CHAPTER 40: CONVERSATION

Jack froze.

The Doctor Riza—gentle, careful, soft-spoken Riza—stood calmly with Shadow limp in her arms and she had just thrown a pair of scissors at him.

The metal clinked loudly on the floor, echoing in Jack’s skull as blood dripped to the floor from his left shoulder.

When Jack looked up, her pleasant smile never faded. The odd thing though was that it was still the same. As if she just didn’t try to kill him.

"Employee Jack," Doctor Riza said warmly, as if soothing a frightened child. "Are you trembling? Are you afraid? You don’t have to run. I promise—you are safe. Just do not run."

Jack wasn’t exactly trembling. He was just startled.

Seeing the poisoned notification disappear, Jack’s system pulsed sharply, somewhat throwing off the doctor who was not expecting him to take it so cleanly.

"How?"

Jack didn’t answer and his gaze snapped to the sleeping Shadow on the doctor’s arms—breathing faintly, too faintly—and bile crawled up his throat.

Jack’s jaw locked.

"Doctor, let the cat go." Jack said, raising his pistol.

Riza tilted her head with an expression almost... puzzled.

"How unnecessary."

BANG!

Jack fired.

A single loud shot tore through the chamber and ripped across Riza’s leg. Blood splattered as Riza stumbled with eyes going wide. With the system assist, his accuracy was already on point.

Jack’s arms aimed again.

"Put him down."

There was a long, trembling pause.

Then—

Riza exhaled, and her warm smile slowly returned despite the blood running down her thigh.

"Shoot me, nothing will change," She then said with the same smile. She even looked proud.

"!!!"

"You do not even know anything about Shadow." She then said softly, returning the sleeping Shadow to the table. "But to me, Shadow is an irreplaceable prototype who will lead the next step in the evolution of humanity."

Inside Sector D, the thick glass separating them from James and Simon’s side started shaking. The metal groaned and explosions rumbled.

The voice of the agents and James and Simon screaming like warriors as they traded blow for blow echoed.

But Jack barely heard any of it. He only took note of the situation through the map in his head while everything in his head narrowed to Riza’s smile and what she just said.

Unlike his expectations, Doctor Riza did the same and merely stood there.

"Doctor Riza..." His voice cracked. "You are a traitor."

"Why am I traitor?" she echoed gently.

At the same time, her warm and gentle smile trembled at the edges and her voice softened to a whisper.

"Employee Jack, you are new to the awakened society, but this world isn’t what you think."

"Are you talking about lineages? If so, I know that already. Humanity or the humans that we call today isn’t exactly humans. They are descendants of ancient races."

Doctor Riza merely smiled hearing him, dismissing his answer like a kind sister.

"Hm, I’m not talking about that. That isn’t exactly a secret. I’m talking about the next step. The real secret of humanity. The path to humanity’s next evolution as a species."

Riza continued.

"There are people out there Employee Jack who were what we can refer to as those who have attained that evolution, being an entirely superior species to us awakened. Some of them have bodies who awakened two... three... sometimes even more dormant bloodlines. While some just have strange powers."

"?!"

"It was created," Riza whispered. "Not inherited."

Jack’s breath caught.

Hearing her, Jack felt enlightened. In truth, he could already tell. She wasn’t just blurting out nonsense because he himself knew he was a living proof. The previous user was connected to those said superior species.

Before he even took over White’s life, something only White knew happened already which made him extraordinary even among the awakened. The origin story of the system.

"You know how I told you I worked at the Association before. There were experiments there you know long before I arrived completely out of the records. Experiments meant to create superhumans beyond superhumans."

Doctor Riza’s smile remained the same.

"Can you imagine it? Humans who were actual elves, dragons. No, humans who could surpass any ancient species. Humans who could not just draw a percentage of their lineage but actually become one entirely. Humans who could hold multiple powers, multiple identities. That is the next evolution of humanity."

Riza’s voice lowered to a trembling whisper.

"But the Association shut it down, condemned it and called it an abomination." Just then, a single tear slipped down the Doctor’s cheek—but she smiled through it.

While doing so, she then looked at the sleeping cat but Jack made sure to point the pistol onto her.

"Stay back." He said.

Still bloodied, Doctor Riza smiled while she kept her balance.

"But now, we have this cat. Substance 56. It is a miracle. The closest anyone came to recreating those results."

Jack felt cold and opened the system, appraising Shadow once more. But nothing changed.

"What do you mean?" He then asked.

"Shhh. You do not need to understand. It’s about continuing simply what needs to be done. And Carlos shares my vision."

Her smile sharpened into something tragic and beautiful.

"With both of us, humanity can evolve once again!"

Jack’s heart pounded. Hearing the doctor talk, he knew that there was no way to help her.

"Why did you try to kill me?"

Hearing those words, Doctor Riza showed an expression of surprise.

"I wasn’t exactly trying to kill you. I would have hit your vital organs if I wanted to. I was merely planning to incapacitate you but then you unexpectedly have high resistance to poison."

"Then what are you planning?"

The doctor then lifted her free hand and placed it onto the air, her palm facing upward.

"I do not understand yet, but the Substance 56 inside Shadow’s body reacts to your body very well. I am very interested in your body to be more accurate." She then said. "Your blood, saliva, urine..."

Jack couldn’t believe what he was hearing and got chills.

’What is taking them so long? Shit.’ He then thought, however the thick glass was now covered with obstacles so he couldn’t see how James and Simon were doing.

"Worried about your friends?" Riza tilted her head. "I’ll be too."

"They are both Vice-Captains and they outnumber those two agents. After they win, you’re gonna have to answer to them," Jack argued.

"!!!"

However, just as they were talking, the door finally whizzed open!

Whoosh!

Wielding both his mono-blade daggers, his body went flying like a ragdoll towards the far end opposite wall, but fortunately, he was able to fix his position in the air, and landed on the wall like a spider.

"Senior—!" Jack gasped.

"That James, really." Simon merely said.

James stumbled in next as he was hit by consecutive blows by the two agents. Sweat was dripping all over his body, as his body momentarily rolled across the tiles, before finding his balance.

"Vice-Captain James!"

"Yo." James smiled, momentarily confused at what was happening inside between the doctor and the rookie.

"Vice-Captain, she, the doctor, is with them," Jack then revealed, shocking James and Simon.

Then the two association agents, bloodily went inside, similarly as injured.

The loud agent strode in, panting, clothes shredded with injuries all over his body. His arm was twisted unnaturally,

"What is happening here?" he huffed, wiping blood off his chin. Then his eyes flicked to Jack who was pointing a pistol at the doctor.

The silent agent stepped in behind him, expression unreadable, one hand casually gripping a guard’s severed head. Out of everyone, he looked the least injured.

Doctor Riza surveyed the chaos with her usual calm. As she started to speak, the silent agent wordlessly moved to stand by her side. The moment her fingers began glowing—healing herself—Jack reacted first.

He fired four quick shots.

All of them rang out uselessly but then a metal disk in the silent agent’s hand deflected them like raindrops!

’What is that?’

"Well," Riza then said lightly, as if announcing a meeting schedule, "this is Employee Jack. He’ll be a valuable piece in our project at Cries."

Then she added.

"Take him alive. I don’t care if you break his limbs. We can heal them later. But don’t kill him. Not under any circumstance. Hurry, we don’t have all day."

Jack’s stomach dropped and swallowed.

"Senior, Vice-Captain." He immediately called, and the two then went onto him.

The loud agent then cracked his knuckles and cursed.

"That is not gonna be easy, doctor. These two aren’t exactly pushovers like those other guards."

"Do not worry, I’ll speed things up."

Doctor Riza walked over then and she placed her hand on the loud agent’s arm while the veins beneath her arms glowed faintly.

’That is definitely cellular Restoration!’

He fired, but the gunshots faded into background noise.

"Amazing," the loud agent breathed, smiling as flesh and bone began to slowly knit together.

Riza then explained, "It can repair wounds but it can only accelerate one’s natural healing. That means this is a testament to your body’s natural healing ability, meaning you’re gonna feel its side effects later."

"!!!"

Before he fully healed.

Sensing the danger, James had also lunged—

But the silent agent intercepted him, slamming a fist into James’ ribs.

James coughed blood—yet grinned through it before grabbing the silent agent’s arms with great grip.

"Hah! Been a while since someone hit like that, but I’mma have to stay with me for a while."

While Jack aimed his gun again, drawing their attention, Simon who had found his balance then recovered on the wall and vanished in a blink—

While Jack’s gunshots rang out, Simon used his superior speed, his mono-blades whizzing past like twin streaks of lightning as it sliced through Doctor Riza and the loud agent’s direction.

SCHING--!

Blood sprayed into the air.

Doctor Riza who wasn’t expecting such speed then saw blood, her own blood.

Before she could process, her right arm fell to the floor.