Chapter 4
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"Hm? Everything's black... Did my father actually kill me?"
In this world of darkness, Beta's exclamation rung loudly, and so did the sigh that followed right after it. At the beginning, he was still afraid of this place but after hundreds of deaths, he got used to it and even started to like being there. The unending darkness and the quietness that accompanies it now has a soothing feeling to it. Beta moved his hands to his head where the area his father had operated on. He was surprised to feel no difference from before. "Shouldn't there be a wound? Seems like my father had way more knowledge than I expected. And I actually thought that I learned everything he knew... Now that I think about it, my mother was hiding some things too.".
As Beta continued musing about what happened, he started frowning more and more. "This whole situation is weird. Why would my father do all this? Why was it so rushed? Did he just intend to kill me? No, that can't be it. With his strength it wouldn't make sense to go through so much trouble to just kill me. The reward... was it that brightly shining wisp of light? I can't remember it clearly, because of the unnerving pain I was in, but considering that he cut open my soul's head he may have put it in there...".
As soon as he thought about that possibility, he started to try to feel a difference. Since there were no changes from the outside he tried to feel for a change inside his body. He didn't have any experience in searching through his soul so he could only try many different ways and slowly get a hang of it. He knew that it was not easy to do something like this, but in this darkness, he didn't have anything else to do. So, he just continued trying. The quietness in this place provided him with a surprisingly good environment to just think and practice. When he got bored trying to do a soul search, he just imagined himself fighting against his brother, inspecting herbs, or connecting body tissues; honing his skills in the process.
After what felt like years, Beta started to feel something in his soul search. There was a certain warmth at a specific spot inside his head. This discovery delighted him greatly. After such a long time, even he, almost gave up. He started concentrating on that specific spot inside his head and found out that the warmth reacted to it. It slowly spread throughout his head, making it feel very comfortable. After some time, memories started to surface inside his mind. But they weren't his. He saw his mother standing in front of himself.
"Honey, they're on their way. What should we do? Our experiments aren't finished yet."
"What are we supposed to do? Beta just has to suffice. Even if we couldn't go as far as we intended, we still were able to create something frightening. Putting lots of gifted children in one place to let them fight it out and continue until only one is left. That practice has been going on for generations now. Maybe, it's about time that it stops.", sounded the voice of his father.
"You're right. Even if we weren't able to create our desired Alpha, our Beta might just be the limit already. He far surpassed Gamma and the others. Zeta couldn't do anything but praise him."
"I'm sure that he will be outstanding, but will he be able to beat 'them' when it comes to that point?"
"Who knows..."
The memories stopped there. As Beta listened to the conversation, his expression changed a few times. "So, I'm really just a test subject to them, huh?". Beta had a self-deprecating smile on his face when that thought crossed his mind. He considered that possibility before. He had always hoped that his parents only had a cold demeanor but still loved him. The final confirmation that he was nothing more than a test subject, a simple byproduct on their way of creating 'Alpha', completely shattered his heart. The unrelenting feeling of having lost his parents, the only people he looked up to, went through him. All that time he spent studying and training just to meet his parent's expectations, to make them recognize him. But now, it only made him feel like a simple mindless lab rat.
A cold feeling, similar to the darkness around him, formed in his heart. He thought about the hundreds of deaths he had to suffer throughout this time and sunk deeper and deeper into the darkness. He wanted to scream. He wanted to vent this uncomfortable feeling and beat something to smithereens. It took him a long time to calm down.
"I can't rely on anyone anymore. I won't let myself get controlled again!"
When Beta swore that in his mind, another bout of memories started surfacing in his mind. "Their research data. And some experiences in cultivation too. Looks like there really was a reward.". It took him a long time to sort his thoughts, his feelings confused again by his parent's action. They weren't the best parents but at least they left him with precious information. Included in it is the memory related to the place he is in right now - the complete darkness. Inside his mind appeared what seems to be a map about the whole place, giving him an idea and pinpoint on how to navigate through the darkness. When he noticed that a river was marked near the position he was in, he became curious and tried executing the movement technique he learned before and slowly moved towards the direction of the river. As time passed by, slowly but surely, his rising proficiency with the technique raised his speed. But no matter how much he moved forward, on the map in his mind, he still moved as slow as a snail. At some point, a long silver line came into Beta's view. "Is that supposed to be the river marked on the map?". As he got closer to the line, it became bigger and bigger and started to look like a small silver creek, then a river, a sea, and once he was almost there it looked like an ocean. That wasn't the most shocking thing about it though. What really surprised him was what the river consisted of.
Souls. There were endless souls forming the river. Some looked human and others like vicious beasts. There was only one thing they had in common, the direction they're flowing in. As he continued looking at the river, he started wondering if he would see his parents flowing inside there at some point. His face scrunched at that thought but it quickly recovered to his normal cold smile.
He just continued observing the river. The souls' movements had a natural flow to it, as if there was a natural law leading them. Unknowingly, he started to imitate their movements. He doesn't know for how long he kept doing that, but at some point, a warm feeling spread throughout his soul revitalizing it. At the same time, he moved at a speed much faster than he was able to before. Suddenly, he felt someone watching him. It had the same kind of feeling he got when he entered this world of darkness for the first time; a feeling of insignificance. Then he heard an ancient raspy voice sound all around him.
"It's rare to see someone like you here, and it's even rarer to see someone who comprehends a part of such a major law within only a few hundred years, even if it's just a tiny part of it."
When the voice sounded out, Beta felt his ears ring. It was so loud that it shook his soul. The souls inside the river had an even greater reaction to it. They accelerated as much as possible and did everything in their might to raise their speed. Beta didn't run away. Instead, he stood there, his back straight.
"Who are you? I didn't mean to offend you but I haven't been here for that long."
"Hahaha, is that what you think? Since I haven't come across a bud like you for a long time I'll just give you some water to grow into an even stronger flower."
The voice's, which seems to be an old man, booming laugh made the space around Beta vibrate, giving him a weird feeling. When he heard the second part though, he started to panic. The last time he received a reward he died. And even though he still doesn't know if he's able to return back to his body, he at least wanted his soul to die peacefully as well. So, he wanted to turn around and flee. But he quickly found out that he couldn't move his body at all. Feeling hopeless and defeated, Beta mumbled, "I just hope my head won't be split open again...". Shortly after that thought crossed his mind, a glowing orb floated out of the river and entered his body. Contrary to his expectations, there was no pain whatsoever. He felt the same kind of warmth spread in his body, just like his father's wisp of light had emitted. It only took a few seconds for the light to completely assimilate with his body. "There's a huge difference between him and my father. This old man must be incredibly strong.". When Beta realized what the 'water' the old man had mentioned was, he was overjoyed.
"Thank you! May I know your name?"
"There's no time for that. You're about to leave."
When Beta was about to ask him what he's talking about, he noticed that something was slightly pulling on his left leg. When he looked down, he noticed a thin thread made of light. "Isn't that..." Before he could finish what he was thinking, the thread already pulled him at a breakneck speed.
In a small underground area filled with lots of junk, is a small capsule stuck between an old metal drawer and debris. Inside it was a small boy's corpse. The boy's body, which consists of nothing but skin and bones, suddenly twitched and started breathing once more. When Beta opened his heavy eyelids, he saw a dirty glass window in front of him, blocking his way outside. When he looked down, he noticed injected on his arm was a syringe that automatically got pulled out by a mechanism, as if its job was finally fulfilled. "Looks like that's what pulled me back.". Then suddenly, the dirty glass window ejected itself and crashed into the opposite wall with a loud bang.
As Beta started looking around, he saw the junk-filled underground area and a bright light that shined through a hole in the ceiling. Weak as he may be, Beta slowly got up and crawled towards the hole. The damp air made it hard for him to breathe but he exerted all his strength and continued crawling. Still slowly adjusting to the brightness, what Beta saw once he left the underground area shook his mind.
He's surrounded by ruins covered in vegetation. Around the ruins, endless lines of trees filled his vision. The fresh air filled his lungs and reinvigorated his body. And what he saw in the sky was a sun, a real one, unlike the ones he had encountered so far. The warmth of the sun hit his skin and made him feel comfortable.
"So this is 'Outside'…"
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"Hm? Everything's black... Did my father actually kill me?"
In this world of darkness, Beta's exclamation rung loudly, and so did the sigh that followed right after it. At the beginning, he was still afraid of this place but after hundreds of deaths, he got used to it and even started to like being there. The unending darkness and the quietness that accompanies it now has a soothing feeling to it. Beta moved his hands to his head where the area his father had operated on. He was surprised to feel no difference from before. "Shouldn't there be a wound? Seems like my father had way more knowledge than I expected. And I actually thought that I learned everything he knew... Now that I think about it, my mother was hiding some things too.".
As Beta continued musing about what happened, he started frowning more and more. "This whole situation is weird. Why would my father do all this? Why was it so rushed? Did he just intend to kill me? No, that can't be it. With his strength it wouldn't make sense to go through so much trouble to just kill me. The reward... was it that brightly shining wisp of light? I can't remember it clearly, because of the unnerving pain I was in, but considering that he cut open my soul's head he may have put it in there...".
As soon as he thought about that possibility, he started to try to feel a difference. Since there were no changes from the outside he tried to feel for a change inside his body. He didn't have any experience in searching through his soul so he could only try many different ways and slowly get a hang of it. He knew that it was not easy to do something like this, but in this darkness, he didn't have anything else to do. So, he just continued trying. The quietness in this place provided him with a surprisingly good environment to just think and practice. When he got bored trying to do a soul search, he just imagined himself fighting against his brother, inspecting herbs, or connecting body tissues; honing his skills in the process.
After what felt like years, Beta started to feel something in his soul search. There was a certain warmth at a specific spot inside his head. This discovery delighted him greatly. After such a long time, even he, almost gave up. He started concentrating on that specific spot inside his head and found out that the warmth reacted to it. It slowly spread throughout his head, making it feel very comfortable. After some time, memories started to surface inside his mind. But they weren't his. He saw his mother standing in front of himself.
"Honey, they're on their way. What should we do? Our experiments aren't finished yet."
"What are we supposed to do? Beta just has to suffice. Even if we couldn't go as far as we intended, we still were able to create something frightening. Putting lots of gifted children in one place to let them fight it out and continue until only one is left. That practice has been going on for generations now. Maybe, it's about time that it stops.", sounded the voice of his father.
"You're right. Even if we weren't able to create our desired Alpha, our Beta might just be the limit already. He far surpassed Gamma and the others. Zeta couldn't do anything but praise him."
"I'm sure that he will be outstanding, but will he be able to beat 'them' when it comes to that point?"
"Who knows..."
The memories stopped there. As Beta listened to the conversation, his expression changed a few times. "So, I'm really just a test subject to them, huh?". Beta had a self-deprecating smile on his face when that thought crossed his mind. He considered that possibility before. He had always hoped that his parents only had a cold demeanor but still loved him. The final confirmation that he was nothing more than a test subject, a simple byproduct on their way of creating 'Alpha', completely shattered his heart. The unrelenting feeling of having lost his parents, the only people he looked up to, went through him. All that time he spent studying and training just to meet his parent's expectations, to make them recognize him. But now, it only made him feel like a simple mindless lab rat.
A cold feeling, similar to the darkness around him, formed in his heart. He thought about the hundreds of deaths he had to suffer throughout this time and sunk deeper and deeper into the darkness. He wanted to scream. He wanted to vent this uncomfortable feeling and beat something to smithereens. It took him a long time to calm down.
"I can't rely on anyone anymore. I won't let myself get controlled again!"
When Beta swore that in his mind, another bout of memories started surfacing in his mind. "Their research data. And some experiences in cultivation too. Looks like there really was a reward.". It took him a long time to sort his thoughts, his feelings confused again by his parent's action. They weren't the best parents but at least they left him with precious information. Included in it is the memory related to the place he is in right now - the complete darkness. Inside his mind appeared what seems to be a map about the whole place, giving him an idea and pinpoint on how to navigate through the darkness. When he noticed that a river was marked near the position he was in, he became curious and tried executing the movement technique he learned before and slowly moved towards the direction of the river. As time passed by, slowly but surely, his rising proficiency with the technique raised his speed. But no matter how much he moved forward, on the map in his mind, he still moved as slow as a snail. At some point, a long silver line came into Beta's view. "Is that supposed to be the river marked on the map?". As he got closer to the line, it became bigger and bigger and started to look like a small silver creek, then a river, a sea, and once he was almost there it looked like an ocean. That wasn't the most shocking thing about it though. What really surprised him was what the river consisted of.
Souls. There were endless souls forming the river. Some looked human and others like vicious beasts. There was only one thing they had in common, the direction they're flowing in. As he continued looking at the river, he started wondering if he would see his parents flowing inside there at some point. His face scrunched at that thought but it quickly recovered to his normal cold smile.
He just continued observing the river. The souls' movements had a natural flow to it, as if there was a natural law leading them. Unknowingly, he started to imitate their movements. He doesn't know for how long he kept doing that, but at some point, a warm feeling spread throughout his soul revitalizing it. At the same time, he moved at a speed much faster than he was able to before. Suddenly, he felt someone watching him. It had the same kind of feeling he got when he entered this world of darkness for the first time; a feeling of insignificance. Then he heard an ancient raspy voice sound all around him.
"It's rare to see someone like you here, and it's even rarer to see someone who comprehends a part of such a major law within only a few hundred years, even if it's just a tiny part of it."
When the voice sounded out, Beta felt his ears ring. It was so loud that it shook his soul. The souls inside the river had an even greater reaction to it. They accelerated as much as possible and did everything in their might to raise their speed. Beta didn't run away. Instead, he stood there, his back straight.
"Who are you? I didn't mean to offend you but I haven't been here for that long."
"Hahaha, is that what you think? Since I haven't come across a bud like you for a long time I'll just give you some water to grow into an even stronger flower."
The voice's, which seems to be an old man, booming laugh made the space around Beta vibrate, giving him a weird feeling. When he heard the second part though, he started to panic. The last time he received a reward he died. And even though he still doesn't know if he's able to return back to his body, he at least wanted his soul to die peacefully as well. So, he wanted to turn around and flee. But he quickly found out that he couldn't move his body at all. Feeling hopeless and defeated, Beta mumbled, "I just hope my head won't be split open again...". Shortly after that thought crossed his mind, a glowing orb floated out of the river and entered his body. Contrary to his expectations, there was no pain whatsoever. He felt the same kind of warmth spread in his body, just like his father's wisp of light had emitted. It only took a few seconds for the light to completely assimilate with his body. "There's a huge difference between him and my father. This old man must be incredibly strong.". When Beta realized what the 'water' the old man had mentioned was, he was overjoyed.
"Thank you! May I know your name?"
"There's no time for that. You're about to leave."
When Beta was about to ask him what he's talking about, he noticed that something was slightly pulling on his left leg. When he looked down, he noticed a thin thread made of light. "Isn't that..." Before he could finish what he was thinking, the thread already pulled him at a breakneck speed.
In a small underground area filled with lots of junk, is a small capsule stuck between an old metal drawer and debris. Inside it was a small boy's corpse. The boy's body, which consists of nothing but skin and bones, suddenly twitched and started breathing once more. When Beta opened his heavy eyelids, he saw a dirty glass window in front of him, blocking his way outside. When he looked down, he noticed injected on his arm was a syringe that automatically got pulled out by a mechanism, as if its job was finally fulfilled. "Looks like that's what pulled me back.". Then suddenly, the dirty glass window ejected itself and crashed into the opposite wall with a loud bang.
As Beta started looking around, he saw the junk-filled underground area and a bright light that shined through a hole in the ceiling. Weak as he may be, Beta slowly got up and crawled towards the hole. The damp air made it hard for him to breathe but he exerted all his strength and continued crawling. Still slowly adjusting to the brightness, what Beta saw once he left the underground area shook his mind.
He's surrounded by ruins covered in vegetation. Around the ruins, endless lines of trees filled his vision. The fresh air filled his lungs and reinvigorated his body. And what he saw in the sky was a sun, a real one, unlike the ones he had encountered so far. The warmth of the sun hit his skin and made him feel comfortable.
"So this is 'Outside'…"
"Hm? Everything's black... Did my father actually kill me?"In this world of darkness, Beta's exclamation rung loudly, and so did the sigh that followed right after it. At the beginning, he was still afraid of this place but after hundreds of deaths, he got used to it and even started to like being there. The unending darkness and the quietness that accompanies it now has a soothing feeling to it. Beta moved his hands to his head where the area his father had operated on. He was surprised to feel no difference from before. "Shouldn't there be a wound? Seems like my father had way more knowledge than I expected. And I actually thought that I learned everything he knew... Now that I think about it, my mother was hiding some things too.".As Beta continued musing about what happened, he started frowning more and more. "This whole situation is weird. Why would my father do all this? Why was it so rushed? Did he just intend to kill me? No, that can't be it. With his strength it wouldn't make sense to go through so much trouble to just kill me. The reward... was it that brightly shining wisp of light? I can't remember it clearly, because of the unnerving pain I was in, but considering that he cut open my soul's head he may have put it in there...".As soon as he thought about that possibility, he started to try to feel a difference. Since there were no changes from the outside he tried to feel for a change inside his body. He didn't have any experience in searching through his soul so he could only try many different ways and slowly get a hang of it. He knew that it was not easy to do something like this, but in this darkness, he didn't have anything else to do. So, he just continued trying. The quietness in this place provided him with a surprisingly good environment to just think and practice. When he got bored trying to do a soul search, he just imagined himself fighting against his brother, inspecting herbs, or connecting body tissues; honing his skills in the process.After what felt like years, Beta started to feel something in his soul search. There was a certain warmth at a specific spot inside his head. This discovery delighted him greatly. After such a long time, even he, almost gave up. He started concentrating on that specific spot inside his head and found out that the warmth reacted to it. It slowly spread throughout his head, making it feel very comfortable. After some time, memories started to surface inside his mind. But they weren't his. He saw his mother standing in front of himself."Honey, they're on their way. What should we do? Our experiments aren't finished yet.""What are we supposed to do? Beta just has to suffice. Even if we couldn't go as far as we intended, we still were able to create something frightening. Putting lots of gifted children in one place to let them fight it out and continue until only one is left. That practice has been going on for generations now. Maybe, it's about time that it stops.", sounded the voice of his father."You're right. Even if we weren't able to create our desired Alpha, our Beta might just be the limit already. He far surpassed Gamma and the others. Zeta couldn't do anything but praise him.""I'm sure that he will be outstanding, but will he be able to beat 'them' when it comes to that point?""Who knows..."The memories stopped there. As Beta listened to the conversation, his expression changed a few times. "So, I'm really just a test subject to them, huh?". Beta had a self-deprecating smile on his face when that thought crossed his mind. He considered that possibility before. He had always hoped that his parents only had a cold demeanor but still loved him. The final confirmation that he was nothing more than a test subject, a simple byproduct on their way of creating 'Alpha', completely shattered his heart. The unrelenting feeling of having lost his parents, the only people he looked up to, went through him. All that time he spent studying and training just to meet his parent's expectations, to make them recognize him. But now, it only made him feel like a simple mindless lab rat.A cold feeling, similar to the darkness around him, formed in his heart. He thought about the hundreds of deaths he had to suffer throughout this time and sunk deeper and deeper into the darkness. He wanted to scream. He wanted to vent this uncomfortable feeling and beat something to smithereens. It took him a long time to calm down."I can't rely on anyone anymore. I won't let myself get controlled again!"When Beta swore that in his mind, another bout of memories started surfacing in his mind. "Their research data. And some experiences in cultivation too. Looks like there really was a reward.". It took him a long time to sort his thoughts, his feelings confused again by his parent's action. They weren't the best parents but at least they left him with precious information. Included in it is the memory related to the place he is in right now - the complete darkness. Inside his mind appeared what seems to be a map about the whole place, giving him an idea and pinpoint on how to navigate through the darkness. When he noticed that a river was marked near the position he was in, he became curious and tried executing the movement technique he learned before and slowly moved towards the direction of the river. As time passed by, slowly but surely, his rising proficiency with the technique raised his speed. But no matter how much he moved forward, on the map in his mind, he still moved as slow as a snail. At some point, a long silver line came into Beta's view. "Is that supposed to be the river marked on the map?". As he got closer to the line, it became bigger and bigger and started to look like a small silver creek, then a river, a sea, and once he was almost there it looked like an ocean. That wasn't the most shocking thing about it though. What really surprised him was what the river consisted of.Souls. There were endless souls forming the river. Some looked human and others like vicious beasts. There was only one thing they had in common, the direction they're flowing in. As he continued looking at the river, he started wondering if he would see his parents flowing inside there at some point. His face scrunched at that thought but it quickly recovered to his normal cold smile.He just continued observing the river. The souls' movements had a natural flow to it, as if there was a natural law leading them. Unknowingly, he started to imitate their movements. He doesn't know for how long he kept doing that, but at some point, a warm feeling spread throughout his soul revitalizing it. At the same time, he moved at a speed much faster than he was able to before. Suddenly, he felt someone watching him. It had the same kind of feeling he got when he entered this world of darkness for the first time; a feeling of insignificance. Then he heard an ancient raspy voice sound all around him."It's rare to see someone like you here, and it's even rarer to see someone who comprehends a part of such a major law within only a few hundred years, even if it's just a tiny part of it."When the voice sounded out, Beta felt his ears ring. It was so loud that it shook his soul. The souls inside the river had an even greater reaction to it. They accelerated as much as possible and did everything in their might to raise their speed. Beta didn't run away. Instead, he stood there, his back straight."Who are you? I didn't mean to offend you but I haven't been here for that long.""Hahaha, is that what you think? Since I haven't come across a bud like you for a long time I'll just give you some water to grow into an even stronger flower."The voice's, which seems to be an old man, booming laugh made the space around Beta vibrate, giving him a weird feeling. When he heard the second part though, he started to panic. The last time he received a reward he died. And even though he still doesn't know if he's able to return back to his body, he at least wanted his soul to die peacefully as well. So, he wanted to turn around and flee. But he quickly found out that he couldn't move his body at all. Feeling hopeless and defeated, Beta mumbled, "I just hope my head won't be split open again...". Shortly after that thought crossed his mind, a glowing orb floated out of the river and entered his body. Contrary to his expectations, there was no pain whatsoever. He felt the same kind of warmth spread in his body, just like his father's wisp of light had emitted. It only took a few seconds for the light to completely assimilate with his body. "There's a huge difference between him and my father. This old man must be incredibly strong.". When Beta realized what the 'water' the old man had mentioned was, he was overjoyed."Thank you! May I know your name?""There's no time for that. You're about to leave."When Beta was about to ask him what he's talking about, he noticed that something was slightly pulling on his left leg. When he looked down, he noticed a thin thread made of light. "Isn't that..." Before he could finish what he was thinking, the thread already pulled him at a breakneck speed.In a small underground area filled with lots of junk, is a small capsule stuck between an old metal drawer and debris. Inside it was a small boy's corpse. The boy's body, which consists of nothing but skin and bones, suddenly twitched and started breathing once more. When Beta opened his heavy eyelids, he saw a dirty glass window in front of him, blocking his way outside. When he looked down, he noticed injected on his arm was a syringe that automatically got pulled out by a mechanism, as if its job was finally fulfilled. "Looks like that's what pulled me back.". Then suddenly, the dirty glass window ejected itself and crashed into the opposite wall with a loud bang.As Beta started looking around, he saw the junk-filled underground area and a bright light that shined through a hole in the ceiling. Weak as he may be, Beta slowly got up and crawled towards the hole. The damp air made it hard for him to breathe but he exerted all his strength and continued crawling. Still slowly adjusting to the brightness, what Beta saw once he left the underground area shook his mind.He's surrounded by ruins covered in vegetation. Around the ruins, endless lines of trees filled his vision. The fresh air filled his lungs and reinvigorated his body. And what he saw in the sky was a sun, a real one, unlike the ones he had encountered so far. The warmth of the sun hit his skin and made him feel comfortable."So this is 'Outside'"
