The black sun hangs high

Chapter 262 Mirror
After listening to the "report" from the roots of fate, Hugh fell into deep thought.

After a moment, he asked, "You mean that these Dark Abyss offspring are not only aware of their own defects, but they are also using humans, elves, and other races as models and targets to change themselves?"

"I'm afraid humans should take priority, Master."

The Root of Destiny slowly said, "After all, the residents of this city are mainly humans, and most of the memories that they devour and absorb also come from humans."

Hugh nodded slightly. This was indeed an important and interesting discovery. After all, based on his past understanding of the Dark Abyss offspring, the behavioral logic of such incomplete creations should still be mainly based on their own instincts.

However, now, as their intelligence continues to grow, the influence of that dangerous and deadly instinct seems to be gradually fading, or rather, the proportion of instinct is being squeezed out by the information absorbed and learned.

This means that the Dark Abyss Spawn will now be able to better understand human intentions and more accurately grasp the intentions of the survivors in the city, but in the same way, they will gradually lose something in the process.

Just as the Roots of Fate verified the conclusion of the past night, as the offspring of the Dark Abyss continue to accept wisdom, knowledge, and human habits, they are gradually beginning to abandon some of their original instincts and try to adjust their behavior.

One typical example is that offspring abandon some of their magical perception and begin to rely on sight and hearing instead.

However, Hughes is still unable to determine whether this change is a result of the Dark Abyss offspring's spontaneous choice or an inevitable consequence of their embracing the memories of other lives.

Thinking of this, Hugh suddenly recalled the unique individual he had unintentionally "created" during Justina and the others' experiments.

Even now, Hugh still doesn't know what to call it.

"Forget it, why think about these things now?"

Hugh chuckled self-deprecatingly. He suddenly realized that this question seemed to have entered the realm of philosophy, and he was still surrounded by the predatory offspring of the Dark Abyss. Instead of pondering those complex questions, he should seriously consider how to keep these dangerous monsters gathering around him.

So Hugh stretched his body a little, took out some dry food he carried with him, and ate a simple meal.

In that brief moment, the Dark Abyss offspring nearby had already sensed Hugh's presence. As the message spread within their clan, a large number of black shadows began to gather toward Hugh's location. They crawled upwards along the dilapidated apartment building, using every crack and every pipe as their most convenient steps and passageways.

Hugh clapped his hands, shaking off the dry breadcrumbs remaining on his palms, and then the sprinting rat reappeared.

After a full night's rest and a large replenishment of Dark Abyss power essence, Sniggy's condition had basically returned to normal. The moment it was summoned by Hugh, it was even busy yawning, looking sleepy as if it hadn't had enough sleep.

Sensing the aura of the Earth Mother Goddess's offspring, the nearby Dark Abyss offspring immediately became even more frenzied. They began to crawl faster, and in just over ten seconds, the building beneath Hugh's feet was filled with their bodies. Standing on the rooftop, Hugh could even feel the tremors caused by their crawling.

"It's time to set off, heading towards the northern city wall..."

Hugh flipped over and mounted Sniggy's back. Then he channeled his magic, and with a flick of his fingers, blazing magical flames rapidly formed within the stable magic model. The dazzling light directly blocked the path of the Dark Abyss offspring, and the ends of the flames, like living fire serpents, spread along the walls of the building and exploded directly in the area where the offspring were most densely packed.

The increase in magic power not only allowed Hugh to last longer in battle, but also gave him a magical control far beyond that of ordinary mages. Although Hugh had not systematically studied those valley-level and lake-level spells, now, with the extremely brutal accumulation of magic power, the power of these flames was already quite considerable.

The rolling flames quickly created a path through the Dark Abyss Spawn, and the raging rat immediately seized the opportunity. It rushed out through the gap and then leaped directly off the roof.

The Touch of Calron appeared beside Hugh, quickly clinging to the surrounding building walls, forcibly slowing Hugh and the running rat's descent. Once they landed successfully, they quickly dissipated into the air.

Another round of breakthroughs has begun.

This was only the second day after the survivors from Iris Street and the Legal Committee's headquarters began their relocation.

……

The Legislative Affairs Commission's on-site laboratory.

Compared to the other locations where the survivors were located, the transfer here was destined to be the last. Now, all those involved in the experiment had to advance the experiment as quickly as possible and complete all the planned verifications. Accordingly, Hugh and others had also developed different strategies for different outcomes.

Justina sat alone in the laboratory, in front of her was the unique offspring that Hugh had unintentionally "created" before.

Inside the transparent magical container, the dark shadow was constantly floating, but its form had largely broken away from the chaotic and blurry state of the Dark Abyss offspring and was instead moving closer to the outline of a human. This was a result of the memory that had been reshaped.

Now, this humanoid creature, created by Hugh and possessing some human cognition, is pressed against the glass wall in front of it. It is carefully "examining" the female scholar sitting not far away and is constantly trying to make gestures towards her in order to achieve communication between the two.

However, Justine simply watched it quietly, without moving.

The female scholar looked somewhat dejected.

As the leader of this series of verification experiments, she is not optimistic about the results.

Just last night, the results of the first two rounds of testing on these Dark Abyss offspring were obtained. Thanks to the tireless efforts of the mages of the Law Committee, they finally succeeded in shaping memories and cognitions that were "beneficial to humanity" for individual samples. However, when they tried to release these successfully modified samples back into the offspring population that was also imprisoned, the results made Justina and the others feel uneasy.

Initially, the experimental sample, instilled with specific memories, successfully returned to its own kind without being suspected by its peers. The Dark Abyss offspring, who had been captured by Hugh and imprisoned in a specific ritual site, simply thought that the one thrown in was yet another "unlucky one." Thus, they quickly came into contact and began to try to merge with each other.

Up until this point, everything was normal.

However, once the fusion reached a certain point, a violent reaction began to occur.

Justina witnessed firsthand how the Dark Abyss offspring, who had already accepted the experimental subjects, suddenly surged. They grew countless arthropods, claws, and deadly mouthparts, and began to attack each other. Before long, the experimental samples that had been thrown into the swarm, as well as the offspring who had been willing to "follow" it, were forcibly separated from their own swarm.

Just like other prey and food, these creatures, deemed harmful, were quickly devoured by the Dark Abyss offspring, driven by primal instincts.

This phenomenon means that Justina's previous idea of ​​"using special individuals to continuously influence a large monster population" has failed.

The thought processes of these Dark Abyss offspring are too unique. Although they can quickly share information such as memories and knowledge, this does not mean that they are blank slates that can be smeared at will. With enough malice already smeared on this "slate," people have no way to implant clear messages into their race through this means.

Even if it is successfully implanted, it will probably be detected very quickly.

The final result was just as the experiment had shown—they would use the most ruthless methods to separate and eliminate those of their kind that were clearly “problematic.”

Justina lowered her gaze, looking at her missing left arm, and said with a wry smile, "In this respect, you really do a better job than all the countries and peoples in Vain..."

After her reflection, Justina placed her right hand on the magic book she always carried with her.

Inside, there are pre-printed magical signals.

Logically, Justina should immediately send a message to inform Hugh, who was responsible for diverting the monsters' attention on the other side of Seren City, of the verification failure. However, Justina did not do so.

As a qualified magical biologist, she knew very well that the previous experiments had not actually been a complete failure.

Although the modified experimental subjects were eventually killed by their own kind, the experiment still verified a considerable portion of the hypothesis.

"Within you, spirit and will can indeed influence each other..."

Justina murmured to the air, "Although our sample failed, it still 'influenced' and 'attracted' a considerable number of its kind before it was completely disposed of... And this means that as long as the individual will and spirit of the 'seed' are strong enough, and the influence is strong enough, then..."

Justina bit her lip hard.

She recalled the third proposal she had made during her first conversation with Hugh.

That is, the proposal that was immediately rejected by Hughes after it was put forward.

So she picked up a pen and, under the watchful eye of the special sample inside the magic container, opened her magic book. On one of the pages, she clearly saw the results of her previous calculations.

Prior to this, Justine had already verified these results multiple times. To ensure that there were no problems with the results, she even artificially increased the calculation margin to ensure that the final result was foolproof.

"The magical and mental strength of our failed experimental subjects was less than one-twentieth of that of a normal Stream-level mage. So if we can find more than twenty Stream-level spellcasters, and even add Valley-level and Lake-level mages, then we will definitely be able to exert a sufficient influence on the intended population."

Justina did the calculations again, and then she unconsciously brought the pen to her mouth and bit down hard on the end.

"No, no... There's not enough time to complete a thorough verification... We either give up or take the risk."

The female scholar, in a state of extreme anxiety, stood up.

The black humanoid figure inside the magic container kept its eyes on Justina. It tilted its head, then placed its palm on the glass wall of the container, curiously observing the female scholar outside the cage.

Justina looked over, and their gazes met.

Looking at the dark figure inside the container, she felt as if she were looking in a mirror.

Finally, Justine gave a meaningful smile.

About an hour later, there was a knock on the tightly closed laboratory door.

Soon, the door opened, and the stern-faced hermit Genet appeared at the entrance. He looked at the female scholar who clearly hadn't slept all night but inexplicably appeared radiant, and frowned in confusion: "Mage Justina, the scheduled magical signal doesn't seem to have been sent. Has something changed?"

Justina looked calmly at the tall, sword-wielding hermit before her, nodded, and said, "The verification wasn't a failure, so I quickly made some additional attempts. Judging from the results, we shouldn't be sending a failure signal now."

Genet's face brightened: "It succeeded? This is different from what I was told before."

However, Justina shook her head: "No, it's not a complete success, but it's definitely much better than a complete failure... We used too few samples and need to expand them. The size of the population to be released needs to be halved. After the first batch of populations has been completely converted using the samples, the converted monster populations can be used as the second batch of samples and released again, and so on."

Genet did not immediately offer a definitive opinion. He nodded and said, "It sounds like a good discovery. But what about timing? Is there enough time?"

"There's enough time, but I need manpower."

Upon hearing this, Genet suddenly glanced in the direction of the special sample in the laboratory. Seeing that the sample in the container seemed to be normal, he nodded: "I'll arrange the personnel. I'll prioritize everything you need. Is there anything else you need?"

"I want to go and see the magical materials that the Emergency Committee provided us; there should be something useful in them."

"Yes, Mage Justina, go to the warehouse and give your name. I have already given the order."

(End of this chapter)