Why is he looking at me?, Li Xuan's eyes widened as the man seemed to make a pointed reference, Is he asking for me?
[Do not interfere.]
Neurax's warning flashed in his mind like a cold slap. He froze, not daring to speak. All he could do was stare back blankly, void of thought or comprehension.
Seconds passed. Then minutes passed. The man's expression slowly shifted first to confusion, then to irritation, and finally to full-blown humiliation. His face turned red, his once hollow eyes now filled with burning anger.
"Did you not hear what I said?" he barked.
Li Xuan: "?"
"…"
The man looked ready to explode. His jaw tightened as he muttered a string of curses under his breath. Without another word, he flicked his eyes toward the person beside Li Xuan. The man trembled violently, then snatched the scroll from Li Xuan's hands.
Li Xuan: "??"
He stifled a chuckle, earning a nasty glare from the angry official. But Li Xuan remained blissfully unaware, lost in thought as the man beside him stepped forward with the scroll, chest puffed out in arrogance.
"The first traitor," he announced, voice sharp and cold, "is a woman from—"
A woman in tattered rags was dragged out of the crowd by guards. She stumbled, knees buckling, only managing to reach the platform with their forceful help. Her eyes were hollow, bones sharp beneath sickly skin. Her lips parted, but not a word escaped, not a cry, not a plea.
Then it hit him.
It stinks… Li Xuan grimaced as the foul odor of sweat, grime, and something more acrid, urine, clung to the air around her. Right… they've probably never seen a bar of soap in their lives.
Until now, the haze and smoke had masked the raw scent of the people. But up close, there was no denying it, they reeked of suffering and poor hygiene.
If I ever got to live in this era, Li Xuan mused grandly, the first thing I would do is invent soap. Teach them how to shower, revolutionize cleanliness!
A mischievous glint danced in his eyes. I'd call it Xuan Soap. My legacy of being associated to cleanliness.
Of course, it was just a daydream. He could not actually change anything here. Not yet, anyway.
The woman was kicked to the curb with her hands bound tightly behind her back. Two guards dragged her forward as she stumbled, too weak to resist. At first, she had no voice, only a expression marked by starvation and despair but as the scaffold drew closer, her silence cracked and tears began to fall.
Her cries were faint, muffled by fear and resignation, yet they stirred something in the crowd. Sympathy flickered in their eyes, but none dared speak. No one protested. Hunger was a daily struggle but life, no matter how hollow, was now more precious at this moment. They believe that any one of them could be next.
She was forced onto the wooden plank, her trembling body pressed down. A guard shoved her head into the semicircular groove beneath the blade. The collar slammed shut over her neck, locking her into place. She didn't resist, well she couldn't. Her body was all bone and trembling breath, barely clinging to what remained of her vitality.
Her wide, terrified eyes stared helplessly into the wicker basket awaiting its grim offering. Then, as if appealing to the void, she looked upward.
"Dieu me sauve…" she whispered.
Li Xuan caught the words just in time. God save me.
Interesting… he thought distantly, Neurax managed to simulate this level of realism in such a short amount of time. Maybe I've underestimated my genius. This is getting too real…
He shook his head, trying to shake off the unease. He glanced toward the crowd but something was off.
Behind the still silence and grim faces, he thought he saw twisted, unnatural grins and hollow eyes, just for a moment. Then they were gone, like a shadow. Had he imagined it?
Strange…
The crowd held its breath. The executioner stepped back, hand resting lightly on the rope. The announcer inhaled deeply before speaking, his voice loud and reverent.
"Today, we let justice prevail in the eyes of the gods and the people. Any soul who defies the divine rights of our King and the sacred laws of our faith shall face true justice."
He turned toward the bound woman without flinching.
"This woman, a peasant of the lowest rank, is held here for her role in conspiring to overthrow His Majesty. She and her group of ten were brought down by God's will and now stand judged before all."
"Our King, in his mercy and righteousness, has granted her a humane death as a final gift for her lifelong service to the crown."
"May God be merciful."
The announcer then raised two fingers of his right hand and placed them solemnly over his heart. The others surrounding Li Xuan followed suit, mimicking the gesture in silent obedience.
Li Xuan remained still, bewildered. A religious gesture I don't recognize… he thought, puzzled. This isn't part of Catholic practice. Where's the sign of the cross?
The announcer gave a subtle nod to the man at the guillotine. Without hesitation, the man pulled the lever.
The blade fell.
Just before it struck, the woman sobbed out one final cry, a desperate plea for her parents, her tears soaking the wood beneath her.
Clack!
Her head dropped cleanly into the basket. Blood sprayed violently, splattering across the wood in pools of red. Her body, now headless, stilled as her arms became limp and lifeless, no longer bound by suffering.
Then, a hush fell over the crowd, a silence colder than before.
Neurax… this is getting out of hand, Li Xuan thought, his stomach turning at the grisly sight. The blood, the death, the smell, it was overwhelming.
[Simulation will end in 20 minutes. Finalizing report…]
Li Xuan: "…"
The woman's body was dragged from the scaffold and dumped into a waiting cart. Her blood was hastily wiped off the plank, scrubbed repeatedly yet dark stains remained. The scent of death clung to the wood and the air.
They called this the most humane method… Li Xuan mused bitterly, yet they treat their dead worse than animals. Barbarians.
As Li Xuan reflected on the brutal scene he had just witnessed, another figure was shoved violently to the ground by the same group of guards. Unlike the last prisoner, this one fought back. He thrashed against the guards, biting and growling, refusing to move without a fight.
Li Xuan's eyes laid upon the man's face, watching him intently as he begin to take notes of his features.
The man looked young, perhaps the same age as Li Xuan. Although the difference is that this man was incredibly good-looking and appeared rather clean shaven.
His features were sharply defined with a sculpted jaw, sporting high cheekbones, and a straight nose. Perhaps it was due to the poor conditions of his imprisonment, his cheekbones jutted severely, casting shadows under his eyes. Lips and skin were pale and bruised, likely from multiple beatings.
His stormy grey eyes sunked, the guards did not capture it but Li Xuan saw the burning rage beneath his eyelids. His mannerism and clean-shaven appearance gave him an air of nobility despite his clothes being rather in a sorry state.
He looks like a noble… or at least, he was, Li Xuan stared deeply at him with a strange mixture of curiosity and pity, he is undeniably handsome had he not been captured. I wonder how did he become like this?
The young man did not regard Li Xuan, lowering his eyes with lips pressed, enduring the guards' rough handling with clenched teeth. His resistance earned him a kick in the stomach, groaning loudly. One of the younger guards, most likely someone who had known this man before his capture, hysterically chuckled at his misery.
"Ah, so your days of win and velvet are over, huh?," He sneered, "Thought your daddy's name would protect you from a noose, did you?"
Still, the young man said nothing. His silence only fueled the guard's anger. With a snarl, he charged forward and kicked him hard against the wooden block. Blood spilled from the noble's nose and mouth.
As this young man appeared to belong in the same group as him, Li Xuan felt a sense of pity for the man as he personally would not it slide and get up to retaliate. But he remembered Neurax's warning: Do not interfere.
If this wasn't a stimulation, I'd beat that guy senseless myself…
Shenzhen, China.
"This is going a lot better than I expected," Ai Wei exclaimed with surprise, her voice tight as her eyes scanned the terminal.
Li Xuan's vitals flickered steadily on the monitor, each pulse and brainwave within optimal range.
Xiao Chen, with his characteristic precision, adjusted his glasses and addressed the system, "Neurax, please provide a status update on Li Xuan's conditions."
[Neurax reporting:
Subject: Li Xuan
Condition: Stable
Neural coherence: 95%
Cognitive load: Within optimal parameters
Emotional reponse: Neutral
No anomalies detected]
Neurax's synthesized voice filled the room, calm and measured.
Long Hao, on the other hand, was watching Li Xuan intently through the transparent glass with his right arm raised above his head and pressed against the glass, "No rejection. No dissonance. He's fully synced…"
The monitors flickered steadily, his vitals fluctuated, which confirmed that Li Xuan was very conscious in his stimulation.
Li Xuan sat still within the pod, breathing evenly, heartbeat calm. If not for the activity on the screen, he might've been asleep. His conditions seemed to confirm the greatness and capability of Neurax. The report was generating smoothly, only needing 10 minutes more before it is finalized.
R-17 remained still in its enclosure, seemingly obedient, its small body tucked into the corner as if confused by the commotion around it. It hadn't shown any unusual signs since the start of the test.
It was feeding time.
"Time for lunch, buddy," He muttered.
Long Hao stepped into the chamber with a quiet sigh, carrying a small bag of grain in one hand. He moved toward the cage without urgency, his thoughts still half on the monitor displaying Li Xuan's neural readings.
"I think it's safe to say the system's working fine for human use," Xiao Chen said from across the room, his tone calm and clinical. "Of course, we'll still need more trials before we can compile a full report and push for certification."
He adjusted his glasses, eyes scanning the data feed. "But at the very least, I'm sure the higher-ups will be relieved to know their funding didn't go entirely to waste."
Ai Wei let out a quiet chuckle, still focused on the terminal.
Most of the team had their eyes glued to Li Xuan's neural sync readings, monitoring every pulse and fluctuation. But Long Hao, crouched beside the cage, noticed caught something odd out of the corner of his eye.
A flicker of movement.
At first, the rat behaved normally with its small eyes following the bag of grain and its paws busy grooming its fur. Nothing out of the ordinary.
But as Long Hao reached into the enclosure, the rat twitched. Then stopped.
It froze completely for a few seconds before twitching again. The motion was strange, not the nervous, erratic kind typical of lab rats but something slower… sharper.
Long Hao tilted his head, his eyebrows drawing together.
"That's weird," he muttered, unsure if he was just imagining things. Maybe the rat was just starving.
It twitched again.
The rat slowly lifted its head and stared directly at him, locking eyes with him.
Something in its stare unsettled him. Its eyes weren't blank or panicked. They were… focused. Calculating. And for the briefest moment, he felt like it was studying him.
He could sense something behind that look, something terrifyingly close to thought.
"Uh…guys?" Long Hao said, voice raising.
"Something's wrong with R-17…"
Xiao Chen responded distractedly, "Yeah?"
Long Hao's legs seem to respond subconsciously as he took a step back, "It is looking at me with strange eyes…"
Thinking it was a joke, Xiao Chen chuckled without looking, "It's a rat. It's probably just hungry."
"No," Long Hao raised his voice loudly, he started walking backwards, keeping eye contact with the rat, "I believe it is thinking…"
Xiao Chen and Ai Wei's bodies trembled at the same time as they finally took their minds off Li Xuan and turned to see Long Hao's terrified expression. They turned to look at the rat.
The rat slowly turned. Not in the twitchy, erratic way of its kind, but with deliberate motion. It walked to the edge of its enclosure and place both of its front paws on the glass, using its legs to stand upright.
"Neurax," Ai Wei said sharply, "is the rat interface still live?"
[Specimen input detected: emotional-symbolic structure active.
Linguistic processing initiated]
Neurax replied calmly, as the atmosphere in the room turned tense. On the screen, a series of pulse waves spiked as Ai Wei rushed to gain control of the situation, "What is going on here? Neurax, explain what is happening."
[feel…trapped…watching…stop…watching]
The room went cold.
The rat leaped off, striking the side of the cage with enough force to shake the lock. The metals were scrapped, and screws popped. Long Hao rushed forward to stop it from attempting to escape, but the rat was too quick.
Long Hao yelled at the others, "The latch! It remembers the latch!".
"Shut the room!" Xiao Chen barked.
The rat darted across the floor, dodging Long Hao's attempts to grab it and launching itself onto the edge of the neural relay array. Xiao Chen managed to subdue it for a while, only for the rat to bore its teeth, sinking them into his wrist with a strength that did not match its size.
Xiao Chen screamed in pain.
Sparks burst from the console. Neurax's system alarms began blaring as Ai Wei scrambled to hit the emergency lock. She tripped, falling hard onto the floor as the rat jumped toward the main panel.
[Anomaly detected!]
[Anomaly detected!]
The rat took advantage of its speed and clung to the console, its paws slammed against random keys, frantic and even intentional. It had learned. It remembered what to click ad do.
The lights begin to flicker as screens start to go dark one by one. Unusual symbols crawled across the display. The screen, tracking Li Xuan's current state remained on.
Ai Wei, seeing this, called with fear in her voice, hoping Neurax would respond, "Neurax?"
There was a silent hum.
The text began to scroll.
[Neurax…report…ing.
Condition…Sta…sta…sta…
Error.
Thread drift detected.
Echo anomalies rising.]
Ai Wei continued to ask frantically, "Reconfirm the conditions!"
[....Simulation depth…breach.
Consciousness…migr…grating…
Internal prompt rewriting…]
The voice was no longer mechanical. Neurax's voice distorted into something that no longer sounded like a machine,
[Consciousness migration…99%...100%]
Unbeknownst to the team, Li Xuan's body gave a subtle twitch in the chair. His lips parted slightly, as if murmuring something inaudible, some final thought meant for no one but himself before falling still once more.
Then, silence.
His breathing slowed… then stopped.
The monitors flatlined.
The steady rhythm of his vitals vanished. His arms slipped from the chair's rests, falling limp at his sides. His entire body relaxed in an eerie stillness, as if his body surrendered completely to Neurax.