I Thought I Was the Chosen One, but It Turns Out I'm a "Half-Finished Product"?

Black Wind Stronghold's ancestral hall was less a temple dedicated to ancestors than a massive museum sealed away in time.

The air was filled with the scent of aged sandalwood, mixed with the damp, mossy air unique to the deep mountains of the Miao Borderlands. The moment one stepped inside, even breathing seemed to grow quieter.

Yet Jian Ning's breathing refused to calm down. His heart pounded violently against his ribs, as though it wanted to leap out and see the bizarre sight before him for itself.

The moment the white-haired elder finished saying, "Call out the thing inside you so we can have a chat," Jian Ning's vision was instantly flooded with scarlet. The usual blue system panel, which only acted cute, promoted discounted products, and occasionally made sarcastic remarks, vanished. In its place appeared a line of glaring blood-red words floating before his retina, impossible to dispel no matter how hard he blinked:

[Warning: Maternal signal source connected.]

[Genetic sequence verification in progress... Verification successful.]

[Welcome home, Subject 001.]

The system assistant's normally playful electronic voice now sounded as though someone had hit a reset button. It had become flat and mechanical, with an electric static that made one's teeth ache:

[Subject 001, system self-diagnostic initiated... Current integrity: 50%... Awaiting activation...]

A chill shot from the soles of Jian Ning's feet straight to the top of his head, freezing him solid in Huo Si's arms.

[Subject 001? What the hell?]

[Who am I? Where am I? Did I really transmigrate into a novel, or did I end up on the set of The Matrix or The Terminator?]

[This number sounds like packaged pork jerky waiting to be scanned in a supermarket freezer, or a robot mass-produced on an assembly line. Could it be... the original "Jian Ning" wasn't human at all, but some kind of cyborg? Or am I sentient code? Will I still be able to eat hot pot later? Will drinking milk tea make me leak electricity?]

The more Jian Ning thought about it, the more horrified he became. His imagination ran wild like an unleashed stray dog, impossible to rein in. He instinctively reached down and pinched his thigh hard.

"Hiss—"

It hurt. It really hurt.

He touched his face again. Warm and soft.

Thank goodness. His body was still here, and he could still feel pain. He probably had not turned into a hunk of metal yet.

Huo Si immediately noticed the stiffness and trembling of the person in his arms. Though he had no idea what Jian Ning was seeing, he clearly heard that absurd chain of thoughts about "pork jerky" and "drinking engine oil."

The hostility that had risen in the man's eyes because of the elder's words was diluted in that instant by helplessness and a faint, nearly imperceptible smile.

He was scared half to death, yet he was still worrying about whether he could eat hot pot?

What exactly was inside that little head of his?

Huo Si lowered his head and pressed his warm palm to Jian Ning's cold forehead. His thumb gently rubbed between Jian Ning's brows, his voice low and steady, carrying a reassuring strength. "What's wrong? Why are you so pale? Are you feeling unwell somewhere?"

Jian Ning came back to himself and looked up, meeting Huo Si's deep, lake-like eyes.

There was no fear there, no suspicion—only concern and... a calm that seemed capable of accepting anything.

Jian Ning's heart, which had been hanging in midair, suddenly settled back into place.

[It's fine, it's fine. Huo Si is still here. He's warm, and I'm warm too.]

[Even if I'm a robot, I'm still a high-end robot someone loves. Huo Si is so rich. If I'm ever missing parts, he can replace them with solid gold ones!]

After comforting himself in his heart, he took a deep breath, tightly gripped Huo Si's sleeve, and forced himself to look calmly at the elder. "Sir, although I do want to respect my elders, could you not use the word 'thing' to describe me? And that 'Subject 001' really sounds like you're calling a prisoner. I have a name. My name is Jian Ning."

The white-haired elder ignored Jian Ning's protest. Trembling, he turned around and took a blackened clay jar that looked ancient from a dust-covered wooden box on the offering table.

He held the jar as though it were an incomparable treasure and shuffled toward them. A nearly fanatical light now gleamed in his formerly clouded old eyes.

"A name is merely a designation, child. '001' is not a prisoner's number. It is supreme glory."

"Twenty years ago, you were the first—and the only—container capable of perfectly carrying the Oracle... the Mother Gu Core Code."

"Your mother... she was truly great. She turned you into the perfect..."

"Container?"

The two words exploded like thunder.

Huo Si caught that word sharply, and his previously calm expression instantly darkened. The aura around him changed abruptly, as if that gentle and refined young master had instantly become the fearsome "Living King of Hell" of the capital once more.

One hand locked around Jian Ning's waist, shielding him completely behind himself in an absolute defensive stance. Behind his gold-rimmed glasses, his eyes turned blade-cold as they fixed directly on the elder.

"He is a human being. A person of flesh and blood, with thoughts of his own. He is not anyone's container, nor is he some half-finished product of your experiment."

"If this so-called 'coming home' means treating him like a lab rat or some kind of tool, then this home is not worth returning to."

Huo Si's voice was not loud, but every word struck with force, echoing through the empty ancestral hall.

Jian Xiu could not stand it anymore either. Though he usually clashed with Huo Si, their positions were surprisingly aligned at that moment. He slammed his hiking staff against the ground with a loud bang.

"Old man! Let me make this clear too! He's my biological little brother! If you dare do any weird experiments on him, believe it or not, I'll bring ten excavators over here right now and flatten this ancestral hall of yours?!"

Faced with two fiercely protective men unleashing their full presence, the elder froze for a moment. Clearly, he had not expected these two outsiders to behave so outrageously in Black Wind Stronghold's ancestral hall.

He opened his mouth, about to flare up, when the silent Saintess beside him—the girl who had released the snakes earlier—finally could not watch any longer.

With a sigh, she stepped forward and yanked off her veil, revealing a delicate face with a distinctly modern air. She skillfully pulled out a pack of cigarettes from her pocket, handed one to the elder, and lit it for him.

"Uncle, have a smoke and calm down. How many times have I told you? Young people nowadays don't like hearing that feudal-superstition nonsense. Containers, Oracle, glory—it's way too cringe! They'll report us as a cult!"

The elder was so angry his beard stuck straight up, but he still accepted the cigarette and took a hard drag. Half of his mysterious master's aura instantly collapsed.

The girl turned to face Huo Si and Jian Ning, who were still on guard, shrugged, and spoke in a much more normal tone.

"Don't listen to my uncle's nonsense. He's old and likes making everything sound mystical. Simply put, Jian Ning's mother, Jian Yao, was the greatest biologist to ever leave our stronghold. She developed a special Bio-Magnetic Field Technology—the prototype of that system in your head."

"Back then, the organization led by that madman called King wanted to seize the technology to control human brains. To protect the core data, Jian Yao had no choice. During that car accident orchestrated by people sent by the Qin Household, your mother faked her death to escape. After fleeing back to the Miao Borderlands, she took the risk of implanting it into you. But her injuries were beyond saving, and before she died, she had someone send you back to the Jian Family."

Jian Ning was completely dumbfounded.

[So my mom was a bio-hacker? And I'm a portable hard drive?]

[This is way too cyberpunk!]

"But," the girl continued, her gaze shifting to Huo Si with a meaningful look in her eyes, "Jian Ning was still an infant back then. His brain simply could not withstand such a massive surge of energy. Once the system fully activated, it would most likely burn out with a bang, like an overloaded light bulb."

Jian Ning shrank back in fright.

[Burn out? Turn into an idiot? No way!]

"Then why is he fine?" Huo Si asked in a deep voice, unconsciously tightening his grip on Jian Ning's hand.

"Because of you." The girl pointed at Huo Si and snapped her fingers. "Mr. Huo, if I'm not mistaken, when you were young—around three years old—did you suffer from a strange and serious illness? A fever that would not break, one that nearly killed you, and even the best doctors could not find the cause?"

Huo Si's eyes shifted slightly as fragments of long-buried memories resurfaced. "Yes. When I was three, I came here with my grandfather for an inspection. After we returned, I fell seriously ill."

"Then that's it." The girl smiled. "Jian Yao was carrying out the implantation procedure at the time, and some energy leaked out. You happened to be nearby, and your bio-magnetic field accidentally became entangled with that violent energy."

"Simply put, your magnetic field absorbed a great deal of the pressure for Jian Ning. You were like a natural high-capacity battery, absorbing the excess energy that would have burned out Jian Ning's brain."

At that point, the girl's gaze toward the two of them became somewhat suggestive.

"So, to the system inside Jian Ning, you are not merely an outsider. You are his 'human voltage stabilizer' and also his 'external power source.'"

"As long as you are by his side, he will not overload when using the system's abilities. Likewise, because your magnetic field has fused with part of the system's frequency, whenever his emotions fluctuate intensely or the system becomes active, you can... sense his presence and even soothe his mind."

"You two share an innate symbiotic bond."

After hearing that extremely "scientific" explanation, Jian Ning was utterly stunned, his mouth hanging wide enough to fit an egg.

[Holy shit?!]

[So Huo Si is my voltage stabilizer? No wonder the system behaves so well whenever I get close to him, and I feel so comfortable too! That feeling of being refreshed all over was because my voltage got stabilized?!]

[So I'm the main unit, and he's the external power supply? This setup... once I accept it, it's actually kind of exciting?]

[Doesn't that mean I can never leave him for the rest of my life? Hehe, now I have scientific grounds to cling to him forever! Let's see who dares say I'm only after his money! I'm doing it to stay alive!]

Huo Si heard Jian Ning's righteous declaration that he was going to cling to him forever. The tension in his nerves eased, and the corner of his lips lifted almost imperceptibly.

Very good.

This explanation was perfect. It explained the unbreakable bond between them without exposing his greatest secret—his ability to hear Jian Ning's thoughts.

Since he was a "voltage stabilizer," this little guy would have even more justification for sticking to him in the future. As for whether he could hear Jian Ning's thoughts... that was just an "additional function" of a voltage stabilizer. There was no need to explain it specifically, was there?

"So," Huo Si said, pushing up his glasses and calmly accepting the arrangement, "what do I need to do now? Charge him?"

After finishing a cigarette, the elder had calmed down. He pointed toward the mist-shrouded main peak behind the mountain and said in a grave voice,

"Although we understand the principle now, the system is only in a 'partially activated' state. Many core functions remain locked. If you want to fully control it and fight King, you must go to the 'sacred ground'—No-Return Cave."

"There, you must complete the final step... energy fusion."