The First Order

“We came from the Pyro Company’s Lab 39. Prior to The Cataclysm, the laboratory had been researching various kinds of cancer treatments. But their drugs were the disapproved kind, so only those who were on the verge of death dared to try it,” the Experimental said slowly.Old Li wished he could memorize every word the Experimental was saying because the information given was way too important. Any missing bits could lead to a mistake later on.

In addition, what the Experimentals did not know was that the Riders were also searching for that secret laboratory of the Pyro Company. The person they were looking for was also in there.

However, too much information had gone missing after the Cataclysm. As the founder of the Riders had also died in that event, not even the Pyro Company and the Qinghe Group knew the whereabouts of the Qinghe Group’s heir. All that the founder left behind was a message saying that his son must still be alive.

This matter became an obsession to the Riders. As long as they could not find that child, they would not be at peace even in death.

Before Old Li’s master passed away, he only left one instruction for him: Find the Rider’s heir.

Now that the Experimental was saying this, Old Li’s heart suddenly started pounding. He wondered if the Riders and the Experimentals were actually looking for the same person.

Even if that weren’t the case, c-could that Rider’s heir have also turned into an Experimental? Or could he be the Experimental right in front of him?

Old Li probed, “Since you’ve gotten back your sapience, what did you used to do?”

“Me?” The Experimental smiled. “I was the heir of some corporation.”

Old Li was stunned. “Is it Qinghe?”

He was about to go crazy. The descendant of the original Rider had actually become an Experimental? How was he going to explain this to the other Riders?

However, the Experimental shook its head and said in a hoarse voice, “I’m from the Li Consortium, a corporation from before the Cataclysm. You’ve probably never even heard of it before.”

Old Li was so pleasantly surprised he was about to burst into tears. Everything was fine as long as the person they were looking for wasn’t this Experimental before him!

Wait a minute, then could the Qinghe heir really be one of the Experimentals?

At the thought of this, he started feeling conflicted again.

The Experimental looked at Old Li and said gloomily, “There were only several hundred people in that laboratory, and they came from all over the world. Everyone spent a lot of money to get the Pyro Company to treat those of us who were about to die. But what the Pyro Company didn’t tell us was that their research carried a high risk, and even they themselves were not confident of curing our diseases.

“It would’ve been fine if I just died, but they actually turned me into this inhuman.” The Experimental sneered and said, “I heard the Pyro Company’s still doing great now, and that’s really disappointing.”

Puzzled, Old Li asked, “So you want us to capture the Pyro Company’s people for you to take revenge on?”

“No.” The Experimental shook its head. “The person I want you to find is someone like me, a test subject. However, his illness was fully cured.”

“Even if he was cured, how could he still be alive after 200 years? Even if he had a long life, he would’ve already died of old age,” Old Li said curiously.

The Experimental asked, “Am I dead? Adding up the time that’s passed, I’m probably over 200 years old as well.”

“You mean you’ve obtained immortality?!” Old Li was shocked again. He felt the information he was getting today would be enough to shock him for an entire year.

The Experimental sneered. “You’ll have to ask the Pyro Company about that. They were the ones who turned us into these carriers of cancer cells. If cancer cells are immortal, then we’re immortal too.”

“Then the person you’re looking for…” Old Li gulped. Even though he was very experienced and knowledgeable, he had never heard of such a thing before.

The Experimental said, “He should have also escaped from the laboratory not too long ago. A few years ago, during an earthquake, a crack appeared in the laboratory we were in. All the patients who were locked up inside started to wake up, but the Pyro Company had chained us up before The Cataclysm to prevent us from escaping. As a result, we were trapped in there for a very long time. But the person who escaped was different. As the only one who was truly cured, he did not get chained.

“After the crack appeared, he also woke up from his slumber. I roared to him in hopes that he could bring us to see the light of day again, but I only heard his footsteps fall silent.” The Experimental’s voice became heavier. “He’s different from us. According to the Pyro Company, he looks no different from a normal human on the surface. Only when he’s tested will it be discovered that the cell nuclei in him are all heterokaryotic. Just, the heterokaryotic cells are uniformly divided in him. The Pyro Company even described such cell structures as a work of art.”

Old Li felt his scalp go numb. “Can he still be considered human?”

The Experimental gave a strange smile and said, “Of course! The Pyro Company identifies him as more powerful… a Homo novus, a Neo-Human.”

“So why do you want us to help you find him?” Old Li asked.

“So we can find a way to cure ourselves, of course!” the Experimental roared. After it fell into this state, it became extremely enraged. “Find him and hand him over to me. As long as I can find a way to cure us, we’ll never step into the Central Plains again. This is a very good deal. If you can’t find him, I’ll be sure to turn the Central Plains into my kingdom!”

Old Li felt it was already considering itself a king.

“But you’ll have to give me some clues on where to start.” Old Li said, “Just knowing that his cells are all heterokaryotic doesn’t help, I can’t possibly drag over everyone in the world and test them, or biopsy them to observe their cells under the microscope, right? This wouldn’t work, and that wouldn’t work either….”

The Experimental said angrily, “I don’t have time to chat with you. Just go and find him. There aren’t any clues here, but he definitely won’t be average upon stepping back into the human world. Maybe you can ask the Qing Consortium what clues they have. If you can’t find him in seven days, I’ll slaughter the entire city. No one in that stronghold will survive.”

Throughout, the Experimental did not give Old Li a chance to get close enough to decapitate it. And Old Li had also given up on the idea of decapitating it. The influx of information he received was too heavy. He had to hurry back to the stronghold and discuss their next step with the others.

Furthermore, he had to ask the Pyro Company’s headquarters to see if they had any information regarding this matter.

They had always been like headless flies as they went to the various laboratory sites with the Pyro Company, only to never discover any traces of that Rider’s heir in any of them.

Due to The Cataclysm, the Pyro Company had lost a great deal of precious information. Not even one in ten of their researchers remained, and it was already fortunate that four or five out of a thousand researchers managed to survive The Cataclysm. As for the Riders, they had also lost all pictures of the heir due to The Cataclysm. All these years, they could only use their words to describe that person’s looks: Considered handsome…

As if they could fucking find him based on that!

They knew the descendant of the Rider was named Ren Xiaobei. If they could locate Laboratory 39, they might just find the list of the laboratory staff at that time!