⚠️ This chapter contains graphic violence, psychological distress, and potentially disturbing descriptions. Reader discretion is advised — don't come crying to me later.
Mei woke up — but instead of finding herself in her bed in the barracks, she was lying on some kind of table. Directly above her, a bright light shone down, aimed straight at her face.
Her first instinct was to raise a hand to shield her eyes. But her hand wouldn't move.
Confused, she tried lifting her head, at least to see what was holding her down — but her head didn't respond either. A tight, cold strap pressed against her forehead.
"Where am I?" she mumbled, her voice laced with both confusion and panic. "Why can't I move?"
"Because you're tied down…" came a female voice — familiar, with a hint of mockery.
Her eyes slowly adjusted to the glare. And then she saw her. Aiko. Dressed in a white doctor's coat, wearing gloves that rustled with each movement, and a mask hiding her expression.
"Ready for the operation?" Aiko asked.
"Operation?" Mei repeated, bewildered and afraid.
Aiko placed something in Mei's ears, then tapped a button on the tablet resting on the table beside her.
"What's that?" Mei asked.
A moment later, silence swallowed her whole. It was a silence that wasn't just quiet — it was empty, dull, as if someone had cut away the outside world. She could see Aiko's lips moving, but she couldn't hear a single word.
"Shame they had to cut your hair…" Aiko said — but Mei couldn't hear her.
Aiko leaned over her again, tightening the strap around her forehead before carefully placing a strange, transparent, cube-shaped box over her head.
"What?" Mei breathed out, uncertain if she was shouting or whispering. Everything felt unreal, muted, like in a dream. "Am I… silent?"
Without answering, Aiko reached for a syringe, filled it with a clear liquid, and plunged the needle into Mei's vein.
"Ugh!" she groaned, feeling a cold wave rush through her arm. "I feel… strange… sleepy…"
As her vision began to blur, Aiko calmly refilled the syringe, this time with a liquid of a different color, and injected it into the same spot.
"Why?" she asked. There might have been an answer, but her ears could not hear it.
Aiko pulled out a matte-black rod, its tip pulsing with neon-blue light. She slowly brought it toward the transparent box on Mei's head, then carefully lifted the lid.
Switching the rod on, she began cutting into the skin of Mei's forehead without a trace of pity.
The moment the cold, neon-blue beam touched her skin, a sharp, merciless pain tore through Mei's body.
"AHHHHHHH! AHHHHHH!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. The pain stabbed into every nerve, as if her skull were melting under a cold flame.
"LET ME GO! PLEASE!" she screamed desperately, but her body gave her not a single inch of freedom. Her arms were shackled, her legs locked in place, as if her own body had become a prison in which she was suffocating.
She couldn't stop the screams tearing through her chest, yet she couldn't even hear them.
"AHHHHHH! WHY? WHY!?" she cried out in a hopeless struggle, blood running down her face, mixing with the tears streaming down her cheeks.
Aiko switched off the laser, but her body wouldn't stop trembling, as if madness itself had taken over every muscle. Slowly, Aiko raised her hand and pulled down the mask from her mouth — then burst into uncontrollable, loud, merciless laughter.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" she shrieked, her eyes glittering with joy. "I LOVE THAT FACE!!!"
She grabbed Mei's chin and, without the slightest mercy, pressed her face against hers, laughing straight into her bloodshot, tear-filled eyes.
Mei's face was shredded by pain — tears streamed down her blood-red cheeks, her jaw clenched tight, her lips trembling as if they were about to burst apart. Her entire suffering was carved into every muscle of her face, as if she might shatter into pieces at any moment.
"Please…"
Even though the laser had stopped cutting into her skull, the pain still pulsed through her forehead, tearing her apart from the inside. Aiko's madness, and her sinister laughter, only added another layer to the agony.
"You're so cute like this," Aiko lifted her head close to Mei's ear and licked her cheek, then licked her own lips and swallowed. "Your tears… they're beautiful! HAHAHAHAHA!"
"Aiko, continue the operation!" a voice from the shadows ordered without a shred of compassion.
Aiko didn't even blink. She looked almost disappointed. Pulling her mask back over her mouth, she bit her lip and switched the laser back on, continuing to slice through Mei's skull.
"AHHHHH!" Mei's scream ripped through the room, her body convulsing in agony that tore at her very soul. "STOP! STOP! PLEASE!"
But Aiko, like a machine without a trace of mercy, kept her eyes alight with a dangerous spark as she relentlessly carved into her head.
CRACK!
The sound of breaking filled the silence — the upper part of her skull gave way, perfectly cut to be lifted like a lid.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" Mei screamed as if her body were burning alive, while Aiko slowly raised the top of her skull, revealing the vulnerable, exposed brain beneath — soft and pulsing under the glare of the operating light.
"Begin the process!" a cold voice shouted from the darkness, completely devoid of compassion.
"I will, I will… just leave me alone!" the 'doctor' muttered through her mask, her tone laced with irritation. Slowly, she took a small chip with tweezers and carefully lowered it directly onto Mei's brain.
Tears streamed down Mei's forehead as she forced out one last desperate plea through her throat:
"PLEASE! KILL ME!"
Without emotion, Aiko gently placed Mei's skull back into position, then spread a thick, green gel over the seam — its surface glistening under the cold light.
She rubbed her hands together, satisfied with her "masterpiece."
"Process complete…" Aiko announced.
Through her tears, Mei glared at her — eyes small, wet, yet burning with fire and hatred. She wanted to break every bone in Aiko's body, but trapped in her own helplessness, all she could do was scream.
"KILL ME!" she shouted once more.
Aiko smiled — a smile that stretched wider and wider, almost too horrifying to belong to a human.
"Oh no, no, no, no…" she murmured, almost as if she were savoring hell itself. "It's time for my favorite part!"
Without mercy, she took the laser and lifted Mei's shirt.
"Uterus removal…" she said, her smile twisting into something DEMONIC.
The uterus removal surgery lasted thirty minutes — but for Mei… it was an eternity. Seconds stretched into infinity, every sharp wave of pain cutting deep into her mind. The drugs they had given her were weak, laughably insufficient. Without anesthesia, it was pure, raw hell.
And then… as if that weren't enough, a new torture followed. Along with her uterus, they removed her ovaries. Another thirty minutes of horror.
Mei lay on the table. She felt lighter — or rather, emptier… She could no longer even scream; her vocal cords had failed her. Her eyes were vacant.
The bright light that had been shining into her face moments ago was now switched off. The man who had been standing in the background stepped forward — she recognized him instantly. It was the general.
"Turn her hearing back on," he ordered, without a trace of emotion.
Aiko tapped a button on the tablet. Suddenly, the silence shattered — sound returned to her world.
The general glanced at his smartwatch, pressed a few buttons, and spoke as if he were configuring some kind of machine:
"Empathy… zero. Obedience… one hundred."
Then he unfastened the straps and gave a short command:
"Stand up."
Mei tried to stand, but collapsed instantly — her legs couldn't hold her.
"Stand up!" he repeated, more sharply this time.
Using the table for support, she barely managed to rise. She stood crooked, unstable, but upright enough not to fall again.
"Aiko, come here," the general motioned, and she approached without hesitation.
"Mei… slap her."
SMACK!
Mei slapped her, and the general simply smiled.
Then he turned to the others present, raised his hands, and declared triumphantly:
"Experiment 133, successfully completed! Begin mass production of Chip 99! It's time to defeat the Chinese!"