Chapter 317: A Fleeting Glimpse
"Who are you?" Facing the presence that had materialized soundlessly around him, Bai Mo quickly pinpointed the source of the voice—the test tube containing golden abyssal bloodline.
"According to your human terminology, I should be called Gaia. However, I actually prefer the name Tianming."
The moment the voice spoke, he realized he was trapped in an underground laboratory. The invisible barrier surrounding him was quite powerful, though not yet to the point of despair.
Bai Mo silently assessed the strength of the containment. He believed that if he resorted to his trump cards, he might be able to escape, but there was no immediate need. He was curious about the meaning of the four words "destiny's protagonist" that the entity had uttered.
"You are Tianming, yet you say I am destiny's protagonist. Could it be that you arranged my life?" He voiced his conjecture based on the literal meaning.
"A part of it." The emotionless voice replied.
Upon hearing that a part of his destiny had been pre-arranged, Bai Mo's curiosity grew even stronger.
As for anger? Not yet. His life was going very well, and even if it truly was all pre-arranged, the mastermind's actions, in his opinion, weren't bad. They hadn't given him a useless beginning.
"Such as?"
"Were all of these arranged by you?"
"Yes, and no." It evaded the question with an ambiguous statement.
"What is the meaning of creating a protagonist like me?" After hearing so many "coincidences," he posed the most crucial question.
"Don't you humans all enjoy saying, 'My fate is mine to command, not heaven's'? When you discover that your destiny is actually a pre-laid path, do you feel no anger at all?"
"Don't change the subject."
"There's no particular meaning. In the long expanse of time, one always needs to do something to pass the time. Ying Zheng, Liu Bang, Liu Xiu, Wang Mang... each of them brought me fascinating stories. Indeed, it's the sentient humans that leave a deeper impression." Gaia's voice remained as calm as an ancient well.
"Why me?"
"There's no 'why you.' It's because I randomly chose you that you have the qualification to converse with me today. In your human words, it's akin to the so-called anthropic principle."
"I've roughly guessed your mode of existence." After a few seconds of silence, Bai Mo suddenly spoke.
"You are the genes flowing within every living creature, influencing everyone through what you call instinct. This gene virus incident, too, was directed by you."
"Indeed, my choice to switch protagonists was correct. You've already exceeded my scope of control." Gaia showed no signs of panic despite Bai Mo's incisive and accurate deduction.
"Spirit Qi, what kind of existence are you, to enable a living being to gain the ability to break free from my control in less than a decade..."
In its view, such a display was only natural for Bai Mo. Anyone who couldn't even deduce its mode of existence simply wasn't worthy of conversation.
"Switch protagonists?" Having guessed Gaia's form of existence, Bai Mo also largely understood its so-called method of manipulating destiny.
It could significantly influence a person's emotions, thereby affecting their judgment and actions. By regulating the levels of various hormones in the body, layer by layer through DNA, it could make humans impulsive, or calm, or passionate like fire.
Dopamine, which produces pleasure; norepinephrine, which brings excitement; endorphins, responsible for enjoyment and pain relief; oxytocin, which helps overcome difficulties—through the control of these various hormone secretions, it ultimately wove together most of humanity's intricate emotions.
Humans who still possessed reason to control themselves were relatively better off. For animals acting solely on instinct, Gaia could control their movements almost one hundred percent.
"Switch to someone I can always control."
"To continue your game?"
"Let's make a deal." Gaia finally revealed the true reason for its appearance today.
"Speak."
"I want to switch protagonists, so I'll keep you here for two months. Do not interfere with my affairs, and you must never reveal my existence afterwards. In exchange, I won't expose the tricks you played with that combat power assessment system, nor will I influence your life in the future." It slowly finished stating the terms of the deal, though it sounded more like a threat than a negotiation.
"You can't kill me?" Bai Mo retorted.
"It's not worth it. I know your trump card. If you were to sacrifice all your potential to unleash it, then I indeed couldn't kill you."
"If I do that, not only might I survive, but perhaps I could even eradicate you from this world using the most violent method." He threatened in return.
"You still don't understand this level of immortality. Even if you were to kill all life on this planet, I would still not perish." Gaia had guessed his thoughts.
"Just how exactly does an earth-shattering existence like you come to be?" This Gaia, representing a part of all life on Earth, truly astonished Bai Mo with its form of existence.
"However, why don't you venture into space?" He continued to press the question, but Gaia offered no reply. Its voice vanished, as if it had never appeared.
Had he not noticed that half of the golden abyssal bloodline in the test tube had inexplicably been consumed, Bai Mo might have even doubted the authenticity of the recent conversation.
While Gaia's appearance clarified many of his doubts, it also brought forth more confusion. He didn't believe that the entity was simply creating "destiny's protagonists" out of boredom, making countless people supporting characters in its play.
It was just that the entity's current level was clearly far beyond his own. For some unknown reason, it had chosen not to eliminate him, this unstable factor, but instead opted for a negotiation and a deal.
"How could an existence like this have been nurtured by Earth before the Spirit Qi arrived?" Bai Mo suspected that the entity might be an extraterrestrial life form from countless years ago.
"Perhaps it's too heavily wounded, unable to move too far from the living hosts it resides in?" After much thought, this was the only possibility he could conceive.
Otherwise, with Gaia's realm and such a long span of time, it was impossible for it not to have embarked on the path of space exploration. The only explanation was that it had been recuperating.
"Could destiny's protagonists be the nourishment for its healing?" Accustomed to leaning towards conspiracy theories, he quickly developed this thought.
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