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| Descend from the Stars (STARS) |
Three days later, at the monthly work meeting, all team leaders not currently on missions gathered in Pangu's top-floor conference room. Xu Rongchuan, because his right arm was in a cast, massaged his throbbing temples with his left hand as he listened to the heated debate over the fate of that creature.
Team One's leader Tang Sumu was still inside the Containment Unit, while Team Four's leader Chen Lian had been away on a classified mission in Country F for three months and hadn't returned. Only four team leaders were present today.
Seated to Xu Rongchuan's left was Team Five's leader Lin Banxia. Captain Lin showed little interest in today's agenda, slowly smoking a cigarette held between the fingers of his mechanical arm. The smoke entered through human nostrils, circulated through mechanical lungs, and was exhaled unchanged from his mouth. In two hours of meeting time, Xu Rongchuan had already seen him produce six different smoke rings—the latest being a rather girlish bowtie pattern.
Lin Banxia and Xu Rongchuan were old acquaintances. When Xu Rongchuan had first been selected for special forces, Lin Banxia had been his instructor. Later, after hearing Lin Banxia had suffered severe injuries during a mission and disappeared from training grounds, they didn't meet again until years later when Xu Rongchuan joined Pangu—only to discover Instructor Lin had become a cyborg.
Apart from his head and vital organs, the rest of Lin Banxia's body had been replaced by machinery. The sophistication of these mechanical parts far exceeded current technological capabilities—they were things that had grown from his body after successfully "sacrificing" a pair of bizarre robots excavated from underground.
To Xu Rongchuan's right sat Team Three's leader Wen Shu. Wen Shu coiled in his specially designed wooden chair—though it should technically be "her," the current Wen Shu had no gender characteristics and preferred masculine pronouns. His serpent tail that were covered in hard scales, wound around the chair in elegant loops, gleaming beautifully under the fluorescent lights.
Wen Shu had once been Team Three's deputy leader until being swallowed by a mutated python during a mission. Everyone assumed she had died—compensation had even been sent to her family—until a month later when she unexpectedly returned to Pangu dragging a long serpent's tail behind her.
His beautiful face turned toward Xu Rongchuan, golden vertical pupils gazing affectionately as his tail occasionally brushed against Xu Rongchuan's ankle. His voice carried an indescribable charm that could make any ordinary person weak in the knees: "Rongchuan, Xiao Bai is calling you."
Long immune to Wen Shu's constant flirtations, Xu Rongchuan blinked. "Huh?" He looked up to meet the eyes of Team Two's leader Bai Xuanming.
Bai Xuanming appeared the youngest here—under 170cm tall with a face that looked barely eighteen, yet always wore an expression of solemn maturity. Now he looked seriously at Xu Rongchuan before repeating his question: "Captain Xu, what's your opinion?"
As the words fell, all eyes turned to Xu Rongchuan—including Du Ruo, who had been assessing the creature's metrics.
Xu Rongchuan looked at the massive projection screen at the front of the room, displaying the creature's face—a face identical to his younger brother's.
"I object," he said.
Du Ruo was the first to stand. "Reason?"
Xu Rongchuan slowly raised an eyebrow, lifting his fractured right hand with an unmistakably unkind tone: "Old Du, have you fried your brain in the lab? The three known ways humans can become anomalous are all represented in this conference room right now. Captain Tang and Bai Xuanming—natural-born Superhumans; Captain Wen, merged with an Anomalous Object through consumption; Captain Lin, granted power through sacrificial devotion. But that creature—it isn't any of those. It's a complete and utter monster, with not the slightest connection to 'humanity.' What makes you think it would side with humans? Just because it disguises itself as one?"
Du Ruo seemed to have more to say, but Xu Rongchuan continued: "None of you have seen its true monstrous form—only I have. I swear on my position as Sixth Division captain that it's more dangerous than all of us combined. Just one glance at its fully incubated form made my eyes bleed and knocked me unconscious. I absolutely oppose its inclusion in Pangu."
Bai Xuanming asked, "What do you propose we do with it, then?"
Xu Rongchuan hesitated for two seconds before uttering two words: "Destroy it."
The conference room fell silent. Instead of responding directly, Du Ruo pulled up a PowerPoint presentation.
Standing at the front of the room, his expression grave, he seemed to have something else to discuss before deciding the creature's fate. "Since we're rarely all together, it's been two months since our last regular meeting. Today, I’ll take this opportunity to share some new findings."
Lin Banxia, who had shown little interest until now, finally stubbed out his cigarette and sat up straight. Wen Shu also perked up, resting his chin on his hand.
"As you know, everything began with a deep-sea research project in Country A," Du Ruo began, his introduction stretching far back, suggesting a lengthy preamble. "They excavated what appeared to be remnants of an unknown intelligent civilization from the Mariana Trench and attempted to retrieve a stone pillar engraved with six Pupil-less Eyes. The moment the pillar was disturbed, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake erupted from the trench, devastating the entire Pacific Ocean. The ruins—along with all of Country A's researchers—were buried, triggering months of geological disasters and forming a massive whirlpool deep in the trench. Even now, with humanity's growing understanding of the esoteric, no nation has successfully approached it."
"After that earthquake, an incomprehensible force of mystery quietly awakened worldwide. Countless plants and animals underwent terrifying mutations, and soon, even humans began exhibiting biological anomalies beyond explanation. To prevent the collapse of societal order, the Pangu Project Group—that is, us—was established five years ago as our nation's official esoteric organization. Thanks to the relentless efforts and sacrifices of Superhumans, including those present here, we've maintained social stability at a level unmatched by most of the world."
Xu Rongchuan, puzzled by this sudden history lesson, interjected with a friendly correction: "For the record, I'm just an ordinary person here."
Du Ruo gave him a silent glance, ignoring him, and continued, "We've always believed the root of the mutations stemmed from the great earthquake, from the depths beneath the Mariana Trench. Some think radiation changes triggered by the earthquake caused the twisted evolution of flora and fauna, while others believe an unspeakable creature slumbered beneath, awakened by the quake... Various hypotheses, along with new forms of faith, have spread worldwide. Although Pangu doesn't endorse any particular belief as official, we leaned toward the subterranean hypothesis—until a discovery a month and a half ago overturned all our theories."
Du Ruo paused for a few seconds. The meeting room fell silent, even Wen Shu's expression turning grave.
"Using the mechanical cells isolated from Captain Lin's body, we cloned and modified a new type of robot. For the first time in five years, it successfully infiltrated the trench's vortex. Though only the surface layer, it yielded significant findings."
"That ruin wasn't destroyed by the earthquake. Most of it remains intact. The footage our robot transmitted included a prophecy carved into the mural."
"A prophecy about the end of the world."
The PowerPoint switched, and the entire wall screen began playing a dim video.
The camera shook violently with the turbulent currents. No matter how much light was projected, the darkness there remained like a bottomless abyss. For over thirty seconds, nothing was visible. Finally, the camera seemed close enough to capture a faint glimpse.
It was too dark—too dark to discern what was being filmed. Yet, everyone in the room shared the same thought:
It was something too grand, too divine, something not of this world.
The room was dead silent. All eyes followed the camera's movement. Judging by the speed and duration, this was a mural over a kilometer long, carved into the deepest part of the ocean floor, every detail vivid and lifelike.
Xu Rongchuan saw cities, broken pillars, enormous Pupil-less Eyes, six grotesquely shaped monsters, disasters...
Suddenly, the screen went black.
Du Ruo closed the video and returned to the PowerPoint. The others remained stunned, struggling to process what they'd just witnessed.
"The robot survived in the vortex for half an hour, transmitting this invaluable footage and extracting small material samples from the stone walls for rubidium-strontium dating. The ruin's origin far exceeds our expectations. Based on the 87Rb decay cycle, it dates back roughly 4 billion years. This means a highly intelligent civilization existed on Earth 4 billion years ago, only to perish alongside the planet for unknown reasons. Then, 3.5 billion years ago, new life began to evolve..."
"Together with archaeological experts, we deciphered the mural. The script shares similarities with early human civilizations. Combined with the mural's content, we've inferred it to be a prophecy:
When the new civilization is born complete,
Gaze descends from heights beyond.
The children of gods walk the earth,
Welcoming His awakening with flames of doom."
The doomsday mentioned in the prophecy, after over a month of our speculation and calculations, can be preliminarily determined to be August 26, 2202—two years from now. The date beneath the mural related to the offspring of the gods is July of this year, two months ago."
July... Xu Rongchuan thought of something.
"In July, during the International Committee on Mysterious Phenomena meeting, countries worldwide reported a surge in mysterious incidents far exceeding the usual numbers. That force became active to an unprecedented degree. Also in July, Rongchuan, you were assigned to raid a cult organization and brought back an egg from them."
"We subjected it to the most rigorous testing methods, determining it was just an ordinary egg. After the tests, Alice conducted a secondary evaluation, yet no anomalies were detected. And now, it has transformed from an egg into a human—an... oviparous human."
"Currently, we classify conventional Anomalous Objects into three types: one is non-active Mutated items, with confidentiality levels ranging between C and D based on hazard levels; another is active Mutated items, rated B or above; and the third is mutated active animals, rated A or above. Over the past five years, regardless of the type, even the only S+ Active Anomalous Object, the Eye of Doom, has been unable to fully assume human form and possess language abilities indistinguishable from humans."
Xu Rongchuan already understood what he was implying.
"You suspect it's one of the 'offspring of the gods' mentioned in the prophecy?"
Du Ruo nodded: "A divine offspring, or an Anomalous Object related to one. It hasn't exhibited any abilities beyond immortality, so we can't be certain yet."
The information overload left everyone silent for several minutes as they digested the contents of today's meeting. Wen Shu had already risen from his chair, his Serpent tail swaying slowly on the floor as he slithered to the edge of the conference room. Through the one-way floor-to-ceiling window, he gazed at the entirety of Pangu at work.
Pangu resembled a spire—six floors above ground and twelve below. The above-ground levels housed researchers that were bustling with ordinary elite humans, and most hurrying about their daily research tasks. The twelve underground floors were reserved for those like them—people who couldn't see the light of day, crawled out from hell and guarding all the secrets the public must never know.
If the divine offspring were to appear, heralding the world's end, would the justice they had upheld until now still hold any meaning?
Wen Shu turned his beautiful face toward Du Ruo, his voice carrying the tenderness of a lover's whisper: "Dr. Du, what do you intend to do?"
Du Ruo took a deep breath and looked at Xu Rongchuan.
"Our strength is too feeble to withstand the coming storm. An Offspring of an evil god that bears no malice toward humans—even if, as Captain Xu says, the risks are extremely high—is a rare opportunity for us."
Xu Rongchuan still disagreed: "If you couldn't determine whether it was an ordinary egg, how can you ascertain whether it harbors malice?"
Du Ruo neither affirmed nor denied it: "This isn't a decision I can make alone. Let's put it to a vote."
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