Chapter 1: The Base
Kapa Star, East Valley Abandoned Area.
However, in October, it was already snowing heavily outside, and the cold wind howled through the wilderness and various abandoned residential areas.
In an abandoned petri dish base, culture medium shimmering with tiny golden light flowed from a broken artificial uterus dish.
"Cough cough cough..."
A pale, thin hand emerged from the petri dish behind it, and the small figure slid down the automatically opening spout of the petri dish onto the ground, following the flowing liquid.
Anno spat out the culture medium and tried to stand up by holding onto the petri dish, but her legs were too weak to support her and she could only crawl on the ground with difficulty.
Suddenly, her gaze fell on her own hands. The hands in front of her were fair and delicate, completely different from her own hands, which were calloused from training and scarred from injuries.
Looking at the hand in front of her, which was much smaller than before, Anuo was stunned. Wasn't she already... dead?
Where is this place?
Anno placed her hand on her chest; she still remembered the dull pain of the knife piercing her heart.
Anno took a couple of breaths, leaned against the strange transparent jar he had just climbed out of, and looked up at his surroundings.
It resembled a giant assembly line factory, with a very high ceiling that gave it a more expansive feel. Everywhere she looked were rows of neatly arranged transparent tanks, covered with words she couldn't understand, but followed by numbers—presumably serial numbers. Each tank was connected to numerous tubes, two of which were attached to an instrument in front of the tank.
However, all the tanks were empty, and the instruments were covered in dust.
The entire factory gave her a sense of antiquity and decay, but the tanks, instruments, and some hollowed-out machines with exposed cores gave her a sense of technology that was ahead of its time.
It resembled a futuristic world scene she had seen in movies before.
She lived in a post-apocalyptic world of genetic mutations, where humans had to fight against mutated creatures and kill each other, and technological development had long since stagnated.
Anno's eyes fell on the transparent tank in front of her. She had just come out of this tank, and this was the only tank in the entire factory that still contained her.
The liquid inside the tank, shimmering with tiny golden light, was still flowing out. The instrument in front of the tank was also lit up, with something that looked like a signal light flashing red light regularly.
Anuo turned her head and her gaze fell on a smooth mirror. In the reflection, she saw her own image. It was still the same face she used to know, but much smaller, and she looked only two or three years old.
Is she rejuvenated?
Anno was still wondering about her situation when she heard a sound coming from not far away. She immediately became alert, struggled to her feet, and hid under a workbench nearby.
She peeked out and saw seven or eight people coming in. Two of them were carrying a briefcase. They opened the briefcases one after the other, and the briefcases were filled with a pile of black ore.
Behind them was a huge box with wheels. The man in the lead tapped a few times on his personal terminal, entered a password, and opened the box. The black box panel fell down, revealing the scene inside.
Inside the box was a little boy who looked about seven or eight years old.
The little boy was filthy, with a pair of hard, black horns on his head. His hair was long and messy, as if it hadn't been groomed in a long time, and his golden eyes held a ferocious, beast-like ruthlessness.
As soon as the box was opened, he rushed to the cage and breathed fire at the group of people.
Everyone dodged the fire and stared at the boy in astonishment.
A man with scales covering his face and a thick lizard tail kicked the cage and said, "Be careful, this little brat is an A-level Flame Dragon variant. It can already fully transform into a beast, and it's very dangerous."
After he finished speaking, he looked at the man in a black trench coat who was leaning against the control panel.
The man was tall, with half of his face hidden by his high collar. His short black hair was messy, which obscured most of the sharpness in his eyes and gave him a somewhat unkempt and decadent look.
"Hicks, the price we agreed on before, business has been bad lately. Once you've inspected the goods, we'll settle the payment on delivery."
Hicks, who was leaning against the control panel, was about to say something when he suddenly stopped. He smelled an unusual scent in the air.
That was the smell of the culture medium in the artificial womb dish, mixed with a faint, foreign scent...
No, it's not a variant.
Hicks sniffed again, noticing the scent of pure energy. Hicks' pupils contracted—it was... the spark?!
How could there be a spark on this garbage planet?!
Hicks's primary gene is wolf, giving him an exceptionally sensitive nose. Before becoming an undercover agent, he was the CEO of the Federal Inspectorate, where he frequently encountered those delicate and precious sparks of life. This scent and energy are definitely not wrong.
"Hicks, what do you think? This price really can't be lowered."
Seeing that Hicks hadn't said anything, the seller became a little uneasy.
It's not that I'm afraid he won't accept it, it's just that I'm afraid he'll try to lower the price.
Hicks glanced discreetly at Anno's hiding place before fixing his gaze on the seller in front of him. "The checks have been strict lately. You haven't been tracked, have you?"
The man leading the seller patted his chest and assured him, "Don't worry, this kid is an unregistered person. You can't even find his identity on the internet. Haven't you seen enough abandoned bastards like him? You can tame him for a while and then throw him into the arena. You're guaranteed to make a fortune!"
Hicks scoffed, pulled a metal cigarette case from his pocket, lit a cigarette, and said, "You guys have some nerve, daring to steal even aliens."
"He is a hybrid with a more beast-like appearance, not a pure hybrid. We captured him from the exile area. Don't worry, he was definitely not stolen. He has no identity."
Hicks exhaled a puff of smoke, his sharp eyes sweeping over the men they were trading with, confirming that they were telling the truth.
Recently, the animals purchased by the arena have all been unidentifiable. He tracked them down for a while and found out that these people actually dared to capture people in the exile area. They were bolder than risking their lives.
Hicks glanced at the boy in the cage again. He had been very agitated just moments before, but now he had suddenly calmed down.
He noticed that the boy was gripping the cage bars with both hands, looking ahead, and following his gaze was the location of the fire that he had just noticed.
Hicks' expression hardened slightly. If a spark were to be born in this petri dish, he would have to deal with this group of people quickly.
He took a deep drag of his cigarette and slowly exhaled, then threw the butt on the ground and stomped it out. He said to the seller, "Business at the arena isn't easy these days. Those people from the Federation keep sending people to investigate, and the price is still the same. But if something goes wrong, we'll all be in deep trouble."
"Hicks, you're a long-time customer of ours, would we lie to you? We don't dare to do business with mutants anymore. What we catch are mostly beasts, and even those with mutant genes are more beast-like. They don't have their genetic code recorded, so you can use them with confidence."
Anno, who was hiding in the back, listened to their conversation with suspicion and uncertainty in his heart.
What is a variant species? What is a beast species?
She also saw the boy locked in the cage, and she sensed a very strong and violent energy emanating from him.
Sensing this energy, she unconsciously wanted to comfort him.
As she thought this, a faint energy burst forth from her body and flowed toward the boy.
Anno was surprised to find that she could sense a gentle, water-like energy connecting her and the boy, which calmed his volatile energy and spirit.
After being calmed down by the strange energy emanating from her, the boy kept staring in her direction, but he looked away when the men's gazes fell on him.
The men in black were making their transaction and didn't notice anything unusual about the boy.
Anno noticed that the men were carrying guns and weapons, which were very different from those she had seen before, but she could tell from their design that they were guns.
She is only the size of a two or three-year-old, and has little strength, so she doesn't dare to show herself easily.
Those people didn't look like good people at all. Judging from their conversation, they were buying and selling boys. They were a group of human traffickers!
In the post-apocalyptic world she lived in, there were also human traffickers who bought and sold living people. If she encountered them and their strength was inferior to hers, she would kill them with her own hands.
For now, we can only wait and see.
Anno had just come out of the petri dish, completely naked. Although the thermostat was still running in the base, she still felt cold. She curled up and waited for the group to leave.
"Beep...beep...beep..."
Suddenly, a rhythmic sound rang out in front of Anuo. Anuo's heart skipped a beat, and she looked up to see a device in front of the transparent tank she had just come out of calling out.
She hadn't paid much attention to the instrument that had been on, but now it was emitting a sharp "beep" sound that was particularly clear in the vast, quiet factory.
She was too short to reach the instrument's operating table, so she could only watch helplessly as the instrument beeped.
After a few beeps, a noisy "hissing" sound came from the instrument, and intermittent human voices could be heard from inside.
"...the research institute...received...a distress message..."
"This is... Federal Headquarters... Locating... Confirming the spark... Information..."
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