251: Chapter 252 "Order Wars" [Clone City]: The Sacrificial Ritual of [Flesh Ascension]

"As a sacrifice for the [Flesh Ascension] sacrificial ritual, out of mercy, I will tell you one last secret." The middle-aged man's lips curled into a sinister smile as he lightly stroked the human-skin cover of "corruption aberration" with his palm, feeling the texture of the dry, cracked skin and the constantly pulsing blood vessels. In a flippant and superior tone, he said, "To me, you 'Original Humans' are no different from those tool Clones in Clone City whom you order around. Your only uniqueness is that before you even entered the clone cultivation devices, I used my own genetic fragments as a template, fused them with mysterious genetic fragments extracted from this Living Book, 'corruption aberration,' and meticulously cloned and cultivated you as living sacrifices. I carefully fabricated memories for the 99 of you; your thoughts and personalities were merely minor edits I made to the genetic fragments to give the living sacrifices more human biodiversity. As your biological 'father' and the leader of the 'Original Humans' who manage this experimental city—[Clone City], I granted you privileges and satisfied your desires only to make your Soul and flesh more suitable for this sacrificial ritual. The [Ascension Plan] is, in fact, the sacrificial ritual known as [Flesh Ascension]."

The truth was like a poisoned dagger, ruthlessly stabbed into every "Original Human" by the middle-aged man. For decades, they had never doubted their identities, enjoying the arrogance brought by their privileges day after day. In this moment, everything—even their most basic self-perception—collapsed with a bang.

It turned out they were never citizens belonging to the Ultra-Era Tech Empire, never top scientists in the field of biotechnology, never pioneers with an obsession for making biotechnology surpass mechanical technology, and never the controllers of the experimental city, [Clone City]. They were just like the tool Clones kept in [Clone City]—livestock waiting to be slaughtered in the [Clone Tower]. From the moment of their birth, they were merely one of the countless living sacrifices in the middle-aged man's [Flesh Ascension] sacrificial ritual.

A sense of ultimate despair shot up their spines to the tops of their heads. As if ravaged by various natural disasters, the worldviews of the 99 Original Humans shattered one after another under the middle-aged man's words, repeatedly crushed along with their nerves. Turbid tears welled up in some people's eyes; some people's pupils shrank to the size of pinpoints due to extreme fear; some lost consciousness because they couldn't accept the facts, their eyes losing their luster. Regardless, controlled by monitoring chips, they couldn't even scream, run, or beg. They could only watch helplessly as the middle-aged man slowly raised the Living Book, "corruption aberration," in his hand.

"Now! For the [Flesh Ascension] sacrificial ritual, offer up the 99 core living sacrifices!"

As the middle-aged man's voice fell, the Living Book "corruption aberration" suddenly flipped open on its own with a rustle.

The pages of "corruption aberration" were composed of thin, living flesh, so there was no crisp sound of ordinary paper turning; there was only the wet, tearing sound of flesh that had been stuck together being pulled apart. As the fleshy pages, covered in light blue veins, fully unfurled, countless meat tentacles as thick as fingers grew frantically from the gaps between the blood vessels on the fleshy pages.