Newborn

  Li Aozi sneered, "And what about the ibal?"

  "This body's code name is the ibal."

  The Professor spread her hands:

  "Don't you think it's cool? As a woman in STEM, I think it's really cool. It pletely fits my vision of a future iwined with flesh and teology beyond this meized world."

  "With just a little cost, you get a body that surpasses decades of martial arts training."

  "Teology, with a twist of fun."

  Li Aozi coldly mocked:

  "And the cost is those children?"

  "Someone has to sacrifice for sce. pared to adults who need pulsory education and e a lot of resources and time, using babies is clearly more cost-effective."

  The Professor spoke eloquently:

  "Without the straints of morality and w, time bees swift—there are her ws nor morals inds."

  "Fuck you, you bitch! All your research is built on the bones of tless babies! And the results are used on the people of the Four Nations!"

  Li Aozi ched his fist and cursed:

  "Fuck you, newborn! The people of the Outnds have already suffered immense hardships. They have nothi, yet you still take their children—their tinuation and hope! What kind of humanitarianism is this shit!"

  The Professor looked at him in surprise.

  "Strange," she said, "the first time I saw you, I thought you were just like me."

  "What?"

  "I see in you the same shadow as myself."

  The Professor said slowly:

  "We worship power, reason, and sce. We adhere to the principle of putting is first, use any means to achieve our wishes, disregard our own lives, and possess the spirit of sacrifig for our ideals..."

  She spread her arms, baring a mouthful of sharp teeth that made one's scalp tingle, and spoke softly:

  "You know, Mr. Li Aozi, I really like you."

  She raised her ostalgically, her four eyes refleg the memories of her past life:

  "When I was young, I also wao use my knowledge and power to do something for my try, for humanity."

  "I kept learning, earning one degree after another, pleting hundreds of papers, but soon, I discovered something."

  "The special medie I developed became a tool for pharmaceutical pao make a fortune, unaffordable to tless patients."

  "The virus mutation phenomenon I discovered was used to make biochemical ons, killing hundreds of thousands in pgues."

  "The ype of botulinum mask I improved to meet people's desire for beauty became a tool for spies and agents to disguise themselves."

  "I realized—no matter what teology I developed, it would ultimately be used in war."

  "How pathetiatter how much I wao be society, I ended up helping gover bureaucrats to kill."

  Li Aozi remained expressionless.

  Yavanna and Nimoti a bit ashamed hearing this.

  ——After all, they were the gover mentioned by the Professor.

  It seemed that it recisely because of the gover's problems that a passionate stist turned into an evil, ruthless, aless madwoman.

  The Professor paused and then chuckled lightly:

  "So, I decided to directly research military ons."

  "——Huh?"

  Li Aozi almost couldn't react.

  "This really saved me decades of detours."

  The Professhed:

  "The orders from the military kept increasing, my funding grew more and more, and I no longer had to worry about being choked. I could freely pursue my is."

  "Once you taste this kind of freedom, you don't want to let it go—that's why I came to the Outnds and founded Abyss Humanitarian."

  "Li Aozi, you uand, right? Urained, free to soar, without the straints of w and morality, you recklessly gather materials aract all value—this is how my power unknowingly reached the Beta tier."

  "Beast..."

  Li Aozi cursed.

  "You, who have no bottom line, are worse than a beast!"

  "Bottom lines, are they useful?"

  The Professor was unmoved:

  "Over the long years, I realized ohing: history only fets the failures and the mediocre."

  "No matter how much I ducted bottomless experiments, my stifid teological achievements are here. Precisely because I have no bottom line, I led the progress and innovation of sce!"

  "Instead of calling me a beast—why not call me the dawn of a new era?"

  Without guilt, without shame, without pressure.

  The Professor's natural words pletely ignited Li Aozi's anger.

  The ibal.

  Xue Nuo.

  Those babies who were kidnapped and imprisoned.

  The babies who had already beeen.'

  The babies stored in a dista boratory, waiting for the Professor to 'taste.'

  Red-bck eyes oozed bck blood, surrounded by a storm of sand and snow.

  The Professor's rambling became increasingly blurry as his head, like burning with high fever, kept driftiween crity and chaos.

  Ses fshed before Li Aozi's eyes.

  Extracted brains, forcibly read by death-row inmates, memories of the dead filled with despair and fear before they died; babies snatched from their mother's cradles, g untrolbly...

  g!

  A sword reeking of money seemed to stab at him, making Li Aozi's hair stand on end.

  He focused, and the Outnds were still the Outnds.

  He vaguely saw a sword emitting faint starlight shatter into pieces aually disappear.

  ——For a moment, his mind buzzed, as if a fragment had intruded.

  An irresistible force kicked him to the ground, with the sword's edge pointing at his throat.

  Someoook something from his arms.

  Pat... pat...

  A storm seemed to brew in the distance, full of anger.

  "Oh, it seems the Creator is not on our side."

  The Professor calcuted the time, it should be enough for Zhu Baiya, that idiot, to trahe babies.

  "Looks like a storm is ing, let's part ways here."

  She g Li Aozi, saying with deep affe:

  "Li Aozi, you o be better. Otherwise, how will you prove the superiority of a level five ied?"

  "You o be better than my previous subjects."

  "So, goodbye~"

  [Storm approag, ibal lost bat iion]

  [Emerge: "ibal" pleted]

  [Reward Settlement]:

  [You have gained 60,000 experience]

  [You have gaihe feat—Last Stand: When your health is below 10%, your attack speed, output rate, and toughness increase by 80%]

  [Mutant Exclusive: In your mutation, a high-level rare option will definitely appear]

  The task ended.

  All settlement requirements were met, and the rewards were substantial.

  However, as Li Aozi touched his chest and watched the ibal walk away freely, he felt ement at all.

  [I should feel happy, feel satisfied... Pyers have always been a group that prioritizes is and adheres to utilitarianism.]

  [I have heavily injured Zhu Baiya, wiped out the White Fang Gang, and Nimotin is no longer a threat.]

  [It's enough, having dohis, there is o tinue fighting. Now is not the time to csh with the Professor, I don't have the ability to kill her now, not even the risk of finishing her off—should go bad level up.]

  [But—]

  Li Aozi's pupils tracted.

  [Why?! Why someone who has dohese things live?! She took away so many babies' lives, and she wants to walk away alive?!]

  The ibal turned and swaggered off.

  "Stop."

  Li Aozi's fist remained ched.

  "Huh?" The Professor tilted her head, not even b to look back.

  Whoosh—

  A supersonic stone instantly struck at her feet, stirring up a cloud of dust.

  The swirling dust made the Professor pause, and she turned, her four eyes showing fusion.

  "You picked up your life from me; I rarely pity others... You're an exception. Li Aozi, are you sure you don't want to wait until ime? Maybe then you'll have the ce to kill me."

  "No fug ime."

  Li Aozi picked up the from the ground, his red-bck eyes filled with determination, a smile spreading across his face as blood streamed down his cheeks:

  "I don't want your pity, I want your life!"

  FAL