Only Human Here 2

“Hey, aren’t you the guy from the Thousand Blades Research Institute? Why are you out here so late at night?” The young boy in the front seat casually asked as he accelerated, creating an odd contrast between his chitchat and the current deathly speed. “Do you know who they’re chasing?”

Embarrassed yet politely, Wei Huan smiled slightly and said, “Me.”

“Oh.” The guy turned back and, after a couple of seconds…

“What the heck?”

“Stop the nonsense, dude, step on it! This is your trial from the Heavens,” Wei Huan rambled as he glanced back, noticing the pursuing vehicles draw closer. In the distance, a massive billboard changed its display to show a new type of artificial low-energy food.

The growing power of the demon race continuously narrowed the humans’ food chain and their resources, forcing them to seek survival through technology.

The background music of the advertisement was an electronic version of Horse Race that had a fast-paced rhythm. It gave Wei Huan a headache. Many images flashed through his mind: black rooms, arrays, magnetic fields, and blood that had flowed profusely now nearly dried up.

“Oh my. My first day on a mission and I’m already this unlucky.”

Wei Huan, who usually had an optimistic outlook, instinctively asked, “What mission?”

“Oh my god,” the boy suddenly raised his right hand to cover his mouth. “Did I just say ‘mission’? I can’t talk about that.”

Wei Huan’s lips twitched. “As long as you’re happy.”

A group of dirty, barefooted children rushed past, holding mechanical components they’d picked up from God-knows-where and narrowly avoiding a collision. The billboard changed again, displaying a line of huge characters: “Endangered Species Protection Day.”

Avoiding the children, the guy riding the motorcycle continued, “Protection, huh? Humans can’t even protect themselves, yet they have the audacity to establish a ‘Protection Day.'”

Wei Huan remained silent, realizing that he and this human teenager were standing on entirely different grounds. To most demons, humans were just a link in their food chain. During a period of growth in the past, when the demon race was ruled by the peace faction, they regarded humans as an equal group and recognized their rights as beings. However, as internal conflicts within the demon race deepened and humans became dissatisfied with the demons’ rule, tensions between the two races escalated, leading to friction and frequent wars.

While he was still alive, the Conservative Party, which held the most political power among humans, signed a contract with the Demon Realm Alliance for temporary peaceful development. However, despite the appearance of peace, tensions continued to simmer.

Although Wei Huan was a bit of a rascal, he wasn’t blind to such circumstances. The resentment between humans and demons had been accumulating for centuries. His parents died in the war and he himself died in order to stabilize the situation. Yet, he never harbored hatred for ordinary humans.

Most of them were merely pawns.

With these thoughts in mind, Wei Huan sighed silently. His gaze inadvertently fell on a distant clock tower, noticing the electronic display’s year, month, and day in the lower right corner.

His heart seemed to stop. He suddenly grabbed the motorcycle guy’s shoulder, raising his voice over the wind’s roar. “The last retaliation… When was it?” He immediately changed his wording: “I mean, when was the human’s counter-ambush?”

The young man was startled, causing the motorcycle to sway in an S shape as he turned his head. “It happened about seven years ago, I think. I was still in elementary school back then. We haven’t fought in a long time.”

Wei Huan’s heartbeat accelerated, much like the chaotic thoughts swirling in his mind.

Seven years…

Could it be that he had faked his death for a full seven years?

Gripping the young man’s shoulder tightly, Wei Huan raised his voice louder to be heard over the wind. “You mentioned it’s been a long time since you fought. What’s the situation now? Did you win?”

“Not really!” The young man’s voice also grew louder. “How could we have won? The ruling party in Fengzhou is now just a puppet for the demons. Humans are in a terrible state.”

Had so much changed during the years he was away? Wei Huan continued to ask, “Humans… I mean, is the current Prime Minister Song Chengkang?”

“Song Chengkang?” The young man seemed to pause for a moment before suddenly realizing. “You mean him? He stepped down ages ago! There have been several generations of replacements since then. The current puppet party… Ah, forget it.”

It seemed that the puppet party he referred to was the one controlled by the demons, which lacked real power. So, where were the members of the old Conservative Party? And what happened to the radicals who always shouted about fighting demons?

His thoughts were interrupted by something brushing against Wei Huan’s ear before it struck the other man’s helmet with a loud, sharp sound—it was moving too fast.

“What the hell?” The guy cursed.

“They’ve got weapons now.” Wei Huan turned his head to look behind him, confirming his suspicion. In the next moment, those pursuing individuals raised their guns, aiming at him.

“Do you have anything to block bullets?” he asked.

“No.” The young boy’s voice trembled. “Oh no, are they going to shoot?”

“If I give you a gun, will you shoot?”

“I won’t shoot; I can’t.”

Wei Huan took a deep breath. He spotted an alley up ahead with what seemed to be a small barbecue stall at the entrance. “Hey, hey, drive towards that alley.”

The motorcycle sharply veered into the alley, its body almost scraping the ground. Taking advantage of the turn, Wei Huan extended his arm and grabbed a foldable table in front of the barbecue stall. He folded all four legs at once, just in time to block the incoming bullets.

“You’re really quick-witted!”

“Your driving skills aren’t bad either; you’re handling this like an experienced driver,” Wei Huan bantered while carefully inspecting the table. The bullets they were facing seemed different; the marks left on the table were minimal compared to regular bullets.

“Wait a minute, this alley…”

As Wei Huan was about to put the table down, he hesitated and raised it again. “Don’t tell me this is a dead end up ahead; otherwise, I’ll jump off and get myself killed.” He might end up reloading a saved game.

“No, it’s a main road. I’m afraid they’re blocking the other end!” Just as the young boy finished speaking, the sound of sirens from the pursuing team echoed from the other end of the alley. It seems they were trapped.

The lighting was poor, but Wei Huan suddenly noticed a few metre-tall trash cans leaning not far ahead against the left wall. On top of them was a discarded wooden plank measuring about half a meter in width.

“Go this way.” Leaning to his left, Wei Huan swung his arm and threw the foldable table towards the first trash can under the wooden plank. With a thud, it toppled, causing the once-balanced plank to tilt towards them and form a sloping ramp.

“Smart!” The motorcycle guy firmly twisted the handle and drove up the makeshift ramp created by Wei Huan. “Hold on tight!”

Wei Huan’s body soared through the air along with the motorcycle, making a graceful arc in mid-air. They flew over the defenders stationed at the entrance of the alley and landed dozens of meters away.

“Oh my god, that was incredible!” The guy on the motorcycle lowered his body and accelerated wildly, leaving the pursuing vehicles far behind.

“It wasn’t even that cool…” Wei Huan muttered under his breath. “If you could fly, you’d be having even more fun.”

The wind whooshed by, but the young boy didn’t hear Wei Huan’s comment. He continued, “There’s a hidden path over there. If we take that route, they definitely won’t catch up. Oh, by the way, I noticed the emblem on your clothes; it looks like the symbol of the Thousand Blades Research Institute. Who are you and why are they after you?”

“I woke up and found myself in a chase scenario. I was panicking too, without any NPC to give me a quest…” Wei Huan, the internet-addicted teenager, suddenly felt a sharp pain in the back of his neck. He reached his hand back and pulled out a needle. “What the hell?”

His vision started to blur and, before he could understand what was happening, he lost consciousness, collapsing against the young man’s back.

Wei Huan had a dream.

In the dream, he wasn’t wearing a school uniform. He had a black hat on, blending into a chaotic slum among the humans.

Right, this was the Dark Zone, wasn’t it?

He casually walked among a group of humans, seemingly indistinguishable from them. After all, there wouldn’t be any demon detectors in this kind of place. The dream was fragmented by colorful lights, like shattered mirrors reflecting many eerie yet magnificent scenes.

His wrist was grabbed by a human boy with blue hair, similar to the merfolk at Shangshan Academy yet different too. Wei Huan was pulled into a basement where people danced to music as they held colorful liquids known as alcohol.

Demons didn’t drink alcohol, or rather, they didn’t consume alcohol brewed by humans.

But Wei Huan always enjoyed going against the norm. The more the demons disapproved of something, the more he liked doing it.

The alcohol blurred his senses. In the midst of the chaos, there was only one moment of clarity—the moment he was pulled away. His gaze gradually shifted upwards from the hand gripping his arm: an oversized black coat revealed a glimpse of a deep-red school uniform, a fair neck, and further up…

It was the most beautiful face Wei Huan had ever seen, surpassing all the humans and demons he’d encountered. Everything about it was perfect, except for its lack of a smile.

[You’re trespassing the forbidden zone; do you want me to get punished with you?]

Suddenly, he woke up.

Wei Huan opened his eyes. For some reason, he felt a sense of melancholy.

He had indeed been to the Dark Zone before and that icy guy even came to catch him. However, Wei Huan couldn’t recall the memories between meeting him and returning to school to face punishment—there were intermittent gaps.

The door suddenly swung open.

“Hey, he’s awake!”

It was a familiar voice—the motorcycle guy. Wei Huan lifted his head, preparing to sit up. The motorcycle guy cheerfully pulled a chair over and straddled it. “Don’t rush; I called Leia to take a look and make sure you’re not still messed up.”

“Leia?” Wei Huan was puzzled, but Leia, the person in question, walked into the room carrying medical instruments. She was a beautiful girl with short brown hair. “That’s me. I’m the doctor.”

While she said she was a doctor, she wasn’t wearing a lab coat. Instead, she had on a black cropped top and shorts.

Wei Huan allowed this pretty “doctor” to examine him. Helpless, he gestured towards the motorcycle guy and said, “Hey, you haven’t told me your name.”

“Me?” The motorcycle guy flashed a bright smile, revealing a set of white teeth that contrasted with his tan skin. “You can call me Azu.” Azu rested his chin on the back of the chair. “And you?”

“Wei…” The words slipped out instinctively, but Wei Huan suddenly realized he might’ve been too casual in revealing his identity to a human he’d only met twice. He quickly changed course and said, “Heng Wei.”

Wei Huan responded quickly and Azu didn’t notice any abnormality. “Heng Wei?”

Wei Huan nodded. “Yeah, the same ‘Heng’ in ‘timeless¹‘.”

“Then I’ll call you A-Heng.”

Leia finished with the instruments, her expression neutral. She glanced at Wei Huan, her tone serious and cold. “Your condition is similar to when you were unconscious. It’s best if you honestly explain your origins.”

Wei Huan’s heart raced. Had he been found out? But even he didn’t know the origins of this body; how could he explain?

“What do you mean?” With things having come this far, he could only play it off.

Leia crossed her arms, raising her right eyebrow. “Your body is far from normal.” She then opened a small black box by the bedside. “These are the chips I removed from your body. There are twenty-three in total.”

Staring at the bloody chips in the box, Wei Huan was momentarily speechless.

But the next moment, Leia produced a dagger seemingly out of thin air and pressed it against Wei Huan’s throat. “Tell me, what’s your connection to the 137 Research Institute?”

Wei Huan raised his hands in a surrender gesture and said, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, don’t get agitated. Why would such a beautiful young lady like you prefer resorting to knives?”

Azu hurriedly caught Leia’s hand and said, “There must be a misunderstanding. I saw with my own eyes yesterday the way he was chased by those from the 137 Research Institute. If I hadn’t intervened, he would’ve been done for!”

Wei Huan put on a cheerful smile while thinking to himself, if you hadn’t caught my clothes yesterday, I wouldn’t have ended up on your stolen motorcycle.

Leia’s expression softened a bit, but the knife remained: “You’re wearing the experimental uniform of the 137 Institute. No experimental subject from 137 has ever walked out alive. Every morning, they only haul out corpses that failed the experiments, sending truckloads to the graveyard.”

Wei Huan had no idea the situation at that institute was like that.

So, were they conducting experiments on live humans?

“You’re definitely not an ordinary human.” Leia’s wrist flicked and she retracted the knife, her voice cold and sneering. “Never mind. I don’t even need to take action. You won’t live long anyway.”