Chapter 250: All this info is messing with me

"No. But we did know of its existence in theory."

Blake raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean? When did you discover about them?"

Myles’s hand stopped against Blake’s back. The change was subtle, but he noticed it.

’Hah! He isn’t avoiding the question because he doesn’t know the answer... this guy is deciding what to tell me and what to let out!’

Bitterly, he frowned a little, even if he expected this.

"They are connected to something much larger than AL-TECH and the government."

"T-that doesn’t exactly narrow it down... you’d be talking about anyone in the entire universe."

Myles looked at him in silence for a few seconds.

"There are records we found of hosts being moved between facilities. Most of them are incomplete, but we’ve found enough references to establish that they aren’t isolated cases."

Blake’s expression became more serious.

"So there are more of these things. How many, exactly?"

"We don’t know."

Blake stared at him. That answer was considerably scarier than a number!

"How long have they been existing for?"

"We aren’t sure of that, either. But it has been an idea since the first human experimentation. In the Darsena import, we’re sure that it’s a big scale transportation of bodies."

His eyes widened.

"WHAT?! Then there must be many of them... first generations are from ages ago, basically! What do you mean, bodies? Where are the even being transported and why?"

"It’s because other countries want hosts. What you saw that day, at a-exp, inside those tubes, were the humans compatible to become a host."

There was a brief silence. Blake glanced toward the entrance of the room.

He grabbed his own hair, lowering his head. He couldn’t wrap his head around the information Myles was revealing.

"So, we don’t know what hosts are made of, but every country in the world wants them for some reason you won’t tell me. And that is why this mass import of compatible corpses is happening? Is it even the first one to happen?"

Myles took Blake’s hands, slowly pulling them away from his hair.

"It is."

"And what are Alfred Hicth and Sylvan Nada going to do there?"

"They are involved in overseeing everything goes as planned."

Blake rubbed his face, and before ge could go any further with asking questions, the door opened.

Estelle entered first.

Alexis followed behind her, with Tania a few steps behind.

Alexis’s expression became slightly more serious.

"So you told him?"

"Some of it."

Blake immediately looked at Alexis.

"Stop asking him! You’re making me feel left out!"

"Ah?! Left out from what? I don’t care if you feel that way because you shouldn’t in the first place!"

Blake sighed.

"Everyone knows something except me, you would never understand my frustrations."

"Stop complaining!!"

Tania looked at Blake.

"We didn’t know enough to tell you anything useful."

Blake couldn’t argue with that, so he looked back at Myles.

’Alfred Hicth is going to die, huh... how will that even go down? Oh well, it’s not like they’ll include me in it any further, from the looks of it.’

The only question was how much information they could obtain before that happened.

Estelle straightened.

"Now, from the looks of it, it doesn’t seem like Alfred Hicth, or Sylvan Nada for that matter, are planning to refrain themselves from going"

Blake looked at her, sighing heavily.

"Considering all the work I did to discover that whole thing, I’m quite glad, honestly."

"Although, we are not sure where we will find them. But that isn’t an issue, it’s completely possible to work around that."

She reached toward the table and activated a display, a map appearing.

"The shipments are disguised as ordinary international transfers. Different companies, different routes and different schedules."

Blake stared at the map.

"But they all converge around Darsena, huh."

"Exactly."

Blake tilts his head.

’They were quite sly too, then... this isn’t even about AL-TECH anymore, it is about the entirety of this country!’

Blake sighed, sitting ok Myles’ lap again.

"So... who’s going?"

"Me," Alexis said immediately.

Blake wasn’t surprised.

Alexis’s physical strength was already well beyond normal human limits. More importantly, his legs were absurdly powerful. His entire fighting style revolved around them, making him one of the strongest close-range fighters among them.

"Tania as well," Myles said.

Blake glanced at her, surprised.

"Seriously? Will you be okay?"

Tania nodded.

"I’ll stay close to the route."

’But she isn’t physically strong... I mean she can communicate with things we can’t see but, that makes her weak like a human!’

That was one of the strangest things about her.

She was a Second Generation, yet physically she was almost completely ordinary.

Her connection to the fourth dimension was what made her different. Blake still didn’t fully understand what that meant.

Sometimes Tania could perceive things that shouldn’t have been visible from their position.

Sometimes she could interact with spaces that seemed to exist outside ordinary three-dimensional geometry.

And sometimes even she seemed uncertain about what she was seeing.

"I mean, I guess that makes sense. You could help locate Alfred Hicth and Sylvan..."

Estelle spoke next.

"I won’t be included physically."

Blake looked at her.

"You’re staying back? Really?!"

"I’m more useful that way."

Estelle tapped the side of her head.

"I’ll monitor everything from a distance."

That was Estelle’s strength.

Her mind worked faster than anyone else’s in the room.

She could process information, recognize patterns, track multiple variables, and coordinate people without becoming overwhelmed.

Her physical strength was impressive too, but that wasn’t why they needed her.

"If something changes," she continued, "I’ll know before the people inside do."

Blake nodded.

"And Zlatan?"

The room became slightly quieter.

Myles looked toward the other side of the room.

Zlatan was there, and Blake hadn’t noticed him enter.

He stood calmly with his arms folded, with a bright smile on his face.

Blake knew Zlatan was a Second Generation. He also knew he was physically powerful.nBeyond that, however, Blake didn’t know much.

Zlatan noticed him staring.

"What is it?"

"Nothing."

Blake looked away.

"Zlatan is going with Alexis and Tania."

Alexis nodded.

"That’s already been decided."

Blake frowned.

"What can you do? Somehow, we never spoke about that."

Zlatan smiled faintly.

"You’ve never asked, indeed. Your lack of interest is a bit hurtful My ability concerns the brain."

Blake raised an eyebrow.

"How? Like Tania?"

"I can suppress certain neurological responses."

"Like what?"

"Fear, pain." He continued calmly. "Panic. Aggression. Hesitation."

Blake stared at him.

"S-so you can control people?"

"No." Zlatan shook his head. "I can’t tell them what to do."

"Then what exactly do you suppress?"

"The reason they might not want to do it."

Blake went quiet. That was considerably unsettling, all things considered.

Zlatan continued.

"If someone is afraid, I can remove the fear. If someone is too injured to move, I can suppress their perception of pain. If someone is too angry to think clearly, I can reduce the neurological response."

Blake suddenly felt the need to cling to Myles more.

"That is quite useful, w-woah..."

"It is."

Zlatan’s expression remained almost unnaturally calm.

Blake had always found something strange about him, now he understood why.

Zlatan’s emotional responses had always seemed muted compared to other Second Generations.

All of their brains were different, but still they all expressed some kind of human vibe, or that’s what Blake could call it.

But Zlatan never showed any kind of particularly emotion, when it actually came down to it.

’Does interest even count... he shows even less emotions than Myles. Then again, Myles shows emotions to me specifically, so they’re kind of the same.’

Blake sighed.

"So you’re going to be the one who keeps everyone calm."

Zlatan tilted his head.

"Something like that."

Alexis laughed.

"He’s mostly useless. We don’t need that kind of help."

"That’s not something to be sad about, I guess..."

Myles looked at him.

"You’ll be there too."

Blake froze, pointing at himself.

"Me?"

"Yes."

"What am I doing?"

"Support."

Blake leaned back.

"Why? Can’t I just stay back?"

"We won’t make you fight. Mostly, you’ll stay with Tania. If something unpredictable happens, your stealth abilities could be used."

"At this point, it’d be better to fight...?"

"Your abilities are unpredictable."

Blake couldn’t argue with that.

He had become considerably stronger over the past few months, but there were still things about himself he didn’t fully understand.

Sometimes his abilities behaved differently from what he expected. Sometimes they seemed to activate before he consciously decided to use them.

And recently, the System has been turning on and off.

"I’ll take it, I guess."

Myles nodded.

For a moment, everyone was silent. Then Blake looked back toward Myles, there was still something bothering him.

The Host.

The creature.

The shipments.

AL-TECH.

The government.

They were all connected somehow, but Myles knew something else.

If the world destruction was inevitable, did that mean that the government wanted something so badly that death for the whole population sounded better in Myles’ ears?

’Maybe, the government also wants to destroy the world?’