Falling into the Abyss

Ethan was currently sitting on an uncomfortable seat in a spaceship for the short journey. He had to adjust his sitting posture every once in a while to relieve the numbness and swelling of a particular region of his body. Outside of the spaceship’s window, the distant stars filling the Milky Way were like silver powder scattered all across the universe. Even with the primal engine’s propulsion, causing their speed to exceed the speed of light, the stars far from them still seemed to be immovable.

Ethan was in a good mood. Although Gray Fur was behaving rudely to him, and he received a kick after he was ordered to ascend the spaceship when he slowed down for a few steps to look at Tanisiel in the distance, neither of those things could affect his good mood. He gently touched the bite mark on his neck, which still throbbed painfully, and suddenly threw his fear of the future out into the sky.

However, he thought of an old saying, “All good things come to an end,” and a bit of melancholy and worry mixed into his feeling of joy. He remembered that he had once been so happy after establishing a relationship with Roland. How could he have known what kind of fate awaited him at that time?

As soon as the spaceship landed on Earth, Ethan was immediately seized by two robot policemen and stuffed into an enclosed medium-sized aircraft. When he was pushed into the cabin, he immediately saw Cavin and several other nonhumans who had also been on the mission to Neptune previously. As various pairs of eyes glanced at him, his good mood suddenly plummeted. He sat in the seat closest to the cabin door without saying anything and buckled his seat belt.

They were sent directly to the Earth’s Defence Base on the moon. They lined up and were driven to a small hall guarded by heavy troops, where they waited for more than an hour.

No one told them why they had been brought here, and most of the guards were robot policemen. Ethan deliberately kept a distance from the other nonhumans and raised his collar to cover the bite marks on his neck.

Adam gave him a once-over with a cold gaze, but after that, their eyes never met. Meanwhile, the other nonhumans pretended he didn’t exist. Only Cavin approached the seat where he was sitting and sat down next to him with a bang.

“I heard you were seized by that alien priest again?”

Ethan rolled his eyes and didn’t bother to reply to him.

“Listen, previously, on Neptune……cough, cough, I was a little too agitated,” Cavin said, pinching his nose. There was slight embarrassment on his face, which had always projected dignity and power.

Ethan looked at his appearance and felt it was a little interesting. “Are you apologizing to me?”

Cavin stared at him, but Ethan wasn’t scared at the moment. As though he had seen a whole new world, the secretary laughed lowly and said, “This is really strange.”

“Hey, Omega, don’t climb all over my face,” the other party said in a threatening tone.

Ethan didn’t speak anymore, but the smile in the corner of his eye still riled up Cavin, who was beside him. He said angrily, “It seems that Johnathan Samuel has taken a fancy to a new Omega recently. Let’s see whether you can continue being prideful.”

Ethan was stunned and asked with surprise, “What?”

Ethan was the only one who was worried. Inwardly, he scolded the fool—who knew what dangerous acts that fool had committed again?

After a long time, several men in prim and proper suits and two senior officers finally appeared. Ethan caught sight of the middle-aged blonde man donning a beige suit. That was Stanley Dixon, the former deputy director of the Energy Bureau.

Ethan was familiar with Stanley, but he did not like him very much. Although he looked friendly, approachable, considerate, and perfect, Ethan always found this person unfathomable and incomprehensible. Instead of him, he was more willing to work for the chairman. Although the white-haired chairman was strict and may even seem a bit inhuman at times, at least he was a trustworthy leader with clear guidelines for his employees.

Stanley saw Ethan sitting alone in the corner of the hall and nodded to him with a smile. Ethan couldn’t help sitting up straight and immediately noticed the looks the other nonhumans shot him.

”All nonhumans stand up!” the guard hollered from the side. The nonhumans could only get up one after another and stand awkwardly.

A middle-aged man in his forties, wearing a major general’s epaulet, said in a cold, emotionless voice, “You can choose a representative to speak on the group’s behalf and raise your hand if you want to add anything.”

The nonhumans almost collectively glanced at Cavin, but Cavin pointed to Ethan and said, “He’s your man, so you should ask him.”

The well-dressed officers and soldiers were suddenly compared to a non-human, and all showed their displeasure. Ethan also felt very embarrassed and glared at Cavin.

Stanley explained to the crowd, “He used to be a member of our Energy Bureau. His name’s Ethan Eldridge.”

“Fine. Eldridge, in your previous report, you mentioned that you thought you would be swallowed up by the second universe soon and that it was the Eve priest Tanisiel who kept talking to you and ordered someone to pull the space station back in time?”

“That’s what I said.”

“Please describe the situation back then in detail. When you say ‘almost,’ how close were you to being swallowed?”

Ethan naturally did not want to recall that moment of despair. Still, since he was ordered to do so, he had to say, “I remember that when I opened my eyes, I saw that one corner of the room was already infected. The whole room was tilting towards that corner as if it had been stretched.”

“The ground under your feet had stretched, too?”

Ethan thought about it carefully. “I believe so, but I’m not one hundred percent sure.”

Another officer said in a low voice, “This shows that the laws of the second universe had completely broken down the barrier and were about to spread to the entire space station. At this time, pulling the space station back was equivalent to forcibly pulling something belonging to the second universe back, which is likely to create a gap in space-time, and resulting in the fusion and infection of different space-time universes.”

“But why can’t the laws of our universe resist the infection?” someone questioned.

The former researcher shook his head. “This is what I don’t understand. It’s very likely that……the laws of the second universe are stronger than ours.”

The Major General swept his cold gaze across them and questioned, “Did any of you find that your bodies experienced abnormalities after that?”

Everyone remained silent. Ethan swallowed a mouthful of saliva secretly.

“No one’s talking? It doesn’t matter. I’ll take all of you for a physical examination later.”

Ethan grew a little flustered when he heard the words ‘physical examination’. Although he controlled his facial expression, his palms were already sweating.

He could never let anyone know that there was something wrong with his blood……

However, suddenly Adam, who had been trembling, raised his left hand and said, “That……I feel a little weird sometimes.”

All eyes were on the poor Omega. The Major General asked, “Weird? What’s wrong?”

“My skin……sometimes it sticks to other things……” Adam said and fished out his right hand from his pocket, which he had previously kept hidden.

It was no longer a hand. A thin, flesh-colored film spread from his wrist, wrapping around a small plastic water cup.

Ethan and the others did not receive a thorough physical examination. Instead, they were crudely scanned with a scanner. It was evident that everyone’s attention was focused on Adam, who had an obvious mutation. Apart from Adam, who was kept in isolation and observed, the other nonhumans were immediately sent back to the Forbidden City. They landed on the familiar yellow sand just before night fell.

Ethan dragged his tired body back to his apartment, but as soon as he opened the door, the distinct scent of Omega pheromones slammed into his face. His first reaction was, It’s over. Samuel is in heat.

However, he grew even more flustered when he discovered that no one was in the room. He ran out of the door, but he didn’t dare to shout in the corridor, so he could only look around the bathrooms on each floor. However, he didn’t find anything even after searching through the entire building. While wandering around on the first floor, his sensitive nose captured an almost imperceptible scent. He turned his attention to the entrance to the basement, which had been locked with a crude traditional padlock, and was hidden behind the stairs amid a lot of discarded furniture.

Ethan approached the rusty door, which seemed to have been shut for at least 100 years, only to find that there was clearly less rust on the lock than the other surfaces. It was also very clean, as though it had been touched not too long ago.

Ethan picked up the lock and tugged at it but found that it wouldn’t budge. He gritted his teeth and pulled at the lock again. Unexpectedly, it opened under his strength.

It seemed that the lock was just a decoration, but no one thought to touch it since it had been hung here for so long. If it weren’t for Ethan’s nose that was superior to that of ordinary people, he wouldn’t be so idle as to study this damn door hidden behind the stairs.

The rusty door had indeed been pushed open recently, and it was easy to open. As soon as he entered, the musky scent of an Omega’s pheromones became even more apparent. It was just that the scent……seemed a little different from what Ethan had smelled on Samuel the last time?

Behind the door was a dark passageway, with a faint light peeking out from under the door at the room at the end. Ethan fumbled over and gently pushed the door open.

He was stunned.

He had imagined all kinds of possibilities, but never the one before him.

He did see Samuel, but there was another man beside him.

That man was lying under Samuel.

That man……it was the chief security officer?!

The author has something to say:

I may take a long-distance bus to go for a holiday tomorrow, so I’m likely to stop updating for a day. I hope when everyone beats me you guys can be more gentle……(～￣▽￣)～

Note: all good things come to an end is quoted from Nelly Furtado’s song all good things.