Nightmare Shuttle

In a half dreaming, half awake state, Chu Yi felt as if he had been roughly dragged out of a heavy and murky marsh. The feeling of weakness and weightlessness once gained assaulted him as his chest heaved rapidly, the pale face coated in a thin, red flush from lack of oxygen. His eyes blinked dully as psychological tears clinging onto the fluttering butterfly lashes. A meaningful smile spread slowly across his lips and Chu Yi reveled in the feeling of soreness and stiffness in his limbs.

Chu Yi's fingers moved slightly and to his suprise, he could feel a soft, light occupying the center of his palm...It was a rose. The softly upturned petals gently unfurled before him, its color a gorgeous crimson red that lay like an unblemished gem in his hands.

Chu Yi stared quietly at the flower in his hands for a moment, lightly tracing the fragile stem before quietly placing it at the head of his pillow.

There was a rustle of movement from beside him, Tang Shun suddenly lifted his head, eyes snapping open forcefully. It took a moment for him to register where they were and with a raised eyebrow he looked at Chu Yi. There was still a lingering scent of roses and blood at his nose and the last thing remembered was a slender back walking though a sea of roses and thorns to embrace the devil.

Before he could speak however, a low muffled groan appeared from the other occupant in the room. Chao Bin's face was distorted in a cold sweat and pained grunts spilled from between clenched teeth.

When Tang Shun got closer, he could hear Chao Bin muttering something in his sleep, he wanted to hear it clearer but as soon as his head lowered, Chao Bin suddenly snapped open his eyes–

The first thing Chao Bin saw reflected in his eyes, was a familiar cold and sharp face lowering itself, as if to steal a kiss. His mouth reacted before his brain could catch up, "At least take me out to dinner first."

The atmosphere turned embarrassing for a moment.

Tang Shun slowly moved away under Chao Bin's look of nothing left to live, unable to hold back a unexplainable chuckle, he narrowed his eyes dangerously. 

Chao Bin shivered inexplicably.

After a brief moment of consternation, they quickly gathered themselves together and started to discuss.

Chu Yi lifted his hands and lightly brushed away the few strands of black hair that fell on his face, the slender hand that raised couldn't help but pause. The familiar soft black hair now felt like hard, metal wires in his hands. It still carried the same appearance as before but the difference could be felt at a touch.

Slowly he dropped his hand, exhaling a warm breath softly. Under the dim light, it was almost as if he was covered in a soft, red glow. The shimmering red scales, that traveled up his arms and settled deep into the side of his neck, had now become a translucent barrier that shielded his body dangerously. Fingertips as if dipped in cinnabar lightly traced the riveting red lines that sunk deep into his pale skin, like the red string of fate had been trapped inside or like the veins in an unpolished jade.

A fascinating beauty that spelt of danger but mad one unable to look away. Glancing at red rose that lay quietly on the snow-white sheets, his lips rose slowly into a deep smile.

Chao Bin looked around, tool a deep breath and spoke first. "Gathering from all the imformation so far, what do you think the major secret of the Institute is?"

"We've found almost all the things we could about the Institute, disregarding a few vague clues we can at least make the preliminary judgment that the Institute main research is based on the thing that has been an obsession for humans since ancient times."

Tang Shun grinned mockingly, "Immortality."

"In such an advanced and technologically development era, the only thing that can cause the top rung of the Federation to completely disregard all bottom line, is the chance to live forever."

Chu Yi twisted his fingers lightly and stroked the rusty metal railings of the narrow bed, " The records of AlphaBio55, seems to show the gradual process of evolution and refinement towards a truly immortal path. Death time, revival time, the interval between them became shorter and shorter."

Tang Shun bowed his head to the side and thought for a moment, "The original source or the original creator figured out a few essential laws of immortality, brought that information to the Federation and sent them into a frenzy. Presumably before this, they would need proof. Maybe the proof here would be creating an artificial life from nothing, which then led to the creation of the Institute."

Chao Bin piped up with a sneer, "All the creatures we've seen so far, all have one key characteristic, humanoid or containing traces of human nature." "Considering that they were greedy and selfish enough to destroy countless lives in pursuit of the ultimate life, then they must also want to be able still be above else, when given this immortality. They want strength and intelligence that presides everyone else."

"Anything that's not able to combine this trait, is to be deemed failed."

Tang Shun thought for a moment and added on, "It could also be a facade to fool any prying eyes. In order to be the project a secret, they would use the excuse of experimenting to create artificial soldiers or a new evolutionary that would benefit the Federation to disguise the fact that they were really just using it as a means to fulfill their selfish needs."

He grinned darkly, "No matter what, humans will never be on untied fronts and probably in the Federation government, there are a few people who only know the surface secrets. Just like the guards that transported us here, they feel no guilt and no remorse for sending so many people to death because at the end of the day it's all for, "The Glory of the Federation."

"Even if the top brass failed to achieve their goals, no one would know and they could continue to try Phase after phase, like a never-ending abyss that would continue to devour everything until the Federation was rotten from the inside out."

Chao Bin remembered the fanatical and devout eyes of the residents of the abandoned planet. If they knew that all their suffering and all their pain was only so a few people could live forever, he couldn't think of what kind of expression they would have.

It made him want to vomit.

A low, silky voice drilled into his ears shocking him, when he looked up he realized that Chu Yi was the one speaking.

"Forceful Integration..."

"Forceful Integration...."

Chu Yi's head spun the word bounced back and forth in his head, "Complete Integration..."

White fingers softly caressed the rose, pulling the petals down layer by layer until only the bright red core of the rose was left.

Suddenly he paused and turned to them, "Forceful Integration would mean the conscious and artificial control of our cells in order to create life."

"Therefore complete Integration would signal..."

Tang Shun looked up, "Immortality has been achieved."

Chu Yi glanced at the rose and remembered the last sentence of the records of AlphaBio55, the rose has exhibited signs of life. But the rose wasn't the immortal subject, neither were the two other experiments BetaBio44 and BetaBio77. 

Then where would that subject have gone.

Tang Shun suddenly shook his head, "In fact, we've already completed the first main task of this copy. Find out the secrets of the Institute. Unless we unlock a hidden mission or this instance upgrades in level, then what we have now is already the most we can find. There's no use in pondering any deeper. We already have the answer."

No one objected to this statement.

In fact it wasn't hard to figure out, just the codename of the experiment, Black Cat, would point them to a few obvious clues. The myth about cats having nine lives has been passed down through the generations for as long as they could remember. The black cat in retrospect had the closest relationship to this legend, as they were more enamored and persecuted because of their inherent supernatural traits. 

"The cat appeared three times since the very beginning. Once in Phase |000, where it was seen being held in the one of the children's hand as R89 explores the abandoned planets. Second in Phase |005 where it was beheaded and sold as meat in the butchers market. And third here. When we first appeared at the Institute. Dead."

Chao Bin nodded, "Each timeline is pulled far away, Phase 000 is at least a few decades apart from Phase 0005 if we go by the dates and years we've found. But that's not scientific, a cat's life is only about a few years therefore logically it should have died a long time ago. The boy in Phase |000 also appeared in Phase |005 but... he still retained the same appearance."

This was the first suspicious clue that the Institute had to deal with life.

The parasites, the fish monsters, the subject bodies, the experiment logs everything seemed to point to one truth.

" 3/9. 6 lives left. What do you think it means?"

Tang Shun shook his head. He didn't know.

"At least we know that the experiments logs we just found, and the ones before this seem to be the most important items in this copy. Without no matter, how we try we still won't be able to connect the clues."

Tang Shun raised his eyes, "To summarize, The main research of the Institute was immortality. They completely discarded innocents lives for a chance at prolonging their corrupted ones and the monster's and reformation that hides the true purpose of the Institute. "

All three nodded.

But where do they go from here. 

They had already found everything, figured out the secret and pulled the clues into the right direction.

But now they were stuck, unless a sudden situation happened, they would probably have their progress come to a standstill here. Chao Bin didn't think they could find anything else at this stage.

They were on the final stretch, it was time to blow things up.

Chu Yi tilted his head, unconsciously appearing a little cute, his fingers that touched the rose suddenly paused and he looked at the two with a heavy scarlet light bursting from his eyes.

"From the beginning till now, we have been the only one's here. Besides the creatures and the nurses, who we're still dubious are humans, we've already concluded that there must be one other person involved In all in this. That is, the creator of the Institute."

Chao Bin shook his head, "But to know to know who it is, we have to find where the person is."

"We've always been in a box, thinking that since we've been transported here, then all the answers must be here as well."

Chao Bin had a vague idea where Chu Yi was going with this.

The corner of his lips rose slightly, "When we first appeared in this copy, we didn't originate on this planet. We were taken here, that means including this entire planet and including the abandoned planets–"

"All of them are apart of the Institute!"

"Bang!——"

Chao Bin's heart was shaken abruptly–

Tang Shun's eyebrows raised, if what he said was plausible, then the significance of the side task was finally revealed here.

Chu Yi smiled, the sound of doors opening resounded throughout the entire building.

They realized the time, seven o'clock, it's time for breakfast.

A bloody storm was coming, formed by resentment, hatred, betrayal and cowardice that fermented and rotted in the hearts of the players. 

And a new chapter was opening for them.