Lam Minh looked at the man before him. He didn't answer right away. He was assessing Tran Trung, not with his spiritual sense, but with the experience and intuition of a man who had lived two lives.
He saw the sincerity in Tran Trung's eyes, the indelible pain and hatred. But he also sensed something else, an instability hidden deep within his body.
"You said you were seriously injured and escaped," Lam Minh said, his voice calm. "But your speed just now didn't seem like that of an injured person. It didn't even seem like that of a normal Blacklight soldier. Your cultivation level has reached at least the Initial Stage of Foundation Establishment. Why is that?"
Lam Minh's question was like a knife, stabbing straight into the pain Tran Trung had tried so hard to conceal.
Tran Trung's face twitched. He hung his head low, his shoulders trembling. A heavy silence enveloped them both.
A long moment later, he finally looked up, his eyes filled with self-mockery and utter anguish.
He rolled up his sleeve.
On his gaunt arm were patches of grayish skin, hard and rough, not resembling human skin at all.
"You're right," Tran Trung said, his voice hoarse. "I wasn't a 'lucky' survivor. I am also one of their 'experimental products.' A failed one."
Lam Minh was stunned.
"When my team was captured," Tran Trung continued, his voice sounding as if it came from a distant place, "they didn't kill us right away. They injected us with strange solutions. Most of my comrades couldn't take it; they died in agony, their bodies deforming. A few others turned into mindless monsters, chained up by them like beasts."
He clenched his fists tightly. "And I... I survived. My body fused with the genes of some kind of Madakaros. It gave me strength, it gave me the cultivation of the Foundation Establishment realm. But it is also slowly consuming me. Every night, I have to fight the urge to kill, to fight the roars of the monster inside me."
He looked at Lam Minh, his eyes full of desperation. "I am no hero. I am just a monster in human form, a ghost of the past, trying to cling to the last shred of my humanity."
Tran Trung's tragic story left Lam Minh speechless. He could feel the inner conflict, the suffering this man had endured for three long years. Alone. In the dark.
"Why did they let you escape?" Lam Minh asked. This was the key point.
"I didn't escape," Tran Trung shook his head. "They deliberately let me go. Like releasing a plague-infected rat into a city. They wanted to see how a 'failed product' like me would change in a natural environment, what consequences I would cause. To them, it's all just an experiment."
Lam Minh finally understood. The "Holy Way of Salvation" was not just cruel; they possessed the sick arrogance of mad scientists.
He looked at Tran Trung. He didn't see a monster. He only saw a soldier, a hero who had endured too much pain.
"You are not a monster," Lam Minh said, his voice firm. "As long as your heart is still with humanity, as long as you still fight for your comrades, you are still a soldier of Blacklight."
Lam Minh's words were like a beam of light, shining into Tran Trung's darkened soul. He looked up, staring at Lam Minh in disbelief.
"Moreover," Lam Minh continued, a confident smile appearing on his lips, "regarding your 'evolution' problem, I might have a way to solve it."
"You... what did you say?"
"The cultivation technique I practice has the ability to purify all malevolent energies and impurities," Lam Minh explained. "It might not completely remove the Madakaros genes from your body, but it can help you suppress the monster within, help you master that power, make it your own, instead of being controlled by it."
Hope, something Tran Trung thought he would never have again, suddenly blazed in his eyes.
"If... if you can really do that..."
"I will help you," Lam Minh said, without a trace of hesitation. "But in return, you must also help me. I need your experience, your knowledge of the terrain and the enemy. I need a comrade who can understand the darkness, to fight alongside me in the darkness."
Tran Trung looked at Lam Minh, saying nothing. He slowly stood up straight, wiping away the tear on his cheek. Then, he raised his hand, placed it over his chest, and performed a formal military salute.
"Captain Tran Trung, Recon Team 7, reporting for duty, Second Lieutenant!"
Lam Minh smiled and returned the salute.
A new alliance had been formed.
One who carried the paradoxical power of rebirth, and one who carried the pain and power of mutation.
Two ghosts, one from the future, one from the past, would together stir up a storm, beginning their war against a hidden enemy. And the first thing they needed to do was return to that coastal city and bring the innocent civilians home.
...
After composing himself, Lam Minh looked directly at Tran Trung. He no longer saw a mutant, but a sharp weapon, a potential ace up his sleeve.
"Tran Trung," Lam Minh said, his voice deep and heavy with meaning. "You said you want revenge. You're willing to do anything for revenge, right?"
Though he didn't understand why Lam Minh was asking, Tran Trung nodded decisively. "Yes. At any cost."
"Good," Lam Minh nodded. He didn't explain his plan. He knew that for a soldier like Tran Trung, a clear order was sometimes worth more than a thousand explanations.
He took out a portion of Black Shadow's Golden Core and a few Peak Foundation Establishment cores. He placed them on a rock between them.
"This is your 'capital'," Lam Minh said. "It will help you grow stronger quickly."
He paused, looking deep into Tran Trung's eyes, the gaze of a commander entrusting a top-secret mission. "I have a mission for you..."
Tran Trung listened in silence. He was a soldier; he understood the weight in every one of Lam Minh's words.
He didn't specify what the mission was. He only offered a path, a choice.
"This is not an order," Lam Minh said. "This is a choice. Your own choice. If you refuse, I will still help you suppress the monster within and bring you back. You will still be a hero."
Tran Trung looked at the cores radiating a captivating energy on the rock, then back at Lam Minh. He was silent for a long time. The only sound in the forest was the wind blowing through the leaves.
Finally, he laughed. A hoarse laugh, somewhat bitter, but also full of resolve.
"Interesting," he said. "After living like a ghost for three years, I'm now being given a chance."
He didn't ask any more questions about the mission. He stepped forward, picked up the cores, and swallowed them all without a moment's hesitation.
The aura around him began to grow chaotic, powerful.
He looked at Lam Minh one last time. The despair in his eyes was gone, replaced by a rekindled flame.
"Take care, Second Lieutenant," he said.
With that, Tran Trung turned, his figure quickly melting into the darkness of the dense forest, disappearing without a trace.
He had made his choice.
Lam Minh stood there, watching the direction where Tran Trung had vanished. He didn't know if his decision was right or wrong.
He sighed. This war had already seen too many sacrifices.
He turned and flew back towards the coastal city. He still had a responsibility to fulfill.
And from that day on, the name Tran Trung, the last soldier of Recon Team 7, truly vanished from this world.