Stardust Wasteland [Sci-Fi]

Xingye was born in a growth pod and was also a modified human from the "Black Mist Zone." As an experimental subject, she was tortured in every way imaginable. By a twist of fate, she successfully fused with the Glacier Virus, becoming the only survivor of her batch.

When she was young, a "1.0 Emotion Suppression Conduit" was implanted in her, leaving her numb and unfeeling. She committed every manner of evil on behalf of the "Black Mist Zone."

While helping the organization establish a laboratory in the peaceful nation, she received a recall order and had to return to the city where her dark past began.

On the way back, an unexpected crash caused the "1.0 Suppression Conduit" embedded in her body to malfunction.

Strange thoughts began to surface. What is freedom? Why should anyone want it? How did she come to realize the truth? Is it right for a bioweapon to have thoughts like these?

No one could answer her questions, so she could only indulge her thirst for knowledge and step by step set out on a thorny road.

-

"Thank you, but it's ordinary... to me."

"How could it be? Your name holds a beautiful dream: a wilderness beneath the stardust. Just imagining it makes all my troubles disappear. The world would embrace me, and shooting stars would keep me company... And I'm so small, my troubles don't matter at all..."

-

"You say it's never too late, but why do I feel that our whole lives were already too late from the very beginning?"

Xingye gazed at the light trails filled with aircraft. Beneath them lay the abyssal city that devoured moths. Her muttered words received no answer from her other self.

"There was never a life I wanted."

"Only death or struggle."

-

Hot tears streamed down her face. The burning breath in her chest overwhelmed the pain in her body. Freedom, optimism, love... Xingye remembered all her past lives: the brave, bald child who dared to fight back, and the experimental subject who secretly gave the researchers nicknames.

And that other personality.

In the endless darkness, during the surgery in which Warren shackled her, the young girl had prayed with all her hope. She prayed that she would get better, and that even while hidden in the abyss, she would never give up on reaching for the light. In the end, those prayers became an anchor in her heart.

-

If every person is destined to die, then she would offer her body to the fearless spirits of the fallen and burn with an unshakable faith in victory. She would forge arrows from the ashes of light, and every time they pierced the air, they would burn away a patch of darkness.

She could die, but her arrows would never miss.

-

"Give me a strong, agile body. Give me a flawless heart."

Her voice was low and steady, as if softly chanting for the mortal world.

"Give me love for life, give me innocence, give me a heart full of courage, give me unyielding patience, give me the pursuit of freedom!"

She growled the words aloud. At that moment, she acknowledged all the hopes that had once existed, could never be spoken aloud, and had grown wild in the wasteland.

"And give me, too, an unbearable past! Give me a broken personality! Give me a twisted soul! Give me the rejection of all living beings!"

"Give me a dagger to kill myself! Give me filth to drown in! Give me! Give me! Give me!"

"One day..."

Her final words were swallowed by the storm.

-

Everyone has a spark of primordial fire hidden in their heart. It is the rosy glow that has existed since the birth of the planet.

-

1. The main world has a cyberpunk setting, while the secondary world has a steampunk fantasy feel.

2. The protagonist's other personality is told from a first-person perspective, with a twist later on.

3. The heroine grows over time, and her journey to self-awakening takes time. The plot has a lot of groundwork.

4. For the world I've built in my heart, I promise not to abandon this story or give it a bad ending. Whether or not it gets signed, I'll keep updating until it's complete.

Thanks to everyone who added this to their favorites, and to every reader who has quietly passed by. You're welcome to discuss it with me.

Theme: Live by your will!