"Have you discovered anything about the culprit’s identity?" He Juan asked first.

Much to his surprise, Marius shook his head. "No, but I may have something that can lead you to them." He grabbed the thick folder next to him. He Juan watched as he flipped through the papers before pulling out a few pieces, placing the rest of the folder aside. He slid the papers over to He Juan. "Read these."

Intrigued, He Juan took the papers and his gaze instantly landed on the heading that was printed in bold characters. "This..." he raised his head in confusion. Why did Marius want him to read some random people’s resignation letters?

If it was any other people, He Juan would have suspected that they were playing a joke on him. But the person in front of him was Marius Morningstar, the man who had conquered Myanmar’s drug trade and purged any seeds of rebellion in less than a year. Marius was the last person who would resort to joking, especially at a time like this.

And judging from the man’s increasingly somber look, He Juan was right.

Marius pointed at the resignation papers one by one. "Professor Kubo from Kyoto, Doctor Kelly from the USA, Professor Duan Ying from China and many others... all of them are leading scientists in their own country who are renowned for their groundbreaking research. At a glance, there seemed to be no connection between them whatsoever. But guess what I found?" His lips tilted into a wry sneer.

"The reason...?" He Juan took a tentative guess.

Now that Marius was showing these papers to him, it must hold some kind of meaning. He Juan could only guess two important points that could be inferred from resignation letters: either the reason behind the letters or the dates. However, he leaned more toward the former once he noticed that a few of those papers had begun to turn yellow as if they had been archived for quite a long time.

"That’s one thing." Marius nodded, clasped his arms on the table and leaned forward to say, "Starting from forty years ago, once every five or six years, a group of renowned researchers would step down from their position without any clear reason. And the time interval between their resignation was less than three days. Some even resigned on the very same day. If you still don’t feel like something is off about this, then let me tell you that their field of study has something to do with pheromones, analysis of manifestation period, DNA reconstruction and something similar to that."

He Juan was still unclear as to where Marius was going with all of this, but an unpleasant sensation started to permeate his chest. A humid breeze blew by, sending prickles of goosebumps all over his arms. "And...?"

"And after that, they disappeared. Literally." Marius paused for a moment to let his words sink in, then continued, "They were all in their prime. Would they really step down and abandon their research just like that? But that’s the weird thing. I have searched all the nearby institutions, universities and hospitals, but I couldn’t find them. Unless they thoroughly pulled out of their field and returned home to plow their ancestor’s land, something like this was impossible and totally unheard of before."

He Juan’s brain whirled in full speed along with Marius’ revelation. He murmured his thoughts out loud, "They resigned when they were in their prime, and they vanished after that. Did they get a better offer somewhere perhaps...? Was it the reason why they could clean their hands so decisively and go under the radar?" This was the only reason He Juan could think of. After all, a human’s desires in this mortal world wouldn’t stray far from wealth, status and affection, no?

Marius gave him an appreciative look. He reached for his folder again and pulled out another stack of papers.

"During those years, the cases of missing people throughout the world increased by multiple fold. I have filtered through the list and focused on the countries where those researchers were missing, and look at what I found." 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

He Juan was dumbfounded at the sheer number of people listed on the papers. That was... a lot! There were tens if not hundreds of missing people each month, and they were all...

He Juan was aghast. "They were all Omegas?"

"Not only that..." Marius paused and stated lightly, almost in a whisper. "They’re all pregnant too."

He Juan’s pupils shook and his grip abruptly tightened on the paper, causing deep creases to form on it. He pressed his lips into thin lines. The peanut butter cookie that he had just savored a moment ago felt like sand on his tongue now. Nausea started to churn in his stomach and he could feel himself breaking into cold sweat.

Pregnant omegas? How...

"They..." He swallowed past the lodge forming on his throat. "Have they ever been found? Even one of them?"

Marius heaved a sigh, already expecting that this was the first question He Juan would raise. Nonetheless, he still had to brace himself and deliver the horrible news. "Either they’re found dead or... they are still missing right until this moment. I have done some investigation into their backgrounds. Forty percent of them hailed from a poor family and were crippling in debt. And after those Omegas disappeared..."

"...the family received a huge sum of money and their debts were nullified," He Juan finished the sentence, earning him a solemn nod from Marius. They were no stranger to how the procedure was done. Even now, there are still so many omegas who sell their ovary eggs in the black market.

But to sell the omegas themselves along with the fetus in their stomachs...

He Juan blanched, torn between rage and sorrow. He knew that there was nothing he could do about it. After all, the accident had happened forty years ago – before he was even born in this world. But still, he couldn’t help but feel his heart breaking for those poor Omegas.

Unbidden, Mu Yuze’s innocent question sprung up in his mind — "Why must Omegas be the only ones who suffer?"

Yes... why indeed?

Unfortunately, He Juan had also been desperately seeking the answer to that question. Why Omegas? Why was it only Omegas but not Alphas or Betas too?

Was it because they were the bottom of the food chain, and thus the perfect prey to be hunted? Was it because of their wondrous ability to conceive and give birth to life?

Or... had it been preordained?

No. He Juan was unwilling to accept such a fate. He did not want to! And that’s why he had been working his bones off these past few months, attempting to purge the corruption in his own country first. Even though there was a possibility that his efforts might turn futile, even though there was a possibility that he might not be able to change anything... he still wanted to try. To save them. To erase the warped discrimination between secondary genders that had existed for centuries.

To make this world a better place to live in.

And for that, he was willing to go all out and fought to his last breath.

"Ah I forgot to tell you," Marius exclaimed softly, bringing He Juan out of his vortex of wild emotions. "Forty years ago... that was also the same year when the fatal side effect of AX–03 was first discovered. What do you say, XIU? Isn’t this such an uncanny coincidence?"