Thrive in Catastrophe Chapter 74

"Well of course it can't be just because of your fighting ability." Xiao began to speculate.

Jane laughs, a shallow smile creased the corners of his eyes in the same exact place as Valentin. The only difference was the atmosphere of the expression. Jane has a volatile temperament but Valentin is truly the unpredictable one.

"Let me give you a hint. Everything is related to Valentin's immortality."

Xiao Yan stood and mulled over Jane's words. "Everyone here has been selectively bred for characteristics that are superior to ordinary humans. The embryos are infected with the x-virus, meaning only the strongest will even survive. After elimination of the virus, you are the perfect body with genes that match Valentin exactly."

Xiao Yan looked at Jane, he didn't know if he could safely continue talking here.

Suddenly Jane pressed Xiao Yan against the wall, "Hold on to me."

"What?"

A door slid open on the wall and Xiao fell down into the vertical s.p.a.ce. It was full five or six meter drop. Xiao held on firmly to Jane, who landed so perfectly, he didn't even feel the slightest tremor.

The room was spa.r.s.e. Other than a bed and a desk, there is only a large bookcase with countless paperbacks lining the shelves.

"Welcome to my world. I prefer the sensation of flipping through pages rather than wading through the vast information database. We are very similar in this hobby."

Jane released Xiao Yan and leaned forward. His charming and relaxed face reflected the white light, giving him an almost ethereal appearance.

"Now, we can talk."

So this is Jane's room? Xiao Yan couldn't help but curiously glance around.

"The x-virus does not make a human indestructible. Valentin's eternal life is granted by replacing damaged or aging organs. Be it skin, organs or limbs he can use his genes to cultivate a replacement. His issue is that he cannot replace his brain."

"Well, let me give you another hint. The x virus in my body is close to its peak."

"So your body is in prime shape. He doesn't want a piece of your body...he wants all of your body."

"Yes. He will take his brain out and implant it into my skull. Then he will control this young and powerful body. Provided there are no accidents he will have gained at least ten years of vigor from my life. For him I am not his child, rather I am a petri dish or a lamb that he has captive. You think I should let this 'G.o.d' dominate everything about me. Is this right? Should I let him take everything away from me?"

"......what do you want to do?"

Jane Wallace will not let anyone send him to slaughter, even if that person is his 'father.'

"I will need your strength. The main control system here can only be invaded by your brain. I want you to shut down all the operating systems with exception of the oxygen supply. That includes the fire controls. Valentin has a serum that limits my abilities. This is the real power that he holds to control us."

Of course since Valentin had cultivated so many 'children' with extraordinary intelligence and capabilities of the Special Forces, he must have a means to control them beyond their relation. Freedom is a human's natural goal, he knows he won't always be able to exert such control.

"You want to steal the medicine?"

Jane shook his head. "The person who steals from the pharmacy is you, not me."

"Me?"

"All thinking will leave a trace in the system. Valentin is unlikely to keep a stock of the serum, he will prepare it as needed. When he infected us with the x virus, he made a virus for the x-virus. This suffix virus attacks our heart at regular intervals unless we have injected the remedy. I need to completely remove the suffix virus. Do you understand?"

Xiao Yan couldn't help but laugh.

His world is changing too fast. A few days ago he was kidnapped by Jane Wallace, and now this guy is requesting his help.

"Would you like to join, or not?"

"If it fails I lose my brain, correct?" Xiao Yan looked Jane in the eyes, his gaze bore in deep as he tried to discern how likely this plan was to succeed.

"If you don't do anything, sooner or later, he will lose his patience and take it anyway." Jane smiled with indifference, not at all ruffled .

"And if we succeed?"

"I told you, I want to run away with you."

His fingers brush against his nose, the meaning of the gesture is clear. What they are about to do is a matter of life and death. Xiao shook his head helplessly, even in the face of such danger Jane's flirtations do not cease.

Xiao Yan thought about it for a moment. "If you want me to help you, then I will need your blood."

"What do you want my blood for?" Jane stared at Xiao Yan.

"We have the same blood type. I can infect myself with the x virus by injecting your blood. I can't go against Valentin and his a.s.sa.s.sins without the ability to resist. If we get out of here then I will synthesize the x-2 for myself. I will also decode the suffix and remove it. If you give me your blood then we have a deal."

"I can't give you my blood."

Xiao Yan glanced at him sharply. This guy must be out of his mind if he thought that he was this much of a fool.

"If I fail and you escape, the suffix will kill you. I can get you a sample of the x-virus though."

Jane's expression is so serious that Xiao is actually moved for a moment.

But that feeling fades quickly. He cannot forget the reason that he is in this position in the first place.

Jane looks at him with a pained look on his face.

"...So ridiculous. Before this, I would have rather died than have you infected with the x-virus." Jane's lips lift in a self-deprecating smile.

"It's not the same. It is no longer a death sentence."

Jane smiled lasciviously and lowered his head.

"Well, first things first. We need to dispel Valentin's suspicions."

"What?"

Jane abruptly stepped onto the bed and pressed Xiao Yan down onto the mattress.

"You b.a.s.t.a.r.d!" Xiao Yan's nerves tightened. This guy has never been a gentleman!

Jane smile was full of wickedness. He kissed Xiao Yan's cheek and neck, deliberately creating a vulgar vacuum and smacking sounds. He sucked at his flesh until the blood was almost forced out his pores.

"Jane Wallace - you are going to die!"

"Even with the x-virus, you are not my opponent!"

This statement is really f.u.c.king something! He'll pay!

Half an hour later, Xiao Yan walked stiffly and coldly down the corridor with Jane smiling brightly behind him.

As Casey walked toward them he saw the red marks on Xiao's neck. He snorted loudly and then lowered his voice as he pa.s.sed Jane. "You should explain to father why you both disappeared from surveillance."

"Do you like to be stared at by so many people when being intimate?"

Casey licked his lips but said nothing more.

That night, Jane carried a plate into the room. He saw that Xiao was sitting in the corner, his hands propped on the side of his legs as he stared emptily into the dark sea outside the gla.s.s window.

"Did you know that such a position signifies that you are weak and insecure?"

"I only know that it helps me think."

Xiao Yan stared at Jane's plate.

"Okay. I have something for you, but first you must take the rice."

Jane put the plate on Xiao Yan's knee. Xiao Yan stabilized the plate and felt something on his lap.

A miniature injection gun!

His cells begin to vibrate the minute the solution entered his body.

"You need physical strength."

Xiao Yan's heart suddenly tightened and his blood surged wildly through his body. Even his breath seemed to lodge in his throat, unable to release.

"Still not eating? I don't think this is due to Casey's nerve anesthetic, you are depressed. Being under the sea can make people feel like that, but you really need to learn to adapt."

A spoonful of oatmeal was sent to Xiao Yan's mouth.

Jane hadn't expected Xiao to be able to eat anything, so he prepared soft food for him. Strongly resisting the discomfort, Xiao forced himself to eat the oatmeal.

"Do you need me to be here with you?"

Xiao Yan closed his eyes and did not speak.

Liv had mentioned before that the process of incorporating the x-virus was extremely painful.

It was...

...and there was no painkiller to dull its agony. It was as if all of his bones were shattering s.h.i.+fting, and reorganizing.

Xiao Yan clenched his hands into fists and his shoulders trembled. He couldn't shout out or scream. He couldn't even frown because Valentin might be watching.

His body broke into a cold sweat and his legs writhed in pain.

"It will be fine, you will be okay soon."

Xiao Yan s.h.i.+vered in Jane's arms through the night, the pain reaching its peak around midnight. He ran through every memory of Heine. He remembered when he accidentally kissed him in the power plant. That brief kiss was the embarra.s.sment of his life, but he doesn't regret it a bit.

Xiao clutched at the sheets on the bed. He couldn't struggle against the pain or let the tremors wrack him too severely. He told himself that this pain was not as bad as when his shoulder was broken, when the bone had pierced through his bleeding flesh to crush his nerves.

He can remain in the past and conquer that pain to deal with his present.

Sweat soaked his back and his fingers were gripping the bed so forcefully they almost broke.

Jane moved his hand over Xiao's to calm his trembling. Despite the pain, Xiao did not once reach for Jane's hand.

From beginning to end, he fought the pain alone.

"You won again, Xiao Yan!"

Jane loosened his hold on Xiao Yan, but leaned in to press their cheeks close before he spoke.

"You are more cruel than Valentin."

Finally Xiao's shoulders relaxed and the pain diminished. His cheek slid to one side and his breathing gradually evened out.

Jane swept the sweat soaked hair from his forehead and clutched him tightly in his arms.

Xiao Yan slept until his heartbeat rang through his ears in increasing volume.

He jolted awake and stared at the bright but oppressing room.

His hearing was infinitely magnified. He can feel the sound of ocean and the creatures movements beyond the window. He can hear the gla.s.s swell, the sound lightly resonating through the room.

He lowered his head and Jane turned to look at him. His face was close to his and created a shadow that covered Xiao's vision, he turned his head away and toward the light instead.

"Should I congratulate you on becoming one of my kind?"

"We have always been the same." Xiao pushed his pillow into Jane's face. "I am ready. Are you?"

He didn't want to see anymore of Jane's tempting face. The x-virus had almost forced his surrender to Jane. Now that he is infected, the memory is even more profound than before, the vivid experience has become the starting page of his new memories.

"Just about."

Jane hurriedly gripped Xiao's wrist and moved the pillow away. He turned over and dropped a white coat onto Xiao's face.

"Let's go."

"What? Aren't they monitoring..."

"That has been going on the whole time."

Jane took Xiao back to his room and placed his terminal in front of him.

Xiao Yan took a deep breath.

Jane rea.s.suringly gripped his shoulders, but his cynical expression disturbed the air. He sighed heavily and spoke to Xiao Yan in a tone far more stern than he had ever heard from Jane. "You must go faster than you ever have before. Once Valentin senses you, he will ruthlessly burrow into your subconscious. He will destroy every pillar of your mind until you will be unable to awaken."

Xiao Yan glanced up briefly, his face clearly expressing his exasperation that the danger level had not been explicitly stated before this point.

But Xiao Yan knows that even if it is a dead end, he cannot retreat. Valentin will definitely discover all that Jane has done to this point. He can't leave things at this. Xiao Yan is not so concerned for Jane, rather he knows this is his best opportunity to escape.

Xiao Yan entered the main system. All information is knocked to dust as his mind barges through the mainframe. His thoughts expand and move explosively outward. Suddenly the whole base is submerged in darkness. The minute he invades the master controls, he can see the entire layout of the base. He searches for traces of Valentin's preparation of the serum. No matter how far he digs he cannot find it. He begins to suspect that Valentin manually mixes the drug.

Suddenly, he feels a force probe the outer edge of his thoughts and break through. His heart trembles and his spine chills.

It has to be Valentin!

More than two hundred years of experience captures Xiao Yan with ease.

"Your high interface rate makes you the best person to invade our master system. I suppose this was Jane's reason for bringing you here."

Valentin's voice weaves through his mind like a curtain call.

Xiao Yan's thoughts compress and shatter, the process seems interminable but in reality occurs instantaneously.

His troposphere offers no obstruction to Valentin's invasion and he effortlessly slips into his subconscious, his world begins to crumble to pieces.

.... remember what I said to you.

A cool even tone breaks through Xiao's fragmented thoughts and he remembers Heine's words.

"The world of thought is not a static reality, its depth can be infinite."

This is not a lesson in preventing a blocker, this is a battle of life and death!

Valentin finally arrived in Xiao's subconscious to find nothing but a dark and empty s.p.a.ce, there is no meaning or direction to this world.

Everything in the mind has a parallel to the real world, such as gravity, but right now in this s.p.a.ce he is floating aimlessly with no direction or concept of s.p.a.ce. Xiao has used his brain to subvert reality, shattering any patterns in his thoughts that would typically offer a key to breaking into a scholar's mind.

Valentin's lips curl and he waits for an opportunity to break this foolish opponent.

Just as Valentin prepared to extend his thoughts infinitely, he realized that someone was hacking into his own mind.

Casey had suddenly entered the system and invaded his thoughts while Valentin invaded Xiao's.

He was greedily extracting information.

Valentin is forced to withdraw from Xiao's mind. He extends and separates his thoughts, breaking through Xiao's mind until he finally retreated.

Suddenly he was shocked by a realization. From beginning to end he had never penetrated further than Xiao's troposphere. He thought that he had reached his subconscious but in actuality it was just a trap that Xiao had laid for him.

He had actually been outwitted by a rookie!

This moment of being fooled is too much, but now he must take out the thief that is attempting to steal information from his brain.

But Valentin could never imagine that Xiao was counterattacking at the same time. As he continued to climb through his thoughts, he found himself unable to withdraw. Xiao's ability to a.n.a.lyze and interpret information was unbelievable. As Valentin dealt with Xiao's attacks, Casey took the opportunity to terminate the connection.

"Did you get it?" Jerry asked while grinning.

"You know it!" Casey flashed a smile back.

Suddenly the alarm sounded and all channels were locked down.

Xiao Yan immediately exited the terminal and entered a command code. This was a virus he designed in the s.h.i.+re's research lab. The information interfered with the main control system commands and terminated the channel lockdown.

Jane picked up Xiao Yan, "Let's go!"

"But I haven't gotten..."

"No need."

Jane ran through the pa.s.sage with Xiao Yan in tow. Valentin will not allow the system to stay in such a state of disarray; they are in a race against time.

Several men in black uniforms rushed to them and pulled out their blades.

They are all elite a.s.sa.s.sins. In this moment, Xiao witnessed Jane Wallace's full strength. Jane had definitely been holding back during his confrontations with Heine Burton.

His elbow smashed against the wrist of one the men and slammed him into the wall, he heard a loud crunch as Jane stomped on the a.s.sa.s.sin's head.

Six more rushed up toward him.

"Jane Wallace - you traitor!"

Jane's lips lifted into a wicked smile and he winked at Xiao Yan.

"Let's see what Heine Burton taught you."

A blade slashed toward Xiao's shoulder and his body moved instinctively. Xiao twisted to the side and as the killer raised his weapon above his head, he twisted his arm around and slammed him into the wall. Then Xiao crashed his elbow against their spine, wrestled the weapon away and cut off his head.

Blood splattered onto his coat and Xiao took a couple steps away from the carnage.

This is his first kill with the virus. Xiao Yan swallowed hard and got his timidness under control. His sympathy must remain clear. It is his life or theirs. He cannot show mercy to those that would take his head without hesitation.

Jane has already dispatched three people in this time period.

The remaining two looked at them with extreme vigilance.

"Good job." Jane praised him.

Xiao Yan had thought that his movements were slow, but he had completed the combination attack in less than one second.

The a.s.sa.s.sins, blocking their way, step backwards step by step as Jane advances.

A murderous atmosphere darkens the channel like a dense shadow.

"Let it go, or die here."

The two men looked at each other and then clutched their blade in determination as they rushed wholeheartedly toward their death.

Xiao Yan readied himself as Jane stepped onto the wall and leaped. His right elbow cracked into one of the killer's necks as he avoided the blade that nearly grazed his face. He twisted their wrist until the blade was turned back onto the killer's throat. Jane's gaze was severe and dark.

"Unfortunately, you made the wrong choice."

Jane moved without the slightest hint of pity.

"Let's go!"

Xiao Yan hurries to keep up with Jane.

"Where are we going?!"

"Submarine."

"What about your medicine?"

Jane turns back and winks heroically, Nothing is more important than you."

Xiao Yan gritted his teeth, "This is not romantic!"

As they rushed through the turn in the channel, Xiao found himself roughly pulled back, Jane's grip was firm on his shoulders. The man in front of them looked surprised at Jane's protective action.

"You will not be able to pa.s.s. Jane you have greatly disappointed father...and after he gave you everything."

Four a.s.sa.s.sins stood in front of them, each exuding a dangerous and strange momentum.

Xiao can feel that the skill level of these killers is far different from the others they have faced.

Jane snorted and wiggled his brows at Xiao Yan. "Baby, I forgot to introduce you. This is the famous 'Ghost knight', Sheldon."

Xiao Yan couldn't stop his expression from trembling. Sheldon's name was even more known than the witch Claire. The guy in front of him was sickly pale, with slick silvery gray hair grazing his shoulders. His eyes are steel and full of murder. His face was sharply chiseled and elegant, resembling an aristocratic vampire.

Sheldon enunciated his words carefully, directing his orders to his team. "Leave Jane Wallace to me. You take Xiao Yan, feel free to break anything you want on him so long as his head remains intact."