Chapter 5 - “Because I’m one of his kind”

When the news broadcast finished, the whole internet was in an uproar. People started to gather missing people datas these past months and dug up any information related to DEs. Which one was stating the fact, which one was hoax seemed to be too blurred.

There’s a top post at the online forum, questioning why the government hid them and what sort of conspiracy was brewing. The public’s majority voted for the execution of DEs because the danger they brought was potentially immeasurable.

It spun out of control to the point where a formal petition was made, and sent to the President of the Federation. It pushed the government to reveal the truth and openly explain how they will handle the situation.

——

It was nearing dusk when finally Xiaohui arrived in front of his simple apartment building. He, along with his entourage of 4 guards took the stairs to the 3rd floor where his little sister and him living for the past 2 years. The 20 years old male cleared his throat and fixed his clothes just so he could look presentable for his little sister, Xiaowu before he hit the doorbell.

DING DONG

"Coming!" a female voice from inside, sound of footsteps and a surprised gasp.

The door opened wide, "Ge!" and the shorter person flew to Xiaohui's welcoming arms.

"Ge, where have you been? I thought I lost you" she asked between her sobs.

"Well, here and there? I won't die that easily you foolish girl" the strongest man in The Den said with teary eyes. He squeezed the younger's back tightly, reveling in her presence.

"I tried to tell the police but they didn't find anything like.. you just suddenly disappear into thin air. Ge, this isn't a dream right? You're really here right?"

"I'm here.. I'm home.." the word home reverberated loudly in his heart. These were the warmth and sense of familiarity he once thought would never be able to attain anymore.

"Welcome home ge" with red wet cheeks, the teenage girl grinned happily. Both of them entered the apartment unit, and the 4 guards followed.

"Who are these people?" Xiaowu swept her gaze off the burly men behind her brother. They're like a contrast, Xiaohui with his laid back casual attire, while the guards were wearing black colored uniform and combat boots, completed with their dark shades.

"They are.. my guards (?)" Xiaohui answered hesitantly.

"Guards?" she frowned. Where did his brother got the money to hire so many of them? And it wasn't like he's so weak that he couldn't defend himself, but.. considering how dangerous the situation had become with the serial killing, maybe it was a right thing to do. But why so many of them? Where did he get the money? She even had to work part time to cover for the expenses, she needed to be thrifty in using what's left of her brother's saving.

"Yes, my lo- ehem, boss gave them"

damn old man, almost got me slipped. He cursed.

"Your boss? Where do you work at now?" she asked out of curiosity. Her brother's boss must've been one hell of a rich person.

"Un, right now I work somewhere faraway from here.. Can't tell you the precise location, company policy" his eyes shifted elsewhere.

There was a long stretch of silence.

"You don't believe me?" he asked.

The teen knew her brother was lying, but she didn't press any further. If he didn't feel like telling her right now, then so be it.

"I believe you must've been tired. Why don't you take a shower then help me prepare dinner?" she sweetly smiled at him and went to the kitchen.

——

The night fell, Xiaowu was asleep in her room. While Xiaohui, along with the 4 guards were bound to sleep at the living room. Lined up like dried fishes on a mat.

Despite his fatigue, Xiaohui’s insomnia prevent him from falling asleep this early.

"Hey, Mr. Guard" he called, and one of the guards grunted in answer.

"I'm gonna take a night walk, join me?"

They both went out around the neighborhood.

The guard was passive, he answered when being asked but never open any topic on his own.

10 minutes later they arrived at the city park area, no one was there except a man with grey hoodie who was taking his golden retriever for a walk. The man was pretty tall (though Xiaohui’s still taller) his face was quite cute with a tear drop mole at the below corner of his left eye. Their eyes met, and they nodded to each other out of politeness and went on their way. They had just walked for another hundred meters when Xiaohui abruptly stopped. He sniffed the air once more, and it was confirmed- the smell of blood.

Rustling sound was heard from the shaded area behind the bush. Xiaohui stealthily made his way, and peeked carefully.

A man wearing a dark colored jacket and a matching cap was hunching down, holding onto the severed lady’s arm, he latched his mouth onto the artery at her wrist.

‘Is this the serial killer on the loose? The mutilation seemed to match with the one on the news yesterday’ Xiaohui thought.

“Mr. Guard, let’s get him!” Xiaohui whispered.

“My only duty is monitoring you. That is out of my jurisdiction” the guard answered.

Fine. So be it. He’ll catch the perpetrator himself.

Xiaohui stood up and confidently declared his presence. “Hey you!”

The man glared fiercely at him. With dark red eyes and blood dripping from his lips, he was just like a wild beast who was poked at its sore point.

“Come at me” Xiaohui challenged.

The man dashed to Xiaohui with the bloody hunting knife in hand.

He was like a mad dog with super strength: he swung the knife, kicked, and even tried to bite him but Xiaohui could block all of his attacks while the killer was punched and kicked until he bounced off of the tree. Feeling like he couldn’t beat him, the killer decided to run away from him. While on that, he unconsciously activated the ability he had and he accelerated.

Determined to not lose him, Xiaohui sped up.

He saw him turned right on the intersection, then loud barking dog sounded.

His sprint screeched to a halt when he saw the killer had captured someone as a hostage. It was the previous man wearing grey hoodie at the park.

Xiaohui took a step further, the killer threaten him “Don’t move or I’ll kill him!” with the knife aimed on the hostage’s neck.

Xiaohui clicked his tongue.

“Like hell? I don’t give a damn about him!” Xiaohui strided forward, but the killer retreated (along with the hostage). Even so the distance between them grew less.

“I’ll kill him! I mean it!” the knife’s point brushed with the man’s skin. Blood seeped through the tiny open wound.

“Please, help me!” The hostage pleaded.

“Just kill him. Kill him like your other victims, then if you do.. I can still catch you and beat the crap out of you” Xiaohui smirked, his aura darkened.

“You think I’m afraid to do that?!”

Xiaohui snorted, “Of course not. You’re just afraid of me”

“I don’t!!” He denied.

“You do! You got your *** handed to you not long ago! You forgot already?!” He mocked as he took a step forward.

“I don’t! Don’t get any closer!” The killer started to panic.

“I do whatever the hell I want\~” Xiaohui singsonged. There was only about 3 steps distance between him and the hostage.

“I’ll kill him!” Before he had the chance to do so, Xiaohui’s eyes glinted red, a sign his ability was activated. He dashed and caught his hand. He kicked away the hostage quickly and hit his hand which was holding the knife. The knife fell, and Xiaohui knee striked him at the stomach. With his ability on, the killer held no candle against Xiaohui.

The fight was over when Xiaohui held both the killer’s hands on his back, and sat on him. No matter how much the killer struggled, Xiaohui didn’t budge.

“Hey you, quick call the police!” Xiaohui ordered as the still stunned man lying on the ground.

“Oh.. oh” the man searched through his tracking pants, fished his phone and call the police.

“Just now.. I’m sorry, you were scared don’t you?” Xiaohui asked, smiling in sympathy.

“Un. I thought you really don’t care about saving me” he muttered lowly.

Xiaohui laughed out loud, “It’s not like I don’t care about you, it’s more like I think that was the best way to handle the situation”

“He already got his fill, his logic is back online. His real self wouldn’t dare to kill anyone” he added.

“How.. do you know that?” the man asked.

The impulse to tell the truth was so strong, he felt tired of lying. He’d had enough lies today.

“Because I’m one of his kind.. their so called Dangerous Entity”

——-

——-

There’s a special type of human, living in Magna Empire since ancient times, they’re called as The Daemons. Daemons were believed to be blessed by God. They tend to have longer lifespan and higher physical attributes than normal human. Few of them even developed special abilities, ranging from body strenghtening, telekinesis, pyrokinesis, empath until healing. Their existence was believed as God’s form of love to the Empire so people treasured them so much.

While the Empire saw them as revered beings, The Federation viewed them as the key to humanity’s breakthrough. They believed, if they could research on them, finding the base and key compositions in their DNA makeups then humanity’s obsession on immortality and attaining more power could be realized.

The war which erupted at 2215 was their first move. Hiding beneath the excuse of territorial and natural resources dispute, their aim was to get as many Daemon samples as they could. But they miscalculated The Empire’s defense and resource capability. The war went on with no notable progress for 14 years, until both parties had exhausted their resources. It drove them to change their way of approaching the Empire, through diplomacy.

Year 2230, the reigning Emperor at that time, believed the goodwill gesture of the Federation and signed the peace treaty without any suspicion despite the warnings he received from his ministers, the border between countries was finally opened.

It almost seemed like an invasion, how the Federation’s people came to the Magna Empire. They plundered the natural resources and exploited the Empire’s people under the disguise of contributing to the Empire’s development through knowledge exchange and natural resources optimization.

Protests were raised from the civilians, pressing the Emperor to nullify the treaty and get the Federations out of their home, but The Emperor turned a deaf ear. Until a large number of Daemon went missing out of the blue.

A thorough investigation was made, and the General of Empire at that time found out that it was related to a genetic modification project by the Federation code named: Metamorphose Project. They tried to decipher the Daemon’s DNA, and attempt to re-create it.

Duplicating God’s beloved was the same as attempting to play God. Not only that, mankind’s greed know no bounds. He could already foresee how the Federation could make use of the power they would gain from all the human-made-Daemons in the future (if they succeed).

Enraged, The General presented his investigation result to the Emperor, but to his surprise, the Emperor knew about it. He naively stated that it was ok if it was for the better of all mankind.

Thus, the general led a coup d'état along with the ministers. The reigning Emperor was dethroned, the general rose up as the new Emperor (Magna Empire’s 14th Emperor). He ordered the army to wipe out all laboratories involved in the Metamorphose Project, saved as many Daemons that were caught, got rid off the Federation from their land, and cut all ties with The Federation.

Unfortunately, the Federation managed to hide a quite sum of Daemons, far out of the reach of the Empire’s military force. They rebooted the project, using the small amount of data they could safe from before. By 2241, the name Nova Lab was famous among military and research sector. Led by dr. Yiyang, a genius female researcher, they managed to create ‘Victor’, the boy who was said to have the most similar composition as Daemons and also an ability user just like original Daemons. In that same year, no long after that, Nova Lab was engulfed in a big fire incident. Dr. Yiyang and Victor was nowhere to be found.

“Dr. Yiyang helped The Boss escape from Nova Lab and burn the whole place. She also brought Victor away with her and they both went their separate way.” Ms. Zhang finished her story.

Jingyi blinked, stacks of photos, journals, and the Empire’s newspaper clippings to support Ms. Zhang’s story were on the table. It was totally different from what was told in the Federation’s history book, yet the evidences were there in front of him.

“So, are you saying grandma is Dr. Yiyang and Yisheng is Victor?”

She nodded. “As for what we are and our goals, we can’t disclose it to you”

Jingyi took a deep breath. It turned out grandma wasn’t a simple grandma and his childhood friend was a genetically modified human that was being targeted by the Federation.

Even if he still didn’t know who they really were, but he had heard enough. Grandma Yihua believed in this Feng Jinyao, and most importantly, they seemed to be able to save his friend. Might as well just go with the flow.

“Ok. So what’s your plan now?”

——

The next day, news of a DE had saved a man from another DE became a headline in almost all media, spreading like wildfire. Moreover, the man who was saved was a rising pop-star idol with many fans following him. It didn’t need any time at all for the news to reach the Hot Topic list. Hence the people’s demand on getting an explanation over everything grew.

A press conference was held in the auditorium in order to answer the public’s questions regarding DEs.

The spokeperson from Federation’s Ministry of Defense and Federation’s Police Department sat at the prepared seats on stage.

“We are here to inform you about the Dangerous Entities” the Ministry of Defense’s spokeperson started.

“Dangerous Entities exist. They’re people who were changed by a substance we called as Substance M. It modify the genetic makeup of normal human, the changed into a creature who live by drinking blood, aggressive, destructive, very dangerous. But later on, our data shown that those who changed- could build some sort of control on their aggression, while some even can develop certain abilities. For example, this guy” the screen showed a picture taken from the CCTV of when the hostage incident happened. They blurred Xiaohui’s face on the photo.

“He’s one of the example of DEs who could maintain his aggression level well. He even develop the ability to boost his overall physical ability for a certain amount of time” he added.

“And to our delight.. not only him, there are many DEs who were being taken care of by the PD who has the same strength, the same potential as him. That’s why, we plan to make a Special Defense Unit out of them. They will cooperate with the PD to maintain the safety and security of people, by focusing on crimes made by the DEs. We believe in the PD’s capability in the recruitment, as well as training them into a reliable task force in the future” the Ministry of Defense’s spokeperson concluded his speech with a bow.

“Are you sure they’re safe to be out and about? What could guarantee them that they won’t rampaging once outside then annihilate us?” a reporter asked.

“A certain procedure will be made to make sure nothing like that could happen. Currently the collar they are using are equipped with GPS tracker, further development on the device is still on discussion” the PD spokeperson answered.

“Sir, both of you haven’t explain where this substance M come from” another reporter asked.

“We’re still investigating, so we can’t say anything right now. One certain thing is, we will hold an assessment for all DEs and within the near future the Special Defense Unit will be commenced. That’s all. Thank you for coming” the PD spokeperson bowed, then the both of them left.

——-

A man in his 40s wearing a complete formal suite was holding a glass of wine, staring at the night view of the city from his luxurious office room.

KNOCK KNOCK

“Come in” the man answered. A young woman entered the room.

“Sir, this is the report of Phase 2” she said as she put the folder on his table. He gestured her to leave.

He took the folder and skim read it to the last page, his smile grew wider, then slowly turned into a full blown laughter.

“Everything is according to plan” he smirked evilly.

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