Indeed. What he had been looking at was none other than his own abominable body.

“Man. I look so ugly in this form, yuck.” Noah chuckled as he looked at his reflection in the mirror before his eyes. After Noah accepted the invitation that was given to him by the mechanism running this place, he was immediately transported to this new region. And before him… stood a gigantic mirror with the rest of the region a white void that stretching infinitely.

The only thing registering in his vision was his own abominable reflection; it wasn’t flattering in the least, not in his current form. Not only was he naked and covered in blood and grime, but his body looked so scrawny that anyone would think that he suffered from malnourishment. It looked like he had not eaten anything for days, maybe even weeks. Even his once lustrous silver hair had a hard time showing its usual shine in his current state. A shame of the highest magnitude.

After scrutinizing his new form for a few more minutes, Noah sighed as he realized that nothing was transpiring in this room filled with nothing but the endless void. Hesitantly, he brought his hand forward to touch the mirror before him.

Whoosh!

The moment his hand touched the mirror a ripple started spreading across the smooth surface, mirroring something akin to a stone being thrown into a calm lake. This effect did not last long as numerical values started appearing one after another in front of his eyes.

『 Name: Noah

Estimated Age: 0

Difficulty: Highest

Result: Perfect 』

[Congratulations dear citizen! You have made the Empire proud. Your name will be shared through the Galaxy and far beyond.]

The sound of fanfare filled his ears as he received the congratulatory message from the system. It was weird, genuinely weird for him to encounter this situation. However, it did prove that this whole Star Gate shit was just a testing ground for the Gaia Empire.

However, there was one piece of information that intrigued Noah more than the realization of this place.

“Zero?”

He looked at his age with bewilderment before quite literally, facepalming himself. It seemed like whatever had happened back there, it quite literally recreated his whole body from scratch… giving off the impression that he was a mere newborn.

This is so fucking stupid.

He chuckled, before focusing on the mirror once more. The string of messages were still ongoing even as he went through a minor internal monologue.

[Dear citizen… In this time of need, the Empire requires all the able and talented hands it can muster. Move immediately to the next entry point and receive the Blessing of the Almighty Constellation to fight against the wicked enemies who wish to trample on our rule.]

The mirror dimmed after delivering those words and Noah was left alone in this infinite white void, perplexed as to what to do now. “Is that all there is?” He had expected and simulated a lot of scenarios in his head, however, he could have never imagined something like this. He had not learned anything new and in fact, was left with even more questions that needed answering.

What was even this Blessing of the Almighty Constellations that the system mechanism spoke of? Who were these wicked enemies? Where the hell was he supposed to go next?

Noah pinched his brows and let out a groan filled with frustration at the current situation. “Fuck!” He punched the mirror, even knowing how useless it would be. The mirror did not shake, much less crack under the power of his fist. But Noah was not disappointed but in fact, was glad that this was the case. Because a new message appeared before him soon after.

[As you have cleared the Noah Difficulty, you are given a special opportunity.]

[Do you accept having your memories read?]

[Y/N?]

— Noah…

“This is…”

Noah’s eyes opened wide at this new message but at the same time, he was extremely hesitant to follow through. If the empire really was Earth, which at this point was all but confirmed, then they would definitely have some form of animosity with the Parasites. Unless they somehow managed to control the Parasites in the meantime, then there was no other way around it.

The problem was would the scan only read through his memory or would it read his and the Parasite Queen’s memories as well? What about the memories absorbed by the Queen?

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

There were many risks in that case but Noah did not wish to refuse such an offer. Not when he reached this point. This was why he immediately clicked on the Yes button.

A blue light covered his face before slowly going down and new words appeared before his eyes,

[Two streams of Consciousness detected inside the host. Diving into the main one.]

[Begin…]

Noah immediately blacked out.

***

The world, as Noah opened his eyes, was one he was more than a little familiar with. It was the place where everything started for him. Even after surviving for years alone on that planet, those memories had never vanished from his memories.

A white room, white walls, and white ceiling… all of them came together to create a feeling of infinite void, not dissimilar to the space he just came from. A place that would have been enough to drive anyone crazy and in this place, a row of white chairs with children of different colors and ethnicities gathered. Their bodies draped in pristine white, the children could be seen working mindlessly on the hologram floating a few centimeters above the table they were seated.

The White Room.

As one would expect, this was not exactly the most original name for this place. However, it was still the most accurate way to describe this space and it was also the name he used to associate this place with. However, due to all the bloodshed that happened here, his comrades liked to call this place the Red Room instead.

This was the facility that once held all the hopes and dreams of mankind. The largest and most developed central research in the world as well as the most gruesome one as no law or ethics could be considered inside this room.

How is this even possible?

He looked down at himself and noticed that he had a ghostly appearance, making it clear to him that what was happening was nothing but a memory and he was but a spectator observing them passively.

If there was one thing to note, it was that in the current space, he did not look like a young kid. He held the same height as his adult form. Most probably, this appearance was created based on the projection of his own mind.

What am I even supposed to do here?

His gaze landed on the children. Outside of the obvious color of the clothes, the one thing that all those children had in common was a series of numbers at the base of their necks.

Noah’s eyes slowly glided over each of the children before settling on one in particular.

01E01210

This number could be found on the neck of a black-haired young boy. Like the others, his eyes were hollow as he worked on the equations that were given to them for solving. For the children at this stage of their education, this equation, while complicated, was nothing particularly hard. What mattered was simply how fast they could solve all the problems given to them.

Approaching the black-haired boy, Noah crouched down in front of the desk and peered more closely at his neat features. Beautiful blue eyes, short black hair, and a cute face that showed just how much potential there was in this little chubby boy and the unmistakable look of intelligence in his young eyes.

“Yep. There is no mistake. I was born handsome. Heh.”

He brought his hand forward to caress the head of the young boy but ultimately failed as his hand phased through the boy like a ghost phasing through a wall. It was a stark reminder that he was nothing but an image, a projection, in this world of memories.

Standing up, he started looking at each of the other young children in this room. In this room alone, there had been more than thirty such children and there had been many, many such rooms deep within the facility.

For most of them, Noah was ashamed to admit that he could not even remember their features. Most likely they had died during the experiments or simply dropped out.

A disheartening thought, but this was also the only way to push the young kids far beyond what was considered the norm— beyond the limits of a human. At least this was how Noah had always tried to rationalize this facility and their doings in his mind.

“Heh…”

Now that he was watching it once again, he realized that that was a bunch of horseshit. In order to save themselves, a group of adults organized and created children and made their lives a living hell of the worst possible kind.

Those children never asked to be born much less to be raised as heroes but this simple and basic choice was denied from them.

“For the glory of mankind, my stinky ass.”

Noah spat on the ground, his face filled with disgust and his stomach churning in a fit. He knew of course, that things were not really as black and white as they made it seem to them.

By making a few hundred or thousand of children suffer and die, mankind brought forth a new wind of change and hope… thus creating the constellations. They had saved humanity, sacrificing thousands to be able to save billions.

This was the kind of number that would make all war veterans nod and accept it as the best possible result. No matter how macabre or evil it may seem, the fact of the matter was that they had ultimately succeeded.

Did the results justify the means? Did morals matter when humanity was on the brink of extinction?

“So, I am going to continue watching this or something?”

Noah could feel his irritation steadily rising. He did not want to see more of this bullshit any longer. He had no desire to remember the evil committed in the name of survival. He simply wanted to be done with this past and move on.

But at that moment,

“Truly… You have not changed a single bit. As impatient as always, I see.”

Noah stopped in his tracks, even his breath following suit. Every thought he had came to an absolute and sudden halt as the voice of a woman sounded behind him.

It was a voice he recognized. A voice he would never forget even if hundreds of thousands of years passed.

Turning around, his eyes widened as he took in the woman standing in front of him. It was an average-sized woman with hair of a beautiful but strange pink, giving her a youthful and amicable aura.

She was wearing a ruffled and slightly dirty white lab coat. Her hair was unkempt and her skin was so pale one might mistake her for an undead but none of this was able to hide the natural beauty she emanated. As for her expression, it was one filled with laughter and mischievousness.

Thousands of memories filled Noah’s mind and one name reached his lips as he muttered with a hoarse voice,

“Venus.”

Venus, the 9th constellation— Sagittarius.