Chapter 9: Leo’s Camouflage

  Leo’s senses were terrifyingly clear. Every detail was etched into his perception.

  The Fire Keeper had assaulted him with metabolic waste rich in nanites. Then, she and her two accomplices had subjected him to a session of surgical torture, disemboweling him in a gruesome spectacle.

  But he wasn't dead. He was alive.

  As for that blue light... it looked suspiciously like Cherenkov Radiation.

  Is it for radiotherapy? Or some kind of luminescent imaging?

  He pulled up the medical pod’s logs. His gaze landed first on the date. A full Earth month had passed!

  He scanned all the medical data. It looked less like an execution and more like a massive internal decontamination.

  Strange. What exactly are they trying to do to me?

  Fortunately, the nanites hadn't triggered a cytokine storm, nor were there signs of them invading his cranial neurons. In fact, the degeneration of his spinal nerves showed signs of reversal. He twitched a fingertip; the movement was shockingly smooth.

  He narrowed his eyes, catching a glimpse of his arm. It was as pristine as the day he was born.

  Something is wrong.

  This isn't interrogation. This is treatment.

  But why?

  Human Experimentation! The chilling realization of being "experimental fodder" exploded in his mind.

  Someone was coming. Leo immediately shut his eyes. The footsteps were light, carrying the rhythm of a piano.

  It was the Fire Keeper! That madwoman who wore a mask of piety.

  She was wearing a simple white dress, her golden hair loose. She didn't look like the high-and-mighty Totem of the Silver Ring, but rather like a girl from next door.

  She began to pray for him again.

  "Thank the Supreme One..." Her voice was soft, trembling slightly. "You are finally complete in this turbid world. You are the Redemption granted to me by God..."

  Leo sneered internally.

  Redemption? Typical brainwashing terminology.

  The so-called "Complete" probably refers to my immune system accepting those damned nanite bugs!

  I am her lab rat! Exactly!

  The Fire Keeper continued her prayer: "Wake up soon... I want to hear your voice, I want to touch you again..."

  Hearing these words, if he hadn't been physically restrained, Leo would have jumped up.

  Is that not enough? What other perverted interrogation methods do you intend to use on me?

  No, it's not that simple. This must be her new strategy!

  She wants to manipulate me by activating my Dopamine Reward Mechanism! Just like using candy to build emotional dependency in a white mouse, and then controlling its behavior through deprivation.

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  Vicious!

  But as long as I don't give her any feedback, her operant conditioning will be interrupted due to a lack of data support.

  Leo suppressed his physiological reactions with an iron will, not allowing even a micro-tremor of his eyelashes.

  Sure enough, after the Fire Keeper gazed "affectionately" at him for over ten minutes, she left with feigned disappointment, looking back three times before disappearing.

  Victory!

  But not long after, the "Old Hag" arrived at the medical pod.

  She wore a surgical assistance exoskeleton, her fingers tapping rapidly on the pod's control panel.

  "Spinal nerve reconnection rate at 100%, yet cortical activity remains at the dormancy baseline?" She stared at Leo, her eyes glowing with the red light of an electric scalpel. "Doctor Leo, I come from a medical background too. Don't insult my intelligence, and don't underestimate the consciousness monitoring algorithms of the Raphael Type-3."

  Leo held his breath.

  "Still pretending?" Mora suddenly tapped the panel. "Then let's see if your Autonomic Nervous System is as strong as your willpower."

  With a sharp beep, it felt as if wet concrete was instantly poured into Leo’s throat.

  His alveoli began to constrict, his diaphragm spasmed, and his heart rate spiked in compensation!

  Survival instincts roared: Open your mouth! Gasp for air! Spring up and smash the glass!

  But he understood. This was a death match between Willpower and Biological Instinct.

  Don't move. Even if you die, don't move.

  Mora stared at the jumping numbers.

  Ten seconds. Twenty seconds. Thirty seconds.

  Only when Leo’s vision began to black out did the oxygen re-engage.

  A look of meaningful inquiry appeared in Mora’s eyes.

  "Deep coma... or perhaps hijacked by the nanites? Interesting."

  She leaned down, speaking to the pod wall.

  "You'd better stay asleep, boy. What is your relationship with Morrison? What did he hide inside you? If you are in league with him, you'd better tell me. Otherwise, I will lock you in this jar forever, like a sealed vampire."

  Mora left.

  Leo let out a breath. Lucky I’ve done anaerobic training, or I would have overloaded.

  But the true danger is always silent.

  No footsteps. No sound of the door opening. Not even a disturbance in the airflow.

  When Leo realized the existence of the bodyguard called "Crow," the man was already perched like a giant black bird on the edge of the medical pod. He didn't know how long he had been there.

  Click. He heard the sound of metal striking metal.

  The killer was using the medical pod's cover as a maintenance bench. He had disassembled a Gauss pistol and a high-frequency vibro-blade from his arm.

  He took out a velvet cloth and wiped them slowly. One stroke, two strokes. The movements were slow, but each stroke felt like it was wiping across Leo's aorta.

  "Drop the act." Crow’s voice sounded like striking copper sheets, casual and indifferent. "Only Her Holiness the Fire Keeper still thinks you haven't woken up."

  Leo's muscles tensed instantly.

  This guy's behavioral pattern isn't built on logic or perception, but on Combat Intuition.

  Crow continued to display his arsenal—tools of Death itself.

  "I don't care if you're awake or dead. Whether you're an Earth fugitive, a Martian agent, or a spy for the Privy Council, it doesn't matter." Crow suddenly flipped his hand back, and a blue electric arc crackled in the air.

  "But if you dare harbor any twisted thoughts about Her Holiness... I will strip your brain and spinal cord out, pickle them in a jar of alcohol, and turn you into a Votive Lamp behind the temple."

  Finished with his maintenance, Crow packed up his tools and vanished without a trace.

  The medical pod filled with white noise again.

  If he hadn't been soaked in gel, Leo would have been drenched in cold sweat.

  The situation was now crystal clear: The "business partners" he thought he was negotiating with were actually three monsters.

  A Fire Keeper who feigned mercy but was a true pervert.

  A Venomous Woman who looked frail but possessed supreme medical technology.

  And a Death Machine driven by pure instinct.

  Things were far more complex than he realized. Before figuring out the true state of affairs, it was best to continue playing dead.

  He began to ponder a new counter-attack plan when suddenly, Mora’s words hooked into his hippocampus like a barbed fishhook.

  "Morrison... is he connected to these three monsters?"

  The ceiling of reality began to distort and dissolve.

  Leo was forcibly dragged back to that ordinary night.

  He stood in the basement of the Silver Order Hospital, before that black keypad door that only the highest clearance could open. Condensate dripped from his hair, pooling on the sterile floor.

  The door opened. Teacher Morrison stood in the shadows.

  The old man, always benevolent in front of students, now had eyes filled with a fanaticism and coldness that made Leo’s skin crawl.

  "Put this on." Morrison handed him a holographic mask, thin as a cicada's wing and still pulsating slightly.

  "The surgery you are participating in tonight is not on a human," Morrison pointed to the massive container behind him, shrouded in black cloth.

  "It is God!"

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  Chapter 10 tomorrow!