The Nature of Differentiated Beings

Zhuo reached out, running his massive hands experimentally over Yuan Zhanhui’s furry arm. Yuan Anqing disliked anything fluffy, but Zhuo seemed rather intrigued.

“We could have just left you on that mountain, but we didn’t,” Zhuo said to the shivering spy. “We stayed with you all the way to the hospital. Aren’t we incredibly kind?”

“Thank you,” Yuan Zhanhui replied miserably. He was currently hooked up to an IV drip. Because his entire body was covered in thick leopard fur, the doctors had been forced to shave a patch on his left arm before they could insert the needle.

Whether it was the doctors or the nurses, they would invariably reach out and stroke Yuan Zhanhui’s fur as they passed by. Sometimes, these touches were entirely unconscious.

“You’re welcome,” Zhuo said, his touch undeniably deliberate as he patted the leopard man. “Hey, do you know? I always wanted to have my own pet, but they never let me keep one.”

“Was your family strict with you?” Yuan Zhanhui asked, trying to keep the conversation going for intel.

“I don’t have a family.” Zhuo had never wanted ordinary cats or dogs anyway; they were too fragile, not enough to amuse him.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought that up,” Yuan Zhanhui said, his consciousness having largely returned despite the fever.

“It’s fine, I don’t mind.” Zhuo’s hand moved to pat Yuan Zhanhui’s abdomen. “Wow, your belly fur is even softer. Can I lie down here for a bit like a pillow?”

“There’s something I’ve been wanting to say,” Yuan Zhanhui stated, staring pleadingly into Zhuo’s eyes. “I feel like I’m being harassed.”

“By the nurses and doctors?”

“By you.” The nurses and doctors would touch him once and then leave. Only Zhuo had been constantly stroking him for the past hour—and not only that, the monster had even complained that his fur was too coarse, not as soft as a domestic cat’s!

“Zhuo, let Yuan Zhanhui rest,” Yuan Anqing said, utterly exasperated by his bodyguard’s lack of boundaries. “If you really want a cat, we can go to a shelter and adopt one.”

“I don’t want a normal cat; they’re too much trouble to raise myself.” Zhuo finally released Yuan Zhanhui and walked over to Yuan Anqing’s side. “I’m going to eat.”

“Alright,” Yuan Anqing agreed. He then turned to Yuan Zhanhui with his polite corporate smile. “Do you want us to bring you anything back?”

“Just some plain porridge will do.” Yuan Zhanhui was deeply surprised by the way Yuan Anqing and Zhuo interacted. From their conversation, it seemed their relationship was far more domestic and equal than he had initially imagined. There was no ‘domineering tyrant’ and ‘submissive wife’ dynamic at all.

After Yuan Anqing and Zhuo left the hospital room, Zhuo’s expression turned serious. “This inferior Differentiated Being was also naturally born.”

“Are you implying his parents were also those irrational, inferior Differentiated Beings?” Yuan Anqing vaguely recalled Zhuo mentioning that his own parents were both anomalies. Inferior Differentiated Beings, by all accounts, should lack reason and reproductive capabilities, making Zhuo’s biological birth a profound anomaly.

“And he’s really weak,” Zhuo added with a hint of disdain. “Why is he so much weaker than me?”

“Are both his paternal and maternal forms weak?” Yuan Anqing asked, puzzled by the monster genetics.

“Even so, the gap shouldn’t be this massive. He can only manipulate his own dreams,” Zhuo scoffed. He felt that both he and Yuan Zhanhui were cross-species anomalies, yet the power scaling was entirely broken.

Yuan Zhanhui was merely an ordinary beast-man, whose true form leaned closer to that of a leopard. In contrast, Zhuo was beyond description. A monster? A false god? Zhuo himself couldn’t comprehend it.

“And your physical abilities and mental strength are both absurdly powerful,” Yuan Anqing supplemented.

By rights, an ordinary entity couldn’t possess two such maxed-out abilities simultaneously. The previous Savior had two abilities, but the premise was that neither of them was top-tier. Zhuo was different; both of his abilities were incredibly potent.

“Perhaps it’s not that his parents were too weak, but that yours were too strong,” Yuan Anqing suggested analytically. “Do you know the detailed information about your biological parents?”

Zhuo shook his head. “I only know they were inferior Differentiated Beings, and they were likely eaten by me.”

Yuan Anqing was astonished.

Zhuo then pointed to the silver ring on Yuan Anqing’s hand—the item Bai Tian had given him to control Zhuo through pain. “This was probably taken out of my body around that time too.”

“Why do you know all this?” Yuan Anqing asked.

“I just do. I vaguely remember encountering two formidable opponents who tried to eat me shortly after I was born, but I ate them instead.” Zhuo felt no affection for his parents. He believed their union wasn’t born of love, nor was his birth desired by anyone. Their relationship, Zhuo surmised, must have been one of pure, cannibalistic survival.

“If they had eaten me, they would have become very strong, but they probably would have devoured each other afterward too,” Zhuo explained casually. “After I ate them, I became very powerful, but I experienced a period of weakness right after I swallowed them. The officials gained control of me and collared me during that time.”

If Zhuo hadn’t been captured and confined so early, this world might have already been plunged into utter devastation.

Yuan Anqing furrowed his brow, lost in thought. Zhuo was a year younger than Yuan Anqing, currently thirty-four, while Yuan Zhanhui’s ID showed him as thirty.

“But the other anomalies are ridiculously weak,” Zhuo remarked. “Everyone is so weak compared to me.”

“Because they haven’t found such powerful parental forms to inherit from.” The strength of Zhuo’s parents should have been comparable to his current level, but such individuals…

“Fried chicken!” Zhuo exclaimed suddenly, his tail wagging excitedly. “Shall we go eat fried chicken?”

Before Yuan Anqing could react to the abrupt subject change, Zhuo’s large tail scooped behind his back, pushing him toward the fast-food restaurant across the street.

“We can think about those complicated questions later,” Zhuo said cheerfully. He had little interest in his own origins, believing he only needed to know that he was truly powerful. He didn’t need to ponder who he was or where he came from. He only needed to know that he didn’t need to fear anyone; on the contrary, others must fear him.

“Wait!” Yuan Anqing stumbled as he was pushed by the tail. “I wanted to ask… is it possible your parents were Saviors?”

Yuan Anqing remembered the official briefing: there were eight Saviors in total, the first four of whom were gone. Bai Tian had vehemently asserted that the first four had died due to deployment errors caused by portal inexperience, but Yuan Anqing didn’t fully trust corporate HR. They had also stated that Saviors would absolutely not undergo inferior differentiation, yet Yuan Anqing couldn’t imagine anyone other than corrupted Saviors capable of creating a monster as uniquely overpowered as Zhuo.

Zhuo paused on the sidewalk, the smile vanishing from his face. “You’ve scared me.”

“It’s just a hypothesis,” Yuan Anqing said, adjusting his glasses.

“Are you saying that one day you’ll undergo inferior differentiation, turn into a monster, and leave me?” Zhuo couldn’t accept such a possibility. “I’ll be sad! Very, very sad!”

“I’m not saying I’ll undergo inferior differentiation; I mean the officials are hiding something from us,” Yuan Anqing explained calmly. “Bai Tian might not even know the full truth behind the first wave of Saviors.”

Yuan Anqing saw Zhuo’s expression growing increasingly somber. He pointed toward the fast-food restaurant. “Let’s go eat first.”

“If you undergo inferior differentiation, you’ll forget me,” Zhuo said, his massive appetite suddenly gone. “And you’ll hate me.”

“I won’t hate you.” Yuan Anqing reached out and patted Zhuo’s broad back.

“You will! I’ve seen those individuals who underwent inferior differentiation!” Zhuo was genuinely upset. If Yuan Anqing underwent inferior differentiation, Zhuo wouldn’t even be able to trap him using his aura of desire, as Yuan Anqing’s mental manipulation ability was stronger than his own.

“If I were stronger than you, I could keep you by my side with illusions, and you would still be gentle with me, even if your feelings were fake,” Zhuo whispered miserably.

Yuan Anqing was drawn into Zhuo’s bleak description. “Fake affection sounds entirely too pathetic for you.”

“But if you mutate, I won’t even have the fake version!” Zhuo lamented. He wouldn’t even be able to confine Yuan Anqing safely.

“I thought you would want to eat the officials for deceiving you about your origins.” This time, Zhuo wasn’t clamoring about wanting to bite someone to death; he was just sad.

“I shouldn’t have discussed this theory with you,” Yuan Anqing said, feeling a touch of guilt. “Shall we go have some fried chicken?”

“Will you die?” Zhuo considered inferior differentiation a form of death. An unconscious mutation was a death of the spirit, leaving only the violent body behind.

“My mental strength is maxed out, isn’t it?” Yuan Anqing tapped his own head reassuringly. “I don’t believe I’d undergo a mental breakdown so easily.” Yet, a Savior so hyperspecialized in mental dominance seemed extremely rare. Perhaps his lack of physical stats was the tradeoff for his immunity.

Zhuo finally recalled this point and breathed a sigh of relief. “You’re stronger than me mentally, so you definitely won’t mutate.”

“Fried chicken?” Yuan Anqing offered again.

“Fried chicken!” Zhuo nodded eagerly.

Once Zhuo was no longer anxious, he felt even hungrier. Yuan Anqing and Zhuo ordered seven family buckets together. To prevent Yuan Zhanhui from getting envious of the smell, they finished all the food at the restaurant.

More accurately, Zhuo finished all the food while Yuan Anqing had a few pieces.

Everyone in the fast-food restaurant was staring their way, but Zhuo remained completely unconcerned.

“We can kidnap Bai Tian when we get home,” Zhuo mumbled around a mouthful of chicken. His eating etiquette was refined, but his speed was astonishing. “We don’t have to listen to the officials anymore. I’m controlled entirely by you now, so we can force them to reveal the truth about my parents and the other Saviors.”

The officials had completely handed over control of Zhuo to Yuan Anqing.

“We can arrest everyone in the government building!” Zhuo declared happily, waving a drumstick. “If they still don’t tell us the truth, we’ll kill one person every day and expose all the secrets to the public!”

“…You certainly have the dramatic potential to be a major villain,” Yuan Anqing said, rubbing his forehead at the sudden escalation. “But if the officials were truly harboring ill intent and wanted to harm me, they wouldn’t have given me complete control over you, their strongest weapon.” He didn’t trust corporate, but he also didn’t believe his side and the officials were locked in a death feud.

The officials were definitely hiding something from him. However, they were clearly pleased with the improvement in his and Zhuo’s relationship. Every time Zhuo posted a photo of Yuan Anqing on social media, it garnered countless likes from official personnel accounts.

Zhuo wasn’t sure about this logic. “So, no kidnapping for now?”

“I want to be kidnapped.” Yuan Anqing met Zhuo’s gaze squarely.

“Huh?”