The boy stumbled slowly backward until his back hit the wall. The burning candle rolled down the side of the table. When the candle wax was about to hit the boy’s face, No. 3 reached out to block it.
“Answer me.” No. 3 didn’t feel pain. His normal face leaned close to the boy. No matter what the boy did, he couldn’t escape from No. 3’s scrutiny.
The boy stammered. He pointed at his throat. No. 3 pried open the boy’s mouth and realized an iron block connected to the back of his teeth. The boy didn’t need eyes and a mouth so that they wouldn’t leak the boss’ secrets.
After the iron block was removed, the boy collapsed on the ground and gasped for air. The first thing he did after he recovered somewhat was to pick up the knife and stab it into the middle-aged man’s chest. After taking revenge, he touched the wound as if admiring his creation.
The boy tossed away the knife. He stood before the mud figurine. “My name is Heart. Only I survive among the nine children tricked here.” His voice was intermittent because he hadn’t spoken for a long time already. “My parents and little brother were survivors who came to Hope City. We thought this place was paradise, but we soon realized this place was paradise only for a specific group of people. My parents lived very carefully. I often looked down on them. Now I realized how awful I was. To make sure that my little brother and I could enter the middle zone, they went into haunted buildings to steal cursed items.
“They succeeded once, but that didn’t mean anything. They didn’t return one morning after they left. The patrols found out about this, and a vice-captain took us in, thanks to the contribution of our parents.
“However, happiness didn’t come. He sold my brother and me to the shop. After we lost value at the shop, we were sold to the pharmacy. I lost my eyes at the pharmacy. You knew what happened next. I became a worker here and was responsible for preparing for the sacrifice ceremony.” The boy’s speech became smoother. Despite what he had been through, he didn’t give up on hope.
“You still haven’t answered one of my questions.” No. 3 wiped away the candle wax that had dried on the back of his hand. He then grabbed the boy by his neck. “What is the biggest regret of your life?”
“My biggest regret is not stopping my parents that morning a few years back. If they were still around, the later tragedy wouldn’t have occurred.” The boy didn’t even try to struggle.
“Are you sure?” No. 3 asked again as if the question was very important.
“Of course.” The boy nodded with difficulty.
No. 3 took out the notebook from his pocket. “You regret not stopping your parents, but you didn’t regret making them sad? You didn’t regret selling your little brother to the merchant with the patrols. You didn’t regret sacrificing your soul to the Evil God at the pharmacy. You didn’t regret personally killing the other eight kids here to survive.” With every word No. 3 said, the boy’s expression paled. He thought that after the man died, no one would know about what he had. However, No. 3 and No. 2 investigated everything.
“The more you struggle, the darker your fate will be. You are the most pitiful, most despicable kid who is not worthy of any pity.” No. 3 closed the notebook and turned to No. 2. “We’ve found him.”
“That’s right. I can’t read this kid’s fate. In this world, that will only happen with people related to Gao Xing.” No. 2 touched the boy’s eyes. The invisible chains on the boy shattered. His original fate was changed by No. 2.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. I admit I’ve done some bad things, but that is only because I needed to survive! How would young masters like you who live under the sun understand our pain?” The boy became agitated.
No. 3 and No. 2 smiled. “The simulated sun inside the lab is indeed very bright. Almost every children’s eyes have been scorched by it before.”
“I really don’t understand what you’re talking about! I don’t get why you’re targeting me either. I am of no value to you. They have stolen my organs, and my body has been modified. I can barely survive. I paid so much. Is that not enough?”
“Perhaps even you don’t know your value.” No. 3 broke the boy’s mutated legs and pulled his feet out of the black chains. Then he silenced the boy again and placed him inside a gunny sack. No. 3 carried No. 2 with one hand and picked up the bag with another, and left the pharmacy. The people didn’t seem to be able to see them. No one came to stop them. They walked down the dark alleys and into the busy night market.
“Contact the others and tell them that Gao Xing’s split soul has been found. Tell them to gather at the designated location.” No. 2 mumbled as if to himself. A patrol member who happened to pass by had his expression change. After a short hesitation, he turned and ran. A few minutes later, the number of pedestrians on the street dwindled. No. 3 dragged the sack to the intersection between the middle and inner zones. When they were within 100 meters of the inner zone, two patrols opened the side door for them. Everything appeared to be arranged. The patrols along the way looked dull, as if they had been controlled. They slowly returned to normal after the door closed. By then, No. 2 and No. 3 had already entered the inner zone.
“Alright. We have no use for you anymore.” No. 2 told the two patrols. The two took out their knives and stabbed each other in the chest.
No. 3 coughed, and the two stopped stabbing each other. Then, they turned and walked away.
“Everyone is going to die. Why waste your energy?” No. 2 said emotionlessly.
“There’s no reason. I wanted to do so subconsciously.” No. 3 smiled. “In life, there are many random moments. I believe it’s these subconscious actions that made up the flow of fate.”
“That’s the argument of the weak. They always blame fate for their failure. I don’t want you to become one of them.” No. 2’s attitude toward No. 3 was different. In his eyes, only No. 1 and No. 3 were on his level. This didn’t mean anything special. It merely meant that he didn’t need to protect them, but they needed to help him protect the other kids.
“I have no interest in controlling fate. I just don’t want to be changed again.” No. 2 stopped talking. No. 3 had a very special power. His words seemed to carry special meaning.
The inner zone was livelier than the middle zone. It was almost like Xin Lu before the tragedy. The inner zone was humanity’s last hope, or at least the people who lived here thought so. They walked down the clean streets. At this place where every inch was worth every inch in gold, the bungalow before them even had a large garden. At the end of the flowery yard was the signboard for the main shop of Immortal Pharmacy.
“I also want to save many people, but is it worth it?”
No. 3 entered the building. The other kids were cleaning up the blood stain. They covered up all the blooming flowers with black cloth and blew out all the candles in the store.
“We’re ready. We can start at any time.” No. 4 pointed at the figurine in the middle of the store. “It took me quite a lot of effort to move this from the basement.”
“Thank you.” No. 2 nodded. He signaled No. 3 to let the boy out. The boy collapsed on the ground. He groaned helplessly.
“Is this the kid? He does look quite pitiable.” No. 4 walked to the boy and frowned. “However, there’s not a trace of death on him at all. If we didn’t intervene, he should be able to continue his miserable life.”
“I’ve changed fate. Tell No. 1 to get here.” No. 2 didn’t have a normal person’s emotions. Everything he did was to control fate.
“What are you doing?” The man suddenly spoke. He spat out the iron block and two teeth. The boy was not as innocent as he seemed. He never gave up on the thought of escaping from the pharmacy. He had long ago knocked out the teeth where the iron block was tied to.
“What we want to do is very simple. We’ll kill you and make all the Pure Hatreds go insane. We’ll break the blood sacrifice.”
“You’re insane! I don’t know anything about Pure Hatred or blood sacrifice. What does this have to do with me?” The boy hadn’t felt this much despair before.
“Stop struggling, Gao Xing.” When No. 2 said that name, the dead flesh in the boy’s sockets moved a little. As blood leaked out, he covered his eyes. “Impossible! I haven’t done those things before! I just wanted to live!” A gap opened in the dead flesh inside the sockets. He pressed on the ground as he tried to stand.
“You should have experienced one day similar in real life where fear and anger took over your heart. You didn’t want to surrender to fate even if you had to become a monster.” No. 1 pushed open the door and walked out from behind the figurine. His appearance calmed all the kids. Even No. 2 sighed in relief.
“I didn’t have anything! Unlike you freaks, I don’t even have a persona! I just want to live! What have I done wrong?” Blood leaked out of the sockets. The dead flesh slowly opened. Two rotten pupils rolled inside.
“What about the people you’ve killed? What wrong have they committed?” No. 1 raised his arm. At that moment, all the faceless figurines hidden inside Hope City trembled. Invisible chains bound around No. 1’s wrist. The chains were similar to the fate chains used by No. 2. They were formed by dead souls. “When the fate of the many can be decided by the minority, then fate loses its meaning. I exist to shatter that.” No. 1 gathered all the souls on his right fist and marched forward.
“Fearless persona?” At that moment, another voice came out of the boy’s mouth.
Fate chains tightened around No. 1’s arm. On the other end, all the mud figurines started to crack!
“Fearless is the just step towards miracles.”
