Song Xiaozhu dodged their attacks, avoiding the constant rushes...
The boy who came up tried his best not to hurt anyone, and also tried not to be hurt by anyone.
Song Xiaozhu didn't know why she was here. She was clearly at home, having had a high fever for two days and two nights... Was she dead? Had she come to this abyss of hell after death?
Song Xiaozhu stood in the room, covered in blood. All the children around her were dead, but Song Xiaozhu's knife was clean.
She was just trying to avoid it, but ironically, she ended up standing at the very back.
Li Shihai stroked her blood-stained hair. "You can see?"
Song Xiaozhu suddenly looked up at the devil called "Father": "They are all human!"
Li Shihai stared at her for a while. "Hmm, you have good talent."
Song Xiaozhu pointed the knife at him. "Let me out! I want to leave this place!"
Li Shihai gently brushed aside the sharp blade and calmly said, "Then kill everyone here and make them my only daughter."
Song Xiaozhu wasn't a real child, and she certainly didn't see the other boys as rats. In the next group room, she loudly told the other children, "Stop killing! We're all human beings! Look carefully, those aren't rats, they're people!"
She shouted it out to everyone, but every child's eyes were empty, blank, and then filled with bloodlust and rage.
This time, Song Xiaozhu was injured, but she still refused to point the knife at anyone.
Li Shihai sized her up. "She has great talent, but she's not suitable."
Song Xiaozhu's eyes widened in fury. "You're crazy! You're a madman! Let me out! I don't want to stay here! I..."
Li Shihai smiled and said, "How do you know there's an 'outside world'? Every child is a creation of mine. Logically speaking, you shouldn't know anything about the world outside."
Song Xiaozhu's heart tightened, and she pursed her lips, refusing to say another word.
"Go ahead and kill people. Get used to it sooner rather than later. You'll always get used to it."
"..."
Song Xiaozhu couldn't imagine how she survived—every night she would be pushed into a communal room where there was always the same number of boys, each holding a knife, and they would quickly descend into a bloody massacre.
Every single day...
Countless days...
Song Xiaozhu did not kill anyone; she continues to awaken every child she encounters.
What happened to them?
What exactly happened here?
Why are there so many teenagers of the same age, constantly being born and dying?
Song Xiaozhu began to explore the place, walking through each room until she came to the largest room and saw Li Shihai standing in front of the screen.
There were 99 dots on the screen, which Li Shihai manipulated casually, as if he were fiddling with a sand table.
Song Xiaozhu quickly figured it out: each point was a city, and Li Shihai was constantly supplying them with all sorts of resources. He could see all kinds of information, and would occasionally smile, or frown and ponder, his eyes showing disappointment.
What is he doing?
He effortlessly controlled nearly a hundred cities?
How is that possible!
That day, Song Xiaozhu met Li Shijian.
Li Shijian is a "defective product," the result of Li Shihai's first attempt at human synthesis.
Song Xiaozhu learned a lot from Li Shijian.
This is the Hatching Nest. Li Shihai used a device called a " Synthesizer " to synthesize a real life form using only a few very primitive elements.
It started with rats, then pigs and dogs, then deformed people, and then came Li Shijian's batch of "defective products," until Song Xiaozhu's batch of "finished products."
"What exactly is he going to do!" Song Xiaozhu felt a chill run down her spine.
Li Shijian: "Choose a successor."
Song Xiaozhu felt a chill run down her spine. "Why use this method?"
Li Shijian paused for a moment before slowly saying, "That thing... requires killing..."
Song Xiaozhu immediately said, "Why look for a successor for something like this? Why keep it around?"
Li Shijian paused, then looked at her. "Shouldn't we... keep it?"
Song Xiaozhu: "Of course! No matter what its use is, no matter how powerful it is, if it can only be inherited in such a heinous way, it shouldn't exist!"
Li Shijian seemed to have never considered such a possibility. He paused for a moment, then his eyes lit up. "We'll destroy it together?"
Song Xiaozhu: "Yes, we're going to destroy it!"
Li Shijian and Song Xiaozhu joined forces and began looking for an opportunity to destroy it.
Li Shihai had no defenses against the host of the Hatching Nest. He seemed to know these "synthetic humans" very well and never thought they could do anything outrageous.
Aside from their regular killings, they are free the rest of the time.
Except for Song Xiaozhu and Li Shijian, everyone else leaves their rooms.
Song Xiaozhu and Li Shijian's initial plan was to awaken the other young people.
In 2010, given enough companions, they would surely find a way to kill Li Shihai.
If Li Shihai dies, the " Synthesizer " without a successor is essentially destroyed.
However, they soon had to accept reality.
The entire Hatching Nest contains countless "synthetic humans," but only two— Li Shijian from the previous batch and Song Xiaozhu from this batch—possess independent self-awareness.
They had no companions.
They only have each other.
Li Shijian said to Song Xiaozhu, "There's another way."
Song Xiaozhu: "What?"
Li Shijian gritted his teeth and said, "I'll help you kill all the synthesizers, then you'll be the successor. Li Shihai will then hand over the Synthesizer to you, and you can destroy it!"
Song Xiaozhu: "No way!"
Knowing her insistence, Li Shijian said gently, " Xiaozhu, theoretically they aren't human. Don't feel guilty. Killing them is just..."