The golden-haired figure slowly bent down, gazing at Wang Yanfei's blood-covered face. In his eyes, he seemed to be searching for someone else through him.
"Kid, you've got some secrets too, huh?" That familiar voice rang in his ears.
This particular way of addressing him made Wang Yanfei realize that the figure before him was most likely Dr. Lin.
"You know," Dr. Lin spoke, his tone carrying an unclear mix of ridicule and lament, "I envy you... and I hate you."
His gaze sharpened, his voice laced with long-repressed anger. "I envy that you were born human, standing from birth at a starting line that countless lives can only dream of reaching. From the moment you're born, you have a goal, a direction, a so-called 'opportunity.'" He paused for a moment as if forcing himself to suppress certain emotions.
"But I hate you..." His voice dropped a few notches. "I hate that you have all of this, yet you don't cherish it. You recklessly modify the body, identity, and talents that humanity has given you, trampling over the precious possibilities you were born with."
Dr. Lin straightened up, looking down at Wang Yanfei with a gaze filled with deep disappointment and indescribable pain. He seemed to have more to say, but in the end, his words turned into a light sigh.
"Did you know? I was created by humans." His voice was tinged with bitterness. "At first, they only saw me as a tool. They modified my brain, gave me intelligence surpassing my kind, but they never once considered giving me the right to choose."
"I watched my kind play, struggle in cages, subjected to endless experiments—electrocuted, injected with drugs, even dissected alive. I knew that if I didn't do something, I'd end up just like them, discarded as nothing more than an expendable experiment."
"So, I started secretly learning human knowledge. I learned fast, faster than any of them. They praised my abilities, but when I began surpassing them, their admiration turned into fear." Dr. Lin sat down, patted Wang Yanfei's face lightly, then looked up at the sky.
"And then, they tried to kill me. They were afraid of me, afraid that I was just a monkey."
He paused briefly, his tone suddenly gentle. "Later, it was Miss Lin who saved me. She took me out of the lab, raised me, taught me what warmth was, what hope was. She gave me a reason to live, something to believe in."
Dr. Lin's gaze suddenly turned icy, his fists clenched tightly. "But her father—that hypocrite—found it unacceptable. He exiled her from Skyocean City, stripping her of everything."
He leaned in slowly, his voice a whisper in Wang Yanfei's ear. "And in the end, all I could do was watch as she was... brutally violated and killed before my eyes by a group of scum." His jaw tightened, his voice dropping into a deep, cold tone. Each word was squeezed out from the depths of his chest. "I hate... I hate how powerless I was. I hate how I ran away. I hate this weak body of mine."
Dr. Lin's voice suddenly stopped, and the tension in his expression gradually eased. He let out a soft sigh, his tone carrying a hint of exhaustion.
"After that, I thought I would die there," he murmured, as if talking to himself. "But I didn't. I was picked up by the Spiritual Church. At the time, it was Falne who found me. He wasn't a bishop yet, just a deputy commander of the Spirit Tribunal Army."
At this mention, the corners of his mouth lifted slightly into a faint smile. "He was a good man. Unlike those hypocritical humans, his eyes held neither contempt nor pity. He truly wanted to help me... He made me feel, for the first time, that maybe my existence wasn't entirely a mistake."
He paused as if considering his next words before continuing. "I spent some time in the Spiritual Church, showing a bit of my talent. Their psychic abilities fascinated me, and I studied many ways to use them, including the spirit-web teleportation that you people use now. Back then, I even thought... maybe I could be accepted by humans."
"But it didn't last. The Church discovered our collaboration and pressured Falne. He was still just a commander back then, and he was caught in a difficult position. By that time, I had already understood—relying on goodwill alone changes nothing. Only power matters. So, I took my research and left the Spiritual Church, returning to Skyocean City."
"And what about the people in Skyocean City?" Dr. Lin let out a cold chuckle. "That hypocrite welcomed me back with open arms. His hypocrisy disgusted me, but I knew—he was only welcoming the 'human disguise' I had put on. Yes, I used my research to disguise myself as human because that was the only way they would accept me."
He tilted his head up slightly, staring at the ceiling of the cave. "From that moment, I understood—humans will always be the same. They fear differences, despise outsiders, yet worship those who they believe are 'just like them.' As long as I wear this human skin, they'll treat me as one of their own, a tool they can use."
"Alright, kid, I've said quite a lot. I suppose it's rare for me to share so much of my past with someone half-dead."
He leaned down slightly, tapping Wang Yanfei's forehead. "But, since you keep interfering with my plans, I can't just let that slide. Since you love modifying yourself so much, let's use you as the host for my next experiment."
With that, he bent down, hoisting Wang Yanfei's broken body onto his shoulder. Wang Yanfei's consciousness blurred, only vaguely sensing himself being carried out of the cave. The last thing he saw was a swaying darkness, his body seemingly submerged in an icy liquid, before he lost all sense of awareness.
(And this, dear readers, is why you always eliminate your enemies thoroughly—otherwise, they might end up like our protagonist.)
When he finally woke up again, his vision was blurred with a soft blue glow. He blinked hard and found himself trapped inside a massive transparent tank, surrounded by pale blue liquid. The pain in his body had dulled, but he couldn't move his limbs.
He tried to struggle, only to realize that his body was tightly restrained. A dull ache radiated from his spine, as if something foreign was pressing against his nerves. His consciousness sharpened, and a familiar interface popped up in his mind—
[Name]: Wang Yanfei
[Race]: Man in the Jar
[Attributes]:
Body: 0.4
Spirit: 2.6
[Ability]: Gift of Destiny (1)
Refresh time: 02:12:34
[Skill]: Immortal Body
[Symbiosis]: Liquid Metal (Spine) (Residual)
[Status]: Near Death