Chapter 01 - Death of a Genius (Revised)

Inside a warehouse in an abandoned city, strapped to a chair was a 20-year-old boy. He was stained with blood and surrounded by a group of armed people who worked as mercenaries. On a nearby table several torture tools were scattered.

One of the men, who appeared to be the leader of the mercenary group, wiping the blood on his hands with a handkerchief began to approach the young man.

"Mo Xie, just tell us where the project data is! Don't think that someone will come to save you here. If you honestly confess, you won't have to go through any more pain and you can rest in peace."

"..." Mo Xie, who was tied up, still didn't speak a word as he had a blank, dull look in his eyes.

Not that he wasn't conscious, the problem was that he didn't hear the man speaking because he was lost in thought.

'How? How did things come to this? Was it my blind trust in people? Or was I too naive thinking that humans wouldn't let their greed blind them?' Unfortunately, the young man had no one else to answer his questions.

Mo Xie was considered a genius since he was a child, and his talent further blossomed in mechanical and computational engineering. At age 12, he managed to create a functional hologram that made the existing technology undergo a gigantic development. In his 15 years he managed to improve several NASA suits and rockets which allowed new trips to Mars to extract new minerals. Finally, at the age of 19, he was able to create the first functional gravitational room based on mined ores as well as a dome capable of creating a habitable environment on Mars. This creation led to him being awarded the titles of Millennium Genius and Revolutionary of Humanity.

However, the gravitational room he created also gave rise to even more powerful new weapons, which merged his idea with existing strategic weapons. For this reason several terrorist groups have continually tried to kidnap him to get their hands on his projects, although all attempts have failed.

Finally at the age of 20 he created an Artificial Intelligence capable of learning on its own by surfing the internet and collecting data. But by the time he finished the project, he realized that this AI project would be very dangerous if it fell into malicious hands, as it alone could collect information from government agencies without leaving any traceable traces.

The only person who knew about this project besides him was his girlfriend Qing Xue.

But he never thought she would sell the information that he possessed such technology and get him hunted by every country in the world.

As a result, his family and close friends had been kidnapped and killed, with the video spreading across the internet as the perpetrators blamed him, saying it was his fault for running away alone.

Seeking revenge he managed to find and kill the murderers of his family and friends by setting a trap for them, but was eventually captured by another party who was waiting for him to show himself.

In the end, he was tortured in many different ways causing his body to gain countless marks and scars. But even after all that, he still hadn't given even a hint of where his AI data was and so we got to where we are now.

"Boss, should we show him that video and see if he reacts?" One of the armed men asked their boss.

"It's useless, after we used it continuously he lost any reaction to the video." The boss continued: "But I think I know how to make him react a little…" he muttered mischievously.

Smiling a little, he approached Mo Xie's ears.

"Mo Xie, do you still remember your little girlfriend Qing Xue?" The Chief asked maliciously.

Hearing Qing Xue's name, Mo Xie's body shuddered a little.

Feeling happy with this reaction, the boss continued.

"Did you know? After she sold her information and took the money we promised her, the first thing she did was buy an island and move her relatives there. And now she is engaged to the young master of the Yang Family of Yangzhou. Their wedding will take place in two days from now. Isn't that wonderful news?! Knowing you're stuck here with a bunch of men and suffering torture every day while she enjoys her life on a tropical island with a wealthy young master from a large family?" The boss spoke more and more animated.

Meanwhile, Mo Xie's body shuddered more and more with rage and his eyes grew redder and redder. Qing Xue was the woman he loved the most in his life. Only she could make him drop his inventions, but when he found out she had betrayed him his heart felt as if it had been torn apart. Sadness, bitterness, loneliness, resentment, hatred… All these emotions flooded him, and after his family, the last light that still kept him alive died, he began to wonder why he was still alive as the depression became worse.

Now, hearing her name again, the cause of all this happening, those emotions started roaring in his heart once more.

Seeing that his plan had worked, the boss began talking to Mo Xie once more.

"And now that all this has been said I have a proposal for you."

Mo Xie just stared silently at the man.

Still with a smile, the boss continued: "My proposal is this, you will tell us where the data is and in return we will kill Qing Xue and Young Master of the Yang Family for you. As you know, our group has a big sponsor, so their death won't be a big issue for us."

With a smile he looked at Mo Xie who was looking at him in silence and asked once more: "How about? It's not a bad proposal for you. At least you can rest in peace with it."

And all of a sudden, he saw a smile forming on Mo Xie's face and his confidence started to inflate.

"Hahahaha!" Mo Xie's laughter began to echo in the warehouse.

When the boss thought he had made it he froze at Mo Xie's next words.

"You underestimate me a lot!"

Still not caring about his reaction, Mo Xie continued: "I would just be satisfied if I killed them myself, but that still wouldn't fill the void I have now. Even if you dragged them and brought them here I still wouldn't be satisfied."

"So what would satisfy you?" Realizing that there was room for negotiations, the boss asked.

"He Kui, how would you feel if something you wanted so hard ceased to exist?" Mo Xie asked with a wide smile.

He Kui, the head of the mercenaries, shivered at that smile, feeling that something wasn't right.

Not waiting for his response, Mo Xie continued: "You know, in addition to the AI ​​that you guys want from me so much, I've done another project that allows the AI ​​not to get out of hand. And it turns out I didn't have time to tell Qing Xue about that. After all, everything will be lost if the AI loses control."

He Kui's bad feeling deepened even further at these words.

"And it turns out I gave the AI ​​an order a few weeks ago as a last resort to have its entire existence eradicated." Mo Xie smiled even more.

He Kui had a grim expression on his face.

"Did you destroy the project data?" He Kui yelled angrily.

'If the data was destroyed, wasn't that all in vain? No, the creator is still alive here, so it's still possible to recover.' He Kui thought.

"I never destroyed the data. In fact they were on my mind all along." Mo Xie spoke casually.

He Kui unconsciously breathed a sigh of relief, but suddenly frowned.

'In your mind?'

"You know my AI can get into government systems without being tracked right?" Mo Xie asked about the obvious reason why it all happened.

A sinister premonition emerged from He Kui's heart.

As if he knew what he was thinking about, Mo Xie continued talking to him.

"As you understand this, you should also know that it is possible to hack into the armed forces' controls. And it turns out I gave the AI ​​an order to casually drop some nuclear warheads enhanced by my gravity system."

When He Kui heard the end of Mo Xie's sentence he panicked. He yelled at one of his companions, "You Lunatic! Old Eagle, check right now if this is true! NOW!"

His companions shuddered and began to check, and the old eagle suddenly shouted, "It's true! Governments have panicked and are trying to cancel the launch, but they can't stop."

He Kui turned his attention to Mo Xie who was grinning from ear to ear and shivered when he saw his expression. That laughing Mo Xie looked like a devil to him.

As if satisfied with their reactions, Mo Xie continued talking to them, "Let me tell you a secret, the second project, capable of controlling the AI ​​is a nanochip that I implanted in my brain and it acts from currents of a human brain. So all the information you ever wanted was in my body from the start."

He Kui was internally happy about this, but he felt something was wrong now. After all this time and torture he hadn't opened his mouth, so why is he suddenly telling all this?

"And now that the order to drop the bombs has been given, can you guess one of the locations where they were marked to explode?" Mo Xie commented happily seeing He Kui's panicked face.

He Kui got a feeling and looked up at the sky from the open warehouse. Even though it was at night, a luminous object started to appear heading towards the place where they were.

Mo Xie who was smiling happily at the outcome started to answer a question he had asked He Kui.

"Hey He Kui, can you imagine the expressions of people who wanted my data so intensely but are deeply regretting it now? Can you imagine what they are feeling about not being able to get their hands on an object they want so much and because of their actions that object will disappear along with them and all their riches and achievements?" Mo Xie asked happily and laughing amused at his thoughts.

He Kui looked at him like he was a demon and his heart pounded wildly as the fear and panic became more and more apparent in him and his group. In the end, he couldn't hold back anymore and started cursing.

"YOU BASTARD! LUNATIC DEMON! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU DID?"

"HAHAHAHA!" Mo Xie just laughed in response.

He Kui could only stare helplessly as that gigantic bomb approached and began to release waves of heat.

By this point Mo Xie had stopped laughing and looked calmly at the approaching death in the form of an explosion. The same vision appeared in many places around the world.

*Sigh* 'In the end I still couldn't figure out why Qing Xue betrayed me… But it doesn't seem to matter anymore.'

'Father, Mother… At least I managed to avenge you. I hope I can find you guys in the underworld!'

Seeing the explosion approaching he slowly closed his eyes.

*BOOOM* And with that the explosion swallowed everything within a radius of 400km.

Mo Xie just didn't notice his sun and moon-shaped birthmarks glowing as he was engulfed by the explosion.