Chapter 35: A Person’s Race, Section 6

It was a very special kind of black—like an abyss that could draw in all energy and light sources. Even under the light in the fighting room, the skeleton still appeared somewhat hazy. Fat Henry had to strain greatly to make out the patterns on it.
Yet this wasn’t what surprised him. After all, the universe was vast and full of wonders; the color of a skeleton wasn’t important. The problem was that Fat Henry saw this black skeleton only on the right arm, while the rest of the body remained its usual pale color!
Could a human have two different kinds of skeletons? Such a thing truly amazed Fat Henry. In his memory, inferior creatures like humans never seemed to possess great abilities, let alone naturally evolve such bizarre skeletons. Of course, nature’s power was infinite, and Fat Henry himself wasn’t sure what was going on with this skeleton. So he stopped further investigation.
His short, chubby palms moved, and suddenly a green light surged from his palms. Under this light, the man’s right arm on the table began to decompose slowly but steadily.
Yes, decomposition—complete decomposition. Not only were muscles and other tissues separating, but the bones themselves also showed signs of crumbling. In just five minutes, a finger bone had turned into powder.
But Fat Henry wasn’t satisfied. Though his face still showed a smile, he kept uttering exclamations of admiration—along with some frustration.
“Damn it! What kind of structure is this skeleton? Why is it so tough? My dissociation ray should be fully evolved by now. Theoretically, breaking down a polycrystal shouldn’t take this long. Why does it take so much effort to deal with this skeleton? What exactly is this guy?”
Perhaps due to not having communicated with anyone for a long time, Fat Henry talked at length to himself. But his hands and feet were quick. As he continued to decompose the arm, he used his other hand to sort through the debris. His chubby fingers showed remarkable agility, quickly separating the powdered fragments from the complex tissues and gathering them into a pile.

Then, this oddly plump man leaned over the pile of powdery substance and examined it closely, occasionally reaching in to pick up a bit and putting it in his mouth to savor it carefully. His mannerisms were almost those of a chef! If not for the naked man with a bloody left arm lying before him, his demeanor could indeed inspire admiration in anyone.
A highly professional food connoisseur, perhaps…
Time passed slowly, yet Plump Henry’s expressions remained unchanged, as if he could never grow tired. But at one moment, his movements suddenly stiffened. Even his perpetual smile seemed to tremble.
The silence in the chamber was so profound that even the drop of a needle could be heard. After a long while, a sigh finally escaped Plump Henry’s lips.
“So that’s how it is… So that’s how it is.”
“Self-replication, self-regulation, self-strengthening, self-improvement. With only a high energy demand—almost no flaws. I can’t imagine what kind of creature could create such a masterpiece. Such excellent cells definitely cannot be created by humans! Even I, well, would have to pay a price.”
“But…” His tone shifted, and Plump Henry became self-satisfied again. “Even the most perfect things have flaws. Besides me, Lord Henry, who else can break this rule? This cell has no self-awareness; at best, it’s just a tool! I, the great Creator, Lord Henry—truly the most powerful being in this realm!!”
His triumphant laughter echoed once more. Now, his gaze toward the man was no longer that of someone looking at an experiment, but one filled with fanaticism. After all, for a peak figure in any field, only even greater achievements could truly excite them. Plump Henry claimed to be a creator because he was the pinnacle in the field of biology—a great being who had successfully recreated life countless years ago. Even the angels outside the island were his own creations!!
Yet, as an old saying from ancient China goes: Success and failure both stem from the same cause. It was precisely because Plump Henry’s powers were too great that he ended up in this situation. In an accidental experiment, he had discovered how to create soul-life!!

Soul-life, in simple terms, refers to highly intelligent beings with self-awareness, just like humans or the Moors! In legends, they belong to the realm of gods. Well, though Fat Henry doesn’t believe in gods, he only admits to having violated nature’s interests. Still, he feels immense fear. The existence of soul-life is like the Sword of Damocles, hanging over his head at all times, ready to strike down his head at any moment. That’s why he fears it. By chance, he discovered this unusual space and jumped in. Using all his strength, he created this island and also generated numerous guardians—those “angels” Black Hair had seen. Prolonged self-imprisonment is bitter and lonely. So, the appearance of Black Hair was like giving Henry his favorite toy—a rare treasure that piqued his keen interest. Especially after he discovered Black Hair’s strangely abnormal left arm. Fat Henry had a special ability he called “Gourmet.” This ability turned his digestive system into a biological decomposition system found only in myths. Anything within the realm of living things that entered his mouth could be instantly analyzed for its type, level, characteristics, and structure. But today, his Gourmet ability failed. No, not completely—he still obtained some vague parameters. Yet he couldn’t draw a clear genetic blueprint of the black bones in Black Hair’s left arm as expected. Moreover, Fat Henry’s digestive system reacted negatively to these substances, causing mild spasms. Damn it, this was a miracle within a miracle. Fat Henry grew increasingly excited, eager to devour the man before him. After all, in his memory, there seemed to be no precedent of any creature in this realm escaping his digestive system. He couldn’t help but be astonished. But he probably never imagined that Black Hair’s left arm wasn’t originally from this realm. As a test subject in the New Human Project, Black Hair’s left arm embodied the efforts of all the world’s top biological scholars back then. No, actually, his entire body was the result of genetic optimization. But for some special reason, only his left arm had completed its full evolution. And most importantly, the one who carried out this project wasn’t those top scholars nor any particular country—it was an automated base that only followed predetermined commands.

The New Humanity Project was the result of a collective effort by all biologists on Earth, as well as a massive initiative backed by dozens of countries. Yet it was far too advanced for its time. Hundreds of top scholars spent a century trying without achieving any results. As time passed, the dozens of countries that initially supported it withdrew one after another, leaving only a few wealthy nations to provide minimal support—though it seemed they weren’t very committed either.

Over nearly a century and tens of thousands of experiments, countless prisoners lost their lives at the hands of these scientists, a number that can no longer be counted. Yet the outcome remained the same: failure!

As the old saying goes, failure is the mother of success. But those who say it surely never imagined that too many failures could lead to giving up. After all, not everyone has an indomitable spirit, and most people focus only on practical value.

Thus, as the last batch of test subjects, Kurokami’s transformation was almost entirely carried out by the automated base. Few still had any expectations for his transformation.

But no one could have predicted that precisely because of this, Kurokami became the only one to survive the experiments. He spent countless times more time than the other prisoners!

Genetic modification defies natural laws, and it’s utterly impossible to see results in a short time. With human technology at the time, it was nothing but an unrealistic fantasy. However, if the process were slowed down by thousands of times, there might be a glimmer of hope. After all, gradual transformation is much easier to accept than forced alteration.

It also makes mutations more likely.

Kurokami’s left arm is the result of such mutations. It not only met all the requirements set by Earth’s scientists but was even improved in many ways. Aside from lacking self-awareness, its structure is nearly perfect—a fact even the Core of the Wandering Clan has to admit. That’s why, when choosing to parasitize, it had to settle for the right arm.

With such an outstanding creation, coupled with the differences between dimensions, it’s nothing short of a dream for Fat Henry to uncover the secrets of Kurokami’s left arm. Eager and excited, he has already planned for long-term research and even issued orders requiring all guards, the “Angels,” to completely seal off the entrance to this space, isolating it from the outside world. No one else will be able to enter unless he goes out on his own.

Then, he finally stretched out his fat hands and touched the body he coveted.

First… let’s start with the chest…