Quantum Cultivation by Jace Kang (simple e reader TXT) 📕

at the time, they’d been called Bovines for the last three and a half centuries.  Just not to their faces.

“Why weren’t you engineered?” Master Ishihara asked.

“It’s different from case to case, but for me, my ancestors belonged to an ‘unclean’ class.”

“Ah, I remember such a concept.” Master Ishihara shook his head. “But that was nearly a thousand years ago. You don’t look that old.”

“We’re told the engineering of the human genome came in stages, and our DNA is too many stages behind current technology.”

“I see.”

“But you!” Enthusiasm bubbled in Ken’s chest. He studied the restraints, made of flexible but near-unbreakable Ballistrax, and secured with durastrium. “You’re like us, aren’t you?”

“Yes. At the most fundamental level.”

Most fundamental? What did that mean? “I overheard them saying you are eight hundred years old!”

“Give or take.” Master Ishihara shrugged as much as the restraints would allow.

“And you defeated two shocktroopers with your hands.”

“Well, a little more than just hands.”

Hope rose in Ken’s chest. “If I help you escape, can you teach me?” All he had to do was acquire the keychip to unlock the restraints.

Ryu grinned. “I can escape by myself.”

Impossible. “Then why are you still here?”

“Whatever they hit me with drained me. I needed to replenish my Core with Qi, and wait for my hand to heal.”

Ken’s gaze shifted to Master Ishihara’s hand. Its fingers had been bent at strange angles after its encounter with the minigun, but now it looked normal.

He shook his head. “It’s amazing you’re even conscious after getting hit by six particle beams.”

“Particle beams?” Master Ishihara looked quizzical.

“Yes, they disrupt your bioelectrical connections. At low levels, it’ll slow you down; at higher intensity, it can kill you.”

Master Ishihara let out a long sigh. “What has mankind become?”

With genetic engineering, nanobots, and technology… “Perfection.”

“Hardly. But I do need your help for something.”

Yes! Ken nodded enthusiastically.

“The translator on my ear. Remove it. Take yours off, too.”

“Remove it?” Ken cocked his head. “Why?”

“I don’t want to damage it.”

Damage it? How? Ken removed the dot from Master Ishihara’s ear, then his own.

“San Kyu,” he said, the sounds now matching the movement of his lips. “Stando baku.”

Bobbing his head, Ken backed to the wall.

With a deep breath, Master Ishihara’s chest, arms, and legs expanded. The holo images flickered. All of the restraints snapped.

Closing his gawking mouth, Ken hurried over to pull the transdermal pads free. Maybe if he showed his enthusiasm and assisted the best he could, Master Ishihara would agree to teach him. It worked in the old movies, after all.

“What the—” a voice cursed from the doorway.

Ken turned.

The guard stood there, gawking for a split second before levelling his gun and yelling, “Prisoner has broken out of his restraints, I need backup.”

Ishihara sat up.

The Peacekeeper squeezed the trigger of his weapon. A blue line appeared, passing through where Master Ishihara had been just a split second before and shooting through one of the holo images. Its projector fizzled and popped.

Ken looked left and right.

Master Ishihara stood over the unconscious Peacekeeper. Pointing to his ear, he turned to Ken. “I need ear thing. Translator.”

Right. Ken hurried over and affixed it and his own.

“Thank you. Now, where are my things?”

In Ken’s excitement, he hadn’t bothered to find them. However… “They’re probably on the third level technology labs for examination.”

“What level are we on now?”

“Sublevel five.”

“How do I get to the third level?” Master Ishihara asked.

Ken shook his head. Besides the fact it might as well be a maze… “It’s heavily guarded. I can get you new clothes.”

“I like mine.” Master Ishihara punched toward the doorway, hitting a Peacekeeper as he ran in.

How stubborn could the man be? “You’ll look good in today’s clothes. With a good haircut, you’ll blend right in.”

Master Ishihara shuddered. “I must retrieve something that was in my robes.”

“It can’t be more valuable than your life.”

“It’s even more valuable.”

Excitement stirred in Ken’s chest. “What is it?”

Master Ishihara searched his eyes. “It’s something which will keep my world hidden, and your world safe.”

Ken gawked again. A secret world! Probably with more people like Master Ishihara. Maybe with someone willing to teach a Purebred janitor.

“This place is a maze! You’ll never find it without my help.” Was that true? Ken had clearance for the hallways to the medium-security zones, which included the technology lab.

“You should stay here,” Master Ishihara said. “It’s dangerous.”

“Wait.” Ken held up a hand. “Pretend to take me prisoner.”

“I hate to say this, but from what you’ve told me, I don’t think they’ll care.”

No, the Peacekeepers probably wouldn’t. Then again… “They don’t treat us badly. They just sort of ignore us. And they make sure we’re taken care of.”

The master raised an eyebrow. “I guess that is a theory we can test. Let’s go.” He wrapped an arm around Ken’s neck.

Ken’s eyes just about bulged, and he slapped at Master Ishihara’s forearms. No matter how slim the man’s limbs were, they radiated power.

“Oh, sorry. It doesn’t bother the village children.”

So he was no better than a child where Master Ishihara came from.

The master kicked at a table, sending several bent hypodermic needles into the air. He caught one, then hustled Ken out into the hall.

Several Peacekeepers dashed toward them, particle guns in hand.

The needle pressed against Ken’s neck without penetrating.

“Stop,” Master Ishihara said. “Or I will kill this boy.”

The Peacekeepers froze, but still aimed their weapons.

“He’s lying,” a disembodied female voice echoed in the hall. “We heard them plotting it.”

Damn! Of course there’d been visual and audio monitors in the room.

The Peacekeeper sergeant pointed his gun at Ken and shot.

Master Ishihara pushed Ken out of the way. More streams