She pushed me in the wheelchair down to the shore. Breathing in the damp sea breeze, I felt my emotions settle, temporarily freed from the shadow of all that killing.
As she pushed me along, the nurse asked, "Mr. Ryan, how does it feel?"
"Feel?" I didn't understand at first. "Feel what?"
"The feeling of reaching the summit." She smiled sweetly. "Didn't you kill Shiva?"
My whole body jolted! This was classified information—even the other passengers on the plane didn't know. How had she heard about it?
"Who exactly are you?" I demanded, watching her warily.
"I'm a believer," she said, her smile slowly fading. "One of Shiva's followers."
Hearing that, I actually felt relieved.
"What, are you here to take my life? To avenge Shiva?"
"No. Shiva chose you. We cannot go against his will."
"Chose me?" I suddenly remembered Shiva's final moments—if he hadn't pulled his strike, I'd be the one scattered to the winds right now.
"Why?" I looked at her. "What's all this really about?"
"You and Shiva are both gifts that Headquarters offered to this world—they even gave you a lofty-sounding name, 'Neo-humans.'" She wheeled me along the beach, aimlessly wandering. "But do you think people like you and Shiva can still be called 'humans'?"
I thought of Shiva's eerie eyes, and my own mutated legs, and said nothing.
"Actually, Headquarters never considered you human. They just treated you as 'tools.'"
"Tools?"
"Yes." She gave a slightly mocking smile. "Tools to reshape the world."
"I don't understand."
"Have you read The Three-Body Problem? What struck me most wasn't the dark forest theory or dimensional strike—it was the ETO, the Earth-Trisolaran Organization. They were human beings who deeply hated humanity, who wanted the Trisolarans to arrive and destroy the species. I was shocked. Could humans really despise their own kind that much? It wasn't until I encountered 'Death Trip' that I realized—yes, they can."
"You're saying Death Trip's organizers—Headquarters—hate humanity?"
"Exactly. Just like the ETO in The Three-Body Problem, they hate humanity with a passion. They despise human greed, cowardice, weakness, stupidity, tyranny... But there are no aliens in the real world to leverage. So they had to work from within humanity itself, reshaping it from the ground up. This project began in the mid-1980s. Headquarters selected a batch of embryos and implanted different synthetic gene fragments, attempting to create 'superhumans' whose minds and bodies would surpass those of regular humans—so-called 'Neo-humans.'"
I'd heard some of this from Director Vance before and knew the broad outlines, but many questions remained: "Even so, so what? At best, they're just a few monsters Headquarters cultivated."
"No, not a few—many." She shook her head. "The batch of embryos designated as 'Neo-humans' numbered in the dozens. And this experiment has been running secretly for many years."
"So what?" I didn't understand. "That number is a drop in the ocean compared to the entire human population—completely insignificant."
"True, insignificant on its own. But the synthetic gene fragments Headquarters implanted are heritable."
Those words hit me like a bolt from the blue, sending a shudder through my entire body.
My God—so that was it!
The number of Neo-humans was indeed insignificant, but as long as they kept reproducing, these synthetic gene fragments would mix into the human gene pool and spread continuously. Eventually, they'd permeate the entire population. In other words, Neo-humans were like a drop of ink in a water barrel—sooner or later, they'd dissolve into all the water.
"Headquarters has calculated that, given current population sizes and iteration rates, within eighty years, 30% of the world's population will be infected with this genetic contamination. At that point, a watershed in human evolution will emerge: Neo-humans and Old Humans. The more powerful Neo-humans will inevitably dominate society, and 30% of the population will create a New World. The remaining 70% of Old Humans will have been reduced to another species entirely—their fate will probably be little better than monkeys in a zoo."
My scalp went numb, goosebumps rising all over my body. If that came to pass, it would be an apocalyptic scene of unspeakable cruelty.
An entire people reduced overnight to an inferior species, humans trampling their own kind as they climbed the evolutionary pinnacle... such a world would be hell on earth.
But what did any of this have to do with Death Trip?
"In order for the synthetic genes to be passed on, the genes dormant within those embryos since before birth had to be awakened. And the external trigger for that awakening was Death Trip."
That made sense. In this world, there was probably no competition more stimulating than Death Trip. Using it to awaken Neo-humans was the fastest method.
I suddenly noticed a problem: "If all of this is true, why have I never seen a Neo-human? Their genes should have mixed into the human gene pool by now."
The nurse looked ahead, her eyes as calm as the sea. "Because every awakened Neo-human was killed by Shiva."
I was too shocked to speak.
"Shiva was one of the earliest awakened Neo-humans, but he was repulsed by his own identity. Once he understood Headquarters' intentions, he decided to stop this terrifying and massive plan."
I trembled as I voiced my own deduction: "So Shiva kept participating in Death Trips, and whenever he found an awakened Neo-human, he'd kill them—preventing their genes from spreading?"
"Exactly." She nodded. "Generally, only the million-yuan prize level of competition provides sufficient stimulation to trigger Neo-human awakening. That's why Shiva appeared so frequently in high-level matches. In lower-level trips, most people didn't even know he existed."
"Then why—" I shouted, my voice cracking, "Why did Shiva spare me? He could have killed me the first time he saw me awaken!"
"I told you—Shiva chose you."
"Chose me? Chose me for what?!"
"The synthetic genes aren't perfect. There's a chance they'll consume the host. Shiva was already gravely ill, with little time left. He needed someone to take his place and continue his mission..."
"No!" I cut her off. "That person isn't me!"
"It is you, Ryan Knox." She looked at me. "Everything I'm telling you today—Shiva arranged it. He knew all along that you'd end up here."
My mind was a chaotic mess. What kind of world was this? I was human, yet I'd become a monster through genetics. They called me a "Neo-human," but they wanted me to slaughter other "Neo-humans"...
I struggled to my feet and staggered toward the ocean, only to collapse face-first into the frigid seawater. The cold shocked me back to clarity.
"Trying to escape?" The nurse crouched down, watching me. "Shiva said that if I told you everything, you wouldn't refuse."
I lifted my head, salt water and tears mingling on my face. "Why..."
"Because he saw how hard you fought to protect your companions. It's just that now, the companions you need to protect are rather more numerous—if you still consider yourself human."
I suddenly remembered Shiva's dying words:
"Ryan Knox, be human."
From the nurse, I learned many of Headquarters' secrets. Any one of them, if revealed, would be earth-shattering.
Like their "New World" plan.
Like their ambition to alter the course of human evolution.
Like the sprawling complexity of their influence, with high-ranking officials from many nations among their supporters.
Compared to me and Shiva, Headquarters was more like a colossal monster—a beast nourished by untold resources and power.
Right and wrong no longer mattered. In this world, there was never really right and wrong—only perspectives. From the farmer's standpoint, raising and slaughtering chickens was perfectly natural; from the chickens' standpoint, the farmer was a butcher.
From the human perspective, Neo-humans were evil; from the Neo-human perspective, all ordinary humans were stepping stones for evolution.
But I didn't know where I belonged—whether with the chickens or the farmer.
After a period of treatment and recovery, our wounds healed quickly. Jasper left first to attend a psychology conference. Selene and I stayed on North Senai Island.
The weather here was warm, and the isolation made it easy to forget your troubles.
Selene and I sat on the beach at dusk, feeling the gentle sea breeze, gazing at the golden sunset. The whole world seemed to quiet down. She rested her head lightly on my shoulder and murmured, "If only it could always be like this."
I stroked her hair with my fingertips and said nothing.
Suddenly, our phones buzzed simultaneously. That crisp notification yanked us right back to reality.
Opening the message, we found an email:
"Dear Passenger, congratulations on qualifying as a survivor of the A380 Aviation Trip and earning the opportunity for a 'Headquarters Visit Tour.' We now invite you to participate in the 'Maze Trip' to be held on the Nazca Plateau. The winner will receive a prize of seven million yuan and direct access to tour Headquarters, experiencing an unforgettable and wondrous journey. We look forward to your reply. If you decline to participate, simply ignore this email."
Here we go again.
I stared at my phone screen, my feelings hopelessly mixed.
Selene took my phone and set it down, wrapping her arms around me. She whispered in my ear, "Ryan, let's stop going on these trips. Let's stop playing this game. Can't we just live like ordinary people, safe and sound, living ordinary lives?"
I gently pushed her back and looked at her face. "But Selene, don't you have so many unanswered questions?"
"Yes, so many. So very many. Why does Headquarters run Death Trips, what's their goal, what's the deal with Shiva, and what happened to you—why you changed like that... But I can let all of that go, forget everything, pretend none of it ever happened. We can just live quietly, okay?"
I hesitated. "You can choose not to ask, not to think about all that... but can you really let go of your father?"
Selene's whole body jolted. "What did you say?"
I lowered my eyes. "Victor Day... the truth is... he didn't die."
Selene grabbed my shoulders, her grip fierce. "Where did you hear that? Who told you?"
"It was one of Shiva's people. They have deep ties with Headquarters. All these years, Victor Day has been inside Headquarters. If you go there, you should be able to see him."
Selene clapped a hand over her mouth, tears welling in her eyes. "Why..."
"I don't know either." I shook my head. "If you want to understand his reasoning, you'll probably have to ask him yourself."
The sun sank beneath the sea. The last ray of light swept across the beach, and the sea breeze turned cold.
We couldn't escape our fate.
Not Selene, and not me.
In this world, there's no such thing as a hidden paradise.
From the moment I first boarded that train, there was no turning back—just as García Márquez wrote in One Hundred Years of Solitude: I bought a permanent ticket and boarded a train with no final destination.