249: Chapter 250 "Ordinal War" [Clone City]: The Birth of Native Humans and Tool Clones

In the center of the [Clone Tower], within the most core sterile gene laboratory of the entire [Clone City], cold white lights burned day and night. The air was filled with a mixture of the sweet, fishy scent of nutrient solution and the pungent smell of disinfectant.

The middle-aged man stood before 99 cloning incubation pods arranged in a ring. His fingertips swept across the holographic projection of his own genetic fragments floating in mid-air. The living book, corruption aberration》, twitched slightly as if urging him on. Under the middle-aged man's control, a mechanical arm with a silver syringe tip pierced a blood vessel spread across the human-skin-textured cover of corruption aberration》. As a tube of dark red blood was drawn into the syringe, in less than five minutes, the mysterious genetic fragments from that tube of blood were projected into mid-air.

The middle-aged man gazed at the two sets of genetic fragments in mid-air and operated the genetic fragment editing device. Using his own genetic fragments as the base, he embedded the mysterious genetic fragments extracted from corruption aberration》 into them and cultivated them in a sample slot.

After six months of sample cultivation, the middle-aged man edited and adjusted the proportion of mysterious genetic fragments to be between 0.01% and 20%. Through tens of thousands of sample edits, cultivations, and screenings, he finally selected 99 sets of the most stable and promising genetic fragment samples.

What the middle-aged man wanted was not mass-produced Clone Puppets, but 99 "living sacrifices" who possessed the same genetic fragments as him and were homologous to corruption aberration》. All of this had only one purpose from beginning to end—to complete the [Ascension Plan], elevate his [Life Status], and obtain [Forbidden Knowledge].

Inside the 99 specially made cloning incubation pods, dark green nutrient solution surged slowly. From a single totipotent cell to a fully developed adult individual, the entire cultivation cycle was precisely controlled to 180 days. The Clones inside had completely different appearances, genders, and ages: there was an elderly Scholar with frost-touched temples and sharp eyes, tall and poised middle-aged men and women, vibrant youths with lively eyes, and even boyish and girlish figures who had not yet shed their childishness. Every one of their genetic fragments had been edited and adjusted by the middle-aged man's own hands, specifically to make each of them a unique "Original Human," giving them independent personalities and thinking abilities. He set the mysterious genetic fragments to a dormant state, which both ensured they could not resonate with corruption aberration》 and made them subconsciously close to and trust the middle-aged man's leadership.

Just before their consciousness awakened, the middle-aged man completed the final and most important step: he manipulated a mechanical arm to implant high-precision, ultra-thin invisible surveillance chips deep into the hippocampus of every "Original Human" Clone. At the same time, seamless false memories were precisely written into their neural centers. In these memories, they were top scientists who shared the same aspirations as the middle-aged man. Dissatisfied with the [Ultra-Era Tech Empire]'s disregard for biotechnology, they chose to come to this polar region together and build [Clone City] together. They were the "Original Humans" in this city with the highest authority, second only to the middle-aged man, their leader. At this moment, under the middle-aged man's biotechnological modification, their physical ages were frozen, and they possessed a lifespan of two hundred years. Their greatest mission in this life was to assist the middle-aged man in completing the ultimate innovation of biotechnology.

When the doors of the 99 incubation pods popped open simultaneously, the 99 Original Humans walked out of the nutrient solution one after another. They bowed respectfully to the middle-aged man standing in the center and shouted "Leader" in unison. A barely perceptible smile curled the corners of the middle-aged man's mouth. The corruption aberration》 in his arms emitted a joyful pulsation, as if celebrating the completion of a key step for this grand sacrifice.

After waking up, the "Original Humans" quickly accepted their identities and privileges in their entirety. They moved into exclusive luxury suites on the upper floors of the [Clone Tower], where everything was customized according to their respective preferences in their memories: private laboratories, temperature-controlled leisure areas, customized meals, and absolute control over the entire [Clone City]. They did not need to participate in any basic labor, nor did they need to worry about the daily operations of the city. All their needs would be met unconditionally with just a single command; they only needed to assist the middle-aged man in researching the mystery of [Genes].

And the source of the "Original Humans'" satisfaction was the Tool Clones that the middle-aged man was about to mass-produce.

Following the awakening of the Original Humans, the fully automated cloning incubation workshop beneath the [Clone Tower] officially started. 1900 standardized cloning incubation pods were arranged neatly, like a precision production line in a factory. In just one hour, the Tool Clones used to serve the Original Humans were cultivated.

Unlike the fine-tuned editing of the "Original Humans'" dual genetic fragments, the cultivation of Tool Clones followed an assembly line model of targeted optimization. Using his own genome as a blueprint, the middle-aged man first removed all genetic fragments that could produce independent consciousness or rebellious emotions, retaining only the core sequences for absolute obedience and precise execution of commands. At the same time, he retrieved thousands of advantageous biological and vision-related genetic fragments from the [Ultra-Era Tech Empire]'s gene bank: the long-distance vision gene of the desert hawk, the compound eye panoramic gene of the jumping spider, the dynamic vision gene of the peregrine falcon, the microscopic perception gene of single-celled microorganisms... He precisely implanted these genetic fragments into the Clones' genomes, completing targeted functional optimization.

The 1900 Tool Clones that were ultimately born had completely uniform appearances, heights, and physiques, wearing identical silver-gray work uniforms, looking like replicas carved from the same mold. But no one knew that for each of these seemingly indistinguishable Clones, their eyeballs hid unique, special vision enhancement abilities:

Some possessed ultra-long-range vision, capable of clearly seeing text as small as a soybean from a kilometer away, and were assigned to city inspection posts to patrol every corner of [Clone City] day and night;

Some possessed microscopic vision, capable of directly seeing cellular activity and gaps between metal molecules in the microscopic world, and were assigned to precision equipment maintenance posts, responsible for the inspection and calibration of [Clone Tower] gene instruments and climate control devices;

Some possessed panoramic vision, capable of simultaneously capturing all images within 360 degrees centered on themselves, and were assigned to fixed security posts, stationed at various key nodes of [Clone City];

Some possessed ultra-dynamic vision, capable of easily capturing the trajectory of bullets fired from machine guns, and were assigned to high-speed operation posts, responsible for the loading and unloading of transport airships and the operation of high-risk machinery.

The moment these Tool Clones opened their eyes, nano-scale surveillance chips had already been implanted into their brains, and a set of standardized common knowledge and absolute commands were carved deep into their nerves: their primary mission was to serve the "Original Humans," absolutely obey commands, and fully maintain the daily operations of [Clone City]. When approaching their one-year lifespan limit or if they suffered limb loss, they were to go to the street's waste decomposition device themselves to avoid wasting [Clone City] resources.

The Tool Clones never questioned the Original Humans' commands or their own so-called "common knowledge," nor did they ever care about their own extraordinary eyes. In their cognition, being able to see text from a kilometer away was just to better complete inspection work; being able to see cell activity was just to more precisely maintain instruments; being able to capture bullet trajectories was just to more safely complete high-risk operations. These visual enhancement abilities, which would drive the [Empire]'s top biological scientists mad, were in their eyes nothing more than supporting tools for completing commands, no different from the wrenches or detectors in their hands.

They numbly executed all commands: cleaning every corridor of the [Clone Tower] day and night, precisely mixing the experimental reagents and meals required by the Original Humans, and carefully maintaining every piece of equipment in the city. Even if they were arbitrarily scolded or shoved by the Original Humans, or even ordered to be destroyed for a trivial mistake, they would not have a shred of resistance. They would only calmly accept the command and walk toward the waste decomposition device at the end of the street.

And the Original Humans had already grown accustomed to this high and mighty privilege. They would arbitrarily order Tool Clones to kneel on the ground to serve as footstools, knock over meals after only one bite and make the Tool Clones clean the floor repeatedly; they would fly into a rage at Tool Clones who were maintaining instruments just because of a slight dissatisfaction in their own experiments, and even press the destruction button on the spot. They disdainfully called these Tool Clones "moving lumps of meat" or "tools without a Soul," yet they never thought that they, just like the Clones they trampled under their feet, had been labeled as sacrifices from the very moment of their birth.