Chapter 15: The Box Experiment

After a long silence, the voice on the other end finally responded.

‘Based on the footage you transmitted, that containment subject appears to be extremely dangerous!’

The Doctor stated gravely.

‘But he hasn't demonstrated any hostility towards humans yet!’

‘When the City Fire Squad attempted to contain him, they opened fire and he didn't retaliate!’

The voice on the communicator grew somewhat subdued.

‘I believe we need to continue observing him!’

Hearing what he said, the Doctor merely shrugged.

‘That's okay!’

The voice on the communicator spoke again.

‘That's right! I saw that his rank appears rather high?’

The Doctor pushed up his monocle.

‘He gets on remarkably well with the prison doctor!’

‘I suspect they might be the same Entity!’

The sound of tapping on a desk echoed again from the other end.

‘If they are the same Entity, and the prison doctor possesses a faint divinity...’

‘Does that mean humans can possess divinity too?’

The voice grew somewhat urgent.

The Doctor shook his head, replying subtly.

‘Subject S292 does not hold any reference value whatsoever!’

‘Moreover, whether he possesses divinity needs to be studied!’

The voice on the other end carried a hint of disappointment, yet was dominated by expectation, a profound contradiction.

‘Accelerate research in this area immediately!’

‘If it can be confirmed that humans can possess divinity, it will be a feast for humanity!’

The communication severed abruptly.

The Doctor's gaze remained impassive as he adjusted his monocle.

‘It would also be a disaster for humanity!’

On his desk lay Lu Xiao's flesh and blood analysis report.

The conclusion stated:

‘The subject's biological material exhibits suspected divinity!’

The Doctor shook his head, picked up the report and without hesitation, fed it into the shredder.

Then he rubbed his forehead.

The person who had written this report had already been personally sent for memory erasure.

He then produced a blank report.

‘Subject S292 exhibits abnormal cellular activity, suspected to have been cursed!’

After completing the report, the Doctor locked it away in his desk drawer.

He then summoned a staff member to come in.

‘Carry out the box experiment on Subject S292 immediately!’

…………

Soon, Lu Xiao was led into a special containment room.

Lu Xiao gazed curiously at the room, layered with three layers, its structure intrigued him.

The containment room resembled three boxes of differing sizes.

The largest box encased two smaller ones, like Matryoshka dolls.

Each room contained distinct furnishings.

Lu Xiao was ushered into the smallest compartment.

A staff member addressed him.

‘Subject S292, you shall be confined within this room for the next seven days!’

After delivering the instruction, the staff member closed the main door.

Once the personnel had departed, Lu Xiao began surveying his surroundings.

The room was compact, verging on being cramped.

The wall had a large window which offered a view into the next room.

Lu Xiao stared blankly before sitting down on the iron bed in the room's centre.

Meanwhile.

Before the monitors, the Doctor gave the order.

‘In one day's time, deploy two expendables to provoke S292!’

On screen, Lu Xiao sat on the bed, becoming drowsy.

His head drooped and soon a faint snore could be heard.

‘He just fell asleep like that?’

One staff member remarked incredulously.

‘It is an obvious outcome!’

And just like that, Lu Xiao spent his first day in the containment room.

Day 2 morning, a clamour reached Lu Xiao's ears.

Lu Xiao slowly opened his eyes and looked towards the window in the wall.

In his line of sight, two humans clad in yellow vests were laughing and joking.

Their voices were loud.

‘Old Wang! This room's a lot more comfortable than our old cell!’

The speaker lay sprawled on a soft sofa.

The man called Old Wang held a tall footed cup in his hand.

It contained a deep crimson liquid.

‘Who could have thought we would drink red wine in here! Ha ha ha!’

His laughter was very loud.

‘Two death row inmates getting this treatment! I would have never dreamed of it!’

Old Wang sneered.

‘That guy wearing a suit and sunglasses told me, if I just stick it out in this hellhole for thirty days, they will drop my case!’

‘I have been here for thirteen days already. Seventeen more and I can go out!’

The other man quipped.

‘Old Wang, you haven't actually bought into his nonsense, have you?’

‘With the amount of murders on your hands, thirty executions wouldn't be enough!’

Old Wang remained silent, merely sipping the red wine in his glass.

The other man suddenly spoke up.

"Right! I heard that lad next door hit his thirtieth day yesterday!"

‘No idea if he's out yet, but I haven't seen him around!’

Old Wang's gaze sharpened as he replied in a low voice.

‘What did that bloke do?’

The other man pondered for a moment.

‘I heard he abused more than a dozen children, he was originally sentenced to death!’

Hearing this, Old Wang spat.

‘Scum!’

Such criminals were the most despised even within prison walls.

The voices weren't particularly loud.

Yet to Lu Xiao's ears, they sounded unbearably shrill.

Evidently, the room possessed some means of amplifying sound.

The noise irritated Lu Xiao.

He raised his fist and smashed the window to smithereens.

The two chatting men jumped at the shatter of glass.

From their vantage point, they couldn't see Lu Xiao inside the small room.

A person suddenly appearing like that was quite startling.

Lu Xiao brushed glass shards from his clothes and approached them with a smile.

‘My friends! You are disturbing my rest! Can you speak a little more quietly?’

He offered a friendly smile.

Spotting the youth, the pair exchanged glances and erupted in laughter.

‘Old Wang! Did you hear that? This lad wants us to keep it down!’

‘Ha ha ha! My ears aren't deaf, I heard him perfectly well!’

With that, Old Wang strode forward, grabbing Lu Xiao by the collar.

‘Kid! I don't know where you have crawled out from! But if you keep talking nonsense...’

‘I won't mind shoving you back into your mother's womb!’

He eyed Lu Xiao with utter contempt.

The other fellow looked on like a spectator.

‘Old Wang! Go easy on him, eh? We wouldn't want to frighten the little chap too much!’

Old Wang shot him a glare before turning back to Lu Xiao.

‘Youngster, while I am still in a decent mood, just apologise properly and I will pretend nothing happened!’

‘Otherwise...’

Pfft!

Before he could finish, utter disbelief washed over his face.

The excruciating pain made his grip on Lu Xiao's collar loosen instantly.

He staggered backwards several steps, terror filling his eyes.

Lu Xiao grinned.

‘You are really too noisy!’

His smile was eerie, his hand still clutching a bloody and mangled thing.

That bloody and mangled thing was none other than Old Wang's tongue.

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