Chapter 10 ...
The assistant looked at the boy in the separate isolation room, and the boy smiled when he noticed her.
But now the boy is unrecognizable. His whole body is abnormally swollen. Although he is the shape of a boy, he looks like the size of two adults.
The assistant understood exactly what this so-called plague was like: a ten-day incubation period, and before his suicide, none of them could tell whether he was still himself or not.
The director said that he did it voluntarily and that he was a hero.
Most people believed it, but... Kendall is not smart at all. He learns everything slowly except fighting. It takes him a long, long time to become aware of his own emotions and know how to be sad or happy. That's why his assistant thought his smile was strange, even the curve of it didn't change. But that smile was something he practiced specifically to express goodwill to the world.
How could he possibly come up with a scheme?
He was not a researcher; he was merely an experimental subject. He had no free access to the laboratory, and all he needed to do was train.
The only people he could contact were researchers who kept training records, and recently his researchers had been silent.
It seemed that all the evidence told her that it was out of jealousy that Hōji told Kendji about this and devised a perfect scheme to kill Kendji.
The problem is... who knows how this plague will end?
The assistant recalled the director's resolute diagnosis. Perhaps all of this deserved an answer. It was true that the boy acted voluntarily, so the child was a hero. Shouldn't we at least know the answer?
What if the boy just disappears like this?
"This is the quickest way. I can guarantee that his memory will not change and he will not be replaced. At most, he will feel some pain, but it should still be within an acceptable range."
This is what Xi Ji said in a very serious tone; he admitted that he did it, but she wouldn't believe him.
Why can't it be someone else?
Why not you!
"Because my entire body has been replaced with 80% of its mecha, even if I went there, it wouldn't have any effect; it would be useless," Hu Ji said matter-of-factly.
The assistant realized she had accidentally blurted out her thoughts. Looking at the expressionless face of the man, she suddenly became serious.
"What if you were useful? If your body were still this [illegible], still attracting those damned plagues, would you go?"
"Yes." Almost without hesitation, Hakuji immediately gave his answer.
He genuinely believed that the power of the "KFC Season" brand had been significant so far. After all, there was no guarantee of 100% success and there was still some risk involved. He would definitely choose to sacrifice the lesser risks.
The assistant felt a little helpless. She could tell he was serious, but how could that be? She could tell that Hongji was not a kind person.
He hadn't spent much time with anyone here, so he couldn't possibly make the same selfless dedication as Kendall.
So why not just go and ask the culprit directly? Fueled by anger, she stormed off to find the director.
"I have a question for the director..."
As soon as the door opened, they saw the director hitting his head as if he was in great pain, with documents scattered all over the floor next to him.
The assistant immediately forgot about being angry.
"Director! What's wrong? I'll call the doctor right away!" The assistant immediately tried to go back and find a doctor.
Also, because they were worried about something happening to the director, the infirmary wasn't actually far from here; you could just turn the corner and call the doctor over.
"Wait...wait a minute! I'm fine." Maidanglu forced herself to stay awake.
Just now, his other alias, Kendji, suddenly underwent a physical mutation.
The intense twisting and pain caused him to collapse immediately while processing the documents.
Something doesn't seem right; the time shouldn't be that fast.
Although he had expected some pain, he did not expect it to be this painful, and that it would happen so suddenly.
As it happened, the assistant saw it.
The assistant had just helped the director up when the doctor burst in.
The assistant thought the doctor had come over because he heard her shouting earlier, and was about to answer when she heard the doctor say...
"Something happened to the child in the isolation room."
The group rushed over and were surprised to find that the KFC had cracked open—cracked in every sense of the word.
One person became two, and they looked exactly alike.
After a while, they gently opened their eyes, their gazes identical.
According to the director, they have the same memories, the same appearance, and the same reactions; a mature mother would not exhibit suicidal behavior.
How can we distinguish them?
But the director pressed on, and then opened the door.
Then, with a gentle smile, he said, "Come here..." He opened his arms like a father taking a child, and half-squatted down, as if he wanted to hug him.
The two boys' eyes lit up, and they ran over quickly, shouting, "Hug..."
One after the other, the boy in the back was a little further away, but their expressions were exactly the same, and even their steps were in sync. The boy was about to run into the director.
The assistant was on tenterhooks, terrified that the director would be touched and infected.
Just as the first boy was only a step away from him— *sizzle*—
The boy's smile froze on his face. He looked down and saw a not-too-sharp stone on his chest.
It was forcibly and violently inserted into his body.
His face immediately turned pale, and his first reaction was to ask the director for help, but he saw the director, who had been smiling, stand up and take a step back.
The director's eyes remained fixed on him, but he couldn't understand why he could stand by and do nothing.
No, they've only known each other for less than six months, so why would I trust him so much?
Why—oh, he seems to have always been quite ruthless. Does he just need a hero and an obedient Kentucky?
Maybe I'm real, maybe I'm fake, but it doesn't really matter to him. Another Kendall won, he died, so he is the only Kendall.
But I'm so jealous. Even if he doesn't care about me that much, maybe he doesn't even want to touch me.
But he still trusted the director, just as much as he trusted himself.
"..." She opened her mouth, then suddenly realized that she didn't even know how to address him, and it seemed that he had never called her that in her memory.
"I hope the other me is real..." That way you won't be sad. Maybe even if the real me died, you wouldn't be sad.
He glanced one last time at the other boy behind him and asked, puzzled, "Aren't you afraid that I'm the real one? If that happens, neither of us will survive."
Of course he wasn't afraid; he could clearly tell which one was his disguise.
"How can someone like you touch him? What if you get infected? That's his true form!"
"Is that so?" Filled with doubt, he fell into a deep sleep.
This is also the tragedy of the mimicry of the virus, as it inherits everything from its host, whether it is happiness, sadness, or grief, so it cannot distinguish between the real and the fake.
As the mother organism, it absorbed too much nutrition. As the host, it would not die, but instead could inherit the mimicry of the plague, and the memories of both would merge.
Once the host dies, the parasite also dies; this is written in the inheritance. Because the memories are the same, even they themselves cannot distinguish whether they are the original or not. Therefore, in order to survive, they will not kill each other.
Then, over time, the parasite will completely replace the original owner, and then everyone will gradually forget and ignore the original owner. Then, at some point, it will break apart and release mature seeds, which will reproduce and multiply in the same way.
The only question is, why do they behave differently when their memories are exactly the same?
This sudden turn of events terrified the assistant, who almost thought Kendrick had been killed by the imposter. She tried to rush in to save Kendrick, but thankfully the doctor stopped her.
The doctor was incredibly calm now; he knew the director must have a reason for doing this.
Sure enough, after a short while, the "KFC" on the ground turned into a black, viscous substance.
"This... is a product of radiation." The doctor recognized the origin of the substance at a glance.
The director nodded in agreement.
He glanced at KFC, then left expressionlessly. The blood splattered on his body was so disgusting that he almost lost control of his expression.
The assistant immediately looked at Kent, "You..." Sure enough, she saw a disappointed expression (Kent was unhappy about the blood splattering on him, and when he noticed the assistant's expression, he hurriedly composed himself, but didn't manage to completely hide it).
He couldn't help but pat the boy's head.
"Go see a doctor for a check-up first."
"Mmm." This boy was always so well-behaved that it broke your heart.
The doctor gave the boy a brief examination, and after confirming that there were no problems, took him home.
Just then, I saw the director and said in a teasing tone, "Hey! Director! Kenji has done such a great job, shouldn't you reward him?"
A reward? He doesn't seem to lack anything, and isn't this just putting what's in his left hand to his right?
"He can come and go from the lab freely from now on. If there's nothing else, I'll be going now." He didn't have time to talk about these things; he needed to properly appease the large number of people below him who had been infected.
"That's too stingy! I'll place the order!" the doctor exclaimed excitedly. "From now on, KFC will be based at your place!"
"Okay, okay."
Seriously, you didn't listen to anything I said at all?
The assistant then came over with the boy's clothes. "I still don't understand why the director was able to tell them apart so quickly?"
"Who said he could tell the difference?" the doctor said dismissively.
"Huh? You didn't distinguish them?"
"In the end, it was Kendall himself who killed the other one. Remember when the director squatted down? That was actually an implication because the director would never normally do that."
"hint?"
"It was almost an explicit statement, because they couldn't be sure if they were real. What if it was fake? If they ran into the director, the director wouldn't survive. That's why Kendall didn't care whether it was real or fake; he wouldn't let him get hurt, as long as there was a chance."
"What if Kendall didn't understand the hint, or what if the other person did?"
"Then maybe they'll both die together..." Do you expect the director to die?
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