“You-young master…?”
When Fergus arrived at Lab No. 503, he was met with the sight of a bright-eyed Joseph and a strange but beautiful girl with white hair and gold eyes.
“You’re finally here.” Joseph ushered him inside before looking around sneakily, as if he was on some secret mission.
“What’s going on, young master…?”
“Ah, yeah. I need your help to get these things up and running.” He pointed towards the sophisticated machineries behind them.
“W-why do you need to—?” Fergus stammered, cold sweat forming on his forehead.
“It doesn’t matter! I just need you to do it.”
“But that’s—“ against the rules, Fergus wanted to say, but was silenced by the younger man’s glare. He looked so much like his father that Fergus couldn’t help but comply.
“I-I need to know what you want to do first, so I can use the most optimum ones.”
“It can’t be helped, then,” the girl said, shaking her head. She took out an orb of light from her chest, which instantly glowed brightly inside the room, blinding the two men.
“Oh, oops. Too bright, it seems.” She concentrated her gaze towards the orb, paying no mind to the light. The light began to retract itself into the orb, as if obeying her orders.
Soon, the room dimmed to its original brightness, and no trace of the previous bright light could be seen aside from the glowing orb that was now the size of the girl’s palm.
“There we go,” the girl nodded in satisfaction.
“What… is that?” Fergus asked, amazed. Then, after a pause, he abruptly looked towards the girl, “What are you?”
Airi narrowed her eyes. What is with these mortals rudely asking for one’s species? Cryptically, she replied, “I’m human.” Or at least, I used to be. Ha ha~
Fergus froze, his mind working quickly. Moments later, he looked as if a lightbulb was turned on in his head. “Could it be, you’re one of those superhumans?!” He exclaimed excitedly. He had heard rumours of people who suddenly manifested super powers, and had even seen videos of them online, but he’d dismissed them as fake. Now, seeing the incredible act in person, he couldn’t help but believe it.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Sure, whatever you want to call it.”
“What’s your name? What kind of power do you have? How old are you? When did you first get your powers? Do you think I can get them too—“ Fergus, after losing his initial nerves, began to fire questions one after another, eyes sparkling like a boy meeting his idol.
“That—“ Airi smiled, “—is a secret.”
She laughed at the human’s dumbfounded expression.
As if she was going to tell them her name! As a god, if one’s true name was called, then the deity would immediately know it. Every time their name was ever uttered, they could sense it. Although it was useful during an emergency, it was particularly annoying when it was not. Even when their names were being thought of, they could sense it—no matter how far they were from the caller. Even if someone called their names in a normal conversation, they would know. That was why, most deities like her preferred to use titles rather than their true names.
“How mysterious,” the man noted. A mysterious person hiding her superpower-type? He could feel his adrenaline pumping as his excitement and interest grew.
“This thing,” Airi held the orb, showing it to the two men, “is something like an embryo. However, in order for it to grow, it needs sustenance. Do you have any nutrient solutions that is usually used to cultivate or heal the body?”
The lab technician nodded thoughtfully, “That glass tank can be filled with something like what you described. It’s where we keep the experimental subjects in so they can stabilise their conditions.”
“Good. Does your company participate in genetic research? Something like cloning or modifying the genes…”
The two men snapped their heads to look at her with surprise. “How do you know that?! That’s a company secret!”
Currently, experiments that involved cloning was banned by the state, and excessive and unethical genetic modifications were also not allowed. However, being such a massive company, naturally, Pandora had many secret experiments currently being conducted under the tables.
Airi shrugged, “just a guess. But it seems like I’ve hit the mark. Do you think you can make a baby and put it in there?” She inwardly laughed at the honesty the duo had shown. Even if she guessed it right, they should’ve acted ignorant, at least. Haha~
“What, you mean like a test-tube baby…?” Fergus asked uneasily.
“Yes.”
These days, technology has advanced to the point where babies that were fertilised outside of the womb can also continue its growth outside through the use of synthetic conditions similar to the womb, thus eliminating the need of a surrogate mother, and making it 100% lab-produced. However, these kinds of test-tube babies tend to be riddled full of problems, like health issues or defects, and only about 9% of babies who were born through a lab was successful.
“It’s not impossible, but…”
“A~h. You don’t have any DNA samples on hand?”
“…Not in this lab, no.”
“Then, you can take mine,” the girl shrugged. “The orb can only absorb the nutrients if it had a physical body, much like most creatures… much like humans.”
“Even if we use your eggs, there’s still no sperm samp—“
“We can use mine!” Joseph immediately interrupted his words, his demeanour overly-eager.
Airi raised an eyebrow, thinking, it wasn’t as if you get to sleep with me, though?
Actually, she did not mind procreating with a human, but it was just that… she found it uncomfortable to directly give birth to a child knowing that the child was the reincarnation of her friend.
“Then it is set. Get to work~”
“…” Fergus felt a shiver in his spine. He wondered, just what had he gotten himself into?