Chapter 11

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Chapter 11: Precious Test Subject

"015, please calm down."

Luo Yu looked at the man in front of her who was cradling his head in despair. She could only call him 015, as due to the confidentiality of the Time Bureau, all members had to conceal their real names and use code names. Since the trainees had not yet officially joined the team, they could only use their serial numbers for now.

The two trainee members accompanying her on this mission were the fourteenth and fifteenth trainees of the Shan Hai Jing. Originally, after completing this mission, one of them would officially join the team and choose a code name, but unexpected trouble had arisen at such a critical moment.

015 seemed not to hear Luo Yu and kept murmuring, "How is this possible, how is this possible?" The people on the other side of the transparent wall also fell silent, merely watching quietly.

At that moment, a small device to the right of the elderly lady emitted a "beep." She satisfiedly raised her hand to press a button. "Good, the emotional pressure value is up to standard. Send her for the next round of testing."

"Okay, prepare to transfer the Test Subject." A mechanical voice echoed from somewhere. As the voice fell, white mist began to rise from the transparent wall separating them from 015.

Seeing this, 015 immediately panicked, rushing to the transparent wall and pounding on it, shouting to Luo Yu, "Captain! Save me, Captain!"

As the white mist thickened inside the transparent wall, 015’s figure and voice gradually faded until the mist filled every corner of the wall, merging with the colors of the surrounding walls. The space was effectively divided before their eyes, making it seem as if that spot and the man had never existed.

After a moment of silence in the room, Mo Chuan cleared her throat and gestured toward the elderly lady, smiling at the three of them. "I haven’t formally introduced you yet; this is Ao Ci, the director of the Biological Research Station."

Upon hearing this, the three greeted her somewhat nervously, and Ao Ci responded with a warm smile, "Please, have a seat and let’s talk."

Once they all sat down, Ao Ci gently patted the helmet device that Zhu Huai had just placed back on the table. She then smiled at Luo Yu and Ying Zhao, asking, "Would you like to take a look?"

Zhu Huai scratched her cheek with her finger. "This contains 015’s first-person perspective, including some fantasy segments. I don’t recommend watching; it’s a bit mentally damaging."

Ying Zhao remained curious. "Then why don’t you tell us about it?"

Zhu Huai scrunched her face in disdain and began to recount.

When the Shan Hai Jing made its emergency landing, both individuals in the tail section were unconscious. After being brought to the Biological Research Station, they were supposed to read their memories and implant super crystals, but unlike the three of them, these two were found to be severely intolerant of such procedures due to chromosomal differences, so the research station had to take relatively conservative measures.

They attempted to immerse the two in dream states. The panoramic helmet device recorded 015’s dream from his first-person perspective.

In his unconscious dream, the researchers asked 015 some questions about his background and briefly introduced him to his current location.

When he realized he had unexpectedly fallen into a matriarchal society and was now the only man there, his dream constructed an imagined kingdom of women in his subconscious.

"How should I put it? The images are quite disgusting," Zhu Huai said, pausing to grimace.

In 015’s dream, surrounded by beautiful women in the kingdom, many delicate and charming girls looked at him with admiration and longing. Due to his special identity, he was quickly invited to the palace and became an honored guest of the king.

In his fantasy, the king of the kingdom was the most beautiful woman, who fawned over him and was even willing to trade the entire country’s power and wealth to keep him by her side.

Ying Zhao chuckled at this point, "This guy really dares to dream."

The following dream contained some unappealing fantasies, and it wasn’t until the dream immersion ended that 015 woke up, which was already the third day after the Shan Hai Jing’s emergency landing, specifically yesterday morning.

After waking up and taking a long while to recover, he was shuffled around and underwent several rounds of testing by robots. He also encountered numerous women coming and going in the research station, which starkly contrasted with his dream, as they were not only tall and robust but also had harsh attitudes, making it hard for him to accept.

"I want to see the king." After the robot fitted 015 with an external semantic translator, he proclaimed his first words upon awakening, "What you’re doing to me is inhumane! You should know my special status here; I demand privileges!"

After saying this, an elderly lady approached and sat down in front of him to conduct a mental assessment. Then, she evaluated his intelligence, which he found insulting, leading him to recount his qualifications while demanding to see the king again.

"I’ve only seen this far." Zhu Huai had a look on her face as if she had bitten into a rotten fruit. "Fortunately, the content was processed quickly; otherwise, I might have suffered even greater trauma."

Seeing the expressions of the three, the elderly lady shook her head with a smile. "We usually don’t use dream immersion to explore test subjects because their thoughts often jump around in dreams, and the content can be distorted, resulting in disorganized information. However, after watching her dream, we gained quite valuable insights and learned about your world from another perspective." After finishing, the elderly lady stood up. "Now that you’re here, I’ll take you around."

As they walked out, they left the "Primates" door and passed by doors labeled "Feathered Species," "Rodents," and "Terrestrial Mammals," occasionally seeing staff members moving Mobile Beds with injured animals lying on them along the corridor.

The Old Director explained the structure and research content of the entire Biological Research Station as they walked, while Luo Yu and her companions listened intently, discreetly observing their surroundings.

This place, rather than being a "research station," felt more like a "rehabilitation center"; many injured animals encountered in the forest were brought here to recover before being returned to their original locations.

Some staff members go outside to conduct targeted or tracking observations of wildlife, collecting some fecal samples or carcasses to bring back for research.

From the Old Director’s words, it seems that the Research Station is under the supervision of the assembly hall and the public, which imposes many restrictions on biological research. In particular, live experiments require a very complex disclosure process.

Thus, she often expresses how rare the two Test Subjects they received were, and she laments that Test Subject 014 is too weak and arrived in a state of severe hypoxia, which made it impossible to conduct Dream Immersion. Attempts to use medication encountered chromosomal tolerance issues, preventing any effectiveness, and ultimately, they could not save him.

Upon hearing this, Luo Yu finally confirmed their earlier suspicions. The three of them were brought to the assembly hall care center because they were regarded as foreign humans from another timeline, while 014 and 015 were transferred to the Biological Research Station due to their chromosomal differences, being seen as an invasive species with risks.

If there were laws here, then these two individuals were not protected under personal rights, seemingly not under animal laws either; thus, they could be used for live experiments at the Biological Research Station.

No wonder the Old Director expressed such excitement when mentioning 015; this was a precious Test Subject, a gift from the universe!

Luo Yu quickly thought to herself as she lowered her gaze, wondering what Mo Chuan intended to do by bringing them here. It couldn’t just be to watch their colleague suffer.

She glanced at Ying Zhao beside her, who was clearly also speculating, but it wasn’t convenient to speak here, so they exchanged quick glances. She noticed Ying Zhao slightly moving her lips, which from lip-reading seemed to say "negotiation."

It must still be related to the uncontrolled phenomenon from the day before; the locals wanted to obtain more information about the phenomenon through them, and they also wanted to hold onto 015 to learn about the world thirty thousand years into the future and why extinct groups had reappeared. To achieve these goals, they would need the three of them to cooperate actively.

Luo Yu raised her gaze slightly to look at Mo Chuan and began to understand the purpose of today’s arrangement.

After wandering around the Research Station for about fifteen minutes, they returned to the room where they first met 015.

"I know you need to return home as soon as possible, but 015 is extremely valuable for our research," Mo Chuan said directly after entering. "I hope this situation won’t make you feel uncomfortable."

Luo Yu turned to look at Zhu Huai and Ying Zhao, then turned back and said with a pained expression, "This truly puts us in a difficult position; willingly sacrificing a teammate goes against our professional ethics." She paused, "But if the sacrifice is to exchange for the opportunity to repair the time capsule, I believe the higher-ups would understand us."

Mo Chuan smiled gently, "Alright, I can make that decision. We can provide all the materials, tools, and technology you need to repair the time capsule."

"I also need a senior engineer to assist me," Zhu Huai chimed in. "Otherwise, it would be too tiring for me alone."

"Not a problem; we already have one," Mo Chuan replied cheerfully. "It’s Lei Ming, the one you met yesterday. What do you think?"

The three exchanged glances again, and Luo Yu then turned back to Mo Chuan, saying, "Sounds good."

Mo Chuan nodded in satisfaction, then stood up and said to Ao Ci, "We won’t stay here long; we’ll come back in a few days with research results." With that, she prepared to say farewell to Director Ao Ci, and the three also stood up in response.

Seeing the conversation had gone smoothly, Ao Ci was very pleased. Gaining the agreement of the three meant that future experiments would have fewer concerns, so she happily escorted the four out.

Hearing that Mo Chuan’s aircraft was still parked behind, the Old Director sighed with a smile, "With a wide main entrance available, you choose to return through the back door’s narrow path."

At this moment, Mo Chuan appeared quite relaxed and smiled while tapping her wristband, "You know me; time is precious."

They boarded the aircraft, again traveling through the dark, narrow river. After passing through the dim lake bottom, they slowly surfaced.

The aircraft spread its wings above the lake surface, and the control panel indicated, "Flight mode activated." At that moment, they could hear the sound of water stirring beneath them, and suddenly, the entire aircraft soared into the air above the lake.

"Wait… how did it fly up like this?" Zhu Huai, observing the wings since the aircraft rose from the lake, was still shocked at the moment of takeoff. It took off straight from the water; she had never seen this and could hardly imagine such technology.

"Have you ever seen an eagle catch prey in the water, then take off with it?" Mo Chuan replied cheerfully. "It’s similar to that principle."

Half an hour later, Mo Chuan delivered them back to the hangar where the Shan Hai Jing was parked. After the three disembarked from the aircraft, she mentioned she had some matters to attend to, waved goodbye to them from the cockpit, and took off again.

That day, the assembly hall was quiet with no major meetings; only a large open hall had about ten silver-haired elders chatting leisurely. Mo Chuan walked in confidently and reported today’s events to everyone.

Upon finishing, everyone nodded slowly. After a while, an elderly lady sitting at the edge said to Mo Chuan, "This is good. We are just waiting for Ao Ci’s research results. It’s also hard on you to persuade them; we won’t force them into a corner. We will help as we can, but if they are willing to change their minds and stay to provide us with more information, that would be even better."