On the Other Side
Biotech Division
The atmosphere in the office was taut and silent, broken only by the faint sound of footsteps and stifled breathing.
Everyone held their breath around the three-dimensional holographic projection, eyes glued to the flickering bluish image.
When they saw Zhou Jiao slap Jiang Lian across the head, every scalp went numb. Hearts skipped a beat. Some nearly vomited from sheer panic.
They all knew Jiang Lian liked Zhou Jiao. But how much did he like her? Enough to give up destroying the world for her? No one knew.
And even if he did like her enough to spare humanity—wouldn't he go berserk after getting slapped in the head like that?
"He" wasn't human, after all. You couldn't apply human logic to his thoughts.
Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, the massive, terrifying shadow continued creeping forward. The sky looked like thick, black crude oil, as if it would pour down at any second and smother the world in darkness.
Tension crackled. Everyone braced themselves, waiting for Jiang Lian's reaction.
In the bluish hologram, Jiang Lian paused, frowning slightly as he looked down at the hole in his chest.
The moment his heart was shoved back into place, the wound stopped bleeding and healed on its own.
He glanced coldly at the sealed wound, then leaned toward Zhou Jiao and whispered something in her ear. His expression didn't look good.
A wave of relief swept through the office.
At least he wasn't exploding in fury. Not yet.
Now, if Zhou Jiao just kissed him—offered a few kind words—maybe this would all blow over…
The next second, Zhou Jiao smacked him on the head again. Her expression didn't look good either.
She crossed her arms and jerked her chin toward the office building's windows—a clear command.
The Biotech researchers had analyzed Jiang Lian's behavior extensively. They knew he harbored a deep, instinctive contempt for humanity.
That contempt was hardwired into his biology. It couldn't be reversed or reasoned away.
Just like a wolf will never resist the urge to rip a lamb's throat out, Jiang Lian would never see humans as equals.
Outside of the Bureau's infiltration period, he didn't even bother talking to people. He issued orders through means beyond human comprehension—directly manipulating subconscious thought.
If the company hadn't been monitoring employee biosignals in real time, they wouldn't have even known their minds were being altered.
**How could a creature that despised humanity this deeply possibly obey a human's order—**after being hit, no less?
Sharp gasps rippled through the office. Everyone's face went pale.
Someone cursed Zhou Jiao under their breath. Thought she was arrogant—reckless. How dare she treat a being that stood above all of humanity like that?
Didn't she realize every move she made could decide the fate of the world?
Then again, she was a diagnosed sociopath. She had no sense of responsibility. No guilt.
If they'd known that, one day, the entire fate of humanity would hinge on the "sense of duty" of a sociopath, the company would never have launched the War Machine Initiative.
Yes, the rumors online were true.
While preparing for the looming threat of inter-corporate warfare, Biotech had launched the "War Machine Initiative" alongside Project Genesis—randomly selecting couples undergoing assisted reproduction and genetically altering their embryos.
These children would grow up with a higher likelihood of becoming high-IQ sociopaths—or even cold-blooded serial killers.
One way or another, they'd be recruited by the company—turned into agents, soldiers, assassins, snipers... all for the glory of the corporate empire.
If they'd known Zhou Jiao would one day form a bond with a terrifying nonhuman entity, they'd have reprogrammed her to be kind, gentle, and warm-hearted.
Not a ruthless, remorseless killing machine.
The atmosphere grew heavier still.
Everyone prayed for a miracle.
But deep down, they knew—it wouldn't come. Not unless Jiang Lian was truly in love with Zhou Jiao.
But how could a supreme being ever fall in love with a human?
And then... the miracle happened.
Jiang Lian looked furious—but he slowly began to retract his appendages.
The tendrils covering the city dissolved, shrank, flowed backward—like a receding tide of black tar—until they reabsorbed into Jiang Lian's tall, imposing frame.
Throughout the process, his eyes remained ice-cold and terrifying, like he might unleash the tendrils again at any second and tear the city apart.
But he didn't.
Seconds passed. All the tendrils disappeared.
The office erupted in quiet exhalations of relief. But no one relaxed. Everyone kept their eyes on the hologram, waiting for his next move.
Jiang Lian turned toward Zhou Jiao.
They couldn't see his expression, but they saw him lift a thumb and wipe it lightly across his lips.
Then, Zhou Jiao smiled—and crooked a finger at him.
And the unspeakable, supreme being followed.
Like a summoned beast, he kissed her—desperate and possessive.
Everyone froze.
Before they could process it, the hologram disappeared.
—Jiang Lian's obsession with Zhou Jiao remained as fanatical and paranoid as ever.
If he didn't want her to be seen, no electronic device could capture her image.
···
Zhou Jiao didn't like meddling in other people's fate—not because she was noble, but because she lacked guilt or a sense of responsibility.
The world was dirty, rotten, utterly broken. But it was still filled with people trying to live. She had no right to decide their fate.
When the trolley came barreling toward five people on the track, she would turn away—not pull the lever.
And yet, it was this strange, alien detachment that ended up saving countless lives.
Because she had been designed to kill.
As she stepped out of the building and looked up at the now-clear sky, her heart felt oddly heavy.
If it weren't for Jiang Lian—forcing her to choose between saving the world and destroying it—she might never have realized what kind of role she was playing.
She always thought she had clarity. That she faced her own dark urges honestly, without shame, without evasion.
Until now.
Only now did she realize she'd been avoiding that one sentence from her parents—
"Be a good person."
She used to believe sociopaths could never be redeemed.
But Jiang Lian had awakened something human in her. Forced her to see herself clearly.
She wanted to be good.
How strange. Falling in love with a monster didn't drag her deeper into the dark.
It had helped her become—bit by bit—something closer to normal.
Just then, Jiang Lian came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her.
The elaborate "compensation plan" he'd spent days devising had just been shot down. He looked irritable and sullen—he wasn't going to come up with anything that clever again anytime soon.
But she had given him permission to kiss her like a predator.
He wanted to say no—to prove he'd outgrown his predatory instincts—but micro-expressions don't lie.
The moment Zhou Jiao said those words, his pupils dilated, his Adam's apple bobbed, and overwhelming desire surged like a tidal wave.
She tilted her chin up slightly—
And he couldn't hold back anymore.
He kissed her—cold lips, wild heat, his tongue nearly feral in its desperation, ravaging hers with a kind of manic hunger.
Zhou Jiao's scalp tingled from the onslaught. She immediately regretted giving him permission to kiss her that way.
His tongue was cold, slender, shapeless—a sticky, alien substance that could morph into grotesque forms, sprouting tendrils that brushed against her tongue.
It was not a pleasant kiss.
But as his expression gradually softened, she decided she could tolerate it a little longer.
Ten minutes passed.
Finally, unable to take it anymore, Zhou Jiao grabbed a fistful of his hair and yanked his head back.
"All right, that's enough!"
A thin strand of translucent fluid hung between their lips.
Jiang Lian's eyes darkened. He reached out and caught the strand with his fingers.
For a brief moment, a crack flashed across his skin.
His Adam's apple bobbed—followed by a clear swallowing sound.
"..." Zhou Jiao's eye twitched. Typical of him.
Even though he'd mastered the most important human trait—empathy—it didn't change the fact that, at his core, he wasn't human.
Which was fine. She could already imagine how thrilling their future together would be.
The only thing she was thankful for was that Jiang Lian, aside from kissing, didn't know how to do anything else.
His love for her was terrifyingly pure. His desire, equally so. Beyond his abyssal possessiveness, there was nothing base or filthy about it.
And Zhou Jiao had no intention of teaching him.
She wanted to wait until he discovered it on his own. That would be far more entertaining.
·
A world-ending disaster quietly dissolved before it could begin.
Araki Xun slumped into his office chair, letting out a long sigh of relief—only for dread to creep in again moments later.
Why had Jiang Lian suddenly developed a desire to destroy the world?
What was the trigger that had set off such an impulse?
He had to find out, in case something like this ever happened again.
Araki Xun gathered every scrap of information he could, compiled and analyzed it—and finally arrived at an answer.
An answer he dearly wished he hadn't found.
Because if Jiang Lian ever evolved the ability to read human thoughts, everyone who knew this would be wiped out without mercy.
Who would have thought that this supreme, unfathomable being—beyond human comprehension or description—had wanted to destroy the world simply because… someone else gave Zhou Jiao the gift he'd picked out for her. And she got framed for it.
"..."
Araki Xun stared into the void, deadpan.
How the hell was he supposed to look Jiang Lian in the eye after this?
What if he accidentally laughed out loud and got himself killed on the spot?
The only thing he could do for this almighty god now was erase every last trace of this incident—to prevent too many people from knowing, and triggering another apocalyptic impulse.
·
After they got together, Jiang Lian offered to give Zhou Jiao the entire biotech company.
She declined immediately.
Was he kidding? The top execs at Biotech worked 85 hours a day. She'd have to be insane to want the CEO job.
And if it was just a token transfer of ownership, that was even more pointless.
Even Jiang Lian, upon taking over, had his background dug up down to the last atom—though it was the "original" Jiang Lian's background that got exposed.
Not even his terrifying powers—manipulating subconscious thoughts and electromagnetic fields—could shield him from the public's insatiable hunger for gossip.
The last thing Zhou Jiao wanted was to have her entire life story dragged through the media, especially the details of her parents' death.
Her humanity was growing again, slowly branching out—and seeing those images would hurt in a way she couldn't even describe.
So Jiang Lian dropped the idea and went back to being a half-assed CEO.
Just as Zhou Jiao had expected, life with him was full of intense and bizarre surprises.
Their daily routine no longer felt like a tightrope walk.
Because she had become the tightrope.
Still, she kind of enjoyed that trembling thrill. It was a pleasant surprise.
Until one day, she received the ultimate surprise—
She came home after work (to the house of the former CEO, Fujiwara Osamu—no idea where Jiang Lian had dumped that poor guy), and as soon as she opened the door, she froze.
The living room was crawling with dense, slimy, grotesque black-red tentacles, oozing with a damp chill. For a second, she genuinely thought she'd opened the fridge.
The grand, luxurious villa had turned into some horrifying petri dish—its walls covered in layers of pulsing fleshy membranes, slowly inflating and spreading upward to the eerie rhythms of humming and heartbeat-like sounds.
It looked like the lair of some reptilian abomination—or a yawning abyss opening its bloody maw toward humanity.
Zhou Jiao's mouth twitched. She closed the door.
"Jiang Lian, what the hell are you doing this time?"
Despite the grotesque transformation of their home, Jiang Lian sat calmly on the sofa.
One hand propped up his head. His eyes were half-closed, his expression a mix of irritation and resignation as he stared at the TV screen. "I've figured out how to make it up to you."
Zhou Jiao: "?"
Jiang Lian turned toward her. There was a flash of smug, masculine pride in his eyes—quickly followed by something venomous and jealous.
After a pause, he said slowly, "We've been together long enough. You should know what I'm capable of—however many children you want, I can make it happen. Even if you want the entire planet to be your offspring, I can do that."
Zhou Jiao felt like her face had been shoved into one of those tentacles—it started to twitch.
She knew better than to judge Jiang Lian by human logic. She really tried to look touched, to appreciate his... unique idea of compensation.
But in the end, she couldn't hold it in.
Through clenched teeth, a single cold word hissed out:
"...Get out."
(End of Story One.)