The released aggression was like a raging flood; it simply could not be contained. From that day onward, the teenager refused to tolerate any form of bullying from anyone.
He systematically went on a retaliatory streak, teaching every local punk in the neighborhood a lesson. His father was visibly anxious about his recent conduct, but the teenager was no longer the self-deprecating, fearful child of the past.
He argued back against his father's lectures, preferring instead to confide his inner thoughts to Hyuk, because she and he were ultimately cut from the same cloth.
He was deeply curious about the superhuman world. Hyuk warned him that it was a highly hazardous place where life-and-death struggles could erupt at any moment, and where no anomaly was too bizarre to occur.
The boy asked an incredibly naive question: "But... isn't that illegal?"
"Hahaha!"
Hyuk was thoroughly amused, laughing for a long time.
The teenager felt as though he had pushed open the door to a massive new world, with Hyuk serving as the key. From her, he learned countless details regarding superhumans.
And he grew to deeply admire this hidden realm.
...
One day,
the group of local thugs who had previously extorted the boy brought a massive crowd to cause him trouble. Hyuk witnessed the teenager's first real fight.
He single-handedly flattened over twenty men. Heavy iron pipes BANGED against his body with dull thuds, leaving no marks or injuries whatsoever. Instead, with just a slight lapse of caution on his part, he would break his opponents' bones.
Twenty minutes later,
the empty lot was littered with groaning men.
Achieving such a feat for the very first time, the boy excitedly turned to Hyuk. "Big Sis! I flattened all of them by myself!"
"Mm."
Hyuk had absolutely zero interest in local street brawls, but she had to admit the boy had made tangible progress, he was no longer just flailing wild haymakers.
Furthermore,
Hyuk noticed that the optical transparency of the boy's body had decreased slightly. This meant his physical density was gradually increasing; his talent was indeed a growth-type.
Type Zero hypothesized that his primary growth trigger was combat.
From then on, those thugs never dared to cause him trouble again.
...
Sometime later,
full of boundless admiration, the boy asked Hyuk, "Big Sis... who is the strongest superhuman you've ever seen, and exactly how powerful are they?"
Hyuk's answer was meticulous. Because he had specifically asked about superhumans, she automatically excluded the Merger, Pat, and deferred to Leviathan and Radiant Man.
"Very strong."
"But how strong exactly?"
"Comparable to a humanoid nuclear warhead."
The boy gasped.
"So does that mean the legends online about the Battle of Jpscan City are true? Did a super-intense clash actually happen there a year ago? The rumors I've read are terrifying."
Hyuk nodded.
"They're true."
The teenager had absolutely no idea that the ringleader of that infamous battle was sitting right in front of him. He was too busy being completely shell-shocked by the truth, marveling at how the world was rapidly exceeding his wildest imaginations.
A year ago, who could have possibly predicted that a clash between just two individuals could nearly annihilate an entire city? It was simply beyond comprehension.
After the boy had left,
Type Zero commented, "This teenager has a lot of potential. Are you planning on nurturing him?"
Hyuk denied it.
"No. I'm just observing to see what kind of person he'll grow into."
She had absolutely no interest in establishing a faction or playing babysitter.
Type Zero felt it was a shame.
...
Three days later,
Type Zero brought Hyuk some unexpected news. "That teenager has been kidnapped. The assailants are suspected superhumans. Do you need me to track them?"
"Kidnapped?"
Hyuk was surprised.
The word itself felt strange when paired with "superhuman." Indeed, to successfully abduct that boy, ordinary people simply weren't capable of such a feat.
"Track them."
Hyuk was highly curious about the situation. As the times changed, even criminal organizations were adapting. She kept her pace steady as she closed in on the GPS signal.
Before long,
Type Zero chimed in again, "His phone has been discarded. I'm routing the signal through the minivan's onboard radio to keep them targeted. They've crossed the city limits."
The vehicle carrying the abducted teenager drove steadily out of the metropolitan area, eventually veering into the desolate wilderness. Hyuk followed at a relaxed pace, thoroughly intrigued by their destination.
Over two hours later,
a white minivan pulled up outside an abandoned, decaying factory. A bald man stepped out, retrieving his phone to dial a number. "Hey, boss! I've got the kid secured!"
As he spoke, another thug carried the seemingly unconscious boy over his shoulder into the warehouse.
Suddenly,
the boy opened his eyes.
"Holy crap!"
The man carrying him shrieked in absolute terror, dropping him on the spot.
A moment later,
Hyuk strolled casually into the abandoned facility. The distinct, metallic stench of fresh blood hit her nostrils immediately. Looking up, she saw several male corpses littering the concrete floor.
The teenager was drenched in blood.
He looked up, spotting Hyuk's arrival. His voice trembled violently, laced with a choked sob. "Big... Big Sis... I... I killed them! I didn't mean to, I accidentally..."
At the end of the day, he was still too green; he had never witnessed, let alone caused, a scene like this.
"Tch."
A sharp click of a tongue abruptly cut off the boy's panicked stuttering. A burly, muscular man stepped into their line of sight, casually glancing down at the corpses on the floor.
"I told them to be careful, yet they still managed to screw it up. What a bunch of useless trash."
With that,
the man paid absolutely no heed to his dead underlings. After a brief sweep of the boy, his gaze landed directly on Hyuk. The moment he saw her, his brow furrowed deeply.
He couldn't help but burst into a string of frantic, terrified curses.
"Useless, pathetic trash! Every single one of them!"
He had only sent them to kidnap a mere child; how on earth had they ended up dragging back a Tyrannosaurus Rex? The burly man didn't know who Hyuk was, but he acutely sensed her monstrous, suffocating power.
"Big Sis..."
Hyuk wasted no time coddling the boy. Her tone was completely flat and detached. "The rest is grown-up business. Little kids should hurry along home."
Forcing himself to calm down, the teenager glanced between the burly man and Hyuk. Acutely sensing the volatile shift in the atmosphere, he didn't hesitate for a second, turning on his heels and running as fast as his legs could carry him.
Within the eerie, heavy silence, Hyuk spoke.
"Are you some toy that crossed over from another world?"
She had detected the door's faint calling resonance here. Furthermore, this burly man possessed two distinct heartbeats inside his chest; he was clearly no Terran.
The man was on extreme alert. His body instinctively tensed into a defensive posture, his muscles tightening like steel. Even though his alien identity was fully exposed, he didn't dare make the first move. His intuition screamed that doing so would result in his death.
No.
It would result in his absolute, one-hundred-percent death!
He had never felt such an oppressive, suffocating aura of mortality. It was like a stray dog confronting the undisputed King of the Forest; there was no need to fight to know the outcome.
The man retorted defensively, "What if I am?"
That made things simple.
Hyuk was brief and direct, her tone leaving absolutely zero room for refusal. "Tell me the situation on the other side of the door."
"How about a trade? I'll give you information on the other side, and you..."
BOOM!
A violent impact shattered the air in an instant.
The burly man was smashed bodily into the factory wall, which instantly fractured into a massive, spiderwebbing pattern of cracks. Blood sprayed from his mouth as agonizing pain racked his torso.
Hyuk stated flatly, "You have absolutely no room to refuse or negotiate with me."
Blood leaked continuously from his lips.
He felt as if his chest had been completely crushed. Sliding down the cracked wall, he realized that first strike had been too fast, so blindingly fast that he had absolutely zero reaction time.
In that single fraction of a second, he had felt death brush against his face.
"Cough! Cough!"
Hack-coughing the blood from his throat, the man no longer dared to play bargainer. He submissively spilled every scrap of intelligence regarding the other side of the door to Hyuk.
Taking a deep breath to steady the agonizing pain, he managed to speak. "The planet on the other side of the door is virtually identical to Earth. The inhabitants are humans, and their technological development is roughly on par, at least, I didn't notice any significant differences..."
From a purely superficial standpoint, the world on the other side of the door was indistinguishable from Earth, possessing at most a few cultural deviations. Indeed, strictly on the surface, that was the reality.
The planet on the other side of the door was named Gulan. It boasted a history far more ancient than Earth's, so ancient, in fact, that it had once birthed an era known as the super-ancient civilization.
Even on Gulan itself, this was an incredibly deep-seated secret. A massive temporal gap existed between this primordial era and recorded history, leaving absolutely no documentation or physical evidence to verify its existence.
However,
that super-ancient civilization did indeed exist.
The burly man was a lingering survivor of this primordial era, or more accurately, the entity coexisting inside his chest cavity was. That entity was the source of the second heartbeat Hyuk had detected earlier.
Bzzzz...
A fist-sized insect with a glossy, jet-black shell resembling a rhinoceros beetle crawled out of the man's mouth. Incapable of vocal speech, it could only vibrate its wings to emit a high-frequency buzzing sound.
Yet, it possessed an intelligence that easily rivaled a human's.
The man explained, "This is a primordial parasite from that super-ancient civilization. It can nest inside a human host in a symbiotic relationship, granting them immense power. Through a stroke of sheer luck, I became its host, which is why I possess physical strength and combat capabilities far exceeding those of ordinary humans."
He was a Gulanian. Like many other extraterrestrials, his arrival on Earth had been purely accidental. Originally, he had planned to utilize the parasite's egg-laying mechanism to hijack and control other superhumans to expand his own influence, which was why he had orchestrated the boy's abduction.
He just hadn't expected to run straight into a completely logic-breaking, over-spec monster.
Talk about absolute bad luck.
Hyuk questioned him.
"A primordial parasite can control others by laying eggs inside their bodies?"
"Yes, that's correct."
"Is there no upper limit to the number of hosts?"
"There is. The parasite coexisting with me can only control a maximum of five hosts. I haven't encountered any other primordial parasites; this one inside me is just a recently hatched larva, so I'm not clear on the limits of others."
This meant,
that neither the man nor his parasitic symbiont knew how many other primordial parasites from the super-ancient civilization remained on Gulan. These entities simply nested inside human hosts, quietly living in symbiosis with the Gulan population.
Or perhaps,
the parasite inside the man's chest was the sole surviving relic of that primordial civilization.
Any possibility was on the table.
"What is your name?"
"Wening."
Heart rate normal, pupils steady, respiration regular. Based on these physiological metrics, Hyuk concluded that Wening's statements were genuine, or at the very least, not entirely fabricated.
Hyuk retrieved her phone, asking, "Well?"
Type Zero replied, "As long as there's an active network on the other side, I can cross over with you. I'm highly curious to see the world on the other side of the door as well."
"Alright."
The door was calling to Hyuk, enveloping her in that same magnetic sensation of being chosen. Previously, she might have avoided stepping through, but to rewrite her destined death inside a black hole, she had no choice but to grow stronger.
Venturing into another Quadrant would grant her a much larger stage to push her limits and scale her power.
Hyuk turned to Wening. "You can forget about Earth; you won't survive here anyway. I plan to pay a visit to Gulan. A parasitic symbiont like you might actually prove to be of some use."
"..."
Wening remained silent. Deprived of the right to refuse, he could only submissively fall into step behind her. Honestly, if Earth was populated by monsters of Hyuk's caliber, he would rather return to Gulan.
It was just his luck to run straight into a world-boss-tier entity the second he stepped through the door. Never mind himself, even if every superhuman on Earth charged her together, they would likely only be served as easy prey.
Guided by the door's calling resonance,
Hyuk located a worn-out isolation door in the deep recesses of the factory. Decades of neglect had layered the structure in dust and grimy stains, though the metal itself had miraculously avoided rusting.
The system interface flashed to life.
[Serial No. 268813975: A two-way passage leading to Quadrant 117. This is a Quadrant featuring numerous bizarre biological forms, following the cruel natural law of natural selection.]
[Closure Countdown: 2 years, 330 days, 08 hours, 35 minutes]
Nearly three years.
This was the very first time Hyuk had encountered a door on Earth that remained open for such an extensive duration. If a significant time dilation existed between the two Quadrants, she might be able to stay on the other side for a very long time.
Creak.
The door was pushed open. Hyuk turned her head, gesturing for Wening to go first. Wening submissively stepped through and vanished from sight, followed closely by Hyuk.
In a single fraction of a second, their surroundings warped. The two stepped out from the mechanical room on the top floor of a massive high-rise. The building was exceptionally tall, offering a panoramic, bird's-eye view of the entire surrounding cityscape.
Hyuk turned back to verify the door's properties on this side.
[Serial No. 268813975: A two-way passage leading to Quadrant 042. This is a Quadrant of infinite possibilities, the nexus of all potential.]
[Closure Countdown: 29 years, 14 days, 23 hours, 55 minutes]
Roughly a ten-fold time dilation.
Hyuk walked over to the edge of the roof, looking down at the endless flow of pedestrians and vehicles. Car horns echoed sporadically, and towering skyscrapers hemmed them in from all sides, a dense concrete jungle that displayed Gulan's advanced technology and civilization.
It really was highly similar to Earth.
Suddenly,
a system notification materialized.
——
[Main Mission · Phase One: This is a brutal Quadrant that abides by natural selection. Natural species elimination and competition are everywhere. As losers of the previous round of natural selection, the primordial parasite race belongs in the dustbin of history. Please ensure that all primordial parasites on this planet are eliminated.]
[Mission Reward: Evolution Rate · 10%]
——
Hyuk analyzed the details.
Based solely on the criteria of Phase One, she could deduce that the primordial parasites remaining on Gulan were not limited to a single specimen; otherwise, the system wouldn't have specified their total "elimination."
She didn't know their baseline combat capabilities yet, but that was secondary. The most critical issue was figuring out how to actually track down these remaining parasites.
Type Zero plugged herself into Gulan's global network, immediately securing highly critical intelligence.
"Look at this."
Her phone screen projected a security camera feed showing two grotesque, humanoid monsters locked in a brutal clash. Hyuk gestured for Wening to take a look.
Wening verified the footage. "Both of these are indeed primordial parasite hosts. We possess the innate ability to transform into a combat state, which allows us to maximize the parasite's raw destructive power."
The feed on the screen shifted to display a corporate logo.
Type Zero explained, "According to the harvested data, this massive international conglomerate named DR Bio-Pharma is utilizing the primordial parasites to conduct human biological modifications. They are actively attempting to engineer a stronger breed of humans."
DR Bio-Pharma.
A globally renowned pharmaceutical titan, they possessed the most advanced biological research technology and facilities Gulan had to offer. Type Zero had compromised their corporate intranet and central servers, extracting a portion of their classified project files.
Type Zero continued, "According to the stolen documents, DR Bio-Pharma discovered a ruin of the super-ancient civilization twenty years ago and harvested a living primordial parasite. Recognizing its immense potential, they secretly greenlit a classified project. Utilizing modern biotechnology, they have cloned an unknown number of parasites. The two hosts captured on this surveillance feed are among DR Bio-Pharma's successful prototypes; they are currently forcing the hosts to fight to the death."
DR Bio-Pharma's high command firmly believed that this was the definitive future of humanity, that symbiosis with the primordial parasites represented the next leap in human evolution. Humans bound to these parasites possessed far greater strength, and their lifespans were significantly extended. Based on cellular analysis, a host's lifespan could reach three times that of a normal human, or perhaps even longer.
Consequently, DR Bio-Pharma's executives were utterly fanatical. Unable to resist the allure of this higher state of existence, they had unanimously greenlit the project.
Hyuk was puzzled. "Why force the hosts to fight each other?"
Type Zero explained,
"The primordial parasites are an extremely combative species. Constant combat serves to trigger the dormant power nested deep within their genetic code, prompting further evolution."
"Of course, merely fighting is far from enough. The hosts engineered by DR Bio-Pharma are designed to prey upon and devour the parasites of other hosts. This predation is highly effective at accelerating their evolution, allowing them to secure even greater power."
Gu-cultivation.
This time, they were literally raising Gu parasites.
"So, what do you plan to do?"
Facing Type Zero's question, Hyuk didn't reply right away.
Her mission parameter was to eliminate every primordial parasite on Gulan. She felt there was absolutely no rush; based on what she had seen so far, their baseline combat capabilities were far from posing a threat to her.
DR Bio-Pharma's massive cloning operations had sparked an idea. Before she fully wrapped up this Phase One mission, she could exploit their cloning technology to power-farm the parasites for a massive boost to her own strength.
Slaughtering innocent humans was far too cold-blooded, but these primordial parasites were not human. Hyuk could farm them for strength without a shred of moral burden. It was completely viable.
She already had Wening's parasite in her possession, so securing a genetic source was not an issue.
Hyuk asked Type Zero, "If I want to clone and farm primordial parasites in massive quantities, and you assist me in overseeing the process, are there any technical roadblocks?"
"None."
Somatic cell cloning technology was already highly mature globally. Human cloning was strictly off-limits due to ethical concerns, but cloning sheep, pigs, and rabbits was incredibly commonplace.
There were no absolute technical barriers.
Type Zero added, "I can hire a group of biologists to set up the facility for you, but I believe the most efficient route is to simply seize control of DR Bio-Pharma through brute force."
Hyuk had no intention of doing so.
"That would be no fun at all. I have plenty of time, so there's no need to rush. I prefer to act as a mastermind behind the scenes, observing how it all unfolds."
Type Zero delivered a deadpan roast. "You have a rather twisted sense of humor."
It would certainly be amusing when DR Bio-Pharma realized they weren't the only ones cloning primordial parasites. And once they witnessed Hyuk's power firsthand, it would undoubtedly become even more entertaining.
Acting on Hyuk's instructions, Type Zero immediately utilized her network-traversing abilities to redirect and transfer funds online. From physical bank cash to encrypted cryptocurrencies, every virtual defense mechanism was a mere paper tiger before her.
In this hyper-networked world, Type Zero could easily collapse any local financial system on a whim, wielding a pool of disposable capital that was simply unmeasurable.
Consequently, she had to exercise extreme caution to avoid accidentally crashing the global economy.
Meanwhile,
Hyuk planned to pay a visit to DR Bio-Pharma's engineered symbionts. She was curious to see how the parasite hosts who had survived these relentless cycles of deathmatches and cannibalism compared to Wening.
...
DR Bio-Pharma headquarters.
"Boss, the results of the latest match are in. 'Gluttony' effortlessly slaughtered three other hosts and successfully devoured their internal parasites. It appears he is on the verge of reaching his first evolutionary threshold."
"Oh? Already?"
Behind the mahogany desk, a middle-aged man dressed in a sharp black suit raised his eyebrows. His name was Sengoku, the supreme controller behind the scenes of DR Bio-Pharma.
His assistant handed over the report. "'Gluttony's' strength vastly eclipses that of his peers. His dominance was absolute right from the start; there was never any doubt."
Sengoku reviewed Gluttony's physical data, thoroughly satisfied. Their long-term investment and research had not been in vain; their hypothesis regarding the evolvability of the primordial parasites was correct.
"Finally, we're seeing signs of an imminent evolution!"
DR Bio-Pharma had waited twenty years for this very moment. The host codenamed "Gluttony" possessed this tier of raw power even before his first evolution; after ascending, he would undoubtedly become a terrifying force of nature.
Sengoku's eyes traced the latest metrics on Gluttony's report. A single punch from him could yield twenty tons of force, almost four times the output of his peers.
"This is an absolute masterpiece."
He sighed with profound satisfaction.
"And what about the others besides Gluttony?"
The assistant continued his briefing, "Five other hosts survived this round of deathmatches. Their performances were standard, falling far short of Gluttony's."
"Only five? Fewer than I anticipated."
"The fighting was exceptionally brutal."
"Since Gluttony is showing signs of an impending evolution, we must expedite the next phase. Pit those five against him. Let them serve as the necessary nourishment to trigger his ascension."
"I will relay your orders immediately."
Sengoku was restless with anticipation. He was desperate to witness Gluttony's successful evolution, hungry to confirm exactly what humanity would look like upon reaching the next stage of biological existence.
Inside a sealed laboratory facility,
CLANG!
The heavy, thick vault doors slowly parted. External sunlight spilled into the chamber, illuminating a disheveled man with a haggard face. The man raised his head, revealing eyes that swirled with a volatile mix of cold rationality and sheer madness.
A researcher's voice crackled over the intercom. No one dared to share the same physical space as this monster, strictly avoiding any unnecessary contact.
"Gluttony, a new round of testing is commencing. Feel free to hunt and devour your prey."
The man rose to his feet.
Stepping out of the vault, he muttered with deep dissatisfaction,
"It's just the same worthless, unchallenging trash. Can't you bring me an opponent that actually piques my interest? You call this a deathmatch?"
His calm, steady voice was dripping with lethal intent.
Simultaneously, the five other primordial parasite hosts emerged from their respective containment chambers. The new round of slaughter had officially begun. What they didn't know, however, was that someone else was watching it all unfold.
Hyuk's enhanced vision pierced the vast distance, locking directly onto Gluttony. Feeling an uncomfortable prickle on the back of his neck, Gluttony's brow furrowed. He scanned his surroundings but found absolutely nothing out of the ordinary.