He tried to look around, but his vision was a blur.
All he could make out were people wearing white coats—blurry silhouettes moving about.
The voices reached him with a strange echo.
Johan strained his ears.
Two people were talking nearby.
“How is this child’s condition?” one asked.
His voice was incredibly harsh.
“Perfect,” the other replied, scribbling something down on a clipboard.
“No health issues whatsoever.” “Excellent,” the first voice said.
“What about his other data?” “Kamiki-kun is incredibly healthy,” the second replied.
“His reflexes are far beyond those of a normal infant.” Johan thought to himself, *’Kamiki-kun?’* He paused, his mind racing.
*’So my last name is Kamiki,’* he realized.
*’Kamiki…
doesn’t sound too bad.’* The instructors talked for a few more minutes, discussing his heart rate and brain waves.
They both seemed astonished.
“He might be the best of this generation,” the harsh-voiced man said.
“Absolutely,” the other agreed.
“His potential is terrifying.” Their conversation ended, and the sound of footsteps faded away as they moved on to the next child.
Kamiki was left frozen where he lay.
He took a moment to check his own body.
He had just been brought to the White Room.
He was only six months old.
‘A six-month-old baby…’ he mused.
He possessed the soul of an adult and a staggering memory, but he still lacked full control over his physical form.
‘Damn it,’ he cursed internally.
‘This is tough.’ His body was simply underdeveloped.
His muscles and nervous system couldn’t properly execute an adult’s commands yet.
‘I need to calm down,’ Johan told himself.
‘I still have time.’ A soft whimper came from beside him.
It was the sound of another baby.
Kamiki managed to tilt his head just a fraction.
In the incubator next to his lay a silver-haired baby girl, staring blankly into space.
‘Shiro…’ he thought.
‘The female Shiro.’ Right then, something shimmered above her head.
The System had activated.
A small floating text appeared over Shiro: >*[ Shiro ] > Affection Points: 0 ‘Zero,’ Kamiki noted.
‘Of course it’s zero.
She’s just a baby.’ Yet, just seeing that number sent a thrill of excitement through him.
He glanced toward the far end of the room, where another incubator sat.
‘Kiyotaka must be over there too,’ he thought.
‘Well, the female Kiyotaka.’ Slowly, his eyes drifted shut.
His six-month-old body tired easily, and his energy was completely spent.
‘A 2.5x adaptation speed…’ he murmured in his mind.
‘Soon, I’ll have absolute mastery over this body.’ Before falling asleep, a faint, tiny baby smile played on his lips.
The living hell of the White Room was just beginning for him.
Exactly two months passed.
Inside the sterile, odorless rooms of the White Room, the days blurred together.
These two months hadn’t been easy for Kamiki.
He worked every single day, pushing his mind to its absolute limits.
A 2.5x adaptation speed was no joke.
His cells regenerated far faster than a normal human’s, and his neural pathways were snapping into place at lightning speed.
And finally, he succeeded.
Kamiki now had total control over his tiny body.
He wasn’t just wiggling his fingers anymore; he could stand on his own two feet.
He could even balance and walk.
Under normal circumstances, babies started walking around one year of age, but some did so at eight or nine months.
Because of this, the instructors didn’t pay it too much mind.
“Just a physically precocious subject,” they noted.
“Must have a strong genetic heritage,” they added, brushing it off.
Kamiki smirked inwardly.
Their blindness played right into his hands.
Today was a special day in the White Room.
For the first time, the instructors had gathered all the infants of the fourth generation into a single, massive, empty white room.
The floor was covered in soft mats.
The other children, who hadn’t figured out how to walk yet, only knew how to crawl.
The room was filled with babies shuffling around in all directions.
Kamiki stood in a corner of the room.
He clasped his tiny hands behind his back, surveying his surroundings like a military commander.
His gaze locked onto the very center of the room.
A single infant sat there, entirely alone.
Kamiki’s eyes lit up, his heart quickening.
‘Found you,’ he said to himself.
Kiyotaka Ayanokoji was right in front of him.
The System had worked exactly as God said it would.
The ultimate monster of this story was now a girl.
She had short, brown hair, but those eyes…
those eyes had never changed.
She wasn’t crying like the other babies, nor was she looking around aimlessly.
Her eyes were completely vacant and dull, yet terrifyingly intelligent.
Kamiki couldn’t wait any longer.
He turned and marched toward her.
He moved his small legs rapidly.
Compared to the crawling speed of the other infants, his walking was a spectacular sight.
An instructor watching from a distance made a quick note on his clipboard.
“Subject Kamiki is showing extreme determination in walking,” he muttered.
Kamiki didn’t even hear him.
His focus was entirely locked on the female Ayanokoji.
Finally, he stopped right in front of her, with only a few inches separating them.
The girl slowly lifted her head, fixing her eyes on Kamiki.
She didn’t react at all.
There was no fear, no curiosity on her face.
She was a complete enigma.
Holding his breath in anticipation, Kamiki summoned the System in his mind.
‘Come on.
Show me.’ Right on cue, a faint pink light shimmered above her head.
A digital interface materialized in the air, the text crystal clear: > [ Ayanokoji Kiyone ] > Affection Points: 0 It was zero, of course.
Kamiki wasn’t surprised.
‘What else did I expect?’ he thought.
‘I’m standing before the masterpiece of the White Room.’ Kamiki stared at the floating name, blinking a few times.
‘Kiyone?’ He paused, a flash of surprise crossing his face, before a small smile crept up.
‘So her name changed.
Actually, it makes perfect sense.
She’s a girl now, after all.’ It was to be expected; the name Kiyotaka wouldn’t really fit a girl.
‘Ayanokoji Kiyone…’ he whispered internally, testing the weight and rhythm of the name in his mind.
‘Beautiful name.
Very beautiful.’ Kamiki reached out his tiny hand and gently tapped her shoulder.
‘Hello,’ he wanted to say, but due to his infant body, all that came out of his mouth was a garbled, “Ba…
ba…” Kiyone looked down at the hand on her shoulder, then looked back up into Kamiki’s violet-tinted eyes.
The counter stayed at zero; the number didn’t budge a millimeter.
Kamiki smiled to himself.
‘I can’t wait for the day I bring this score up to a hundred, you genius girl.’ Kiyone kept staring at him, not even blinking.
Watching from afar, an instructor murmured, “Subject Kamiki and Subject Ayanokoji.” Another instructor walked over.
“Are they inspecting each other?” “Looks like it,” the first replied.
“Neither of them is normal.” Kamiki heard them, but he couldn’t care less.
Just then, a sound came from the side.
A baby was crawling toward them, her silver hair shimmering.
It was Shiro.
Shiro crawled right up next to Kiyone and stopped.
Kamiki turned his head toward her, and the System instantly flashed above her as well.
> [ Shiro ] > Affection Points: 0 ‘Yours is zero too,’ Kamiki thought.
‘No surprises there.’ The three infants stood side by side, forming a strange triangle in the center of the room.
The instructors scribbled furiously on their clipboards, the sound of scratching pens filling the air.
“The core of the fourth generation,” the harsh-voiced instructor said.
“These three children,” the other agreed.
Kamiki laughed internally.
‘Your future?
I don’t think so.’ He took one last look at Kiyone, her name still glowing in the air.
‘Ayanokoji Kiyone.
We’re going to leave this room together.’ Kiyone slowly turned around and began crawling toward the other side of the room.
Kamiki wanted to follow her with his small steps, but his eight-month-old body signaled its limits.
His legs trembled slightly.
‘That’s enough for now,’ he decided.
He plopped down onto the mat, his eyes still fixed on the departing Kiyone.
Shiro, however, hadn’t left.
She stood right next to him, continuing to stare at Kamiki with blank eyes.
Kamiki turned his head slowly toward her, wanting to initiate a conversation and establish some communication.
‘Hey, Shiro,’ he wanted to say.
‘Be my friend.’ Taking a deep breath, he parted his lips and strained his vocal cords.
But they betrayed him once again, the words catching in his throat.
Only a strange murmur escaped: “A-Aba…
gaa…” Kamiki cursed internally.
*’Come on, still?’* He looked at Shiro, who gave no reaction whatsoever, not even a blink.
Kamiki smiled to himself.
*’Well, even if I did speak, what difference would it make?’* Shiro was still just a baby, after all.
She didn’t possess an adult soul, and he knew she wouldn’t understand his words anyway.
Just then, there was a commotion in the far corner of the room.
Kamiki shifted his gaze.
Another baby was rolling around on the mats, looking incredibly adorable with tiny, chubby hands and bright, sparkling eyes.
Kamiki searched his memory bank, matching the face to the records.
*’This is…’* he realized.
*’This is Yuki!’* Yuki was genuinely adorable.
Unlike the other soulless children of the White Room, she still seemed to retain a spark of innocent childhood joy.
Kamiki’s eyes lit up, and a wide grin spread across his face.
*’Now that’s the kind of energy I’m looking for!’* Pushing off the mat, he put strength into his small legs and hoisted himself up.
He extended his arms to both sides to maintain his balance.
Completely forgetting about Shiro, who was staring blankly at his back, he began to walk with small, quick steps.
His target was clear: he headed straight for Yuki.
He caught the instructors’ attention once again.
The one further away murmured in surprise, “Subject Kamiki is on the move again.” “Who is his target?” the other asked.
“Subject Yuki,” the first answered.
“He’s walking briskly toward her.” Kamiki closed the distance quickly and stood right in front of Yuki.
She was lying on her back on the mats, staring up at the ceiling.
When Kamiki’s shadow fell over her, she lifted her head and locked her large, lovely eyes onto him.
Kamiki immediately summoned the System.
‘Let’s see it.’ A pink light shimmered above Yuki’s head, and the interface materialized clearly: > [ Yuki ] > Affection Points: 0 ‘Zero again,’ Kamiki noted.
‘But man, this girl is cute.’ Upon seeing Kamiki, Yuki suddenly burst into a bright smile, reaching her tiny hands up into the air as if wanting to touch his face.
Kamiki almost melted at the reaction.
He leaned down and extended his hand toward her.
*’You are very different,’* he thought.
*’I will protect you in this hell.’* For a brief moment, the bleak, oppressive atmosphere of the White Room vanished for Kamiki, washed away by Yuki’s tiny smile.
Yuki kept waving her little hands.
While Kamiki was lost in her sheer cuteness, the door to the room swung open with a heavy thud.
A crowd of instructors filed in, all wearing identical white coats and carrying sleek, black tablets.
The brief, innocent atmosphere vanished instantly, replaced by the familiar, cold, sterile oppression.
The instructors fanned out across the room without wasting a single second, each taking a position in front of a baby.
A harsh-eyed instructor approached Kamiki, picking him up away from Yuki and placing him on an empty mat a short distance away.
Another instructor stood over Yuki, while Shiro was already waiting blankly before one.
The instructor placed the tablet in front of Kamiki, turning the screen toward him.
Suddenly, colorful letters, complex numbers, and strange geometric symbols began spinning across the screen, the images flashing rapidly.
Kamiki glanced around.
The other babies were staring at their screens with completely blank, uncomprehending expressions.
Some were sucking their thumbs; others were drooling.
The instructors knew these babies couldn’t understand anything right now—it was impossible for an eight-month-old to decipher these symbols.
However, this was all by design.
This was a preliminary step to ensure the children could process information rapidly later in life.
The goal was to stimulate their photographic memory early on and flood their brains with visual data.
Kamiki looked at the tablet before him, watching the symbols flash by.
‘This is torture,’ Kamiki thought, taking a deep mental breath.
‘Absolute torture.’ He possessed an adult mind, further augmented by a 2.5x adaptation trait.
‘These are way too simple,’ he thought, holding back a yawn as he watched the triangles and squares flash.
‘And incredibly boring.’ After a while, the symbol test ended, and they transitioned to the next stage.
A mechanical, instructional female voice echoed from the tablet, presenting numbers in sequence.
“One,” the voice said as a large ‘1’ appeared on the screen.
“Two,” the voice continued, and the image changed.
The mechanical voice went through the numbers one by one, attempting to drill the sequence into the children’s memories.
Each number flashed in a different color to help sear the visuals into their minds.
Watching the screen, Kamiki criticized the instructors’ methods.
*’Are you really educating babies this way at this age?
Total madness.’* The voice kept counting until it reached seven.
“Seven,” the voice said, displaying a green ‘7’.
Then, the screen suddenly went black, and a large question mark appeared in the center.
The instructional voice spoke again.
“Complete the sequence.
What comes after seven?” Three large buttons appeared at the bottom of the screen, displaying ‘5’, ‘8’, and ‘9’.
The system expected the baby to tap the correct number.
Of course, for a normal baby, this would just mean randomly slamming their hand against the screen.
Kamiki didn’t want to endure this tedious test any longer.
He reached out with his small, chubby finger and, without a shred of hesitation, pressed the button labeled ‘8’.
A cheerful chime echoed from the tablet, indicating a correct answer.
The instructor standing over Kamiki froze.
He gripped his clipboard so tightly his knuckles turned white, his eyes nearly popping out of his skull.
“How is this possible?!” the instructor suddenly shouted, his voice echoing through the entire white room.
The other instructors flinched at the sudden outcry, all heads snapping in their direction.
“What happened?” another instructor asked, approaching rapidly from the other side of the room.
“Why are you shouting?” “Look at this,” Kamiki’s instructor said, pointing a trembling finger at the tablet.
“This child…
Kamiki learned!” “What do you mean, learned?” the senior instructor asked, grabbing the tablet to look at the result.
“He must have pressed it at random.
He’s only eight months old.” “No!” the first insisted.
“It wasn’t random.
He focused directly on the eight and pressed it.
This is impossible!” Three more instructors gathered around Kamiki, scribbling furiously on their clipboards.
They stared at him as if they were looking at an alien.
Meanwhile, Kamiki sat upright on his mat, crossing his tiny arms over his chest as he watched their bewildered reactions.
*’I already know it, you idiot,’* he thought irritably, maintaining a deadpan expression as he looked up at the instructor.
*’I just pressed an eight.
What’s the big deal?’* The instructors reset the tablet and brought the screen closer to Kamiki.
“Try it again,” the senior instructor said, his eyes gleaming.
“Show us another one.” A new question appeared on the screen, this time featuring geometric shapes.
A square, a triangle, and a circle were lined up, followed by a blank space.
“What is the next shape?” the voice from the tablet asked.
Kamiki let out a mental sigh, reached out his finger, and tapped the circle button.
*Chime!* The correct sound rang out again.
The instructors began whispering excitedly among themselves.
“This is unbelievable,” a younger instructor muttered.
“His intelligence defies limits.” “One more,” another urged, quickly swiping the screen.
This time, numbers appeared again: 3, 4, 5, and a blank space.
Kamiki didn’t waste any time.
He tapped right on the option for 6.
*Chime!* The instructors eagerly grabbed their clipboards, their pens scratching harshly against the paper.
“His memory is incredibly powerful,” the senior instructor observed.
“He processes data instantaneously.” At first, Kamiki had found it amusing.
He enjoyed their foolish bewilderment; the shock plastered on their faces was comical.
*’Look how excited they get,’* he had thought.
*’They think I’m a prodigy.’* But the situation quickly grew tedious.
The questions kept repeating—the same numbers, the same shapes over and over.
Kamiki grew bored.
*’Enough already,’* he thought.
*’I don’t have time to play games with you.’* With the mind of an adult, these child’s play tests were suffocating him.
Kamiki pushed off the mat, straightening his small legs.
He stood up, making a motion as if fixing his clothes.
Under the astonished gazes of the instructors, he turned around and began walking away, wanting to leave the area.
“Hey, look,” the young instructor said.
“He’s walking.” “Don’t let him go, where is he heading?” the senior one barked.
Kamiki had barely taken two steps when a hand reached down from behind.
His instructor gently scooped him up by his armpits.
Dangling in the air, Kamiki kicked his legs.
*’Let me go,’* he thought, though only a tiny baby gurgle came out.
The instructor placed him back down on the mat and knelt before him.
“Kamiki-kun,” the instructor said with a smile, though his eyes remained eerie.
“Where are you trying to go?” His tone was incredibly soft, but his gaze was unsettling.
He looked at Kamiki as if he had just discovered a vein of priceless ore—his eyes filled with pure, unadulterated greed.
His expression seemed to say, *’You will be our greatest success.’* Kamiki grumbled internally.
*’Stop looking at me like that, you creep.’* He crossed his arms over his chest again and turned his head away.
The instructor kept smiling, pushing the tablet back in front of him.
“Come on, Kamiki-kun.
Let’s play a little more.” Kamiki looked at the tablet.
A new sequence of numbers was displayed on the screen.
*’I am absolutely not playing,’* he thought.
*’Watch this.’* He extended his finger and deliberately slammed it down on the most incorrect option available.
*Buzz!* The harsh, incorrect buzzer sound echoed through the room.
The instructor froze instantly, the smile dying on his face.
The instructor was in complete shock, staring blankly at the tablet in his hand.
The greedy smile from moments ago was completely wiped clean.
He locked his eyes onto Kamiki.
“This child…” the instructor murmured, his voice trembling.
“Did he do that on purpose?” The senior instructor leaned forward, narrowing his eyes.
“What do you mean, on purpose?
He just pressed it randomly.” “No,” Kamiki’s instructor insisted, shaking his head.
“He just tried to walk away a moment ago.
Now he’s giving wrong answers.
His eyes…
his eyes look completely different.” The senior instructor took a deep breath, examining Kamiki’s tiny face.
“How is this even possible?” the senior instructor asked, his voice echoing in the room.
“He’s only eight months old.
An eight-month-old baby!” “That’s exactly what I’m saying,” the younger instructor replied, quickly writing something down on his clipboard.
“To do something like this, he would need to be at least five years old.
Could he be consciously sabotaging the test?” “Don’t be ridiculous,” the other snapped.
“An eight-month-old baby doesn’t have the mental capacity to conceive of sabotage.” Meanwhile, Kamiki sat tall on his mat, laughing thoroughly on the inside.
‘Idiots,’ he thought.
‘Go ahead and tear each other apart.’ However, the instructors didn’t give up.
They had no intention of leaving Kamiki alone.
“Start over,” the senior instructor commanded.
“We need more data.” The instructors began testing him again, reopening the tablet to display new symbols and shapes.
This time, Kamiki changed his strategy.
He would get one right, then two wrong, aiming to completely scramble the instructors’ data and drive them mad.
This tedious and exhausting process dragged on for hours.
Time seemed to stand still.
Some of the other babies in the room had started crying; Shiro had collapsed onto her mat from exhaustion, and Yuki had long since fallen fast asleep.
A few hours later, the instructors finally gathered the tablets and tucked their clipboards under their arms.
“That’s enough for today,” the senior instructor announced.
“Send Kamiki’s data to the lab.” The sound of footsteps receded, and the heavy white door shut with a loud click.
The instructors had finally left the room.
Kamiki let out a deep, relieved sigh, his tiny shoulders slumping.
‘Finally,’ he thought.
‘Finally, this torture is over.’ His body was thoroughly exhausted, but his mind remained sharp and alert.
Slowly, he stood up, finding his balance on the mat.
He began walking toward the corner of the room with small steps.
His destination was clear: Kiyone Ayanokoji was sitting there entirely by herself.
He walked right up to her and dropped his tiny body down onto the mat beside her.
Kiyone didn’t even turn her head; she just stared blankly at the white wall.
Kamiki leaned toward her and parted his lips, wanting to attempt a conversation.
‘Don’t you think this is pure torture?’ he wanted to say.
But his vocal cords betrayed him once more, and nothing but strange, disconnected noises escaped his throat.
A garbled murmur drifted through the room: “Se…
de…
bu…
gaa…” At the sound of his voice, Kiyone slowly turned her head, fixing those dull, golden-brown eyes on Kamiki.
She stared at him blankly.
She didn’t offer a single reaction, nor did she make a sound.
She was like a completely soulless statue.
Kamiki just smiled back at her vacant gaze.
‘Still as solid as a wall,’ he thought.
Kiyone turned back around, returning to her vigil of staring at the blank wall.
Kamiki looked down at his own tiny hands, clenching and unclenching his fingers.
‘Just a few more months,’ he told himself, making a firm promise.
‘I’ll endure this for just a few more months.’ The determination burning in his mind was absolute.
‘I am definitely going to learn how to speak,’ he thought fiercely.
‘Once I have total mastery over this body, everything is going to change.’ Slowly, his eyes drifted shut.
His eight-month-old body simply couldn’t hold out any longer.
Right there beside Kiyone, on the white mats, Kamiki fell into a deep sleep.