Chương 108: Inside the Box

Selina was already waiting at the entrance to the Corps Engineering Center, looking as regal as ever. Naturally, she was perched on her trademark stilettos, wearing a fitted pencil skirt beneath a white lab coat that parted just enough to reveal a heavy gold necklace gleaming underneath. Thick silver earrings completed the look. I had never dressed that elaborately even for the accounting department's annual performance review, yet for her, every workday seemed like another stroll down the red carpet.

Or a carefully choreographed performance. Then again, with Selina, the line between science and provocation had always been dangerously thin.

"Tom, finally!" She spun gracefully on her heels, leaving a trail of expensive perfume in her wake as she headed for the doors.

"You're three minutes late. Three!"

"According to business etiquette, anything under five minutes doesn't count as being late," I said, slowing my pace to match hers. We walked through the security checkpoint. The grim-faced guards in camouflage, rifles at the ready, did not even bother asking for my ID. When you were walking beside the facility's chief scientist, who also happened to be one of its top executives, the guards usually found the walls a lot more interesting than the people passing through.

"You've always got a policy or regulation for every situation," Selina sighed, her mock outrage evaporating in an instant.

"You could've made a grand gesture instead. Said you were sorry, swept me off my feet, carried me all the way to the third floor..."

"Why put on a pointless show when there's a perfectly good elevator three steps away?" I reached over and pressed the call button.

"That's exactly my point. You're hopelessly practical." She folded her arms beneath her chest, tipped her chin up ever so slightly, and stepped into the elevator the moment the doors opened. Arguing with Selina about anything other than hard technical specifications was a guaranteed waste of time. In accounting, we called that unavoidable overhead. You could burn through half an hour and a mountain of mental energy only to end up proving absolutely nothing, and I had precious little energy to spare as it was.

"How's the research on [Demoralization] coming along?" I asked, steering the conversation toward something more productive as the elevator climbed in near silence.

"Nothing fundamentally new." She dismissed the question with an elegant flick of her wrist, as though we were discussing a child's toy that had long since lost its appeal.

"The entire test group is following the expected pattern. Complete loss of voluntary self-control, a steady collapse of confidence, and a persistent, almost animal urge to crawl into the furthest corner they can find."

"Maybe that's nothing groundbreaking from a scientific standpoint, but as a battlefield tool, it's just about perfect." A faint smile crossed my face as I imagined how the effect would play out in combat. If the enemy had already convinced themselves they'd lost, half the fight was over before it even began. The elevator doors slid open. We made our way down a long, spotless hallway until we stopped in front of a massive steel door with no markings of any kind.

"Welcome to the incubator." With theatrical flair, Selina tapped her key card against the reader and pulled the heavy door open. Beyond it lay a spacious room without a single window. The walls and floor were covered in dense, matte sound-absorbing material that gave slightly beneath each step.

A digital climate-control panel glowed softly on one wall, while dozens of built-in sensors lined the ceiling, their dark gray lenses watching like unblinking eyes, ready to register the slightest shift in temperature or airflow. Other than that, the room was completely empty. Spotless. Sterile.

"So?" Selina clasped her hands behind her back and rocked ever so slightly onto the balls of her feet, waiting to bask in the praise she clearly expected.

"What do you think?"

"The temperature difference is noticeable," I said dryly as I stepped inside. Behind me, the heavy door locked with a solid metallic click.

"After the drafty hallway, this practically feels tropical."

"Everything was calculated to provide optimal conditions for physiological adaptation," she replied, clearly pleased by the comment.

"Notice the closed-loop air filtration system and the multilayer insulation. No dust, no pathogens, no outside noise, and no sudden pressure changes."

"So basically a womb."

"I'm impressed. You actually guessed it." Amusement flickered across her face.

"I designed this module around the biology of metamorphosis, both a chrysalis becoming a butterfly and prenatal development. Complete isolation from outside stimuli. Nothing should interfere with the delicate adjustments your evolution requires."

"And there's no bed because you don't want me falling off it once the convulsions start?"

"Exactly." Her smile widened.

"The floor has individual heating and soft impact cushioning. We eliminate every possible source of physical or psychological stress during the active transformation phase."

"Looks more like a padded room in a locked psychiatric ward," I said, taking in the soft white walls.

"Sorry. I forgot to order a game console and a shelf full of collectible Batman figures." Sarcasm practically dripped from every word.

"I assumed you'd be a little busy rebuilding yourself at the cellular level instead of looking for ways to entertain yourself." A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"I don't have the slightest doubt about your expertise," I said calmly, cutting off her jab as I met her irritated stare without looking away.

"If you say this is the ideal environment for the procedure, then I believe you. I trust you."

"Naturally. I calibrated everything down to the second." Selina gave a quiet snort, though the corners of her lips twitched upward. She pointed toward the ceiling.

"See that high-frequency optical system with the infrared channel? I'll be monitoring the entire process from the lab next door. If a single reading falls outside the acceptable range, I'll shut everything down immediately and open the chamber myself."

"If your own theory is right, a meta ability can't fundamentally destroy its biological host. So I doubt anything will go wrong. Still, thanks for the safety net." I gave a slight nod.

"Oh, Tom..." She stepped closer until barely any space remained between us and slowly rested her palm against my chest. Her perfectly manicured fingers tightened lightly against the fabric of my shirt.

"A simple 'thank you' isn't going to cover what you owe me. You'll be paying me back for a long, long time. With interest."

"One thing at a time." I gently removed her hand.

"So, when do we get started?"

"First, hand over anything you won't need. Your clothes, your phone, all your personal stuff." Selina held out her hand expectantly.

"The last thing we need is your phone going off at the worst possible moment and ruining everything. Like if Megan suddenly decides to invite you to dinner."

"It isn't just Megan who calls me," I said, pulling my phone from my pocket.

"That only makes it worse." Her heels struck the floor with crisp, impatient clicks.

"Second, you're going to drink this. Every. Last. Drop." She pointed toward the clear plastic container sitting against the wall. A full gallon of that same protein concentrate. Thick, foul-looking sludge. Just seeing it made my stomach threaten revolt. Selina refused on principle to use flavoring or sweeteners, so the mixture looked and tasted like watered-down liquid cement. Drinking nearly four liters of that stuff through sheer determination alone would have been impossible.

Fortunately, biological limits were not the kind of obstacle a system command could not bypass. [Special Command: Drink the entire bottle.] Click. Time barely seemed to advance before I found myself holding an empty container. A crushing weight settled in my gut. It felt as though someone had poured molten lead into my stomach, ready to come surging back up with the slightest sudden movement. Without a word, I handed Selina the empty gallon along with my neatly folded clothes.

At that moment, even speaking unnecessarily or moving too quickly would have guaranteed an extremely unpleasant response from my digestive system.

"I hereby declare the experiment officially underway," Selina said, studying me with a long, penetrating look before the heavy airtight door sealed shut with a sharp click. Without wasting any motion, I lowered myself onto the cushioned floor, settled flat on my back in the most stable position possible, and closed my eyes. I had no idea what this so-called evolution would actually do. The system might rewrite my metabolism, turn my DNA inside out, or transform me into some kind of digital virus.

But I had already assessed the risks, and backing out now would have been the height of unprofessionalism. [Special Command: Evolve.] Consciousness disappeared instantly, without pain, convulsions, or any dramatic final flashes.

Keeping track of time in complete isolation was nearly impossible, but when I woke, there was no crushing brain fog, no lingering disorientation. I felt... exactly the same as I had before I blacked out. There was no thick organic cocoon wrapped around me, no traces of slime, no peeling layers of skin. From a practical standpoint, it was the ideal outcome. Becoming some kind of slimy creature had never appealed to me.

There were no mirrors inside the incubator, so I immediately gave myself a quick visual inspection. The changes were limited and fell into three categories. First, every hair below my scalp was gone, leaving my skin perfectly smooth. Second, my fingers appeared slightly longer, and my hands had become leaner and narrower. Third, both little toes had vanished completely. My feet had simply reshaped themselves as though those toes had never existed, yet my balance remained unchanged.

Now, what did the system interface have to say? The [Trainer] tab remained exactly the same, but the adjacent panel displayed an updated summary: [SUBJECT STATUS: MONSTER] Level: 1 Race: Human (Homo sapiens) Attributes: Strength: 10 Endurance: 10 Agility: 10 Current Effects: No negative status effects. My level had not changed. Apparently, the adaptation had not generated enough progress to trigger a system level-up. My race designation had not changed either, which made perfect sense.

Homo sapiens remained the permanent foundation, the point where everything began. The real change lay elsewhere. The attribute cap was gone. The ceiling had been removed, although I would have to determine its new limits through testing. I could already feel the difference. My thoughts moved noticeably faster, and the delay between perception and comprehension had become almost nonexistent. The door unlocked about a minute after I opened my eyes. Selina burst into the chamber without hesitation.

Either a motion sensor had alerted her, or she had been glued to the monitor the entire time. The moment I saw her, I felt an almost embarrassingly ordinary sense of relief. She looked exactly the same: young, striking, and unmistakably herself, not someone who had aged a decade while I lay unconscious. Without knowing how long the process might take, the possibility of spending months or even years inside the incubator had not been entirely impossible.

"Tom... you're not ugly!" she blurted out before she'd even fully stepped inside, her sharp eyes racing over every inch of me.

"That's a rather unconventional compliment," I said as I calmly climbed to my feet, ignoring her obvious excitement.

"Doctors usually choose more reassuring wording for patients waking up from anesthesia."

"All right, all right. Don't start being a smart-ass." Selina tossed me a standard hospital gown made of thick cotton without taking her eyes off me.

"So? How do you feel? Anything different?"

"Everything feels normal." I flexed my fingers, checked the movement of my joints, then ran through a few simple stretches.

"Actually, better than I expected. How long was I out?"

"Exactly twenty-four hours."

"That's it?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Based on every projection, a biochemical overhaul this extensive should've taken much longer."

"I thought so too." She shrugged, still looking puzzled.

"From my side, it was almost boring. You just slept while your body gradually reabsorbed your body hair and the bone structure in your little toes. If you're curious, the high-resolution recording is available whenever you want to watch it."

"I'll take a look when I get the chance." I slipped on the hospital gown.

"Right now, we've got bigger priorities."

"Oh, trust me, we're thinking exactly the same thing." Selina flashed a predatory smile, her eyes glittering with anticipation.

"The diagnostic suite next door is calibrated, powered up, and ready to go. It's time to find out exactly what your evolution has given you."