When he was seven, Lin Shuo realized he was different from other children.
Not because he never cried when he received injections, nor because he could precisely remember the data from every experiment-those things came later.
His first realization came from a "birthday party."
It was a gloomy afternoon, and the laboratory's white walls reflected a harsh glare under the cold lights. His mother walked into the observation room wearing a white coat and safety goggles, carrying a small cake with a candle on it.
"Little Shuo, happy birthday." Her voice was slightly muffled by her mask, but it carried a deliberately cultivated gentleness.
His father stood behind her, holding a clipboard, his eyes behind his glasses sweeping over the monitoring electrodes on Lin Shuo's body.
"You're seven today. You're a big boy now." His mother set the cake on the table.
"Make a wish."
Lin Shuo stared at the candle.
The flame was pale blue-it was highly concentrated Ether fuel, which could burn for twelve hours without going out.
The cake looked tempting, with strawberries decorating the cream, but he knew it contained a trace amount of sedative to make him cooperate with the "special test" that followed.
"I want..." he began, his voice very soft.
"To go outside and play."
His mother's smile stiffened for a moment.
His father wrote something on his clipboard, then said, "Little Shuo, it's dangerous outside-Hollows can appear without warning, and Ether storms can sweep people away. The laboratory is the safest place."
"But Qian An said he's been to a park."
Lin Shuo said.
Qian An was a new volunteer who had arrived last month, twelve years old, a "healthy sample" TOPS had sent from an orphanage.
He was lively and always secretly told Lin Shuo stories about the outside world-the slides in the park, the candy shops along the street, the nighttime scenery outside the windows of the suspended trains.
"Qian An is a volunteer. He's different from you."
His mother's tone cooled. "You're our child, the hope of the New Humanity Project-you can't go taking risks like ordinary people."
She paused, putting on a gentle expression again. "Come on, blow out the candle. After that, Daddy will show you something nice."
Lin Shuo looked at the candle.
Then he blew it out.
Not to make a wish, but simply because the flame hurt his eyes.
"Good boy."
His mother cut the cake and handed him the piece with the strawberry. "Once you finish, we'll begin today's test-the 'adaptive breakthrough experiment' you've been looking forward to."
Lin Shuo took a bite of cake.
The cream was sweet, perfectly masking the taste of the sedative.
But he tasted no joy in it.
The testing room was on the laboratory's third basement level.
It was colder here than upstairs, with thick metal walls and a conductive grid laid across the floor.
In the center of the room stood a transparent cylindrical chamber connected to various pipes and monitoring devices.
Qian An was already waiting there.
He was secured to a restraint chair on the other side, metal cuffs fastened around his wrists and ankles.
When he saw Lin Shuo, he forced a smile, but he could not hide the fear in his eyes.
"Little Shuo, we're doing the test together today."
Qian An spoke quietly, his voice trembling a little. "Your mom said... if it goes well, she'll let me go outside for a day next week."
Lin Shuo knew he was lying.
His mother never allowed volunteers to "go outside."
The so-called rewards were nothing more than an extra serving of meat or one fewer blood draw.
But he did not expose the lie. He simply nodded.
"Little Shuo, come here."
His father stood at the control console and beckoned.
"Today, we're testing 'Half-Ethereal Transformation stability.' You'll briefly enter a transformed state. We'll record the data, then inject a reversal agent."
His mother added, "Don't worry. The reversal agent is very safe-we've already tested it on Number Seventeen."
Number Seventeen was last week's volunteer, a quiet middle-aged man.
After the test, he had been sent to the "intensive observation area" and never returned.
Lin Shuo took off his shirt and stepped into the chamber.
Ice-cold liquid rose from beneath his feet, pale green nutrient solution mixed with highly concentrated Ether crystal powder.
The moment the liquid touched his skin, a familiar stinging sensation came.
Monitoring electrodes covered his body as his father rapidly worked the controls.
"Preparing to administer the Type P-03 Sacrifice Potion."
His voice came through the speaker, as calm as if he were reading a recipe.
"Dosage: thirty percent of the standard adult dose. Countdown: five, four-"
Lin Shuo closed his eyes.
The liquid began to churn, and Ether energy pierced his blood vessels like needles.
He could feel his body changing-muscles contracting, bones making faint cracking sounds, something writhing beneath his skin.
"Half-Ethereal Transformation, begin."
His vision turned red.
It was not anger, but a physiological response-the blood vessels in his eyes dilated, and his retinas filtered out all other colors, leaving only the red spectrum that represented "threats."
He could see Qian An's heartbeat speeding up, his body temperature rising, fear spilling from him like mist.
He could hear researchers talking in the laboratory next door and smell the disinfectant the ventilation system could not filter out.
Everything was amplified.
Power surged through him, and that feeling... was awful.
Not because of the pain, but because-he actually liked it a little.
Powerful, perceptive, omnipotent.
"Stay conscious, Little Shuo." His mother's voice sounded in his ears. "The readings show your retained sanity at ninety-two percent. Very good-now, try to control a partial Ethereal transformation of your left hand."
Lin Shuo looked at his left hand.
His skin began to turn white and harden, pale claws extending from his fingertips.
Ether tissue coiled around his arm like vines, bringing a burning pain.
But he did not cry out.
He simply concentrated, imagining his hand returning to normal.
The claws slowly retracted, and his skin returned to its normal color.
"Success!" His father's voice carried a rare note of excitement. "Voluntary control of a half-Ethereal limb! Record the data-this is eight months ahead of schedule!"
His mother walked up to the chamber and smiled at him through the glass. "Well done, Little Shuo. Mommy knew you were the most special."
Her smile was gentle.
But Lin Shuo saw the gleam in her eyes-it was not the look of a mother watching her child, but of a researcher examining the results of an experiment.
Fanaticism, greed, satisfaction.
The liquid began to drain, and the chamber door opened.
Lin Shuo stepped out, soaked all over, his bare upper body still trembling slightly.
His mother immediately wrapped a blanket around him, her movements gentle.
"Thank you for your hard work, Little Shuo. Go take a hot shower, then get some rest-we'll make your favorite stew tonight."
She stroked his head.
Her fingers were cold.
Lin Shuo nodded and headed toward the shower room.
As he passed Qian An, he heard him whisper, "...Are you okay?"
His voice was shaking.
Lin Shuo did not answer. He merely glanced at him.
Qian An's face was as pale as paper, his eyes fixed on the chamber where Lin Shuo had just stood, as though he had seen some kind of monster.
The water in the shower room was hot.
But Lin Shuo felt no warmth.
He sat on the tiled floor, hugging his knees, letting the hot water wash over his body.
The data from the test replayed in his mind-heart rate, Ether absorption rate, neural response speed.
And... that feeling of power surging through him.
"Did you like it?" he asked himself.
There was no answer.
Only the sound of water.
After showering and changing his clothes, Lin Shuo did not go straight back to his room.
He slipped into the archive room-this was forbidden, but he had cracked the door lock's code three months ago.
The archive room was large, filled with metal cabinets.
Each cabinet bore a label: volunteer records, experimental data, potion formulas, partner organizations...
Lin Shuo walked to the cabinet labeled "partner organizations" and pulled open the bottom drawer.
Inside was a thick stack of contracts and correspondence.
He leafed through them quickly-most were filled with technical terms he could not understand. But several names appeared repeatedly:
TOPS.
The Order.
Helios.
And... the stamp of a certain department within the Defense Force.
A recent memorandum caught his attention:
"To Dr. Lin: Regarding live-subject testing of the Type P-07 Potion, TOPS has supplied a new batch of volunteers (list attached). The Order requests that we share 'Half-Ethereal Transformation adaptability' data. In exchange, they will provide documents concerning the 'Primordial One.' We recommend accelerating Lin Shuo's testing schedule. The value of his data far exceeds expectations."
There were over a dozen names on the attached list.
Lin Shuo saw a familiar name-Qian An, followed by the notation "ID V-24, health status A, projected service life: three months."
"Service life."
They used that term to describe a living human being.
Lin Shuo's hands trembled slightly.
It was not anger, but... numbness.
He had known for a long time.
He had known since his first injection at five-his parents loved the data, not him.
He had known since he watched those volunteers disappear one after another-no one here cared about life.
He had known since he discovered he could understand the researchers' private conversations-he was merely a valuable test subject.
But knowing was one thing.
Every time he saw that indifference, his heart still hurt a little.
A very slight pain, like a pinprick.
Then it quickly went numb.
"Little Shuo?"
His mother's voice came from outside the door.
Lin Shuo immediately stuffed the documents back where they belonged, shut the drawer, and hid behind a cabinet.
The archive room door opened.
His mother walked in, holding a folder.
She did not turn on the overhead light, only the small desk lamp on the workbench.
Its glow illuminated half her face.
Through a gap, Lin Shuo saw her reading a report-the cover read "Lin Shuo: Data Analysis of the Seventy-Third Comprehensive Test."
She read intently, occasionally making notes with a pen.
A smile lingered at the corners of her mouth.
The satisfied smile she wore when she saw perfect data.
After reading for ten minutes, she closed the report and said softly, "Perfect... absolutely perfect. Just three more months of data, and we can finish the paper... then TOPS will definitely give us more funding, and The Order will also..."
She did not finish, but Lin Shuo understood.
More funding meant more experiments.
More volunteers.
More "service lives."
His mother stood, switched off the desk lamp, and left the archive room.
The door locked again.
In the darkness, Lin Shuo stepped out from behind the cabinet.
He walked to where his mother had been sitting and touched the chair, which still held a trace of warmth.
Then he walked to the window.
Outside lay the laboratory's backyard, enclosed by high walls, with only a small patch of sky visible.
It was overcast today, and no stars could be seen.
But in the distance, Eridu's neon lights reflected off the clouds, casting a hazy glow.
That was the "outside world" Qian An had described.
There were parks, candy stores, and skyrail trains.
There were also Hollows, Ether storms, and danger.
But at least... there was freedom.
"I want to get out," Lin Shuo said to the window.
His voice was so quiet that only he could hear it.
"I want to take Qian An out with me."
He remembered the stories Qian An had told him-how fast the slides in the park were, how sweet the candy sold by the old woman on the street was, and how, when the skyrail trains passed through the city, the lights outside the windows looked like a flowing river of stars.
When Qian An talked about those things, his eyes would shine.
It was a light Lin Shuo's eyes had never held.
"But how do we escape?"
The laboratory had round-the-clock surveillance, biometric locks, and guards.
His parents would not allow him to leave.
TOPS would not allow a valuable test subject to slip away.
The Order... he did not know what they would do.
Lin Shuo sat in the darkness and thought for a long time.
Then he remembered something.
Last week, he had secretly overheard his parents arguing-about "stability issues with the Type P-07 Potion."
His father had said, "The potion's side effects are too severe in individuals with high adaptability. We've already lost three volunteers."
His mother had said, "But the data is very valuable. And TOPS is pushing hard. The Order is putting pressure on us too..."
"Then run a low-dose test," his father had conceded. "Try it on V-24 first-that boy is in good physical condition. He should be able to pull through."
V-24.
Qian An.
Lin Shuo clenched his hands.
A low-dose test... that meant Qian An would soon be injected with a new Sacrifice Potion.
According to past data, volunteers' average survival time after being injected with P-Series Potions was seven days.
The longest recorded survival time was fifteen days.
Then they would become "observation samples"-sent deeper underground, never to return.
"No," Lin Shuo said softly.
He could not stand by and watch Qian An disappear.
The Qian An who smiled at him, told him stories about the outside world, and secretly slipped him a piece of candy stolen from the cafeteria.
The Qian An who had said, "Once we get out, I'll take you to see the real starry sky."
His... only friend.
Lin Shuo stood up and walked to another row of cabinets in the archive room.
The laboratory's building plans and security system manuals were stored here.
He needed a plan.
A perfect plan that would let him escape with Qian An.
And time... was running short.
The neon glow outside the window gradually dimmed as night in New Eridu deepened.
Inside the laboratory, there was only the hum of running instruments.
And the faint resolve quietly kindling in a seven-year-old child's heart.