In a dark place, there were big cylindrical containers filled with some sort of glowing blue liquid, and a bare humanoid body floated in each of them. Some appeared to be male, and some were female. There were exactly ten of them. A few of them looked exactly like humans, while others had rough, animalistic features. Each of them had a mask connected to their face, specifically their nose and their mouth. A small pipe then connected this mask, supplying these bodies with air to breathe. Another difference one could easily notice were the labels that was pasted onto them.
All of a sudden, the lights were turned on, one by one, which illuminated the place entirely. The previously dark place, now filled with light, had a striking resemblance to a laboratory. It was in the exactly shape of a triangle, with the glowing blue containers facing a corner. There was a door on the left and a door on the right side. It had no windows, but the air somehow didn’t feel congested.
There were a lot of desks in the lab filled with different kinds of paperwork. On one particular desk, there was a timer counting down. Currently, it showed 59 minutes. As the timer continued to count down, sounds of footsteps began to echo outside of the room.
Then one of the doors was opened, and with that, five people who were dressed in doctors attire rushed in as they talked to each other in an excited tone.
“Finally, it is about time our experiment shows some result. Hope it's worth all the time, energy, and money we spent on them,” said a female scientist with brown hair, named Lara.
“We had to come all the way here to Japan for this experiment, so it better show its worth, or I am taking my frustration out on the head scientist who called us here. By the way, where is he?” an irritated man, Delvin, scratched his fox ears ruffling up his long crimson mane.
“He would be arriving as soon as our subjects wake up,” said Kiara, a blonde-haired woman as she glanced at the door to her right.
“Do you have any idea what kind of quirks they would awaken?” Shaun, a thin man with dark skin asked as he fixed his unsteady glasses.
“None. Although we have utilized the DNA of people with all sorts of quirks, since this is the first time our artificially created humans are successful, we have basically zero data,” said Lara with a serious expression which couldn’t hide her curiousness. “Still, we could make guesses based on our current observations.”
“It appears four of them have awakened mutant-type quirks,” Shaun rubbed his chin, “They would probably even have a hard time living in the society with that kind of appearance.”
“One of these mutants has an appearance similar to a wolf, so possibly she could have a quirk like ‘Werewolf,’” said Kiara, while observing the humanoid in the second containers from the left.
She had a sturdy, athletic build. Her skin is a warm tan, and her hair was thick, wavy and dark grey. There was even a faint layer of fur cowering her jawline and cheeks. She had her arms and legs covered in thick grey pelt each of them ending with razor sharp claws. The most defining factor however were the fluffy tail that sprouted from her back and her pointed ears that was on the top of her head looking just like dog ears.
“What is her code name?” said a muscular man named Kevin, who was writing down all the observations.
“It is A045 or subject 45,” replied Shaun, while looking through the label attached to the container of the aforementioned h
“Subject A010 seems to have awakened a mutant-type insect-related quirk judging from the exoskeleton on his body,” Kevin continued to note down as he said that.
The subject had an anthropomorphic body, large compound eyes, and antennae on its head. Their entire body was covered and protected by a layer of thick, dark chitinous armor. Its limbs were segmented, resembling both human arms and legs, while its overall stature is similar to that of a giant person.
“Subjects A045 and A001 have mutant-type, but their quirks can't be guessed using their appearance,” said Lara while scrutinizing the two. Subject 45 had his entire body covered in dark skin with his limbs ending as tentacles whereas subject 01 was completely blue from head to toe making it very hard for her to discern the difference between the subject and the liquid that filled the containers.
“We still can't be sure about their quirks as they could still change within the remaining time until their DNA completely settles. Kiara, how much time remains?” Kevin asked.
“Exactly 26 minutes left,” announced Kiara after looking at the timer on the desk.
“Delvin, be sure to install the Compulsion serum into the pods at exactly 20 minutes on the timer,” reminded Lara.
“Yeah, yeah, I will do that,” grumbled Delvin as he waited for the timer to reach 20 minutes. The moment came, and he went to each and every pod and installed the compulsion serum, which was yellow in color, fit into a small test tube. Once he had done that, he backed and exclaimed, “I am Done.”
“Now Shaun and Kiara, when I announce, press the blue button on the pods, injecting these serums into the pods. The moment they are injected, the liquid will turn a light green color,” ordered Lara.
They continued to take observation and talk as the timer counted down. The moment the timer reached ten seconds, Lara, Kevin, and Delvin counted down, “10, 9………. 3, 2, 1. PRESS THE BUTTON.”
Both Delvin and Kiara pressed the buttons, and slowly but steadily, each and every pod was filled with light green-colored liquid.
“Now within moments, our subjects should be opening their eyes. If they don’t within the span of a minute, then they are failures. Press the RED button on the pods immediately and completely dispose of them,” declared Lara. “Kiara, reset the timer to 1 minute.”
“Yes,” everyone nodded.
As they waited, they observed five of the subjects opening their eyes moments afterward. Out of these five, four of them were the ones with mutant quirks. The remaining one was a female, looking completely identical to a human teenager and the only distinguishing feature was her unnaturally white hair.
The group of scientists waited more, but no more subjects seemed to open their eyes. They keep an eye on the timer, with nervous and anticipatory gazes and as the timer reached one, they saw another subject open his eyes, revealing beautiful purple and golden irises.
Unlike the others, he was smaller in height and looked like a 10-year-old child. He had a strong jawline and high cheekbones that defined his face, giving him an effortlessly striking appearance even as a child. His black hair along with the stunning eyes were a combination that could touch the hearts of everyone who looked at them. The scientists were thus instantly mesmerized by his appearance, but Lara, who was probably the most mindful one, soon came out of her amazement, looked around, and ordered immediately without wasting a single moment, “Dispose of Subject 27, 32, 56, and 99.”
All the other scientists reacted and came out of their reverie, and then pressed the red button on the pods whose code were mentioned. Suddenly, the entire liquid inside these pods was drained, and then the entire content inside started burning with fierceness. In a matter of a minute everything inside had turned into ashes. Nothing was left inside.
“Huuu….Good, our experiment was fruitful with a 60% success rate.” Lara, turned to her fellow scientists, who were steadfastly observing the destruction and brought them out of their reverie once again, “Congratulations, everyone.” Then she turned towards the newborns who were watching her with a confused expression from inside their pods and announced with a smile, “Welcome to our world Subject 1, 7, 10, 14,45 and 109.”
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“Call the head scientist and tell him that the subjects are awake,” Kevin ordered Shaun as he looked at the active pods appreciatively.
“Let's wait for an hour before taking them out of their pods to start the other tests,” Kiara said while she walked towards at a chair and sat down. She opened a laptop that was placed on a nearby table and started typing.
Lara nodded and admitted, “I will talk to them and teach them about the world, while you guys take their tests.”
“You are our psychology expert so you do you, I guess,” Kevin replied to this and then muttered, “Subject 07, who awakened at the last second, has quite good-looking eyes. Do you think it’s an ocular-related quirk, Kiara?”
“Possibly, it would be great if it would be something similar to Eraserhead’s quirk,” exclaimed Kiara, excited at just imagining the prospects.
“Yeah, that mixed with the superhuman physique we put in each of the subjects could be a great asset. Then all we have to do is teach him some combat techniques, and he could be a great hero,” Kevin said sarcastically.
“Yeah, they were made for that purpose after all, to be heroes who would fight villains. Still, I don’t like Japan’s idealistic society that divides people into heroes and villains, some of the time according to the quirks they have. And they advertise the heroes so much. It should be a job to be done and not something so popularized. They should be teaching everyone to use their quirks and not just some ‘Hero Course Students.’ Such a waste of resources,” Lara snorted, clearly showing her discontent. She had liked how her country America had handled these things and Japan was clearly far beneath it.
“This country would have been powerful if quirks were militarized and used properly. If they were given freedom to use their quirks somewhere, there wouldn’t be so many criminals. All this country has is a single powerful hero, and when one day that hero retires or dies, this country would head to its doom,” Kevin admitted while thinking of the current greatest hero in the world, All Might.
He was lauded and considered far better than even the Star & Stripes from America, but no one knows if that is even true. Yeah, if one were to compare their fanbase, he might surpass Star & Stripes but in terms of combat capabilities…who knows who would win?
“That is the reason the so-called ‘Hero Association’ funded our research, creating these artificial humans for the preparation of the day when All Might retires or dies. I pity them. But I hope for their sake that someone among these six is powerful enough to replace him. Since we can't and won't be able to create more,” Lara sighed while imagining what would happen if such situation unfortunately occurs. She couldn’t help but shudder at the potential changes that would wreck the entire world, when the symbol of peace dies.
“The huge amount of funds this project has drained, plus the time required to create them are nonsensical. It took 30 years for their creation,” Kiara interrupted after finishing up her work, she had to do in her laptop.
“That is the cost of creating life after all,” Kevin said.
“We don’t actually know if we created life. We just created a body and mind and combined them together. We don’t know and will probably never know, if they actually have souls,” Kiara rolled her eyes and continued with a joyful tone, “Anyway, I wrote my report and have even read the reports from the remaining two facilities. Apparently, we are the only ones with over 50 percent success. The lab in Miyagi had only one success while the one in Kyoto had four.”
“That’s great. We will be abundantly rewarded by our employer for such a difference.” Kevin exclaimed happily as he imagined the money that will be credited to his account.
“Yeah, that is true too. But unfortunately, this is great success will never be known to the world. After all, the head scientist has probably destroyed all the research works by now. Additionally, any information associated to this research will be erased from our minds too.” Sighed Lara, “Well, can’t do anything about that. After all, we signed up for this.”
“The Hero Association doesn’t want anyone, even their own people, to know about this research as it enters forbidden territories. So, of course they would do something like this.” Kiara replied with her opinion, “They would probably even go as far as creating fake IDs for them and then make them join the society as Heroes. Though this would only happen after they had gotten acquainted with the world and properly train their quirks.”
They continued to talk about their research as they waited for the Head Scientist to arrive. The subjects in the pods looked toward these humans with curiosity in their eyes. But one of them looked to be quite dazed and unfocused.
……
When Shin woke up, he felt himself submerged underwater. He was also unable to move his entire body. He tried to move again and again, yet was unable to do it.
Finally, after what felt like a long time of trying, he was able to open his eyes at least. As his senses returned, he found himself inside a cylindrical container of some sort of green liquid. He tried to open his mouth and speak, but his voice didn’t escape the mask he was wearing, seemingly providing him air to breathe.
‘Wait! Air to breathe?’ Shin's eyes widened as he immediately realized something was wrong. As a cultivator, he had completely removed his need for breathing, so why was he doing that currently?
Then he tried to recollect what he was doing previously, and he remembered his conversation with Ivis Luminous. His eyes twitched as he realized something from their conversation, that gave him an idea of his probable situation, ‘Did that woman throw me into one of those planes in the Dream Cradle? Can't she give me some warning beforehand? At least some information about the world I would be going to would be quite better.’
Crushing the anger that was rising inside of him, he calmly analysed the situation. He could hear people talking in his background, so he attempted to listen in to their conversation. After hearing their discussion, he fully comprehended his current predicament. He was an experimental subject, created by the team of scientists, similar to the other five who were beside him.
‘Hmm, they are talking about artificial humans, so probably I am one of those. I can’t believe they have succeeded in doing something no one has achieved in my previous life…..Anyway, it is essential to act in the similar manner other subjects would act in order to not raise any suspicion, at the least for now. But once I learn the situation, I can try for an escape if it is needed.’
As he thought this, he recollected Ivis mentioning that he would have to start from the ground up. That every time he changes planes, he would lose all his powers other than the one skill he uploaded. And the way, he wasn’t even able to open his divine sense was the clear proof that Shin need to know that he had lost all his cultivation.
Holding back his tears that came from sadness, he comforted himself, ‘It's okay, Shin. Cultivation was a means to an end, and you reached a goal many beings at a higher level than you would crave for. You did great.’ He then remembered every single point of his previous life, his friends, allies, women, and nostalgia filled him. ‘Thank you for being with me and goodbye.’ He would use his memories, the only proof that he had lived a life prior to this, as motivation to move forward. He, resolved himself that one day he would return and meet them.
After a little while of tending to his emotions, Shin continued to think and critically analyse about his current predicament. ‘I need to learn the power system that this world has, try to improve upon it and create a powerful yet useful skill to upload to my TrueSoul. I would need another goal. Hmm… let's go with ruling the continent or kingdom or empire, whatever they call it here, since that was what my false self did in one of the trials. But first, I would need to learn their language.’
As he thought this, Shin came to a startling realization. ‘Wait, why was I able to understand their language? I am pretty sure I have never heard of the language they are speaking.’
As he thought deeply about this matter, he made a hypothesis, ‘It's not that I understood word to word what they said, but I was able to understand the basic content. I do recall Ivis mentioning something like that as one of the privileges of possessing the TrueSoul.’
‘Ugh, why didn’t Ivis give me all the information? Oh!…Wait, I am the who declared that I didn’t like information getting stuffed in my mind. Was that why she didn’t. Because she was being considerate of me.....? Well, who can guess the thought process of someone like her. Well, not me, at least. Haaa….Nevertheless, she did say that I would receive them later. But how would that be possible?’ Shin then strained himself to remember everything Ivis talked about and finally thought of something, ‘CUBE.’
Ok, that didn’t work, then what about ‘SYSTEM.’ As he thought that in his mind, a holographic screen appeared in front of him. He was startled then became anxious that the scientists would see it, but considering that they didn’t react to it, Shin concluded that only he could see it. He, looked at the screen that had suddenly popped up. It was blue in color and materialised in the exact same appearance as the trial instruction screen. The only thing that was missing was the voice that come along with screen.
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[STATUS SCREEN]
[SYSTEM EXCLUSIVE ABILITIES]
[WORLD]
[TRUESOUL]
[UPDATES]
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Shin eyes widened as he was amazed at the numerous options that had come up and focused his attention on the very first option i.e. status screen. The blue screen changed as it opened his STATUS SCREEN, whatever that was.
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NAME : Shin Akatsuki
TRUESOUL LEVEL : Null
RANK : 1
RACE : Artificial Human
SKILLS : Superhuman Physique, Karmic Vision
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