【Story One】 Main Text Complete
///
On the other side.
Biotech Division.
The atmosphere in the office area was tense, silent. Only faint footsteps and suppressed breathing could be heard.
Everyone held their breath, gathered around the three-dimensional holographic projection, nervously watching the deep blue image being projected.
When they saw Zhou Jiao slap Jiang Lian on the head, everyone’s scalp exploded, their hearts skipped a beat, and they were so nervous that they almost vomited on the spot.
They knew Jiang Lian liked Zhou Jiao, but to what extent he liked her, whether he was willing to give up destroying the world for her, they had no idea.
Moreover, even if Jiang Lian liked Zhou Jiao very much, liked her enough to give up destroying the world, whether he would fly into a rage after taking that slap was another matter.
“He’s” not human, after all. One cannot use human thinking patterns to speculate on his reactions.
Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, a massive and terrifying shadow continued to approach. The sky was like thick, dark black oil, seemingly about to pour down at any moment, enveloping everyone in an airtight shroud.
The atmosphere was perilous and urgent. Everyone held their breath, waiting for Jiang Lian’s reaction.
In the deep blue three-dimensional hologram, Jiang Lian seemed to pause for a moment. His brows furrowed slightly as he looked at the bloody hole in his chest.
The moment his heart was put back in place, the gushing blood stopped, and the wound automatically healed.
He coldly glanced at the healed wound, then lowered his head and said something in Zhou Jiao’s ear, his expression looking rather unpleasant.
Thank goodness, thank goodness, everyone thought. No rage, no frenzy.
Next, as long as Zhou Jiao kissed him and comforted him a little, everything should be fine…
In the next second, however, Zhou Jiao gave him another slap on the head, her expression also looking rather unpleasant.
She crossed her arms and jerked her chin toward the office building exterior—a very obvious commanding gesture.
The researchers in Biotech had conducted meticulous analyses and studies of Jiang Lian’s behavior. They knew that he harbored an innate sense of disdain and rejection toward humans.
This disdain was rooted in biological instinct and could not be reversed or eliminated.
Just like a wolf could never give up biting a sheep’s throat, Jiang Lian could never regard humans as equals.
Except for during his disguise period in the Special Bureau, at all other times, he couldn’t even be bothered to talk to humans. When giving orders, he used some kind of method that humans could not understand, directly influencing their subconscious.
If the company weren’t monitoring employees’ biological data in real time, they wouldn’t even be able to detect that their subconscious had been affected.
How could such a terrifying existence, one that held humans in contempt, possibly obey a human’s command after being slapped by one?
Gasps echoed throughout the office, and everyone’s faces turned pale.
Someone couldn’t help but curse at Zhou Jiao, thinking she was too full of herself. How dare she treat the supreme existence above all of humanity this way—had she never considered that her every action affected the survival of the entire human race?
But then they immediately remembered—she was a sociopath, lacking both a sense of responsibility and guilt.
If they had known that, in the future, the fate of all humanity would rest on a sociopath’s “sense of responsibility,” the company would never have initiated the “War Machine Project.”
Yes, the rumors circulating online were true.
To prepare for the ever-looming possibility of “corporate warfare,” while Biotech launched the “Genesis Project,” it had also launched the “War Machine Project”—randomly selecting certain couples using artificial reproductive technology and genetically modifying their embryos.
After growing up, these embryos had a high probability of becoming highly intelligent sociopaths, and a certain probability of becoming cold-blooded, emotionless serial killers.
No matter what, they would eventually enter the company, becoming agents, soldiers, assassins, snipers… serving this vast business empire.
If they had known that Zhou Jiao would one day develop a close relationship with a terrifying non-human entity, they would have absolutely programmed her to be a kind, gentle woman who loved life—rather than a sociopath who could kill without batting an eye.
For a moment, the atmosphere grew even more oppressive and tense.
Everyone was hoping for a miracle.
But almost everyone knew that a miracle was impossible—unless Jiang Lian truly fell in love with Zhou Jiao.
But how could a supreme existence possibly experience love for a human?
At that moment—
A miracle happened.
Jiang Lian’s expression was extremely unpleasant, yet he slowly, bit by bit, retracted his tentacles.
The tentacles that had covered the entire city were dissolving, shrinking, retreating—like a receding tide of black asphalt—flowing back into Jiang Lian’s tall, slender figure.
Throughout the entire process, his gaze remained chillingly cold, terrifying to the extreme, as if at any moment, he could release his infinitely multiplying tentacles again and suddenly overturn the entire city.
But—he didn’t.
Seconds passed. Jiang Lian had withdrawn all his tentacles.
The office was filled with the sound of relieved exhalations, yet no one dared to relax. They continued staring at the holographic image, waiting for Jiang Lian’s next move.
Jiang Lian turned around and looked at Zhou Jiao.
People couldn’t see his expression; they could only see him lift his thumb and lightly wipe his lips.
Then—Zhou Jiao smiled and hooked her finger at him.
The unspeakable supreme existence was thus summoned by her, almost impatiently pressing his lips onto hers.
People froze, unable to react before the holographic image suddenly disappeared.
—Jiang Lian’s obsessive and maddened possessiveness toward Zhou Jiao remained as extreme as ever.
As long as he did not want her to be seen, no electronic device could capture her image.
It was precisely because Zhou Jiao lacked guilt and responsibility that she disliked interfering with others’ fates.
This world was indeed filthy, corrupt, and utterly rotten—but there were still so many people living in it. She had no right to decide their destiny.
When the trolley approached, she would only turn and walk away, rather than pull the lever.
And yet, it was precisely this cold indifference unique to outsiders that ended up saving countless lives.
She, after all, was a war machine created for killing.
Zhou Jiao walked out of the office building and looked up at the sky, now restored to normal. Her heart was filled with mixed emotions.
If not for Jiang Lian forcing her to choose between “saving the world” and “destroying the world,” she might never have realized what kind of role she was truly playing.
She had always thought she was living with clarity—facing all her subtle desires openly, without pretense, without avoidance, and without a shred of shame.
It was only now that she realized—she had been avoiding her parents’ words all along:
“Become a good person.”
Before this, she believed that sociopaths would never have the possibility of becoming better.
Yet Jiang Lian awakened her humanity, forcing her to see herself clearly.
—She was willing to become a good person.
How strange. Falling in love with a monster did not make her completely degenerate into an anomaly. Instead, it helped her gradually become a normal person.
At this moment, Jiang Lian walked up behind her and embraced her from behind.
The compensation plan he had painstakingly thought up was rejected by her. His expression was gloomy and irritated—within a short period, it would be difficult for him to come up with another plan of similar brilliance.
But she allowed him to kiss her like a predator.
He very much wanted to refuse, to prove that he had already quit the bad habits of a predator. However, subtle movements could not deceive anyone.
—The moment Zhou Jiao said those words, his pupils suddenly dilated, his Adam’s apple moved heavily, and an endless surge of thirst spread like a flood.
She tilted her head slightly.
And he couldn’t restrain himself from kissing her.
His lips were still as cold as ever, yet his movements were so fervent they were terrifying, almost forcefully entwining with the tip of her tongue.
Zhou Jiao felt numbness spreading over her scalp from his kiss and somewhat regretted allowing him to kiss her like a predator—his tongue was a cold, slender, shapeless, sticky substance that could transform into any bizarre form, even extending countless cilia to sweep across the surface of her tongue.
This kiss was truly not very pleasant, but as his expression gradually softened, she felt that she could endure it a little longer.
More than ten minutes later, Zhou Jiao finally couldn’t bear it anymore. She grabbed his hair and forcefully yanked his head away. “Enough!”
Between their lips, a strand of semi-transparent mucus stretched and dripped.
Jiang Lian’s gaze darkened. He reached out and caught that strand of mucus.
A crack flashed across his fingertip.
His Adam’s apple rolled, and a distinct gulping sound echoed.
“…” Zhou Jiao’s eye twitched slightly. She thought to herself, As expected of him.
Although he had learned humanity’s most crucial trait—empathy—it did not change his non-human essence.
That was fine. She could already imagine how thrilling life would be in the future.
The only thing she was grateful for was that, apart from kissing, Jiang Lian knew nothing else.
His love for her was pure to the point of being terrifying. His desire for her was also pure to the point of being terrifying. Apart from a bottomless possessiveness, he had no worldly or filthy thoughts.
Zhou Jiao had no intention of teaching him.
She wanted to wait for him to discover it on his own—it would certainly be interesting when the time came.
A catastrophe that nearly destroyed the world vanished into nothingness.
Araki Isao collapsed into his office chair, exhaling heavily. After a moment, he tensed up again in anxiety—why had Jiang Lian suddenly developed the idea of destroying the world?
What exactly had triggered this impulse?
He had to find the reason so he could respond promptly to similar situations in the future.
Araki Isao gathered all the information he could collect, compiled and analyzed it, and finally deduced the reason why Jiang Lian wanted to annihilate the world.
But he would rather not have figured out this reason. If one day, Jiang Lian evolved the ability to read human thoughts, he would absolutely silence everyone who knew about this.
Who could have imagined that the fundamental reason why the supreme existence—unfathomable, indescribable, and beyond human comprehension—wanted to destroy the world was because someone had snatched away the clothes he intended to give his beloved, which led to her being framed and wronged, thus sparking the idea of annihilating the world?
“……”
Araki Isao thought expressionlessly, How am I supposed to face Jiang Lian after this?
If he accidentally laughed out loud, wouldn’t he just drop dead on the spot?
The only thing he could do for this supreme god was to erase all traces of this incident, leaving nothing behind, so that too many people wouldn’t know—lest Jiang Lian once again decided to destroy the world.
After being with Jiang Lian, he proposed to give the Biotech Company to Zhou Jiao.
Zhou Jiao declined without hesitation.
Was he joking? The executives at Biotech worked up to 18 hours a day. She would have to be crazy to want to be the CEO.
If it was just a symbolic transfer, it was even more unnecessary.
Even Jiang Lian, the moment he took over the company, had his background completely exposed—though what was uncovered was the original Jiang Lian’s identity.
Jiang Lian could directly influence human subconsciousness and even electromagnetic signals around him, yet such a terrifyingly powerful ability still couldn’t stop the public’s enthusiasm for gossip.
She had no desire to go through the same media exposure, having her entire life from childhood to the present dug up and reported. Even more so, she didn’t want her parents’ deaths to be unearthed and dissected all over again.
Her humanity was reviving, slowly sprouting branches and leaves. Seeing those images again would bring her an indescribable pain.
Jiang Lian no longer insisted on giving her the company and continued being a hands-off CEO.
Just as Zhou Jiao had expected, their life was extremely thrilling—every day, something happened that made her scalp tingle.
Her relationship with Jiang Lian was no longer like walking a tightrope, filled with constant tension and excitement.
Because now, her nerves had become the tightrope itself.
However, she thoroughly enjoyed the shivering sensation of excitement. To her, it was a delightful surprise.
Until one day, she received an overwhelmingly huge surprise—
That day, after finishing work, she went home (the former residence of the original CEO of Biotech, Fujiwara Osamu—she still had no idea where that unlucky guy had been thrown by Jiang Lian).
The moment she opened the door, she was completely stunned.
The living room was crawling with countless wriggling, slick, grotesque black-red tentacles, exuding a damp and chilling aura.
For a few seconds, she even thought she had opened the fridge door by mistake.
The grand and luxurious villa seemed to have turned into a horrifying incubator, covered with layers upon layers of pulsating flesh-like membranes, expanding upward at an extremely slow pace, accompanied by strange buzzing and heartbeat-like sounds.
It looked like the nest of some kind of reptilian monster, yet also like a terrifying abyss opening its blood-soaked jaws toward humanity.
The corner of Zhou Jiao’s mouth twitched as she turned around and shut the door.
“Jiang Lian, what the hell are you doing now?”
Despite the terrifying transformation of the surroundings, Jiang Lian himself sat quietly on the sofa.
One hand propped against his forehead, eyes half-narrowed, his expression carried a mix of dissatisfaction and relief as he gazed at the television screen not far away.
“I’ve figured out how to compensate you.”
Zhou Jiao: “?”
Jiang Lian turned his head to look at her, his gaze flashing with both a male’s instinctive desire to flaunt and a brief, venomous hint of jealousy—like that of a serpent.
After a long pause, he slowly said,
“We’ve been together for so long. You should understand my abilities very well by now—
No matter how many children you want, I can make it happen.
Even if you want an entire planet filled with your descendants, I can make it happen.”
Zhou Jiao felt as if a tentacle had burrowed into her face, causing it to start twitching uncontrollably.
She knew she couldn’t use human logic to speculate on Jiang Lian’s thoughts. She also really wanted to put on a touched expression to respond to his pure-hearted way of offering compensation.
But in the end, she couldn’t hold it in. Through clenched teeth, she coldly spat out two words:
“…Get lost!”
(First Story · Main Text Complete)