"Cough… cough, cough! Who are you, and where are we going?" Yu Jing asked between violent fits of coughing.
"I am the research institute supervisor in charge of your group of seven participating in the test. Your current condition is unusual. Come with me back to the institute—I have important matters to discuss with you. About your future, and about how you can successfully cure your mother."
"You—!"
Yu Jing's anger flared upon hearing the man's identity, but he held back from acting rashly.
"I know you resent our indiscriminate killing of innocent lives. But if we didn't do this, society would have already collapsed. If you want to understand it all, then follow me."
Perhaps because of Yu Jing's unique nature, and the supervisor's slight interest in him, the usually reserved man from the institute unexpectedly spoke of truths that touched on the very secrets of this world.
Yu Jing paused, pondering the words, then quickly fell in step behind the supervisor.
"What about these bodies? Don't they need to be dealt with?" Yu Jing asked.
"My... friends will naturally take care of them."
A chill ran down Yu Jing's spine from behind. When he glanced back, a shadowy figure swirled amidst the trees near the scattered corpses. It seemed crouched on a branch, watching them leave.
One pale yellow eye locked with Yu Jing's. His entire body's hairs stood on end, cold sweat soaking through his clothes.
"Hurry and follow me!"
The supervisor's voice snapped Yu Jing back to reality. The terrifying thing on the branch had vanished. He sprinted toward the black sedan waiting on the highway outside the woods.
Inside the car, warmth quickly dispersed the chill clinging to Yu Jing's body.
"What was that black thing just now?" Halfway through the drive, curiosity got the better of him.
"You'll understand in time. For now, knowing isn't good for you. Don't speak to me until we reach the institute—I'm still processing today's events and considering whether to spare you. After all, in reality, you're nothing but a lump of meat."
The supervisor's tone was utterly serious. But Yu Jing felt no fear. If the man wanted to kill him, he would've been dismembered back in the wilderness already.
After more than two hundred kilometers, the black sedan arrived around four in the morning at the Class-A central district of District Nineteen—the very place where Yu Jing's tests had begun. The supervisor led him toward the institute's entrance.
"I remember the copper door used to be positioned about two meters to the left of where it is now," Yu Jing remarked.
"Your observational skills are impressive. During the test, our evaluators gave you a ninety-eight. Not bad at all."
The supervisor pulled a black card from his pocket and swiped it on the side panel of the copper door. The door slid open, revealing an internal passageway whose structure subtly shifted, allowing direct access to the deepest parts of the institute.
Yu Jing followed behind the supervisor down a corridor nearly identical to the one he had walked during testing. The walls were covered in overlapping patterned circles that seemed to play tricks on the eyes.
"So it was a visual illusion all along—making me think the hallway ahead and beneath my feet was perfectly straight, when in fact we're walking through a complex maze of corridors, right?"
The supervisor did not answer but continued to the end, opening another copper door.
Together they entered a pristine white room. The door shut behind them, cutting off all outside noise and light.
In the center stood a white square table flanked by two chairs facing each other.
"Please sit. What follows is an important negotiation between us and the key to whether I decide you live or die. Think carefully and answer honestly."
In the pure white room, Yu Jing and the mysterious supervisor sat across from each other at the white table.
"Do you have clothes that fit? These driver's clothes are too big, and the smell inside is unbearable—it might affect our conversation."
Yu Jing was bold enough to make the request first.
"Place your palm flat on the table in front of you. The system will custom-make clothing to fit your hand size."
Yu Jing had already seen the regenerative spray during testing and was no longer surprised by the high-tech marvels displayed by the research institute. As he placed his palm on the smooth white tabletop, a holographic screen projected before his eyes, offering choices of clothing styles and colors.
In the end, Yu Jing selected the same gray hooded sweatshirt and ordinary jeans he had worn before. Swapping the foul-smelling driver's clothes for the institute's temporary fitted outfit brought a noticeable sense of comfort.
"Since I've fulfilled your request, it's now my turn to ask questions. First, tell me everything about your resurrection process and your own observations and theories regarding the foreign entity inside your body."
When the supervisor spoke, Yu Jing immediately sensed a shift in the atmosphere. Any lies or omissions would be detected by the room's lie-detection systems.
He thought to himself:
"I don't fully understand the changes in my body, the resurrection process, or the plant growing inside my arm. Perhaps I can gain some valuable information from this supervisor. To survive, I must cooperate and choose my words carefully."
With that in mind, Yu Jing disclosed everything without reservation—his experience of the needle-like sensation when his hand touched the ground in the slaughterhouse, the plant's desperate need for nutrients, and his conscious control over the foreign life within his arm.
"Sure enough, nano-structured building materials can't block the invasion of such lifeforms. But you're incredibly lucky to have this unknown dangerous organism coexisting inside your body. Let me show you some classified materials from the government's desert experiment during your testing period…"
The supervisor manipulated the controls on the table, displaying photos of bodies of experiment personnel and soldiers collected from the desert on the holographic screen.
The bodies in the images wore intact clothing, but their flesh had completely dried into mummified remains—every last trace of nutrients utterly drained.
"Any lifeform exposed to this plant has its bodily energy sucked dry within a second."
"Then why am I different?" Yu Jing asked as a strange numbness tingled through his right arm upon hearing the explanation.
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