Child of Destiny

...…

On the airship deck, Alice began to chat with Uno, which was very unlike her. It was completely different from what she was supposed to be and her halo as an idol from the real world could not be seen immediately.

She had never run out of topic since she had never been this talkative before. The things that she wanted to share with others were now being shared with this person despite Uno not saying anything.

But since Uno kept on ignoring her, she did not know whether she was boring to talk with, or this guy just had a heart of stone instead.

After talking for a while, Alice stopped for a moment as a certain thought crossed her mind. She then smiled before she stopped talking and rested her throat for a moment.

Peace had returned to the deck once again when she stopped talking. Aside from the sounds of the blowing wind resonating with the barrier of the airship and the chirping of the birds, nothing else could be heard.

When Uno felt that Alice had given up at last and he could now return to his peaceful time, he suddenly heard a humming sound from behind.

When he turned his head and looked at her, he saw that she was now back to her standing position and holding onto the railings of the deck, humming a song.

Uno stared at her for a moment until she started singing one of her songs. Her voice quickly pierced through the peacefulness of the deck, enveloping everything with each word she sang. But despite 'breaking' the peace, another sense of 'peace' filled the air along with the emotions that were being carried by each verse she sang.

It was peaceful. It was also different from how she usually sang her songs during her concerts and other events.

Shin had criticized her for not having that much emotion when she was singing despite her beautiful and angelic voice. She could not accept it at first, but during her rehearsal along with the other members of the One Day Dairy, she realized her shortcomings and discovered that she still had a lot of things to learn.

With this, she developed a new style of singing after learning from Shin. It was more mature than her previous one as she now had more precise control over her voice and a variety of techniques.

Uno watched her for a couple of moments before turning his attention back to the horizon. Despite his indifference, he still let her do what she wanted and listened to her singing.

"Tsk! I just told her to stop wasting her time with useless things," he clicked his tongue, complaining.

Alice was able to hear his words despite him saying them in a low voice, but she ignored them as she became more immersed in her singing.

***

Real World, Dark Continent

In one of the most dangerous and unexplored areas within the continent, there was a massive underground city hidden under a dark forest.

This city possessed a very advanced technology that was not much inferior compared to the Sun-Moon Continent, which was said to be the most advanced place in the world and possessed the best technology out there.

Of course, there were still a few places that could also be labeled as the haven of researchers and scientists just as the World Researcher Center, World Gaming Organization, and such. They just happened to be an independent faction or ruled by a certain corporation, which was why not many were aware of this fact.

This underground city was one of the true main bases of the Black Serpent Mafia. It was also the place meant for them to develop their technology and where they sent all the research materials that they had gathered around the world.

Currently, in one of the rooms, there was a man in a laboratory gown standing in front of a huge cylindrical glass capsule. Within this capsule, a person was currently submerged in a special liquid made from a variety of herbs and chemical solutions.

"How is it?" another person entered the room, who was also wearing a laboratory gown.

This person had an ordinary look that could be seen anywhere in the streets, but he carried a mysterious air that made his current appearance look nothing but a disguise.

"You're here, Professor Asrin," said the other researcher from earlier, who was also wearing a pair of square glasses.

He was holding a tablet in his hand, which showed a bunch of data that represented the readings of the vitals and other parameters of the person within the glass.

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"You can stop with the formality, Luka. We are not colleagues here," said the professor, who just entered.

"You mean to say fellow slaves of the organization," said Luka with a bitter smile.

"There is nothing we can do. We all have been captured by the Black Serpent Mafia during that incident. People have most likely forgotten about us already, thinking that we all have died during the plane crash," said Professor Asrin.

"We can neither leave this place nor contact people from the outside. Other than doing these immoral research projects they have given us, we can't do anything else," complained Luka.

Professor Asrin patted his shoulders and comforted him. "At least we are not killed like the rest. As long as we are useful to them and do our job right, they can do nothing to use."

"Moreover, we are also getting a proper meal at the very least. It is much better compared to those guys who have become the real slaves of the organizations," he added before turning his attention to the current subject of their project.

"Is this the man that we have to look after?" he asked before turning his head toward the monitor right beside the glass capsule and reading the parameters that were being displayed.

Luka nodded as he replied. "That is right. This person was brought here by that mummy and told us to do the usual tests."

He then frowned deeply as he added. "I don't know where they have found this person, but I found something strange in his body."

Professor Asrin raised his brows as his interest was piqued in the process. "Is that so? What is it?"

Luka handed the tablet that he was holding to the professor and continued. "If we look on the surface, we can't find anything wrong with him. He is very normal through and through."

"Aside from him having a few mutations due to his practice of being a Demonic Practitioner, there is nothing wrong with him."

"But here is where he becomes special. Other than having a perfect vessel for his Demonic Powers, he also possessed a great affinity for Mentalism."

The professor thought for a moment before asking. "He can be a dual practitioner and happens to have an affinity for both disciplines. This is nothing compared to our other subjects."

Luka nodded his head as he explained further. "That is also what I thought at first. But professor-… take a look at this."

After a brief pause, as he arranged the data displayed on the screen of the tablet, he quickly continued. "When this person was first brought here, he was pretty much alive-… or more likely, he was only sleeping."

"But as he spends more time in the state of suspended animation, his body is slowly deteriorating as if he was in the middle of being decayed."

"The more I look at it, the more confused I become. That is when I tried a few more tests and discovered something that stunned me."

He paused for another time as displayed more data from another screen. "That is when I realized that this body of a Demonic Practitioner doesn't have a demonic core. The entire body itself is made of mere flesh that has been grown by Demonic Powers and Mental Energy."

"It is a perfect clone that followed the principles of Artificial Cell Construction, Self Mutation, Demonic Regeneration, and Mentalism Construct!"

Reaching this point, Luka seemed to have forgotten that they were slave researchers of this place and he became excited as he continued to explain. "This technology is something that we have been researching for a long time! Even if it is not a perfect product, it is still way advanced compared to our discoveries!"

The professor became immersed in reading the data displayed on the screens as he also found it quite intriguing. He did not know which expert had created such a cloning technique, but it was without a doubt ahead of their current researchers.

Out of the people he knew within their field, he could only think of three people who could potentially achieve such a feat.

But even then, there was only a single person among them who had succeeded and created something similar.

It was the person who was said to have created the 'First Vessel' or known to others as the 'Perfect Vessel'.

But even that person was supposedly an ordinary researcher as he had never been exposed to any of the mentioned techniques aside from the artificial ones and scientific projects. He never had practiced any kind of discipline.

Moreover, he supposedly had died a long time ago.

"Is there another person who has succeeded at creating an artificial life?" mumbled the professor as he felt they had discovered something they should not have.

...…