To Live Again, For the First Time!

"I didn't predict anything, I'm the one that made my brain cells attack each other. Do you even understand what that means?"

It seemed like this side effect made S3 incredibly arrogant, so much so that she didn't put the professor in her eyes at all.

The professor understood this well, having done countless experiments with S1 and S2.

The side effects for each person were distinct, but at some point, they had also been inflicted with a split personality.

It wasn't completely uncommon, though it would be troublesome if the ego that had taken control of S3 were something else, like that of a bloodthirsty madman.

S3's arrogant ego could actually be rated as good for the professor, there were many better ones, but also just as many, or even more, worse ones.

Though he disliked being looked down upon like this, the professor simply couldn't let go of such an opportunity.

Since S3 didn't put him in her eyes, then obviously she wouldn't care if she were to tell them her plans, after all, if this ego were strong enough, it wouldn't believe that others would be a threat even if they found out about everything.

In fact, it might even want to tell others to prove how much more superior it was, displaying its pride.

[It, as in the ego.]

[Though it is also a part of the person, it is a separate thing, as if a part of the brain was cornered off and then was allowed control due to the weakness induced during the torture that disabled many of the body's functions. S3's current actions are things she could have done if she only had her cocky arrogant ego. The stronger the ego either active or dormant within the person, the longer it would take for all other functions of the brain to recover and for the main ego to take control.]

[Just to make this clear, they don't fight for control, it is simply naturally handed to whichever is stronger, the others are also always active, influencing their every action, just playing a lesser role when compared to the whole. There is no internal conflict when it comes to this matter. These egos are all a part of the person, not something that appeared out of thin air.]

And so, the professor got to work.

"Yes, yes. This one is truly slightly slow when it comes to this topic, could you explain it?" Though the professor was asking for a 'favor', he sounded impatient to some extent.

Still, he felt like he was giving in quite a bit already, after all, who else could make this professor say he was slow, not to mention to talk about himself in the third person.

F8's eyes widened.

What did he just hear the professor say?

'Do I need to go fill an application to get my ears checked???'

"What a dumbass," S3 looked at him disdainfully.

'Hold it in. HOLD IT IN!'

The professor could say that about himself, shrugging it off as a joke, but when this child who was only 1 /nth of his age said that in such a tone, the professor couldn't help but want to strangle her all over again, even if what she said wasn't completely inaccurate.

He prided himself for being this generation's greatest genius, okay?

'What was with this vocabulary?'

Dumbass was a little too uncouth for his tastes, not that they mattered. Either way, he didn't find that term appropriate to describe himself.

"But it's good that you know," S3 nodded in satisfaction on that point.

"Change comes from realization, first you have to realize your faults before you can go on to accept them and then try to change them..."

'Wait where is this going?'

'I don't think I like where this is going.'

"... So make sure to recognize and embrace your faults more often okay?"

'Why is S3's arrogant ego so philosophical?'

Both of the other people in the room had the same question in their minds.

But the professor didn't have that much spare time.

  Looking at S3's arrogant smirk *never happened* that overlapped with her calm disposition, his veins popped.

The professor didn't know if he was overthinking, but this arrogant ego seemed at least 10 times more arrogant than he had initially imagined.

She was clearly telling him to 'admit his faults', recognizing that he was an incompetent dunce, just to get the answers he wanted from S3! *Also never happen*

What a conceited and gutsy kid!

Gritting his teeth, the professor spit out his words before he could swallow them back down.

"This 'dumbass' would love to know just what makes you different from the others, and how you even know about the others."

The professor lifted his head, standing up straight and trying to put up his haughty uncaring facade, though it wasn't doing him much justice.

At the same time, F8's jaw dropped to the floor.

He had just heard the professor call himself a dumbass, now he knew for sure that he was hallucinating, or he had simply had his ears cut off.

Either that or he was reaching the end of his life and he had simply imagined what he wanted to see the most before death.

"Why should I tell you?" S3 asked as if she were above talking to the two of them.

This was seriously frustrating.

"Because this dumbass still can understand things clearly."

The professor said through gritted teeth once again.

"You know, I don't seem to understand something as well. The wiring of brains of significantly different sizes is different after all…"

S3 continued roasting the old man with her 6-year-old voice.

"Why do you keep calling yourself a dumbass with every sentence?" She finally asked.

"Huh?"

"Isn't that what you asked me to do? You told me, to recognize and embrace my faults a little more." The professor's lid was about to pop.

"Yes, that is what I said, but how does that explain anything? I recommended you accept your own faults. All you need is your own recognition and no one else's, not to mentation I don't care about how your progress is going, nor do I want to know.

"It's distracting you know?"

The professor was dumbfounded and furious.

This was too absurd, who was talking about philosophy and mental health at a time like this…

He was totally played!

This girl had done it on purpose! Was there a need to act like a white lotus here? *Never happened*.

*He was really just overthinking things here on his own, this is why there is a saying that smart people are often destroyed by themselves. *

"It seems like I was too superficial about things, then could you please enlighten me about your previous statements?"

The professor tried one last time with this direct approach before he started thinking about other ways to make S3 talk, though none of them would be put to use since S3 started explaining after mocking the professor one last time (probably not really the last time).

"Haha, do you still not get it?"

"This means that, unlike the other little bimbos and bimboets you are experimenting on, I can actually kill myself whenever I want to. Not to mention, after I die, you'll never be able to pass phase 4."

Just as the professor was about to ask her if she even knew what the 4th trial encompassed, S3 spoke first.

"Never will you be able to fully control the children that you have brought to the pinnacle of the world, that is if you are even able to finish trial 3. And I assure you, without passing phase 4, there won't be a single one of them that won't backstab you at a moment's notice."

A hint of anger could be heard from her voice, but it disappeared, as if suppressed, the very next.

"The power that you have all hungered for, the successes, the plans... they will all fall through."

"That last serum, the serum of absolute loyalty you called it? Not one child you test it on will be able to survive it. Not one. No matter how long you test it for, or how many subjects you inject it into... if you inject it once, then one will die, if you inject it a thousand times, a thousand will die."

The professor nearly choked. His face paled and his eyes contracted.

"How do I know you are not bluffing! You must be bluffing," he claimed in denial.

"Haha, as if I need to bluff an existence like you!" S3 looked down on the professor, even though he was both standing up and taller than her.

There was a sense of lingering oppression.

"Either way, the moment I want to die, you won't be able to do a thing about it, and by then, your whole lab will be doomed to fail."

After the last word landed, S3 clutched her own head as her whole body curled up in pain.

The side effect was wearing off already.

'I guess her arrogant ego was pretty weak,' F8 inwardly sighed.

He thought back to S2, who had an encounter with his blood-thirsty ego, which had stayed strong for 2 whole weeks. That was an unfortunate incident.

When the professor saw S3 faint in a cold sweat, he knew that his chance of further questioning was lost.

Still, he got something good, even though he still hadn't been able to figure out where that information had come from, how it was leaked, or even if it was true, at least he had something to go off of.

He could start making preparations and precautions…