After a moment of comforting each other, Ethan Caldwell continued to tell the things he knew to Julian Sterling. The purpose of today was precisely so that Julian Sterling could fully grasp what CORE truly was, and what they were actually facing.

"Actually, at first, my parents did not know anything either. Until..."

"Until they had that accident?"

Ethan Caldwell let out a very soft murmur of agreement. In truth, it was not difficult to guess; if it were merely a standard elimination, why would they need to wait for a full eleven years? Ethan Caldwell’s mother participated in the research, and then when the project encountered issues, she discovered she was pregnant. However, the two of them met with their accident when Ethan Caldwell was already eleven years old. This period of time was simply too long.

It was so long that people would mistakenly believe everything had already been laid to rest.

"In this world, there are always many such coincidences, almost as if everything had been arranged that way from the very beginning. Initially, my mother did not realize this matter. It was merely the death of her highly respected mentor that left her constantly burdened with worry. My father could not bear to watch her drown in sorrow, so apart from comforting his wife, he also sought ways to restart that project from those years for her."

"But the more he investigated, the deeper he delved into it, the more problems he began to uncover. He attempted to contact every single person who had participated in the project back then..."

Ethan Caldwell suddenly paused, but Julian Sterling could also vaguely guess that perhaps those people all met with rather unpleasant endings. Furthermore, it was not just them, but even the relatives surrounding them...

"Not a single one was left alive. The entire project, counting even the cleaning lady, comprised over thirty people, and except for my mother, they all passed away one after another."

"Not only them, but their family members did not survive either. There were all sorts of reasons, car accidents, fires, sudden severe illnesses, being murdered by others... and the times of death were not consistent either. The person who died most recently was a researcher in charge of studying human consciousness, and that person was also the one who died the most tragically."

Julian Sterling , who was quietly listening, simultaneously marveled at the sheer barbarity and patience of CORE. In order to guarantee that every single loose end was silenced, they did not even spare the cleaner of the research facility. Yet at the same time, this made Julian Sterling acutely aware that the entity he and Ethan Caldwell were dealing with was absolutely not ordinary in the slightest.

Who exactly was the mastermind, to be able to lay out so many elaborate schemes? Over thirty people, if counting their families, the number must have reached a hundred lives. Step by step, over the course of more than ten years, they had handled everything cleanly, not even allowing anyone to discover or investigate the truth.

Or perhaps... there were people within the government and the police force who had noticed the anomalies, but no one truly sought justice for the deceased. Because, as Ethan Caldwell had stated previously, CORE was an organization involving participants from all social classes, including individuals belonging to the authorities and the state.

Julian Sterling continued to wander in his aimless thoughts, right until he heard Ethan Caldwell mention "human consciousness".

"Research on human consciousness?"

Seeing Julian Sterling suddenly ask about the content of the research, the man telling the story also paused for a moment before slowly replying: "Yes, did I not tell you already? The project belonging to my mother and her associates was researching how to pull humans away from the boundary of life and death. But the problem is that the body is constructed from cells, which will inevitably age; it is impossible to sustain life within the cells forever. Therefore, they moved on to research human consciousness."

"They wanted to use the human body as a storage relay station, extracting a person’s consciousness, and then transferring it into another body?"

"Something quite similar to that." Ethan Caldwell gently tucked away a few stray strands of hair falling in front of Julian Sterling ’s face, asking, "What is wrong?"

Consciousness and memories constitute a fundamental part of a human being. Because of this, if this part could be preserved, continuously rotating a person’s consciousness and memories into new biologically regenerated bodies, it would be no different from being able to prolong life for eternity.

Julian Sterling shook his head. He felt as though he had touched upon something, yet he had no way to fully grasp it, and in the end, Julian Sterling could only shake his head: "It is nothing. Please continue."

Ethan Caldwell , of course, also knew that Julian Sterling was hiding something from him, but Ethan Caldwell believed that given some time, Julian Sterling would eventually be willing to open up to him. Because of this, he merely nodded and continued: "The person specializing in this branch of consciousness research was the one who suffered the most tragic death."

"Hmm?"

"He and his family were the only group murdered. To put it accurately, the deaths of the others were all recorded as unforeseen accidents or disappearances with no recoverable information. They alone were killed. According to the police records, it was suspected that they encountered a psychopathic serial killer, and to this day, the perpetrator remains uncaptured."

"That does not seem very likely..." Julian Sterling ’s voice hesitated. Meanwhile, the man seemed to have understood what Julian Sterling wanted to say, asking: "You feel that it does not match the style of CORE, is that right?"

"Yes, based on what you have told me, it is clear that this group of people operates with extreme caution. It is not to the point of leaving absolutely zero information behind, but at the very least, on the surface, they would legalize their actions. However, the death of this person is distinctly different."

Accidents could be rationalized and would not draw much public attention. At most, they would appear on the television news for a few lines, netizens would add a passing comment of pity, and that would be the end of it. But murder cases like this one were entirely different; they would inevitably attract the intense scrutiny of public opinion. Especially when the police classified the case as the work of a psychopathic killer, it was no different from stimulating the morbid curiosity of the masses.

"I also do not understand why they acted that way, but this case was a shocking one that year, and even now, it can still be looked up on the internet."

"Was it very bloody?"

"Yes, he and his entire family, a total of seven people, all perished. According to the information disclosed by the police, the bodies of all seven were not intact, the corpses were dismembered into multiple pieces. According to the forensic examination results, the flesh and skin on their bodies were cut into small, perfectly square blocks measuring exactly five centimeters in length. They were cut off while the victims were still alive."

Having a clear consciousness, their four limbs firmly secured, helplessly watching as each block of flesh was sliced from their own bodies.

Merely visualizing the scene sent a chilling numbness down Julian Sterling ’s spine.

"Their eyes were all gouged out, soaked together in a specialized specimen preservation solution nearby, and their tongues were also severed. The tops of their heads were hollowed out with a sharp knife, creating a hole through which liquid mercury was poured inside."

Liquid mercury would forcefully separate a human’s skin from their flesh. Ethan Caldwell did not need to continue speaking for Julian Sterling to comprehend just how utterly horrifying that condition truly was. Within his mind, he could even vividly picture every single step executed by the murderer.

"First is binding the four limbs, severing the tongue, and gouging out the eyes. Following that, using mercury to pour down from the top of the head, allowing the layer of skin to separate while they were still alive... No! It must have been only cutting the tongue so the victims could not make a sound, and then letting them helplessly watch as their own skin was separated. It could also have been to force that project participant to watch their own skin, and the skin of their family members, being peeled off alive. Then came each and every block of flesh being sliced off, they were in excruciating agony, but they could not utter a single sound... because their tongues were already gone."

Julian Sterling subconsciously described that gruesome process out loud, receiving a nod from Ethan Caldwell in return: "That is likely the case. The procedure presented by the forensic experts is quite similar to that. The police department did not look at it from the perspective of that research project, so they failed to recognize the problem. But when I reinvestigated this case, the contact I reached out to reconfirmed that within the archived forensic files, it was certified that the participant in the research project was the very last person to die in the family, the time of death differed by approximately one hour."

Julian Sterling ’s spine had turned completely ice-cold.

He did not deny the fact that his own hands were not entirely clean, in his previous life, he had been a chief executive officer, hailing from a major aristocratic family, and had witnessed all sorts of power struggles. Human lives, Julian Sterling had seen them lost before. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

In the vicious battles for dominance, those who died to pave the way for others were certainly not few in number.

However, these methods... they were truly far too cruel, and absolutely terrifying.