What did that mean? If they didn't develop self-awareness and reason, growing wild like Evans, would all "children" end up like S-099?
Don't be ridiculous.
If that were true, wouldn't it mean that without The Alliance's intervention, every year during the school's opening ceremony, they'd see two thousand "S-099s" sitting in rows?
That image alone was a bit too "beautiful" to contemplate!
No, no, no—there had to be a mistake. Ren Yi still felt that no matter how he looked at it, this kid Evans was more or less a mutant.
After this thought surfaced, Ren Yi once again began to stare suspiciously at the youth before him.
Evans looked back at him with an innocent expression.
To this, Ren Yi gave a cold snort in his heart. Heh.
Even if this really was a "child," he was definitely an ultimate brat capable of turning half the Wilderness upside down.
Besides, regardless of "children" or not, this "child" was ultimately just a classification rank used by The Alliance.
By any count, S-099 had appeared nearly twenty years ago, and who knew how long it had existed in the moon before that.
Ren Yi wouldn't let his guard down because of that.
Ren Yi displayed another line of text in front of Evans.
【Here, read this.】
Evans looked at the dense lines of white text with a bit of a dizzy expression. He could only resign himself to identifying them one by one, reading them aloud with a bitter face:
"I swear... that from the moment I stepped out of the Red Tide until now, everything I have said is true."
"Furthermore... during the course of our conversation, I have not engaged in any concealment, insinuation, guidance, ambiguity, conceptual confusion, or switching of subjects or objects..."
Reaching this point, the youth couldn't take it anymore. "Isn't this a bit too long?"
【You're not finished.】
Ren Yi suddenly thought of some bizarre rules he had encountered within The Alliance.
A series of definitions regarding "family," sixty-odd rules for riding the subway...
He suddenly felt a surge of empathy for those predecessors who had drafted those rules.
Evans sighed and could only hunch his shoulders and continue reading:
"At the same time, I, Evans, the Stomach of Glat, S-099, harbor no intent to harm the white Anomaly before me—my kindred, the existence that blew up half my body..."
Reading this, Evans's expression stiffened.
"Of course I don't! I just... I just want to cooperate with you!"
Ren Yi glanced at the Honest Gift. The mushroom didn't seem to react.
Well, at least the script passed.
【Then, your goal?】
From Ren Yi's objective perspective, Evans's behavior had been a bit too calm for a while now.
His emotional fluctuations had been huge when he first crawled out of the Red Tide, even smashing a deep crater into the hard embankment with his rules.
But his current emotions didn't seem to match.
Through the Seed, Ren Yi could roughly sense some of his feelings.
A kind of extreme rage was still hidden deep within him, unvented; but the despair had faded, replaced by a kind of resolve akin to a desperate gamble.
"As for the goal, there are two."
"First, revenge," Evans answered flatly. "I'm going to tear apart the bastard who caused all this."
Ren Yi understood. This didn't even require a guess; Evans was obviously talking about the Lord of the Sky Lake City.
The text flashed in mid-air:
【Your father?】
Evans was visibly stunned.
"What father? I don't have a father. I'm not human."
Huh, he actually doesn't know?
It made sense. When S-099 lost control, Evans's consciousness likely wasn't clear, so he naturally missed the Lord's "paternal love" speech in the control room that had only moved himself.
Hm... so after all that fuss, it was just the Lord of the City unilaterally claiming him as a son. Talk about narcissistic.
The text was quickly wiped away.
【Never mind. Continue.】
Ren Yi skipped the topic without changing his expression.
Evans didn't press the matter and continued.
"Also, the Tribal Chief was good to me, and I bear responsibility for what happened this time. I have to repay that debt..."
The youth looked up, saying each word deliberately: "So, I'm going to go back and save him."
"..."
I'm sorry, please wait a second.
Ren Yi couldn't help but turn his head to look at the vast, boundless Red Tide below the embankment, which could submerge even the deep crater created by the nuclear blast.
Then, he slowly turned back, scrutinizing Evans with a look one might give a mental patient.
He meant... he was going to save an ordinary human who had first taken a direct hit from a two-megaton yield nuclear bomb and was then submerged by a flood... and bring him back intact?
For a moment, Ren Yi felt a flicker of self-doubt.
Could it be that while this kid looked coherent, his core brain had been rattled by the nuclear explosion, leaving him suffering from some severe cognitive schizophrenia?
【How will you save him?】
"New Era," Evans replied.
New Era?
Ren Yi felt like the term was somewhat familiar. He searched the corners of his memory.
He vaguely remembered that the Lord of the City had once mentioned something similar—
"Unlucky people aren't worthy of witnessing the 'New Era'!"
Ren Yi didn't rush to interrupt. He just floated quietly in mid-air, waiting for Evans to elaborate.
"The Sky Eye Organization has been making some crazy preparations for this so-called 'New Era' for years," Evans explained.
"As far as I know, that bastard promised many people that they would 'meet again in the New Era'."
"His claim was that in the New Era, he would resurrect everyone who followed him and sacrificed themselves."
Uh... Ren Yi felt that was hard to say.
【How do you know all this?】
What Ren Yi really wanted to ask between the lines was...
How can you believe such a blatant pie in the sky?
Rate on N.U.
