The laboratory fell silent, and Jiang Jianming didn’t speak.
This silence undoubtedly added a heavy element to the air.
Garcia’s Adam’s apple moved, he slowly let go of Jiang Jianming and took two steps forward, looking at the data on the screen – he didn’t want to see Jiang Jianming’s expression at this time, or perhaps he simply didn’t dare.
“…At first, when I found out you were the widow of the crown prince, I was… I couldn’t accept it.”
Garcia wiped his finger over the line of text that read “Product Ryann Kaios”, and said softly.
“But you did nothing wrong, it was my mental imbalance, because I wanted to have something in the world that I could purely monopolize, and you were too likable to me.”
Like.
This ambiguous word was spoken so lightly, without a sweet atmosphere and hugs and kisses, no flowers or diamond rings, and no blessings.
Only the dim, cold light of the laboratory. Only the invisible layers of fog that lay between the two of them, and the huge chasm called life and death.
“…Also because I hate myself for being a human generated by a program.”
Garcia still didn’t turn around, “Ryann fell in love with you, so I can’t escape either.”
Jiang Jianming took a step forward. “Your Highness, listen to me. Cloning technology can only copy genetic traits, I don’t believe…”
Garcia suddenly intensified his tone. “——But how to find my place in this world, that’s the issue I need to consider,, not yours.”
“Ryann can die thousands of times, be cloned thousands of times after death and each one will fall in love with you… but can you also resurrect thousands of times, love him thousands of times!?”
“……”
Jiang Jianming fell silent again.
“That deal still counts.” Garcia said in a hoarse voice.
“I can always be your weapon, and the countless me after me will also… as long as you are willing to stop.”
“If you are pursuing the truth for yourself, you should make good use of this. You are a smart person, you understand what I mean.”
This monster created in the base laboratory has already surrendered to you, the prince was saying with his lonely back.
Whether it’s this pawn or this love, you can command it. As long as you are willing to treat the illness, as long as you can survive.
“……”
The silence continued.
The prince endured not turning his head, everything that could be said and done was here, he was almost tormented waiting for a result.
After a long time, Garcia heard the rustling of clothes behind him, it was Jiang Jianming turning around and leaving. The footsteps sounded, steadily moving further and further away from him.
“…” Garcia’s face was tight, almost biting his teeth. The emerald-like eyes reflected the cold blue light, without blinking.
He just listened to Jiang Jianming walking out, the door closed, taking away the light in a bundle, and darkness surged from all directions.
Gone.
Really gone?
“..…”
Garcia slowly sat on the ground, his forehead resting on the corner of the glass chamber, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, as if enduring some unbearable pain.
His fingers were still on the edge of the instrument, his knuckles protruding bluish at this moment, trembling minutely. He thought Jiang Jianming would at least coax him a few words before leaving.
But at the same time, he knew clearly in his heart that this was asking too much——
The lover he thought he had regained turned out to be a monster test subject, which was undoubtedly a huge blow to Jiang Jianming. Perhaps he should be grateful that the sick and weak disabled human didn’t faint on the spot.
Anyway… he asked for it, and now he had nothing.
After an unknown amount of time, a slight regret surfaced in the darkness, quickly becoming heavier: if he had known it would turn out like this, what was the point of those days of one-sided cold war?
He still wanted to hold him, still wanted to hear his gentle voice, still missed the tender nights they spent together in the starship, that dim bedside lamp.
If he had known… Garcia closed his eyes and thought, if he had known, what could he have done? This was the result that was destined from the moment they met.
If time could be reversed, all he would do is pull Jiang Jianming here earlier, and then…
…Bang!
Garcia opened his eyes.
Without warning, the mechanical door behind him opened again.
The light that had been taken away was projected into the laboratory again, someone walked in, a familiar scent.
Garcia stiffened for a few seconds, the footsteps stopped behind him.
Jiang Jianming stood behind Garcia, holding a thin stack of printed papers in one hand, the blue light of the instrument faintly outlining his incredibly handsome eyebrows and eyes.
He rubbed the other’s hair with his other hand, then tugged lightly, saying faintly, “Good prince, come let me see, have you cried?”
The face that was forced to turn around was perfect but gloomy, Garcia grabbed the wrist of the disabled human who was misbehaving, “What are you back for!”
“You should ask me what I left for.” Jiang Jianming said, “I went to the mecha to find Seth to get some things.”
As he spoke, he sat down next to Garcia on the spot, placing the papers in his hand on the floor, “You don’t want to be manipulated, so you want to separate yourself from Ryann… I understand and admire your persistence. But I can’t compromise.”
Garcia interrupted him, “This is not the same thing as what I said, this is no longer important…”
“It’s the same thing, listen to me.” Jiang Jianming suddenly looked up, his eyes seemed to reflect a sharp icy light.
“Three years. Every time you suffered for your own empty past, I also suffered for the powerlessness I felt when facing this fog.”
“You suffered as many times as I did.”
Jiang Jianming’s eyes were calm, and the three years flowed away in them.
He looked straight at Prince Garcia sitting opposite him, and said calmly, “At that time, I thought, there will be no other people who will rush to the fire for this truth, only me… I am alone.”
“Just like in this world, the only person who wants to hold on to a ‘Garcia’ position is you.”
“In this world, the only person who wants to find a ‘Ryann’ position is also me.”
So this is a war, a war between two people.
Garcia gave up, Garcia Kaios no longer existed in the world, only the nameless creation in the Black Shark Base laboratory, unknown why it was born.
And if Jiang Jianming gave up, Ryann Kaios would no longer exist in the world, only the so-called “Imperial Crown Prince” , such a faith-based title, unknown why it died.
“But you’re not like me, Your Highness.”
Jiang Jianming said softly.
“You escaped from the Black Shark Base, escaped from the empire, escaped from the shadow of the name ‘Ryann’. And I walked in voluntarily.”
“This can’t be blamed on you, after all, you’re still young. But since you ran away, the winner will be me.”
Jiang Jianming lowered his eyes, calmly spreading out the stack of papers on the floor one by one as he spoke, the faint blue light dancing at his fingertips.
He spoke words of contempt to the noble prince, but his tone was more like consolation, and this contradiction was perfectly harmonized in this inorganic laboratory.
So Garcia was not angered, but instead leaned in and asked, “Are you still going to argue with me about whether it’s a problem of one person or thousands of people?”
“Yes, have you heard of the technology of mental consciousness projection?”
Jiang Jianming opened his wrist device and brought up a window.
It was an audio file, he pressed the play button.
Garcia: “What?”
“Jiang?” A soft girl’s voice came from the audio, “Why are you still recording?”
Then Jiang Jianming’s voice. “Sorry, this is very important, I may need to listen repeatedly.”
Garcia frowned at him, “This girl?”
Jiang Jianming said, “This is Miss Diana of the Lance family, I once visited her for your problem.”
“Oh. She seems to be very close to you.”
“…Your focus is wrong, please be serious, Your Highness.”
“Then I’ll start from the beginning, um, cough,” Diana in the audio timidly cleared her throat, “The technology of mental consciousness projection is a branch technology of neuroscience based on grain particle research, it’s an emerging discipline in recent years, and it’s also what I’m studying.”
“Of course, the accepted view now is that the old empire has relatively maturely mastered this technology, the evidence is the application of the mental manipulation system in the field of mecha. But we all know the problem of technological loss caused by the founding war, although it’s a pity, but let’s not mention it for now…”
“Let me first talk about the principle of the technology of mental consciousness projection.”
The girl’s eloquent voice echoed in the laboratory. Jiang Jianming had reviewed this audio many times, and was familiar with the content, and now he just silently handed the printed materials to Garcia at the appropriate time.
The audio lasted a full two hours, but a large part of it was Jiang Jianming asking questions from various angles, and Diana finding books, listing various materials to answer.
Skipping these useless clips, and skipping the obscure ones that were incomprehensible. Only the most important conversations were selected, leaving about thirty minutes.
In these thirty minutes, Diana Lance summarized the principles and historical origins of “spiritual consciousness projection technology”.
“Everything still has to start with the crystal particles brought by the black wave radiation.
Why, under the premise of having the same nervous system, can the new humans freely manipulate the crystal particles in their bodies, while the disabled humans cannot?
In the old empire era, scientists discovered an amazing phenomenon: there seems to be some kind of induction between crystal particles, and it can be preliminarily guessed that they interact through quantum entanglement.
So the following hypothesis appeared: the evolved new humans, through the crystal particles that make up the brain nerves, manipulate the rest of the crystal particles in the body, making them less likely to lose control and be a crystal chaos; the disabled humans who have failed to evolve do not have this ability.
At the same time, technologies using crystal particle induction also developed rapidly. The most eye-catching is the spiritual consciousness projection technology—
Try to use crystal particles as the carrier to “project” the consciousness of organisms, that is, to transfer from the original body to another body.”
“You ask me, is it possible to use it to save dying people, is it possible to cause amnesia sequelae?”
Diana in the audio seemed to think for a while, and then softly said, “It’s possible, it’s better to say that saving people is one of the application purposes of this technology.”
“For example, there is a patient who can’t be saved by current medical treatment. We can freeze the patient when he is dying and project his consciousness onto a spare body.”
“Amnesia, I think the possibility is also high. After all, the empire’s technology in this area is not mature, it is very likely that the induction is unstable during the projection, and the consciousness cannot carry such a large amount of information.”
“Induction instability?” The voice of Jiang Jianming’s questioning came from the audio again, “Can you explain this?”
“Ah, this is because the technology of spiritual consciousness projection is essentially based on the induction between crystal particles… You can imagine two bridge piers, symbolizing the patient’s original body and new body. The bridge is built on it, it is invisible, any length, symbolizing crystal particle induction. But if the transmitted information is too much and the bridge is not stable enough, it will of course collapse.”
“At the same time,” Diana added, “if any of the bridge piers collapses, the connection will also be broken. For example, the patient’s original body can’t support death, then the projection will disappear, and the consciousness will directly die; if the new body dies, then the consciousness will be pulled back into the original body, um… it is also a big damage.”
Jiang Jianming seemed to be stunned for a while, and quickly asked. “Does the original body that is projected need to maintain life? The premise of stable consciousness projection is that the original body and the new body survive at the same time!?”
“Oh, of course.” Diana laughed, “Jiang, this is not the resurrection technique in fantasy novels, nor can it turn humans into foxes with nine lives.”
“Just like the mental manipulation of mechas you have always been interested in, if the driver is shot in the temple, he will of course die. It’s impossible to live in the mecha system and continue to manipulate the battle, right? The principle is the same… ——.”
The audio was cut off.
Jiang Jianming took his finger off the pause button and clicked to close. “The rest is not important.” The laboratory suddenly became quiet, leaving only the breathing of two people.
Garcia stared at Jiang Jianming in a daze, his expression was not so much in a daze, it was like a soul out of his body.
“You mean,” Garcia’s throat rolled dryly, looking away from the floor in a loss, “I am the…consciousness…projection of Ryann himself?”
This person actually thought of so much a long time ago.
Garcia realized this in hindsight.
While he was escaping from self-exposure and self-abandonment, Jiang Jianming was thinking, guessing, reasoning, he was looking for clues, and asking people for advice.
Then silently waiting, enduring his own outbursts, threats and even heart-wrenching verbal violence time and time again, waiting for the day when he was willing to confess.
How can this person…how can he do this?
“That’s it, so it’s one thing.” Jiang Jianming said frankly.
“I won’t turn around…because I have to go collect the body.”
The black-haired young man’s eyebrows and eyes were filled with a shallow smile. He propped his chin with one hand and turned his head, and said with a melancholy look. “It is very likely that it is a half-dead golden-haired little zombie sleeping near the Crystal Nest.”
“But this is just…”Garcia hoarsely said, his curled eyelashes drooping, “your guess.”
“Yes.” Jiang Jianming turned to the dazed prince beside him, “But if I can find him, I must slap him first——”
He reached out and rubbed his hair again, and asked with a mischievous smile, “By the way, do you prefer a slap to the face, or spanking?”
