The victims had their brain crushed by an invisible mental power, ending their lives within a blink of an eye. Such was the observation stated in the report, and it was also what He Juan had discovered on the corpses back inside the bar. But the culprit... it couldn’t be...

"I don’t think so, XIU." Marius shook his head, bringing He Juan out of panic swelling in his chest. "You told me that you didn’t sense the pheromones until you stepped into the room. It means that whoever has left them must have decent control of themselves. That’s why I don’t think that the one who did it is a minor."

What Marius said made perfect sense. If it had been a minor who had just gone through the manifestation period, then their pheromones would have flooded the entire room – no, the entire neighborhood. Just like the emergency recorded in the confidential report, they might even have to evacuate the whole city to reduce the number of casualties to the bare minimum. Such was the destructive power of those mutated Alphas.

However, He Juan could not find it in himself to be relieved. He had no idea which one was worse – dealing with a minor who had accidentally executed a mass killing, or a powerful adult who killed with a clear purpose. It seemed like both were equally horrible...

He Juan shook his head and shelved the thought for the time being in lieu of reading the report again. "What about this boy?" He asked while flipping past the pages of witnesses’ testimony. "Where is he now? Is it possible to schedule a meeting, even for five short minutes? He is the only mutated Alpha we have found! Surely, he must have some crucial information—" the rest of his words got stuck in his throat once he got to the page stating the conclusion of the case.

The boy’s condition continued to get worse after the Interpol took over the case. Due to his increasingly unsound mental state and aggressive behavior, he had to be locked up in a special isolation room to prevent him from hurting or killing anyone. Tranquilizer did not seem to work on him, instead he became even more feral once injected with the substance. In the end...

He bit his own tongue and comittted suicide.

It happened so suddenly that the officers in charge of him could not react on time. Alas, when they rushed in to rescue him, everything was already too late.

He died at the tender age of ten, surrounded by the people and environment that scared him the most.

He Juan did not even realize that his fingers were shaking as he turned to the very last page of the report. It was the photograph of the boy – a thin, scrawny child with huge terrified green eyes. His cheeks were pale and sunken, and there was even a tear streak on it. His back was slightly hunched and the line of his body tense. It was as if he was ready to attack as long as the other person made a move. This was the same boy who had been driven to the edge of insanity and even resorted to biting his own tongue...

How frightened, how miserable and painful he must be feeling at that time?

He Juan could feel tears stinging the back of his eyes the longer he stared at the picture. In the end, he had to close the report, put it away and palmed his eyes. "Sorry, I..." he let out a wet, hoarse chuckle. "Please give me a few minutes..." he took a deep breath to alleviate the heaviness in his chest. Yet it was no use.

He really could not figure it out. How could some people be so cruel in the name of so-called knowledge and cutting-edge innovations? For the sake of removing AX–03’s fatal side effect, for the sake of being the one who perfected the miraculous drug... they could even forgo their conscience and morality.

Was it worth it? He wished he could drag a scientist in front of him and roared this question right in front of their face. Was it worth it for you to become a monster who inflicted torment to others?!

Marius said nothing to comfort him, knowing that a thousand words would only seem empty and hollow in a situation like this. Instead, he threw away the cooling tea in He Juan’s cup and poured him another hot one, then pushed all the sweets in front of him.

"Why was he so terrified?" He Juan suddenly raised his head and asked, revealing a pair of bloodshot eyes. "I can understand that they might have hurt him when they tried to subdue him for the first time. But why did he keep saying that those people wanted to kill him?"

He more or less knew how the police and Interpol worked. Even though the little guy had killed a bunch of people, it was totally out of his control. Adding on to his age, it could only be considered an accident at most. No matter what, the Interpol agents could not treat him like a criminal and thus, trying to extract information from him by hard methods should be impossible as well.

So what was up with the boy’s statement written on the report?

Marius hesitated for a few seconds, then still decided to share his opinion. "This is just my guess..." he sighed. "After AX–03 was banned, the group should have ceased their experiment for fear that the Interpol would catch wind of their illegal activity. Or at least, they ought to keep a low profile for a few years. But judging from the boy’s mental and physical state, it seemed like he had been on the run for quite some time. Most likely... he was hunted."

Oh. So he was...

Everything suddenly clicked in He Juan’s mind, like the last puzzle piece that had fallen into the right place, offering him an insight to the whole picture.

This inhumane experiment must not see the light of the day. If the truth had been exposed, it would have undoubtedly created a worldwide scandal, one that would shake numerous countries’ welfare and economic stability. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Alas, because of this accident, the Interpol ended up discovering a terrifying existence, a mutated Alpha whose blood was fused with a high concentration of AX–03.

He Juan could only guess how the boy could escape from whatever secret institution that confined him. Perhaps something happened to that place that gave him the opportunity to run away, perhaps he escaped on his own, or perhaps... there were others with him as well...

Whatever it was, he fled from that hellish place and got stranded in the town where he suddenly underwent his manifestation and ended up alerting the Interpol. He was aware that he would not be safe in that place. He was aware that sooner or later, someone would come to get rid of him, to crush this tip of the iceberg that had accidentally broken through the surface.

That’s why he was terrified to death. He had been telling the truth all along. It was easy, so easy for the government to send in a request for him to be silenced...

After all, dead men tell no lies. And it was the best way to keep everything buried... forever.

Had the boy really committed suicide?

He Juan began to doubt that. Unfortunately, the accident happened ten years ago. Even if he wanted to investigate it, time would have erased all traces that might linger.

He Juan barked out a hollow laugh. He could not bring himself to be surprised anymore. It seemed like all of the twisted discoveries had turned him utterly numb, inside out. "Hunted..." he hissed. "They’re all hunted to dispose of the evidence? But it failed, didn’t they? Now, ten years later, a mutated Alpha appeared yet again."

It seemed like his guess had been spot on. The bomb was there to erase whatever trail was left behind by the mutated Alpha. But through some twists and turns, He Juan stumbled upon the murder scene and ended up noticing the uncanny pheromones.

Now the real question was, why would a mutated Alpha kill Blue Lotus’ men? What was Blue Lotus’ role in this grand scheme and... where was he now?