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Chapter 52: Humanity can move forward, but not by any means necessary.
With a bang, the corridor fell back into silence.
Wu You stood alone in the corner assigned to him, in the southeast corner.
It was very dark here; except for the faint light emitted by the block under his feet, there was nothing else. And this faint light was not enough to illuminate the surroundings.
“Josh.” Wu You called out a name.
Soon, Josh responded, “What’s wrong?”
“That supernatural game you just mentioned to Yang Erci, what is it?”
“Oh, that one.” Josh felt a bit uneasy telling such a story in a place like this, but since Wu You wanted to hear it, he gathered his courage and said, “It’s called the Four Corners Game. It is said to have originated from a five-member snow mountain climbing team. One person died on the way due to the extreme cold and lack of supplies. To ensure everyone stayed awake at night and survived, they invented this game. They would wake each other up, afraid of sleeping too deeply and freezing to death in the snow.”
“But later, it turned into a kind of ghost-summoning game. Four people stand in the four corners of a dark room, not allowed to make any sound. Starting with the first person, they walk blindly forward, reach behind the second person, tap their shoulder, and then stay there. The person who got tapped receives the signal and also walks forward. It continues like this.”
Wu You simulated the scene in his mind and was puzzled, “This doesn’t seem to loop.”
“After the fourth person is tapped on the shoulder, they walk back to the first person’s corner, but there’s no one there for them to tap on the shoulder.”
“That’s the problem!” Josh was surprised that he pinpointed the issue so quickly. “You’re talking about the normal situation. If something abnormal happens and the fourth person walks to the first corner…”
Nan Shan interjected, “They tap the shoulder of a non-existent fifth person.”
Maybe due to fatigue, his voice was almost breathless, making it even more eerie.
“Yes, that means they have really summoned that ghost.” Josh finished, and the green glow under their feet seemed even more terrifying.
“But fortunately, we don’t have to move and tap shoulders. Otherwise, I really wouldn’t dare to stay here.”
Wu You wasn’t very interested in supernatural games, but this corridor was indeed a natural venue for such games.
But this ghost must be quite free, willing to spend time playing this kindergarten-level game with humans.
Doing something else would be better.
After telling the ghost story, the corridor fell silent again. Each person seemed to be in the void of darkness, unable to feel each other’s presence.
Except for Zhong Yirou, the others could basically speak. Wu You thought for a moment, released his voice, and suggested, “Let’s continue talking.”
His voice was like a stone thrown into a lake, quickly fading away in the darkness.
Soon, he got a response; it was Nan Shan’s voice.
“What’s wrong? Is the little kid scared after hearing ghost stories?”
Wu You found his words funny; initially, he didn’t want to respond, but he heard Josh’s laughter, so he had to explain, “I’m just afraid that something might go wrong. Maintaining communication at all times seems safer.”
Soon, Josh’s voice also appeared, “Yeah, talking to each other can at least confirm that everyone is still in their original places.”
“But Miss Zhong can’t speak,” Nan Shan said.
Although Nan Shan could speak, his voice was faint and not very clear.
“I… I woke up…”
Zhong Yirou’s voice suddenly appeared in the darkness. Wu You recognized it immediately, but couldn’t help but doubt, “You woke up? Who are you?”
“The ghost story scared you silly? Of course, it’s me, your Zhong-jie.” Zhong Yirou’s voice, despite being weak, had the same tone as before.
“Miss Zhong, are you okay?” Josh asked, “You’ve been unconscious for a long time.”
“Mmm…” Zhong Yirou spoke slowly: “I feel like I had a strange dream. In the dream, I was working here, but… I seemed to have done something bad.”
Nan Shan spoke up, “Are you referring to yourself, or E06?”
Zhong Yirou remained silent for a moment, “E06, because the memories in the dream weren’t mine.”
“Bad things…” Josh asked loudly, “Can you be more specific?”
Zhong Yirou felt her breath was difficult, as if it condensed into fluff and stuck in her throat.
“I… I seemed to be working on the first floor, but I wasn’t taking care of children.”
“Not children?” Wu You was puzzled, “So, were the things you saw before illusions?”
“Yes, in the dream, my job was indeed to take care of many… human bodies.” After careful consideration, she used that term.
“They couldn’t be considered children anymore, but… they were in a deep sleep, in cryogenic chambers.”
“Cryogenic chambers…” Wu You seemed to understand why the first floor was so cold.
At this point, Josh raised a question: “But if Miss Zhong was not taking care of deceased children, then why is Mr. Nan Shan’s job incineration?”
Indeed.
Wu You also found it suspicious: “We’ve seen the bones of children in the incinerator.”
“It seems like there were adults too.” Nan Shan added, “But the bones of children caught our attention.”
This containment center seemed to be shrouded in black fog, and the truth could only reveal its edges.
The more they saw, the deeper they fell into the fog.
“Frozen human bodies…” Wu You made a conjecture: “Could this place be using them for human experiments?”
Zhong Yirou tried to recall for a moment, “It’s strange; in the dream, I dreamed of organizing data. Every piece of data for the cryogenized bodies was exactly the same. I have a vivid impression.”
***
After the laboratory door closed, the dark room flickered with some light and then slowly lit up around it, gradually becoming clearer.
This place opened up into a whole corridor, forming a circular, tunnel-like space filled with countless pieces of glass labware, incubators, and partitioned experimental operating rooms.
Double-helix vines extended and entwined around everything here, making this originally sterilized and icy place full of eerie vitality, like an underground rainforest that devours people.
Yang Erci reached out and touched this unusual vine.
“Don’t you think this looks like a DNA chain?”
“Yeah, this is also a hint about the GENE password,” An Wujiu said.
Glass containers held various human organs soaked in preservatives, as well as many covered live animals, from densely packed insects to small mammals and even primates like orangutans.
Faced with all this, An Wujiu suddenly felt a sense of discomfort, sudden dizziness, and nausea. Everything here felt familiar, including the labeled chemical agents and the scent of disinfectant in the air.
One glass case contained a live hairless mouse, but with a difference—it had a human ear growing on its back.
“This is used for cloning organs by transplanting cartilage cells onto a scaffold in the shape of an ear. It’s an early technique.” Yang Erci walked to his side and explained, “Transplanted onto the back of a mouse, it’s also to utilize the living animal’s body to support the growth of cell tissues.”
“Can all organs be obtained through this method?” An Wujiu looked at Yang Erci.
Yang Erci shook her head, “Currently, organs with important functions and complex structures, such as the heart, cannot be perfectly replicated through these cloning techniques. Many times, the results either don’t look similar enough or have significant functional differences.”
“So now more people opt for artificial hearts, which have better pacemaker effects.”
An Wujiu nodded and said, “You’re indeed a researcher in this field.”
Yang Erci seemed a bit absent-minded, responding softly to An Wujiu’s words.
“In the past, yes.”
But she quickly snapped out of it and didn’t say more.
Just these four words made An Wujiu think she had a reasonable presence at the holy altar; after all, a researcher dedicated to life sciences shouldn’t have any reason to be in a place where death could come at any moment.
Shen Ti pressed his fingers against the glass case. The little mouse, originally curled up, was attracted when it saw Shen Ti’s fingertip. Its pink nose approached, sticking to the glass.
But soon, the mouse fell to the ground, struggled a few times, and became unresponsive.
Shen Ti immediately withdrew his hand, frowning in confusion.
Seeing this, Yang Erci, in an unconsoling tone, consoled him, “It’s normal. These mice are immunodeficient animals, allowing them not to reject cells from other organisms, but correspondingly, their lifespan is very short.”
An Wujiu looked at Shen Ti, feeling that he seemed to have a hard time accepting the sight of a mouse dying in front of him, so his gaze lingered for so long.
In the cognition of most humans, especially experimental animals like these, their lives are not on the same scale as human lives.
But for Shen Ti, it seemed different.
He always viewed all living beings from an outsider’s perspective.
Yang Erci tried to touch the sensor at the top of the glass case with her hand. As expected, the permission opened, and the top glass cover opened automatically.
She reached in and gently took out the dead mouse.
She wanted to see if there were any clues on the mouse’s body, but as soon as she picked it up, the “dead” little mouse suddenly moved its feet and came back to life.
It kept squeaking, as if it wanted to get down. Yang Erci squatted down and placed the mouse on the ground.
The revived mouse took a few steps forward and quickly ran in a certain direction.
An Wujiu felt something was off, “It seems like it wants to lead us somewhere.”
So they followed this strange mouse all the way, passing through dense spiral vines. The containers used in the experimental research institute became larger and larger, changing from strange animals to gradually becoming humans.
The mouse led them to a circular clearing. There were no vines growing here, and a metallic sphere about the size of a ping-pong ball floated above the clearing. After its mission was accomplished, the strange mouse disappeared.
Yang Erci reached out and touched the suspended sphere. In an instant, the sphere emitted countless blue rays of light, eventually weaving into a complete holographic projection. On it, only one line of an English sentence was displayed.
Still, all for humanity.
“Identifying in progress——”
“Welcome back, B05!”
New content appeared in the holographic projection, divided into three work areas: “Trimming Work”, and “Perfect Replication”.
There was another work area named “Movies”.
“Watching movies is also considered part of the job?” An Wujiu expressed skepticism about this.
Yang Erci tried clicking on the “Movies” section, but inside, there were only a few very old movies: “Frankenstein,” “The Sixth Day,” and “The Truman Show.”
However, when she attempted to open the video files, a prompt sound was heard.
“Please complete your primary job, B05!”
Yang Erci had no choice but to click on “Trimming Work”, but what came out was a large amount of unorganized data results.
Seeing An Wujiu staring at the movie names under the “Movies” menu, Shen Ti approached and asked, “Have you seen these?”
“I vaguely remember, perhaps watching them in my childhood.” An Wujiu’s gaze shifted to Shen Ti’s face, as if seeing a trace of envy in him.
For a moment, An Wujiu felt a subtle sense of pleasure.
But it quickly disappeared.
Not having seen them was actually normal.
The era they lived in was engulfed by a massive amount of visual information. Everyone’s pace was fast, and hardly anyone would watch a complete, two-hour movie or even finish listening to a song. This was because there were numerous “selected” and “best” clips on the internet, as if excerpts from a book’s punchlines were extracted and circulated repeatedly.
Shen Ti moved closer, “What are they about?”
An Wujiu, based on his unclear memory, patiently recounted the plots of these ancient films.
“They are all classic old movies. The first one is adapted from a novel and can be considered the world’s first science fiction novel. It tells the story of a fanatic scientist who wants to ‘create’ a person with his knowledge of life. He often steals corpses and assembles different body parts.
Later, due to an accident, the ‘person’ he created actually came alive, but he felt afraid, leading to a tragic outcome.”
Shen Ti shrugged, showing clear disagreement with the story: “Humans seem to be very enthusiastic about being creators.”
An Wujiu didn’t comment initially, but after thinking for a moment, he added, “Perhaps the more one believes that their knowledge approaches the truth, the more they want to try creating something.”
Shen Ti nodded, smiling at him, saying, “Next.”
“The second one…” An Wujiu thought about how to phrase it: “It is also a movie about ‘creating humans,’ but this time the method is not so primitive; it has turned into cloning. The protagonist, Adam, is a cloned person. So when he returns home, he finds an identical person there. Later… he fights against evil forces; then the classic and cliché plotline.”
Shen Ti raised a question outside of the plot, “Why is the movie called that?”
An Wujiu explained to him, “Because according to legend, God created Adam on the sixth day, which is the first human.”
He thought Shen Ti would know; after all, the world situation wasn’t good now, and many religions, such as Christianity, were experiencing a revival. Coupled with no constraints, the number of believers was increasing.
Thinking of God, Shen Ti thought of some bizarre scenes, a golden chaos, and countless eyes in the chaos.
He somewhat contemptuously thought that God was nothing special to him.
Just a false god.
An Wujiu noticed Shen Ti immersed in contemplation, while Yang Erci was still analyzing data. So, he reached out and waved his hand in front of Shen Ti’s eyes, “Do you still want to hear?”
Shen Ti naturally held his hand and said, “Of course.”
With just this gesture, a certain nerve in An Wujiu suddenly jumped. He tried to withdraw his hand but ultimately couldn’t succeed, so he quickly and even nervously introduced the last movie to him: “The third one is about… a person’s entire life being just a story of lies.”
Shen Ti waited for a moment and found that he wasn’t speaking.
“Is that it?”
An Wujiu nodded, successfully pulling his hand back this time.
“Yes.”
Heartbeat accelerated.
Yang Erci finished analyzing the data and operated on the holographic keyboard for a long time, finally coming up with a result.
“This trimming work… is about editing embryonic genes.”
An Wujiu turned his face, wanting to speak, but heard Shen Ti behind him saying, “You definitely don’t remember either, so you can’t explain it. Watch that movie with me next time.”
Was this an invitation?
An Wujiu felt a bit confused. Since he had said those ambiguous words to Shen Ti in another state, apart from regret, he also inexplicably felt a strange sense of panic.
This was not normal.
“Let’s talk about it when we go outside.” An Wujiu absentmindedly replied.
He thought that if he were an instrument, there must be some kind of malfunction.
Why else would there be fluctuations in the readout only because of Shen Ti?
Yang Erci, with a strong professional ethic, directly ignored the banter between the two men and played a video she had found.
“This is the process of their gene editing, and the target is embryos.”
The video was a simple animation explaining the gene editing process. The targeting tool positioned itself on the double helix DNA to edit the desired section, performing deletion, replacement, or insertion.
This was clearly a promotional video, excessively praising the advantages of genetic engineering. It claimed to fundamentally eliminate “incurable diseases” and completely remove disease-causing genes, efficiently improving the human body as if programming.
No technology is without drawbacks.
Yang Erci explained, “In fact, this technology appeared a long time ago and applied to adults with illnesses. It indeed provides a good choice for patients. However, without repeated verification, directly applying it to embryos and infants changes the nature of the matter. This is strictly prohibited by various countries.”
Indeed, perhaps through this means, one could truly give birth to a “chosen one” with a high probability of never having an incurable disease in their life. However, things were never that simple.
“Adults can choose.” An Wujiu looked at the continuously scrolling data and said, “But embryos cannot refuse; they can only passively accept these experiments.”
Hearing this, Yang Erci nodded. She strongly agreed with An Wujiu and, at the same time, felt incredible about this person’s tremendous transformation. If An Wujiu from an hour ago was standing in front of her, he probably wouldn’t have this kind of compassionate feeling.
“And this gene-scissor is far from reaching the precision needed for widespread use. The error rate is very high, as you can see from the data; a large part has more or less failed. Behind these failures are lives.
The gene editing experiment seems very short, only taking a few minutes, but the embryos, who become passive subjects, will grow slowly. In order to obtain the edited results, whether these people want it or not, they will become subjects observed for their entire lives by researchers.”
Indeed.
An Wujiu understood. This was “The Truman Show.”
Shen Ti put forward another conjecture: “If embryos with edited genes reproduce like ordinary humans, will a domino phenomenon occur from generation to generation?”
Yang Erci looked at him and said, “This possibility cannot be ruled out. Here are the results of the simulation experiment. Judging from the results of hundreds of millions of computer calculations, there is also the possibility of genetic mutation, and it appears in the entire human gene pool.”
A whole bunch of blue light dots appeared in the holographic projection, with scattered red ones emerging, and then the red dots increased rapidly, combining and spreading at an extremely fast speed.
She paused, “That’s why some people have called for those who have undergone embryonic gene editing not to have offspring to avoid polluting the gene pool.”
An Wujiu immediately said, “That’s unfair. They are also human beings, not experimental materials.”
Such words sounded particularly poignant.
Every product artificially manufactured lacked the right to choose its own life. Whether it was a gene-edited baby or a cloned person, they were all victims of ethical violations.
“That’s not the scariest part. The most frightening thing is that when the technology is applied at the wrong time, they might suffer the aftermath of this immature technology at any moment. The deleted genes may potentially cause diseases, but they are more likely to bear extremely important physiological functions.”
In the silence, Shen Ti spoke first: “More than this containment center has conducted related underground research. However, due to the opposition from countries and health organizations worldwide, it cannot be exposed. If possible, the results of experiments beyond the public’s imagination might have been announced immediately.”
Like the sudden appearance of Frankenstein.
“Definitely, mad scientists have always existed. It’s correct to stop them. These people always think they are working hard for the great progress of humanity. Their fanatical scientific beliefs and pursuit of interests have long shattered their awe of the unknown,” Yang Erci said.
“Humanity certainly needs to progress, but not by any means.” An Wujiu stared at the cold data.
Without constraints, Pandora’s box will eventually be opened.
Yang Erci was about to open the second workspace, which was “Perfect Replication.”
“I think I already know what this is…”
Suddenly, the holographic projection disappeared, retracting into that sphere, and the sphere also disappeared instantly, too fast to catch.
The room plunged into darkness for a moment, just like the corridor outside. Immediately after, red warning lights began to flash.
The alert sound repeated the warning.
“Oppression stopped; the power system malfunctioned.”
“Did someone touch something?”
Yang Erci had just finished saying that when suddenly the ground beneath her feet disappeared.
In the darkness, the three of them fell into an unknown void.
Rather than calling it a void, it was more like a transmission tunnel. In no time, An Wujiu entered a new, dark place, and his feet landed firmly on the ground.
“You are now in the center of this floor.”
It was not the emotionless synthesized voice of an artificial creation; An Wujiu quickly distinguished that it was the voice of the mad rabbit from the second floor.
“I didn’t expect you to survive this round; the previous people died a long time ago. I really want to say congratulations to all. But unfortunately, your companions did not follow the rules.”
The surroundings gradually lit up in the darkness, and An Wujiu then realized he was in a small room, the size of a bathroom stall, with no windows, and the door was locked from the outside.
“So, you have to play a little game with me again. As long as you win, you can leave smoothly. If you lose, your companions may not die immediately, but they will definitely become incomplete.”
“And for those who fail, you will be trapped in this small room until the game ends.”
“Understood? My dear friends.”
The four individuals at the corners of the corridor maintained constant communication.
Wu You continuously attempted to touch the communicator on his ear, trying to contact the other three, but there was no signal.
“Oh, right,” Nan Shan suddenly remembered something: “Josh, did you find the playing cards?”
“Yeah,” Josh responded loudly, “There are six number cards inside and one Joker card.”
“Joker?” Wu You thought for a moment, “Aren’t you the clown? Is it representing you?”
“I thought so at first,” Josh said, “but something’s not right. I’m D03, and there’s a diamond 3 in the deck; everyone has their respective cards, but what’s missing is the diamond 2.”
“2, isn’t that A02, Wujiu?” Wu You thought for a moment, feeling that something was off.
If Missing 2 was replaced with a Joker, there should be a specific reference.
“There’s one thing that confuses me,” Nan Shan’s voice appeared again, “So far, among all the people, only a fake Mr. An has appeared. Originally, we thought that other people would also have fakes, but it doesn’t seem to be the case now.”
“Yes,” Zhong Yirou agreed, “and he seems to be inkillable…”
On the first floor, he had already been smashed hard by Yang Erci with a heavy object. Even if he didn’t die, there was no way he could appear intact in front of everyone.
“Joker is also a ghost card…” A bold speculation appeared in Wu You’s mind.
“Could it be that A02 is already dead, and what’s left is a ghost card?”
The atmosphere suddenly became cold, as if a gust of wind had blown out of nowhere, making Wu You’s back numb.
Zhong Yirou thought for a moment that, based on this assumption, the “unkillable” part could also be explained. “You’re right. If that’s the case, could it be the ghost of A02 seeking revenge on the others? In that case, there shouldn’t be replicas of other characters…”
Before she could finish, her voice suddenly changed, “Who?”
“What happened?” Wu You felt something was wrong, but he couldn’t move. “What’s going on?”
“Someone just patted my shoulder.” Zhong Yirou’s voice trembled slightly, “Did any of you leave this green square…?”
Before waiting for a response or finishing her sentence, Zhong Yirou’s voice suddenly became sharp, calling out, “Someone… someone is pulling…”
Wu You shouted loudly, “I’m coming over!”
“Wait.” Nan Shan suddenly stopped Wu You.
“Wait for what? It might be A02 appearing again!” Wu You said excitedly, then suddenly reacted, thinking of his suspicion when he first heard Zhong Yirou’s voice.
In the midst of the scream after being attacked, Josh seemed hesitant. “This…”
“Is it really Miss Zhong?”
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who hasnt seen those movies before? the author has a good taste tho, 3 classics