Not Me

How long was "a long time"? That was the question. Wei Yuan realized he had completely lost all sense of time. The swing from one extreme of sensory and psychological stimulation to the other felt impossibly distant, long enough to have lasted from birth until death; yet it also felt like a mere heartbeat, as brief as the lifespan of a midge or mayfly in the eyes of an entity dwelling high beyond the heavens—an entire life, yet passing in a flicker. At this moment, Wei Yuan felt extraordinarily calm and serene. It seemed as though every emotion had been stripped away; nothing could terrify, astonish, or grieve him anymore, but he had also lost the capacity for joy. A piece of knowledge buried in his memory suddenly surfaced: after massive drug intake, the brain's pleasure centers sustain damage, leaving a sensation much like what he felt now. Wei Yuan knew something terrible had happened to him, yet he could not recall it. In the span of a breath, everything seemed true yet false. Something utterly degrading had certainly taken place just moments ago, but right now, he did not care. A warm liquid seemed to trickle from his nose—the only warmth remaining on his entire body. Wei Yuan reached up to wipe it away, finding it was a pale pink blood. Ji Liuli reappeared before Wei Yuan. She handed him a tissue, pointed to the side, and said, "Your clothes and gear are over there. You have five minutes to get ready and come out." Wei Yuan wiped away the blood and stared at the faint pink smear on the tissue. It felt familiar, yet he could not understand the science behind it. Based on his biochemical knowledge, he could not fathom what element could turn blood pale pink. His body, however, held an instinctive terror of Ji Liuli. Wei Yuan walked over to the equipment case on the table nearby and opened the lid. Inside lay a complete combat uniform and full loadout belonging to the Special Operations unit. The uniforms and gear of the Security Department's elite agents were globally renowned for their sleek, striking design. Every year, fortunes were spent hiring top designers to refine them, tailoring custom versions for different physiques. Wei Yuan had once dreamed of owning a set; he had never imagined one would actually be laid out before him. He quickly pulled on the combat suit, zipped it up, fastened the armor clasps, and picked up the handgun inside. Ejecting the magazine for a look, he saw that the bullet tips appeared to be made of glass, each glowing with an eerie green light. There were three more magazines in the case, all of which Wei Yuan took and slipped into the combat suit's dedicated pouches. There was also a pair of multifunctional combat sunglasses. Wei Yuan picked them up and put them on, immediately binding his identity and activating the combat assistance system. When he stepped into the outer room, it was five minutes on the dot. A light screen floated before Ji Liuli. She was reading the rapid stream of messages scrolling across it, her expression unusually grim. Seeing Wei Yuan, she beckoned him over, pointed at the screen, and said, "Take a look." The screen displayed a scene shrouded in darkness. Black storm clouds churned overhead like a vortex, looking ready to swallow everything whole. Down below, it was dark enough that one could hardly see their own fingers, with only the fleeting strikes of lightning illuminating the world. Pillars of brilliant, snow-white light illuminated a massive structure. On the ground, numerous heavy combat vehicles formed several airtight defensive perimeters, locked in desperate, fierce crossfire with enemies inside the building. Those surrounding the building were the company's security forces, heavily equipped and vast in number. Yet judging from the firefight, they were actually on the back foot. From time to time, glowing blue masses flew out of the building. The moment one made contact, whether with a combat vehicle or a self-propelled gun, the machine went dead instantly, completely unresponsive, while the crew inside showed no sign of life. Wei Yuan recognized at a glance that the structure under siege was the base's main building. Yet he remained remarkably calm as he asked, "What is happening here?" "Haven't you realized that your clearance level was abnormally high? You could access any file, and you could even use the testing base's most valuable genetic engineering core. Not even Mike himself has clearance like that. Naturally, such bogus temporary clearance quickly caught the system's attention and triggered alarms. Your purpose was simply to set off a high-level alert. "In truth, you were just a pawn in their overall scheme—the kind meant to be discarded after serving its purpose. And there are dozens of pawns just like you. Your job was to scatter the Security Department's forces so that when their real operation surfaced, I would have no one left to deploy. "Of course, the most critical part was luring me away from their actual target, gambling that I might take an interest in one of those alerts and investigate it personally. As long as I failed to return in time, their plan was already more than half successful." "Who are 'they'?" Wei Yuan asked. "The Superpowered Alliance—an organization formed by a bunch of good-for-nothings who are only slightly stronger than ordinary people. They were originally targets marked for extermination by the company. That genetic segment in your computer came from the alliance's vice president. I've always wanted to ferret out their president, but that fellow is exceptionally cunning. To this day, no one has confirmed his true identity." Ji Liuli picked up a glass of water, took a sip, and continued, "Still, all these years of pursuit have yielded some results. The fellow is very likely hiding within the company. He could be a director of some department, perhaps a janitor, or there's even another possibility... that it's you." The corners of Wei Yuan's mouth twitched upward, attempting to signal that the joke was funny. Yet he could not laugh, nor did his body possess any sense of humor. The distorted grin froze on his face, then slowly faded away. Ji Liuli had initially watched him with a smile, but gradually her smile vanished as well. "Is it really you?" "Not me!" Ji Liuli suddenly laughed and said, "I'm joking." Yet Wei Yuan's intuition told him she was not joking at all. By now, the battle was growing increasingly fierce. The heavy cloud layer above the base hung so low it nearly brushed the antennas atop the main building, flashing brightly at intervals. Lightning fell at random from the sky, setting several structures ablaze. Towering flames illuminated Ji Liuli's breathtaking face. In her calm, gilded eyes, the distant battle seemed to have nothing to do with her. She glanced at Wei Yuan and said, "What, not planning to save them? It couldn't have been easy for you to gather so many people. Every single one of those plasma balls was unleashed at the cost of your comrades' lives. And all I'm expending are soldiers injected with gene-enhancement serums—men you can have in whatever numbers you want, as long as you have money. And you know the one thing the company never lacks is money." Wei Yuan was thoroughly baffled, unable to understand why she had suddenly become convinced that he was the head of that organization. He knew very well he was not, but even if she was joking, it made no sense for her to waste so much time on a nobody like him—unless she had some peculiar fetishes... In that instant, emotion flooded back into Wei Yuan, and he involuntarily shuddered. The female secretary who had vanished behind the door, along with his own recent ordeal, proved that her tastes were not merely peculiar, but also endlessly varied. Observing Wei Yuan's expression, Ji Liuli said, "What all of you—no, what you want most is beneath the main laboratory building. If you're willing to cooperate with me, I can give you a share of what's inside the lab. Afterward, you can go back to being the boss of your alliance, provided you consult with me on the targets of your major operations. "I'm not asking you to abandon your hostility toward the company. Quite the contrary—you are to continue your operations, and you may even score some glorious victories." Wei Yuan sighed. "You want me to help you prune your enemies?" "You're very sharp." Wei Yuan let out another sigh. "I'd be more than willing, but I am truly not the person you're looking for! If I had that kind of ability, I would have fled long ago instead of ending up like this." The corner of Ji Liuli's mouth curved slightly upward as she gently hooked Wei Yuan's chin. "I knew you wouldn't give up so easily. What happened just now was more of a reward for you. But if I lose my patience, what awaits you will be pure punishment. Fine, let me show you the evidence." With a wave of her hand, she brought up a light screen displaying the virus Wei Yuan had designed. "Your clearance appeared high, but limits had actually been placed on it in secret. The functional gene segments you selected were never given any interface data. To splice each segment into the primary gene, you must ensure that at least several hundred, or even thousands, of biochemical interfaces are connected correctly. "Yet you activated every single functional segment without any interface data. Now tell me: with tens of thousands of interfaces in total, how did you manage not to make a single mistake?" Wei Yuan was struck dumb, entirely speechless. A functional segment with interface data was like an integrated chip—you simply slotted it into place. Without interface data, however, it was the equivalent of Wei Yuan having to solder pins onto every single terminal and arrange them in the precise configuration before they could fit into the slot. Wei Yuan wanted very much to say that he had simply slotted them in at random and all the interfaces had lined up on their own. But he also knew no one would believe that. Ji Liuli was in no rush. "One of your abilities is concealment and disguise. To hide yourself, you would even deceive yourself. But I have plenty of ways to verify it. When you were installing those functional segments, did you feel something inside your body vanish at that exact moment?" He truly had felt such a sensation. Wei Yuan nodded honestly. It was not out of fear, but an inexplicable, bizarre feeling of closeness toward this woman, one of the company's triumvirate. Yet that sense of closeness made a specific term surface from the depths of his mind: *Stockholm...* He immediately banished the word from his thoughts. Ji Liuli patted Wei Yuan on the head and said, "Very well, at least we have a good start. If you can do one thing for me, you will be my friend. Even if you want a few more rewards, that won't be out of the question." "What do you want me to do?" "Kill Wang Bing, head of the company's Intelligence Center." Wei Yuan smiled bitterly. "It might actually be easier to kill you." To his surprise, Ji Liuli agreed: "Indeed." At that moment, a soldier marched in and reported with crisp formality, "General, the passage to the underground experiment area has been cleared, and communication cables have been linked. As planned, an unexpected incident occurred in the experiment area, and it has been completely sealed off. We are currently breaching the exterior concrete layer. It is expected to open in ten minutes." "What about those superpowered clowns?" Ji Liuli asked. "They lack heavy engineering equipment, and their powers have been heavily depleted. Their progress should lag behind ours." "Excellent. We move out now." Ji Liuli retrieved a magazine and tossed it to Wei Yuan. Inside were bullets with purple tips. Ji Liuli said, "Take this to save your life, and use them sparingly. Each round is worth more than ten lifetimes of your salary. We need to hurry. If we're late, an unexpected surprise might just crop up in the lab."