Deviant: No Longer Human

"!"

A pained groan escaped his lips, growing louder and more desperate, "It hurts... it burns!"

The pain was evidently more intense than when Luna had originally plucked his eye out.

Blood began to seep from the socket, dark and thick.

Unperturbed, Mary wiped the blood away with a tender, almost affectionate stroke of her hand, her laughter ringing out as she enjoyed it with a smile.

"STOP THIS! STOP THIS!"

THUD!

Overwhelmed by pain, Grandmaster Shi collapsed to his knees, his groans mingling with his labored breaths.

"Arghhhh!"

As his vision slowly cleared, the pain induced tears to mix with blood, streaming down his cheeks, prompting looks of disgust and concern from the onlookers.

In the midst of the chaos, Mary\'s laughter subsided into a serene smile.

She surveyed the room, her red eyes gleaming with a hint of satisfaction. "It\'s been a long time since we\'ve had such distinguished guests," she said, her voice echoing slightly in the expansive hall. "I hope you find our facilities... enlightening."

_______

Ten minutes later!

The monk, as if touched by some arcane magic, regained his composure and even bowed in respect to Mary for restoring his eye.

He maintained a respectful distance, however, as they all spread out to explore the depths of the facility.

Their freedom to roam was unrestricted; no one stopped them from viewing any part of the vast underground complex, and the workers seemed indifferent to their presence.

The four guards who had initially escorted them had retreated upstairs, leaving the area filled with researchers bustling back and forth.

The atmosphere felt suspended in time—slightly dystopian, with technology that, upon first glance, appeared to be relics from decades past.

Mary had slipped away to an adjoining room, leaving behind a labyrinth of automatic steel doors that made the facility feel like a maze.

The area where they now stood seemed to be the nerve center of it all.

Luna and Wang Xiao stood near the cylindrical glass structure, drawn by curiosity and a sense of... Apprehension.

Wang Xiao, in particular, was eager to peer into what was ominously dubbed the tunnel to hell, his eyes scanning the mysterious setup, trying to decipher the secrets it held.

Peering through the glass, Wang Xiao discovered that it enclosed a pathway that descended steeply, the walls rough and unpolished like those of a natural cave.

As the path narrowed dramatically, he could see a faint, mystical-looking mist at the far end—a shimmering, multicolored haze that suggested a tear in the very fabric of space itself.

It appeared as though a portal to another dimension had been violently carved through space and time, a rainbow-hued breach that glowed with both wonder and danger.

However, an anomaly caught his attention: there seemed to be no direct way to enter this pathway.

His gaze lifted to the ceiling of the cylindrical structure, and he noticed a complex mechanical system designed to open the ceiling itself.

Luna, following his gaze and confirming his suspicions, nodded grimly. "They open the ceiling and simply drop the subjects down like a stream. It\'s the most effective way to send thousands of experiments at once. They don\'t even need to come down here; the subjects can be directly transported from a large pipe stationed above, outside the facility."

Her words, especially the detached way she referred to \'experiments,\' sent a chill through the air, making Wang Xiao\'s eyes narrow in surprise. "So they just drop them to their death...?" he asked.

Luna responded with a subtle nod, "Pretty much."

"..."

Wang Xiao was left speechless, the casualness of the information silencing him.

As he observed the facility, everyone working seemed devoid of emotion, until Yin Yue provided a chilling clarification—that the majority here were indeed Deviants.

This explained their lifeless, almost robotic demeanor.

Yet, all were under Mary\'s command.

"Mary has been running this place from its inception. She\'s also a founding member of Project Transcendence," Luna added, her voice tinged with a mixture of respect and wariness. "She was the daughter of the scientist Hanna, who first discovered this place."

Wang Xiao, realizing the implications, asked, "And that scientist—she threw her own daughter into this... tunnel?"

Luna smiled slightly, her eyes clouding with uncertainty. "I don\'t know..." she muttered, her tone suggesting that she harbored the same dark suspicions.

Although Luna found herself considering the situation, she couldn\'t help feeling a thrill of excitement depite the danger.

Deep down, she harbored a desire to meet Hanna, the scientist behind it all.

Suddenly, Mary reappeared, her energy undiminished, her smile broad and chilling.

She placed a reassuring hand on both Luna and Wang Xiao\'s shoulders. "In the world of science, it\'s quite common to first test the medicine on oneself," she explained, her voice rich with intrigue. "Hanna surely would have been the first to jump in, if only she could fit..."

Wang Xiao remained silent, processing the eerie implications of Mary\'s words.

Luna forced a bitter smile, glancing around at the expanding structure, "But why is this thing growing larger by the moment?"

"Oh, it\'s expanding," Mary replied nonchalantly, as if discussing the weather.

Luna nodded slowly, still uneasy. Wang Xiao, however, found himself drawn back to the spectacle below them.

He couldn\'t shake off his concern. "Isn\'t it already large enough to fit multiple adults?" he asked, his voice edged with suspicion.

Mary\'s eyes flickered, a deep red glowing ominously. "Indeed, it is," she confirmed, her tone carrying a hint of something dark and unspoken.

Mary\'s words grew more disturbing as she drew them closer to the glass. "We no longer adhere to any height or age criteria, but disrupting the narrative we\'ve painstakingly built over decades would cause unnecessary problems."

"Adults prove more difficult to control; children, on the other hand, can be packed more densely into smaller containers. We have established a network of facilities across this land to ensure a steady flow of production," she explained with a clinical detachment that chilled the air around them.

"Steady production?" Wang Xiao echoed, his voice tinged with suspicion as he turned to face Mary, seeking clarification.

Without a trace of emotion, Mary continued, "Below every base and outpost lies a fully operational facility that we\'ve engineered to augment the supply chain feeding Project Transcendence. Each facility is capable of housing a thousand subjects at a time. They are bred in controlled cycles till they reach a certain age, ensuring that each base contributes a hundred subjects monthly."

She paused, letting the gravity of her words sink in before adding, "The northern and northwestern regions of this land are blanketed with hundreds of these bases and outposts."