Episode 16: Human
At the entrance of the Simulated Ecological Forest, Mount Kailash.
The colossal form of the Great King Cobra, stretching over twenty meters in length, glided through the undergrowth with a movement that was both elegant and terrifying. It headed directly toward the spot where the twin albino bulls were tethered in chains.
“Don’t you dare come any closer! You brainless snake, Vasu... I’ll crush your head into the dirt right here and now!” Nonthi bellowed in a low, threatening growl, stamping his hooves onto the stone floor until the ground trembled. His fierce eyes locked onto the visitor with pure hostility.
Vasu, the giant serpent, came to a halt. He reared his head high, meeting the bull’s gaze without flinching. “I merely performed my duty... just as you perform yours,” he spoke in a cold, chilling tone. “But what I wish to know is... how did you let him pass in the first place? Why don’t you tell me that?”
Vasu’s piercing question struck a nerve, causing the two bull brothers to glance at each other in sudden, awkward silence. A heavy stillness fell over them as they recalled the moments before—when that mysterious young man had walked through the gates while they were both preoccupied, blissfully enjoying their feast of grass and water.
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Area 51: The Secret Laboratory
Within the confines of the Master’s private office, the atmosphere was thick with a stifling, suffocating tension. Hoto stood glaring at General Miller, his gaze as sharp and cold as a surgical blade.
“You... hmph... I told you to deploy our men from the very start, yet you insisted on using those Indians. What a colossal waste of time! Now, tell me—have you dispatched our own people to investigate yet?” Hoto demanded, his voice dripping with icy contempt.
General Miller, who usually maintained a formidable and commanding presence before thousands of his subordinates, now stood cowering. Beads of sweat broke out across his face as his nerves frayed. “Y-y-yes, sir! We’ve sent them! Our most elite unit from The Globallists Force is already en route.”
“How many teams?!” Hoto bellowed, his fury mounting.
“Just one team, sir...” Miller replied, his voice barely a whisper.
“Send them all! I don't care how many—deploy every last one of them! You must bring back what belongs to me!” Hoto roared, his command laced with a frantic, power-hungry madness.
“The issue is... we only have two high-speed craft currently operational, sir,” Miller stammered, trying to explain the strategic constraints. “If we deploy both, we run the risk of the Russians detecting that we are utilizing the captured extraterrestrial vessels.”
“By whatever means necessary... send them all! Anyone who stands in our way—kill them! I don’t give a damn who finds out!” Hoto’s roar was so powerful the very air in the room seemed to vibrate. “I have waited for this moment for far too long... Your world will find peace under my stewardship. Is that not what you want? A world ruled by America alone... is that not what you desire, Miller?”
General Miller stood trembling, buckling under the immense psychological weight of those words. “Y-yes, sir! I will dispatch the first two units immediately, followed by every remaining squad we have, sir!”
Suddenly, an eerie silence washed over the room. Hoto went still for a moment, slowly releasing a long breath. The previous fury vanished instantly, replaced by a cold, inscrutable smile that was impossible to read.
“Perhaps... I was being a bit too impatient, wouldn't you say, Miller?” Hoto spoke in a softened tone that was somehow far more terrifying than his shouting. “Sending those two units will suffice for now. Move silently, but with absolute speed. Use their own tactics against them... Keep that mountain under total surveillance. Wait for them to emerge. They will come out eventually. Do not let a single soul escape... Silence... Concealment... and Patience... Watch them with the eyes of a predator.”
Hoto had completely shifted his persona, becoming a cold, calculated master of the game.
“Yes, sir... as you command, sir!” General Miller bowed his head in deep reverence before hurrying out of the room to execute the assassination plot immediately.
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Mount Kailash: The Secret Vault beneath the Simulated Ecosystem
“Master... you look much better like this,” Cris said to his mentor with a warm smile, as a sense of tranquility once again settled over the secret chamber of the Life Capsules.
Now restored in a robust, youthful form, Master Tenzin donned a fresh set of Tibetan monastic robes that Cris had prepared, giving him an air of both dignity and formidable presence. “Do you still address me by my old name? I thought you would have started calling me ‘Bringi,’ as your divine friend here suggested,” Tenzin teased his pupil, casting a brief sidelong glance toward Ren.
“Cris wants to bring his family back to life, just like you’ve been restored, Master,” Yuri added with a supportive smile, while Victor nodded in silent agreement beside her.
“Lord Ren once told me that the techniques you taught me were incomplete... I think we should let him finish restoring his strength first before we find a way to help my family. I’m sure Lord Ren can assist us somehow,” Cris told the group.
All eyes turned toward the motionless form of Ren, who remained deep in meditation beside the wooden table, his face still pallid and etched with severe exhaustion.
“I have only just returned to my original vessel... as much as I wish to help, I am currently too frail to act,” Tenzin noted, inspecting his own rejuvenated body. “But you three are young, and your life force is circulating vibrantly... Why not try using your own power to assist this deity? Lord Ren, was it? In all my time, I have never heard Lord Shiva mention that name before.”
Tenzin’s suggestion left the three of them in stunned silence. They exchanged bewildered glances, grappling with a single, daunting question: How could mere humans like them possibly bestow power upon a being as transcendent as a God?
“Lord Ren was actually born right here on our world,” Cris clarified, hoping to clear the lingering doubts. “He didn't come from another realm like his parents did.”
“And how did you come to know such things?” Tenzin asked, his surprise evident. This information seemed to clash with everything he understood about the divine.
“I learned it when I first encountered him, and through Yuri here,” Cris replied, gesturing toward her. “She led us to a secret base in Russia, where Lord Ren was finally reunited with his family.”
“It sounds like a long story...” Tenzin mused, shifting into a more authoritative tone. “Very well, let us do this: place your palms upon Lord Ren’s shoulders or his torso. Clear your minds, focus your intent, and channel your energy into him. It will accelerate his recovery. As you do this, tell me the rest of your tale. I will oversee the flow and guide your internal energies myself.”
Everyone moved to comply immediately, except for Victor, who still looked hesitant. “I... I only have the gift of speed,” he muttered after a long silence, his lack of confidence clear. “Can I really be of any help?”
“You certainly can. Just do exactly as I say,” Tenzin reaffirmed with unwavering certainty.
At their teacher's word, they cleared the space around the wooden table and sat in a circle around Ren. The palms of the three young companions pressed firmly against the shoulders and body of the slumbering deity. Under Tenzin’s watchful guidance, they began to meditate, slowly funneling a stream of pure energy into Ren’s form. As the light of their spirits began to glow, they took turns recounting the perilous journey and the shared fate that had brought them together in this hidden vault... each sharing their own perspective of the life-and-death struggles they had faced as one.
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Area 51: The Secret Laboratory
Within the hangar, bathed in a stark, clinical white light, two units of superhuman special forces in full tactical armor marched steadily toward the futuristic crafts. These vessels, seized from extraterrestrial origins, had been modified and enhanced to the absolute limit of known technology—primed to pierce through the atmosphere at velocities the world had never before witnessed.
As the pre-flight preparations reached their peak, General Miller’s mobile phone erupted into a disruptive ring.
“What is it? Can’t this wait? I’m incredibly busy right now!” Miller hissed into the receiver, his voice tight with irritation, still reeling from Hoto’s recent commands.
“Who is it?” Hoto asked flatly, his curiosity piqued.
“It’s Funk, sir...” Miller replied with a look of visible dread.
“Hang up. I will deal with him myself,” Hoto commanded with finality, prompting Miller to terminate the call immediately without daring to question why.
Hoto reached out, grasping a bizarrely shaped apparatus on his desk. He adjusted it slightly, as if tuning a telepathic signal. “No need for telepathy this time... you should hear this with your own ears, to ensure total clarity.”
With that, he pressed a button to activate the speaker on the device. Instantly, the voice of Noldo Funk, the President of the United States, blared into the room—sounding frantic and utterly disoriented.
“Hello? Hello! Is anyone there? Answer me!”
“Speak... my dear disciple,” Hoto said, his voice calm yet carrying an unmistakable aura of absolute authority.
“I can’t hold it together much longer, Master! Minnesota is on the brink of civil war! In the Middle East, the Iranians are closing their waters and airspace, ready to strike back at any moment! Not to mention South America—they're mobilizing in secret, hoping to reclaim the leader of Venezuela! Then there's Greenland, Ukraine, the Taiwan Strait, Southeast Asia... the list goes on and on. I can’t handle this much longer, Master!” Funk ranted, his voice trembling with sheer panic.
Hoto let out a faint, satisfied smirk. “You’ve done exceptionally well, my disciple... The chaos you’ve orchestrated is an excellent diversion. If I could recover what belongs to me sooner, your burdens would have been significantly lighter by now.”
He paused for a moment before inquiring about the true objective. “And what of your CIA operatives in the Amazonas? Have they reached the heart of the Tefe forest yet? How close are they to the coordinates I provided? Tell me, so I can order Miller to prepare a unit for an immediate extraction and search.”
Hoto deliberately projected his thoughts aloud, ensuring General Miller, who stood rigidly by his side, heard every detail of the plan—preparing him for the imminent deployment into the deep jungles of Brazil.
“The entire region is blanketed in impenetrable jungle, Master! Some areas are completely flooded, while others are treacherous quagmires of quicksand. Finding a viable landing zone is nearly impossible. But worse than that... there are numerous mysterious tribes guarding the perimeter. They seem to be vast in number, and our units are effectively pinned down, Master!” Funk reported, his voice trembling.
“Dammit! I told you to send the coordinates so we could drop a unit directly onto the target! Do you not understand a word I say?!” Hoto bellowed in a towering rage. His outburst brought a faint, fleeting smirk to General Miller’s lips—relieved that, for once, he wasn't the sole target of Hoto’s cyclonic temper.
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“Yes, yes, Master! I will immediately order the operatives to transmit the precise coordinates at once!” the leader of the free world stammered, paralyzed by fear.
“Never mind that! Have Miller track the last known signal from your CIA assets and deploy the drop units immediately!” Hoto commanded with absolute finality. “Dispatch two full teams from The Globallists Force. Take them up into the upper atmosphere and let them perform an orbital drop to handle it themselves! Gods... why does such a simple task require so much thought? Dammit!”
Hoto slammed his fist onto the desk with a deafening crack before cutting the connection without a shred of remorse, leaving the secret chamber in an eerie, chilling silence once more.
“Understood, sir! I will initiate the orbital deployment immediately, sir!” General Miller barked with a firm, resolute tone, stepping out to mobilize the elite forces toward the heart of the Amazonas jungle.
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Mount Kailash: The Secret Vault beneath the Simulated Ecosystem
Amidst the tranquil flow of circulating energy and the exchange of stories that slowly wove a new tapestry of trust, Ren gradually opened his eyes. A spark of vitality began to return to his gaze.
“Do you no longer wish to kill me?” Ren asked the group, his voice carrying a faint, knowing smile.
“I have heard the truth from their own lips... and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they do not lie. Lord Ren... do you feel any better?” Tenzin (Bringi) asked, his respect for the deity clearly having deepened.
Ren let out a soft, rhythmic chuckle, fixing his eyes on the young disciple. “Cris... you fool. Haha!” He laughed. “You, the ‘Liberator’... do you see now just how much you have set free?”
Ren’s words left Cris momentarily stunned.
“First... you liberated me from the subterranean caverns of Shoyna, where I had dwelt for millennia. Your journey forced me out to greet the world! You also liberated Kurin; you liberated Victor from a place where he didn't belong; you liberated this young lady; you liberated my father... and most importantly, you liberated my mother, who had been slumbering for an eternity!”
Ren paused, turning his gaze toward the rejuvenated monk. “And now... you are even liberating your own Master, freeing him from the shackles of the vow he made to his lord, Shiva. Tell me, Cris... who do you intend to liberate next?”
Ren spoke while scanning the faces of everyone in the room, his eyes filled with a profound, piercing intensity.
Everyone in the secret hall exchanged relieved smiles, except for Tenzin, whose brow furrowed in deep thought. He had never once felt that his eight thousand years of service were a matter of coercion or a burdensome vow.
“I was never forced—” Tenzin began to protest.
“You need say no more... From this moment on, whether you choose to continue your ancient duties or walk this path with us, the choice is entirely yours, Bringi... Or perhaps you find the name ‘Tenzin’ more familiar?” Ren interjected, his smile suggesting he saw right through the monk’s heart.
“Who are you truly? You bear such a striking resemblance to the divine attendants of Lord Shiva,” Tenzin asked, his confusion still lingering.
“We hail from the same origin... We are Tefa. But let us leave that matter for now,” Ren cut him short, turning his attention back to Cris. “The teachings you imparted to Cris were not entirely correct. However, with me here, the great troubles that weigh on your mind will instantly become trivialities.”
Upon hearing Ren’s firm assurance, a radiant smile—the likes of which he had never shown before—spread across Cris’s face. Ren stood up with steady, newfound strength, prompting everyone else to rise in a gesture of profound respect.
“Now... take me to Prom immediately! And let there be no more doubt. My new home possesses a Prom as well, but I must face the Prom here because I will be the one to personally correct every error and set everything right!”
Ren issued the sharp, decisive command to Tenzin.
“But... I mean...” Tenzin stammered, his hesitation rooted in the ancient protocols of guardianship he had upheld for millennia. He had been strictly indoctrinated never to allow an outsider to uncover the sanctum’s secrets.
“The life and restoration of your own disciple’s family depend entirely on you, Tenzin...” Ren interjected with an inscrutable smile. “Your master, Shiva, is not here. And didn't you already permit Cris to covertly use the Life Capsules? Therefore, there are no more ‘buts’... Take me there now!”
“P-Prom...?” Tenzin uttered the name with a different inflection, as if invoking the legendary Creator Deity, before finally succumbing to the command.
Cris watched the exchange, his expression clouded with bewilderment at the overlapping names of high technology and ancient gods. Tenzin led the group deeper into a nearby chamber. The moment the door hissed open, a peculiar, pungent stench wafted out, stinging their nostrils.
The interior of the room was a sight of pure macabre. It was cluttered with mangled scrap metal entwined with grotesque biological remains, shrouded in a chaotic web of tangled wires. It appeared as though some form of organic life was fused to the machinery, clinging to the instruments like a parasitic growth. At the heart of the chamber, resting upon a central pedestal, was a massive spherical object resembling a gargantuan ball of coiled steel. It was a stunning yet horrific fusion of metallic coils and living biological tissue—pulstating with dim, flickering electrical currents that skittered across its surface.
“Gods... Master Tenzin! Prom is dying! How could you let the Brama simulation system fall into such absolute ruin? Have you not maintained it at all?!” Ren cried out, his shock impossible to mask as he beheld the "heart" of the system—now so decayed it was barely recognizable.
He knew time was slipping away. “Victor! With me! Locate the power grid and find the critical faults immediately!”
Victor grimaced, his face contorting at the stench—a foul, rotting odor that felt like millennia of accumulated corpses. He scrambled to pull on his pressurized helmet to filter the air; Yuri and Cris followed suit instantly, as the reek became nearly unbearable. As Victor sprang into action, he commanded his AI Sonic to interface and perform a full structural scan.
“Detected 147 critical failures in the primary power grid. Thermal limits exceeded in the biological circuits!” the AI reported. Cris and Yuri could only watch as data cascaded across the displays. Yuri tried to assist with the analysis as best as her limited knowledge allowed, while Cris looked on, largely bewildered by the complexity.
Ren channeled what little remained of his energy, pressing his palms into the festering biological tissue to coax a spark of vitality back into its dying cells. Suddenly... the bio-metallic sphere began to stir!
“Who... are you...?” A raspy, synthesized voice crackled through a shifting frequency, speaking in the Tefa language. “Your face is not found within the traveler database... yet your external genetic markers closely resemble those of the common Tefa people... Please, grant me a single strand of your hair for verification...”
As Prom finished speaking, a slender, needle-like probe extended from the nest of wires, lunging toward Ren’s face to demand proof of this mysterious deity’s true identity!
One of Prom’s large, lens-like robotic eyes began to function, whirring and scanning the room rapidly to process the visual data of everyone present. Its other eye, however, remained dark and motionless, fused within the decaying biological mass. Suddenly, a torrent of complex Tefa synthesized speech poured out from the raspy speakers.
The group stood in stunned silence. Only Tenzin strained to listen, though he could only grasp fragmented bits and pieces of the sophisticated language.
“So... this is why your teachings to Cris were incomplete,” Ren remarked, piercing through Tenzin’s defenses. “You remembered the words, but you never understood their true meaning. For eight thousand years, you have done nothing but recite by rote memory.” Tenzin fell silent, unable to refute the sting of the truth.
Ren reached up, intending to pluck a single strand of his white hair as a sample for analysis. However, because his hair was too short, he couldn't get a proper grip. After a brief struggle, he decided to pull at his eyelashes instead, and several strands came away in his hand. Ren pressed them against the tip of Prom’s needle. The moment they touched, the mysterious probe vacuumed the lashes deep into its system to begin the DNA extraction process.
“What did Prom say, Lord Ren?” Tenzin asked, his curiosity peaked. Cris, Yuri, and Victor all leaned in, anxiously awaiting the answer.
“Continue searching for the faults and see if you can find a workaround, Victor,” Ren instructed the young engineer before turning to address the group. “He asked who I am... and why there is no record of my code in the database. He requested a sample of my hair to verify my true identity through genetic analysis.”
The moment Prom received the sample from Ren, the system underwent a profound transformation. A faint, ethereal glow began to radiate from within. The biological tissues, once festering and decayed, started to regain their vitality, though they remained somewhat mangled and grotesque. The synthesized Tefa voice erupted once more, now resonating with a newfound strength.
“The analysis is complete... You possess the bloodlines of Oon and Meia, who journeyed aboard the vessel Exoron. You were synthesized and brought into being right here... Tell me, what is your name?” Prom asked Ren with piercing specificity.
A heavy shroud of bewilderment fell over the room; no one could comprehend a single word of the exchange. Even Tenzin could only listen in silence as Ren replied in the Tefa language, his tone flat yet intensely serious. Cris, Yuri, and Victor could do nothing but exchange confused glances, completely lost in the conversation.
“I’ve found multiple critical points that need repairs, just like the Simulated Sun!” Victor blurted out, snapping everyone’s attention back to the urgent maintenance. “I—I have to perform emergency stabilization first! Lord Ren, I’m going to need your help again, just like before!”
“Wait a moment... I will translate everything for you all later,” Ren said briefly to the group before turning back to exchange a few more sentences with Prom.
Immediately, Ren and Victor began coordinating the repairs on Prom. One of Prom’s operational eyes whirred and darted about, meticulously monitoring their every move. The light emanating from Prom grew increasingly brilliant until, suddenly, the other eye—which had been dark for so long—flashed with a blinding spark! Now, both of the system’s eyes were synchronized, whirring in unison as it unleashed a torrent of Tefa speech, as if triumphantly reporting its restored status.
“That’s enough... Prom says he’s ready for orders now,” Ren said nonchalantly, as if he were merely speaking to a common household appliance.
His words left Tenzin standing in a daze of utter confusion... Was he truly about to issue commands to ‘God’ himself?Tenzin thought with a shudder, watching Ren treat Prom as nothing more than a mere object. Overwhelmed, Tenzin dropped to his knees, frantically chanting the Tefa prayers he had memorized through generations, desperate to beg for forgiveness.
“Stop at once! If you don't cease, Prom will malfunction again because your language is incorrect!” Ren’s sharp interruption barked through the room, forcing Tenzin into a submissive silence.
Yuri, sensing the tension, stepped forward, hoping to comfort Master Tenzin—who now appeared as a much more handsome young man than before. However, Tenzin instinctively recoiled, his monastic vows forbidding any physical contact with a woman. Victor, watching from the side, couldn't help but scowl with a hint of jealousy, seeing Yuri pay such close attention to the young monk.
Suddenly, Ren began to recite a long incantation in the Tefa tongue, his voice resonant and powerful. As he finished, every light in the chamber flared with a blinding brilliance, and Prom surged with a vibrant, renewed life force.
Then, a miracle occurred... microscopic dust particles began to coalesce into a "Black Liquid," slowly seeping out from Prom's pedestal. As this mysterious fluid flowed over the festering biological tissues, they were restored to perfection in an instant. Even severed wires and corroded metal were transformed into brand-new components the moment the black liquid touched them!
The fluid began to pour out in increasing volume, like a limitless black tide, before surging out of the secret chamber—racing to repair every single damaged point within the vast caverns of Mount Kailash at an incredible speed.
Mysterious black fluid began to atomize into a fine mist, drifting through the cavern air, swaying gracefully with the subterranean currents. Ren continued his staccato exchange in the Tefa language with the system, but he suddenly cut his speech short. He whipped his head around, catching Victor right in the middle of scowling at Yuri and Master Tenzin.
“Victor... I have introduced all of you to Prom,” Ren announced. “I also asked Prom if he wished to acquire new languages, and he is intrigued. Have your AI attempt to communicate with him—figure out a way to interface, and do it quickly.”
The moment Ren finished speaking, Prom responded. A fresh array of needles extended, accompanied by hundreds of slender black filaments that writhed like miniature squid tentacles, surging directly toward Victor.
“Prom says you should step closer,” Ren said simply.
Victor stared at the wriggling black tentacles with a mixture of awe and sheer terror. His safety instincts were screaming at him to run, but Ren offered a solution. “Just take off that helmet and place it near Prom. That should be enough to establish a connection.”
Victor exhaled a massive sigh of relief, quickly unlatching his VSS helmet and setting it down as instructed, wiping the cold sweat from his brow. “Man... I thought I was about to have my brain skewered by mini-tentacles for a data dump!”
“Without someone commanding Prom to learn, he would simply follow the ancient protocols he was programmed with,” Ren explained with a smirk. “But I have instructed him to enter Learning Mode. Soon, you will all finally be able to understand Prom... and you won't have to spend your lives guessing like Tenzin anymore.”
As Ren finished speaking, Tenzin, Cris, and Victor remained caught in a daze, struggling to grasp the sheer scale of the advanced technology. Only Yuri began to smile, a glimmer of understanding finally dawning on her.
“Now then... Cris, it is time. Go to your family’s capsules,” Ren commanded, his voice resonating with an undeniable power.
The moment the group stepped through the threshold of Prom’s chamber, they froze in utter disbelief at the sight before them! The cavern, once dim and decaying, was now bathed in a brilliant, vibrant radiance. The twenty Life Capsules pulsed with newfound energy; steady streams of oxygen bubbles circulated around the slumbering forms within. Their bodies appeared restored, a healthy flush of color returning to their skin. Everywhere the miraculous black fluid touched, systems were instantly brought back to flawless operation, as if by some divine sorcery.
“It looks much better now, wouldn’t you agree?” Ren asked with a faint, knowing smirk.
He closed his eyes in a moment of profound stillness, appearing to communicate through a brief telepathic link. A heartbeat later, he opened them and turned to Cris, speaking words that made the young man’s heart swell with emotion. “Your family is safe now...”
Ren stepped forward, placing a gentle palm on Cris’s back. He projected a specific telepathic instruction to the boy: “Proceed in the way you know best... but repeat every single word I am about to tell you with absolute precision. Do this, and your family will be restored to wholeness once more.”
Cris took a deep, steadying breath, gathering every ounce of focus within him to liberate those he loved most. Yuri, Victor, and Tenzin watched the scene unfold with bated breath, their eyes fixed on the spectacle, refusing to blink for even a fraction of a second!
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