The Secret World

Excruciating brain pain and a concussion-like vertigo were the first sensations to assault Subject 74328 upon waking. Before he could react further, the nausea induced by the dizziness surged, forcing him to violently expel the contents of his stomach.

Making matters worse, his body was utterly drained of strength. He couldn’t even sit up. He could only manage to turn his head slightly, allowing the vomit to pool beside him on the ground.

Once the vomiting subsided, the vertigo eased somewhat, but the headache remained. Worse, without the counterbalance of the dizziness, the headache intensified, a relentless throb behind his eyes.

"Primary Sub-Brain, run diagnostics on cerebral anomalies." The intense physical distress sparked a flicker of alarm within 74328, prompting him to immediately command the sub-brain responsible for managing his bodily organs to assess his condition.

Things, however, did not unfold as he expected. After issuing the command, his Primary Sub-Brain remained utterly unresponsive. It was as if it had vanished.

A sense of foreboding tightened in his chest. 74328 swiftly issued orders to his Secondary Sub-Brain, tasked with logical deduction, and then to his Tertiary Sub-Brain, responsible for learning and data organization. The result was identical: complete silence.

Just as confusion began to grip him, a torrent of fragmented, chaotic memories flooded his mind. The psychic onslaught slammed into his consciousness, amplifying the already excruciating brain pain to unbearable levels.

The agony was indescribable. If his body hadn't been so utterly paralyzed, he might have sought escape by bashing his head against the nearest wall.

This wave of pain, however, crested as swiftly as it arrived. Like a receding tide, it rapidly diminished, leaving behind the baseline throb of the headache.

"D*mn it!" Regaining some semblance of control, 74328 felt his mind crammed with jumbled memory fragments. He forced himself to use his remaining shreds of focus to analyze the situation. An answer surfaced quickly – and it was profoundly bad. So bad, in fact, that it shattered years of ingrained behavioral protocols, prompting a silent curse within his mind.

The intense brain pain, the disappearance of all three sub-brains, and the chaotic influx of memories pointed unambiguously to one terrifying possibility: Sub-Brain Collapse.

In the 345 years since Cerebral Segmentation had been developed, billions had used it to create sub-brains. Instances of Sub-Brain Collapse were not uncommon; the Earth Federation maintained a dedicated archive documenting such cases.

The root cause remained debated. Some attributed it to sub-brain overuse, others suspected an inherent flaw in Cerebral Segmentation incompatible with certain individuals. The only certainty was its irreversibility.

The sole known method to mitigate the crippling side effects was to reapply Cerebral Segmentation and forge a new sub-brain.

But the difficulty for an ordinary person was exponentially greater for a collapse victim. Only two documented attempts had been remotely "successful," and even those were dubious – the resulting sub-brains possessed none of their intended functions.

Despite the lack of proven success, 74328 saw no alternative. Machine-like as he was, he doubted he could withstand another wave of the collapse's debilitating effects.

Decision made, the resolute 74328 began the familiar, intricate process of Cerebral Segmentation, meticulously dividing his neural pathways.

Cerebral Segmentation was a revolutionary evolutionary technique created over three centuries ago by a mysterious scientist from Earth's pre-Federation era. It wove together elements of mysticism, psychology, neurobiology, and other human sciences, propelling humanity up an evolutionary rung – transforming a solitary Earthbound species into a true cosmic race.

According to Earth Federation records, the foundational theory likely stemmed from a Harvard Medical School neuroscience student's dissertation.

In that paper, the student analyzed overall human brain utilization. He argued that even the most brilliant minds used less than 20% of their cerebral capacity. The barrier, he proposed, wasn't inability, but the influence of Lazy Genes present in all biological organisms, preventing effective use of the remaining 80%.

Lazy Genes were a novel concept at the time. Geneticists had discovered a shared gene across all species, including humans, that induced a state of biological inertia, hence the name.

Previously, scientists largely attributed laziness to personality. The discovery of the Lazy Gene revealed its biological underpinnings.

This gene directly governed an organism's utilization of its own organs. If merely opening its mouth could satisfy all survival needs and desires, the organism wouldn't effectively utilize other body parts.

Human brains were similarly shackled by the Lazy Gene. If 20% brain utilization sufficed for current needs, the remaining 80% remained untapped.

Some Earth scientists, recognizing this genetic limitation, sought solutions. Bold ideas emerged, including physically excising the Lazy Gene from the genome, though all attempts ultimately failed.

The breakthrough for human evolution came over 300 years ago, fifty years before the Earth Federation's founding.

A mysterious scientist took a different path. Instead of targeting the gene itself, they bypassed genetics entirely, focusing on humanity's core – the brain. They developed Cerebral Segmentation, splitting off the brain's vast, untapped resources to form auxiliary biological sub-brains. These sub-brains supported the primary brain and managed the body.

The result was transformative. Sub-brains granted computational power rivaling super-quantum computers and enabled near-perfect management of bodily functions, akin to a computer controlling hardware. Humanity evolved to previously unimaginable heights within a remarkably short time.

After perfecting the technique, the scientist publicly released Cerebral Segmentation to the entire planet, accessible to anyone with a network connection.

For humanity, it was an unparalleled boon. For those in power, it was pure poison. In an era where everyone possessed such potential, traditional hierarchies and control became impossible. As the technique's efficacy was confirmed, global instability erupted.

War – protracted and devastating – engulfed Earth. Nations fought nations; factions fought within nations. No country was spared.

Only when the planet lay ravaged did humanity realize the path led only to annihilation. Old grudges were abandoned. The Earth Federation, a single planetary government, was born.

After the Federation's founding, a startling fact emerged: the creator of Cerebral Segmentation remained unknown. No name, no identity, just the revolutionary technique. This became the Federation's greatest mystery, spawning endless speculation, much of it steeped in conspiracy.

For 74328, the creator's motives or the technique's ultimate meaning for humanity were irrelevant. As an Earth Federation Bio-Weapon, his concerns were primarily tactical: efficient pursuit and elimination of targets.

It was this bio-engineered resilience that allowed him to endure the extreme agony and successfully execute Cerebral Segmentation amidst severe adverse reactions, splitting off 20% of his dormant neurons to form a new sub-brain.

"Function Assignment!"

"Bodily Control!"

"Scan Physiological Systems!"

"Organize Bio-Data!"

"Establish Database!"

"Restructure Neural Pathways!"

"Reorganize Memory Cells!"

...

The moment the sub-brain coalesced, 74328 issued a rapid stream of commands. Following ingrained protocols, he categorized it as a Bodily Control Sub-Brain and initiated a full physiological scan.

Simultaneously, as the sub-brain activated, the intense headache and vertigo receded like a tide. His other senses, dulled by pain and disorientation, began to sharpen. He became aware of his surroundings.

"War." Smell and hearing returned first. The acrid scent of gunpowder, the thunder of artillery, the cacophony of shouts – the sensory data flooding in left no doubt: he was on a battlefield.

The problem was, since the Earth Federation entered the interstellar age, gunpowder weapons had vanished. Military and personal weaponry consisted of far more efficient and powerful Gauss rifles, ion cannons, and the like. Gunpowder weapons, like many relics of Earth's past, were relegated to collectors' items. They were never deployed en masse on battlefields like this.

As 74328 prepared to open his eyes and assess the situation, an artillery shell struck frighteningly close. The concussive blast wave ripped through the air, lifting his body off the ground and slamming him back down. A lance of agony shot through his abdomen.

The pain, instead of triggering fear, ignited his bio-weapon combat instincts. Instinctively, he adjusted his posture to minimize pressure on the injured area, preventing further damage.

His luck, however, seemed particularly poor. Just as he tried to open his eyes to evaluate his wounds, a figure appeared beside him. A hand clamped onto his arm, heedless of his injuries, and began dragging him roughly across the ground. After hauling him a short distance, the figure dropped him, then started slapping his face and forcibly prying his eyelids open to check his pupils.

The forced exposure sent a stab of pain through his unprepared eyes, triggering an involuntary flow of tears.

The sensation of tears caused profound shock deep within 74328. As a bio-weapon, his tear ducts had been surgically removed during ocular modification. Tears were impossible.

As the moisture lubricated his eyes, washing away the irritation from the forced opening, the blurred image reflected on his retinas gradually sharpened.

The first thing he saw was a large man with a thick beard and distinct Celtic features. He wore a tattered uniform that resembled that of the British Army from Earth's First World War era. A battered, ill-fitting military cap sat askew on his unkempt hair, bearing a strange insignia 74328 had never seen – the symbol of an octopus.

"*&(……*&%*"

Seeing 74328 conscious, the soldier laughed heartily, clapped him on the shoulder like an old comrade, and barked a few words of encouragement in an utterly unfamiliar language. He then snatched up an antiquated-looking breech-loader rifle from the ground and charged out of the makeshift shelter.

With his view no longer obstructed, 74328 could clearly survey his surroundings. He lay inside a shelter built into a deep trench, reminiscent of WWI entrenchments. Logs braced the earthen walls overhead, supporting a thin layer of packed dirt. This "shelter" offered scant protection from falling debris and no defense against a direct hit; its primary function seemed to be psychological comfort.

It appeared to have been converted into a frontline aid station. Dozens of wounded men, much like himself, lay strewn haphazardly within. Figures wearing bizarre masks, likely medics, moved among them, assessing injuries.

After scanning the trench shelter and grasping his immediate environment, 74328 turned his gaze inward, looking down at his own hands and body. The unfamiliar shape and color of his hands, coupled with the strange uniform he wore, forced a startling conclusion: he had likely experienced something bordering on legend – transmigration. Rebirth in another time, another body.

The concept of time travel, initially a mere novel idea, has gradually evolved into a scientific research project. In the rapidly advancing Earth Federation, there is increasing evidence that time travel is indeed a real phenomenon. Some even speculate that the creator of cerebral fission technology might be a time traveler from the future.

However, 74328 had no interest in delving into the study of time travel at the moment. He was more eager to discover where he was now and whose body he had inhabited.

At that moment, he recalled the wave of memories that had flooded his brain upon awakening. Carefully sifting through those fragments, he realized that many of them did not belong to him.

"First secondary brain, organize the memory fragments and transmit the memory stream," 74328 immediately commanded his newly split secondary brain.

As his command reached the secondary brain, the organized memory fragments began to trickle into his consciousness.

A sha