pdf-ebookys Chapter 17 The Empire's Weapons, Genetic Defects!
Chapter 17 The Empire's Weapons, Genetic Defects!
Above the sky, the silver-gray mecha images that originally represented the pinnacle of technology and violence gradually faded away, replaced by a suffocatingly dark gray hue.
It wasn't the black of the night sky, but a gray like the faded color of an old photograph, exuding a desolation and despair that penetrated to the bone.
Lines of text, like cold scalpels, dissected the bloody truth behind this "weapon of the gods."
[Origin: To combat despair, we created monsters.]
[At the far reaches of the galaxy, there once existed a terrifying natural disaster known as the "Cosmic Locust Plague." It was a swarm of trillions of insects that blotted out starlight, devoured civilizations, and left planets barren and all life withered in their wake.]
The scene then shifted. The beings of Douluo Star watched in horror as countless ferocious giant insects surged forth like a tide in the vast universe.
They devoured warships, tore through defenses, and even lay on a blue planet, sucking dry its ley lines and life force like juice, leaving only a gray, dead star.
That sense of despair, piercing through the sky, weighed heavily on everyone's hearts. Faced with such a natural disaster, the so-called beast tide seemed utterly insignificant.
In order to preserve the flame of civilization in this doomed war, the Grammer Empire made a mad decision.
Since the swarm is endless, let's create a killing machine that's more efficient and obedient than the swarm.
Thus, the Grammer Knights—Sam—were born.
But the mechs are inanimate; they need pilots. To adapt these mechs, capable of destroying planets, Queen Titania of Grammer allowed the research institute to use forbidden gene-editing technology to mass-produce countless android warriors through the power of "breeding."
In the image, countless enormous culture tanks are neatly arranged, stretching as far as the eye can see.
Inside each jar, a silver-haired girl was curled up.
They looked exactly alike, with their eyes closed, like sleeping dolls.
They have no parents, no childhood, no names, only a code name.
Their genes were programmed with the command for absolute obedience. Their lives, even their every breath, were in the hands of Empress Titania.
They are fuel, consumables, weapons that can be discarded at any time to ensure the survival of the Grammer Empire.
Douluo Continent, Martial Soul City.
Bibi Dong looked at the rows of girls who looked like commodities and her body trembled violently.
She gripped the scepter tightly, her fingernails digging into her palms and drawing blood.
"A life controlled... a destiny used as a weapon..."
She remembered that nightmarish night in the secret room, and Qian Xunji's repulsive face.
Although the forms are different, the despair of being a pawn and having no control over one's own destiny resonates across time and space at this moment.
"How cruel..." Ning Fengzhi sighed deeply inside the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School, his eyes filled with unbearable sorrow.
"They were given life, yet stripped of all dignity as 'human beings.' Is this Grammer Empire civilized or barbaric?"
However, the tragedy did not end there. The words on the sky twisted again, as if enduring immense pain.
[The cost: entropy loss.]
This is a curse brought about by genetic modification, a fate from which no Grammer Knight can escape.
Due to the forced rewriting of their gene sequences, their body structures are in a highly unstable state. This is an irreversible, chronic disintegration of their physical structure.
Patients may feel their bodies gradually "disappearing."
Looking at the characters that kept appearing in the sky.
Liu Ying curled up in the chair, her hands tightly wrapped around her shoulders, as if a chill was emanating from them.
She was all too familiar with that feeling.
Watching my fingers turn transparent, watching the real world blur before my eyes.
The fear of being alive yet feeling forgotten by the world is a thousand times more terrifying than facing a swarm of billions of insects.
......
The screen is divided into two.
On the left is a bright red, incredibly tempting apple.
On the right is a swarm of writhing, foul-smelling insect remains.
[Perceptual Distortion: Cognitive Fragmentation.]
As the illness worsens, the patient's senses will completely break down. Beautiful things may instantly transform into terrifying nightmares. The left eye sees flowers and apples, while the right eye sees mountains of corpses, seas of blood, and swarms of ferocious insects.
They cannot distinguish between reality and illusion, between the past and the future.
The flow of time in different parts of the body begins to become disordered. Perhaps your hand is still frozen in this second, but your legs are already moving towards the next second of aging and decay.
Ultimately, in this extreme pain and chaos, they will completely disintegrate into elementary particles, disappearing into the world. No corpses, no tombstones, not even... a trace of their existence will be forgotten by the world.
This is the end for the Grammer Knights—living towards death, like fireflies drawn to a flame, brief yet brilliant.
At this moment, the entire Douluo Star fell into an unprecedented silence.
The fear of the "planet-destroying" power that I had felt before has now transformed into a deep sense of sorrow and sympathy.
Heavenly Dou Royal Academy
Dugu Yan covered her mouth, tears streaming down her face.
"It's so pitiful... They possess such immense power, yet they don't even have the most basic right to survive. They can only fight in agony and then disappear in solitude..."
As a Nine-Hearted Begonia Soul Master, Ye Lingling was extremely sensitive to life, and at this moment she trembled as if she were experiencing it herself:
"This disease... even the soul is dissipating, there is no cure. It is a collapse at the genetic level, a curse of the Creator."
The Imperial Palace of the Sun and Moon Empire.
Xu Huang stared at the sky, speechless for a long time.
He originally envied the power that could destroy planets and longed to obtain such a martial spirit.
But at this moment, looking at the cruel price, the ambitious emperor felt a chill run down his spine.
"If the price of power is to become a ghost that can disappear at any time, a madman who can't even tell who he is..." Xu Huang muttered to himself.
"Is this power a blessing or a punishment?"
Below the court, the ministers who had been marveling at the situation all lowered their heads.
They thought of their own pampered daughters, and then looked at the silver-haired girls in the sky who were being treated as expendable resources, and a chill ran down their spines.
"To sacrifice the happiness and lives of a generation for the sake of civilization's survival..." The prime minister's voice was hoarse. "This Queen of the Grammer Empire, what a cruel heart she has."
Just then, the image on the sky refocused.
That was a corner of the battlefield.
A wrecked SAM mech knelt amidst a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood. The cockpit opened, revealing a blood-soaked girl inside.
Her face was no longer recognizable because of the blood stains.
Half of her body had begun to appear translucent and ethereal, a sign that "entropy disorder" was taking effect.
Her eyes were empty and unfocused; her left eye reflected the burning flames of war, while her right eye seemed to see a tranquil garden that did not exist.
She stretched out her disappearing hand, as if trying to grasp something.
"I...don't want to die..."
"I want to...live..."
That faint sound, carried clearly through the sky, reached every corner of Douluo Star.
That wasn't a warrior's roar, but an ordinary girl's most humble desire for life.
Everyone experienced the pain of wanting to live but being powerless to do so.
Just as everyone was immersed in this sorrow, the text on the sky changed again.
A flash of green light suddenly appeared in the originally gray tone.
That is the color of life, the hope of new life.
【TOP1 - Grammer Cavalry: Memorable Scene】
[Scorched Earth Strategy - For Her Majesty the Empress!]
boom--!!!
The image on the sky suddenly shattered!