“Four military dogs and two soldiers unfortunately died in the line of duty. Six were wounded, two seriously...”

Si Nan opened his eyes in a stark white laboratory.

The hexagonal room was lined with mirrored walls. He lifted his head, and countless familiar yet childish faces stared back at him from all directions. Blood-stained bandages were wrapped messily in his black hair. Handcuffs and several wires bound him to a chair that resembled a dentist's chair.

...What happened?

He closed his eyes. No matter how he tried, he couldn't remember. All that remained in his mind was the exhaustion after despair, resentment, and intense pain had burned themselves out.

“Electric shock,” someone said coldly.

Without warning, an electric current surged through his body. Si Nan let out an unprepared scream, his small body trembling violently as he began to struggle with all his might!

A few seconds later, the electric shock ended.

Little Si Nan was still convulsing. He struggled to open his eyes and saw the mirror wall directly in front of him change, displaying several lab technicians wearing white masks. "What is your name?"

“...” Si Nan panted heavily, clenching his jaw.

“Electric shock.”

“Ah... Ahh—!”

The shock stopped. Si Nan's whole body twitched, his vision blurred. The aftershocks of pain left him unable to recover his senses, and only after a long time could he slowly make out his surroundings.

Not far away, the lab technician appeared behind the screen, looking at him coldly:

“What is your name?”

Si Nan turned his head away, his chest heaving violently as if he were on the verge of death.

“Electric shock.”

“Aaaahhh—“

“Electric shock.”

“Ah, ah... ah...!”

“Electric shock.”

Time became extraordinarily long in the endless torture. After an unknown number of rounds of pain, Si Nan's entire body was as if it had been fished out of cold water. His black hair was plastered wetly to his pale forehead, his lips were blue, and he trembled ceaselessly. The exposed skin on his hands and feet was covered in fine burn marks from the electric shocks.

“What is your name?”

“...” Si Nan gasped for a long time before finally speaking. The voice of a six-year-old child was as hoarse as if it had been scraped with sandpaper. “Noah.”

The technician recorded it.

A few seconds later, the screen changed. The image became a row of test tubes, showing liquids of different colors from left to right: light blue, light red, emerald green, and crimson, lined up all the way to a shocking deep black on the far right.

The technician's mechanically altered, unchanging voice sounded again:

“The one your mother injected into the test subjects every day, and the one she injected into you.”

“Which two agents are they, respectively?”

Little Si Nan's pupils dilated. He stared fixedly at the test tubes. After a long moment, a fierce look gradually seeped into his eyes—

—a small, cornered beast, burning with the light of rage and madness.

The wires sizzled. The handcuffs creaked under extreme tension. The technician turned off the screen, and the next moment, his voice rang out: “Electric shock.”

A heart-wrenching scream echoed through the laboratory until he lost his voice.

An unknown amount of time later, Si Nan woke from unconsciousness again, his mind in chaos, his memory fragmented. He stared blankly at the snow-white metal ceiling, meeting the dazed gazes of his countless reflections.

The door slid open noiselessly.

He stirred, managing to look over.

A middle-aged man in a suit, with blond hair and blue eyes, walked steadily closer. He had a very familiar face, one that had appeared many times on television and in newspapers.

—Only, this face was not as inspiring and friendly as when he gave speeches to the public, nor as solemn and dignified as when he spoke on TV. He looked ice-cold, and because he was looking down on him, he even exuded a neurotic gloom.

He stopped in front of Si Nan. His gaze swept over the six-year-old child's body, which was still twitching from the electric shocks. He narrowed his eyes slightly, then suddenly took out a small knife from his keychain, cut the wires, and opened the handcuffs with two clicks.

“Do you know me?” he asked faintly, straightening up.

“...”

“Do you know who I am?”

“...”

The silence lasted for a long time, but the man didn't coldly toss out the words "electric shock" like the technician. On the contrary, he had abnormal patience, staring into Si Nan's eyes, which were as wary as a beast cub's, and slowly said, word by word, “I’m your new father.”

Smack! A crisp sound rang out. Si Nan's swift punch was stopped short. The man gripped his wrist tightly, forcing his hand down inch by inch.

“You're not my dad...” Si Nan stared at him and said hoarsely.

“My dad is sick, sleeping in a wooden box... He's just sick...”

“Sick like this?” the man sneered, effortlessly dragging Si Nan to a corner of the lab, swiping a card, and opening a metal door.

Several ragged, skeletal-looking people were wandering in an empty space, their feet dragging and stumbling. They stretched their hands forward with all their might, letting out unconscious, mournful howls. The scent of a living person probably alerted them. The few Living Dead slowly turned, stared straight over, and began to move toward the door.

Si Nan took half a step back in fear, but was immediately grabbed by the man and shoved into the room.

“Snap their necks, or you will die.”

The man's demonic voice sounded from behind him, piercing through his memories from then on, taking root and sprouting in his subconscious, growing wildly into a lifelong nightmare: “Kill them. Destroy their brains.”

“Or you will die.”

Changsha, the construction site.

“...Si Nan...”

“Si Nan, wake up...”

“Si Nan!”

Gunfire splashed hot sand and dirt. In a daze, someone was running, someone was shouting, their voices muffled and unclear as if coming from under water.

Si Nan's eyes fluttered open. His blood-blurred pupils abruptly dilated. Trembling, he raised a hand.

Kill them...

Kill them...

“He's awake! Si Nan, Si Nan, how do you feel?” Yan Hao turned his head and roared, “Captain, quick! Break out and retreat—!”

The end of his sentence suddenly changed pitch. Yan Hao's voice came to an abrupt halt as he felt a hand, cold from excessive blood loss, accurately grip his wrist bone.

Crack!

A lightning-fast, sharp pain shot through him. Yan Hao turned his head back in astonishment, almost unable to believe his eyes—

His wrist bone was bent at an odd angle, having been snapped clean in two.