Chapter 490: Chapter 298: Zeus, Fragment Implantation, Promise in the Corridor
The Somersault Cloud drifted up and down slowly, beneath the silver-white ceiling.
At that moment, Ji Minghuan and Sun Changkong sat motionlessly at the top of the cloud, shoulder to shoulder with Penguin Radio.
Looking down, they saw a boy in a hospital gown kneeling repeatedly toward them on the silver-white floor.
The boy’s forehead was already red, tears continuously flowing from the corners of his eyes, yet he did not stop bowing. The constant "thud thud" sound kept Sun Changkong’s heart pounding.
She widened her eyes, hugged Ji Minghuan’s shoulders, and stammered, "Ji Minghuan, why does he look like one of those biochemical zombies! Even in the zombie movies we watched together last time, none had such a strange guy..."
"I don’t know either." Ji Minghuan shook his head, "He’s weird, I feel something is not right..."
He leaned out from the edge of the Somersault Cloud, raised his eyebrows, silently watching the boy kneeling on the ground.
"Don’t leave me, don’t let me be alone, I don’t want to be kept there, I don’t want to be pinned to the bed."
The boy kept shouting as he bowed, "When I’m alone, the voices in my head get louder and louder, I don’t want to be alone, you don’t have to be afraid of me."
Sun Changkong controlled the Somersault Cloud. As it floated forward a foot, the boy crawled forward quickly a foot;
As it floated backward a foot, the boy likewise crawled back a foot, his face always shrouded in the shadow of the Somersault Cloud.
"This guy’s brain is definitely broken." Sun Changkong frowned with fiery red eyebrows, "But he looks so pitiful."
"Of course, he looks pitiful. Mythical curiosities aren’t that easy to control." Ji Minghuan said, "He’s just a child."
He paused, "Moreover, the Mythical-level Curiosities might have been forcibly implanted in him by someone else, hence the strong rejection."
Sun Changkong paused, "Forcibly implanted in him?"
Ji Minghuan remained silent, not answering her question.
"Please, those voices are so loud. Thunderous sounds, the sound of rain, like someone yelling at me... I just want a little peace, can you let me be quiet for a bit... Only you can quiet them down, I need you, I need you." The boy cried out to the people on the Somersault Cloud as he continued to bow, tears streaming from his eyes, his mouth bordered with a pleading smile, his body trembling uncontrollably.
Ji Minghuan was stunned.
After a while, the boy’s sobbing cries suddenly stopped.
Replaced by a brief scream, abruptly cut off.
The collar around his neck suddenly unleashed a powerful electric current. The boy convulsed all over and fainted, collapsing to the ground, his eyelids fluttering.
Then the metal door opened wide, and lab-coated experimenters came in quickly, faces stern.
With neat footsteps, "Da-da, da-da..." they picked up the boy from the ground and took him out of the confinement room.
The confinement room fell into dead silence, watching the boy being dragged away by the experimenters, only then did Sun Changkong slowly release Ji Minghuan.
She lowered her head, muttering with drooped eyebrows:
"This person is too strange."
"Yeah." Ji Minghuan said softly, "Never mind, don’t bother with him, probably going to be locked up by the mentor for a long time."
Just then, the mentor’s voice came through the broadcasting equipment.
"Sorry, Ji Minghuan, Xiaokong, I didn’t expect him to be like this, he told me before... never mind." He hesitated to speak.
Ji Minghuan thought for a moment and asked softly, "Is he crazy because of Zeus’s influence?"
"Yes, Mythical-level Curiosities Fragment carries traces of mythological figures’ consciousness." the mentor explained, "We’ve done everything we can to help him, to keep him from feeling too lonely, we’ve been providing him with psychological counseling, trying to present him normally to you, so you won’t reject him."
He lowered his voice at this point, "But we failed, this child’s spirit is on the brink of collapse, only by injecting large amounts of tranquilizers can he stay slightly calm for a while."
"May I ask you a question, why don’t Shang Xiaoqi and Sun Changkong end up like him?"
Before the mentor answered, Ji Minghuan sighed, "Is it because they were chosen by the Anecdote Fragment, and you...forced Zeus’s fragment into that boy, treating him as an experiment?"
The confinement room suddenly fell into silence, Sun Changkong slightly stunned.
Ji Minghuan shrugged, casually said:
"Exactly because he’s an experiment, you don’t need to name him. When he dies, extract the fragment and implant it into the next child until you find a suitable vessel, isn’t that right?"
Sun Changkong was momentarily dazed, wanting to say that the mentor wouldn’t do such a thing, but recalling the words the boy had said earlier, she suddenly fell silent, frowning slightly with fiery red eyebrows.
"No, Zeus approached him actively, we wouldn’t be so cruel..."
Ji Minghuan interrupted him, asking with downcast eyes:
"What’s his name?"
"He doesn’t have a name. But he always wanted one, yet he’s picky and doesn’t like the names we gave him." The mentor paused for a moment and said softly.
"Next time, when his spirit is more stable, let him come to see us." Ji Minghuan said quietly, "We can give him a name, it’s better to have one, how pitiful to die without knowing your own name."
To be honest, Ji Minghuan wouldn’t want to lead a group to the Salvation Society and encounter this nameless unlucky one, killing him without knowing anything.
How pitiful he would be. At least give him a name. This way, after everything ends, we can feign placing a tombstone for him.
Sun Changkong thought for a moment, then suddenly lowered her head.
She said, "Though I’m a bit scared, I think he’s just too lonely, I used to feel like that... feeling so lonely you could die, so seeing someone makes you want to hug them tightly, not letting them escape."
"Yes, he’s innocent, just unlucky." the mentor said, gently sighing, "Thank you for being willing to embrace this child, I was always worried he’s too unique, thus unable to blend in with you."
Ji Minghuan suddenly fell silent.
He surely knew that the children kept at the Salvation Society are innocent, just unlucky.
It’s precisely because of bad luck that they’re brainwashed from a young age, becoming a weapon manipulated by others unknowingly, like a group drowning at the bottom of the sea without realizing they’re in water.
Yet he also knew, he couldn’t save everyone.
If these children really all died, then the only thing he could do would be to remember them as much as possible.
After all, their entire childhood was spent in this bleak, silent world. They were accompanied by cold-hearted experimenters and that duplicitous man.
If they died, perhaps no one in this world would remember them. Being forgotten is truly being dead, even if just one person remembers them, it’s different.
"Why are your hands so cold?" Sun Changkong suddenly asked.
"Are they?"
"Are you scared?" Sun Changkong said, "That person has been following you all along."
"No, why would I be scared?"
"I will protect you," Sun Changkong said, "No matter who, the Prophet, Zeus, if they dare hurt you, I’ll strike them all down, so don’t be afraid."
"Are you an idiot?"
Ji Minghuan sighed, thinking to himself that he was still figuring out how to collect your body, fool, stop with the ’protecting me’ already.
"You’re the idiot for calling people idiots."
"Bounce back."
"Ji Minghuan, do you know you’re my first friend?" Sun Changkong frowned his fiery eyebrows.
"I know."
"Then do you know you’re my best friend, and I treasure you, you’re very important to me?"
"I know."
"I hope I’m just as important to you, otherwise it’s completely unfair," Sun Changkong whispered, "But you seem to not care about me."
Ji Minghuan remained silent.
He thought to himself that it wasn’t really not caring about you, it’s just that if I consider you a friend, then one day if you stand before me with the Somersault Cloud and the Golden Cudgel, how am I supposed to choose?
Could I possibly hope that under the influence of inhibitors, I might still have the strength to spare an indoctrinated Mythical Curiosities holder?
Unlikely, it’d be lucky enough not to be killed by you with one strike.
Ji Minghuan suddenly thought that perhaps there might still be a chance to salvage everything. When that day comes, the Mentor naturally won’t let Kong Youling come into contact with other children because only Kong Youling can break the mental imprint in their heads.
But maybe the Great Sage Equal to Heaven could? Doesn’t Sun Changkong’s mind also house a Great Sage Equal to Heaven? If it wakes up, maybe it could help Sun Changkong lift the mental imprint.
Seeing Ji Minghuan not talking for a long, long time, Sun Changkong was somewhat disappointed, his brows drooping.
"Forget it... I’m not talking to you anymore."
She turned her face away, no longer looking at him.
After a moment, Sun Changkong controlled the Somersault Cloud to descend to the ground.
After a silent pause, the metal door ahead once again emitted a bothersome noise. Four children in hospital gowns stood before the door, rushing in together.
Shang Xiaoqi stood with hands behind his back, reluctantly raising his head, glancing at Ji Minghuan, "Yo, traitor."
Kong Youling looked around, writing in the notebook, "Did someone just pass by? Seems like... we brushed past someone else."
"No one came," Ji Minghuan shook his head, not really wanting to talk about Zeus with her.
"Let’s go play in Paradise, why stay here?" Mario said, looking up from the gaming console, "Six people crammed in one room is unbearable."
"But I want to watch a movie," Sun Changkong tilted his eyebrows, "Let’s vote, go to the children’s Paradise or stay here and watch a movie."
"You speak as if you understand movies," Mario said, "always pretending to understand."
"What did you say? I’m not pretending," Sun Changkong flared up.
"I’m not in the mood to watch a movie," Ji Minghuan suddenly said, "Let’s play upstairs."
Sun Changkong was taken aback, then pursed his lips, "Then we won’t vote. Let’s go, I didn’t like watching movies anyway."
Filio nodded, his wolf ears perked up, "Yeah, I want to play on the slide too."
They walked out of the containment room. The experimenter led the way, guiding the six children through the intense light-filled corridor, as if walking in a hazy white mist.
The children couldn’t see each other, stumbling, occasionally bumping shoulders.
Ji Minghuan deliberately slowed his pace, coming to Sun Changkong’s side. Just by listening to the footsteps, he could tell where she was.
He gently tugged on her sleeve, "Moshi Moshi?"
"What?" she paused, wanting to see him, but the bright light of the corridor made it hard for her to open her eyes.
"September fifth."
"What about it?"
"The birthday you just told me, I remembered it."
"Oh, oh."
"Pinky swear. Live to see that birthday, when the bad guys come, you have to help me drive them away."
Sun Changkong was taken aback.
She blanked out for a long, long time, in the hazy light only footsteps could be heard, their footsteps quietly overlapping.
After a moment, she also reached out to tug on his sleeve, softly saying:
"Mm, I promise you."