Human live experimentation is, of course, not a good term.
But in contemporary times, “vagrants” carries an even worse connotation.
In 2044, the Third World War broke out, and in just 5 years, it destroyed 70% of humanity’s living space, so much so that 50 years after the war, the global population of tens of billions was squeezed into 88 super-large urban centers, living crowded and cramped lives. It has only started to improve in the last decade.
Outside the cities is the wilderness. It is vast and empty, but it has been ravaged beyond recognition by nuclear radiation and Deformed Species, making it completely unsuitable for human survival. Yet, there is a group of people who reject modern civilization, or are rejected by civilized society, including extremists, fugitives, and ambitious individuals… They gamble their lives, wandering in the wilderness, collectively forming the concept of “vagrants.”
Jungle Law, inhumanity, no bottom line…
Similar words popped up one after another in Senior Xie’s mind. He instantly had a standard template for Luo Nan’s grandfather, whom he had never met:
An evil scientist! The kind that constantly appears in superhero movies.
“Because of this incident, Luo Yuandao and his son turned against each other. His son, Luo Zhongheng, who is Luo Nan’s father, abruptly left home and disappeared, with no news to this day. Luo Yuandao himself developed severe schizophrenia and has been hospitalized for a long time, but his condition has worsened recently, and he doesn’t have many days left to live.”
Senior Xie listened, gritting his teeth. He didn’t care about anything else; he was only worried that in this environment, Luo Nan wouldn’t inherit any bad habits or develop a twisted personality…
At this moment, Yingying’s tone took a turn:
“However, the most interesting part isn’t here. In academia, Luo Yuandao is a nobody except for that accusation, but another person related to him is very famous—Yan Hong, you must know him, right?”
Senior Xie subconsciously nodded. Of course, he knew him. Yan Hong was a well-known professor at Zhixing College a few years ago, renowned worldwide, but he was disgraced and disappeared from mainstream society due to “academic misconduct,” which was truly regrettable.
“Yan Hong’s book, ‘Research on Prototype Neural Formats,’ led to the emergence of the Burning Ones, which is undoubtedly a revolutionary achievement; its significance cannot be overestimated. I used to admire him greatly.”
Yingying’s tone showed no hint of admiration, only excitement: “The problem is, in the 2090 ‘academic misconduct’ incident, someone exposed that his achievement used Luo Yuandao’s unpublished first-hand data. Yes, it was obtained through human live experimentation in the wilderness… Your circle is really messy!”
Messy your sister, I’m not in academia!
Senior Xie grumbled again, but Yingying wasn’t just gossiping; she had already begun a more realistic analysis:
“When Luo Yuandao’s incident happened in 2083, Luo Nan was only 3 years old. The scandal of his grandfather and the disappearance of his father must have impacted his entire childhood. How would a child perceive all of this? What kind of personality traits would he exhibit?
“Now we see that he speaks quite refinedly, appears very aloof, almost like a moral paragon. Without considering the possibility of him acting, there are two possibilities:
“One is moral compensation. He feels shame and guilt for his grandfather’s actions and subconsciously demands very high moral standards of himself, which is essentially a way of cutting ties.”
But then, Yingying refuted: “Of course, if that were the case, Luo Nan wouldn’t be talking endlessly about his grandfather’s notes and old affairs. However, the origin of that soft screen might be a bit problematic; he’s clearly avoiding something…”
Yingying didn’t elaborate further, jumping directly to the second point: “The other is a moral mission. If his grandfather possessed some kind of personal charisma, or no matter what his thoughts were before, the academic storm of 2090 was enough to exert a certain subversive force, making him have some speculation or fantasy about his grandfather’s achievements…”
Senior Xie couldn’t help but look up at Luo Nan.
Yingying’s description was synchronized with this, and she recited it with an emotional cadence, like poetry:
“Perhaps his grandfather was wrongly accused? Were the Burning Ones originally his grandfather’s achievement? Is That one, the dying old man in the mental hospital, actually a great man misunderstood by the secular world?
“All these thoughts shaped his destined loneliness into a tragic sense of ‘being at odds with the world’ and a sense of mission. So he is introverted, reclusive, resolute, and vigilant, like a dark hero, charging alone into the world’s dark curtain… Wow, I’m even moved!”
Senior Xie’s mouth twitched as he listened. The beginning was still on topic, but how did it become more and more like a script later on?
However, a teenager like Luo Nan, fifteen or sixteen years old, is precisely at the age full of heroic fantasies. Looking at his serious demeanor, could he really be thinking that way?
“Senior Xie?” Luo Nan asked, as if reminding him.
Only then did Senior Xie realize that he had been so engrossed in listening to Yingying’s “script” that he had been greatly out of line in front of Luo Nan. If he were truly misunderstood, it would be a disaster.
He quickly returned the notebook and commented, to cover his embarrassment, “These drawings are quite good.”
As the words left his mouth, Senior Xie himself felt they were dry, stiff, and unbearable.
“They’re not really drawings, just sketches.”
Luo Nan remained very polite, but after taking back the notebook, he politely bid farewell: “If Senior doesn’t have anything else, I’ll be leaving first.”
“Uh?”
While Senior Xie was momentarily stunned, Luo Nan nodded to him, placed the energy drink on the center console, and got out of the car decisively.
This… he was clearly suspected!
Senior Xie felt genuinely uneasy and quickly asked Yingying for advice: “Uh, should I say something?”
“So all my talking was for nothing!” Yingying’s words carried a sense of disappointment: “You…”
Suddenly, a faint noise entered his ears, and Yingying’s voice became blurred, no longer clear.
“Hello? Hello?”
“Static, static…”
Damn it, something went wrong at this moment!
Senior Xie instantly broke out in a sweat. Seeing that Luo Nan had already walked far away, he couldn’t care about anything else and rushed out of the car, shouting, “Junior, I’ll give you a ride!”
Luo Nan turned his head and replied, “I can just run there. Isn’t Senior inconvenient?”
“Uh, right.” Senior Xie was embarrassed. Now he was like a vampire in daylight; the most important thing was to quickly turn back to Mangzhong and nip the matter in the bud. He actually needed Luo Nan to remind him, which showed he had reached a certain Realm of stupidity.
Amidst his embarrassment, he could only try to bridge the distance, as was his usual habit: “Then I’ll specially host a dinner to thank you, in the next couple of days. I’ll find a place and let you know.”
As he spoke, he walked over to exchange contact information. Luo Nan did not refuse. The two touched their wristbands, successfully exchanging information, and also shook hands.
Senior Xie was still thinking of saying a few more pleasantries when an area to the side suddenly lit up. He instinctively turned his head. Under the hazy dark sky, a brilliant blue electric light pulsed, at first glance like lightning, but its direction was clearly from the ground to the sky, cutting directly into the clouds.
Perhaps the contrast of light was too strong; the buildings around the electric light seemed to be twisting.
Almost simultaneously, the Phantom Speeder issued an alarm.
"What's going on?" Senior Xie turned around and walked towards the car, but after only a few steps, a sharp screech suddenly rang in his built-in earphones, like the howling of an old-fashioned microphone. Caught off guard, his eardrums felt like they were being torn apart by the sound waves.
He cried out, instinctively reaching to cover his ears, but before his fingers even touched his earlobes, his eyes stung again. The temperature of his "Light Film" invisible contact lenses instantly rose. Sensing an abnormal state, the "Light Film"'s meltdown mechanism automatically activated, shutting down all functions.
Senior Xie's vision blurred, and the world spun. This was no illusion, but real shaking, swaying, and twisting!
The solid ground beneath his feet instantly became a swaying dinghy on the waves. Within his visible range, tall buildings and bridges were twisting and deforming. Further away, he could even see flickering sparks, reddening the still unlit sky.
"Earthquake, a major earthquake!"
For a moment, only this thought flashed in Senior Xie's mind, but before it could fully clarify, his feet found no purchase, and his entire body plummeted downwards. Falling with him were the green belt, railings, stones, and his five-hundred-million-dollar Phantom Speeder from the bridgehead.
The bridge collapsed!
The bridge, reputed to withstand a magnitude nine earthquake, collapsed like kicked-over building blocks. The half of the bridgehead where he stood suddenly gave way.
Senior Xie's mind went blank. He instinctively screamed, flailing his hands, trying to grab onto something for support.
He actually grabbed a hard object—a piece of rubble that fell with him.
Holding this thing, besides adding weight, it had no other meaning!
Senior Xie's eyeballs seemed to pop out, and then his vision spun.
"Ah..."
His scream had just begun when he felt a sharp pain in his shoulder joint, followed by his wrist. A strong force ran through his entire body, and the direction of his fall seemed to instantly reverse. His entire body was swinging violently.
"Ah ah ah!"
Senior Xie screamed loudly, his voice high-pitched and full of tears. At this point, the falling bridge structure had already collided with the buildings below, emitting a dull roar, with smoke and dust rising, along with the cries and screams of passersby. The situation was utterly chaotic.
"Shut up!" A low voice broke through the noise interference and entered his ears.
Senior Xie habitually screamed two more times, then suddenly realized, gave a sharp shiver, and looked up to see Luo Nan's face and half of his chest protruding from the bridge deck.
Of course, the most important thing was that extended arm, slender and not particularly thick, yet it had forcibly snatched him from the Grim Reaper's scythe... or rather, it was still wrestling.
It was unclear whether it was Senior Xie's luck or misfortune.
The impact sustained by the overpass was incredibly absurd. Although the bridge structure was severely deformed, only a partial area at the edge of the bridgehead had broken off, perfectly enclosing Senior Xie. Luo Nan, who was only five steps away from him, was completely unharmed.
But precisely because of this, Luo Nan was able to rush over in time, grab his arm, and prevent him from being smashed into a pulp.
The ordeal was not over. Luo Nan had grabbed him, but his strength was clearly insufficient, making it difficult to exert more force and pull him up.
The most critical point was that when the bridgehead collapsed, it formed a slight incline. Although the angle was small, in this situation, Luo Nan was also slowly sliding downwards, and there was nothing around him to brace against.
The feeling of one's life hanging by a thread is certainly not pleasant. Senior Xie tried desperately to grab onto something else, but his struggling limbs caused Luo Nan's fingers, which were gripping his wrist, to nearly slip away.
Senior Xie's body dropped further, terrifying him into screaming and struggling more.
Luo Nan's expression was grim. He spoke with effort: "Don't move, grab my hand."
Senior Xie was already consumed by fear and couldn't listen, still struggling.
"Do you want to die?!"
The angry roar pierced his ears, making Senior Xie shiver violently. He tilted his head back, just in time to see Luo Nan's eyes.
Yingying had mentioned before that Luo Nan's eyes glowed when he exercised. But from Senior Xie's distance, Luo Nan's eyes were not clear; they were filled with dense bloodshot veins and some faint greenish-yellow discoloration. Yet, it was these mottled colors that seemed to instantly form an abstract and eerie image, deeply imprinted in his mind.
Senior Xie couldn't say what it was, but his heart inexplicably tightened, and his entire body stiffened.
Luo Nan's angry roar had already consumed a lot of his strength. Now his tone was lower and somewhat hoarse:
"Look at your hand, what is it doing!"
Senior Xie looked over and saw that his right hand, the one Luo Nan was holding, was tightly clenched, stiff as a dead piece of wood. In his palm, he was tightly gripping the stone that had fallen with him, its sharp edges digging into his palm, causing blood to flow freely, yet he was completely unaware.
This was probably some kind of stress response, to the point of completely losing the sensation of pain. Flesh and stone seemed to have merged together—fear was the adhesive.
"Let go!" Luo Nan commanded.
Senior Xie wanted to let go, but his usually flexible palm and fingers were completely stiff, no matter how much he sweated in anxiety, they simply wouldn't obey: "I, I... don't let go! Please don't let go!"
Luo Nan took a deep breath and stared intently at Senior Xie: "Don't look at your hand, look at my eyes."
Now, as long as Luo Nan didn't let go, Senior Xie would undoubtedly obey his every command, like a puppet on strings. Whatever Luo Nan said, he would do.
Senior Xie once again looked directly into Luo Nan's eyes. The mottled color structure was like a pair of murky whirlpools, firmly locking his attention. The next moment, Luo Nan's voice exploded directly in the depths of his skull:
"Let go!"
It wasn't just his palm and fingers that relaxed; in that instant, all of Senior Xie's strength drained away. His fingers loosened, and the blood-stained stone fell vertically, first hitting his shoulder, then plummeting further.
Senior Xie was jolted awake by the pain, feeling his body go soft and heavy, as if he was sliding down again. Amidst his screams, he instinctively grabbed back, and this time successfully clasped Luo Nan's wrist, not letting go.
With Senior Xie sharing the burden, Luo Nan was finally able to slightly adjust the position of his fingers to better exert force.
After some adjustment, the tense situation eased slightly, and Senior Xie's blood-filled head began to clear, perceiving more elements.
The cold morning wind blew, his body swayed, and there were Noise in the wind, including explosions, the rumbling echoes of collapsing buildings, and sharp sirens...
Without his eyes, he could still understand the surrounding chaos.
Thanks to the "Dark Hero"—Senior Xie was now completely convinced by Yingying's analysis, otherwise he would surely have become a puddle of flesh in the rubble.
But he hoped the "Dark Hero" could push a little harder and pull him up...
He had just opened his mouth when an inexplicable, powerful sound roared forth.