Chapter 269: One big pull

Blake stared at him.

"W-what? But how? What do you mean by that?"

For a moment, his mind struggled to find somewhere to begin.

He had imagined countless possibilities before. Perhaps several governments around the world had been planning to destroy the world. He had considered conspiracies, wars, weapons capable of wiping out entire nations.

But this didn’t sound like something that could be prevented by killing a handful of influential people. Nor did it sound like the kind of crisis that could be resolved by overthrowing a government.

Myles watched him for a moment before reaching out and cupping his cheek with one hand.

"This world has reached a new point in its journey, earth has been drawn into a path from which it cannot escape. And if humanity fails to adapt to what lies ahead, mass extinction will be inevitable."

Blake’s eyes widened.

"Extinction?" His voice cracked. "W-what is this path?"

"We are entering a new ecosystem. One in which humans will no longer occupy the top of the food chain."

Blake went still.

"The reason humanity has encountered extraterrestrial organisms in the first place is that Earth is being pulled into an environment far more competitive than the one we have known."

Blake stared at him, trying to make the words fit together.

"Okay, so..." He rubbed his forehead. "Wait. You’re saying Earth is being pulled into a new region of space, and once we get there, extraterrestrial beings are going to annihilate us?"

"That is the general idea."

"That’s the general idea? How did they even get to that conclusion?" Blake repeated incredulously.

Myles’s thumb brushed lightly against his cheek, but his expression remained serious.

"At first, the only extraterrestrial organisms that reached Earth were dead. Their bodies had already been damaged or defeated by the larger system they belonged to. They were remnants of something that had lost its place in that environment."

Blake’s expression changed.

"Wait. By that point, did they already know?"

"No, the first discoveries were treated as an unprecedented scientific opportunity. The organisms were dead, and there was no immediate evidence that their arrival was part of a larger phenomenon. AL-TECH began studying their biological material. Those in power saw the potential to develop new weapons and secure an advantage over other nations."

Blake lowered his gaze, turning the information over in his mind.

"But eventually, they started asking questions," he murmured. "Why were these organisms reaching Earth in the first place? Why were they dead? What had killed them?"

"Yes. As the evidence accumulated, some researchers began to suspect that their arrival was connected to something larger. Something that would eventually affect the entire planet."

"And that’s when they started experimenting on humans?"

"That’s when the objective began to change."

Myles finally withdrew his hand from Blake’s cheek.

"If humanity was going to enter an environment where other organisms possessed biological capabilities far beyond our own, we needed a way to survive it."

Myles looked at his own hand.

"First Generations were the first serious attempt."

Blake could picture it now. The experiments, the altered bodies, all that suffering happened because...

"But it wasn’t enough," Myles continued.

Blake looked up.

"Why not? The First Generations were much stronger than ordinary people. And you, Second Generations, are even stronger..."

"Strength is not the same as adaptability. Our bodies can express certain traits, but those traits are limited by the human system. We are still individuals operating within the limits of our own biology. They could fight an organism. They could perhaps kill one. But they could not compete with an entire ecosystem."

Blake frowned.

"So even if we made an army of them...?"

"We would still have an army of individuals. An impressive one, perhaps, but one that would be forced to respond to threats it could neither fully perceive nor understand."

Myles’s gaze shifted briefly toward the monitor.

"The organisms in that environment do not necessarily function according to the same limitations as ours. Some possess forms of biological coordination that allow them to respond collectively. Others can adapt to changes faster than an isolated organism could manage. Against something like that, producing more powerful individuals is not necessarily enough."

Blake’s fingers curled against his knees.

"So, that apply to the Second Generations, too? Are you really absolutely sure, since you’re so strong—"

"Yes."

The answer came so quickly that Blake felt something tighten in his chest.

"But they inherited the altered biology naturally. Their bodies developed with it from the beginning. Wouldn’t that make them more stable?"

"Our abilities can be more integrated into their physiology, and they can develop in ways that the First Generations’ bodies could not. But that doesn’t solve the fundamental problem."

"Which is?"

"An individual, no matter how powerful, is still an individual."

Blake fell silent.

They could produce people capable of extraordinary things. They could make soldiers who were stronger than any ordinary human.

And it still wouldn’t be enough.

His eyes began to water.

This was beyond anything he had imagined. He had thought the world was complicated before. He had thought the government was involved in something terrible, that AL-TECH had been conducting experiments it couldn’t justify.

He hadn’t expected the problem to be the world itself.

"So..." Blake began, then stopped.

He needed a moment before he could continue.

"So the solution is... what? What are they trying to do?"

"The bodies you saw in those containers are part of the answer."

Blake’s head snapped up.

"The Hosts?"

Myles nodded.

"But what makes them different?" Blake asked. "You said they weren’t Second Generations. You said they were something else entirely. And you said you didn’t know exactly how they worked."

"I don’t know the specific biological differences between a Second Generation and a Host."

Myles’s gaze shifted to the side.

Blake’s eyebrow twitched.

"Did you lie to me?"

"No. I know more about their purpose than I know about their biology."

Blake stared at him. Then he sighed heavily and raised one hand.

"Okay. Fine. Give me a second."

He needed to arrange everything in his head before he could listen to another word.

Earth was entering a new ecosystem. The extraterrestrial organisms were remnants of a much larger biological environment. Humanity had tried to adapt by incorporating alien DNA into its own population, first through experimentation and then through subsequent generations.

But greater strength wasn’t enough.

And now AL-TECH was trafficking human bodies to create Hosts.

Blake pressed his fingers against his forehead.

"Okay, okay. So Hosts are the ultimate hope for the government." He lowered his hand. "How? What can they do that the First and Second Generations can’t?"

"Resonate."

Blake blinked.

"...Resonate?"

"That’s the term used to describe the phenomenon. The precise mechanism is still poorly understood, but the basic principle is that the alien-derived biology within different Hosts can synchronize with one another."

Myles leaned back slightly.

"Think of the difference between an organism functioning independently and several organisms coordinating as part of a larger system. A Host isn’t simply a human body with additional abilities. Its biology contains an active component capable of interacting with other compatible components."

"So they can communicate?"

"Not necessarily through language. Resonance can allow biological systems to exchange signals and coordinate their activity. At a sufficiently developed level, the connections may extend beyond what we would normally consider communication."

Blake tried to imagine it.

"Like a network?"

"Something along those lines. Though calling it a network might make it sound more familiar than it really is."

"Of course, I guess that makes sense..."

"An individual Host might possess certain capabilities, but those capabilities are limited by what its own body can do. When multiple Hosts resonate, their biological systems can begin to function in coordination. Information can be shared. Responses can be synchronized. Resources may be distributed across the connected system."

Blake slowly lowered his hand.

"Resources?"

"Energy, nutrients. Other things required to maintain biological functions. We don’t yet know the full extent of what becomes possible once Resonance reaches a sufficiently advanced stage."

"Wait." Blake looked at him more sharply. "You mean they wouldn’t need to eat anymore?"

"Their bodies would still require energy and matter. Those needs cannot simply disappear. But if the network can provide and redistribute what individual bodies require, then each person may no longer need to obtain everything independently."

Blake stared at him.

A world in which people no longer needed to eat to survive.

It sounded almost absurdly benevolent, especially considering everything else Myles had told him.

A world in which biological limitations could be overcome, where people could share resources and respond to threats collectively rather than struggle against them alone.

But he could already see the problem.

"So... the stronger the Resonance becomes, the more connected everyone gets?"

"Yes."

"But how connected?"

Myles didn’t answer immediately.

"That is why many are resentful, including that man, my uncle."

Blake’s stomach tightened.

"Why?"

"Synchronization won’t remain limited to biological functions. The deeper the connection becomes, the more boundaries between individual systems will begin to weaken."

"You mean..."

"Emotions, instincts, even aspects of cognition. We don’t know precisely where the boundary lies, or whether there is a stable point at which Resonance can be maintained without going further."

Blake felt a chill travel down his back.

"So people would start sharing their thoughts?"

"The scale of this process was deeply troubling to the first generations who got to discover about it."

Myles turned toward him fully.

"A system in which everyone is no longer entirely independent. Their bodies are connected, their responses are coordinated, and their individual needs can be managed by the collective. That the system becomes so efficient that it can sustain itself more effectively than any collection of isolated human beings."

Blake said nothing.

"It would merely erase humans, and make an entirely different species."