste time on those tricks of standing at attention and taking a break."
"What do you mean?"
"Solidify this posture." Xuan crossed out a large section of the training course. "In the future, there is no need to teach them how to behave while standing. Turn the power of the gravity shackles to the maximum and wear them all day long."
Chiyo was stunned. "Like... a prisoner?"
"Like worker ants carrying a heavy load." Xuan corrected, "Let them get used to the feeling of heaviness with one eye always staring at the back. Only under that kind of high pressure will they understand how luxurious and dangerous it is to stand straight."
On the fourth day after the order was issued, an "accident" occurred during a practical test.
The boy codenamed A-091 broke his opponent's arm in close combat.
Perhaps it was the surge of adrenaline or the pleasure brought by that moment of victory. The moment he stepped on his opponent, he subconsciously puffed up his chest, raised his chin slightly, and an extremely weak light flashed in his originally empty eyes.
That's the thought of "I win."
Zhi--!
Fire Seal collar instantly releases a lethal amount of pain pulses.
The boy's body stiffened suddenly, and before he could even scream, he curled up heavily on the ground, like a squashed cockroach, and twitched and vomited all over his body.
"Abnormal discharge of the prefrontal lobe." Xuan looked at the replay screen and pressed pause on the frame of the boy looking up. "He was trying to confirm his position. He was thinking 'where am I' rather than 'what is the mission'."
"This is the bud of self-awareness." Chiyo whispered, "Do you want to destroy it?"
"Keep it." Xuan sneered, "Just use it as a negative teaching material. Adjust the monitoring accuracy of all training grounds to the millisecond level. Any non-tactical need to raise your head, raise your chest, or focus your eyes will be regarded as a signal of rebellion and will be executed immediately."
Only by keeping your head down all the time can you not see the sky.
If you can't see the sky, you won't have the illusion of flying out.
Late at night on the seventh day.
In the core cabin, the black eye that had been on that mass of rotten flesh for a week finally slowly closed.
Almost at the same second, the teenagers in the dormitory area who had been kneeling like statues for seven days fell over like puppets with their strings cut off.
Then, they stood up unsteadily again.
His movements were stiff, his joints were crackling, but his eyes were even more lifeless than they were seven days ago.
"The autonomy of the limbs has been completely suppressed." Chiyo looked at the zombie-like figures on the screen and quickly recorded, "Now for them, obedience no longer needs to go through the cerebral cortex, but directly becomes a spinal reflex. Sir, you succeeded."
Xuan didn't answer.
He suddenly turned his head, his eyes penetrated the thick fortress armor, and looked far below - the ruins of the Naka River shrine.
There, an ancient stone tablet buried deep underground seemed to sense the birth of a new order, and a gap suddenly opened in the body of the tablet.
Under the peeling stone skin, a line of ancient inscriptions that had never been shown dimly lit up in the darkness.
...Fire shall belong to Allah...
Those are not words that Sharingan's pupil power can decipher. They are the stress reaction produced by the underlying rules of the world at this moment.
"The garbage of the old era is worthy of being criticized."
Xuan raised his hand and pressed it across the void.
Myriad Phenomena Devouring System's energy torrent instantly spanned space.
A crimson beam of light fell from the sky, accurately penetrated the ground, and instantly vaporized the stone tablet that had not had time to fully reveal the writing, as well as the surrounding soil.
There is no "God" and no prophecy.
The rules are only in my hands.
Dead silence returned to the fortress.
Chiyo Saori did not notice the brief vibration that occurred dozens of kilometers away. Her attention was completely attracted by the replay of the battle of boy A-091.
"Sir." Chiyo pushed up his glasses and repeatedly tapped the pause button with his fingers, freezing the scene at the millisecond before the boy raised his head. "Something is wrong. You'd better come and take a look at this."
She called up a chart of the micro-movements of the eyeballs of all newborns during the past seven days. The dense lines were creating a disturbing pattern on the screen.