Trafford's Trading Club

Chapter 1250: Lies

As the time neared two in the morning, inside the secret laboratory of Auston Pharmaceuticals, everyone was on high alert—except, of course, for the guards who were already dead.

At her command, the researchers had moved the guards’ corpses aside, stacking them into a small mound. The sight of that heap of bodies weighed heavily on everyone present.

The air itself seemed frozen. The only sound that broke the silence was the occasional click of disassembling firearms—she was currently tinkering with a full table of modern weapons taken from the fallen guards. For now, her curiosity toward these guns seemed stronger than her interest in the experiment’s outcome.

Mr. House could barely remain calm. His palms were slick with sweat, which he wiped on his pants again and again.

Jimmy said nothing. His eyes roamed the room, his mind clearly spinning.

Finally, the head of the research team suddenly shouted, “It’s done!”

Mr. House instantly stood up, staggering forward in excitement—only to stop abruptly when he remembered her presence behind him. The joy on his face froze.

“Go on,” she said with a mocking smile. “Why are you looking at me? Aren’t you going to embrace your new life?”

Mr. House said nothing. He motioned for Jimmy to come over. Supported by him, he slowly approached the massive platform.

“Jimmy, I’ve waited too long for this moment,” Mr. House murmured. His tone left no room for doubt, but his eyes were wild and desperate. He gripped Jimmy’s arm tightly—painfully. “Help me… no matter what happens, you must help me. I have no heir. Do this for me, and half of my fortune will be yours.”His voice was low enough that only Jimmy could hear.

Jimmy whispered back, “Boss, I don’t think I can handle that woman alone…”

Mr. House suddenly said, “On the other side of the platform, there’s a small marked indentation. If that woman attacks—if this fails—you’ll uncover it and press the button inside.”

“What is it?” Jimmy frowned.

“A special exit,” Mr. House replied. “Only I know about it. If this goes wrong, you’ll open the passage and get me out. Remember, only if I live can you claim my wealth.”

Jimmy hesitated only a moment before nodding silently.

As Mr. House reached the massive platform, a section of it extended forward, revealing a metal chair. Around the base, complex machinery hummed to life as the researchers rushed about, setting everything in place. Supported by two assistants, Mr. House lay back on the cold chair.

Someone rolled up his sleeve and brought over a device, preparing an injection.

She set down the weapon she had been examining and walked toward the busy group, smiling faintly.

Mr. House had no choice left. His body was failing completely. Even though human cloning was strictly forbidden internationally—and this experiment carried immense risk—he was past caring.

“Begin!”

A blue serum flowed through the syringe into Mr. House’s veins. His dim eyes flickered with light, and his eyelids slowly closed.

The team leader gritted his teeth and pressed the main activation switch.

Everyone held their breath. Many had worked for Mr. House for years—cut off from the world in this lightless underground lab—all to serve one dying old man. And now, after years of sacrifice, the results would finally be tested.

Their emotions were complicated.

“Voltage stable… systems running normally.”

“Clone life signs stable…”

“Consciousness link… initiated!”

Status reports echoed one after another. She tilted her head slightly, watching the scene unfold with casual curiosity.

Mr. House lay still, seemingly without pain. Electric power surged through the platform. Hundreds of indicator lights flashed per second, data screens refreshed wildly, and sweat trickled down the researchers’ faces.

She walked over to the team leader. “I’m curious—this artificial Zero Gene, it was based on Mr. House’s own genome, wasn’t it?”

“Y-yes,” the leader stammered, lowering his head in fear.

“Honestly,” she said, narrowing her eyes, “I’m quite interested in this artificial Zero Gene technology. But there’s another one that fascinates me even more… How exactly did you pull it off?”

“Wh-what do you mean…?” The leader swallowed hard.

“Consciousness transfer,” she said coolly. “Even if this artificial Zero Gene was modeled after House—even if it carries every bit of his life’s data—it’s still just a vessel. The clone and House are separate beings, aren’t they? If his consciousness can’t inhabit the clone, then what happens? Two Mr. Houses?”

“Of course not!” the leader said hastily. “It has all of Mr. House’s memories! His personality, his thought patterns—everything identical!”

“Identical,” she repeated softly. “But not the same.” She sighed, disappointed. “So you still haven’t mastered true consciousness transfer. You’ve only created a twenty-year-old House with his memories. Nothing more.”

The team leader’s expression changed drastically. Suddenly, he lunged at her, grabbing a syringe from a nearby table and driving it toward her.

He was tall and strong—but he was facing someone who was not truly human. His desperate strike was instantly countered.

The leader crumpled to the floor, clutching his stomach in pain.

She sneered, ready to retaliate—but several researchers suddenly rushed forward. “Please! Don’t hurt him!”

The very same people who had cowered in fear moments ago now gathered their courage and threw themselves between them.

She didn’t bother to dodge. She raised her assault rifle and fired a burst into the ceiling, the roar sending everyone stumbling back.

“It was him who attacked me,” she said coldly. “I haven’t even touched him—I just asked a few questions.”

Indeed, she had come here to “resolve a problem.” The identity she inhabited in this sub-world—Nan Xiaonan—had long been hunted by Mr. House. Eliminating that problem naturally meant eliminating House and his organization—but not necessarily these researchers.

When she infiltrated this place, she had already converted all the door locks using Star Creation. Along the way, she discovered several living quarters and quickly deduced that these people were being imprisoned—perhaps threatened through their families.

They weren’t her enemies. Even if released, they wouldn’t dare trouble Nan Xiaonan.

But her original plans didn’t always dictate her actions. Their foolish defiance had clearly irritated her.

Though she had appeared docile before that “Mr. Luo,” her true self—the one known in her original sub-world as the Witch—was volatile and ruthless.

“We can’t help it!”

A young researcher, around thirty, suddenly cried out. “We were imprisoned here, forced to continue Mr. House’s project! His obsession with rebirth was sick, twisted! If we failed to satisfy him, our families would suffer… I haven’t seen the outside world in five years! But consciousness transfer—it’s impossible for us!”

“Before, we could stall him,” the man continued desperately. “We claimed the core formula for the artificial Zero Gene was incomplete—but House finally got his hands on it! We can’t refuse him anymore! The team leader only did what he did to protect us! Please don’t kill him!”

“Please… let us go. We’ll be grateful.”

“I beg you… my parents don’t even know if I’m alive…”

She exhaled sharply, clearly impatient. She hated emotional scenes like this. She was about to speak—

—when Mr. House suddenly convulsed violently on the metal chair.

His face twisted in agony. His eyes snapped open as he screamed in pain. The platform beneath him erupted in a frenzy of flashing lights.

Inside the container, bubbles surged upward like a boiling cauldron.

“What’s happening? Why is the voltage overloading—”

“No! The pressure in the pod is rising—87, 93, 114—it’s still going up!”

Boom!

In an instant, the instruments exploded. The lab’s lighting system shorted out, plunging everything into a dim emergency glow—blood-red light bathed the room.

“Ahhh—!!”

Mr. House’s final scream tore through the air as the pod burst apart. Viscous fluid sprayed everywhere, shards of the shattered container flying through the room.

Researchers were thrown to the ground by the shockwave. She reacted fast, diving for cover before the debris could reach her.

Under the crimson light, Mr. House lay beneath the wrecked metal chair, awake—but his face was grotesquely twisted, blood gushing from his mouth.

On the base of the platform lay a young body, floating in the spilled solution.

It tried to move—its limbs weak and trembling. It managed to raise itself slightly before collapsing again.

Mr. House stared blankly at the struggling young figure before him.

At last, their eyes met—by accident. The instant Mr. House saw the gaze of the young life before him, his pupils dilated in horror. His mouth opened, and he let out a bloodcurdling scream.

“No—!!! No—!!!”

He was still there… still trapped inside his own rotting, decaying body—and he was awake, conscious of it all!

It had failed!

“No—!!!”

His scream turned into sobs, raw and broken. Then, mid-wail, he collapsed to the ground, completely unconscious.

She frowned and stepped out from behind her cover—but just then, something the size of a fist flew through the air toward her. She froze for half a second before it exploded, filling the room with thick smoke.

Through the haze, she caught a glimpse of a figure rushing toward Mr. House—Jimmy!

When did he—?

Her mind accelerated, running through the events of the last half-minute in an instant. During the chaos when the researchers rebelled!

Taking advantage of the confusion, Jimmy had slipped around behind her, grabbed a smoke grenade—and likely a weapon too.

She sensed danger immediately. She hadn’t expected that, as a being beyond human, she would actually get caught off guard by an ordinary man. But the smoke spread too fast, completely blinding her vision. She ducked behind the nearest cover.

The rifles in her hands, though transformed into Star Creation Lifeforms, still couldn’t pierce the visual obstruction.

…

When the air finally began to clear, she cautiously emerged, holding two Star Creation rifles.

But to her disappointment, Jimmy was gone—and so were Mr. House and the clone.

The researchers, many injured or unconscious from the explosion, lay scattered across the floor.

On the other side of the base, she found a square opening about a meter wide. It was clearly an escape route. Frowning slightly, she glanced once more at the injured researchers, then leapt into the passage without hesitation.

…

The tunnel led her outside—to a small courtyard used as an employee rest area for the pharmaceutical company. She emerged through a flower bed.

Jimmy and Mr. House were nowhere to be seen. Neither was the clone. But the footprints on the ground clearly pointed to the direction they’d fled.

Just as she was about to move, shouts rang out around her—bright beams from flashlights swept across the courtyard.

The newcomers weren’t the same guards from the underground lab. They looked more like the company’s regular security staff.

“Not a great start…” she muttered.

Down in the sealed lab, she could have done whatever she wanted. But out here, things were different—there were ordinary employees nearby.

Not knowing exactly how Mr. Luo regarded mortals in this sub-world, she decided not to cause unnecessary trouble. Besides, after finally earning her “green card” here, it’d be foolish to risk it all by committing some atrocity and facing judgment again.

“Hm… maybe I’ll just go grab a midnight snack.”

…

“Quick, over here!”

Jimmy, drenched in sweat, led a group of security guards into the courtyard. Standing before the flower bed, he barked orders: “The intruder’s hiding nearby! Mr. House is injured—find the culprit, no matter what!”

“Yes, sir!”

Though not as heavily armed as the underground guards, these security personnel were well-trained. They immediately fanned out from the courtyard, searching the area.

A security captain approached Jimmy. “Assistant Tang, what on earth happened? The power went out all of a sudden, and I think I heard an explosion… even the ground shook!”

Jimmy gave the captain a cold glance. “Just focus on catching the intruder. Don’t ask questions about tonight—it’s company confidential.”

“R-right, understood.” The captain nodded quickly. “I’ll take my team to search that side.”

Jimmy nodded. Once they were gone, he glanced around carefully, then slipped behind a small artificial rock formation beside the flower bed.

There, hidden against the courtyard wall, was a small recess—just big enough to conceal a person. Jimmy crawled inside… and froze.

“Where is he…?”

When he’d escaped, he’d hidden the clone here.

…

“Assistant Tang, we’ve searched everywhere—there’s no sign of any suspicious person.”

By the time dawn neared, Jimmy’s bloodshot eyes reflected exhaustion. He listened to the guards’ report, then waved them all away impatiently.

Once alone, he steadied his breathing and walked quickly into another room.

Mr. House lay on a bed, surrounded by two doctors and four nurses who were administering IVs.

One doctor hurried over as Jimmy entered. “Assistant Tang, what happened to Mr. House? His heart stopped at one point… his condition was already fragile, and now—”

“What’s his current state?” Jimmy interrupted.

The doctor sighed. “He’s in a coma. His pulse is very weak… I recommend transferring him immediately. The equipment here isn’t sufficient.”

“Fine. Make the arrangements,” Jimmy said with a wave.

He walked slowly to Mr. House’s bedside, staring down at the old man who now relied on an oxygen mask to keep breathing.

His expression was unreadable for a long moment.

Then, slowly—his lips curled into a cold smile.

(End of Chapter)

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