NIKKE, When the Milky Way Blossoms

The two men first gave Phoenix a friendly smile, then nodded towards the door and called in two cleaners standing in the hallway.

Then, Voss casually pointed to the body on the ground. After two cleaners began to deal with the body, he mustered his courage and walked with his colleagues toward the gate of cell 001.

"Lieutenant, dinner time is almost here." A prison guard shamelessly approached, his previous serious demeanor vanishing as he asked with a smile, "Do you have any dietary restrictions?"

"If I have dietary restrictions... I don't like sweet dishes."

As the saying goes, no one visits a temple without a reason. When Phoenix saw that Voss had taken the initiative to talk to him with such a lewd smile, he naturally guessed that the other party probably had some trouble and wanted his help.

So, to avoid playing games, he simply made the request directly, saying, "Remember to turn off the security camera in my room tonight. I don't like being spied on while I sleep."

"Eh... Huh?! Turn off the surveillance cameras???"

"Well, I might need to ask my superiors for permission, Second Lieutenant."

Completely unprepared, the prison guard, Worth, could only try to maintain his awkward smile and glance at his bearded colleague beside him.

“Sir… cough! It’s not that we can’t turn off the surveillance cameras. There have been exceptions before, Lieutenant.”

Perhaps due to nervousness, Lokham narrowly avoided biting his tongue when correcting himself. He awkwardly forced a smile and leaned forward to whisper to Phoenix:

"Lieutenant, I am Lockham, a colleague of Worth."

That's right. As you know, this level of detention area holds death row inmates who might still be useful to the Ark, but most of them have been detained for so long that the higher-ups have long forgotten about them.

Take, for example, the old man in room 017. He was originally a researcher at the Central Research Institute, but he was dismissed by the institute for some unknown reason. As a result, it was discovered that he was secretly conducting human experiments less than two years after his dismissal.

The evidence found in the laboratory alone proves that he killed at least six or seven people, and according to the experimental records, one of them was very likely his own wife.

So you don't need to be too polite to these scumbags. Even if we let you go privately, and this matter goes all the way to the curator, he'll turn a blind eye.

"Do you have a grudge against that researcher?"

Everyone here is a cunning fox; after hearing the prison guard's overtures, someone immediately understood the guard's subtle hint.

Why did he say this all of a sudden, right after he killed someone? What else could it be but settling a personal score?

"It's nothing, I was just asking out of curiosity. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

Seeing that Luo Kan looked hesitant and reluctant to speak, Phoenix did not force him to reveal the reason. Instead, he openly gestured for them to open the door and then walked straight towards room 017.

……

"Hello."

Without confirming the truth of the matter, the man, upholding the virtues of respecting the elderly and caring for the young, politely greeted the old man in room 017.

He was an old man who was as thin as a monkey, with sunken eyes and high cheekbones. Judging from the skin exposed outside his prison uniform, it would not be an exaggeration to describe him as skin and bones.

Seeing that a jinx had come knocking, the old man didn't show much excitement or panic. Instead, he turned around and smiled kindly at Phoenix.

"Young man, is there something you need from me?"

"Something came up, but it's nothing serious." The lieutenant maintained his smile and said, "I just wanted to confirm why you were locked up here."

"Oh, you're curious about that."

It's really nothing serious. I just used a few living people for experiments, and someone took a dislike to me, so they used their connections to lock me up here.

When asked about Phoenix, the old man was quite straightforward. He not only made no attempt to cover it up or lie, but the age spots around his eyes even wrinkled with excitement when the topic of "human experiments" came up.

"So you think this human experimentation isn't a big deal?"

"What I do is DNA cloning and encoding. Compared to this revolutionary cloning technology, what does it matter if a few people die?" The old man squinted, his eyes shining, as if he were reminiscing about the good old days.

"To put it another way, it wasn't them who died, so I don't know why these short-sighted guys are getting so worked up."

Oh right, I heard you're the commander, right?

Think about it, once the DNA cloning is successful, you, as the commander, won't need to go to the ground anymore. Countless cloned men will take your place as commanders, and countless cloned women will become Niki.

Theoretically speaking, everyone here is a beneficiary of cloning technology, and I don't understand why that old man at the research institute is so unwilling to compromise on this research.

He insisted on risking his life, forcibly deciding to lock me up here to die.

Phoenix did not refute this theory, but instead chose to take the initiative to extend the topic further.

"According to your idea, are clones really that cheap to produce? And that they'll be very obedient?"

"Hey, you've got good taste, young man. You've hit the nail on the head."

Seeing that the scoundrel was actually interested in discussing cloning technology with him, the old man's eyes brightened again, and he even seemed to become much more energetic.

"As long as the technology is mature, raising cloned humans is cheaper than raising pigs. At least you can eat pigs, but you can't eat humans like pigs."

As for whether they'll obey, that's simple. The government establishes a religion, then cuts off the neural pathways of a fanatic, clones and replicates them, and mass-produces fanatic warriors.

"Is that so? Then what you said contradicts what you said before."

Someone rested their right arm across the fence, their forehead gently against their forearm, and softly reminded them:

"If clones are cheaper than pigs and more obedient than dogs, that's not a good thing for 99% of people."

Because if that were the case, according to the logic of capital, they would eliminate the entire lower and middle classes of society as quickly as possible and replace them all with clones.

"Hmm...that's a possibility."

Upon hearing the young man's theory, the old man pondered, stroking his gray beard, his expression of approval tinged with a hint of doubt.

"But what does this have to do with you? Since you dared to kill someone in the rehabilitation center, even if the three major companies really did what you said, it shouldn't be your turn to die. You are still a beneficiary of cloning technology."

Clang!

The elderly researcher had barely finished speaking when a violent crash erupted within the Level 1 confinement chamber.

Turning my head, I saw that the man's iron fist had slightly bent one of the iron posts of the alloy fence of cell number 017.

"No, no, no, old man, you yourself said it was 'wheel'."

In front of everyone, the lieutenant raised his right arm once again, and the smile on his face gradually lost its original warmth.

"A pyramid is a pyramid, no matter how you cut it from bottom to top. How can you be so sure that this won't happen to me in the end?"

Clang!

Another punch was thrown.

Under the violent impact, the solid steel bar could not withstand the force and was dented by the nano-right arm.

"However, these arguments are secondary to me."

Phoenix looked at his work with satisfaction, his bright green eyes filled with an emotion called "eagerness".

"The main problem is that in our region, not opposing human experimentation is tantamount to insulting our martyrs."

Clang!

The bent alloy steel bar was knocked away on the spot, landing on the ground with a pleasant tinkling sound.

Then, to the old man's astonishment, the lieutenant turned sideways and slowly walked through the 017 gate, stretching his shoulders as he spoke:

"Sorry, after all that talking, I'm not here to reason with you."

"Me..."

"We've come to send you on your way."

Chapter 146 So that's what they were like?!

In the last few years of his life, the old man firmly believed that his old friends from the Central Research Institute would take the time to visit him and, incidentally, have a good debate about the ethical issues of human cloning.

But the old bastard never expected that, on the last stretch of his life, a young man who was very reasonable but also unreasonable would suddenly appear.

Boom-! ! !

When the steel bar pierced through the abdomen and was driven into the wall, when life slowly and clearly slipped away from one's body.

at this moment,

Looking down at his bleeding body, the prisoner, who had lived for seventy-five years, finally recalled the taste of pain and fear.

"I...I want to see the director of the Central Research Institute!"

The old man wailed, his hands gripping the steel bar in front of his abdomen tightly. He dared not move an inch, fearing that the slightest movement would break the airtight seal between the steel bar and his body, causing massive bleeding.

"...I, I want to see Koch!"

However, no one paid any attention to him, and no one dared to pay any attention to him.

Because a malevolent spirit stood before him, sitting on his bed, determined to watch him die little by little.

"You...you can't kill me..."

Blood surged from his stomach down his esophagus to his throat. After tasting the blood, the old man stopped insisting. His tone was a mixture of reluctant pleading and ungrateful threats.

"There are still a few key experimental data in my head. If you... if you kill me, those experiments... those people will have died in vain."

Unfortunately, he was met with silence.

More accurately, it was a kind of disdain; the young man in front of him didn't care about his results at all, just as he hadn't cared about those experimental subjects who were crying and screaming in agony back then.

He just wanted him dead.

A simple wish without any utilitarian purpose.

……