Training Center

Leon felt something sickening the moment he saw those words.

"Maybe we were wrong, Wolfe. Maybe they never ate children in the first place." He said.

Wolfe blinked. "But we heard them directly, and they were taking children at the food warehouse."

"Maybe we misunderstood, and that warehouse and the restaurant was just a stop for these 'recruiters'." Leon said. "Just look at this. Why would Nezha mention 'bless the gifted children' in the end?"

"So these trainees their referring to.... are the gifted children?" Wolfe tried to interpret it. "Then what is a metal trainer?"

"What else is made of metal that could train someone?" Leon said gravely.

"Er... Transformers?"

Leon gave him the glorious 'are-you-kidding-me' face again.

"Robots, Wolfe Fang. Robot teachers."

Wolfe shrugged. "I'm close enough anyway, Transformers are basically robots."

"You'd be much closer if you said Terminators."

"Whatever. What are even these Terminators training the children for?"

"Well, Nezha said military. They must be training kids for some sort of physical training." Leon guessed.

He went over to the automatic steel door. "Anyway, let's stop bickering and see if my hunch is right."

The doors automatically opened, and they were soon inside this large metal cage. The first thing they noticed were several rooms going on and on for multiple floors.

Then, a cute looking robot mascot came to the side, and Leon almost shot it with his gun.

The robot just moved towards them with wheels for legs, its metal eyes seeming to not see anything. It was just holding out its hand, as if waiting for something.

"It wants a kid." Leon thought about it. " And babies are about 3 kilograms."

"We don't have a 3 kilogram baby." Wolfe said sarcastically. "Only a 75 kilogram Leon Mo."

"73, actually." Leon corrected.

"Still 70 kilograms exceeding what we needed." Wolfe said, then rubbed his chin.

He then went out of the door, that automatically opened for him.

Leon followed after him. "Where are you going?"

"Shh... Where did it go again?" Wolfe said, prawling on the woods like some hubgry predator.

His eyes lit up as he seemed to hear something, and then rushed to the side.

When Leon reached him, he was holding a stray cat.

"Here's our baby now." He said, picking up the feline that angrily tried to scratch his face. "You pick it up, I don't like cats much either though I'm not scared of them."

Leon was still floored at this man's superior senses. Is he really a wolf in the body of a human?

They took the cat inside, and Leon tried to tame it so it woukd stay still on the robot's hands.

The robot took it, and paused for a while as if identifying the weight and the body temperature. It meets the standards and its wheels moved once more to take the cat to one of the doors.

The two of them followed after it, and saw the cat was taken to a small nursery. The robot went inside but the door was slammed shut on them before they could enter.

They just peered through the peephole, getting more and more curious on what's going on.

About a dozen babies were inside, placed on a crib and being taken care off by silent robot nannies. They were fed with baby bottles, swayed side to side, and calming music was also playing on the background.

Leon moved to the next room, and found a single kid inside. It was a toddler about three years old, and was being fed by a robot nanny once more, while watching something on a TV screen.

It was not cartoons. It seemed to be some sort of subliminal messaging, repeating and repeating colors and certain words and pictures again and again in a fast pace.

"Are they brainwashing kids?" Wolfe asked.

Leon moved quietly to the next room. Same thing. Toddler with a robot, same video showing on the screen, no toys or anything that a kid should have.

They were all wearing the same white frocks, with a number in the middle. This kid was called DB-154.

The more rooms they moved, the older the children inside gets. The video also started to change, and some of them were allowed to interact with objects.

Namely toy guns and toy weapons.

There were also some taking some kind of tests. A robot nanny always oversees the children, just standing there and not saying anything.

The video now seemed to be actually comprehensible, and it were teaching children all about weaponry, what were the fatal parts of the body, and how to build their own bombs and grenades.

All of the children have DB and a number as a name.

Eventually, Leon found a 7-8 year old looking child. He was answering a test with a neutral expression.

Leon tried to knock on the peephole, and the child look up with slight interest.

However, he just stared blankly like he couldn't see Leon, and went back to answering the test.

The policeman formed a viable conclusion. "It must be a one-way mirror. The fact that the door closed on us so fast earlier, and that they were all in separate rooms....

"Means that they're not allowed to interact or see other humans at all."

Wolfe felt like he couldn't stomach this anymore. The depressed and blank look that the children has...

It's all making him sick.

"Children shouldn't be raised this way. Locked in a metal prison with metal prison wardens since birth." Wolfe frowned.

"Yes. The developmental stage of childhood is important on a child's growth and identity. But by confining them like this, they were eventually losing their capacity for emotional and social intelligence, not to mention their sense of self and morality."

"It's basic psychology. The more a child was neglected, the lesser it was possible for it to make decisions for itself." Leon recalled. "It grows unsure of its place in the world because they have no parents to serve as a reference on how proper humans should be."

Wolfe frowned. "They become an empty shell."

"They said these children are gifted..." Leon rubbed his chin. "Have you ever heard of eugenics?"

"No. I'm not really a science guy like Bill Nye." Wolfe said.

"Basically, its a belief that certain genes are faulty and ----"

They then heard laughter from the far right of the building.

There were also other people inside!