Kyle and Caroline crept cautiously beneath the capital, descending into the secret vault that had long been the subject of terrifying legends. It was a place where, as the stories went, those who entered were lost, and those who emerged were reborn—if they ever emerged at all. Absolute darkness ruled the space, broken only by a faint blue neon glow radiating from unseen corners, casting a macabre, funereal aura over the corridor. The pungent stench of chemical solutions filled the air, burning their noses and hinting at something deeply unnatural brewing in the secrecy of this deep abyss.
They moved with slow, measured steps, their hearts pounding like war drums, until a vast hall opened up before them. They froze in their tracks, horrified by the sight. Giant, illuminated glass cylinders lined both sides of the hall, filled with preservative fluids. Numerous human bodies floated suspended within them, preserved with eerie precision as if they were waiting for something.
Right in the center of the room stood the largest and brightest cylinder of all, resting like a throne in this morbid exhibition. The figure inside was surrounded by an aura of energy. He wasn't dead; he was twitching slowly, with unmistakable signs of life still pulsing clearly within the glowing phosphorescent liquid.
Kyle and Caroline approached slowly, the blood freezing in their veins with every step. When they finally stood before the central cylinder, a single stutter escaped their lips, their voices trembling with sheer disbelief:
"It's... Zo... Zo... Zoro!"
Kyle took a step back, his mind refusing to process the scene. "If the real Zoro is down here..." he whispered in a choked voice, "then who is the one sitting on the throne up there?!"
In that moment, the threads of the demonic plot began to unravel in Caroline's mind. She realized that the human Zoro, after suffering the fatal blow of rejection from Elena—who had left him for Arthur (Julia's father)—could not contain his devastating grief. Using his dark, brilliant mind, he created an exact robotic replica of himself, equipped with a chip and an oppressive, tyrannical system to rule the world with an iron fist and zero emotion.
But it didn't stop there. He had copied his soul and mind entirely into the machine he built, effectively becoming that cruel, emotionless automaton. Yet, for some reason, he kept his human body alive in this cylinder. His heart was still beating here, serving as the lifeline for them both. If this human heart ever stopped beating, both the "flawless" machine copy and the human version would perish together.
While Caroline was absorbed in analyzing this shocking revelation, Kyle turned around and saw something that rooted him to the spot in absolute terror. Behind the central cylinder were glass shelves displaying cloned human body parts: numerous hands, legs, and torsos... all bearing familiar features. The features of a single person.
Caroline let out a faint gasp, pointing at a separate glass case. "Kyle... look. It's Jin's head!"
Kyle froze, staring at the cloned faces in horror. "I think he wants to clone an entire army of Jins to rule the world... but it seems he's missing one crucial thing to mass-produce them. Every part of Jin is here. Could the missing element be... his mind? Or maybe... his blood?"
Their horrifying contemplations were cut short by a massive roar that shook the vault's foundations.
Caroline screamed in panic, suddenly remembering, "Oh my God! We forgot that the lion sedative has a time limit! They're waking up now! We're running out of time!"
"There's still one door we haven't explored yet," Kyle replied quickly, trying to control his panic. "Maybe we'll find a way out!"
They threw open the last door, only to be hit with another shock just as terrifying as the last. Before them stood two interconnected cylinders, wired with electrical cables leading to a massive, complex electronic board—much like the power panels that supplied the Central System with all its energy. One cylinder contained a man, and the other a woman, acting together like a giant biological power generator.
"Who are they?" Kyle whispered. "And why are they locked in this room all by themselves? What is that cunning bastard planning?"
Caroline screamed sharply as she heard movement nearby, "Kyle! We are in serious danger! One of the lions is fully awake. If it sees us, it will roar and blow our cover!"
They retreated at top speed, sprinting through the dark corridors, trailed by the echoing roars of the lions growing louder behind them. They scrambled out of the secret tunnel, and the moment they reached the surface, they collapsed onto the floor, panting heavily, relieved to have narrowly escaped certain death.
They sealed the passage door and turned around, only to find...
"What are you two doing here?"
Jax was standing right behind them, his eyes gleaming with suspicion.
Caroline replied nervously, trying to hide the pale color of her face drained by the horrors she had seen, "There was a malfunction with one of the panel buttons inside, and we just fixed it."
They hurried away, leaving Jax to watch them with a piercing gaze, determined to uncover the secret so clearly etched across their terrified faces.
At that exact moment, in Dr. Aris's suite, Jin was smashing everything he could get his hands on in a fit of blind rage.
"Who am I, Doctor?! Who are my parents? I swear I will burn this city to the ground if you don't tell me the truth right now!"
Dr. Aris sighed with deep sorrow. He walked over to his office wall and entered a secret code to unlock a hidden safe. He pulled out a small wooden box bearing an ancient royal crest: a white pearl centered by a golden sword.
He placed the box in front of Jin and said softly, "I didn't want to tell you until the time was right, my son. Caroline let it slip because she had seen your highly classified genetic file."
Jin opened the box with trembling fingers, finding inside a golden necklace and an old, blood-stained letter.
The doctor continued, every word feeling like a dagger plunging into Jin's chest: "When Zoro staged his bloody coup, he didn't just destroy the city. He publicly detained the rightful Crown Prince of the 'White Pearl' and his wife... your father and mother. On that very night, your father was supposed to be crowned the rightful ruler of the city because your grandfather was ill and had stepped down for his eldest son. Some witnesses say they were executed and murdered."
Jin's eyes widened in paralyzing shock.
The doctor continued stabbing Jin with the horrifying truth: "You are not a bastard, Jin... You are the rightful heir to the White Pearl! Zoro didn't save you out of pity; he discovered that your royal DNA is the only 'genetic code' capable of bypassing and destroying the Central Chip. He annihilated your family and kept you as an infant. He brainwashed you to turn the only weapon capable of destroying his system into his obedient dog, a pawn in his hand, and his personal killing tool!"
Jin fell to his knees. The tears that gathered in his eyes never fell; instead, they evaporated from the sheer heat of the rage consuming his heart. Everything had been a lie. His loyalty, his life, his identity. He had been protecting his parents' murderer.
Jin slowly raised his head. His features, previously filled with brokenness, shifted into a terrifying coldness. He wiped his face and stood up like a king reborn from the ashes, whispering in a voice that made the doctor tremble: "There is no longer a soldier named Jin. I am the heir, and I will reclaim my city over the dead body of this system."