Chapter 132: Genos's Choice (Patreon)

Alex let out a helpless sigh, sounding almost wistful as he spoke.

"To reach an achievement in scientific research that so far surpasses ordinary people, you have to be someone who pours his entire body and soul into total, unbroken focus."

"That kind of person channels every scrap of thought, feeling, and energy into their research, so naturally their temperament and worldview end up nothing like anyone else's."

"Their sense of right and wrong wears thin over time. It's no surprise when someone like that ends up doing something this extreme, this deranged."

"Good thing I kept you close and reined you in early on — otherwise, with your talent for research and that unhinged streak of yours, who knows how much chaos you'd have caused behind everyone's back." Alex looked at him, half joking, half serious.

Dr. Genus only gave a small shrug, offering no rebuttal — tacit agreement — and led the two of them onward toward the examination equipment.

Soon the three of them reached the lab's core physical-examination area.

"Come here. Stand in the center of the machine," Dr. Genus said flatly to Genos.

Genos didn't dare slack off for even a moment. He obediently stepped forward, took his place exactly as instructed at the center of the precision equipment, and stood ramrod straight, waiting for the scan to begin.

Alex, meanwhile, stood off to the side without much concern, pulling out his phone to check for messages, hoping to see whether Ashley had sent any new updates.

Unfortunately the screen stayed blank, with no new notifications popping up. It seemed Ashley's cleanup work on her end still wasn't finished.

With nothing better to do, Alex quietly watched as Genos worked through one precision test after another.

Time crept by second by second, the room filled with nothing but the low hum of the machinery.

At first Alex watched patiently, but the wait dragged on so long that he grew drowsy, yawning again and again.

For an ordinary person, a full physical examination here ran smoothly and fast — the whole thing usually wrapped up in barely ten-odd minutes.

But today, Genos's examination was crawling along at an abnormal pace, with no sign of wrapping up anytime soon.

The longer it went on, the more something felt off to Alex, his doubts growing thicker by the minute.

Unable to hold back his curiosity any longer, he called out to Dr. Genus, who sat absorbed in the data.

"Hey, Dr. Genus, what's going on here? Why's this test taking so long? Is something wrong?"

Dr. Genus had his eyes fixed on the numbers scrolling across the screen, a freshly printed paper report in hand as he cross-checked the two, line by line.

He didn't even lift his head at Alex's question, answering in a tone that was serious, almost grave.

"This boy's body is... unusual. Compared to an ordinary person, there's something distinctly special about it."

"Special?"

Alex's eyebrows lifted slightly, his interest sharpening at once. Of course, he thought to himself — the original story's male second lead was bound to be hiding some extraordinary talent.

"What exactly makes him special?"

"His constitution is an extraordinarily good match for the Immortality Series project I'm currently developing."

Dr. Genus finally looked up, his gaze settling on Genos, his tone certain.

"The Immortality Series?" Alex blinked, momentarily caught off guard, and instantly grasped the weight of those words.

The Immortality Series was, apart from breaking the human Limiter, the core research project into which Dr. Genus poured the most time, effort, and resources.

Its ultimate goal was to forge a transcendent body capable of infinite Regeneration — one that was, for all practical purposes, immortal.

Once the research succeeded completely, a single final compatible injection would let Alex shed the shackles of life and death entirely.

He'd gain a lifespan of near-endless length, paired with a terrifyingly formidable capacity for Regeneration.

From then on, no matter how catastrophic the injury he suffered, as long as his body tissue wasn't instantly and completely annihilated, he could rely on Regeneration to restore himself fully, again and again, without limit.

It was research groundbreaking enough to overturn the very tier of what a life could be.

"That's right." Dr. Genus gave a firm nod and went on explaining in detail.

"This boy's constitution is an extraordinary natural gift — his self-healing far exceeds the ordinary human standard."

"Day to day, the gap isn't dramatic. He just heals a bit faster than the average person, hard to notice at a glance."

"But measured against the standards of the Immortality Series, his body's compatibility far surpasses every ordinary person I've ever tested."

"People with outstanding self-healing like that can't be all that rare out there, can they?" Alex asked casually, arching an eyebrow.

Dr. Genus glanced up at him, a flat look in his eyes carrying a faint, unmistakable trace of scorn.

"Out of the several hundred thousand police officers who've received the compound injection and completed a full physical screening, not a single one has ever met his level of compatibility."

"Out of several hundred thousand screened samples, this is the only one."

"What?" Alex was thoroughly shaken, disbelief plain in his eyes.

He'd never imagined that Genos's unique constitution could be this rare.

A screening base of several hundred thousand had already swept up plenty of people with excellent physiques, and yet Genos alone had met the standard.

That meant the rarity of his constitution stood at roughly one in several hundred thousand.

A gift this extraordinary would be exceedingly rare across the entire country, let alone the world.

"His goal is to become a superhero, isn't it?" Dr. Genus's gaze settled back on Genos, his tone carrying a note of determined seriousness.

"If you ask me, why not hand him over to me to train and shape, entirely?"

"Hey, what exactly are you scheming?" Alex shot him a glare at once, instinctively cutting him off.

"He's still a minor. Don't try anything."

"You're reading too much into this."

Dr. Genus rubbed his forehead in exasperation and hurried to explain.

"I'm not a pervert."

"I just want him to take part in my Immortality Series research. For him, this is an opportunity."

"Once the research achieves a full breakthrough, he'll gain a body that's practically immortal."

"That would let him perfectly fulfill his ideal of protecting others and punishing the wicked, and at the same time I can give him strengthening compound injections, boosting his combat power across the board."

Dr. Genus was fiercely obsessed with the Immortality Series, having poured in countless hours of effort.

Given his ruthlessly practical, efficiency-above-all temperament as a researcher, if Genos's constitution didn't hold some irreplaceable, sky-high value, he'd never waste a moment's time on an ordinary teenage boy.

"Still no." Alex shook his head firmly, refusing to budge.

"He's too young. His body and mind haven't fully matured. There's no way he could withstand those high-intensity, high-risk experimental procedures of yours."

"I'm the one who brought him here. Now that I've taken him in, I'm fully responsible for his life and his safety."

"I'd call it a mutual exchange of what each of us needs." Dr. Genus pushed up the thin-framed glasses on his nose, the lenses catching the lab's cold white light, his tone flat but carrying an unquestionable certainty.

His eyes stayed fixed on Alex as he went on, slow and deliberate, pressing his case.

"How strong do you think he could possibly get from a plain compound injection alone?"

Without waiting for Alex to answer, he pressed on with hard evidence, each word clear and aimed straight at the heart of the matter.

"You've seen the Superhuman police force with your own eyes."

"Against ordinary criminals causing ordinary trouble, sure, no problem. But the moment they run into a Mysterious Being with even slightly more power, they're instantly overwhelmed, with no way to fight back at all."

"Otherwise, you wouldn't have gone to all that trouble developing that power armor, would you?"

Dr. Genus's eyes stayed perfectly calm, without a flicker of emotion, every sentence puncturing the power armor's limitations.

Alex fell quiet for a moment at that, fingers idly rubbing at his cuff, forced to admit the man was telling the truth.

"You're right, the power armor does have flaws, but with this gear now, at least he'd stand a fighting chance—" He tried to argue his point, but before he'd even finished, Dr. Genus cut him off flatly.

"Power armor is, in the end, nothing but cold, lifeless machinery."

"In high-intensity combat, dents, damage, broken parts — that's all routine. The instant the armor's disabled or destroyed, every bit of that power boost drops to zero, instantly."

Dr. Genus's tone grew ever more certain, every word radiating absolute confidence in his own research.

"But my research is nothing like that kind of external boost."

"I can give my test subject endless stamina, an unending supply of hyper-fast Regeneration."

"On this whole planet, there'd be precious few means capable of truly killing him."

He leaned forward slightly, his gaze sharp, his voice ringing with conviction as he laid out every advantage of his research.

"No matter how troublesome or terrifying the enemy he faces, as long as his will stays firm and the fire of battle in his heart never goes out, he'll be able to keep fighting without end — the curtain never has to fall."

"Mechanical, external power always has a ceiling, but the potential of a body transformed from within is limitless. Compare the two, and the difference is obvious."

After a brief pause, Dr. Genus softened his tone and offered what looked like a fair choice.

"Of course, if you still think it's not right, we don't have to force a decision. Why not let him make the final choice himself?"

Alex stared at Dr. Genus, who was talking on and on so out of character, utterly speechless inside.

He knew this reclusive doctor far too well.

Ordinarily, Dr. Genus was a man of few words, cold and detached, the kind who'd barely grunt out an answer no matter how hard you pressed him — someone who lived year-round buried in his own world of experiments, indifferent to everything around him.

But today, to talk the guileless boy Genos into joining the immortality experiment, he'd gone to extraordinary lengths, pouring in every ounce of effort he had.

Not only had he laid out the pros of both paths with meticulous clarity, every word earnest and sincere, he'd also kept undercutting the power-armor route, openly and subtly both, quietly steering Genos's thinking the whole time.

Having finished making his case, Dr. Genus slowly turned his head, his gaze settling on Genos, who stood quietly off to the side.

"You should have heard every word of our conversation just now, clear as day."

"Neither Alex nor I have hidden anything from you. Every advantage, every risk, every possible future — we've laid it all out honestly."

"Now, two entirely different paths lie before you."

Dr. Genus's voice was steady and hypnotic, painting the picture of Genos's future one stroke at a time.

"The first path is the one you already know well — the superhero-police route."

"Just like that police chief in your hometown, who fought with everything he had and still couldn't protect the people of his town."

"You would gain a real superpower, yes, but that kind of power comes with severe limitations — a very low ceiling."

"Unless you're extraordinarily gifted, far beyond an ordinary person, you'd end up nothing more than an average superhero — middling strength, easily beaten."

"The moment you ran into a Mysterious Being or mutated creature with even a bit more power, you'd fall in an instant, with no way to fight back."

"You must have seen with your own eyes, or at least heard about, the time the Deep Sea Tribe launched their massive invasion of New York."

"In that disaster, countless ordinary superpowered people and superheroes stood helpless, and the casualties were devastating — that's the most vivid, most brutal proof there is."

"Even if we outfitted you with the newest power armor we've developed, it wouldn't change the fundamental problem."

"In the heat of fierce combat, the instant the armor takes damage, every bit of that power boost vanishes completely."

"In the end, you'd still have nothing. You'd still be unable to protect what you wanted to protect, still unable to avenge the blood debt owed to you."

Every word Dr. Genus spoke cut straight to the bone, utterly shattering whatever fallback value the power armor still held in Genos's mind, before he pivoted straight into pitching his own plan.

"And the other path is to follow me and join the Immortality experiment."

"I won't treat you as some cold, lifeless test subject. You'll be my collaborator — a partner exploring the very limits of life alongside me."

"If the experiment succeeds completely, you'll transform into a top-tier superhero, wielding strength that dwarfs any ordinary superpowered person's."

"And even if the experiment fails partway through, you'll lose nothing. You can still turn around and choose the superhero-police path instead."

Alex listened quietly beside them, understanding exactly what was happening.

He knew that for a boy like Genos, consumed by thoughts of revenge and hungry for power, Dr. Genus's words were an unanswerable, killing blow.

And sure enough, things turned out exactly as he expected.

A powerful stirring surged up at once in Genos's clear eyes, his tense expression loosening, his breath quickening just slightly.

He'd lost his family young and watched his home destroyed, and endless hatred and unresolved bitterness had built up inside him ever since. What he wanted most was power that nothing could match.

Seeing this, Dr. Genus shifted his tone slightly, no longer offering only rosy promises, and voluntarily revealed the hidden catch.

"Of course, this path of transformation isn't a smooth one. It comes with serious drawbacks."

"The entire process of cooperating with the experiment will be filled with agony beyond what any ordinary person could endure."

"Not everyone can hold out through trial after trial of pure hell. Only someone whose will far surpasses the ordinary, whose resolve is unshakable, can make it to the end."

Dr. Genus fixed Genos with a burning stare, his tone grave.

"Now, make your choice."

"Will you follow Alex, and rely on a mechanical suit of armor for limited power — or follow me, and bet everything on reaching for the ultimate ceiling of immortality?"

At that, Genos's body went rigid for a moment. Clear hesitation showed in his eyes as he slowly turned to look at Alex beside him.

The boy's eyes were full of conflict and unease — on one side, a safe, steady path with a limited ceiling; on the other, an agonizing transformation with limitless potential.

Seeing this, Alex gave a light shrug, his expression calm and open, showing no intention of stepping in.

"Everything I needed to warn you about, everything I needed to break down for you — I've already said it all, clearly."

"Now it's your turn to decide your own future."