Chapter 270: Nothing

Blake’s eyes widened.

If Resonance continued until it reached that point, humanity would become an entirely different species.

He tried to imagine what that meant. If Hosts could communicate through Resonance, would they eventually be able to share thoughts without speaking? Would distance stop mattering? Would a person be able to feel another’s fear or pain as if it were their own?

At first, it sounded almost convenient.

But what would happen to individual feelings? If everyone could share emotions, would a person still be able to keep something to themselves? Would his beliefs remain his own if millions of others could influence the way he thought? And if everyone eventually came to understand everyone else completely, what would happen to the boundaries between them?

Blake lowered his gaze.

He couldn’t imagine living that way, because was it even living anymore? He didn’t want to imagine it.

“Would the physical body stay the same?”

Myles looked at him.

“I don’t know how far they intend to take it. Tania theorized that, eventually, the number of individual bodies might gradually decrease as the system adapts.”

Blake frowned. “Decrease? What does that mean?”

“If the organisms become sufficiently connected, they may no longer need to maintain themselves as separate individuals, as they all share the same exact vibrations and thinking process. Their bodies could change to accommodate that.”

Blake stared at him.

He wasn’t sure which part troubled him more… the possibility that people would cease to exist as individuals, or the idea that their bodies might eventually stop resembling human bodies at all.

Then another thought struck him.

“Wait. How many hosts are there?”

He remembered the containers at Drindia.

There had been so many of them that he hadn’t been able to take in the full scale of what he was seeing.

“There are approximately half a million dormant Hosts worldwide.”

Blake went still.

“Half a million?”

“Yes.”

He looked at Myles, waiting for him to clarify. Surely that number couldn’t be right. Half a million people, or bodies, or whatever they were supposed to be now, that was only the number they knew about…

“And the number will continue to grow exponentially.”

Blake’s stomach tightened.

“But why now?” Blake asked. “Why start this on such a massive scale?”

“Because they can’t afford to wait any longer.” Myles’s expression remained calm, but his voice had grown heavier. “The most brutal stage is approaching.”

Blake swallowed.

“How long do we have before it happens?”

Myles held his gaze.

“It’s already happening. There are enough Hosts to initiate the next stage.”

Blake felt the room grow strangely quiet around him.

The System had given him a time limit of 365 days. November 11th. He remembered the date clearly, the way the countdown had appeared before him, as if the end of the world were nothing more than a deadline he could meet by completing enough missions.

He pressed his lips together, trying to hold his thoughts in place.

“What happens to the people who aren’t Hosts?”

Myles didn’t answer immediately.

His gaze lowered to Blake. For several seconds, he said nothing, as though he were weighing how much the answer would change things.

Then he spoke.

“They will gradually die.”

Blake’s breath caught.

“Why?”

“The frequencies produced by the initial synchronization will be too overwhelming for ordinary humans to withstand. Their bodies won’t be able to adapt to them.”

The words seemed to settle over Blake one by one.

Not everyone could become a Host. Not everyone could survive the change. Whatever the Resonance promised to those who adapted, the transition itself would kill people who had no part in it.

“How many?” Blake asked, barely above a whisper.

“I don’t know.”

“Could it be even billions?”

“I don’t know, but that might be the case.”

Myles didn’t look away. He wasn’t trying to soften the answer, and he wasn’t pretending to know more than he did.

Blake began to breathe faster. He looked down at his hands, then back at Myles, searching for something in his expression that might tell him this wasn’t as hopeless as it sounded.

“There has to be another way,” he said. “Right? There has to be something we can do besides destroying the world first!”

Myles remained silent.

Blake waited.

When no answer came, frustration began to rise beneath his fear.

“Because your uncle pushed you into this, you never tried anything else?”

Myles’s expression didn’t change.

“Have you even questioned whether this can be avoided?” Blake continued. “Have you tried to find another solution?”

For a moment, Myles said nothing.

Then he answered, his voice as even as before.

“I did.”

Blake caught his sleeve.

He knew it wasn’t Myles’s fault. He hadn’t created the ecosystem threatening Earth, and he hadn’t chosen the circumstances that had brought humanity to this point.

“Then why?” he demanded. “Why is this happening? If you know what Resonance will do to people, why can’t we find another way?”

He tightened his grip on the fabric.

He was asking too many questions at once. He knew that. But the answers kept leading to something worse, and every time he thought he had reached the bottom of the problem, Myles revealed another layer beneath it.

The world was being pulled into an ecosystem where humanity could no longer survive as it was. First Generations and Second Generations weren’t enough. Hosts and Resonance might offer a way to adapt, but the price could be the very thing that made humanity human.

And ordinary people would die at a massive scale, slowly and painfully.

There had to be a third option.

Blake thought of the System’s mission.

Seduce Myles. Save the world.

He had always treated the two objectives as if they were connected. If he seduced Myles, he would then calm his supposed wrath and change his mind about destroying the world.

But now, now by hearing all of this…

He looked up.

“When did you start questioning it?” he asked. “Tell me honestly. Don’t lie to me.”

Myles’s gaze shifted to him.

“I already told you.”

Blake’s grip loosened slightly.

“Because I want to be with you,” Myles continued. “I waver when I think of doing it.”

He lowered his head.

His voice remained calm, almost detached, but something about his expression had changed. It was slight enough that Blake might have missed it if he hadn’t been watching so closely.

Myles looked troubled. There was a faint tension in his face, as if he were holding something back that he had no intention of letting escape.

Blake felt his anger falter.

He had wanted an answer. He had wanted Myles to admit that he wasn’t completely certain, that some part of him still believed another solution might exist.

And now that Myles had admitted it, Blake didn’t know what to say.

He released the sleeve and lifted both hands to Myles’s face.

“Then we’ll find one,” he said.

Myles looked at him.

“We’ll find another solution. I know we can.” Blake tried to keep his voice steady, even though his heart was still beating too quickly. “Maybe we don’t understand enough yet. Maybe there are things Tania hasn’t considered, or things AL-TECH hasn’t discovered.”

He didn’t know whether that was true.

Whatever it was, it had to exist. Yes, it just had to be that way!

If humans will die as they are now, then Resonance was basically the only option for humans, still they could find another one. Even if that were an unrealistic assumption, there was still the smallest chance that people could share information and coordinate without losing themselves, he wanted to find it.

Of course, the damage was already done. Many were killed and changed against their will, and probably they’d have to kill some world leaders to make something happen but… if that meant this world could go on with as little deaths as possible, while maintaining the fundamental parts of humanity, then so be it!

He didn’t want humanity to be forced to choose between extinction and the end of its own individuality.

“Trust me,” Blake said. “We’ll figure something out.”

Myles didn’t respond.

His eyes were fixed on Blake’s face. The black of his irises seemed to deepen until Blake could no longer distinguish where his gaze ended and the darkness began.

There was an intensity to it that Blake couldn’t explain.

He had seen Myles angry before. He had seen him cold, distant, and frighteningly composed. He had even seen the rare moments when Myles’s restraint slipped, revealing something more vulnerable beneath it.

This was different.

Myles seemed to be looking at him without quite seeing him. His attention had narrowed to a single point, and whatever was moving behind his eyes appeared to have caught him by surprise.

Blake froze.

For several seconds, neither of them moved.

Then Myles spoke.

“I never felt this strongly.”

Blake’s hands remained against his face.

He couldn’t tell whether Myles was talking about the uncertainty he had just admitted, the desire to remain with him, or something else entirely.

“What do you feel?” Blake asked quietly.

Myles didn’t answer.

His gaze remained locked on Blake’s, but the intensity in it had begun to change. The composure he usually maintained so effortlessly seemed to be slipping, leaving something dazed and unfamiliar in its place.

Blake waited, barely breathing.

Finally, Myles spoke.

“Hatred.”