Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

'Who am I…'

'Where am I…'

Monar slowly opened his eyes in the darkness. Inside the darkness, he saw the outline of a giant hand pressing against him, holding him down in place.

Monar frowned. His first response was to stretch his hand outward and gently graze it against the face of the figure in front of him!

What happened next turned out to be even more perplexing. The moment he reached out to touch the figure, it turned into a blinding warp of light. What seemed like a whirlpool formed out of nowhere in the air had pulled the figure into it.

Within seconds, that figure had completely vanished from Monar's sight.

Monar made himself get up from the stained old metal bed. At this moment, he could feel countless thoughts swirling inside his mind to a point where it suffocated him to think.

After what seemed like forever, Monar seemed to have finally recalled something.

He took a look at his palm. Despite the surrounding darkness, Monar's eyes granted him clear vision over everything inside it.

It was the hand of a black man.

“I see, he finally attained the 'Fissure'?”

Monar muttered to himself. He proceeded to inspect his surroundings before reverting his gaze to the bed he was seated on top of.

Anyone present at the scene should instantly note that drastic s.h.i.+ft of Monar's aura. From what was once what could only be described as a primitive barbarian, he had transformed into a n.o.bleman with a heavy, majestic air around him.

“How child-like, to use such primitive methods to examine the memetic effect. Still, it's a good thing he took caution enough to not lie on the bed himself… Otherwise, I could…”

Monar slurred his sentences but stopped after the “I could…” part. There was a tinge of delight in his eyes that was also mixed with what seemed to be hungry desire.

Suddenly, the sound of footsteps approached from somewhere faraway inside the darkness. Monar did not spare so much of a glance at the direction where the sound came from. He continued immersing himself in deep thought as if there was some question he could not solve.

“The neutrino field won't be stable for much longer. I have to do something as soon as possible…”

Monar grumbled in a low voice. He proceeded to get on his knees and bit through his fingertips with his teeth and started to draw something on the wall.

Something outlandish happened as he traced his fingers along the walls. The tips of his fingers began to melt away as he drew. Instead of blood and flesh melting away at the ends, they diffused into atoms and particles which blended into its surroundings.

Monar did not appear surprised by this strange occurrence and continued to focus on his drawing. When one finger had expired, he would proceed to use the next finger. As he sped up the pace of his drawing, even small bits of his body started to give away.

The sound of two approaching footsteps was ringing in his ears at this point.

The footsteps of the two approaching persons were heavy and pounded in Monar's chest as they came toward him at a steady pace. From what Monar could hear, he could sense that their pace was incredibly in sync. There was hardly a millisecond differential between their footsteps.

Something like this could never be achieved by regular humans.

With all that said, details such as this were completely irrelevant to Monar at this moment. When he looked up and saw two men in black holding rifles approaching him and started to grab him, he reacted accordingly.

A blinding flash appeared again when he made a faint snap. In an instant, a whirlpool appeared out of thin air. Both of the men in black were immediately dragged into the whirlpool in a similar fas.h.i.+on as the previous person who was holding Monar down.

Monar hardly raised his head to acknowledge what he had just done. He continued charting something with his right hand, switching from finger to finger as they disappeared one after another. When his right hand had disappeared entirely, he switched to using his left hand.

One hour, two hours, three hours…

After more than ten hours had pa.s.sed, an image began to take shape on the wall.

This image was composed of tens of thousands of dots, each one of a different size. These dots were connected to each other and upon closer inspection, the outline of a portrait of a woman could be made out.

Inside the portrait, the woman had her hands over her eyes and her body curled up slightly as if she was crying silently. What stood out was what seemed like a pair of feathered wings coming out of her back…

Monar's body was crumbling away rapidly. Moments before he gave out, he drew a circular base under the woman's feet with the final ounce of his strength.

In an instant, the life-like woman depicted in the image suddenly became frozen like an erected statue. There was a lifeless gloom about the stature that made her appear immensely stoic…

After completing this final task, Monar let out a sigh like he had a weight lifted off his chest. Just as he was about to say something to himself, his head broke off from his neck that was already crumbling away as well.

“Thump!”

With that, Monar's entire body started to crumble away at breakneck speed.

Until in the end, his body had completely diffused into countless invisible particles that blended into the surroundings. The only proof of what was once his existence was the image painted on the wall using his blood…

The darkness that loomed over every corner of the room began to dissipate as well. Faint beams of sunlight tore through the darkness and shone onto the image.

It appeared as if nothing had changed, but also at the same time, that something deep underneath had fundamentally s.h.i.+fted.

However, n.o.body would ever discover the truth.

“Sir G.o.dfather, the Otherworld inside the factory had disappeared.”

It was evening. Chen Chen was seated inside his top-floor office in the Blacklight Biotechnology building when Little X entered and delivered him the news.

“Disappeared?”

“Yes, the darkness in the factory has completely dispersed. Yoru Kamidera hasn't dispatched any Black Knights to investigate just yet, he figured he should inform you first.”

Little X answered.

“How about the four Black Knights?” Chen Chen asked, “Are they still alive?”

“I can't detect their signals anymore.”

Little X shook her head regretfully. “It seems like they have fallen.”

Just as Little X said this, Chen Chen received a phone call. He took a look at the caller and just as expected, it was Yoru Kamidera.

Chen Chen picked up the phone and said as soon as the call was connected, “I'll be right there. You can dispatch someone to investigate now. I advise you to refrain from entering yourself unless you're certain that the source of danger has completely dispersed.”

“Understood.”

Yoru Kamidera answered swiftly. Chen Chen proceeded to end the call right there.

“I'll go take a look.”

Chen Chen said to Little X. Little X responded with a subtle nod before exiting the office.

After that, Chen Chen got up from his seat. A metallic ball the size of longan appeared in his hands seemingly out of nowhere.

When Chen Chen gently flicked the metal ball, it sent a sudden flash of electricity from within which caused his figure to vanish from the office.

The window positioned behind Chen Chen suddenly opened on its own, sending in a strong gust of wind that rattled the stacks of doc.u.ments and paperwork lying on top of the desk. Moments after that, the window was shut abruptly.

The office that was already quaint in the first place was now completely vacant.

“You guys head in there with a recorder and try to find signs of any living person or at the very least, their corpse.”

Outside the factory, Yoru Kamidera began to relay instructions to the Black Knights. He had temporary command over them since Chen Chen had given him authorization for this experiment.

As one of the core members directly nurtured by Chen Chen, Yoru Kamidera was well-informed of the physiological structure of these Black Knights. Therefore, he knew that there was no reason to be concerned about their safety since the Black Knights could not be harmed unless the G.o.d chip was destroyed.

What gave Yoru Kamidera a headache was that even after the Black Knights took several laps inside the factory and emerged from it, they could not find anything worthwhile.

No dead bodies nor the living for that matter.

Despite this observation, Yoru Kamidera did not act rashly and head inside himself since he remembered Chen Chen's advice. He began to go through the recorded footage collected by the Black Knights.

What captured his attention was a bizarre image inside the Faraday cage.

The image was drawn with some kind of dark-brown liquid substance. It was the picture of a…

The moment Yoru Kamidera's eyes landed on that image, he felt a terrifying sensation invading every crevice of his body. He wanted to shut his eyes and avert his gaze from it, but he felt as if his body was frozen in place. There was a mystifying power that came with the image that was calling out to him:

“Look at it! Look at it! Don't look away!”

It was a memetic pattern!

Yoru Kamidera felt cold sweat trickling down his forehead like unending rain. Just as he thought that it was over for him, the footage was suddenly turned off without any warning.

“It's not a good idea to look at these things.”

Chen Chen's voice came from behind Yoru Kamidera.

“Phew!”

Yoru Kamidera felt a wave of relief was.h.i.+ng over him as he turned to Chen Chen. He asked in between heavy gasps, still frightened by the experience, “Your Excellency Chen Chen, did you see it too?”

“I did.”

Chen Chen nodded. “But not completely.”

“Me too.”

Yoru Kamidera quickly added. “Fortunately, otherwise, I'd have been infected by the memetic effect.”

Chen Chen did not bother with giving too much elaboration. In truth, Little X should have been monitoring the Black Knights and would have been the first to detect the memetic image. However, since the memetic pattern was not fully captured due to the odd camera angle, Little X figured it was not necessary to alert Yoru Kamidera since an impartial memetic pattern should not trigger its effects.

Chen Chen did not expect an impartial memetic pattern to have such a powerful effect on its own. What would happen if the entire memetic pattern was on display?

“Seal the pattern up.”

Chen Chen instructed a Black Knight next to him.

“What about the metal bed?”

Little X asked from Chen Chen's earpiece.

“Keep it sealed up inside there for now as well. I think at this moment, we can't manifest its powers yet.”

The Black Knights immediately stepped forward to lock down the Faraday cage completely.

After everything was concluded, Yoru Kamidera felt a mild sense of relief. He looked in the direction of the factory and expressed his concerns. “Monar and the four Black Knights that were inside had disappeared.”

“Which is not surprising.”

Chen Chen said, “Back when I was trapped inside there, I already knew that the people who die inside the Otherworld completely disappear as well. It's clear to me now that the Black Knights are dead, it's just that…”

Chen Chen frowned. “The disappearance of Monar is what caught me off guard.”

“Could it be that the Black Knights had taken Monar down with them?”

Yoru Kamidera hypothesized. “At the end of the day, the Black Knights are a supreme combat force. I wouldn't say it's impossible that three Black Knights joined together cannot overcome Monar. After all, I doubt he has complete mastery over his powers inside that dimension just yet.”

“That's a very likely possibility.”

Chen Chen glanced at Yoru Kamidera. “But that's the optimistic scenario. What I'm concerned about is that there may be some additional underlying factors, after all, there's always more to memetic effects that may defy common logic.”

“That's true…”

Yoru Kamidera was impressed. It was true, people like Chen Chen who antic.i.p.ated the worst outcome possible tend to be the ones who lived longest.

After that, the strange metal bed along with the memetic pattern was sealed up inside the Faraday cage.

However, Chen Chen was not the slightest bit satisfied when he looked at the sealed Faraday cage.

All of the work they had put into this project was essentially voided along with the disappearance of Monar, the Spire laboratory experiment subject. He had braced himself for losing the Black Knights, but he expected to use Monar to further inspect the qualities of the metal bed and obtain further clues.

However, the reality was often disappointing. Even the chance to rerun the experiment was gone now.

If the next experiment was going to end the same way as the current one, then there was no point in conducting any further experiments at all. There were simply no approachable steps to examining how the metal bed functioned.

The disappearance of the experiment subject was not the only thing to be concerned about. There was also the appearance of the memetic pattern to consider, which made things even more confusing.

Chen Chen had no guarantee whether a new memetic pattern would emerge again if he conducted the same experiment. What sort of memetic pattern would emerge if he gave it another run?

There was no question about it. Memetic science was the most unpredictable and dangerous subject Chen Chen had dealt with so far. It was also the most mysterious and appalling subject of them all.

All the current discovered laws of physics and chemistry, including the conservation of ma.s.s and energy, were rendered almost meaningless in the face of memetic science.

Upon considering these factors, Chen Chen suddenly turned to the Black Knights and noted. “Take care of the bodies of these Black Knights, just preserve the chips inside them.”

“You're concerned with them coming in contact with the memetic pattern?”

Little X asked.

“That's right, especially considering it's one that we've never dealt with before. I don't have a guarantee as to what their effects may be. It can turn out to be very problematic.”

Chen Chen nodded and affirmed his decision. “Destroy them.”

“Understood.”

Little X responded. Shortly after that, the Black Knights that entered the factory and saw the memetic pattern filed into a car and were driven to somewhere else.

Their destination was a steelmaking plant, where their bodies would be thrown into extreme temperature liquid metal.

One thing that escaped the notice of everyone, even including Little X, was that something was lurking inside their pupils.