Mobo Novels
She had a dream.
Long and complex, dark and noisy.
A group of panicked people, a bridge on the verge of collapse, a cracked and damaged ground, a series of cars falling into the sea…
Screams echoed in her ears, the smell of blood brushed past her nose. Death, holding a scythe high, was closing in step by step, and she heard her own heavy breathing from fear.
Run!
She climbed onto the roof of a car, running and leaping along the car’s spine without stopping.
Who would have thought that in the face of life and death, one could truly unleash infinite potential. She, who was usually bad at sports, had a day when she was so agile.
Faster, even faster! It’s going to be too late!
The reinforced concrete collapsed behind her, the iron chains and silver hooks broke in front of her. This was her race against death, she dared not look back, dared not hesitate, fearing to be buried in hell, becoming one of the flesh and blood flying everywhere.
Just then, the bridge collapsed with a loud bang.
The feeling of weightlessness came, she was startled, and then sank into the sea with everyone else.
Water rushed in from all directions, cold sealing her mouth and tongue, she reached out towards the blurred light source above, but it was futile, only getting further and further away from the sea surface.
Gradually, she couldn’t move. Her limbs gradually numbed, her consciousness blurred…
A few bubbles came out of her mouth, the last air in her lungs was completely squeezed out. As death approached, her thoughts were simple, she thought her life was indeed short, since she couldn’t die well, at least she could hope for a decent burial. She had no big wishes, only hoping that the rescue team could send her body back to her homeland after salvaging it, rather than burying her in a foreign land, otherwise, when Qingming Festival came, no one would burn paper for her, that would be too tragic.
Her eyelids slowly closed, in a daze, she bumped into a pair of golden vertical pupils, her fingertips touched a bit of warmth.
In an instant, light and shadow were colorful. She felt like she was back in her mother’s embrace, her brows relaxed, her lips curled up.
Perhaps it was an illusion, she heard a sentence in the pitch-black underwater.
[Forget your true name, abandon your human form, seal your memories, live like a beast until you…]
Until I what?
Can’t you finish the sentence, are you short of time?
She woke up.
Her mind was chaotic, her eyelids heavy as if weighed down by a thousand pounds, unable to open.
Fortunately, her consciousness gradually cleared, she felt her limbs, mobilized her reviving senses, groped for a while, only to realize that she was trapped in a narrow space, surrounded by sticky liquid.
Where is this?
Unable to turn over, unable to stretch, she could only struggle and twist with difficulty. She instinctively used her body to measure the size of the environment she was in, then used her bones to push and hit the ‘frame’ that trapped her.
In a daze, she thought she was locked in a ‘cage’, and this cage didn’t seem to be very sturdy.
Who likes the feeling of being trapped? She followed her nature, vigorously stretched her body, further expanded her size, scratched incessantly, trying to break the cage.
Probably because the commotion was not small, there was a noise outside the cage. Out of vigilance, she stopped moving.
Something is coming…
She quietly lurked, as if she had never moved. But after waiting for a while, the visitors outside the cage took no action, they did not touch, did not interfere, there was only silence.
A long ‘standoff’, she inexplicably felt a sense of security, convinced that the outsiders were harmless.
Thus, she tentatively tried to break the cage again, moving more vigorously. The cage began to shake wildly, and at the same time, there were bursts of surprised whispers from outside.
Close at hand, they spoke a language that felt familiar yet strange to her.
So strange, she always felt she should understand, but for some reason, she just couldn’t. They raised their voices, somewhat carried away, chattering and babbling, making her head hurt, and also stirring up her rare ferocity.
She suddenly raised her ‘hand’ and slapped forward, fiercely grabbing at the cage——
‘Congratulations, Henry, our second ‘asset’ is about to hatch.’
‘To be precise, it’s the second of the second generation of assets.’ The Chinese middle-aged man smiled gently, speaking in a humble tone but with no room for compromise, ‘It’s not time to celebrate yet, I must confirm it
is as perfect as its ‘sister’.’
He leaned close to the incubator, watching the shaking egg: ‘I think you can understand, Simon. They are not pure creations of nature, but miracles created by our human hands. Humans have won against nature once with their minds, and nature will win against humans countless times with accidents.’
‘Forgive me for not understanding, what is an ‘accident’?’
The Chinese man sighed, giving an explanation: ‘For technological creations, hatching is not the beginning of life, but can become the end of life. The first breath of air it takes, the first bacteria it contacts, the first piece of meat it eats, the first drop of water it drinks, all have the potential to be fatal. This is the so-called accident, a means for nature to maintain ecological balance.’
‘In history, they have long been extinct. We have made creatures that should not have appeared appear, do you think nature will let it go?’
As soon as he finished speaking, the eggshell shattered.
A silver-gray claw cut out from the inside, with egg fluid and fragments, digging the hole larger. Shortly after, the creature inside approached the light source, its eyelids trembled a few times, and finally opened its eyes.
Vertical pupils, yellow-brown. They looked like the eyes of a viper, cold and dangerous.
Caught off guard, they met its gaze. The vertical pupils slightly contracted, fixed on their ‘huge’ human figures, after a brief silence, the creature in the egg looked at its ‘hand’…
Hand?
No, this should not be called a hand, but an unconventional, sharp claw, unique to top predators, even though it is still relatively fragile, it can pierce through this seven-millimeter-thick eggshell.
The new life did not pause for too long, continuing to peel the shell. During this time, it did not roar or bare its teeth at people, its temper seemed better than the first one.
And when it crawled out mixed with egg fluid, revealing its full appearance, the onlookers immediately became excited.
This newborn dinosaur is a bit special.
Even though the same set of genes was used, the same method of editing was adopted, and no variables were added during the process, logically it should look extremely similar to the first one, like identical twins. But in reality, apart from their similar appearance, there are slight differences in details.
‘Yellow eyes, I remember the first one had red eyes.’
‘The skin color is also different, the first one was gray-white, this one is silver-gray, where exactly did it go wrong? Gene mutation?’
‘Quiet, it’s starting to breathe.’
Whether the newborn ‘asset’ can survive smoothly depends on whether it can adapt to the current natural environment, this is the first step, if it can’t even breathe, it can only be remade.
Fortunately, the new hatchling has a good constitution, after coughing out the egg fluid from its respiratory tract and lungs, it quickly adapted to breathing, without any rejection reaction.
Then, it tried to use its hind limbs to support its body, trembling to stand up in the slippery egg fluid, and fell down several times. It tried several times, self-taught to use its tail to maintain balance, and finally managed to stand.
But after standing, it didn’t move.
Perhaps afraid of slipping again, perhaps curious about itself, it stared intently at its hind limbs and front claws, trembling slightly all over.
After a long time, it used its front claws to ‘wipe’ the egg fluid off its face, as if tracing the outline of its face. Those yellow-brown vertical pupils lifted from bottom to top, tightly staring at the humans watching it, although it was a looking-up perspective, it gave a feeling of being looked down upon.
‘What is it looking at?’
‘Your carotid artery, buddy, it’s a carnivore.’
And the hatchling, whether stimulated by the sound or feeling some kind of threat, suddenly let out its first sharp roar from its throat. Short and powerful, like a warning bird call from the depths of the rainforest, with a hint of intimidation.
But humans would not understand the symbolism of this sound, what they understood was——‘asset’ has healthy lung function, good constitution, well-developed vocal cords, and a strong sense of aggression. As long as it is well raised, the research funding is not a problem, the gene project is bound to advance, and major awards are already in the bag…
So, they put on protective gear, opened the incubator, sealed the ‘asset’s’ mouth with a strap, then took it out to weigh, measure its length, and check its claws and teeth.
‘Length 11.02 inches, weight 6.17 pounds, with 17 teeth.’
‘No aggressive behavior, emotional state stable. Light perception normal, tracking ability normal.’
Data lines up, reports pages out. The noisy human voices, the ticking of instruments, the complex environment finally provoked the ‘asset’s’ instinctive resistance. But before its claws could break the strap, they quickly put it into the already prepared ecological box, and as the glass cover quickly closed, both humans and beasts seemed to be safe.
‘Give it a pound of meat.’
The feeding program automatically started, and a stone in the ecological box slowly sank, soon reappearing with a piece of fresh raw meat, still emitting a trace of blood smell.
Obviously, the smell of blood attracted the ‘asset’. The nature of a predator made it suddenly turn its head to lock onto the direction of the food, its vertical pupils excitedly narrowing into needles, but it still stayed in place, its hind limbs trembling slightly, as if in a fierce mental struggle between ‘want’ and ‘don’t want’.
‘Interesting.’ The Chinese man named Henry muttered to himself, ‘Is it strong vigilance? Compared to its ‘sister’, it seems more cautious.’
But how can caution resist instinct, it faithfully ran towards the food, devouring it.
‘Swallowing normal, stomach function normal…’
It seems that like its ‘sister’, it is a masterpiece of humans, a perfect gene creation, a proof of human victory over nature.
That night, humans began to celebrate, to revel.
She curled up in the dense vegetation of the ecological box, listening to the white noise of the water cycle, but had no sleepiness at all.
She didn’t remember who she was, where she came from or where she was going, nor did she remember what the occasional square characters in her mind meant. But she vaguely remembered that she was not like this now, with silver-gray skin, claws, and a tail, like a demon.
But, what is a ‘demon’?
She couldn’t understand their words, but she always felt familiar; she didn’t know who they were at all, but she inexplicably believed that she was one of them.
Yes, she should look like them, with soft skin, flat nails, no tail. Like them, lifting her neck, exposing the slightly pulsating blood vessels, completely defenseless. She could almost imagine the pleasure of biting through their throats, and the satisfaction of warm blood filling her empty stomach…
No!
She shivered, feeling horrified.
Why did she want to eat them? Why just thinking about it, this body would get excited? What exactly was wrong with her?