The Creatures that We Are

Officer Huang paused. He said regretfully, “Missing. She’s been undiscovered ever since.”

“Have the suspects been narrowed down?” Gao Yang asked.

Officer Huang shook his head. “It must have been a band of professional criminals. They left false clues behind to mask the whole thing as simple burglary.”

“Burglary?” Gao Yang felt like he was hearing another’s story. “Can credits be stolen?”

“Yes. And not just credits, but also human organs, artificial organs, cybernetic prosthetics, I chips, and S chips. I heard you lost all your memories. Do you know what the chips do?”

Gao Yang nodded. “I’ve learned about them.”

I Chips, implanted in the left hand at age three and regularly upgraded, served as permanent ID and internet access—essential for managing personal information, assets, and daily life. Without one, it would be impossible to even lead a life.

The S Chip, Closure Corporation's flagship product, offered something more involved. Implanted at the nape after age fourteen by one’s choice, it converted neural signals to data, allowing one’s consciousness to be digitized and uploaded to Closure's neural network, the Neunet. Each user became a terminal in Closure's super server.

It was a new territory seeing soaring growth with no comprehensive regulations or true order. However wide and free the Neunet was, it was equally unknown and dangerous.

Although Closure had rolled out various measures to promote safe use, many still died in the Neunet every year. Some even terminated their lives in the Neunet by dissolving their consciousness to achieve “immortality”.

When the Jupiter Virus first emerged, many suspected it to be transmitted through the Neunet, but the speculation was quickly disproven.

Although a staggering number of 94% of the population over fourteen years old had been implanted with S Chips, many of those without an S Chip or below fourteen had contracted Jupiter Virus.

Realizing that he was dwelling on the worldbuilding of this absurd dream, Gao Yang knocked himself out of it and focused.

“Liu Li, I’m going to show you pictures of your family, including those taken at the scene of the crime. If you don’t feel good, you may call stop at any time. If you remember any clues or details, please tell me.”

Gao Yang nodded.

Officer Huang took a key-shaped laser pointer from his breast pocket, pressing it once. It projected a holographic album, the page flipping before Gao Yang.

The first picture was a family photo taken on Gao Yang’s seventh birthday. His family celebrated his birthday at home, looking loving and harmonious.

He sat at the center of the sofa with a boxed gift he hadn’t opened in his arms. His grandmother and sister each took his sides, while his father and mother stood behind the sofa. At Gao Yang’s feet were a first-generation AI pet.

The photo portrayed a heartwarming moment, but Gao Yang didn’t remember it at all. He knew none of that was real. It was all falsified.

The album continued. Gao Yang saw photos of everyday life taken when he was in primary school, middle school, and high school. The level of technological advancement portrayed in the pictures was way above that of the Mist World.

During Gao Yang’s rehabilitation process, he was forced to learn about the false history of this dream from Yan.

In the early twenty-first century, humans achieved great breakthroughs in neurology, artificial intelligence, and human genetic engineering. The three explosive advancements changed humanity and the world forever.

Unfortunately, technology had no morals. It was like the Pandora’s Box. Humans opened the box while not being ready for it.

Crises of the economy, energy, faith, environment, survival, and race abounded. Wars started in localized parts before spreading to the whole world.

When the finally dust settled, human population had plunged from tens of billions to barely one billion. Oceans swallowed coastal regions; nuclear wastelands replaced cities.

Humanity craved peace. They began to rebuild, but with great difficulty.

More than a decade later, the global population had finally recovered to around two billion, but then humanity’s public enemy, Qilin, emerged and brought the Jupiter Virus upon the world…

Gao Yang found his mind straying once more.

The album had gotten to a black-and-white photo of his parents.

Gao Yang paused before breaking into a smile.

“Why are you smiling?” Officer Huang didn’t understand. The boy smiled when he saw his parents’ funeral photo? No wonder Jupiter Travelers were nicknamed Jupiter Maddogs.

“Nothing.” Gao Yang shrugged. “I’m just thinking that my parents finally have proper mourning pictures.”

Officer Huang wasn’t sure what to say. After a moment of silence, he said more seriously, “I’m going to show you the pictures at the scene of the crime now. Be ready.”

“Okay.”

The holographic album turned into a series of slides, lined up before Gao Yang. He saw his dead grandmother’s small frame under the dining table, face down with a pool of blood on the floor. Then there was his mother, lying in a corner in the living room, hair messy, face pressed into the floor. There was a large gory hole on her back. Another pool of blood had formed. His father lay on the sofa with no visible injury or blood. Terror had widened his eyes and drained the colors from his face.

Although Gao Yang knew these were all fabrications, his heart raced and his chest tightened.

He looked away.

Officer Huang replaced the photos of the dead with ones taken in other parts of the crime scene, which were easier to stomach.

After Gao Yang had gone through everything, Officer Huang turned off the projection.

“Do you remember anything?”

Gao Yang shook his head. “No.”

“Nothing at all?”

“Nothing.”

“If you remember anything, please tell me.” After a pause, Officer Huang said, “There’s one other photo I’d like to show you.”

Soon, a holographic photo was projected and enlarged.

Gao Yang started. The photo showed a jungle of tall buildings with neon light hazy in a drizzle. A girl stood on a signboard, seemingly about to jump to another. Before her, a translucent holographic green python nearly obscured her form.

Officer Huang enlarged the photo further and lowered the prominence of the viper with image processing, making the girl clearer.

She was tall and slim, her hair tied into a ponytail. Blood stained her high school uniform. A black cybernetic prosthetic replaced her left arm, its mechanical surface exposed. Her right hand gripped a sleek silver blade that caught fragments of neon light.

Her profile was caught in the picture. Skin fair and facial features delicately beautiful, she looked like a powerful, cold-blooded killer.

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