Falling into the Abyss

After the antimatter was formed, Ethan’s mission came to an end. Merely 100 grams of antimatter was enough for the Project Zero research team to stay busy for two or three months carrying out various antimatter-based research. Whether it was used for the military, pharmaceuticals, or space travel technology, the Earth Union would be the first planetary state to break through the bottleneck of mass production of antimatter. The excited researchers were convinced that once this news spread, all those hypocritical states who boasted how superior their liberal democracies were would be gasping and shivering in fear.

Although the good news couldn’t be released to the public, it was said that President Appiah was very satisfied with their achievements and allocated a large amount of research funds. Bruno gave Ethan 10 moral value points in advance, and a spaceship was sent to ferry him back to the Forbidden City.

Ethan leaned against his seat wearily on the aircraft, and he forced himself to stay awake. These days, his dreams were chaotic and crowded. Sometimes he woke up at night, feeling as tired as though he had never slept. The most terrifying thing was that he didn’t know which dream he would enter. It was not just the ancient lost city and endless quiet sea he originally entered. Sometimes he even dreamt of his own home. It was just that his home had completely changed into something else.

In that dream, he walked along the high-class residential street leading to his home. The sky was bluish-gray, the whole street was destroyed, and no one could be seen. Weeds sprang out of the connected courtyards and raged on the initially straight and tidy roads. There were many uplifted cracks on the road, and more than half of the houses had collapsed. Both the plants and ruins were covered with a layer of black sap. If you looked carefully, you would find that thin, thread-like mold gushed out of the surface of those substances, as though they were alive. All of the plants infected with this sap were withering, giving off a putrid stench. The metal or cement making up the houses were also covered with black blisters, causing them to appear a little distorted.

The smell of death was in the air, and Ethan felt like he was a part of it. With every step he took, he wanted to turn around and run away, but his body was out of his control.

His family’s courtyard was also deserted like the other courtyards. The tawny daylilies became a pool of mud, and only some traces of their roots could be seen. The sap-like substance covered the walls and doors of the courtyard like moss. If you reached out and touched it, you would feel a strange tingling. The cobblestone path was now out of sight, and rotting plant leaves covered everything like a carpet. The concrete steps leading to the gate somehow became very fragile. As soon as he stepped on it, the gate shattered into a pile of gravel. There was thick rust on the door handle, which looked like the color of blood. His hand grabbed on it, and the piercing cold flowed deep into his bones.

He was afraid, unsure of what he would see behind the door.

On lucky nights, he would wake up here, but on other nights, he opened the door.

His home carried all his memories from his birth until when he turned 18. It was the place he could return no matter how many painful things had occurred to him, but it had now turned into a place of decay, a scene that would only appear in horror movies. The light yellow floral wallpaper originally selected by his mother had completely rotted and peeled off, leaving only a few wrinkled pieces still hanging on the exposed wall. The clean wooden floor had also rotted, and the black sap was everywhere. It was even a bit slippery when he walked on the floor. The group photo on the shoe cabinet on the porch was broken. His trembling hands picked up the photo from the debris. He wiped the oil stains off of it, only to find that everyone in the photo was missing their facial features. As though he was scalded, he quickly threw away the photo and stumbled into the living room and kitchen. All of the dishes were broken and scattered on the ground, while the refrigerator was full of food covered with a thick layer of mold. The cotton in the sofa escaped from the seams and was covered with black spots of insect eggs.

“Mom!” Ethan cried out.

No one answered him.

The stairs leading to the second floor creaked as though they would break at any time. Holding onto the greasy handrail, he went upstairs carefully. The pictures hanging on the wall were all the same as the ones on the shoe cabinet. They were covered with thick black oil stains, but Ethan didn’t dare to clean them again to see what was underneath. In addition, the paper on some decorative paintings had rotted too much for him to see what the original painting was.

Just then, he heard the sound of the cello, the prelude to Bach’s Cello Suits that he was most familiar with.

His steps stopped for a moment before they sped up. He rushed up the second floor, his heart beating wildly in his chest.

“Mom?” Ethan yelled again, but his voice was much lower. All of a sudden, he grew a little timid. He was as shy as he was when he knew that he had disturbed his mother’s cello practice.

For no reason, he felt that he had caused this.

The sound of the cello stopped suddenly, and the figure didn’t move anymore. For a moment, Ethan thought that all the sounds he had just heard were hallucinations. He swallowed his saliva, before slowly walking to the front of the chair……

There was a dry corpse sitting in the wheelchair!

Ethan covered his mouth with his hand and suddenly felt that it was hard to breathe. The dry corpse was still wearing his mother’s favorite red dress while the cello leaned against her shriveled thigh. Her other leg was lying on the ground and had lost all forms of connection with her body.

“It’s all your fault!!!” A familiar yell full of hatred burst in his ears. Ethan turned around and saw his father’s pale face. However, in place of his eyes were only two black holes. His jaw began to droop, and his mouth opened so wide that the corners of his mouth were torn open, and a heartrending cry came out from his throat, “It’s all your fault!!!”

After waking up from such a dream, Ethan didn’t dare to sleep anymore. He gulped coffee down and read one book after another and then watched movies. He was tired. In such a trance, he even managed to press the wrong contact point several times while assisting in the experiment.

The suspension of the experiment was also due to consideration for his mental and physical condition. After all, he was the only one who could activate two gestures on the God of Order’s egg at the same time without being ordered.

Probably afraid that Ethan would die in another mission, Dr. Bruno also sent a formal application for special personnel protection to the Forbidden City Council using a top-secret form. That was to say, he hoped that Ethan would not be sent by the Forbidden City to carry out any mission that may endanger his personal safety. They had to ensure his safety in the Forbidden City.

Ethan always felt like he was reaching his limit, but he didn’t know what the limit was for and what would happen after reaching it. He missed Tanisiel very much. Every time he woke up from a nightmare, he hoped to feel Tanisiel’s arm around his shoulders. Every time his hope was shattered, he would feel even colder.

.

After being sent back to the Forbidden City, unexpectedly, he was not brought back to the east area. He was completely flustered when he found out that he was being driven to the west area.

“Hey! Where are you taking me?” Ethan called to the guard who was leading the way.

The guard looked back and gave him a deep smile. “The chief security officer ordered that you be transferred to the west area.”

Ethan frowned. “Chief security officer? Is Schneider back?”

“Ah, what are you talking about. How could Schneider come back?” The guard seemed to have heard a joke and laughed. “Of course it’s the new chief security officer, Maxim Ivanovic Vasilev!”

Ethan had guessed that this would happen sooner or later after Schneider was arrested, but after hearing this, he still felt that the world in front of him suddenly darkened.

The delicate balance and false sense of calm and stability that the Forbidden City possessed were completely broken.

Ethan was thrown into the dormitory of a fierce-looking Alpha. Unfortunately, this Alpha was Tito, who had previously attached himself to Typhoeus.

When Ethan saw Tito’s cruel, malicious sneer, he knew it was arranged by Gray Fur. Previously, Samuel robbed Typhoeus from Tito, but it was extremely humiliating for him to have been hoodwinked by his bitch. Tito never had a chance to exact revenge. Now that he, Samuel’s “ex-boyfriend,” was thrown here, he was afraid it boded ill rather than well.

Ethan swallowed and stepped backward, but the guard pushed him back. The guard had the expression that he was looking at a good show and said with a bad smile, “I hope you’ll love each other.” Then, he closed the door and left. Ethan rushed to open the door, but just as he moved, another powerful force pressed him against the door, and the other sniffed around his neck.

“Tito.” Ethan tried to keep calm. “Listen, I’m sorry about you and Samuel.”

“Sorry? Of course you are.” Tito gritted his teeth and said into his ear, “You and that Omega bitch Samuel had fun tricking me, didn’t you?”

Ethan’s heart cooled as soon as he heard it. It seemed that Samuel’s gender was also exposed. He didn’t know where Samuel was now……or if he was in any danger……

However, now he should worry more about himself.

“We weren’t targeting you…… Ah!” Without warning, Tito banged his head against the door before grabbing him by his hair and throwing him across the room. Before he could catch his breath, he kicked him in the stomach.

Ethan felt his internal organs churn, and he tasted blood in his mouth. He curled up his tired body to stop the fury of fists and feet raining down on his abdomen. The opponent’s strength was beyond him. He actually lifted him up like a chicken and punched him in the face.

In a state of confusion, Ethan was beaten up. He didn’t know where his glasses flew off to. It was a miracle that he didn’t faint.

“You should be glad that I’m not interested in a dry Beta like you.” Tito squatted down, showing a bloodthirsty smile as he said, “But I seem to have a lot of hungry people who are not picky about food and probably would like to use your ass.”

Ethan’s body ached everywhere, and both fear and anger seemed to burn throughout his body. He almost considered whether to release the tentacles at the back of his neck to kill the violent Alpha in front of him. Still, he knew that once he gave up his self-control, both the Forbidden City and the Earth Union would know what kind of monster he had become. He would be quarantined by the Earth Union right away.

That would be too troublesome.

Therefore, he endured the pain and reached out to wipe the nosebleed that was devastating his face, before raising his gaze to look at Tito’s fleshy face.

Tito was slightly surprised. He thought that this Beta, who had been disguised as an Omega, must be a pushover, and he didn’t expect that the other party would dare to look him in the eyes after being beaten. He didn’t know why, but the sight of his green eyes made him feel as though the hairs on his back had stood up.

“What the hell are you looking at?” Tito got angry and punched him in the face again.

Ethan’s head swung to the side, and one of his eyes began to swell. Still, he wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and looked at Tito calmly. “What do you want me to do for you to calm down? I’ll do anything except be your subordinate’s bitch.”

“Ha! Are you haggling with me?” Tito pinched Ethan’s swollen face. “Don’t you know you’re in my hands now?”

“I’m afraid not.” Ethan’s speech grew a bit unclear after his cheek was squeezed. “I’m key personnel in the government’s top-secret plans. If I have guessed correctly, the Forbidden City Council should have informed Vasilev to protect my personal safety. Although Vasiliev hates me and brought me to you, he would not dare to disobey the imperial edict from the Forbidden City Council. He should have told you not to ‘break me down.’”

Tito’s expression became more ferocious, almost like he was showing his sharp teeth to Ethan like a beast. Thus, Ethan knew he was right.

“If you try to force me, I have many ways to kill myself or cripple myself to the point where you wouldn’t be able to follow his instructions,” Ethan said with a grin. His twisted smile appeared a little dark. “Seriously, at this point, I don’t mind being raped, but I don’t know if you would mind being treated as a thorn in Gray Fur’s eye, like my present predicament?”

The author has something to say:

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival, everyone ~ ~ ~ I really want to eat at the Mid-Autumn Festival!!!