SOS CH 57: SURPRISE (Patreon)

Indeed. What he was looking at was none other than his own body.

“Man. I look ugly like this.” Noah chuckled as he looked at his reflection in a mirror. After Noah accepted the invitation, he was transported to this new place with a gigantic mirror standing in front of him and nothing else.

The only thing he could see was his own reflection, which was definitely not the most flattering. Not only was he naked and covered in blood and grim, but his body looked so scrawny one would think that he was malnourished and had eaten nothing for days. Even his lustrous silver hair had a hard time showing its usual shine which was quite a shame.

After admiring himself for a few more minutes, Noah sighed as he realized that nothing was happening and hesitantly started bringing his hand forward until it touched the mirror.

Whoosh~!

A reaction started and ripples started to spread through the entire mirror as if a stone had been thrown in a lake. This effect did not last long as numerical values appeared one after another.

[Name: Noah

Estimated Age: 0

Difficulty: Highest

Result: Perfect]

[Congratulations dear citizen! You have made the empire proud. Your name will be shared through the Galaxy and beyond.]

The sound of Fanfare filled his ears as he received the congratulations from the system. This was quite weird but this was the proof that this place was nothing but a proving ground for the empire. Seemingly one of many.

But there was something that was intriguing Noah more.

“Zero?”

He looked at his age with bewilderment before facepalming. It seemed like whatever had happened, his body had been entirely recreated from scratch, giving the impression that he was a newborn.

This is so stupid.

He chuckled slightly before focusing on the mirror once again. The string of messages was still going on.

[Dear citizen. In this time of need, the empire needs all the able and talented hands. Move immediately to the next entry point and receive the Blessing of the Constellation to fight against the wicked enemies who wish to trample on our rule.]

The mirror dimmed and Noah was left alone, perplexed. “Is that all?” He had expected many things but not something like this. He had not learned anything new and in fact, was left with even more questions.

What was the Blessing of the Constellations? Who were the wicked enemies? Where the hell was he supposed to go next?

Noah pinched his brows and let out a groan filled with frustration at the current situation. “Fuck!” He punched the mirror, even knowing how useless this was. The mirror did not even shake, much less crack under the power of his fist. But Noah was not disappointed but in fact, was glad that this was the case. Because…A new message appeared.

[As you have cleared the Noah Difficulty, you are given a special opportunity.]

[Do you accept having your memories read?]

[Y/N?]

—Noah…

“This is…”

Noah’s eyes opened wide at this new message but at the same time, he became extremely hesitant. If the empire was Earth, which at this point was all but confirmed, then they would definitely have some animosity to Parasite. Unless they somehow managed to control Parasite in the meantime.

The problem was. Would this read his memory only or would it read his and the Queen's memories? What about the memories absorbed by the Queen?

There were many risks in this case but Noah did not wish to refuse. Not at this point. This was why. He immediately clicked on the Yes.

A blue light covered his face before slowly going down and soon new words appeared,

[Two streams of Consciousness detected. Diving into the main one.]

[Start]

Noah immediately blacked out.

***

The world, as Noah opened his eyes, was one he was more than a little familiar with. It was a place where everything started for him and even after surviving for years alone on that planet, those memories never vanished.

A white room, white walls, and white ceiling create a feeling of near infinity. A place that would have been enough to drive anyone crazy and in this place, a row of white chairs with children of different color but all draped in white working on mindlessly working on the hologram floating a few centimeters above the table where each of them was seated.

The White Room.

As one might expect, this was not exactly the most original name but this was the most accurate and this was the way he had always called this place. Though because of all the bloodshed that happened in this place, his comrades liked to call this place, the Red Room.

This was the facility that held all hopes of mankind. The largest and most developed central research of the world as well as the most gruesome one as no law of ethics was even considered in this room.

How is this possible?

He looked down at himself and noticed that he had a certain ghostly appearance, making it clear to him that what was happening was nothing but a memory and he was but a spectator observing them passively.

If there was one thing to note, it was that in the current space, he did not look like a young kid. But he had the same height as his adult form. Most likely this appearance was created based on the projection of his mind.

What am I supposed to do?

His gaze landed on the children. Outside of the obvious color of the clothes they were wearing, the one thing that all those children had in common was a serie of numbers at the base of their necks.

Noah’s eyes slowly glided over each of the children before settling on one in particular.

01E01210

This number could be found on the neck of a black-haired young boy. Like the others, his eyes were hollow as he worked on the equations that were given to them. For the children at this stage of their education, this equation, while complicated, was nothing particularly hard. What mattered was simply how fast they could solve all the problems given to them.

Approaching the Black haired boy, Noah crouched down in front of the desk and peered more closely at the features of the boy. Beautiful Blue eyes, short black hair, and a cute face that showed just how much potential there was in this little chubby face and the unmistakable look of intelligence in his young eyes.

“Yep. There is no mistake. I was born handsome. Heh.”

He brought his hand to caress the head of the young boy but failed to do so as his hand went through the boy, reminding him that this was nothing but an image.

Standing up, he started looking at each of the other young children in this room. In this room alone, there had been more than thirty and there were other rooms further.

For most of them, Noah was ashamed to admit that he could not even remember their features. Most likely they had died during the experiments or were simply dropped out.

This was very disheartening but this was also the only way to push the young kid far beyond what was normally possible. At least this was how Noah had always tried to rationalize.

“Heh…”

Now that he was watching it once again, he realized that this was a bunch of horseshit. In order to save themselves, a group of adults organized and created children and made their lives a true hell.

Those children had never asked to be born. Much less to be raised as heroes but this simple and basic choice was denied from them.

“For the Glory of Mankind, my ass.”

Noah spat on the ground, his face filled with disgust and his stomach churning. He knew of course that things were not so black and white.

By making a few hundred or thousands of children suffer and die, Mankind brought forth a new wind and created the Constellations, thereby saving humanity. Thousands sacrificed to save Billions.

This was the kind of number that would make all war veterans nod and accept it as the best possible result. No matter how macabre or evil it may be. The fact of the matter was that they succeeded.

Did the results justify the means? Did morals matter when humanity was on the brink of extinction?

“So, I am going to continue watching this or anything else?”

Noah could feel his irritation steadily rising. He did not want to see more of this. He had no desire to think about the evil committed in the name of survival. He simply wanted to be done with it.

But it was then,

“Truly…You have not changed. As impatient as always.”

Noah stopped. Every thought he had came to an absolute and sudden halt as the voice of a woman sounded behind him.

It was a voice he recognized. A voice he would never forget even if hundreds of thousands of years went by.

Turning around, his eyes widened as he took in the woman standing in front his him. It was an average-sized woman, her hair was of a beautiful but strange pink, giving her a youthful and amicable aura. She was wearing a ruffled and slightly dirty white lab coat, her hair was unkempt and her skin was so pale one might mistake her for an undead but none of this was able to hide the natural beauty she emanated. As for expression, it was one filled with laughter and mischievousness.

Thousand of memories filled Noah’s mind and one name reached his lips as he muttered with a hoarse voice,

“Venus.”

Venus, the 9th constellation—Sagittarius.