Ringo...
That name popped into his mind as if he'd heard it his whole life, but he hadn't, had he?
Do you know how it's like to wake up with a beautiful redhead in tight black leather looking at you like you were nothing more than a piece of shit?
Do you know how it's like to remember pieces of a life you never lived, remember being strapped to a cold table, injected with who knows what, and feeling like acid was swimming through your veins?
No, this isn't a kind of sick fetish fantasy.
But he knows what it's like, because when he arrived in this world moments later, a group of excited scientists looked at him with curiosity and confusion. - This is the second one who dies, even if only for a few seconds, then comes back to life. - one of them said.
"What the fuck!" - he thought, his mouth sealed with a cloth, he made unintelligible noises, confused, as he trembled and writhed, trying to get out of that desperate situation.
Soon, the same woman he'd seen in the memories of the young man named Ringo reappeared, her wine-red hair, her serious and indifferent gaze, even calming him at that moment, staring at her with renewed attention.
Her face was clearly Caucasian, but also slightly Asian, with pale skin and small, reddish lips. She was beautiful, but her beauty quickly gave way to indifference. - Take him to be brainwashed.
Ringo's eyes widened. - "Brainwashed? Did that crazy woman cosplaying as a sadist just say brainwashed?"
Mad scientists, tied to a table, now brainwashed? He squirmed even more tightly.
-Well, that's the seventh to survive the Valkyrie serum.- The man gave him a happy smile. - I hope the boss lets me crack his head open.
"...!" - His thoughts paused at that moment. Ringo's eyes widened even further as he writhed, tears welling up in his eyes. This seemed to make the man even happier.
-Ah, I wanted to hear your screams, but "Two" set a bad example and bit my assistant's throat. Well, we had to resort to more... firm security measures. - The man laughed as if nothing was wrong with what he said. - Don't worry, you'll soon be serving the noblest organization in this world, Germinal.
Ringo trembled even more. The man smiled with satisfaction as Ringo was led away, but at that moment, Ringo's eyes widened.
Germinal? A madman who wants to split open brains? Beautiful, indifferent redhead?
Parts of the memories from that body soon came back to him, and his eyes widened. The war, the six nations, the rise of Germinal...
He knew where he was, just like Han Xiao. The first thing he thought when he realized he had arrived in this world was: "Get me out here!"
--x--
Ringo was tied to a steel chair in front of a large screen in a technology room. He was desperate at this point.
He tried to scream in his mind: system, status, cheat, gold finger... anything, but nothing worked.
He was also sent directly to this room, unlike Han Xiao, who had time to become a mechanic and raise his resistance enough to resist the brainwashing.
He was not so lucky.
"I'm fucked, I'm going to become a fucking brainwashed mob. Besides, with my knowledge, even Han Xiao will be killed this time. Maybe they'll think I'm crazy... shit." - His eyes were erratic as he despaired. He searched for a solution, any solution, but he couldn't find one.
Thinking of a future where he would be a dead soldier of a lunatic organization, probably dying after any useful information was extracted, he felt desperate.
Hila didn't appear, nor did that mad brain scientist. Instead, some guards stayed with him, and then his torture began.
The flashing lights, the geometric symbols, the sound...
Everything seemed to drive him crazy. He couldn't close his eyes, couldn't look away. He could only squirm continuously in his chair. He felt it, his consciousness giving way to a primal madness, something that seemed to override his personality, but something changed over time.
His mind seemed clearer, his eyes seemed to acquire a smooth, almost film-like coating. His hearing seemed to blur these sounds. His mind seemed to fight against it, slowly calming down.
Confused, he realized he seemed to be changing. The longer he spent there, the more his body seemed to resist it, not in a strong way like dulling his senses, but slowly changing to adjust.
"Is this my ability? Is it a cheat? Or a Esper gene awakened?" he wondered in confusion.
Unfortunately for him, he wasn't the only one to notice that.
Through the cameras, he, who was just an ordinary guy, didn't know how to act brainwashed. He tried to act, but he honestly had no idea how to appear brainwashed.
So, minutes later, a group of mobs entered the room, turned off the device, and in his panic, he was taken back to that mad scientist . Hila was there, frowning in confusion.
-Fascinating... - He placed a light against his eye. It usually took a while for the pupil to adapt, even if it was quick, it was still visible, but before the light even hit him, his pupil contracted to a tiny point. Their eyes couldn't even follow his pupil's contraction.
Ringo only saw the amount of light increase for a moment before dimming to normal tones again. The flashlight in his eye was like looking at the sun through sunglasses.
-Incredible, he created a kind of transparent layer, not to mention the reaction of his pupil... besides, it's almost so small it seemed to disappear, incredible... he probably awakened something, I need to do a blood test. - The mad scientist seemed very excited; he even stopped talking about opening his head.
Hila narrowed her eyes and observed all this coldly. Frowning slightly, she said. - Do it, I'll call the boss. - Giving him one last look before leaving.
"Shit! I should have watched those stupid James Bond movies with my dad!" - Ringo knew he was screwed; whatever happened to him was discovered very quickly, and he was back to square one, full of despair.
Hila returned quickly, and the blood test came back quickly. The man seemed extremely excited. - It's an awakened Esper gene! Incredible! His cells seem to be constantly adapting, improving, evolving. Within minutes, his cells tried to adapt, but it seems that away from him, they quickly lose their power. Even so, he's basically the perfect experimental subject!
He looked kind of crazy as he continued. - You know what this means? He's the answer to most genetic questions! The future possibilities are immense! Ruling the world will be extremely easy for Germinal!
"Holy shit! I'm screwed!" - Ringo's eyes went opaque at that moment. He knew exactly what kind of life awaited him if what the brain-loving scientist said was true.
Hila narrowed her eyes and looked at him. For a moment, Ringo seemed to see a brief sympathy, before he lost it again. - I'll talk to the boss.
She left again as the man wandered around muttering, planning all sorts of things for him.
-We'll have to run extensive tests. Apparently, his body responds to the environment. We need to determine his stress level... - The man continued to mutter as he paced around excitedly.
"Shut the fuck up!" - Ringo was shaking violently, a mix of fury and despair. None of this sounded like those reincarnation stories. Why? Why did this had to happen to him?
Hila returned with a hard look minutes later. She gave him a deep look, then turned to the scientist and said. - You're free to use him as you wish, as long as he doesn't die. See his limits.
Ringo's eyes grew desperate, and the man jumped with joy. He smiled kindly at him and said. - We're both going to have a lot of fun.
--x--
(Zero/Han Xiao POV)
Han Xiao thought it was just another ordinary day. He acted like a dead soldier again, expressionless, and ate his food in the mess hall while listening to the surrounding soldiers chatter.
No one cared about him, a brainwashed guy.
-Did you hear? The screams of the Six on the third floor... - The man commented.
-Yes, I heard his Esper ability allows him to adapt to anything, poor guy. Lin Wei Xian seems very lively these past few weeks, that place is noisy most of the day. -The other guard sighed.
-So what? He's just another guinea pig. I heard that when the research is complete, we'll be able to significantly increase the number of supers in the organization, the fall of the Six Nations wouldn't be far off. - Another guard chimed in, full of disdain and disgust, as well as a clear lust for blood. His hand moved toward a scar on his left arm, as if feeling a lingering pain.
Han Xiao's expression didn't change, but his eyes narrowed slightly.
"Six?" - Han Xiao wondered if this was some kind of butterfly effect from his arrival or if Six had died in the original. - "An Adaptation Esper power... that's at least a C-rank potential ability, maybe even..."
Han Xiao began to wonder if Six could be useful during his escape. He resolved to stop by the third floor at a future opportunity to take a look.
--x--
-"923... 916... 909..." - Ringo was going crazy. Almost a month had passed since he arrived here. He only knew this because Lin Wei Xian told him how much time was passing. Even so, he sometimes entertained himself with other activities, like the current one, counting from one thousand minus seven.
His eyes revealed a clear imbalance as he was strapped to a cold table, wearing only white hospital pants, his strong physique clearly visible. His head was restrained by strong restraints, as were his limbs, and his mouth was sealed.
In that time, they discovered a lot about him.
First, he can not only adapt, but it is literally evolution.
He was burned, doused in acid, injected with drugs and poisons, and placed in rooms at extremely low temperatures. His body continued to evolve through this, steadily gaining resistance. It was slow, but present. It wasn't some kind of energy preventing him from being damaged; no, his cells were evolving to negate the damage on their own.
According to Lin Wei Xian, they were constantly evolving, which required a lot of effort for Supers. he needed only external stimuli to improve. This made the lunatic even more fanatical, talking about finding a way to create millions of supers and even cross the C Grade barrier, where all Germinal would become Supers.
Even when he extracted his marrow, it seemed to adapt more and more, harder and more resistant, trying in every way to prevent its extraction, but it was very slow. This only made the process more painful for him. Worse still, the anesthesia stopped working soon, so... pain.
At least his evolution seemed to consider his pain, and at the very least, the pain was becoming increasingly less. Furthermore, his own mentality seemed to be adjusting. He should have gone mad, but although he felt fury and despair, he wasn't crazy. He didn't feel like he was losing control. His own evolution seemed to be working in his mind as well.
Not only that, but his evolution had a passive healing ability, not like Aurora, who could grow flesh from nothing, but as if the body were alive and could rebuild itself.
Lin Wei Xian seemed to realize this and asked Hila to attack him with her energy.
Not much, but just to stimulate his evolution.
Hila's energy was cold and extremely harmful. He felt not only his skin wither, but his soul screamed in pain.
Every day, Hila used a bit of her energy on him. Lin Wei Xian was thrilled to discover that this made him evolve to adapt as well. Hila said his own soul seemed to be growing stronger, as did his mind and body.
He wasn't being researched as a weapon, but as Aurora, he was more valuable for his own existence.
Lin Wei Xian wanted to see how his cells reacted, trying to master a way to create a serum with them.
But, upon leaving his body, his cells quickly became ordinary, so he could only use his body as a medium, putting him under constant physical and mental stress.
He was almost always gagged, even when his gag was removed, he didn't speak. He knew it was useless. He was waiting, waiting for Han Xiao, waiting for him to see the value in his freedom.
He remembers it seemed to take six months for him to act. He doesn't know how much time had passed between Han Xiao's procedure and his own, but he had to wait at most another five months. With luck, the man would get him out of here.
He tried to summon some kind of system thousands of times, but realized there was nothing there, it was just him, the real NPC, no longer a player, nor something in between, like Han Xiao.
The next month was stressful. They tried to apply more severe brainwashing, but even when it worked, it didn't last long. He tried faking it once again, but it was quickly seen through, so he stopped trying. The fact was, Han Xiao was much better at it than him.
Another important thing is that he could feel his hierarchy of life level reaching the extreme a few weeks ago. If he let go, he could probably jump to E Grade. But he didn't do it because he didn't want to increase the strength of his "chains". Instead, he held onto the feeling, preventing any progress. His cells didn't improve existentially, but his energy levels became increasingly saturated.
Lin Wei Xian didn't realize this. The accumulation of cellular energy wasn't detectable by his equipment, but he didn't care enough about trying to look for potential threats, too focused on discovering anything with "Six" DNA.
The problem with this? His DNA is very active inside him, and loses all vitality outside of him. Lin Wei Xian is still trying to stabilize his DNA, but the work is getting increasingly difficult.
Lin Wei Xian even tried injecting his blood into animals, but they developed tumors shortly after the injection. His blood isn't a panacea; in fact, ordinary people can't tolerate it at all.
Even a Super can die from degeneration in a few minutes.
This wasn't used as a weapon because of the accelerated loss of cellular vitality, even if frozen. After all, his cells would continue working to resist the cold before dying completely.
Thus, the serum process was stalled, much to Lin Wei Xian's frustration, which in turn increased his torture.