Chapter 257: Ice Age

Let Mu Ke After they had slept for two or three hours, both of them, having strong self-management skills, woke up.

Liu Jiayi sits on the edge of the bed, rubbing her eyes and putting on her shoes, while Bai Liu puts on a better-fitting jumper jacket for her.

Her previous dress was soiled with blood, and it so happened that there were smaller sizes available at the Taishan station, so Bai Liu found them for Liu Jiayi and helped her put them on.

Liu Jiayi's right hand passes through the sleeve of Bai Liu's uplifted shirt, the other hand throws back the long hair caught at the back of her neck, and with her arm wrapped around her jacket she jumps under the bed, landing firmly on the ground.

Bai Liu loosens his hand on Liu Jiayi's coat, his eyes fall on the consolidated fax records Mu Ke hands him, and he skims through them.

His eyes rested for a moment on the five Mu Ke translation markings, [Corpse Particulation], and then he continued reading as if he hadn't seen anything.

"It seems to be that the bottom boss we're going to fight this time is this scientist named Edmund." Bai Liu handed the file to Tang Er next to him after reading it, and turned to Mu Ke , "What about the lab report and diary? Have you sifted out any valuable information?"

Mu Ke was beaming with shame, "I'm sorry, I just roughly understood the contents of these lab reports and journals, but I'm not sure what they do for now."

"Never mind." Bai Liu says, "What's the lab report about?"

Mu Ke looked up, "There are two main sections of the lab report, the first being temperature measurements, daily temperatures at various Antarctic surface sites and oceanic fields, recorded up to the last month."

Mu Ke rubbed the corner of his forehead with a headache, "--The accumulated data is a rather large number, and I don't have a way to confirm exactly what is useful at the moment."

Bai Liu flipped through this part of the information on temperature statistics, which was densely packed with numbers and all kinds of line, pie and histogram charts drawn based on the numbers, and a glance through all the long words that were so long that it was hard to gather 26 letters at one time, as well as charts and analyses that were so big that it would make one's head spin.

Mu Ke looked helplessly and feebly at the thick pile of charts.

Even if he had a first-rate memory, when it came to this kind of profound research on a certain scientific field, it was quite a struggle for him to read it - just after reading it for a day and a night, he felt that his mental value was going to fall down to 60.

"The Edmund Observatory has released a large number of weather balloons in the interior of the Antarctic to monitor temperatures, and a number of locator buoys have been placed in the surrounding waters to measure water temperatures."

Mu Ke touched his face and let out a long breath, "Because the area of constructing future weather models based on overall temperature data predictions is Edmund's specialty, the experimental data for this area is particularly large, and the entire Antarctic Edmund has deployed a total of nearly six hundred loci for temperature measurements."

"Edmund considered these six hundred loci to be the key to Antarctica's ability to change the world's climate, reflecting the effects of ocean currents, the stratosphere, solar insolation, and crustal movements on temperature, and needing to be carefully observed and fed back in a timely manner, so these six hundred loci were measured an average of three to five times a day from thirty-three years ago to a year and a half ago."

Mu Ke eyed the thick pile of information on Bai Liu's hand with dismay, "--It's just too much, so I haven't finished reading it yet."

Mu Sicheng listened in disbelief from the sidelines.

Thirty-three years of material, and only Mu Ke, a bull's-eye, would force himself to read it all in one day.

Give him thirty-three years and he won't be able to read it all.

Bai Liu skimmed the topic and asked again, "What was the lab report on Edmund's second panel?"

Mu Ke's demeanor straightened, "It's data on biochemical experiments on the unknown creature X. It lasted from August 7th of the previous year until December, and the records of experiments on this section were briefly interrupted in the first two weeks of October, but then intensified again."

"Look here." Mu Ke leaned forward to help Bai Liu flip to his lab journal from early October.

"The temperature records were as usual, but the biological experiment records were blank, the medium was not photographed and recorded, it was not placed in the incubation chamber for constant temperature incubation, and there was no record of the state of growth of these biological tissues, which were in a state of total disuse."

Mu Ke's finger slid down the report, "But by November, the number of media and small test tubes skyrocketed from ten to 300, and kept calling for a mix of cells from other organisms, like emperor penguins, seals, whales, and other creatures."

"As well as-" Mu Ke's finger stopped on a column of the table adding cells, his eyes complex, "-67 human cells. "

Bai Liu looked at the column, "This would be the cells of those researchers at Taishan Station."

Mu Ke nods, and with his thumbnail he slides a prong straight across the report, explaining to Bai Liu in clear, organized terms against the English on the prong:

"--Yes, Edmund used these human cells to culture monsters, starting with a portion of basic exploratory experiments such as division and reproduction, tissue cutting and recultivation, conditions of death and destruction, and so on-- "

Mu Ke's eyes sharpened, "After determining that the monsters had strong learning properties and a tendency to diverge toward humans, Edmund reported the fact to the Observatory's political and military controllers in early October, demanding that the research be halted on the grounds that such experiments were unethical."

"But the other side, in the name of developing military industry, forced Edmund to continue his experiments and demanded that he develop a method of mass reproduction and controlling these monsters, and the direction of research they gave Edmund was - undead soldiers who could be completely controlled and had superb combat power."

"Edmund put up a fierce resistance and denunciation, slashed his hands and chose to strike."

"On the third of October, Edmund was caught stealing the chest for the first time, and his superiors placed him in a position of severe punishment; they did not believe Edmund's claims of the danger of the experiment, and demanded contemptuously, that you should be so afraid as to think that this thing would lead to the extinction of the human race, that you should prove it to us yourself."

Mu Ke took a deep breath, "The next day, they forced Edmund to eat biological tissues that he had cultivated himself, even though those tissues had already differentiated into the beginnings of a human being, or, rather, the appearance of a human infant."

"Edmund began to experience severe psychological trauma, and I found records of visits to the infirmary where he began to make numerous, frequent requests for antidepressant medication, and according to the doctor's diagnosis, Edmund suffered from severe symptoms of drug dependence, while his experiments progressed by leaps and bounds as his drug intake intensified."

"On October 15, Edmund made a second attempt to steal the case, but the man in charge of the joint, his student, betrayed him."

"And so he was once again discovered and thrown to the Sentinels to be punished by his furious superiors, who, because his body was no longer considered human, ordered - [no need to harbor useless mercy for him towards humans, torture him in the form of his favorite biological experiments! ."

Mu Ke spoke quickly, "The ordeal seemed to spur him on, and on October 28, Edmund was [acquitted] from two weeks of torture."

"On Oct. 29, after a long, closed-door conversation between his superiors and Edmund, Edmund's antidepressant dosage got bigger and bigger."

"According to the infirmary's diagnosis, he seems to be exhibiting some schizophrenic symptoms and multiple personality disorder, and will pull on the doctor's neurotic fantasies about being from Tarzan Station, and every now and then howls and begs for someone from Tarzan Station to come and save him, hissing about how he doesn't belong in this sinful, named-after-him Observatory."

"But he seemed to have figured it out and began to obey his superiors, and he began to work out how to make these produced monsters obey their leaders while still being humongous enough to charge into battle."

"- This is the result of Edmund's research - the memory hypnosis experiment." Mu Ke said, pointing to a file with a bright red, top secret stamp on the front.

He looked to Bai Liu : "Take a look, this experiment is the most valuable information I have found."

Bai Liu looks down at the document Mu Ke is pointing at.

The memory hypnosis experiments stemmed from one of Edmund's early paper inferences - what exactly is the difference between human beings and other humanoid intellectual species?

In the long, 300+ million year history of human development, why is it that only humans have developed on such a scale, and why is it that other species with the same potential for development have not been able to survive on the planet in a state of high intelligence as humans have?

Why exactly did these species go extinct? Why did humans survive again?

And if there exists a species that is not extinct, that has the same, if not more, superior intelligence as humans, that lurks in the shadows, that has evolved to this day, what exactly is the difference between them and humans?

The answer Edmund gives is that humans have a tendency to gravitate towards civilization and groups.

-- [It is our fear and reverence for the lives also lost in the tribe, our compassion for the guys who harbor the same group destiny as we do, struggling to survive, and helping each other as much as we can, holding on to each other, that has kept us alive to this day.]

[We have been given by God in our survival instincts the subconscious that created civilization.]

This theory was the ending in one of Edmund's papers long ago, and in this experiment Edmund added the second half of that ending--

[I would like to apologize for my earlier rash conclusion that the subconscious to destroy civilization is also in our survival instincts.]

[Unfortunately, this realization is far stronger than the other.]

[I will utilize hypnosis to empower these newborn humans with both subconscious minds.]

But if these two subconscious exist without a reasonable, realistic memory framework to carry them, these newborn kids would go crazy with self-contradiction, because they were "born" to create and then destroy, and no creature except humans exists for such a boring purpose. The following are some examples of such boring purposes for which no other creature exists except mankind.

My leader told me that as long as I could produce the cutting-edge soldiers he wanted, he could fulfill all my demands, including letting me obtain all the memories of a person's life and input them into these monsters' brains, and then use all kinds of information to induce them to feel that they are "human beings" defending the country, so that they spend their whole lives fighting for the so-called justice. [Fighting for the so-called righteousness.]

[It reminds me of my friend.]

I realized that my friend, who had died after a lifetime of pain and repentance, had been one of the subjects of these high and mighty men's experiments, and that I was about to become what he hated the most - guiding a group of innocent human beings who thought they were creating the future to the abyss called destruction! "to the abyss called destruction."]

The back of the lab report details how the memories of these people were injected into the monster's brain, and to top it all off--

"These monsters are not cognizant of being monsters." Mu Ke smiles bitterly, "That's why we don't have a way to get at you, Bai Liu, because we're not sure if we're really monsters or not."

Mu Sicheng hugged his shivering self, "No, how did they get our memories?!"

"Psychological suggestion and hypnosis." Bai Liu flexed and tapped on the surface of the paper, dropping his eyes, his eyes obscure, "It's very likely that we were unconsciously taken in when we were exposed to the monster Edmund, which is most likely the skill of this monster called Edmund."

Mu Sicheng clueless: "But we haven't seen this monster called Edmund from the beginning to the end? And my monster book didn't light up a new page-"

"- Shit when did it light up?!" Mu Sicheng was stunned, "I swear I just saw my monster book all still dark! How come it lit up as soon as I opened it now."

Mu Ke also quickly opened his monster book and blushed when he saw it, "Mine lit up with a new page too, and its skills are really mental suggestion and hypnosis."

"Guess we'll have to realize it ourselves to break this guy's hypnosis." Bai Liu faintly swept Mu Sicheng's eyes, "As well as, while it's true that we haven't met this mysterious Edmund teacher, have you forgotten that the monsters here can shape-shift on their own?"

Mu Sicheng was stunned and muttered, "Yes oh, it will transform, who will he turn into ......"

Bai Liu pulled back to look at the document in his hand and picked up the tip of his pen and scratched on it:

"I think there is another point in this experiment is very strange, human cell mix X cells began to culture in November, that time Edmund station should be heavily guarded, Edmund all day imprisoned in the basement to do experiments, it is difficult to access the personnel of the Tarzan station, how did he get the Tarzan station team members of these cells, and then take it back to do experiments? "

Mu Ke doesn't think twice: "Could it be that there's someone on this side of the Tarzan station who's secretly picking up Edmund and stealing the cells over there?"

Bai Liu shook his head thoughtfully, "There should be someone on this side of the Taishan station to receive him, but stealing a cell over there seems unlikely to me."

"- A group where betrayal exists is like a stained white cloth in Edmund's eyes, and it doesn't fit Edmund's group aesthetic of helping each other and trusting each other."

"If Tarzan Station really did have an insider stealing cells from him, Edmund might instead have just killed everyone at Tarzan Station instead of choosing to preserve them as a spark for the continuation of the human race."

Mu Ke wrinkled his brow, "But how could Edmund have easily taken the cells of everyone at Tarzan Station under heavy siege if someone on their side hadn't cooperated?"

"Is it possible that Edmund morphed into someone from the Tarzan station who blended into the Observatory and took the opportunity to get the others' cells?" Liu Jiayi, who was next to her, opened her mouth and inquired.

"I had this idea." Bai Liu mused, "But by that time, the men at Tarzan Station had been stuck in the Polar Regions for a year and a half, and dozens of men facing each other night and day in a cramped field were so familiar with each other that it was obvious who had shaved a day less."

"Even if Edmund becomes whoever he is, without the appropriate everyday memories, it would be difficult to muddle through based on the fact that the Tarzan Observatory's team members are known to have been conducting some sort of bionic experiment on Edmund via fax."

Bai Liu said softly, "Unless he had built a fused memory, perfect [Tarzan Station crew member] to help him blend into Tarzan Station back in November."

Liu Jiayi's expression was also cold - Bai Liu was indeed right.

She frowned and retorted, "But the timing is not right, according to the information on the experiment report, it takes at least a month to cultivate a mature body Edmund built the first completed body fused with human memories was all the way in December, and all the experimental bodies before the end of October were destroyed by him."

Bai Liu flipped forward two pages of the lab report, his eyes settled on a certain page and narrowed his eyes, "There's still one monster he hasn't destroyed."

Mu Ke, who thought he'd missed it, subconsciously followed up with, "--which one?"

Bai Liu looks up, "Himself."

"I suspect that Edmund began memory fusion on himself as well in early October, which is why he began to have psychiatric problems around that time, and by November, when the fusion was essentially complete, his psychotic symptoms were getting worse, which is why the doctors diagnosed him with multiple personality disorder."

"-It wasn't actually multiple personalities, but the memories of two people existed in his brain, and he couldn't tell who he really was." Bai Liu said calmly, "And Edmund used those fused memories to morph into someone from Tarzan Station and managed to infiltrate the station and steal the cells of the other team members."

"And Edmund used this to his advantage, hiding in this team member's body, silently making contact with us, hypnotizing and psychologically suggesting us, taking away our memories, and quickly carrying out the next experiments."

Bai Liu spoke with admiration, "What a capable researcher."

Mu Sicheng swallowed nervously, "So who did he become?"

Bai Liu looked at him lightly, "Isn't the answer already obvious? Isn't there only one Taishan Station personnel who has been in contact with both you and us?"

Liu Jiayi snapped back to the overly enthusiastic and excited graduate student when they arrived, "Fang Xiaoxiao?!"

--------

Outside Tarzan Station in a snowstorm.

Fang Xiaoxiao's face was an expression of extreme old age and vicissitude, he glanced away from the brightly lit observation room, and in the next second, these expressions faded away again, becoming clean and clear.

He looked behind him in the wind and snow at the crippled members of the Taishan Station crew, and with hot, muddy and painful tears welling up in his eyes, he led the hapless group of test subjects deeper into the ice field.

Polar Night is coming.