Cyberpunk: 2075.

Chapter 811, Section 21: Childhood and the Dodo
"This is such a hassle."

With a creak, the warehouse door was pushed open, and two men in white lab coats walked in, followed by four cold, robotic guards.

The researcher walking in front scratched his head in frustration and complained to his companion behind him, "It's just a routine sandstorm causing signal interference, but the higher-ups insist that we come to check it in the middle of the night. If this continues, and there are three or four sandstorms a night, will we have to run back and forth until our legs break?"

He muttered to himself as he glanced briefly at the warehouse piled high with tarpaulins. After confirming that nothing was amiss, his impatience became even more apparent.

"Sure enough, nothing happened." He spat. "I'm doing scientific research, not working as a security guard. That bastard upstairs is ordering us around just because he's in a high position." He lowered his voice and gritted his teeth, "Just you wait. Once I produce results, I'll make him kneel down and lick my shoes."

The man walking behind didn't reply, but just chuckled. The fact that they could so freely criticize their boss in such a cutthroat environment without fear of being reported meant that their relationship was clearly unusual—either they were longtime partners or close friends.

The robotic guards silently dispersed, the red dot scanners flashed rhythmically in the darkness, and the footsteps of the two researchers were exceptionally clear in the empty warehouse.

"Even if there's no other way, we have to come."

The mechanical guards had dispersed, silently scanning every corner of the warehouse. The researcher walking behind, Semill, finally spoke, his tone tinged with a helpless compromise: "After all, he's our boss now. If we don't want to be retaliated against, we'd better put up with it for now, Doss, at least until this is over."

"After this is over?"

Doss chuckled, then sighed deeply, as if to expel all the frustration from his chest. He kicked a metal part on the ground, making a dull thud.

“Semiel, do you really think this experiment can succeed?” He lowered his voice, his eyes filled with doubt and weariness. “I think it’s highly unlikely. That guy probably has a sour face all day long because he was assigned to guard this junk. He takes his anger out on us and orders us around all the time.”

He clenched his fists, his knuckles turning white. "Every time I see his face, I want to punch him."

"I think this experiment is amazing. Maybe it will actually succeed."

Unlike the dejected and grumbling Doss, Semill's eyes gleamed with an unusual light in the dim warehouse. He tilted his head slightly, as if he could see into a more distant time and space through the rusty ceiling.

"The dodo went extinct in 1681." His voice was soft, but with a kind of almost pious tremor. "You may find it hard to understand, but when I learned about it as a child—even though it was 2055, nearly four hundred years after their extinction—I still felt a dull pain."

He paused for a moment, his fingers unconsciously rubbing the worn areas on the cuffs of his research suit.

"It was a very strange feeling. This was a bird I had only seen in fairy tales. It disappeared forever in a short period of time, no more than 120 years, because of the unintentional activities of humans. There was deliberate hunting, and there was no malice. It was just a small life that was accidentally crushed in the process of human civilization's progress."

His fingers suddenly tightened, his knuckles turning slightly white: "And now, we really have a chance to bring them back. This project includes gene recombination experiments on the dodo birds." Semill turned to look at Doss, his eyes burning with a passion Doss had never seen before. "Don't you think this is amazing? This is not just a scientific breakthrough. This is making amends for the mistakes humanity has made."

Doss stared at Semill for a long time, and finally let out a long sigh: "A bird that has been dead for four hundred years, and you've never even seen what it really looks like, is it worth getting so excited about?"

“It’s worth it.” Semill’s smile shone brightly in the warehouse’s cold light. “I know it sounds silly, and you might think I’m a hopeless romantic or brainwashed by environmental propaganda.”

He reached out and gently touched the nearest incubation chamber, his slightly distorted reflection appearing on the glass surface.

“Even if the resurrected dodo is no longer the real dodo,” Semill’s voice was so soft it was almost a soliloquy, “just the thought of bringing that little creature from my childhood storybooks, who made me so sad for so long, back into this world.”

The mechanical guard's scanning beam swept across his profile, illuminating the glistening moisture in his eyes for a fleeting moment. "Just imagine... that regret that lived in a childhood picture book suddenly becoming a real, breathing, gurgling entity." He clenched his fist, then released it. "Just that moment alone is worth all the absurdity."

"This feeling is probably like finding a toy you lost in childhood again." He smiled shyly at Doss. "Although it's childish, this is my truest feeling. I really believe in it and am willing to work hard for this childhood dream."

Doss was silent for a moment, his boot unconsciously grinding against a shard of frost on the ground, making a soft crunching sound.

"So," he finally spoke, his voice lower than usual, "you volunteered to be transferred to this project? Just to... revive a bird?"

Samir didn't answer immediately. Instead, he reached for the data panel, adjusted the parameters on it, and the infrared scanners of the mechanical guards flashed regularly behind them, casting flickering light spots on the wall.

“Not entirely,” he finally said, a gentle smile that Doss knew all too well. “But it is indeed an opportunity.” He turned to look at the incubation chambers covered with tarpaulins deep in the warehouse. “You know what? When the company first started this project, it wasn’t even in the top twenty priorities, until someone suggested that we could genetically modify extinct creatures to create, well, ‘high-end custom pets’.”

Doss chuckled. "So in the end, it still becomes a commodity."

“Yes,” Semill sighed softly, the cuffs of his white lab coat gleaming coolly in the blue light of the control panel, “but at least,” his finger hovered over an icon on one of the panels, “it gave them a chance to be reborn, albeit a modified, incomplete one.”

The mechanical guard suddenly emitted a notification sound, interrupting their conversation.

Doss scratched his head in frustration: "Alright, let's get out of here after the inspection. The shipment from Dogtown still needs final adjustments." As he turned around, the hem of his white coat lifted slightly. "I heard that the first batch of experimental subjects compatible with military-grade prosthetics is being sent this time. Although it's not a success and is still a long way from completion, it's probably close to your dream."

Samuel hurried to catch up, and as he passed a corner, he seemed to catch an unnatural shadow out of the corner of his eye, but when he turned to look, he only saw neatly arranged shelves and a tarpaulin that seemed to be swaying slightly.

"What's wrong?" Doss, who was walking ahead, turned around and asked.

“It’s nothing.” Semill shook her head, suppressing the strange feeling in her heart. “It’s probably just my imagination.”

The warehouse door slowly closed behind them, and in a deliberately overlooked corner, a tarpaulin was sliding silently to the ground at an extremely slow speed.

"Biological test subjects, being transported to Dogtown?"

Carl watched Semill and Doss's retreating figures, his eyes flickering.

He had already obtained some of the information that Mr. Blue Eyes wanted, and although this information was not enough to complete the task, it provided the possibility of continuing the investigation along this line.

then
'A dodo bird,' it.

As he watched their figures disappear completely, Karl broke into a bright smile.

"It sounds really interesting. I hope this product can be launched soon. I'm really looking forward to it."

The smile on his face was exactly the same as the smile Samir had when he talked about his childhood dream.

(End of this chapter)