扎克 Zac

生化魔人 the Secret Weapon

台词

“你心里恨得越深，之后就伤得越痛...…”

“The angrier you get, the more this is going to hurt...”

传记

一滩泄漏的毒液，顺着炼金科技设施的裂缝流进了祖安的地沟区，在深处一个与世隔绝的坑洞里积成了一洼。出身虽然如此低微，但扎克却从一团蒙昧的黏液长成了一个有思想的实体，栖息在城里的管道中，偶尔露面，帮助那些无助的人，或是修缮祖安的各种公共设施。

Zac is the product of a toxic spill that ran through a chemtech seam and pooled in an isolated cavern deep in Zaun’s Sump. Despite such humble origins, Zac has grown from primordial ooze into a thinking being who dwells in the city’s pipes, occasionally emerging to help those who cannot help themselves or to rebuild the broken infrastructure of Zaun.

一滩泄漏的毒液，顺着炼金科技设施的裂缝流进了祖安的地沟区，在深处一个与世隔绝的坑洞里积成了一洼。出身虽然如此低微，但扎克却从一团蒙昧的黏液长成了一个有思想的实体，栖息在城里的管道中，偶尔露面，帮助那些无助的人，或是修缮祖安的各种公共设施。

Zac is the product of a toxic spill that ran through a chemtech seam and pooled in an isolated cavern deep in Zaun’s Sump. Despite such humble origins, Zac has grown from primordial ooze into a thinking being who dwells in the city’s pipes, occasionally emerging to help those who cannot help themselves or to rebuild the broken infrastructure of Zaun.

最先发现扎克的是一群祖安的小孩儿。他们当时正在地沟里的水坑边打水漂玩，却发现有些石头被扔了回来。于是这个“返物池”就在祖安地沟居民中传开了，最后引来了一个炼金科技阴谋集团的注意。这群炼金技工不顾当地居民的反对，抽出池中的液体装进桶里，带回了他们的实验室。

A group of Zaunite children first encountered Zac when they were out skimming rocks over a sump pool and some of the stones were thrown back. The “Returning Pool” became well-known to Zaun’s Sump dwellers, and eventually drew the attention of a shadowy cabal of chemtech alchymists. Over the protests of the local residents, the alchymists pumped the contents of the pool into vats and carried the substance back to their laboratories for experimentation.

炼金技工们设计了各种实验，测试了负向和正向刺激的效果，他们发现水池中有一团凝胶状的物质，似乎存在着某种精神的趋向性。简单地说就是，它能模仿自己所接受的刺激类型。如果对他关爱友善，它就会回应出小孩子一般的欢喜和嬉闹，但如果对它施加痛苦和激惹，则让炼金技工们不得不牺牲大量经过义体增强的地沟拾荒人，应对后续出现的破坏性反应。

Via a series of experiments designed to test negative and positive reinforcement techniques, the alchymists discovered the coagulate mass within the pool appeared to have psychotropic tendencies. Simply put, it mirrored whatever stimulus was provided to it. If treated well, it responded with childlike glee and playfulness, but when its response to pain and aggression were tested, the alchymists lost numerous augmented sump-scrappers in the ensuing destruction.

大多数炼金技工都认为这些反应只不过是单纯的神经反射，但其中有两个人并不十分确定。他们质疑这些实验的伦理道德，似乎实验的目的完全是为了制造出一个具有无比进攻性的生物。两人展开了深入的调查，发现整个项目都是由武田斋藤资助的。他是一个脾气暴戾的炼金男爵，血腥的帮派斗争让他臭名远扬。线索的指向很明显，武田想要开发出一个悍不畏死的打手，具备可变形的身体，无孔不入，而且惟命是从。他们还发现了这个项目真正的名字——祖安无定型战斗体，缩写为ZAC。

Most of the alchymists attributed this to nothing more than a simple reflex response, but two among their number weren’t so sure. They questioned the morality of experiments that seemed entirely driven to produce a creature of unmatched aggression. When the pair dug further, they discovered the project was being funded by Saito Takeda, a Chem-Baron with a notoriously violent temperament and reputation for bloody gang warfare. The implication was clear; Takeda sought to develop a fighter who could shrug off mortal wounds, squeeze into places humans could not and who would obey any command. They also discovered the project’s true name; the Zaun Amorphous Combatant.

两人开始考虑如何行动，在这期间他们发现这团粘胶不仅能对刺激物做出模仿回应。他们观察到了不接受明显刺激物时的自主行为——与知觉生物极其类似。他们将这个生物简称为扎克，并且认定他展现出的行为说明他是一个有思想、有感觉的实体。他们将自己的发现汇报给了研究小组的组长，但这位四肢像麻杆一样的长官却完全无视了他们的担忧。

As they pondered the best course of action, the two dissenting alchymists saw more than just a mirroring of whatever stimulus was applied to the viscous gel. They saw behaviors manifest without any obvious stimulus - behaviors consistent with sentience. They came to know the creature as Zac and concluded that he exhibited the behaviors of a thinking, feeling being. They brought their findings to the spindle-limbed leader of their research team, but their concerns were ignored.

二人不甘心就此放弃，他们开始进行自己的隐秘行动，努力抵消其他组员给予的暴力方面的教导。他们想要让扎克明辨是非，于是让他亲身体验舍己为人和慷慨无私的善举。他们的努力换来了成效，当扎克看到那位研究员伤到自己手的时候，表现出了难过的情绪，而当他看到另一位研究员杀掉实验室里的老鼠的时候，则表现得很不安。终于，二人对其他炼金技工对扎克进行的残酷实验已经忍无可忍了。

Unwilling to let the matter drop, they began their own covert efforts to counter the violent teachings of the rest of their team. They sought to show Zac right from wrong, exposing him to acts of altruism and generosity. Their efforts bore fruit, with Zac showing sadness when one of the researchers hurt her hand and reacting badly when another killed a rat in the laboratory. Eventually, they could no longer tolerate the cruel experiments being done to Zac by their fellow alchymists.

那一天晚上，恰逢祖安的进化日缅怀活动，实验室里空无一人，他们借此机会将扎克倒进了一个废水缸推车里，把他拖到了祖安的偏远角落。他们的行动很快就暴露了，随后武田男爵手下的士兵们就开始了搜查。但祖安很大，足够让两位研究员躲过风头。他们曾经考虑过把扎克放生到野外，但扎克并不想被放生，因为他已经将这两位研究员视为自己的家人。世上只有他们两人对他好，所以他想跟着他们学习更多东西。事实上，这二人对扎克的反应无比欣慰，因为他们也很喜欢扎克，甚至将他视为自己领养的儿子。

One night, during Zaun’s Progress Day remembrances, when the laboratory was empty, they drained Zac into a wheeled septic tank and dragged him to a far distant part of Zaun. When their act was later discovered, the footsoldiers of Baron Takeda sought them out. But Zaun is a big place, and the researchers were able to hide from their pursuers. They had thought to give Zac his freedom, but Zac did not want to be released, for he now considered the two researchers his family. They alone had shown him kindness, and he wanted to learn more from them. In truth, they were pleased by his reaction, for they had become so fond of Zac that they considered him their adoptive son.

为了躲避武田的手下，他们改换了身份和外貌，前往偏僻的地沟区定居，远离监视和刺探。扎克学着模仿他们的声音，很快就学会了将自己的胶质团块变形成为发声所需的器官。他在养父母身边生活了许多年，必要的时候就藏在地沟的水池里或者岩壁的裂缝中。扎克的“父母”为他讲述了他所生活的这个世界，告诉他世界有优美、壮丽的一面。他们带他观看日之门的明月初升，欣赏祖安交易所彩绘玻璃天蓬上的清丽彩虹，还有城市中心那熙熙攘攘、朝气蓬勃的美。他们还告诉他这个世界也有残酷、严苛的一面，扎克开始懂得有的时候人会变得恶毒、无情、充满怨念和偏见。扎克拒绝这种行为，并尽可能地帮助他的父母，用自己的技艺惠及周围的居民，同时尽量不引起不必要的注意。

To stay hidden from Takeda’s men, they changed their identities and appearance, taking up residence in a remote part of the Sump, far from prying eyes. Zac learned to mimic their voices, and quickly adapted to shift his gelatinous mass into the required shapes to form sound. He lived alongside his adoptive parents for many years, hiding when necessary in sump pools or in the cracks in the cliffside rocks. His ‘parents’ told Zac of the world in which he lived, how it could be beautiful and full of wonder. They showed him the moon rise over the Sun Gates, the play of rainbow light on the stained glass roofs of Zaun’s commercia halls, and the bustling, vibrant beauty of their city’s heart. They also explained how the world could be cruel and harsh, and Zac learned that people were sometimes mean and unkind, hateful and prejudiced. Zac rejected such behaviors and helped his parents where he could as they used their skills to aid the people around them without attracting undue attention.

他们竭尽所能医治病患、修缮机械，以及任何炼金学识能够发挥积极作用的事。那些年月是扎克最美好的回忆。他在祖安城内四处游荡，近乎永无止境的管网系统和地基岩石的裂缝是他的专属通道。虽然扎克有着独立的自我意识，但如果周围环境的刺激太过强烈时，他的感受就可能会被浸没，暂时吸收周围的主导情绪，带来或好或坏的后果。许多时候他都无法控制自己的冲动，插手帮助那些遭遇压迫和欺凌的人，对抗恃强凌弱的街头恶霸；所以祖安逐渐开始传起关于他的传闻。虽然大多数传闻都是关于他乐于助人的故事，但也有一些传闻将一些破坏性的事故归咎于扎克，比如某个工厂被毁，或者某个地沟居民区被撕开了一个大洞。

They did what they could to treat the sick, mend broken machinery or otherwise put their chem-knowledge to benign use. These were golden years for Zac, and he roamed Zaun through its almost limitless network of pipes and through the many cracks in its bedrock. As much as Zac was a sentient being, too much stimulus from his environment could sometimes overwhelm his senses and cause him to temporarily absorb the dominant emotions around him, for good or ill. Oft-times he couldn’t help getting involved in aiding the oppressed and downtrodden against thuggish bullies; leading to rumors of his presence spreading through Zaun. Though the majority of tales were of him helping, others attributed destructive events to Zac; a factory destroyed or a crevasse ripping open in a Sump neighborhood.

最后，这些传闻终究还是传到了武田斋藤的耳中，他派出了一批义体增强的恶棍前去收回他认为属于自己的财产。因为他的炼金技工们也一直都在尝试用容器中剩下的液体复制扎克诞生的过程，但一直都是徒劳。所以武田男爵迫切地想要找回这个生物，于是他的手下包围了扎克父母的家，发起了进攻。二人奋起反抗，他们毕竟是炼金科技研究员，怎么会没有一些用于自卫的秘密武器，但是他们的反抗没法撑到永远。最后暴徒们不顾武田男爵要求活捉的命令，杀死了他们。

Eventually, those rumors reached the ears of Saito Takeda, and he sent a band of augmented thugs to retrieve what he saw as his property. His alchymists had been attempting - without success - to replicate the process that had created Zac from droplets left behind in his vat. Takeda wanted the creature returned, and his augmented heavies surrounded Zac’s parents’ home and attacked. They fought back, for they were chemtech researchers and not without esoteric means of defending themselves, but their defiance could not last forever and eventually they were killed, despite Takeda’s order that they be taken alive.

当时扎克正在探索祖安城地下的岩缝，但突然感到了父母的危难，于是沿着管网火速赶回家营救。但已经太迟了。看到父母尸首的他满腔怒火，男爵的手下从未见过这阵势。扎克发出了猛烈的进攻，使出了各种拉伸、冲撞和重压的战技。他在悲怒交加的情绪中毁坏了周围数十个居民房屋，等到战斗结束的时候，那批义体增强的暴徒们一个活口都没留下。

Zac had been exploring subterranean seams far below Zaun, but sensed his parents’ distress and raced back through the pipes of the city to the rescue. He arrived too late to save them, and the fury that overwhelmed him upon seeing their bodies was unmatched by anything the baron’s men had ever seen. Zac attacked in a ferocious display of stretching, smashing, and crushing. In his grief and anger, he demolished dozens of nearby dwellings, and by the time the battle was over, all the augmented thugs were dead.

当战斗的情绪逐渐从扎克的脑海中褪去，他看到被自己破坏的诸多家庭，因此发誓要继续将自己父母的善行坚持下去。他帮助重建了自己破坏的房屋，修缮工作结束以后，他就立刻消失在了祖安庞大的管道网中。

When the heightened emotions of battle drained from Zac’s consciousness, he was overcome with remorse for the homes he had destroyed, and vowed to continue the good work done by his parents. He helped rebuild what he had destroyed, but as soon as the work was done, he vanished into Zaun’s vast network of pipes.

现在的扎克独自生活，栖息在祖安城内散布的管道和洞穴中，沐浴着城市居民的各种情绪。有的时候他感到丰富多彩，但也有的时候他感到悲伤，因为他同时吸收着这座城市的好与坏。他逐渐成为了祖安人传说中的都市传奇，一个神秘的生物，会不定时地从岩缝或者管道中钻出来。大多数时候他的出现都是为了帮助那些无助的人，但当麻烦出现的时候，当城市的情绪变得阴暗苦涩的时候，他的出现可能会让某些人不寒而栗。

Now Zac lives alone, dwelling in the tunnels and caverns threading Zaun, and bathing in the emotions of the city’s inhabitants. Sometimes this enriches him, but other times it saddens him as he takes on both the good and bad of the city. He has become something of an urban legend among the people of Zaun, a mysterious creature that sometimes emerges from cracks in the rock or a section of damaged pipework. Most times this is to help those in need, but in times of trouble, when the city’s moods turn grim, his appearance can be cause for trepidation.