Starting from Douluo Continent, I've become a god through daily check-ins.

Chapter 302 Memories

Inside the cockpit, Zero felt as if two hands were tightly gripping her neck, with Seventh Sister's voice constantly echoing beside her. But by this point, Zero was already experiencing oxygen deprivation, and her mind was becoming somewhat hazy. In Zero's consciousness, she saw the owner of those hands gripping her neck—a figure entirely red, Zero Two!

"That's a story about a monster."

Zero suddenly awoke, but she wasn't in the cockpit of the Strelitzia anymore; she was in a containment chamber. Fine snowflakes drifted down outside the chamber window. Zero closed her eyes, then slowly opened them again. She could clearly see that she was in a containment chamber, and in the corner directly opposite her, a small, thin figure was crouching. Light streamed in, casting a shadow through the glass frame that perfectly enveloped the corner.

When Zero opened her eyes again, she was already outside. A vast expanse of white snow stretched out before her, with light snowflakes still drifting down from the sky. Behind Zero was the door to a containment chamber; it seemed Zero had emerged from there. Beside Zero was a little boy, and for some reason, Zero was holding the boy's hand.

When she opened her eyes again, a group of children stood not far ahead. This was the incubation center, a completely closed world where only children lived. In the backs of those children, Zero found her own unique silhouette. That silhouette looked thin, but it didn't give off a feeling of thinness; rather, it exuded strength, an unapproachable aura, and complete maturity. It was also a lonely silhouette, weathered by life's storms and disillusioned with the world.

A loud crash echoed as glass shattered, and an oil lamp fell heavily to the ground, finally coming to rest at Zero's feet. Zero stood in the shadows, watching. A little boy stood on a tree outside the window, reaching out a hand, trying to pull the horned child from the containment chamber out. Because of the broken glass, the wind and snow outside had all entered the containment chamber. Zero squinted as he watched this scene.

A child dressed in a black robe and wearing a hood, with two horns, turned to look at Zero. It was clear that the child was crying. Outside the window, a little boy on a tree branch held the horned child's hand, also looking at Zero. Both had tears on their faces, staring at Zero in the containment room. Upon closer inspection, Zero was astonished to discover that the little boy was himself!

"What am I?" As a child, Zero sat on the top bunk of a bunk bed, turning her head to look at the dark night scene outside, where snowflakes were constantly falling from the black night sky.

"I was always thinking about those things back then."

The scene shifts, and Zero, as a child, appears in a classroom. The blackboard is covered with dense writing, and an adult is holding a book and explaining the contents of the blackboard.

"I've been in the incubator since I can remember. For my father's sake, we were born to become manipulators and live here. Here, children are called by code names. The earlier the number in the sequence, the higher the quality of the manipulator. In the two-digit system up to 099, children with two-digit numbers receive special treatment. I am one of them. But my code name is just a zero. Unlike those children with two-digit numbers, I receive even more special treatment."

When Zero was a child, he was playing with a ball in his room at the incubator. He missed catching it, and it rolled away in one direction. Looking up, he saw a girl hugging her legs and a small white rabbit doll in the direction the ball had rolled, seemingly crying with her face covered.

"Are you crying?" Zero walked up to the girl and asked.

Hearing the sound, the girl looked up, her eyes red as she stared at Zero in front of her.

The girl asked, "Am I strange?"

"Huh?" Zero was taken aback.

The girl said, "Because I'm different from everyone else."

Zero turned to look at the children beside him, then at the girl, and said with a smile, "No, it would be strange if everyone else were exactly the same. The fact that you have your own feelings proves that you are special. Your code name is 05, right? It's not normal for a two-digit child to be different from the other children."

To make the girl laugh, Zero told her many funny stories and even asked Hiro to name her Ichigo. The pronunciation of Fifteen is Ichigo, so she was named Ichigo.

During a training session, Zero happened to see a child whose entire body was red and who had a pair of horns on his head. He didn't know why the child was being treated this way, but asking the adults there would likely yield no results. So, Zero decided to investigate himself.

After a physical examination, Zero was in the only place closest to where he was supposed to be. Peeking out of the room, he tried to see where the adults were, and saw two adults talking with their backs to him. He quickly ran inside. However, he hadn't gone far when the two adults turned around and saw him, saying, "Hey, the hall isn't that way."

And so, the first search failed. Afterwards, Zero, wearing a thick coat, wandered outside. It was snowing, and there were gusts of strong wind. A thick layer of snow had accumulated on the ground, and Zero strolled through it.

"Looks like it's not that easy after all," Zero sighed. Looking around, Zero said somewhat dejectedly, "I didn't find any backdoors or anything. It's really tough searching for things on my own."

By chance, Zero looked up and saw a scene. In the window of a room, Zero saw an adult seemingly arguing with a child, but upon closer inspection, he could see that the child had a pair of horns on the top of his head!

"It's that child!" Zero looked around, found the tree closest to the window, and with great effort, finally climbed to the branch closest to the window.

Climbing up the tree branch, Zero finally saw clearly that the adult was holding a picture book, and the child was trying to snatch it back. However, the huge physical difference made it impossible for the child to grab the book. Finally, the child managed to grab the book and tried with all their might to pull it back, but fell down and failed to get the book back.

The child got up from the ground and tried to snatch the picture book again. Seeing this, Zero on the branch was a little worried. Finally, the child managed to grab the book back from the adult and clutched it tightly to his chest. The adult looked at it, wanted to take it back, but didn't, sighed, and turned to leave.

The child looked at the picture book in his arms with big, watery eyes, looking very happy. Seeing that the child had taken back the picture book, Zero was also a little happy.

(End of this chapter)