Conan: When Shinjiu and Maolilan swap bodies

The sound of bones breaking was clearly audible.

His bloodshot eyes pierced through the chaotic crowd, locking onto the figure that had entered through the heavy security door.

Fiano's usually calm, almost arrogant face was now deathly pale. His fingers frantically poked at the buttons, trying to close the door quickly.

"Fi-A-No!"

He ignored the small fry around him and charged straight ahead like a mad beast eyeing its prey!

He grabbed the researcher who was blocking his way and threw him against the wall like a rag doll. He kicked the metal control panel, deforming it and sending it sliding away, producing a screeching noise and sparks flying everywhere.

Fiano glanced back and saw those crimson eyes, growing ever closer and filled with a maniacal smile, and he was terrified.

The safety door began to close slowly, emitting a heavy mechanical whirring sound.

"Don't run away..." Qingze's voice rang out, tinged with the strong smell of blood, "We haven't finished recording yet..."

He reached out, his bloodied fingers just inches from Fiano's nape, his fingertips able to feel the bristling hairs and violent trembling on the other's neck.

Just as the fingertips were about to touch—

"Koniak, stop."

An indescribable sound exploded in my ears.

His forward momentum suddenly froze in mid-air, as if he had crashed into an invisible wall of sighs.

His outstretched arm froze in mid-air, a violent tremor erupting from the depths of his bones, and the manic smile on his face instantly twisted.

At the same time, several concealed nozzles on the ceiling opened silently, and a dense mixture of high-concentration fast-acting sedatives and potent anesthetics surged out, quickly enveloping the area.

He staggered, trying to take a step forward, but his knees buckled and he collapsed heavily to his knees in the cold, sticky pool of blood.

The hand that reached out to Fiano spasmed as it opened and closed its fingers, finally falling limply to the ground.

The security door closed completely in front of him, shutting out Fiano's terrified, contorted face behind the heavy metal.

My vision began to blur and spin, and my consciousness sank into darkness.

Chapter 540 How wonderful it would be to die here.

Fragments of memory jump around, sticky, like film soaked in medicine.

Time may have passed in days, weeks, or even longer, but Qingze was in a daze and couldn't feel the passage of time.

He huddled in the pitch-black space, eyes open, as quiet as a soulless doll.

The door was opened, and light streamed in, but Qingze did not react.

Fiano's white coat was spotless, and he was followed by heavily armed security personnel.

He adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses, and the security guards behind him injected Qingze with a sedative before taking him back into the laboratory.

Qingze remained motionless, as if he had lost his soul.

The light pierced his eyes, and Qingze closed them uncomfortably, but still did not make any movement.

He lay silently on the metal bed, not uttering a word, as if he had blocked out all information from the outside world.

On the screen next to it are various physical test data.

The heart rate was slow and steady, blood pressure was low, the electroencephalogram showed extensive slow wave activity, neurotransmitter monitoring showed extremely low levels of serotonin and dopamine, and the cortisol curve was flat...

"All physiological indicators are stable within the typical range of the depressive phase. Motor cortex activity is almost at rest, and blood flow to the prefrontal cortex, areas related to executive function, is significantly reduced..."

Fiano paused, looking at Qingze on the bed who seemed to be asleep, but in reality had simply lost all desire to move.

"Compared to the unpredictable and destructive manic or mixed episodes, this depressive state of losing most of the will to act, while having relatively limited research value, is indeed much less worrisome from a management and safety perspective..."

He completely relaxed.

If there is no desire to act, it means there is no aggression, so there is no need to be so vigilant.

The next moment, Fiano's vision blurred and a sharp pain shot through his neck.

A pale hand gripped his neck.

Time seemed to pass in a fleeting moment, yet it also felt infinitely long.

Fiano stared in disbelief at the person choking him.

how come?

Wasn't a sedative already administered?

Moreover, this state of depression should be characterized by a complete lack of motivation to do anything...

Qingze's fingers tightened quickly, but stopped abruptly when they reached a certain point.

His expression suddenly turned ferocious, and his forehead quickly became covered in cold sweat.

The veins in his arms bulged, constantly tightening and stopping, tightening and stopping in a cycle.

"Stop!"

"Koniak, stop."

A familiar voice came to my ears.

His fingers slowly and stiffly loosened as several sedatives and anesthetics were injected into his body.

Outside the huge observation window, Qingze lay quietly inside the new generation consciousness retracing capsule.

Countless fine optical fibers and bioelectric sensors, like a living neural network, are attached to key areas of his head and spine.

A pale blue glow pulsed slowly within the cabin, illuminating his closed eyelids and overly calm face.

"The upgraded consciousness retracing pod is indeed very effective. Koniak's deep emotional wave frequency is much more stable than before, and the baseline fluctuation amplitude has decreased by 47%..."

Dr. Payton's voice rang out, carrying a strange sense of satisfaction.

This was the most emotionally intense section of Koniak's memory corridor, but here, Koniak's emotional state was better than it had been several times before.

His tireless efforts in upgrading and iterating during this period were worthwhile.

Dr. Payton's eyes were bloodshot, yet they gleamed with excitement.

He had been working through the night for several days in a row, but there was no sign of fatigue on his face. He stared at the several screens on the wall in front of him, his eyes filled with a focused, almost obsessive, research enthusiasm.

This is a true seeker of the Way.

He was willing to give everything for the "Tao" he sought.

"Release a preset reverse harmonic sequence, starting with an intensity of Alpha-3 and gradually increasing, with the goal of offsetting and canceling out the detected residual unstable wave peaks."

Dr. Payton gave the order, his finger rapidly sliding across the control panel to bring up a series of complex parameters.

On the screen, several waveforms representing "limbic system activity" and "irrational emotion association cortex" began to show disturbances.

The originally somewhat chaotic peaks and valleys, under the intervention of reverse harmonics of a specific frequency, seem to be combed by an invisible comb, gradually becoming smooth and regular.

"The results are as expected!" an assistant researcher exclaimed, his voice filled with surprise. "The unstable peaks are being suppressed, and the overall waveform is approaching the preset calm model."

Dr. Payton's smile deepened, but he didn't relax; his grey-blue eyes remained fixed on a set of fluctuating numbers on the main screen—

That is an indicator that reflects the subject's subconscious resistance and neuroadaptive response.

“Don’t be careless. Koniak’s neural plasticity and potential resistance mechanisms far exceed those of conventional samples. Increase the harmonic intensity to Beta-1 level…”

Inside the retrograde cabin, Qingze's brows furrowed slightly in his sleep, and the intense emotional fluctuations that should have occurred subsided once again.

In my memory, under the combined effects of a powerful sedative and anesthesia, the boy's body slowly slid down.

He closed his eyes in annoyance.

Once, twice, three times...

It was as if some kind of restriction was set in his mind, so whenever he was just one step away from killing Fiano, he would stop himself.

A voice kept talking in my head.

"Stop."

"Not allowed."

"This is an order!"

You can't allow it on your mother!

The more this happened, the more it fueled Qingze's rebellious spirit.

He absolutely has to kill Fiano!

If direct killing wasn't feasible, he would kill indirectly.

You can't bring guns into the lab, but that's okay, anything you have on hand can be used as a weapon.

Fiano was terrified of him; whenever Coniac made any unusual move, he would run away as fast as a startled rabbit.

After that, all experiments and data recordings were handled by his assistant, while he remained behind the scenes.

Qingze couldn't find Fiano.

After kicking Vermouth, whom he hadn't seen in a long time, away and massacring an entire base, Qingze arrived at the deserted coastline, utterly exhausted.

He sat on the rocks by the sea, feeling extremely bored.

What's the point of struggling to live for so many years?

Life is getting worse and worse.

He was getting worse and worse.

A hand was pulling him down...

He couldn't even control himself.

How wonderful it would be to die here...

Sink into the turbulent sea, and it will all be over.

The seawater was icy cold, and with a heavy, sluggish resistance, he walked into it step by step.

The water level rose higher and higher, submerging chest height and covering mouth and nose.

A suffocating, dull feeling enveloped me, and all I could hear was the muffled whimper of the flowing water and my own gradually slowing heartbeat.

Darkness spread before my eyes, as if the silence was finally coming to an end.

His steps suddenly stopped.

No.

A voice suddenly exploded from the ashes of a soul that was almost extinguished by the icy seawater.

How could they die like this?

How could... just die like this?

How could someone die so easily, so cheaply, so... quietly?!

Chapter 541 Ten years of trials and tribulations have passed; from now on, the cage will no longer confine me.

From the depths of frozen despair, a cluster of violent and twisted flames suddenly erupted.

The flames dried up the salty seawater in my lungs, burned through my numb limbs and bones, and burned out a bright, scarlet red!

If he's going to die, it has to be the way he chooses to die!

If you're going to die, it has to be a death that changes the world and that no one can ignore—the most spectacular death ever!

All the confinement, all the pain, all the hatred...

They must be buried with them!

Plan, execute, detonate.

The deafening roar swallowed up all other sounds!

A blinding fireball shot into the sky, tearing through the night and turning the imposing building into an erupting volcano!

Steel bars twisted, glass shattered, and fragments and flames shot out like celebratory fireworks.

He stood on the edge of the explosion, the wind whipping his clothes and hair.