Chapter 7: Test Subject

With the sound of a whistle, Yang Bo’s face changed. The image reflected in his mind showed that the person who had just been talking to him, Wu Bing, didn’t exist at all. Something about this place seemed abnormal.

In the direction of the fish pond, it looked like a black hole. A large area was pitch black.

Yang Bo’s legs were shaking, but it wasn’t out of fear. Instead, it was excitement. It felt similar to the way his legs wouldn’t listen after previous street fights.

Yang Bo took a deep breath, pulled out his tool—it was a shovel—and slowly walked toward the fish pond.

The fish pond wasn’t big, maybe about three to five square meters. Inside, there was an artificial rock, covered in moss and ferns. The water had aquatic plants, and about a dozen little goldfish swam inside.

Bang! Just as he was about to approach the fish pond, Yang Bo swung the shovel in his hand and smashed it into the pond without looking at the result. He then dashed straight toward the courtyard gate. If things went wrong, he was ready to run first.

The moment he bolted out of the yard, Yang Bo’s peripheral vision caught sight of the shovel plunging into the fish pond. Water sprayed everywhere, and a black fish emerged from the pond, looking fierce as it opened its mouth wide and sprayed a jet of water at Yang Bo.

Upon seeing that monstrous black fish in the pond, Yang Bo realized something was amiss and immediately rolled on the ground, ending up outside the courtyard.

Camouflage +4!

A notification flashed in his mind, leaving Yang Bo stunned.

Then Yang Bo continued running. After reaching a spot about ten meters away behind a stone, he panted heavily and looked back toward the courtyard.

What he saw left him dumbfounded. Wu Bing was standing there holding a short sword, facing the massive black fish. Its head was huge, with no belly or waist, only a tail trailing behind it. Wu Bing had thrust the sword into the creature’s head.

“Yang Bo, come on in.” Wu Bing, after seeing Yang Bo peeking out from behind the stone, wiped the sweat off his forehead. If Yang Bo had died here today, Wu Bing would’ve been a joke.

“Wu-ge, is that really you?” Yang Bo was still hesitant to step inside, fearing that this Wu Bing wasn’t the real one, so he asked aloud.

“It’s me. I made a mistake this time. Come in.” Wu Bing said again.

Hearing this, Yang Bo shouted back: “Wu-ge, what did we do yesterday?”

“We were helping someone clean up the garden.”

“What did we have for lunch?”

After Wu Bing answered all of his questions, Yang Bo finally walked over, though his legs were still trembling.

“Sorry, this was my mistake.” Seeing Yang Bo’s condition and noticing his accelerated heartbeat, Wu Bing apologized with guilt.

“Wu-ge, what the heck is going on? My brain feels like mush.” Yang Bo looked at the fish, noting that its head was nearly half a meter in diameter, while its body was only about a meter long. It looked grotesque.

“First, take out the bag. I’ll explain everything in detail once we’re done here.” Wu Bing instructed.

Yang Bo took out the assigned bag. Wu Bing tossed the menacing giant fish into it and then cleaned up the black and red blood stains on the ground.

Wu Bing threw his gloves and the shovel that Yang Bo had thrown into the bag. After sealing the bag, Wu Bing finally spoke up.

“Alright, let’s go inside and talk.” Wu Bing said, holding the bag.

“Yang Bo, what I’m about to tell you, it’s best not to talk about it to anyone. If you do, you’ll disappear.” Wu Bing said grimly.

Yang Bo nodded, and only then did Wu Bing continue: “First, you need to understand, humans are not the rulers of the galaxy. In the vastness of space, humanity is insignificant. Just check how many administrative stars humans occupy. You’ll find several have gone completely silent because they’ve been destroyed.”

“Gene evolution wasn’t originally invented by humans, but by extraterrestrial beings. You may not know, but the technology humans developed to destroy planets wasn’t made to deal with other humans; it was for dealing with unknown alien life forms.”

“What you just saw—well, it’s also because of humans. The waste products or blood of certain genetically evolved humans can contaminate other organisms, which causes wild beasts to begin evolving too.”

“The most powerful creatures humans have discovered in this universe are beyond description. I don’t know much, but I do know that one of humanity’s main fleets was nearly wiped out by one.”

“Now, let me explain my job. Essentially, I work for the wealthy. These rich folks have their own starships, and you wouldn’t believe the kinds of bizarre things they collect.”

“Yesterday, the garden we cleaned—I recognized thirty-eight species of plants listed in the Galactic Federation’s endangered list. Ordinary people would face serious punishment for even touching one of them, but in that person’s garden, they were cleaned up like trash.”

“As for this place, I don’t know exactly what happened with the owner, but I reckon they’ve either died or something else. The only thing we know about the client is that they were a powerful gene evolver.”

“Information about this fish isn’t available anywhere. All I can tell you is that this fish is classified as D-level, and it possesses both illusion and camouflage abilities. It’s also one of the ingredients for producing gene evolution injections.”

Listening to this, Yang Bo wondered how the fish had two abilities, but he’d only gained one? “Speaking of gene injections, you don’t really think those B-level or higher gene evolvers made it on their own, right?” said Wu Bing.

“Wrong. They used B-level or higher gene injections. The ingredients differ, so the level differs too.”

“As for your gene evolution failure, my guess is that the company either developed a new type of injection or it wasn’t even an injection to begin with. You were likely just an experimental subject, and they didn’t need that many gene evolvers.”

Hearing this, Yang Bo’s heart sank. Was this the reason the original died? “Let me tell you a fact: hundreds of years ago, gene injections had already reached a success rate of 100%. It’s just that the results vary from person to person.”

Yang Bo was dumbfounded, but it made sense. If everyone successfully evolved, how would the differences in social standing be maintained?

“Think about it carefully. If I hadn’t been careless today, almost got you killed, you probably would’ve never known these things.” After Wu Bing finished, he waited for Yang Bo to process everything.

Yang Bo, after organizing his thoughts in his mind, asked, “Wu-ge, is society really this dark?”

“Heh, just go read a bit of history. Look at what past societies were like.” Wu Bing looked at Yang Bo with newfound admiration. After telling him so much, the kid still kept his composure.

Yang Bo thought about it and realized it made sense. Wherever humanity exists, there will always be a dark side.

After a moment, seeing that Yang Bo hadn’t asked anything further, Wu Bing asked, “Anything else you want to know?”

“Wu-ge, at your current level, how strong would you say you are?” Yang Bo asked out of personal curiosity.