Chapter 25 The Fool Has Nothing (25)

Chapter 25: Fools Possess Nothing (XXV)

Xu Jiu's vision exploded with stars, the abrupt fall leaving his head ringing. It was as if he’d been tossed into a commercial-grade washing machine, spun violently downward before he could even grab onto one of Number Six’s tentacles.

A paw-like hand clamped over his mouth and nose, stifling any sound. In the darkness, multiple hands grabbed his limbs without hesitation, dragging him at breakneck speed deeper into the tunnel.

Above them came a thunderous crash—like a rain of spears. Reinforced concrete shattered and flipped as the creature’s furious roars shook the underground passage like thunder.

“It’s coming!” someone bellowed in the chaos. “Move, get him out of here!”

The men spoke entirely in code, and Xu Jiu realized instantly—these were the research facility’s heavy assault team.

But knowing the truth did nothing to help. As an ordinary human, he stood no chance against the enhanced Biomechs. They held him like a fragile kitten, lifting him effortlessly with one hand.

Wind screamed past Xu Jiu's ears as the Biomechs accelerated, the force so strong he couldn’t even open his eyes. Then came a concussive blast erupting behind them—a section of the tunnel was deliberately collapsed to block Number Six’s pursuit.

Xu Jiu was ready to vomit. No matter how hard he struggled, it only worsened his dizziness. Ignoring his resistance, the Biomechs hauled him out of the tunnel and strapped him into an elevator.

“You go!” one Biomech barked. “We’ll stay and hold that monster back!”

Three Biomechs had lain in ambush in the cramped tunnel. Now, the last one gave a silent nod as the other two severed the elevator’s power, turning it into a one-way trip to the abyss.

Number Six’s voice grew distant as the elevator plummeted, steel cables shrieking. Amid violent jolts, the Biomech cushioned Xu Jiu’s back, sparing him from slamming into the ceiling—or breaking his spine.

Disoriented, Xu Jiu perceived events careening like a derailed train, far beyond his wildest imagination.

He didn’t know when he’d been exposed, nor how long the research station had planned this. But deep down, hadn’t he always known this day would come?

From finding Number Six and vowing to raise it, he’d accepted the sword hanging over his head. Fate’s design was beyond his control—when the executioner’s blade would fall wasn’t his to decide.

Strangely, he felt no panic now, only a detached serenity.

The Biomech dragged him forward as heavy doors slammed shut behind them, one after another. Between splitting headaches and nausea, Xu Jiu glimpsed the fortress-like weapon arrays lining the walls—enough to repel an entire army.

*Number Six,* he thought hazily, *please don’t get hurt.*

Finally, they reached their destination.

The Biomech threw him to the ground and reported solemnly, “Dr. Ewan, target acquired.”

Gritting his teeth, Xu Jiu fought the urge to vomit, gasping on the floor. After what felt like an eternity, a brittle voice ordered: “Make him alert. I need clear, coherent answers.”

A bucket of ice water drenched him, sending arcs of electricity dancing across his skin as he shuddered violently.

Struggling to lift his head, he squinted until his vision adjusted.

The room was sterile white—floor, walls, ceiling. Biomechs in full combat gear surrounded him, while further back, high-ranking researchers in hazmat suits huddled around a central figure, whispering urgently.

“Answer the doctor’s questions!” a researcher snapped, glaring down at him. “Or you’ll learn firsthand how Mobius deals with traitors!”

*Doctor…?*

Xu Jiu’s pupils strained against the light as he studied the gaunt, hunched figure in the center. He vaguely recalled Dr. Ewan as a portly, silver-haired man with a harmless smile. What had happened to him?

“When did you get involved with *them*?” Ewan Weber demanded, looming over Xu Jiu.

Xu Jiu hesitated. The directness spared him arguments, but the question was too vague. Before he could respond, a Biomech stepped forward, arcs of electricity dancing across its hands.

“Don’t touch him!” Ewan rasped unexpectedly. “He’s an invaluable specimen—the only one in the world. No one intervenes with our conversation!”

Behind the face shield, his bloodshot eyes carried a hint of unhinged wildness.

Things had gotten this far, yet Xu Jiu felt an unusual calm. He slowly sat up and said in a low voice, "I was transferred to—"

Before he could finish, Ewan impatiently cut him off. "Yes, yes, you were part of the fourth batch of janitors transferred to clean the square. That’s where you first saw the Aker specimen. You were shocked because you’d never seen such a creature before… Enough! I’m not asking about that! What I want to know is—when exactly did you establish actual contact with them?"

The last sentence was delivered slowly, word by word, with deliberate pressure.

Xu Jiu fell silent for a moment.

Should he say it?

Never mind. A smart man doesn’t fight a losing battle. Right now, all he needed to do was stall—just long enough for Number Six to find him.

"...On the night the lab building was being rebuilt," Xu Jiu said. "I met him."

"You met *it*," the doctor corrected. "And then? Were you forced? Manipulated? Or did you decide you’d had enough of being at the bottom and wanted to use the specimen to take over Polar Station, to gain greater benefits?"

Xu Jiu stared at him and suddenly found it all a little amusing.

So he opened his mouth—and even grinned.

The doctor looked down at him like he was some kind of talking monkey, and Xu Jiu studied this big shot with equal curiosity. If not for Number Six, this would have been someone he’d never have met in his lifetime.

"None of that was my intention," Xu Jiu said, his smile widening.

"Maybe I was just too lonely? I raised him as a friend."

His words were met with dead silence.

Everyone looked at him as if he were an incurable madman.

Ewan stared at him blankly, repeating, "Friend."

"Friend," Xu Jiu affirmed with a nod.

Behind the visor, the doctor’s mouth twitched violently. His gaze shifted rapidly before he suddenly lunged forward and punched Xu Jiu in the face!

"Friend!" His eyes burned with fury as he grabbed Xu Jiu’s frozen collar. "Friend! You stupid, stupid…! Do you even know what that thing is? Do you know how dangerous it is? It doesn’t just eat people—it devours every living thing on this planet! Its DNA replication ability allows it to replace any ecological niche on Earth, even humans themselves! Friend? Friend! You’re past saving!"

Even though Xu Jiu was young and toughened by labor, he still couldn’t dodge the attack from this rabid old man in time. His lip split and swelled instantly.

"How did you survive in its grasp?" The doctor gnashed his teeth, his eyes nearly tearing from fury. "What did you trade for your life?!"

Xu Jiu coughed, blood trickling from his teeth, yet he still smiled. "I raised him. I didn’t have to trade anything."

"What role did you play?" The doctor ignored him, continuing as if possessed. "What are you to it? A servant? A slave? An appendage? Prey? A host? Or—a guide? You’re the guide leading it to destroy the world, aren’t you?!"

Xu Jiu, dizzy from being shaken, finally seized the chance to shove the madman away.

"I said we’re friends!" he shouted. "I told you, but you refuse to believe me."

Ewan staggered and fell to the ground. The other researchers scrambled to help him up, only to be violently pushed aside.

"You have no idea what you’ve done," the doctor rasped, shakily getting up, his voice ragged, eyes exhausted. "You have no idea what you’ve unleashed."

"This is the nearest thing to immortality. It feeds on humans and is hellbent on taking over our world. It absorbs memories, steals faces, replaces identities… To it, the glorious civilization we’ve built counts for nothing. The bonds between people—parent and child, husband and wife, friend and friend—all love and hate, warmth and connection—are nothing but fleeting, fragile mist in the face of evolution’s merciless climb."

"Aren’t you afraid?" The old man looked at him with disappointment. "Watching it eat people like you, the people who were laughing and talking with you just yesterday, then stealing their faces to consume even more… Don’t you feel ashamed? You’re just as guilty. You’re complicit in their deaths!"

At this moment, everyone stared at Xu Jiu with revulsion and hatred in their eyes.

The old man stopped his accusations. Instead, he begged Xu Jiu, his voice trembling with desperation: "I beg you, if your relationship with it is truly that close, please tell me—what is its weakness? How did you really survive?"

Yet, in the face of these accusations, Xu Jiu still wore a smile. He said, "I don’t know."

Dr. Ewan exploded: "You—!"

"I really don’t know," Xu Jiu repeated. "And even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you."

His attitude was so blunt, so frank, that Ewan Weber was stunned into silence.

"I’m not like you," Xu Jiu muttered to himself. "I don’t know who my parents were. I was sent to Mobius’s orphanage when I was very young. I never knew a parent’s love. No one liked me, and I never liked anyone else. From the moment I could remember, I’ve fought just to survive—to eat, to stay clothed. I’ve never known romantic love."

"As for friends… I wasn’t a top student. I dropped out halfway through high school after Mobius’s teachers decided I wasn’t worth the school’s resources. I wasn’t qualified to make friends either, so I don’t understand the bond between friends."

"You can’t miss what you’ve never had. You’re trying to threaten me with things I’ve never had, to make me feel remorse, to make me feel guilty. But they’ve always been so far away from me—so far that I never dared hope to see them one day."

Xu Jiu chuckled, genuinely finding all of this absurd. For years, his smile was a flimsy shield to protect himself. Now, he used that same impenetrable mask against these high-and-mighty elites standing before him.

"What am I? I’m nothing. I have no freedom, no dignity. Anyone passing by could step on me just to vent their anger… What am I? I’m just lab equipment—disposable, not even human."

His laughter grew louder. "I’ve seen what happens to cooks, clerks, and janitors who make mistakes. I’ve seen their faces on the dissection tables! So many people who were talking to me yesterday, doing the same work as me, were dragged into the lab the next day, screaming like butchered animals—for hours, days on end! When I went in to mop the floors, the mop was drenched in blood, piss, and chunks of their flesh!"

"Administer the truth serum," Dr. Ewan hissed, breath ragged with fury. "We should’ve given him the serum from the start, knowing he’s this heartless."

"Remorse? Guilt? You’ve got no right!" Xu Jiu could no longer control his emotions. He cursed nonstop until his voice was hoarse. "You’d be better off dead—that’s what you deserve! You should’ve died long ago!"

Dr. Ewan snarled, "Inject him with the truth serum!"

The command was obeyed at once. The moment Ewan gave the order, the waiting Biomechs stepped forward without hesitation, gripping Xu Jiu’s neck and brandishing a needle glinting like ice. Xu Jiu struggled violently, cursing nonstop. No one knew what side effects the lab’s "truth serum" might have—whether it would turn him into a babbling wreck.

Just then, a dull explosion echoed from afar, approaching rapidly. The Biomechs tensed, tightening their grips on their weapons as they shielded Dr. Ewan and his research team.

—The earth heaved! The entire outer layer of the central hub trembled under the immense force. The alloy door split open like a wound, and dozens of Homoforms surged out with piercing shrieks.

If they were a flood, it would be a nightmare flood. The "Sentinel" fortress system activated instantly, but the damage dealt to the creatures was negligible—only delaying them momentarily outside.

The Homoforms’ ability to alter their body density and form rendered even the heaviest firepower useless.

"This can’t be…" The researchers paled in horror. "How… how are they cooperating?"

Dr. Ewan was even more stunned.

He knew the nature of the specimens—their instinct was endless infighting. After meticulously studying all surveillance footage related to Xu Jiu, he had been certain that seizing this once-in-a-lifetime sample was the right move. He had been utterly convinced that the only specimen they needed to deal with was the one belonging to Xu Jiu.

But now, the horrifying sight of the creatures working together defied even his worst fears.

"Doctor, get to the central hub!" Gamma Squad barked. The Biomechs assessed the situation in seconds and knew it was dire. "I suggest we leave the target behind to distract those beasts!"

It was a bitter choice, but the best one under the circumstances. If they took Xu Jiu into the hub, not only would the polar station soon fall to the enraged monsters, but even the central hub wouldn’t remain safe for long.

"No!" Dr. Ewan snarled. "There must be some other secret on him—something we haven’t uncovered yet. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be chasing him so relentlessly!"

In that instant, his unraveling mind seized on a twisted idea.

Ewan snatched a gun from a researcher and rushed toward Xu Jiu, who was still struggling.

"A chunk of your corpse will do just fine for study!"

"Doctor!" The researcher behind him shouted in panic, frantically reaching out. "We can't...!"

Ewan Weber had already lunged toward Xu Jiu, who was gripped in the Biomechs' grasp, pressing the gun barrel against the young man's chest.

"Let's just take one arm..." he hissed. "We can throw the rest to them!"

In Xu Jiu's narrowed pupils, the reflections flickered—Ewan's contorted face, the panicked researcher trying to intervene, the Biomechs desperately firing... and Number Six, barreling through the hail of gunfire, about to reach him.

Everything unfolded like a slow-motion film sequence, overlapping and intersecting in his vision. Xu Jiu's lips moved slightly—he wanted to say something to Number Six, but there was no time.

—The gunshot rang out, and then, silence.

Author's Note:

Xu Jiu: *finds a crystal coffin, immediately decides to open it and lie inside* Ta-da! Now I'm Snow White, I'm gonna... zzz... I'm gonna... *passes out immediately*

Others at the institute: *banging on the coffin, shouting and cursing, demanding Xu Jiu reveal all his secrets*

Xu Jiu: *dead to the world*

Giant jellyfish: *arrives at the scene, devours everyone else like snack chips, while tapping the coffin and sobbing and begging Xu Jiu to wake up*

Xu Jiu: *still dead to the world*