This human is mine

The lizard⁠​‍‌⁠​‍‍⁠‍⁠‍‍⁠⁠​‍‌​⁠⁠​⁠‌ aberrant said in its strange tone, “Can’t understand me?”

No one answered.

A gust of wind swept by, and An Yu asked into the breeze, “Were you talking?”

As his voice fell, Pat and Slade immediately stepped forward, placing themselves in front of the two healers and protecting him more securely at the back.

In the silence that followed, Slade’s upper arm muscles swelled again, Pat’s leg bones slowly elongated, and red, reflective serpent scales began to emerge on Jiang Xiao’s wrist beneath his sleeve. Fengjian showed no outward signs of mutation, but the air around him was quietly filling with a faint plant-like fragrance.

“Oh, so you’re all…” The giant lizard seemed surprised. “Haven’t seen you before. Are you from another zone?”

As it spoke, its gaze passed over the others and settled on Qin Zhilu and An Yu.

Qin Zhilu cooperated by lifting his hand and calmly tugged at his bloodstained white glove.
Dozens of pitch-black octopus limbs slid out from beneath his windbreaker, flexing in the air like a graceful umbrella opening, wrapping elegantly around his body.

The aberrant seemed to sense some kind of threat and nodded slightly, then turned its gaze toward An Yu.

An Yu looked back innocently.
He really did want to show some kind of reaction, to at least appear like he fit in, but this was asking a bit much of him.

“A lowly human sneaking into the ranks of higher lifeforms,” the lizard aberrant sneered. “Looks like those idiots haven’t realized you’re human.”

Pat asked flatly, “Who are the idiots?”

The lizard aberrant ignored his question. It pointed at An Yu, then gestured toward the end of the line. “You. Get in line.”
That garishly colored claw reached into a box at the door and pulled out a form, crumpled it into a ball, and tossed it at An Yu. “Physical exam.”

The paper ball was blown by the wind and flew towards An Yu, but before it got close to him, Jiang Xiao grabbed it.

Crimson snake scales had already crept over his wrist, but his hand remained clearly human. The way each raised phalanx clenched the paper was almost beautiful.

Precisely controlling the expression of aberrant traits was a fundamental skill for every Protector in the Tower. Though Jiang Xiao hadn’t been a Protector for long, he was already among the best.

Controlling one’s killing intent was also part of the training.

He gazed at the lizard and said quietly, “No need for an exam. I’m his physical training teacher.”

“……”
An Yu subconsciously glanced around.

The Commander seemed to frown a little.

“Physical training teacher?” the lizard muttered. “Is that even a real position?”
“Get back to your own district.” It turned around impatiently, but just as it took half a step, a gust of wind suddenly blew from behind the team. It paused and sniffed.

It was an action that An Yu was very familiar with.

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It was hungry.

The lizard whipped its head around. “You seem… like a different kind of human.”
Its paint-red eyeballs spun rapidly, scanning Slade and the others, then finally settling on Qin Zhilu.

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Qin Zhilu’s paused.
He finally looked up and, a moment later, and slowly tugged his gloves tighter.

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Don't scrape

Dozens of pitch-black octopus tentacles elegantly retracted from afar. Qin Zhilu pulled a handkerchief from his windbreaker pocket, held the dirty tentacles in his hand, and wiped them carefully.

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Qin Zhilu glanced at An Yu. “The aberrants on this layer are still relatively normal,” he said. “You are still quite popular.”

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The moment An Yu stepped inside, they all turned to look at him.
Caught off guard, he met the gaze of those empty, dazed eyes in the mirror.

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“Hey, did you hear? That girl with the birthmark on her face died in the middle of the night.”
“She heard somewhere that getting her heart pierced by a supervisor would cause her to mutate. So she went and begged them to do it.”
“So that method doesn’t work after all!”
“Of course it doesn’t. I heard another version, you have to eat a supervisor to mutate like them.”

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All kinds of eerie, distorted howls intertwined with these conversations, echoing through every night over the past ten years.

Some children had witnessed these “mature supervisors” drag humans from their sleeping nests in the middle of the night to eat them, but they walked away indifferently.
Some children even volunteered to act as spies for the supervisors, reporting on their fellow humans in secret.

There were even children who turned on each other, killing their human companions and eating their flesh and bones, in an attempt to trigger a mutation that way.

A torrent of heavy, broken memories surged through An Yu’s mind.
Yet in none of those memories did he see humans retaining their dignity.

When An Yu suddenly broke free from those memories, the room was already empty.
He stood alone in front of the massive mirror. Reflected in it were those children’s backs—those kids had run out and didn’t even have the time to put their clothes on. Now they were sprawled on the floor, fighting to lick the scattered chunks of flesh and gore.

An Yu stared in a daze, when a hand grabbed his wrist.

“Don’t drown in the pasts of others. Mercy should be reserved for those worth saving.”

Qin Zhilu stood beside him at some point, and also watched the children outside licking the corpse fragments of the aberrant.
His black eyes were cold and analytical and were not tainted by a single unnecessary emotion.
“Don’t pity them. Once time is restored, they will definitely mutate.”

An Yu was silent for a moment before speaking in a low voice:

“Commander… I’m sorry. I don’t think I can completely control the memory recall, like you said.”

Qin Zhilu replied firmly,

“In that case, just close your eyes. Too much information will only cloud your judgment.”

As he spoke, he began unwrapping the bandage from An Yu’s wrist. Then he moved behind him and carefully tied it around his eyes, layer by layer.

The light and shadows from outside filtered dimly through the bandage, flickering faintly in his blurred vision.
Perhaps because his sight was impaired, his other senses became more acute—he felt a sudden chill where the bandage had been removed from his wrist.
Just as An Yu was about to touch it, his wrist was grabbed again.

“Commander?”

Qin Zhilu replied coolly,

“I’ll lead you for now.”

Some CN comments from this chapter

1º post: “Don’t drown in the pasts of others. Mercy should be reserved for those worth saving.”

This phrase is talking about those human children. But it’s not like they chose to be this way. Just like how feral children raised by beasts lose their human dignity. Only when the granaries are full will they know honor and disgrace. If they can’t even survive, what’s the use of dignity? If you have dignity, do you not need weekly physical examinations? Does it keep you alive?

Living in this abnormal environment, I can understand that the children have lost their human dignity in order to survive. They are very sad, despicable, and they brought it upon themselves. Yet they also deserve pity and salvation. When even children lose their innocence and dignity, it’s the world’s fault, not theirs. Seeing the children rushing to lick the flesh of an aberrant, I only feel sad. I don’t want to use the word hopeless to describe those wretched children. They deserve mercy. Just like Ling Qiu taught An Yu a lot, I wish someone could tell the children to hold on, even if their dignity is trampled on in this sad environment; please hold on and don’t give up. But no one taught them.

Those who have not lost their dignity will only carelessly say that they are hopeless and do not deserve any mercy.

Reply: After careful consideration, in this world view, most people are qualified to say this, but QZL is not. He’s a lucky one in a hundred million, born with a golden spoon of immunity from mutation, with the ability to change the fate of himself and others, what qualifications does he have to accuse those unlucky people who cannot control their fate of not upholding human dignity? Isn’t this too easy to say?

Reply: In this case, talking about saving those children is just empty talk. Even if time passes, the children who have been tortured like this for ten years can never go back to the way they were before. Their mentality has long been distorted. It’s not that they are not worth saving, but that they cannot be saved.

Reply: Although, you can’t complete the task if you keep staring at it like this. I think QZL’s decision does not mean to belittle the victims, but he has to reduce the negative impact of this incident on An Yu. After all, if they die here, the world will be worse, and more people will lose their dignity.