Chapter 486 Blood-stained Memories, Part 3
11 MONTHS AND 25 DAYS LATER.
"No, Alexis. You should not walk that way. Did"nt I tell you before that you cannot walk like a robot? Look! When you step your left foot forwards, you"re also swinging your left arm forward! That looks weird, so don"t do it!"
"?"
"Alexis, don"t you try looking at me like that. I know that you can understand me."
"?"
"Ugh, you know what, just follow what I said, and I will stop nagging you, okay?"
"…."
Inside her room, Anatta the a.s.sistant researcher could only clutch her head in despair as she observed the clone a.s.signed to her.
There was both resignation and weariness in her face at this point, making it obvious that she did not have any good time at all. The deep-colored eyebags that she had did not help in her look either, as she now looked like a person that was deprived from a month"s worth of sleep.
She seemed to be also looking sick, with the light wheezes from her nose showing the extent of her colds.
"Alexis, what did I just tell you? I said walk like a normal person! Can"t you even get that?"
"?"
"Oh my G.o.d…. Why did thing turn out like this…."
With one look at Anatta"s downcast expression and depressed aura, it was obvious that she was experiencing quite a lot of stress for the past few days, so much so that she was getting sick from it.
For a person to get sick from stress was quite unexpected, as the current technological level of the Undying Empire makes it difficult for someone to get sick, especially someone as rich as Anatta.
So whatever the cause of her stress was, it must have been so great that even Anatta"s healthy body could not cope up with it.
As for what the cause of this stress was, just one more look at Anatta"s room can easily identify it.
"Alexis, you don"t know how much you have made me stressed…."
Alexis, the first clone that had been a.s.signed to Anatta, was currently mimicking the motion of a walking human in front of Anatta. To say that he failed was an understatement, as his robot-like motions were enough to bring Anatta to the brink of despair.
Even when Anatta was continuously giving Alexis instructions, Alexis seemed to be unable to follow her, resulting in his continuous failures.
"Argh! Now you"re just messing with me Alexis! Why are you rotating your hands like a helicopter blade? No normal human walks like that!" Anatta shouted for the umpteenth time, with her voice now sounding hoa.r.s.e from all the shouting that she did. She appeared to be close to crying at this point, something that Alexis seemed to have not cared. "Alexis, please just walk properly, ok? We have been talking about your walking since last month. I am so tired of instructing you, so please just walk normally…"
Whether Alexis understood Anatta"s word was quiet unknown, as he continued to rotate his arms while he walked all around the room. This of course brought Anatta to another fit of angered grunts.
"Argh!!!"
Right now, Anatta had the urge to physically beat Alexis up, but due to her fear of the rules, she knew that laying a hand on him will just make her position worse.
"Tsk, now I understand why my uncle gave me a pitying look when I took Alexis in… He knew that something like this would happen!" Since she cannot vent her rage on Alexis, Anatta decided to just blame everything on her uncle, who did not even visit her for the past month. "He knew that teaching a clone that only has a low-grade consciousness will be a bother, and yet he did not tell it to me!"
After muttering these words to herself, Anatta looked back at Alexis once more, who still did not stop on walking with his rotating arms.
She gritted her teeth as she resisted the urge to beat up Alexis once more, and the best that she can only do was to avert her gaze away from him.
"According to what I know, all he clones of Emperor LItch have a low-grade consciousness, which makes them like emotionless puppets. They can learn a lot of things, like arithmetic, science, and even combat, but they will never be able to feel emotions or think like a normal person. They don"t have any souls… They are just human sh.e.l.ls that can function like a human, but they cannot think or feel like a human."
Anatta then let out a sigh as she placed her hands over her head, with the depressing aura around her visibly increasing.
If it were not for the fact that she had been drinking medicine for these past days, then Anatta could have already collapsed.
But even with these medicines, Anatta had the feeling that this imminent collapse was still bound to happen to her at any moment!
After all, the 1-year deadline for Anatta"s OJT with Alexis was about to end, and still, Anatta had not succeeded on managing him!
In fact, one can say that Anatta had failed miserably on handling Alexis, which is not a good way to end her OJT!
It was already a common knowledge that those who fail their OJT"s will be kicked out of the Research Center, no matter what kind of OJT they had.
This naturally includes Anatta, and not even her link to her uncle will let her keep her job!
If she fails on raising Alexis, then she will be kicked out, with all of her previous works thrown away like tras.h.!.+
For Anatta, whose dream was to be the president of the Ouroboros Research Inst.i.tute, the mere feeling of getting kicked out was something that she dreaded, and the fact that she was about to get kicked out brought her to a state of desperation!
"F**k, there"s only 5 more days left until my OJT ends, and I still could not make Alexis act normally! If this goes on, then I will be kcicked out of this place!" Anatta thought shrilly as her teeth began chattering. She seemed to be looming closer and closer to her breaking point, which is not surprising, seeing the situation that she was in.
And this miserable feeling of hers just worsened when she looked back at Alexis, who was still doing his rotating arm walk.
"Argh! What the f**k should I do? I already tried instructing Alexis in numerous ways, and he still did not respond properly to me…. Beating him up is out of question, as I only have 5 days left to teach him everything…. Huhuhu, what should I do then? If I let this go on, then I have to say goodbye to my job. Huhuhu, what should I- cough!"
A coughing fit suddenly interrupted Anatta"s thoughts, with her whole body s.h.i.+vering as her lungs did their best to expel the phlegm that was built up on it. This brought a haze of pain inside Anatta, making her double up as she covered her mouth.
"F**k, so not only is my job in jeopardy too. Even my health is at risk…." Anatta muttered as she looked at the glob of blood that came out with her cough. This glob shone sinisterly under the dark light inside her room, making her feel more hopeless compared to before.
"Argh!!!!" Anatta could only roar in rage as she began pummeling her bed, making it shake with every punch that she threw on it. With the structure that the bed had, Anatta was unable to destroy it, which just made her rage boil further.
"Argh!!!"
This led to a 10-minute round of intense bed punching, and it was only when she felt extremely weak that she stopped expending her rage.
"Plop!"
Anatta dropped back on her bed with her sweaty body, heaving large amounts of air inside her lungs as she curled herself like a cat.
Small sobs leaked out of her mouth as tears poured out of her eyes, making the bed below her get wet from the combination of tears and sweat.
Her sobs continued to echo inside the room, with each sob containing all the pent-up anger and desperation that she had been keeping for the past year.
It was a miracle that she can cry like this with her state, as she was already at the brink of severe dehydration too.
"Sob, sob…. Will I really just let myself be kicked out in this way? I still have many ideas and research to do! I cannot just be defeated by a mere idiotic clone! There"s something… that I can still do to fix all this!" Anatta said these words with a desperate tinge on her tone, making it obvious that even she did not believe what she just said.
Even when she tried to make herself psyched up, her voice still sounded down, with her tear-stained face and blood-stained mouth not helping matters.
With this kind of state, it was only a matter of time before Anatta could plunge deeper in her depression. But before this could happen, Anatta"s body suddenly jerked.
"Wait... all hope is not yet lost. There"s still one method that I can do to save myself…" Anatta muttered to herself as her body paused on s.h.i.+vering. Her voice sounded less morose compared to before, and some tinges of hope can be heard on it, although traces of suspicion and wariness were also present on it too. "But this method violates the protocols of the lab. If I get caught, I will be surely kicked out…"
Anatta"s eyes dimmed again as she reached this conclusion, but then she slapped herself with her hand, as she realized that worrying about rules is not her concern now.
"Wait, why am I even worrying about breaking the protocols? I"m about to get kicked out anyway, so breaking a rule is not the least of my worries! "
As she reached this realization, Anatta forced herself to stand up, wiping all of tears as she left her bed with unsteady steps.
She ignored what Alexis was doing as she hobble towards the door of her room, with her eyes now glowing with a steely and manic glow.
Her miserable and morose att.i.tude earlier had disappeared, as only a resolute aura could be felt coming from her body.
The contrast between Anatta from her state earlier was so great, that even the oblivious Alexis seemed to have felt it. Anatta thought nothing of this, as she grabbed Alexis by her right hand, dragging him out of her room as she began heading towards her research lab.
"Since I can"t make Alexis act normally with his low-grade consciousness, then I will upgrade his consciousness! That way, he can learn to act like a human! Hehehe, as long as I make his consciousness reach at least middle or high grade, he can easily learn everything in just 5 days. Of course I must not be caught doing this…." Anatta thought brightly as she looked around her with suspicion. "I"m not really sure on the process of upgrading a consciousness, but I can learn it easily later! I should just be really careful to not let anyone know about this…"