When Melens arrived at the laboratory, the test subject was already lying inside the injection chamber.
Before the chamber door closed, Melens gestured for the operator to pause.
He walked up to the chamber and looked at the test subject inside, a young man in his early twenties named Stan.
"Young man, are you afraid?"
"Dr. Melens, I have confidence in your research!" the young man said, though his eyes still betrayed a hint of nervousness.
"Thank you for your trust, Stan. We'll take good care of you."
After speaking, Melens took a few steps back and nodded to the operator.
The operator pressed a button, and the chamber door closed automatically.
Melens placed the Blueprint A1 syringe into the injection machine. The machine automatically removed the protective cap and began injecting Stan inside the chamber.
"Nngh!"
Muffled groans of pain escaped from the chamber, as if Stan was enduring tremendous agony.
"The test subject's heart rate is spiking, nervous system is... wait, all his physical data is climbing rapidly!"
The analyst monitoring Stan's vital signs in real time looked excited. The readings he saw were similar to the previous computer simulations, which meant the experiment was heading toward success.
Melens felt a surge of joy in his heart, but his face remained impassive.
He knew that the celebration couldn't begin until the very last moment.
The entire injection process lasted a full hour. Though the dosage wasn't large, the potency was too intense, requiring gradual infusion to give the body time to adapt.
After an hour passed, the chamber door slowly opened with a low hum.
"CRACK!"
Halfway open, the door was suddenly shattered from the inside by a punch!
Everyone recoiled in shock as a hulking brute with bulging muscles smashed through the half-opened door and leapt out, his face twisted in fury, eyes blood-red.
That sight stunned even Bruce. He hadn't expected Blueprint A1's effects to be so powerful, or the gene improvement to take effect so quickly.
An hour ago, Stan was still a scrawny young man. Now, standing nearly two meters tall with a body of solid muscle, he looked like a mountain of flesh!
"His hormone levels are spiking too high, we need to bring them down immediately!"
The analyst shouted. The armed personnel, already prepared, immediately raised their guns and fired at Stan.
"FWIP FWIP FWIP!"
What sprayed from the muzzles wasn't gunpowder rounds, but needles loaded with different medicinal agents.
They took effect quickly upon hitting Stan. The towering mountain of flesh, who moments ago was consumed by rage and wild ferocity, wilted within seconds, his eyes barely able to stay open before he collapsed to the ground and fell into a deep sleep.
A group of people immediately rushed forward to run checks on him. Bruce pushed through the crowd, crouched beside Stan, and squeezed the man's muscular arms. The joy on his face was impossible to hide.
"Everyone!" He looked at the crowd. "We've done it! Blueprint A1 successfully improved Stan's genes, developing exactly along the path we designed!"
When Blueprint A1 was first designed, the focus wasn't on improving strength or physical fitness genes.
Stan's current performance largely matched the computer simulation results, which meant the Blueprint Project had achieved initial success.
As long as they continued refining and improving upon A1 in the future, they could soon release an official mass-production version. At that point, every ordinary citizen of Lury could undergo enhancement through the reagent.
Even Ascendants might be able to use it, though unless it was proven completely safe and beneficial, most Ascendants would remain cautious and wouldn't readily try it.
Melens mused to himself, then ordered Stan to be sent to the medical department for close monitoring of his physical condition, with real-time data surveillance around the clock.
He didn't rest afterward. Instead, he immediately gathered the R&D team to compare and analyze Stan's physiological changes against the computer's earlier simulations, then began formulating improvement strategies.
February 12th, the eastern Miman Mountains of Suroma.
In peacetime, this was a sparsely populated no-man's land. Aside from a few mining companies and the "miner towns" they built for their workers, there wasn't even a decent-sized city here.
After the Doomsday Rules descended, this area was even more quickly abandoned entirely by the Suroma government, people and towns alike.
But now, this land was welcoming new life. Thousands of Suromans who opposed Bruce's tyranny had evacuated their city strongholds before being annihilated by the brutal war machines, driving thousands of off-road vehicles to this very place.
In the lead off-road vehicle sat two men and one woman, all dressed in studded leather jackets and combat boots, looking utterly fierce.
Behind the wheel was a long-haired man who appeared to be in his mid-thirties, his deep green eyes seemingly filled with an unquenchable fire of rage.
"Damn it!"
He cursed, his voice low and hoarse.
"Those rabid dogs of Bruce really want to drive us into the ground!"
"Shit, Roy, what did you expect?" The crew-cut man in the back seat looked terrified, hands clutching his head. "If you hadn't blown up that military base, why would Bruce have his eyes on you!"
"Shut up, Donnie!" The man named Roy snapped back with a glare.
"I think you're the one who should shut up!" The red-haired woman in the passenger seat glared at Roy. "Blowing up the military base is one thing, but what possessed you to become the leader of the rebels? A lead singer of an underground band, is that the stuff leaders are made of?"
Roy's face darkened at her words. He lit a cigarette, put it between his lips, and took a hard drag.
"Damn it, Velen, if I don't do it, who will? The last leader just got blown to bits and the rebels are in complete disarray. If I don't step up, thousands of people are all doomed!"
The red-haired woman Velen and the crew-cut Donnie in the back both fell silent.
The three of them had originally been members of the same underground rock band, called "The Final Sabbath."
After the Doomsday Bringer descended, the band had seven members total. Four of them had died one after another under the rules, leaving only the three of them still alive.
Unable to accept Bruce's cruel tyranny, the trio had long since distanced themselves from the government and lived a life of wandering.
When the civil war broke out, the three of them joined the rebels without a second thought, intending to overthrow Bruce alongside others who shared their convictions. But the cruelty of reality far exceeded their imagination.
Bruce's power was too great, especially with the rapid development of intelligent technology. The "human factor" in the military had become largely irrelevant.
In the old days, if a commander was a bastard, the rank-and-file soldiers might pay lip service while secretly disobeying orders, or even refuse to be commanded at all.
If you forced soldiers to slaughter innocents, they might very well turn their guns on the one giving the orders.
But now, everything was completely different.
All Bruce needed was a handful of trusted subordinates. With the aid of intelligent technology, he could remotely command legions of robotic soldiers and war weapons in battle.
Add to that the legion of modified Ascendants under Bruce's direct control who obeyed only his commands, and even turning his trusted subordinate officers against him would be pointless.
As a result, Bruce's suppression of the rebels was utterly inhumane, with absolutely no hesitation or concern.
The rebels, who had started with such momentum, were more than half destroyed within a single month. The survivors scattered across different regions, unable to coordinate, and were gradually picked off and crushed one by one.
The eastern rebels that Roy and his companions belonged to were the last survivors and the strongest faction, with a force of several thousand and over a thousand Ascendants.
Yet even they couldn't withstand the onslaught of the war machine legions, and their leader was killed by an airstrike.
Seeing the rebel army on the verge of total collapse, Roy, who had only been an ordinary squad leader, stepped forward. He raised his arm and rallied the others to retreat into the Miman Mountains, proclaiming their intention to build a Free City.
In truth, both Roy and everyone else knew that this "retreat" was essentially a rout.
But even if the other rebels thought it was unreliable, they had no other options. At a time like this, whoever dared to step up and take charge would become the new leader.
"We're finished, we're absolutely doomed..." Donnie muttered incessantly. "Bruce is too twisted, we can't beat him, and the one who takes the lead will definitely be targeted first."
Velen was fed up with his whining. She turned and snapped, "Donnie, you spineless coward, save it. All that sniveling doesn't make you look like a man!"
Donnie glared back angrily. "Then what do you suggest we do besides wait to die? You saw how powerful those war mechs are. How are we supposed to fight them with our level of strength?"
Velen furrowed her brow, unable to refute him.
Roy suddenly took a deep drag of his cigarette and said, "Just because we can't deal with Bruce doesn't mean no one else can."
"You mean asking for help?" Velen shook her head. "Who would come to our aid, Beixing or the Xisiya Empire? The civil war has been going on for a month now. Aside from verbal support, they clearly have no intention of sending troops."
"I wasn't talking about them." Roy paused. "I'm talking about 'Shadow.' That man follows his own code, he'll definitely help us!"
Velen and Donnie both froze at his words.
Donnie said uncertainly, "Shadow and Bruce are indeed mortal enemies, but that doesn't mean he'd come help us, right?"
"What the hell do you know?" Roy snapped. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend. The rebels are Shadow's natural allies. Helping us is helping himself."
"Not necessarily." Velen remained calm this time.
"Shadow's own strength is formidable, and from what we've seen, he's been dealing with Bruce on his own all along. He probably doesn't need us now, unless we can offer him something more tempting than just an alliance."
"Payment..."
Roy fell silent as he finished his cigarette, then spoke.
"That's not out of the question. Have you forgotten that we have over a thousand Ascendants on our side? That's a considerable force no matter where you look, right? And also..."
"Also?"
Roy said with uncertainty, "And I believe there's a damn traitor among the rebels, someone who's been in contact with the Hall of Halls. If we can catch that bastard, it might be of great use to Shadow."