๐๐ก๐๐ฉ๐ญ๐๐ซ ๐๐: ๐๐๐ข๐ ๐ง (2)
Morbidly pale skin. Hair that had faded to white. Crimson eyes. An average build.
She was silently gazing at the seven pods in the empty room inside Lemegeton.
“I don’t recognize any of these faces.”
“They are fellow experimental subjects that were completed as the new chimeraz project. Really, you don’t know anything?”
Kreion now knew about her and the seven subjects thanks to absorbing Haber’s memories.
“They were also humans like me who were reborn as chimeraz. I somehow knew that they were my kind.”
“Your name?”
“Anima Selas.”
According to Haber’s memories, she was designed to complement Kreion’s shortcomings.
“Anima. Who gave you that name?”
“My parents. I used to be human.”
“How old are you?”
“18. I’m almost an adult. Same as you.”
‘๐๐ฉ๐ฆ๐บ ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ต ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ด.’
Kreion had also learned various facts about herself when she absorbed Haber’s memories.
That she was not really 18 years old and that the training and all the education she had received from the foundation for 18 years were actually implanted memories.
The implanted memories were done intentionally by humans, and that was how the humans of the Darwin Foundation pursued the diversity of experimental subjects.
Among them, Kreion herself was a subject designed to become a ‘ruler’ from the beginning. The preliminary selection and the coming-of-age ceremony were all stages prepared to strengthen Kreion.
Looking at Anima knowing those facts, it was as if she saw her own past reflected in her.
‘๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ค๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐น๐ต ๐ณ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ข๐ง๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ฎ๐ฆ.’
“. . . What should I do now?”
“What do you mean?”
“That. . . Everything around me is gone. Apoptology, the teacher humanoids, and even the goals they presented me. . . That’s why I don’t know. Anything. . .”
Kreion answered without much thought.
“You are now given freedom.”
Freedom.
Anima wouldn’t feel that word right away. It was easy to tell even without connecting the wavelength, just by Anima’s reaction.
“Freedom. . . ?”
“You’re free. The humans who restrained, experimented, and raised you as a weapon have been destroyed. So now you can choose.”
“Am I allowed to?”
“As a ruler entity equal to you, I will respect your decision.”
“. . .”
Her expression said that she didn’t understand.
“Is it hard to decide?”
“Where are we going now?”
“We are returning to the colony after eliminating the forces that threaten us.”
“What threat?”
“Darwin Foundation. That group of humans deceived me and killed my mother. . . No, our mother, and they even tried to kill the child I care about the most.”
She must have found the situation too sudden.
“I escaped after making them pay the price for their betrayal and arrogance. And that’s how chimeraz became enemies with humans.”
“No way. . . Darwin Foundation wouldn’t do that. . . Darwin Foundation gave me a new life. They gave me clothes, food, and even new goals. . .”
“And you’re afraid of humans because of the memories they implanted as they pleased.”
“What?”
“It’ll take forever if I explain everything one by one.”
Kreion approached Anima and reached out. Then, she unconsciously flinched.
“I’m not a human. Why are you afraid?”
“W-What are you going to do?”
“I’ll connect our brains for a moment and show you part of my memories.”
Soon, tentacles extended from Kreion’s fingers and connected to her forehead. It didn’t take Kreion, who had perfect control over her brain, even 10 minutes to show her the necessary memories.
Anima, who had been struggling with confusion and fear, finally seemed to realize.
Light seemed to shine through her crimson eyes.
“You have similar eyes to the child I care about the most. Do you understand your situation now?”
“. . . Kreion.”
“Choose. If you want, I can find a star for you to stay in. You can build your own colony like me, have your own children, and lead your own chimeraz. Or you can join my colony, or if not, you can go back to the humans.”
Anima raised her head and had a gaze that seemed to have found new light.
It was freedom, ego, and someone precious that had been lacking in her for a long time.
“No. I won’t go back.”
It was an expected answer.
“I want to be with you. That’s right.”
“Are you sure? This is an irreversible choice.”
“I’m sure.”
“Then you are now under me.”
“Okay.”
Kreion and Anima didn’t know at that moment.
That a faint smile had appeared on both of their faces.
๐น๐น๐น๐น๐น๐น
After 4 days of destroying Apoptology, the 17 Lemegetons are about to enter the dark nebula where the red dwarf star exists.
Kreion, left alone in the empty room, looked at the terminal of one of the 7 pods.
ใ. . . Brain download 81% in progressใ
โ๐๐ฐ๐ต ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ซ๐ฆ๐ค๐ต๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐บ๐ฆ๐ต.โ
Then, he checked the other terminals.
ใ. . . Brain download 55% in progressใ
ใ. . . Brain download 57% in progressใ
ใ. . . Brain download 34% in progressใ
Looking at the appearance of the experimental subjects dreaming in the pods, he could see that they were of different ages.
‘๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ธ๐ณ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ด๐ด ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐บ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ซ๐ฆ๐ค๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ.’
On the other hand, the experimental subject, who looked the youngest, had a brain download progress of 81%.
ใ. . . Brain download 81% in progressใ
ใ. . . Experimental subject information accessใ
ใExperimental subject name: Gnoxใ
ใGender: Maleใ
ใAge: 15 years oldใ
ใAbility: Cell control, Networking specializationใ
Cell control means the ability to change the body’s form or the form of the chimeraz subordinates.
And the networking specialization made Kreion think of Zeul Pin Bythos.
‘๐ก๐ฆ๐ถ๐ญ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ค๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ช๐ญ๐ช๐ต๐ข๐ณ๐บ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ช๐ง๐ช๐ค๐ช๐ข๐ญ ๐ฉ๐ถ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ค๐ช๐ต๐บ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ช๐ฎ๐ช๐ฏ๐ข๐ณ๐บ ๐ด๐ฆ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ค๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ. ๐๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ-๐ฐ๐ง-๐ข๐จ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐บ, ๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด๐ด ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ๐ด๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ.’
‘๐๐ง ๐๐ฏ๐ฐ๐น ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ญ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ค๐ต๐ช๐ท๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด๐ค๐ช๐ฐ๐ถ๐ด๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ด๐ด, ๐ ๐ธ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ต ๐ฉ๐ช๐ฎ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฌ ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฐ๐ญ๐ท๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฉ๐ช๐ญ๐ฅ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ค๐ฌ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ถ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ฆ๐ฒ๐ถ๐ช๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต.’
As luck would have it, there are human artifacts salvaged from Apoptology. Most of them are encrypted, so hacking skills are essential.
‘๐๐ฏ๐ฐ๐น ๐ธ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ธ๐ข๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ถ๐ฑ ๐ข๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต 5 ๐ฅ๐ข๐บ๐ด ๐ข๐ง๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ณ๐ณ๐ช๐ท๐ฆ๐ด.’
Forcibly waking up a living being that is receiving a brain download can cause permanent mental disorders. So it’s best to protect them well until the brain download is complete.
‘๐’๐ฎ ๐จ๐ญ๐ข๐ฅ ๐ ๐จ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ต๐ช๐ฎ๐ฆ.’
Kreion felt a sense of kinship as he pressed his palm against the transparent glass of the pod.
โ๐ฆ๐๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐ซ. . .!
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