Trial
by M1zushiSevere pain surged from his fingertips, as if a large hand was ruthlessly squeezing his brain, and a sense of impending death flooded over him like a rising tide…
Am I dying?
An Yu suddenly opened his eyes!
Beep—
A red light brightened the cold operating table.
A voice echoed from above: “This is the interrogation room of the Black Tower in the Main City. Your name?”
An Yu was bewildered, “Black Tower… How am I here… You are… from the High Peak?”
“Your name.”
“…An Yu.”
“ID.”
“AY53… 21281222.”
“How long have you been hiding?”
“…What?”
“What is the distortion type?”
“I haven’t…”
“What is your ability?”
“…I don’t have a distortion…”
“High Peak” is the highest decision-making organization of today’s humanity, stationed in the giant Black Tower in the Main City.
In recent years, distortions have completely reshuffled the world, and the three major institutions in the Main City have governed everything: the decision center “High Peak,” the strength center “Military Department,” and the research center “Brain.”
An Yu’s thoughts were still chaotic, and a new wave of pain came.
He tightly closed his eyes, struggling to recall the events on the snowfield in the severe pain…
A recorded message suddenly played.
“Second Lieutenant Cha’s final communication… Giant distorted mantis, the shuttle bus has been silenced, it is speculated that the aberrant had infiltrated the bus long ago and completed its evolution on the path and infected the entire bus… A human aberrant eliminated it… Unprecedented abilities, teleportation, and… It’s hard to tell if it was devouring or detonating, it happened too quickly… He looked normal, very young… White hair, golden… No, red eyes… Sorry… His eyes are changing…”
The voice gradually weakened: “Main City, I am also in the early state of distortion. It snowed heavily today, perhaps the largest in recent years…”
The playback ended.
The interrogator said, “Second Lieutenant Cha accused you of distortion before his death.”
“Me?” An Yu was astonished, “It wasn’t me, how could I have killed the mantis? I was going to the Military Department to find someone…”
“You are concealing something. It seems—”
“No!” An Yu struggled to sit up, the sharp metal restraints embedding into his flesh, “I haven’t concealed anything, and also, genetic testing! I request genetic testing!”
All strange distortions start with genetic infection. In order to control them, humanity has established an index called “genetic entropy” to measure the degree of genetic disorder. According to research, the genetic entropy of purebred organisms is within the range of 10, remaining constant since birth. Once this value rises, it indicates the onset of distortion.
Although the rise in genetic entropy is a serious matter, as long as it remains constant in its initial state, the closer it gets to 10, the stronger its resistance to infection becomes. Only the top one in ten thousand people in the world can enter the Main City, and the latest threshold was 8.6.
In this regard, An Yu has once again demonstrated the talent of the lower class to the extreme—with a genetic entropy of 0.2, he stays firmly at the bottom of humanity.
Ling Qiu once commented: the era of choosing partners based on looks is long gone, and people mainly consider whether the other person can be stable as an genetic individual when choosing a partner. Someone like him, who could be distorted with just a glance from an aberrant, is destined not to have the right to reproduce, and his beauty genes were simply wasted.
The interrogator asked, “Where did you live before you were 8 years old?”
“In the high-risk distortion orphanage… They said I was an abandoned infant picked up from the wilderness and I was monitored until I was 8…”
“The records show that you were in a state of deep sleep at the orphanage for years.”
“Yes… but I didn’t have any other abnormalities, and the amount of time I’ve been sleeping has been decreasing over the past two years.” An Yu gasped in pain. “Can I… can I request a genetic test? Let me prove myself, please…”
“It has already been tested.”
“Tested…” An Yu’s golden eyes widened, “Could it be true…”
“Your genetic entropy is zero.”
“Zero… not even 0.2?”
“Only zero.”
“Only zero?” An Yu was stunned. “Did it go down?”
“We have tested many times, and the results are always the same. This violates science. No organism’s genes can be 100% regular, and genetic entropy cannot naturally decrease.”
The alarm sounded again.
“An Yu, according to the “Human Union Act”, you will be transferred to the Brain and undergo distortion catalyst testing.
“The experiment will use energy to catalyze the distortion process. If you are already in a concealed distortion phase, it will be quickly observed. The experiment will not cause substantial harm, but it will be extremely painful, please be aware.”
“This is inhumane means, humanity thanks you for your sacrifice.”
An Yu pondered for a moment, murmuring, “It won’t kill me?”
“Your lifespan will not be affected in any way.”
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The Black Tower had dealt with countless mutated individuals, most of whom were terrified and hysterical. An Yu was the first to be so docile and elegant.
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The interrogator was surprised, “You should be more concerned about being executed for distortion than this.”
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An Yu weakly responded with a “yes”, “I’m sorry, I’m not very capable…”
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He didn’t give An Yu a chance to reply, immediately cutting off the communication.
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“I wish you success…” he murmured.
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“Fires are breaking out everywhere, even new recruits from the military are being sent on missions. If aberrants invade the Main City…”
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“Wasn’t it said before that there’s a third energy reserve?”
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“Not yet, there’s only the last set left. I reckon the distortion will occur in this set.”
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“Regardless of whether he mutates or not, he has already shattered human scientific understanding… His data is too shocking. He’s a terrifying yet exciting existence.”
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“It’s a pity. Someone like him would definitely lose his mind once mutated.”
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His eye sockets burned with intense pain, and his pupils twitched spasmodically, but deep within his pupils, there was a calmness akin to the eye of a storm.
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As long as he could keep his place to stay, this bit of pain was simply a reward.
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An Yu watched the countdown, a trace of relief reflecting in his eyes.
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1—
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[The Brain reports to the High Peak.
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Mental power: 100, no fluctuations observed.
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“Logistics.” The person placed a set of pure white clothes next to An Yu. “Sorry, High Peak hasn’t responded yet. For now, you’ll have to wear a prison uniform.”
An Yu slowly opened his eyes.
His heart was pounding wildly in his chest like a beast thrashing about, howling to tear him apart.
“Feeling better now? Catalyst tests are rarely used; this charge isn’t something an ordinary person would face.” The person spoke softly. “Don’t worry, you won’t mutate.”
An Yu’s unfocused gaze slowly sharpened as he weakly turned his head.
This logistics officer was about his age, slender, and had a pair of golden eyes. But those eyes seemed empty, and his pupils were looking elsewhere even though he was dismantling the machine in his hands.
Blind?
The person smiled. “I used to be a researcher. Last month, a distorted test subject went out of control. I lost my eyes and transferred to logistics.”
An Yu pondered for a moment what his response should be and finally whispered, “I’m sorry.”
“It’s all in the past. People have to find something to be happy about. What do you want to do when you get out?”
An Yu asked in a hoarse voice, “Sleep… is that okay?”
The person nodded. “Besides sleeping?”
“I want to eat… bread.” An Yu added hoarsely, “Coarse wheat bread.”
The person chuckled. “I understand. I grew up eating welfare bread until the Main City’s threshold refreshed when I was six, just enough to accept my score. Oh, although both my parents had low genetic entropy, I was lucky enough to have 8.8.”
Ling Qiu mentioned that genetic entropy had randomness; two low values could indeed produce a high value, albeit with very low probability.
The person smiled again. “We’re quite fated, you know?”
An Yu calmed his throbbing heart through his chest. “Where is the fate?”
“The records show that today is your birthday, we’re just a day apart. My hometown is also in District 53. I have parents and a younger sister there. But I haven’t seen them in over a decade and I’ve only seen my sister in videos.
An Yu paused for a moment.
His gaze fell on the name tag on his chest: Yan Xi
“I heard you’re going to the Military Department to find someone?” Yan Xi said casually. “Don’t just think about bread. Let your friend treat you to a good meal.”
“Bread is already good enough,” An Yu said weakly.
Yan Xi smiled, “That’s right. When I was young, my mom would reprocess coarse bread, add some beans, and bake them into fragrant bean pancakes. Oh, the only regret was that they weren’t sweet enough. I have quite a sweet tooth.”
An Yu turned to look at those empty yet smiling blind eyes. In the slums, he had only seen such brightness in Ling Qiu’s eyes.
He blanked out for a moment inexplicably, then instinctively said, “I’m sorry…”
“Sorry for what?” Yan Xi chuckled, picking up his neatly packed equipment. “I’ll go now. After you return to District 53, don’t mention me to anyone. My family still doesn’t know about my eyes.”
It was a long time after he left that An Yu mustered some strength and got up to put on the prison uniform. The fabric of the clothes was soft and thick. He touched it gently, deciding to wear it tomorrow. It would last at least ten years after sewing and patching it up.
He dragged himself to a corner of the wall and curled up, calculating how to ask for the previous set of prison uniforms. Soon, he drifted off into a heavy sleep.
An Yu dreamed. The voices of a little girl and the second lieutenant intertwined on the vast snowfield.
“Do not arrogantly cut open a weak rabbit.”
“They look so weak, but they can run so fast! They can even blow people to pieces with a boom!”
“Unprecedented abilities, teleportation, and… It’s hard to tell if it was devouring or detonating…”
In the early morning, An Yu was awakened by the footsteps outside the door. In a daze, he looked at the speaker on the wall.
This unprovoked disaster is about to end.
As he wished, the interrogator’s voice sounded.
“An Yu, temporary identifier #1222. According to the trial results, the High Peak’s decision is—”
The verdict was loud and clear.
“Execution.”
Author’s note:
[02 Entropy Increase]
Entropy itself has no intrinsic meaning; it is merely a measure of disorder.
Just as time did not exist originally, people created the concept of time to measure the changes in the rise and fall of objects.
Therefore, the essence of time is to record the process of entropy increase.
As time passes, the vast universe also becomes increasingly disorderly, eventually heading towards heat death. This is the ultimate fate of the universe.
Human lifespan is too short; we should not have the honor to witness this end.
Yet, it remains unknown what exactly happened to make the world more and more chaotic.
To make people more and more distorted.
Translator’s note:
“The Second Law of Thermodynamics defines the ultimate purpose of life, mind, and human striving: to deploy energy and information to fight back the tide of entropy and carve out refuges of beneficial order. An underappreciation of the inherent tendency toward disorder, and a failure to appreciate the precious niches of order we carve out, are a major source of human folly.”
― Steven Pinker (Enlightenment Now)
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