Rewriting My Fate in the Apocalypse-Chapter 391: Extinction of Humanity

"That is how we fight the apocalypse. That is how we fight extinction. Not through experiments that strip away who we are." Leng Pan almost felt like she had become a qualified motivational speaker at this point.

She didn’t know if her little speech would have any impact, considering that the people before her no longer had any emotions she could appeal to.

But she still chose to try the soft tactics instead of a full blown battle.

"You think perfect control is strength." Lu Zhen added.

"But you are terrified of the chaos that comes with humanity. That is what human emotions do."

"That is an illogical assessment." AA said. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

"Is it?" Lu Zhen asked.

"If it isn’t true then why have you hidden yourself behind sealed doors and magnetic waves?" Leng Pan asked with raised eyebrows.

There was dead silence in the room. For the first time since those modified humans walked into the room, something that resembled humanity showed on their faces.

Hesitation.

Leng Pan acted while they were still thinking.

Solid ice arrows appeared in front of everyone pointing straight between their eyebrows.

"I will not destroy you since you thought you were making the right decision to protect your loved ones.

But I can’t let you continue to decide the future of humanity either.

If you are fighting against zombies or aliens who are destroying humanity, that is one thing. But if you want to finish the remaining existing humans so that the perfect humans can create a new order, then I won’t allow it." Leng Pan said solemnly.

The humans stood still without moving. Not out of fear from facing that arrow. They no longer felt fear, but from the realization that their choice might have been flawed.

"Your presence here increases deviation beyond acceptable parameters." AA said.

This was how you distinguished who was human and who wasn’t. Even when the humans were modified.

"That’s good. Because it proves that we are still humans. Humans should be unpredictable, unlike machines and robots." Leng Pan replied.

There was a long silence in the room after Leng Pan’s words fell.

The ice arrows glinted in the artificial lighting, simply hovering in the air without advancing or retreating, as if waiting for something. A signal.

The modified humans stood there, motionless without saying a word or moving.

After two whole minutes which felt like forever, the woman who had spoken about making the decision to join the program for her son furrowed her brows slightly.

It was a very slight movement, but both Leng Pan and AA caught it.

Leng Pan knew that her motivational speaking hadn’t been completely in vain.

AA on the other hand began getting error messages in his system.

The woman placed a hand over her chest and said softly, "I feel uncomfortable."

She had eradicated her emotions, not her memories or logic. So, she knew that she was showing signs of experiencing emotions again. Her heart was aching. That was why she felt uncomfortable.

"That is an error. Your neural dampening module has erased all emotions." AA said as if to convince both himself and the woman.

"I know." The woman said. She had undergone the procedure several times to completely eliminate all emotions, so she knew.

But something felt wrong.

"I know I should feel nothing. But hearing you say that I no longer exist as a human, I feel as if a part of me was taken away. As if I am no longer whole." This was a foreign feeling for the woman ever since she underwent the procedure to eliminate her emotions.

"It must be psychological." Another man said. "As optimized humans, we are the most complete." The only problem was that the hesitation in his voice wasn’t very convincing.

"Your humanity was never erased. It was only suppressed. That’s why something could trigger it awake at any time." Leng Pan explained to the woman and a few others who looked confused.

It was obvious that they had been told that their emotions were unnecessary and had been eliminated.

They were never told the truth. That something as humane as emotions could not be taken out of their bodies. It could only be suppressed and locked away through chemical and psychological barriers.

Once these barriers are touched, they would start to erode and release those suppressed emotions once more.

AA sensed a change in the physical data of the experimental subjects.

"Unauthorized changes detected. Initiating correction measures."

"No." A weak voice escaped the woman’s lips. It was as if she was unsure of what she wanted.

As it turned out, to continue suppressing their emotions and any other neurons that might affect them from being perfect humans, a chip had been implanted in their bodies that could be used for correction.

The correction involved going through another round of what could be considered treatment to further suppress their emotions.

Leng Pan seemed to see an opening when the woman said no and stepped forward.

"You were promised something as unrealistic as immortality, control, and stability. But let me ask you a question, how much of your life are you in control of now?"

The humans thought for a while before some of them shook their heads.

They weren’t even allowed to leave that floor. It was like they had willingly stepped into a prison.

"Did you understand the full cost of your choices and actions?" Leng Pan asked again.

More people shook their heads, hands clenched.

"You were just tools to fulfill a goal. Why did those people who initiated this program use their own families since they believe in immortality?

They remained normal humans, while you became puppets." Leng Pan wasn’t pulling punches.

AA seemed to be alarmed as the people responded positively to everything Leng Pan said.

"Correction protocols engaged. Neural locks initiated. All subjects will return to optimal state." As the last word dropped, the modified humans had various expressions of pain in different degrees.

This seemed to be related to their rebellious thoughts.