The Creatures that We Are

As if hearing Dr. Jia’s command, the twelve clusters of vital energy split into tens of thousands of colorful tendrils and reached toward the taiji star. The taiji star at the center also morphed into countless gray energy tendrils, seemingly in response to the twelve celestial bodies orbitting it.

“Yes, yes…that’s it. That’s it…steady does it…” Dr. Jia lowered his voice, as if he was worried that he would alert the energy in the petri dish.

Finally, a gray tendril reached the one strand of golden energy closest to it. The two tentatively made contact before intertwining.

The petri dish seemed to experience a localized time freeze suddenly for a second. Then the gray energy retracted all the tendrils like it was scared and quickly collapsed into itself, turning into a black dot that was barely visible to the naked eye.

“No! No no no no no no…” Dr. Jia tugged at his hair, on the verge of a mental breakdown.

Whoosh. The small black dot exploded after three seconds into a thick gray mist that filled the entire petri dish.

After a moment, the gray mist dissipated, and the vital energy of the Divine Scion was gone. The other twelve clusters of vital energy stopped spinning and floated quietly instead, reaching their tendrils toward each other and beginning a chaotic, disorderly, and unnatural merging.

“I **** ***** **** *****!!!”

Dr. Jia cursed up a storm, spitting curse words in all the different languages he knew. It hadn’t been easy. He had begged and implored the higher-ups of the Ocean River Union for the twelve types of vital energy. And after this failure, Dr. Jia no longer had in his possession any energy from the Divine Scion.

Dr. Jia dropped to his knees with a thud, his hands pressed to the floor. “What went wrong? It can’t be. I’m a genius…”

“Fool! Fool! Fool!”

The parrot flew away, enjoying his misery.

“Say that again! I’m gonna make you into stew tonight…” Dr. Jia rushed toward the parrot angrily, grabbing the feather duster from the desk to give chase.

“Dr. Jia.” A voice interrupted him.

“I’ll give you the lesson later!” Dr. Jia turned around and adjusted his glasses. The uninvited visitor was a masked Yan Liang.

Dr. Jia was surprised. “Oh, why are you missing an arm and a leg? You remind me of a mutated one-legged chicken.”

“Haha, please spare me the mockery, Dr. Jia.” Yan Liang laughed hoarsely and played up his pitiful situation. “I was defeated. It almost killed me.”

“Well, that’s war for you.” Dr. Jia sounded unconcerned. “Why are you here?”

Yan Liang chuckled again. “I’m seeking your help to restore my body.”

“I can’t.” Dr. Jia turned him down bluntly.

“Why?”

“I’m a genius, not God.”

“Green Snake of the Nine Scions lost an arm, too, but you helped her regrow it.”

“She’s she, and you’re you. It’s possible with her, but not you,” Dr. Jia said. “Don’t ask me why. Look for the reasons in yourself.”

Yan Liang fell silent.

After ten seconds, Yan Liang raised his remaining hand to take off the mask, revealing his old face with one side completely charred. “Haha, as expected of the genius. When did you notice that I’m a pride monster?”

“At the beginning!”

Dr. Jia maintained his poker face, but he was howling in panic in his mind.

Notice my ass! I was just rejecting you with a random excuse, but you exposed yourself!

Holy shit! A pride monster! It’s my first time meeting a pride monster!

Dr. Jia stared at Yan Liang and smiled servilely, speaking in a much more friendly tone, “Sir pride monster, what should I call you? What’s your ability?”

“Leader of the observers, ability: Pride Space. You may call me Sir Jiang.”

Shit, a leader!

I happen to use up the Divine Scion’s energy. I should study a pride monster in the meantime!

“Ahem.” Dr. Jia cleared his throat. “Sir Jiang, is it? Well, your severed limbs won’t regenerate, but I can make you two cybernetic prosthetics. They won’t be as good as your original limbs, but not by much. You’ll be able to run around and jump without issue. I’ll add some firearms for battle purposes, too, and they may even be better in that regard.”

Sir Jiang nodded. “I’ll entrust that to you.”

“However, I have a condition.” Dr. Jia rubbed his hands together with a grin. “Give me some of your blood and vital energy.”

“Ha, I was wondering what you would ask for,” Sir Jiang said. “I’d give you two sets.”

“Rich and generous!” Dr. Jia gave him a thumbs-up. “Love to see it!”

“Don’t take it the wrong way.” Sir Jiang smiled shrewdly. “One set will be for you to study. The other is for the development of a spatial weapon.”

Sir Jiang took a sheet of paper out of his pocket. “These are my requests. Take a look.”

Dr. Jia took it and spent a minute reading it.

He stroked his chin and smirked. “Interesting. It’s viable in theory, but your vital energy alone won’t be enough. I’ll need as much energy from other awakeners with spatial Talents. Also, I’ll need something made with Black Gold to hold the energy. The guy with Enchantment has to help, too. I can’t promise that it’ll work.”

“What’s the odds?”

“Seventy percent.”

“That’s good enough. I’ll give you whatever you need. Please develop it as soon as possible.” Sir Jiang thought for a moment. “Please give me the prosthetics first. As it is, it’s a little inconvenient for me to move around.”

“A piece of cake.” Dr. Jia turned around and went up to a light gray metal wall, hollering, “Open sesame!”

The metal wall opened to the sides, revealing an equipment cabinet hung with five sets of prosthetics with different designs, colors, and functions. There wasn’t any for the heart and the head, but there were prosthetics for all the other body parts, each disassembled into different components.

Dr. Jia said, “Here’s the inventory. Pick one, and I’ll attach the prosthetics for you today. If you need them custom-made though, it will take a lot of time, and I have a lot to do.”

“Then give me a light, flexible prosthetic with some added offensive power,” Sir Jiang made a clear request.

“Voila.” Dr. Jia pointed at a delicate pink prosthetic printed with strawberry patterns. “This is the one.”

Sir Jiang’s face darkened. “The color…”

“Why, are you dissatisfied with my taste?” Dr. Jia frowned.

“This is it then.” Sir Jiang smothered a sigh. Fine, he could just put a layer of artificial skin over the prosthetics.

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