Chapter 68: The Truth

Because she was currently using “Silkworm” to consume Xiao Feng, when Xia Mi drew the “8” this time, even more memories surfaced in her mind.

These memories were agonizing.

Xiao Feng had lived in a laboratory since birth. He was a naturally occurring “Rong,” a precious experimental subject for the Immortal Foundation. They would not let him die, but the experiments were excruciating.

It could be said that from the moment Xiao Feng became conscious, he had been passively enduring pain.

When a person suffers too much, they can lose the will to live.

At one point, he became extremely fragile and lost his desire to survive, making it impossible to continue the experiments.

If this went on, he would no longer be able to maintain his human identity. He would be completely swallowed by “Zhuo” and become something the Immortal Foundation could not control.

To stabilize Xiao Feng, the Immortal Foundation began trying to implant “ideas” in him.

They told Xiao Feng that all the pain he endured was for the sake of becoming a “King,” for the sake of ruling the world.

Repeated brainwashing awakened Xiao Feng’s desire. He persisted with the experiments for the sake of becoming the “Queen Bee.”

The amount of Zhuo Coins a “Rong” body could hold was limited. Even for someone like Liao Tianhua, being able to hold 300 Zhuo Coins was already no easy feat.

But that was still far from enough to contain the “Queen Bee.”

After many experimental modifications, Xiao Feng absorbed a great deal of “Zhuo” and “Shi” cultivated by the Immortal Foundation. His internal capacity kept expanding and soon exceeded the equivalent of five thousand Zhuo Coins.

It was still far from enough, but this was already Xiao Feng’s limit.

No matter what kind of experiment they tried, nothing worked. Xiao Feng had not expanded his capacity for two years.

For that reason, the Immortal Foundation decided to take a risk and let Xiao Feng contain the “Queen Bee.”

Xiao Feng was only a little over twelve years old and still in his growth phase. If he could contain the dormant “Queen Bee,” he might adapt to it and expand his capacity as the Queen Bee grew.

At the moment, Xiao Feng was the most suitable candidate to become the “Queen Bee,” and because he was so young, he had tremendous room to grow and the greatest hope of success.

So Xiao Feng underwent the experiment, and it succeeded, at least at first.

After that came the scene Xia Mi had seen before.

After enduring over a decade of painful experiments, Xiao Feng had the “Queen Bee” snatched away by Xia Mi with effortless ease.

He did not die because of the “Queen Bee,” but he did lose his qualification to become the “Queen Bee.”

What made it even more absurd was that the goal he had fought for over ten years was taken from him so easily by Xia Mi. Neither the Immortal Foundation nor Xiao Feng could make sense of it.

From that moment on, Xiao Feng hated Xia Mi.

Xia Mi had turned his entire life into a joke.

Since the Immortal Foundation could not control Xia Mi, they did not abandon Xiao Feng. Instead, they continued to cultivate him.

And after briefly merging with the “Queen Bee,” Xiao Feng’s capacity had increased as well. He could now hold the energy of ten thousand Zhuo Coins and possessed many special abilities. He was a walking weapon all by himself.

Once the Immortal Foundation confirmed that they absolutely could not control Xia Mi, they decided to reclaim the “Queen Bee.”

Over the years, they had also made many new discoveries, which led to the Y-Series “Zhuo” and the True Self Mirror incident.

After repeated setbacks, they finally sent Xiao Feng, their trump card, into action.

And Xiao Feng had long since been unable to hold himself back.

For Xiao Feng, the ideal method was to have a sexual relationship with Xia Mi.

The Immortal Foundation judged that the “Queen Bee” had been sealed by Xia Mi for too long and would likely be eager to escape her seal, but simply had no opportunity.

Once Xiao Feng and Xia Mi became intimate, the “Queen Bee” would be drawn to Xiao Feng and return to his body.

And according to the Immortal Foundation’s tests, that method had a very high success rate.

They had been monitoring Xia Mi for four years and had some understanding of her personality. She had never dated, her love life was a blank slate, and she was very fond of handsome men. She should have a hard time resisting the sweet talk of someone good-looking.

On top of that, Xiao Feng could shapeshift and had a mysterious resonance with the “Queen Bee.” As long as he got close enough, he could sense the direction of Xia Mi’s emotions. Even if his true appearance could not seduce her, he could transform into whatever she liked and use the instinctive attraction between the “Queen Bee” and himself to achieve his goal.

But what Xiao Feng never expected was that Xia Mi was truly impervious to everything. She did not like pretty boys, she could suppress physical impulses just by glancing at her paycheck, and her strongest emotional attachment was to her position, not to any specific person.

It was as if she did not have love at all.

Xiao Feng did not want to fight Xia Mi head-on. He felt that this method could not wash away the humiliation he had suffered.

Back then, Xia Mi had snatched the “Queen Bee” away in a single encounter, and he had spent all these years thinking of her, obsessing over her. By now, his hatred and affection had long since become inseparable, and even he no longer knew what kind of feeling it truly was.

These feelings could not be resolved simply by defeating Xia Mi.

Xiao Feng wanted to conquer Xia Mi.

He wanted Xia Mi to submit to his charm, to become his captive, and then he would take the “Queen Bee” away and make Xia Mi feel despair.

But he could not do it.

Through their mental communication, Xia Mi clearly read Xiao Feng’s unwillingness.

No wonder that in the first game ending, Xiao Feng had chosen to self-destruct because of Xia Mi’s disgust.

This was mainly because, first, Xiao Feng had controlled the nest at the time. He might have escaped by shedding his shell like a cicada¹, meaning his body had not actually died.

Second, after seeing Xia Mi’s expression of utter disgust and realizing that she had not absorbed the Fake Zhou Humans, he had confirmed that he could not obtain the “Queen Bee” in that nest. He then made up his mind to destroy the thing most important to Xia Mi, so that she would suffer the same pain and despair he felt.

In fact, if things had really followed the first ending, Xiao Feng would have succeeded.

Xia Mi did not care about the “Queen Bee” at all, but she cared about her position and her achievements. By ruining Xia Mi’s career, Xiao Feng would have ensured that her future life was probably even more painful than the four years Xiao Feng had spent as Xiao Feng.

It seemed that in the first game ending, Xiao Feng had truly sensed the specific target of Xia Mi’s emotions through her disgust and made a very accurate choice.

Fortunately, none of that happened.

Through Xiao Feng’s memories, Xia Mi learned many things.

She learned where Xiao Feng had grown up. It was an uninhabited island near Thailand. What was interesting was that above the sea, the island was only the size of a reef, while beneath the surface lay the island’s massive true body. The Immortal Foundation’s core laboratory was located inside the island.

Because Thailand was the closest place, Xiao Feng had chosen to go there to feed after containing the “Queen Bee.”

Xia Mi also learned Xiao Feng’s real name: “Project Queen Bee No. 8.” The entire base laboratory called him “Queen Bee No. 8,” and some people called him Xiao Ba². But after losing the “Queen Bee,” Xiao Feng began calling himself Xiao Feng.

Because the true “Queen Bee” already existed, the other experimental subjects could no longer be given the name “Queen Bee.”

The Immortal Foundation had once forcibly named certain experimental subjects “Queen Bee,” but those subjects would quickly wither and die. Even if the Immortal Foundation did no experiments and allowed them to grow naturally, they would still die.

Xiao Feng told the people at the Immortal Foundation that this was because the “Queen Bee” candidates would slaughter one another until the true “Queen Bee” was decided.

Once an experimental subject was given the name “Queen Bee,” it meant the slaughter had already begun.

The “Queen Bee” and other Zhuo-related products were connected by pheromones. Even if they were far apart, they could sense anything that threatened them and launch long-distance hunts to pursue the enemy. That was why the experimental subjects gradually died.

If the power of those experimental subjects exceeded that of the “Queen Bee,” then the ones who would die would be the “Queen Bee” and Xia Mi.

Xiao Feng knew full well that his strength was inferior to the “Queen Bee,” so he did not dare take that name.

The moment he changed his name, it proved that he had already lost this battle. He had willingly submitted to the “Queen Bee.” Once Xia Mi entered the communication network, Xiao Feng’s consciousness would inevitably be lower than hers.

After many experimental subjects died in succession, the Immortal Foundation finally became honest and stopped trying to give them the name “Queen Bee.”

Through Xiao Feng, Xia Mi also learned about the people behind the Immortal Foundation and their goals.

These were things the people from the Immortal Foundation had told Xiao Feng before he decided to contain the “Queen Bee.”

The people behind the Immortal Foundation were some international financial conglomerates that controlled wealth worth hundreds of trillions, dominated nations, and possessed everything except immortality.

They could use certain inhuman methods to extend their lives, but they could not transcend human limits.

For the sake of immortality, they turned their eyes to “Zhuo.”

In theory, so long as “Zhuo” continued absorbing human emotional energy, it could achieve immortality.

They wanted to become stable “Rong,” use the power of “Rong” to spread nests and devour the lives of ordinary people, and thereby achieve immortality.

But the chance of becoming “Rong” was too random to be mass-produced, while “Shi” was far too unstable and could easily collapse and disintegrate into monsters.

At that point, the appearance of the “Queen Bee” caught the Immortal Foundation’s attention.

The “Queen Bee” was not something they had created themselves, but something that existed naturally.

When the world’s population reached a certain level, the number of “Zhuo” would also reach a threshold. Once that threshold was crossed, a “King” would naturally emerge among the “Zhuo.”

If all countries worked as hard as the Supernatural Handling Bureau to eliminate “Zhuo,” then no “King” could possibly be born from such a small scale.

But there were organizations like the Immortal Foundation deliberately cultivating “Zhuo.” In some underdeveloped countries, backward countries, and countries torn by war, they used ordinary people’s lives to nurture and study “Zhuo,” forcibly expanding its scale until the “Queen Bee” was born.

Xiao Feng knew the meaning of his existence.

His purpose was to merge with the “Queen Bee,” dominate it, and use its power to assist the powerful figures behind the Immortal Foundation in becoming “Rong,” thereby achieving immortality.

In this way, he could follow those powerful figures, become one of them, and live forever.

Would Xiao Feng, who possessed the power of the “Queen Bee,” rebel?

He would not.

Because no matter how strong the “Queen Bee” was, it could not defeat modern weapons.

Even if the “Queen Bee” could spread a huge nest, or even control a country, countries were not all equal. A country the size of Vatican City was not on the same level as a nation with over a billion people and tens of millions of square kilometers of territory.

Even as the “Queen Bee,” he could not defeat nuclear weapons, nor could he control the global economy and power.

But as long as he was willing to serve those powerful figures, he could have all of that.

Xiao Feng had been brainwashed by the Immortal Foundation since childhood, and after being fed these ideas over and over, he did not think there was anything wrong with them.

He believed that with such enormous ambition, he would absolutely be able to become a “King.” He believed he had the breadth of spirit to become a “King” and stand above the world.

Who would have thought that he never expected an ordinary girl who grew up in China, like Xia Mi, to be able to snatch the “Queen Bee” from his hands?

“Why?” Xiao Feng glared at Xia Mi and asked from the depths of his soul.

Because he occupied a lower position in the consciousness network, he knew clearly that Xia Mi had read his memories.

Since that was the case, he had nothing to hide. He just wanted to understand.

He did not know where he had lost.

Xia Mi thought for a moment and said, “I’d really like to tell you that China has royal aura, that the ‘Queen Bee’ wanted to come to China, and it just happened to run into lucky little me, so it followed me here. Would that answer make you feel a little better?”

If she said that, Xiao Feng would know he had lost to a country, not to a person, and he would indeed feel a little better.

But Xia Mi had no intention of indulging him. She went on, “Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s the truth. The truth is that I, nurtured by Chinese civilization, defeated you, who were brainwashed by those vampires.

“We are collectivists. Do you understand what that means? It means the individual sacrifices for the collective, but it also means the collective becomes the individual’s strength.

“I don’t think I have that much spiritual power on my own. The one who truly suppressed the ‘Queen Bee’ wasn’t just me, but the vast civilized nation behind me, which defeated your self-preservation and individualism.

“Between you and me, it was never a matter of who worked harder and who won. It was that my faith is far greater than yours.”

Xia Mi felt that even if her desire for power was extremely strong, it was not the main reason she had sealed the “Queen Bee.”

On the contrary, her obsession with power far exceeded that of ordinary people, and perhaps it was influenced by the “Queen Bee’s” instinct to dominate.

What had truly sealed the “Queen Bee” was civilization.

Xia Mi was merely a lucky person who happened to stand before the “Queen Bee” at the right time. If it had been Liao Tianhua, Qiu Hailan, Mi Xiangyan, Old Jiao, or any member of First Team or Second Team who had stood before Xiao Feng in that situation, they would all have taken the “Queen Bee” away.

It was the “Queen Bee” itself that had been attracted by the cohesion of the civilization behind Xia Mi, wanting to come to the country to absorb more, purer power of faith, only to be sealed so tightly instead.

Xia Mi shook her head and said, “I was originally thinking that maybe you were just a poor kid who had been experimented on since childhood. After all, you’re almost an adult, so maybe there was still a chance to change your thinking. But after seeing your memories, I think you’re beyond saving.”

The moment Xiao Feng decided to seize other people’s lives for the sake of the conglomerates, he was already beyond redemption.

And before coming to find Xia Mi, with the help of the Immortal Foundation, Xiao Feng had taken the initiative to absorb tens of thousands of Zhuo Coins and personally killed thousands of people.

Xia Mi did not intend to show Xiao Feng any mercy.

Countless “Silkworm” threads wrapped around Xiao Feng’s body. Xiao Feng was not to be outdone and unleashed his own power, trying to devour Xia Mi in return.

He still had nearly ten thousand Zhuo Coins inside him. Xia Mi’s energy was too weak, so she might not necessarily be able to defeat him.

As long as he could devour Xia Mi, he would be the “King.”

Translator’s Notes