“Actually, I’m just a grape.”

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At the other end of the terminal, Fengjian Tianyu murmured, “No wonder the second mirror fragment never disappeared… By the way, An Yu, in what form does the part sealed by the mirror exist?”

An Yu stared blankly at the terminal for a moment before answering, “I don’t know.”

“Does the sealed part have consciousness? Is it another very weak Law?”

An Yu recalled the feeling of meeting his own gaze when looking in the mirror. “Maybe there’s an incomplete consciousness. Just like the part of Bai Jing that merged with the mirror and the Bai Jing slumbering in the mirror core are completely different people.”

On the other side of the channel, Slade and Pat discussed quietly for a while. Pat thoughtfully said, “So slicing doesn’t just target life, but also humanity.”

An Yu hummed. “Perhaps.”

Slade immediately asked, “Then, having been sliced by the mirror three times, do you feel any part of your humanity is missing?”

The cabin suddenly fell into an awkward silence. An Yu silently looked up, meeting the expressionless gaze of An, who was staring at him.

Slade tapped his device. “Hello? Hello?”

“Don’t ask anymore,” Jiang Xiao’s weak voice suddenly came from the other end. “According to Brain’s latest assessment, Corner has humanity, but not much. Although he’s been sliced three times, it might not have hit his humanity.”

Fengjian asked in surprise, “He was sliced by 60% in total across three times! Even then, it didn’t hit it?”

Jiang Xiao thought for a while. “Before the third slice, the first two had already been fused back. If it were continuous slicing, the probability of hitting it might be higher.”

Pat said seriously, “No offense, but I always thought humanity should be evenly distributed in a person.”

“Apparently not,” Slade immediately retorted. “Otherwise, how could Bai Jing’s good and evil be completely separated?”

Pat: “True. Since becoming a Protector, I’ve rarely thought about such profound philosophical topics.”

“After all, honing your mind is hardly as important as strengthening your muscles,” Slade remarked hoarsely, tearing open a food package as he spoke.

An Yu listened expressionlessly to the whispers coming through the terminal. Based on the boundaries Ling Qiu had previously set, he felt he might be experiencing some verbal bullying, but he wasn’t sure, so he instinctively looked at the Commander.

Qin Zhilu seemed to smile, but his voice remained steady. “Jiang Xiao is awake?”

Jiang Xiao immediately replied, “Yes, my mental power is stable now, please rest assured. The immediate priority is still that shattered mirror fragment. This mirror’s ability is too bizarre; it can no longer be explained by abnormality. It seems the Black Tower and Brain need to…”

“It’s fine,” Qin Zhilu directly interrupted him. “The fact that abnormality is gradually surpassing biological boundaries is something the higher-ups already knew. My slicing was merely 1% anyway. There’s no need to write it into the battle report. Ignore it. That’s all.”

He then decisively ended the communication, raising an eyebrow at the startled An Yu opposite him. “What’s wrong?”

An Yu couldn’t believe his ears. “Only 1%? Just let it go?”

Qin Zhilu looked at him with a nonchalant expression. “What else? The mirror has vanished. Where else could I find it?”

An Yu stared blankly at the “99%” on the terminal. “But…”

“No need to dwell on it. Even if my life is a bit less, I can still protect you,” Qin Zhilu said, letting out a tired yawn.

He looked out the window and added calmly, “Besides, who would even think of executing you now? It’s a pity that text and images are so pale. The people in the Black Tower have no chance to experience the shock of the river flowing again firsthand.”

An frowned in confusion at his words. Ning squeezed his palm and whispered, “Corner must have awakened some new ability.”

An looked towards An Yu. Although he still refused to speak, he was clearly asking with his eyes what kind of ability it was.

An Yu wasn’t in the mood to explain. He just glanced at him, then silently lowered his head and continued to scroll through his terminal.

The Seed Museum and the orphanage were far apart. Soon, the people in the cabin gradually fell asleep. Qin Zhilu leaned back against the panel, resting with his eyes closed. An and Ning leaned against each other, and a few Morpho butterflies that hadn’t been retrieved landed on the wall, a white and a blue one side by side, sleeping soundly.

An Yu found himself, to his exasperation, the only unfortunate soul staring at the 99% number, suffering from insomnia.

As the plane began its descent, Qin Zhilu woke up.

He heard a familiar ravenous chewing sound beside him. He turned his head and found An Yu sitting in the semi-enclosed corner formed by him and the cabin panel, mechanically chewing on a bag of coarse bread.

It was brought by Ning, it was a large bag of coarse bread, big enough to completely cover his upper body when held, and it was now almost empty.

Qin Zhilu was stunned for a moment. “Does that 1% make you so anxious?”

“I apologize, sir, but I really wasn’t in the mood to save any for you,” An Yu crumpled the empty paper bag into a large ball and his cheeks still moved with a bulging motion. “Also, please don’t mention that number again. I can’t help but imagine if it were me permanently…”

He didn’t finish his sentence. An Yu took a deep breath and shoved the last piece of bread into his mouth.

“……” Qin Zhilu was speechless for a moment and only raised a hand to pat his head.

The plane couldn’t fly over the museum and had to land nearby. They proceeded on foot.

The Plant Seed Museum was nestled between the Equality Zone and the outermost Bait City’s District 93, closer to District 93. This area was at a high latitude and should have had year-round snowfields, but due to the museum’s special function, the Main City had transformed the entire area into an artificial greenhouse environment, even topping it with a small dome.

From the outside, the museum looked like a bare, open-air estate. Behind the fence, there were no buildings or vegetation. It was like a segment of anomalous space-time was abruptly placed here, where the land seamlessly transitioned from a snowfield to soil at a certain dividing line.

“This is a human-built plant gene bank,” Qin Zhilu said, stepping over the invisible dividing line. “The Seed Museum was established ten years ago, proposed by the five First Generation Protectors after the second major blizzard. People collected seeds of all plants worldwide, rigorously screened them, removed bad seeds with aberrant gene risks, and finally left a few seeds of each plant to be cultivated here.”

An Yu and An Ning followed Qin Zhilu. An Yu looked down at the ground and saw that the brown soil varied in depth and was marked with grids of various sizes.

“Although these soils are embedded together, their compositions differ. Each grid is precisely proportioned to suit the seeds buried within, and below the soil, equipment is placed to maintain chemical environmental segregation. The Brain put a lot of effort into specially treating these seeds to keep them in a low-life state, and to begin growing at a time set by humans,” Qin Zhilu calmly stated. “The first collective sprouting time was set for ten years, which is this year. Because humanity expected the world to improve ten years from then, or even if it didn’t, these plants should still grow and reproduce normally, preserving new seeds, and waiting for the next ten years.”

Ning softly said, “Ten years ago, although people didn’t know which direction the world would evolve, everything they did was in preparation for reconstruction after the snowstorm ended. This seems to be a human instinct—no matter how intense the disaster, they would preserve all species in science, culture, and nature at all costs, quietly waiting for the disaster to pass.”

An Yu looked at the grids on the ground. “But they haven’t grown. Is it not time yet?”

“It is time; there’s been a variable,” Qin Zhilu said. “The nutrients between the grids shouldn’t have intermingled, but the boundaries were broken.”

Although scientists had meticulously screened the seeds, ensuring every gene was pure, perhaps there were technological oversights back then, or perhaps humanity never truly grasped the essence of the aberrant phenomena. A bad seed appeared in the museum.

“The original collective sprouting day was 7 days ago, but a month prior, District 93 began reporting aberrants,” Qin Zhilu continued to explain. “There were sporadic disappearances, and some houses and public cables suddenly collapsed or even vanished. The ground cracked, and small-scale earthquakes occurred frequently at night. This bad seed not only plundered the nutrients of the entire museum within a month but also quietly extended its reach underground to human activity areas, growing itself by devouring life and fusing matter.”

An Yu was somewhat surprised. “Buildings are its nutrients too?”

Qin Zhilu nodded, his expression solemn. “Because in the past two months, District 93 had several ordinary aberrant invasion incidents, no one connected it to the museum. In fact, not long ago, the nearby Equality Zone had an incident where I came to help clear it. Looking back now, there were also some abnormal phenomena that were concealed by the aberrant invasion.”

An had been silently looking down at his terminal. An Yu’s gaze flickered to his screen and saw Grape’s avatar in the chat box. But it was An who had sent a full screen of messages; Grape hadn’t replied a single word.

An Yu hesitated. “That bad seed…”

“Fortunately, although it already possesses devouring power and some time-space interference, it’s still just something rooted in the ground. It can’t escape, and its aggressiveness is limited. It has already been cleared by Tang Feng’s team. However, the survival state of the other seeds has been reverted to ten years ago. No matter what artificial interference is applied, they won’t be able to grow as planned for at least six months. And…” Qin Zhilu paused, his voice dropping. “There’s no longer any need for them to grow.”

An Yu nodded. “Perhaps there are still unknown bad seeds dormant. Complete destruction is the safest choice for humanity.”

An frowned and looked at him, then was pulled on the sleeve by Ning.

“Am I wrong?” An Yu looked back calmly. “Genetic abnormality hasn’t been completely eliminated, and the chaos has already exceeded the scope of what genes can explain. The premise of preserving everything is self-preservation, but clearly, humanity is losing the ability to preserve itself.”

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An Yu asked Ning, “What does he want to say?”

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He retracted his gaze and said calmly, “Of course I’d agree. Isn’t this something that will happen eventually, and should happen?”

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The difference was that what burst from the tree roots were various foul-smelling, grotesque bits of corpses. Humans and buildings, absorbed as nutrients from District 93, had fused underground. At a glance, it was like it roughly threw humans and building materials into a dough mixer. Flesh and blood and bricks and steel fused in an unspeakable, deformed way, growing together into large chunks that were neither human nor industrial material, a truly shocking sight.

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The unspeakable chaos before him was pushing the limits of that entity.

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After a long while, Qin Zhilu nodded slightly. “Yes. The universe came from chaos, and it will eventually return to chaos.”

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Although Qin Zhilu was always so calm and composed, his tone at this moment was as if he had seen such scenes before, and even worse ones.

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But by some strange impulse, he quietly asked, “Is there a way to stop all this?”

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“Gather the irreversible chaos together, then completely destroy it,” Qin Zhilu said calmly. “District 95 back then essentially followed this idea. However, District 95 itself was a closed container, so the chaos was completely cleared from the city before it could spread outwards, saving humanity a lot of effort.”

An Yu didn’t quite understand. If the whole world became like that, would they bomb the entire world clean?

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An’s mental power was dropping as it was stimulated by the sights in the museum. He barely managed to continue forward under the protection by a few large blue Morpho butterflies. They walked for a few more minutes before finally seeing soldiers in protective suits.

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Qin Zhilu went to discuss with them, leaving only An Yu where he was.

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It was a woman fused with steel bars, her face had been distorted by the steel, which only vaguely made people tell that she was probably not young. Her two eyeballs protruded grotesquely, their shape irregular and semi-dry.

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“On-site data confirmed,” the officer reported to the floating mechanical sphere. “We will immediately arrange for all personnel to evacuate and destroy the museum area. According to Brain’s assessment, weapon specifications will be lowered to avoid damaging District 93 and the Equality Zone. If one attempt is insufficient, the operation will be repeated multiple times.”

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High Peak breathed a sigh of relief, a hint of helplessness in its voice. “Bring Zhu Tao back well. Tell him that as a Protector, merely killing a few aberrants for humanity is not enough. Doesn’t he understand what’s right and wrong?”

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Qin Zhilu simply said, “Corner and I just arrived. Let’s first understand what my responsibilities are.”

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“Understood.”

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“Zhu Tao has an innate sense of responsibility towards plants. Although his personality has always been gentle, and it’s almost impossible for him to defy the decisions of the higher-ups and the Black Tower, this matter has crossed his bottom line,” Qin Zhilu’s expression remained relatively calm, seemingly without much surprise. “Perhaps you can understand it as, back then in District 53, only 1% of the people were aberrants, but High Peak decided to clear all the remaining non-aberrant humans and demanded that Ling Qiu, who was reporting all this, to evacuate.”

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“I do, I do,” An Yu lightly pressed his lips together. “Commander, can we skip 1%? Next time, please use a different number for your example.”

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“Please,” An Yu immediately pleaded softly. “Don’t say it.”

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Tang Feng stood beside him. After a long silence, he raised a hand and gently embraced his shoulder.

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He seemed to know he couldn’t ask and his gaze fluctuated for a long time, before he buried his head in Tang Feng’s arms and sobbed.

Qin Zhilu walked over and asked Tang Feng, “What did you say to persuade him?”

Tang Feng held Zhu Tao’s head, looking at the desolate soil grids in the distance. “I didn’t persuade him.”

He crouched down and whispered gently to the person in his arms, “Grape, as a Protector, the Commander has no standing to dissuade High Peak from destroying this place.”

In An Yu’s impression, Tang Feng was a man of few words. Although he was no longer an officer, his words and actions still retained the sharpness of an elite officer.

But at this moment, that person’s eyes were also red. He tightly pressed his lips together, then after a long while, released them, saying hoarsely, “As myself, I can’t bear to dissuade you from coexisting and dying with this museum.”

Coexisting and dying.

An Yu looked at Zhu Tao, who was curled in Tang Feng’s arms, in shock.

That embraced body, despite its submissive posture, conveyed absolute resolve.

“But you must know,” Tang Feng’s voice was deep and gentle, as he gently stroked Zhu Tao’s hair, “this place is too close to District 93, and the energy that can be used is limited. No one knows if other bad seeds are still incubating here. If there are, a medium-yield energy release has a chance of catalyzing abnormality, and as the only high gene entropy organism remaining, you are very likely to be absorbed by the remaining entities.”

His hand paused, then after a long while, he continued to comfort him. “When the second wave of clearing is launched, it won’t be Protector Zhu Tao who gets killed anymore.”

An Yu was completely stunned. He looked at Zhu Tao, who was held in Tang Feng’s arms, unable to imagine that crazy decision.

He also couldn’t understand the indulgence revealed in Tang Feng’s words.

“I know,” Zhu Tao struggled out of Tang Feng’s embrace, murmuring, “I just… feel powerless.”

He looked at the dilapidated, bizarre remains before him, and gave a bitter laugh. “Humans have ruled the food chain for thousands of years. To maximize their value to humans, every animal and every seed follows their regulations to live and reproduce. Since the weak ceded their dignity and freedom, in exchange, they should receive the protection of the strong.” His voice was very soft, yet firm and forceful. “But for humans to reduce risk, they want to prevently destroy them, even before disaster strikes. Shouldn’t they feel ashamed of their incompetence and malice?”

The museum, with its dome closed, was silent in the wind of the snowfield.

People stared blankly at the young man sitting on the corpses, and no one said a word.

Zhu Tao stood up and kicked away the corpse of the woman fused with the steel bar, revealing a small grid beneath.

A metal card was inserted into the soil, engraved with the original species information stored in that grid.

[GR-P1104: Angiosperms – Dicotyledons – Rhamnales – Vitaceae – Vitis Genus]

[Autumn Grape]

“I apologize, but unless I truly see these seeds sprout and grow into Super-aberrants with my own eyes, I cannot stand idly by while they are prevently destroyed,” Zhu Tao said as he squeezed the card, his voice soft and low. “A Protector is just an artificial title. Have the High Peaks forgotten that I am, in fact, just a grape?”

Preventive destruction.

An Yu’s heart suddenly clenched.

He looked back in astonishment, his gaze sweeping over the soil grids hidden beneath the large, bizarre corpse piles.

He had almost forgotten that he himself had once been a person deemed for preventive execution.

Only, he was very fortunate: his executor gave him a chance to live.

He instinctively looked beside him. Qin Zhilu was gazing at him, those dark eyes seemingly still discerning everything.

Qin Zhilu turned his side to Zhu Tao and said in a deep voice, “Grape, High Peak’s decision is absolutely correct. Considering humanity’s well-being is the very meaning of Black Tower’s existence. If you must blame someone, blame the weak lives destined to be crushed first by the wheels of disaster.”

Zhu Tao’s eyes flickered. “You…”

“Fortunately—” Qin Zhilu interrupted him, continuing to gaze at An Yu, “—these weak beings seem to have a chance to prove they’re harmless.” He then paused and his voice suddenly softened to almost sound like a sigh. “And they don’t have to do anything, no painful struggles or self-exploration. They just have to wait for a result.”

Zhu Tao was stunned. “What do you mean? Do you have a way…”

He didn’t finish. His gaze suddenly fell upon An Yu, who was standing beside Qin Zhilu.

Not far away, the hovering drone in the air simultaneously turned its camera towards An Yu.

An Yu had his back to him and his fingers by his side seemingly stretched and contracted inadvertently.

A familiar sense of oppression quietly descended, only more powerful and inscrutable than in Zhu Tao’s memory. He was stunned for a while, muttering, “The orphanage mission is over. Did An Yu awaken a new ability?”

No one answered.

High Peak asked in the channel, “What are you trying to do?” Before the words finished, on the Black Tower’s main screen, the completely chaotic soil in the museum suddenly erupted.

All the busy High Peak decision-makers in front of the screen simultaneously stopped what they were doing.

Across half the globe, on the utterly devastated land of the museum, endless seeds burst forth from the earth.

Fragile stems grew tenaciously in the interwoven snowstorm, developing branches, leaves, petals, and fruits…

Trees rooted downwards, shrubs bore fruit, layer upon layer of petals were blown into the wind, fine fluff trembling. Some seeds joyfully scattered into the new soil.

The mixed scent of plants and soil covered the pervasive stench. On those fused, aberrant corpses, vibrant, normal life soon sprouted.

Zhu Tao slowly got up. The wind rustled the stems, flowers, and leaves filling the courtyard, a riot of colors, all swaying. He stood blankly before those flourishing lives, just as he had years ago, when he was a little boy, gazing at the vineyard before him with a mix of awe and reverence.

An Yu’s fingertips stopped.

His lowered gaze lifted, and the red tinge faded from his golden eyes. He looked at a point not far away, uncertain. “Sir… it seems there really is…”

Qin Zhilu had already drawn his gun and walked in that direction. “Low-level aberrant plants. I’ll take care of them.”

He didn’t ask for the Black Tower’s opinion and just calmly stated, “As for the rest, Zhu Tao can handle the aftermath and regular containment.”

Author’s Note:

Next chapter will have many, many fragments of Zhu Tao.

This chapter was repeatedly edited and rewritten all day.

Translator’s note:
I quite like this arc with the new bits of worldbuilding thrown in and the reversal of the narrative centered around humanity. it’s quite refreshing to have non-human perspectives

While i was translating this chapter, an yu’s advent state and his sense of self made me remember the beloved classic book “the last unicorn” so I read through my highlights and decided to show off some of them hehe

“Cruel?” she asked. “How can I be cruel? That is for mortals.” But then she did raise her eyes, and they were great with sorrow, and with something very near to mockery. She said, “So is kindness.”

I will go back to my forest too, but I do not know if I will live contentedly there, or anywhere. I have been mortal, and some part of me is mortal yet. I am full of tears and hunger and the fear of death, though I cannot weep, and I want nothing, and I cannot die. I am not like the others now, for no unicorn was ever born who could regret, but I do. I regret.”

But the unicorn had all the world in her eyes, all the world I’m never going to see, but it doesn’t matter, because now I have seen it, and it’s beautiful, and I was in there too.