A few seconds later, the static faded, replaced by the heavy, hurried, and panic-stricken panting of an elderly man. His pronunciation was not quite standard, and coupled with his panicked tone, it was somewhat difficult to decipher.

"Listen here... they have entered the building..."

Mingled with his heavy panting was the wailing sound of an alarm echoing repeatedly in the distance. The atmosphere within the study at this moment seemed to merge with the chaotic, blood-soaked scene from twenty-eight years ago.

"The main server has been taken... Damn it... They arrived too quickly..."

The clattering sound of overturning furniture rang out. It seemed the man was desperately trying to barricade the door.

"But... but the original copy has not been taken. I have divided it into smaller parts..."

"Bang! Bang!"

The violent thuds from outside transmitted into the recording microphone.

"It is at... bzzzt... c-cannot let it fall into their hands... kshh... kshh..."

"Bang!"

The audio was highly distorted; there seemed to be a gunshot, but it sounded as though a silencer had been attached, making the noise very faint. This was followed by the sound of shattering glass and the heavy thud of a human body collapsing.

A barrage of chaotic noises ensued. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

In the end, the audio track fell completely silent. It seemed the latter portion failed to capture any sound whatsoever.

"This is..." Julian looked at Ethan: "Could this be the scene right before that professor died?"

Ethan shook his head: "I am not certain either. Previously, my mother told me that her mentor had passed away due to an unforeseen accident. However, this clearly indicates he was killed by a gunshot. It even seems he was still inside the laboratory? If that is the case, how on earth did they manage to fabricate an accident?"

The prior incident of the leading professor’s demise was a matter known to the entire research team. If that group of people truly stormed the laboratory to seize the experimental results, then why did it take a full decade before Ethan’s parents managed to uncover this related information?

The media player on the computer was still running. They paid it no heed, until the audio track neared its very end. The audio wave lines, which had been perfectly flat, suddenly jumped in two extremely faint pulses that they could not clearly hear.

Julian turned the speakers up to maximum volume and scrubbed the audio back. Finally, both men heard a crackling sound once more.

"Subject Zero."

"Subject Zero?" Ethan furrowed his brows, watching the playback reach its end: "Is that the name of this project? But is it not Project Genesis? Or is it the predecessor to Eden that you mentioned earlier?"

However, Julian could not answer the man immediately. Because the instant those two words slipped out, the sharp pain in his temples that he had just suppressed struck once again. This time, it was a hundred times more ferocious and brutal.

"Hss..."

Julian drew in a sharp breath, his skull ached as if a drill bit were piercing straight through it. His vision suddenly pitched into blackness, followed immediately by a blindingly bright white light that slammed directly into his sight.

He could smell the overpowering, nauseating stench of rubbing alcohol.

And from somewhere very far away, from within the dense fog of his sealed subconscious, someone was calling out to him. A distorted, mechanical voice, echoing through an intercom speaker.

"...Subject Zero... reaction..."

Julian staggered, his ears ringing so loudly he could not decipher the subsequent words. His knees turned to jelly, and his entire body lost its balance, pitching forward. His hands frantically gripped the back of the leather chair to prevent himself from collapsing onto the floor.

"Julian!"

The commotion behind his back was too loud. The man hastily whipped his head around to look. Ethan swiftly stepped around the leather chair, catching the younger man in his arms before Julian could slip and fall.

"What is wrong?" Ethan tightly embraced his waist. The man’s large hand pressed against Julian’s forehead, discovering that it was entirely slick with freezing cold sweat.

Julian clung to Ethan’s arm, his chest heaving as he gasped for air. Panic flashed through the depths of his eyes. This reaction... belonged to this physical body. In the end, what connection was there between A-01 and Subject Zero? Why did this body reject that name to the point of generating hallucinations?

Yet before he could voice his thoughts, Ethan’s phone, which was resting on the desk, began vibrating intensely. The man glanced at it briefly, eventually picking Julian up and sitting down on the leather chair, allowing Julian to lean against his chest. As for Ethan himself, he unlocked his phone.

Displayed upon it was an incoming message from Helen Lloyd.

[I have just reinvestigated the experimental project from that year per your instructions, but the records have been almost entirely wiped clean. However, I did discover one thing: prior to his death, the professor leading the project had a sum of money deposited in a research fund. Approximately a few months after his passing, that fund was reactivated, circulating capital for ten years.]

[Afterward, the cash flow from this fund was poured into the establishment of a hospital.]

[It is the hospital where Young Master Julian was born, which also has some ties to the Sterling family.]

[Upon investigation, during that time period, this hospital experienced numerous incidents of newborns being switched at birth.]

Helen Lloyd’s message caused Julian, who was currently suffering from a splitting headache, to freeze in stunned disbelief. It seemed that today had brought far too many overwhelming revelations, leaving them entirely unsure of how to react or maneuver. The sheer volume of incoming information they had to absorb was simply too much, tangling together into a chaotic, inextricable mess.

Previously, Julian had always believed that by marrying Ethan Caldwell and maintaining the facade of a docile and obedient partner, he would be able to simply laze around all day without a care in the world. But now, it appeared that this multitude of intertwined problems did not solely revolve around the man beside him. Rather, Julian himself was fundamentally a crucial linchpin situated right at the very center of it all.