“Look!” Raffles pointed excitedly at the displayed conclusion. “The conclusion is out. There is no strengthened superpower. This embryo has been determined to be an ordinary human. Both parents" superpower genes have not been pa.s.sed down, nor does it have any new superpowers. It is only an ordinary human.” Raffles studied the conclusion, his eyes s.h.i.+mmering. “So, this combination has failed and needs to be destroyed.”
“Destroyed?!”
Raffles turned back to the gla.s.s container as he spoke. With one touch of a b.u.t.ton, the cell in the holographic image that had already turned into an embryo immediately shattered into pieces in an explosion!
The holographic image had no sound, but there was an ear-deafening explosion in my head. *Bang!*
My head went blank and there was nothing but floating debris before me.
My heart instantly quivered at the sight before me.
What is Raffles doing?!
What is he doing with Cang Yu?!
“There will only be one to two strengthened embryos in a hundred experiments…” Raffles explained to me excitedly. “Metahumans" genes are categorized as dominant or recessive genes. Two powerful metahumans might not necessarily create a more powerful metahuman. On the contrary, it might possibly create an ordinary person. We call this reversion…”
“What are you doing?!” Unable to hold myself back, I roared at Raffles.
Stunned, he blinked. “I"m creating metahumans. Lil Bing, come here and take a look!” Smiling excitedly, he pulled me to another end and pressed on a b.u.t.ton by the side. A wall slid aside, and a s.p.a.cious white warehouse appeared before me.
“This is the gene bank in Silver Moon City,” Raffles introduced to me excitedly.
The platform under our feet rose to hover in the air and stopped before a tall frozen warehouse. Raffles touched the board on the warehouse, which then turned transparent. Behind it, I saw rows of embryos with visible limbs and brains lined up neatly.
“These are all strengthened embryos,” Raffles said excitedly. “Once the number of population in Silver Moon City drops due to war, we can withdraw a bunch of them and put them into genetic liquid. In just one month!” he continued with great excitement, “In just one month, an embryo can grow into a mature adult . A metahuman will give him memories, so that he would think that he grew up in Silver Moon City since young.”
I stared at Raffles in shock. How can he be so excited!?
Does he know how merciless and cruel what he just said sounded?!
What have humans become?
Have humans become toys on a production line?
Or poultry in a farm?
Does he know what he is doing?
He is conducting experiments on human beings!
The embryos are already put through survival of the fittest in his hands!
How can he be so cruel?!
I simply can"t believe that the Raffles I like, who was innocent and kind, has become a butcher!
He even found it right and proper!
These people will wake up thinking that they"ve grown up in Silver Moon City?! They won"t even know that they were produced in the cultivation cabin!
The people that I see in Silver Moon City, those who joked with me, ate with me, attended cla.s.ses with me, trained with me, and the young men who are fighting in the war, how many of them have been produced like that?!
They are sacrificing for Silver Moon City, yet their genes are constantly used for experiments. Their children have become experiments!
I can"t accept that. I can"t accept a reality like that! I can"t accept such cruel experiments.
At once I turned to leave. I can"t accept a Raffles who does such things!
“Lil Bing! What"s wrong?” Raffles was confused.
I hopped back down to the lab and shook off his arm. I glanced at him in disappointment and sorrow.
He became anxious. “Lil Bing, what"s wrong? Why are you suddenly angry?”
I pointed at the cultivation box and roared, “Think about it! If they are our children, how would you feel?!”
He was stunned. He looked at the cultivation box, dumbfounded. His gaze became complicated.
I turned and left.
I knew that it was the end of the world and I knew that there was a lack of resources.
Maybe turning someone from an embryo into an adult was considered to be conserving resources. Maybe selecting embryos with better genes was considered to be conserving resources.
However, the world I"d come from had told me that this was inhuman. It was a gap that was hard to cross.
This gap wasn"t due to a difference in year or time, but a difference in s.p.a.ce or even the universe!
If Raffles had failed in the fertilization stage, or if the embryo had failed to survive after fertilization, or if he"d gotten the consent of the biological parents, I would have felt better.
But what I had seen was him blowing up the embryo as though he was casually throwing out rubbish. His merciless and cruel scientific perspective gave me the chills.
He wasn"t the Raffles I knew.
No… Raffles didn"t change. It is me who can"t accept it…
When he"d first laid eyes on Second Sis, his first response had been to use Second Sis for experiments…
He"d injected the strengthener for human genes into Second Sis for experimental purposes as well…
The environment provided in Silver Moon City had magnified his cruelty. The abundant gene bank had allowed him to freely conduct experiments as he wished...
I continued to walk forward while he followed behind.
Although I ignored him, he followed behind me hastily without uttering a word.
I returned to my room. My training room had been converted into a painting room. I turned to close the door behind me.
Raffles quickly stopped the door from closing. “Lil Bing, I can stop if you don"t like me doing this. From a scientific viewpoint, they are only cells and are yet to be a living thing. Plus, at the end of the world, ordinary people would only suffer if they are born.”
“I know!” I had never thought that there would be a day when I roared at Raffles. My temples clenched and throbbed in pain. Holding my head, I said, “Let me sort this out in my head. I don"t want to see you for the next two days…” I closed the door, shutting Raffles" sad and disappointed face out of my sight.
I know. I know it all.
I knew the cruelty of the end of the world. I knew that in the world I had come from, the embryo could be aborted if it was disabled in any way.
Was it better to give birth to a child with Down"s Syndrome, or was it better to remove the child before it was formed? That dilemma already existed in the world I"d come from.
The doctor definitely had to get the parents" feedback on that. The parents would experience great difficulty when making the decision as well.
I knew that everything was due to the special circ.u.mstances at the end of the world. However, I felt that the act of producing human lives on a production line like a factory made the existence of humans lose its meaning. Like mere tables and chairs, humans would be manufactured, selected, and destroyed.
Hence, in the world I had come from, parents carried feelings towards their unborn children. They would feel guilty and sad. They would cry for that lump of cells that had yet to be born.
That was what being human truly meant. We humans had feelings.