"First, I need to know one thing—what is your opinion on clones, or artificial humans created with your genes as a base?" Otto tapped the table twice with his hand. The next moment, countless light screens were projected from the table.
At a glance, Shu saw densely packed experimental data.
Just that one glance made Shu feel a little dizzy. But the matter was of great importance, so he forced himself to look at one light screen after another.
Before he could look at two of them, Otto waved his hand and put away all the light screens, stopping Shu from torturing himself.
Only then did Shu begin to think about the question Otto had thrown at him.
"My opinion on artificial humans...?" Shu gave Otto a puzzled look in return. "Are you trying to say that Bianka is an artificial human and cannot be judged by conventional ethical relationships?"
Although he had only been with Otto for a few months, Shu was already very clear about the way Otto spoke.
So now, as soon as Otto opened his mouth, Shu extracted several key points that Kiana had not mentioned.
With his genes as a base—clone.
Even though Shu was not very clear about what kind of monster Future City had developed the cloning technology into in this world, he also understood that the current cloning technology was no longer limited to the situation of "Dolly," which required a mother's egg cell.
A drop of blood, a strand of hair, or even a bit of dander from who knows where could be used to clone a complete person.
"So Bianka... was cloned from my genes?" Following Otto's reminder, Shu immediately began to use his brilliant brain to speculate.
"No." Otto decisively put a big "X" on Shu's answer.
To hell with his brilliant brain.
Shu decisively abandoned his own thoughts and looked at Otto with pleading eyes.
Actually, this answer was not unexpected. Bianka and he were completely different. Besides [Hope], they had no common ground at all. If Bianka was really a clone... then Shu felt that the genetic prototype was most likely...
"Bianka's genetic prototype is Kiana," Otto gave the answer that was in Shu's mind. "That's why the kinship genes between the two of them can reach this incredible 99.9%."
As he spoke, Otto pushed the report to Shu and gently tapped on the 99.9% behind Kiana's name. "In kinship gene determination, the usual data is between 30% and 70%. The 99.9% data is undoubtedly abnormal data."
Otto paused, then looked up and smiled at Shu. "Didn't you see it? This abnormal data?"
"..." Shu decided to play dead. Could he say that he didn't know this common sense at all?
No, Kiana didn't know either, so this was actually a common state! It seemed that there were more ignorant and foolish people like him in this world.
Thinking of this, Shu's back suddenly straightened up.
He wouldn't have classified himself in the same category as a Kaslana, would he? Otto knew what Shu was thinking without even looking. He sighed in his heart and continued to explain to this person who would no longer catch a cold in the Far East.
"To put it in layman's terms, the relationship between a clone and the cloned is more like siblings than parents and children. Do you agree with this?"
Shu's face was tense. After a series of storms in his mind, he finally convinced himself with the fact that "Kiana and Bianka in the original story were indeed sisters."
"So Bianka is my... no, Bianka didn't use my genes. What is the relationship between her and me?"
"Hmm..." Otto seemed to have been thinking for a long time. Shu didn't know what he was thinking about.
"It's probably the relationship between 'Kevin' and 'Parvati'..."
Shu's eyes instantly widened, and he looked at Otto in disbelief.
He knew what Otto had been thinking about just now. You bastard were really thinking about how to shock me for a hundred years with the most concise language!
"How did I become a Honkai Beast?!" This was really a blind spot in Shu's knowledge. He could understand failing to be demoted from father to brother, but why was the consequence being reincarnated as a Honkai Beast?
And a fused Honkai Beast?
"First of all, the artificial human vessel here was created by Vakh. The vessel contains the best genes from all over the world. After I took over, I added Kiana's genes as the base to carry those genes... it was extracted from her blood during the unified physical examination."
Shu made a serious "hmm," and only then did Otto continue to explain: "At this point, Bianka's vessel was already close to complete, but it was still a long way from perfect. So after the vessel matured and had enough carrying capacity, I implanted your genes into it.
"Shu, you may not know how... independent your genes are. In the countless models I have constructed, your genes have always been unable to be absorbed and fused, as if there is a kind of genetic lock between you and us that prevents mutual communication."
Genetic lock?
Shu remembered the explanation "Vakh" had given him a few months ago, and then he thought of the example Vakh had given at the time.
"Reproductive isolation?!" Shu's face turned inexplicably pale. "I—"
"Don't worry, you're not sterile," Otto said with a smile, dispelling Shu's worries. But he immediately added, "But I'm not sure now..."
Otto's disdainful gaze made Shu shiver, and he looked away with a slight blush.
"In short, if you want to integrate your genes into someone else's body, you have to start from scratch and create a new vessel with your genes as a base. The resources required for that would be astronomical, and the current Fire Moth can't afford it..."
So we're that poor. Shu nodded in deep agreement, then looked at Otto with a faint gaze, as if just looking at him could make money.
"Don't even think about it. The contribution points within Fire Moth are already the limit. Establishing such a fragile economic system has already exhausted all my energy," Otto waved his hand, dispelling Shu's thoughts.
"So I chose the second method, which is the MANTIS surgery, forcibly integrating your genes into the vessel as if they were the genes of a Honkai Beast. This is how the current Bianka came to be. Do you understand?"
"As for that data..." Otto glanced at the report, then laughed. "I can explain that too."
Shu understood, and at the same time, he breathed a sigh of relief.
"..." After a moment of silence, Shu stared at Otto and asked his last question. "Otto, how many times did you fail?"