The demolition team set the charges precisely and efficiently along the deformed section of the door.
“Can you hurry up?” Lin Sheng asked.
“We’re already moving as fast as possible, Captain Lin,” the demolition team leader said. “If we lose control, the tunnel might collapse…”
“Then let it collapse,” Lin Sheng turned and walked out. “All non-essential personnel evacuate immediately.”
“That might mean the subsequent rescue teams won’t be able to get in,” the team leader warned him.
“We’re the only rescue team — just the three of us,” Lin Sheng said. “If we can’t get them out…”
Then no one else can.
Everyone except the demolition team evacuated the tunnel, including the underwater reconnaissance personnel.
“I’ll be going in too,” Sang Fan approached.
“You stay here,” Lin Sheng said.
“Is it only your team allowed to go in and rescue?” Sang Fan asked.
Lin Sheng looked at her but said nothing.
“Or is it because I’m not strong enough yet?” Sang Fan asked again.
“You’re strong, and you’ll be even stronger,” Lin Sheng said. “The reason you stay outside is because you’re as fresh and clean as this new world.”
Sang Fan looked at him silently for a long moment. “Is that a last will? Sounds like one.”
“…Maybe you should learn some art of conversation from others,” Lin Sheng said, “Try taking notes from humans other than Qiu Shi.”
Sang Fan clicked her tongue but didn’t reply.
“All set. Everyone evacuate now,” came the demolition team’s voice in the earpiece. “Ten-second countdown starts: ten, nine, eight…”
Everyone had already moved to a safe distance. Lin Sheng, Xu Jie, and Ji Sui stood quietly near the side in front of the tunnel entrance, waiting.
After ten seconds, with a muffled explosion, the rocks beneath their feet trembled, followed by a series of blasts.
As the team leader predicted, the tunnel began to collapse. The sea surface churned with huge waves and began to flood back into the tunnel.
“Now,” Lin Sheng strapped on his gear pack and jumped off the rocks.
Xu Jie and Ji Sui followed behind him, running toward the sea where the tunnel entrance was no longer visible.
“Did you hear that?” Bai Zhan asked.
Xing Bi didn’t answer but squatted down, placing his hand on the ground.
Qiu Shi didn’t use his hand but could feel a slight vibration through his feet, and he also heard the explosions.
A series of explosions.
“Did we cause that?” Qiu Shi asked.
“No, from the tunnel’s direction,” Xing Bi said.
Qiu Shi then realized that this bioroid was sensing the explosion’s location through touch.
“The tunnel’s been blown up? Who did it?” Bai Zhan jumped up and ran to the monitoring screens, rapidly switching through camera views.
“Lin Sheng is coming,” Xing Bi said.
Zheng Ting, who had been silent, slightly tilted his head upon hearing that name.
“Our Lin Sheng,” Bai Zhan said, looking at him, “The real Lin Sheng — the one who experienced joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness in the outside world.”
Qiu Shi thought about it. Not exactly — Lin Sheng’s emotions were never very obvious.
It felt like Bai Zhan was describing himself. Being with the nomads, you could experience all emotions fully.
Most of the storage devices in the equipment room had already been destroyed by them; the lights began to dim.
Xing Bi walked into the room where the sleep pods used to be. The row of brains at the very back was quietly soaking in transparent tanks.
Qiu Shi followed him inside but kept his distance, standing in the outer section and watching.
Each brain had a small label beside it, with a name and a number.
Xing Bi had been here once before but left after a few seconds without saying anything.
Qiu Shi could guess what he saw inside.
Nothing could be forgotten — not the beautiful moments, but also not the pain, despair, or sorrow.
Not the longing.
This ability humans gave the bioroids was truly cruel.
Xing Bi went to a power control panel on the wall. There were no other controls here; 249 had not lied — this was the control panel for all the equipment, with various operations and interactions handled by this set of data.
Right now, Xing Bi had only the most brutal solution. He punched the power controller.
The crying 249 broadcasted a piercing scream.
Sparks flew from the controller. The liquid in the brain tanks began to cloud. As Xing Bi smashed the power repeatedly, the liquid grew more and more opaque.
The brains began to decompose; the tissue fell off bit by bit, vanishing in the murky liquid.
Eventually, all the tanks emptied, leaving only one filled with grayish-brown liquid floating with debris.
Xing Bi turned and walked out of the room.
“Lin Sheng is coming this way with people,” Bai Zhan said, standing before the surveillance screens. Seeing Xing Bi come out, he turned his head, “It’s Lin Sheng Number Two.”
Xing Bi looked at the screen. Lin Sheng was leading over ten level-two submersibles, quickly heading toward the equipment room.
“Cut power to everything except surveillance,” Xing Bi ordered.
Deng Yeye seemed to have been waiting for this command. She decisively slashed the power cable of a nearby device.
As one by one the equipment that sustained the research institute’s daily needs shut down, 249’s crying and screaming ceased. The floor underfoot began to tremble faintly, and the lights flickered.
“Warning, warning, warning…”
A female voice sounded.
“What the hell?” Qiu Shi was stunned.
“Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you…”
The broadcast played Qiu Shi’s birthday song — but off-key.
“Goddamn it…” Qiu Shi walked up to 249. “Are you sick or what?”
“All personnel evacuate immediately, all personnel evacuate immediately…” The female voice sounded again, but the next line turned back into Qiu Shi’s birthday song, “Happy birthday to you…”
Xing Bi came over and raised his gun.
“Xing Bi,” Zheng Ting spoke.
Xing Bi pulled the trigger. A gunshot rang out as the bullet pierced through 249’s neck.
249 jerked backward violently, blood spraying everywhere and staining the floor.
But the broadcast voice did not stop.
This time, it was Xing Bi’s voice.
“We were born for humanity, friends who never betray…”
This didn’t sound like 249 imitating their voices—it felt more like repetition.
“Fu-ck you!” Bai Zhan grabbed the long knife from Deng Yeye’s hand, rushed forward, and swung hard, chopping off 249’s head. “Shut the hell up!”
“Execute the latest order: all bioroids, assemble inside the base, eliminate on site.”
Xing Bi’s voice was calm, utterly emotionless.
“Who are you trying to sow discord between?” Bai Zhan swung again, cutting the line connecting 249 and the box. “I fucking know.”
“Warning warning… decomposition program activated, twenty-minute countdown started… Humans, treating me like this… not friends… your choices, are they really right…”
Xing Bi went over and yanked out the few cables connecting the box to unknown points in the room. The last voice of Zheng Ting vanished, leaving only the monotonous warning alarms.
“Countdown nineteen minutes, warning warning… all personnel evacuate immediately…”
Zheng Ting moved slightly; Xing Bi and Bai Zhan simultaneously raised their guns at him.
Zheng Ting reached toward his waist but slowly lowered his hand. “What happened to my clone? What have you done to him?”
“Saved him, from 249’s control, he is now a super symbiote,” Xing Bi said.
An explosion sounded, coming from deep underwater; the ground shook violently, and Qiu Shi nearly lost his footing.
“He lost his own thoughts, trapped by 249 in hatred, he became 249’s vessel of thought,” Xing Bi explained, “he’s gone now.”
“Number Two is at the door,” Deng Yeye said, watching the monitor.
Just then, an explosion came from outside.
“What’s he doing?” Qiu Shi glanced at the door, which had been locked tight by 249 and couldn’t be opened from either side, but it seemed Lin Sheng Number Two hadn’t blown up the door—the door was still intact.
“There’s explosives inside the wall,” Zheng Ting said. “Detonate everything, so this room can detach from the main structure, avoid disintegration, and sink to the seabed.”
“Warning warning… countdown seventeen minutes… all personnel evacuate immediately…”
“How long to detonate everything?” Xing Bi asked.
“Ten minutes,” Zheng Ting replied.
“Can this door be opened?” Xing Bi asked again.
Zheng Ting looked at him and after a few seconds said, “I want to leave here.”
“I’ll take you,” Xing Bi said.
Zheng Ting walked toward the control screen, pressed his hand against the lower part of the wall, and a small control panel slid out from the wall.
“Damn, that bastard never told the truth until the end, he really is the control panel,” Bai Zhan said.
“He really is,” Zheng Ting said. “This is just a mechanical controller.”
“Hurry,” Deng Yeye urged.
Qiu Shi watched the monitors above. Outside, Lin Sheng Number Two’s operations matched Zheng Ting’s inside: both opened a control on the wall, but Number Two also had something like a detonator.
On the top corridor monitor, a figure walked past.
“Lin Sheng has arrived.” He felt a moment’s relief but immediately tensed again.
Lin Sheng only brought Xu Jie and Ji Sui; though he was the only Level One here, he knew the layout well, accompanied by more than ten fully capable Level Two divers.
“This Lin Sheng…” Qiu Shi frowned. “Why… is it possible…”
“No way. Lin Sheng was activated in emergency mode, the system’s sleep function is damaged so not all features are available,” Zheng Ting manipulated the controller; on the small screen gears and tracks meshed together. He tapped a few times, and a low metallic grinding came from the wall near the door. “In mission mode, his sole objective is to protect this place at all costs, eliminate intruders.”
Number Two is a standard bioroid retaining Lin Sheng’s memories and behavioral style, but stripped of all emotions, without weaknesses, highly controllable—the original version of Lin Sheng.
Another explosion came, the corridor shook violently and began tilting to one side.
The repetitive warning alarms sounded; all lights inside the main structure had gone out, leaving only emergency backup lights and exit signs.
Two Level Twos charged out at the corridor’s end.
Lin Sheng and his two companions rushed toward them.
Just before collision, Xu Jie and Ji Sui kicked off the walls on both sides, leapt up, and brought their knives down on the back of the enemies’ necks from midair.
Lin Sheng didn’t attack; he slipped between the two Level Twos, raised his hand, and threw a grenade. As he released it, his fingers flicked, making it spin to the right, curving into a cross corridor ahead.
The two Level Twos behind collapsed. A massive explosion and a burst of bright white light in the cross corridor washed out colors and outlines.
Wearing goggles, Lin Sheng and his team dashed into the cross corridor and threw two more grenades.
Several Level Twos, still recovering sight, failed to dodge, and grenades exploded beside them.
“What the hell…” Bai Zhan stared at the screen, “does he not dodge his own explosions?”
The monitor showed Lin Sheng and the others didn’t stop to wait for the explosions but charged through the blast wind and flying fragments.
Though at the edge of the blast radius, scratches and cuts from shrapnel were visible on Lin Sheng’s face and body.
Zheng Ting pressed a button; a sharp metallic grinding came from the door side, but the door didn’t move.
“Jammed,” Zheng Ting said.
“He blew up the door earlier,” Xing Bi said, “to prevent us from opening it from inside.”
“I’ll try again, but…” Zheng Ting glanced at Lin Sheng’s monitor, “If this clone blows up the controller outside, it’ll be a problem.”
“Can this place connect to external broadcasts?” Qiu Shi asked.
“No,” Zheng Ting said.
“He wouldn’t make that mistake,” Xing Bi said.
Another explosion came, this time from above.
The detaching ceiling panels fell, fire was visible at another corridor’s end, and the floor began collapsing, exposing metal beams below.
“Up ahead,” Ji Sui said.
In the chaos, Lin Sheng spotted the equipment room door, where two Level Twos stood facing him and his two companions, and behind the Level Twos was…
“You leave that to us,” Xu Jie said.
Killing one’s own kind is always unpleasant; in emergencies, there’s no room for mistakes.
“I,” Lin Sheng said, “you handle the Level Twos, don’t use explosives—there’s a controller in there.”
“Got it,” Ji Sui said.
No explosives allowed, and few chances to use guns; Lin Sheng suddenly sprinted toward the equipment room door.
The Level Twos charged him head-on.
Lin Sheng didn’t dodge, facing them squarely.
When only a few meters away, the ground suddenly collapsed downward in front of him, revealing a huge pit full of fire beneath the exposed metal beams.
Warning.
Evacuate.
Ten minutes.
Lin Sheng used the momentum to leap up, swung out an iron chain in his hand, hooked it onto an overhead beam, swung his body over the pit, landing behind several Level Twos, and stood in front of that “self.”
The flashbang hanging from the lower end of the chain left on the beam exploded the moment he landed, flooding the surroundings with intense light and a piercing bang.
This light and sound wouldn’t affect a Level 1 hidden guard much, but even a split second of distraction—
Lin Sheng punched the throat of the “himself” standing opposite.
Behind him, Xu Jie and Ji Sui also jumped over the hole in the floor, kicking down two Level 2 hidden guards.
“That sound.” Deng Yeye covered her ears.
“The door’s loosened.” Xing Bi immediately ran toward the door. “Zheng Ting, keep opening it!”
The door had great soundproofing. Except for the earlier explosion that came through the internal wall, they hadn’t heard anything outside the door—but now the flashbang’s noise was audible.
Qiu Shi rushed to the door; it still looked closed, but Xing Bi felt a crack at the top.
“Pry it open?” Qiu Shi asked.
“Dream on.” Xing Bi said, then shouted to Deng Yeye nearby, “Old Deng, your grenade!”
“Here!” Deng Yeye threw the grenade over.
“Shit!” Qiu Shi was startled at Deng Yeye’s aim, given her unstable throwing style.
Xing Bi caught the grenade, grabbed a nearby steel rack of unknown purpose, swung it up, and wedged the leg of the rack into the door crack.
Then he stuck the grenade between that leg and the door crack.
“Step back.” Xing Bi ordered.
Qiu Shi quickly ducked behind the wall.
After a faint “ding,” Xing Bi also dodged back.
Bai Zhan and the others watched the door via monitors. The whole room held its breath, waiting for the explosion.
At least five seconds passed—yet the grenade didn’t explode.
“Dud?” Qiu Shi looked at Deng Yeye.
“Could be slow or fast, but definitely not a dud.” Deng Yeye said confidently.
“Damn, the grenades have been all over Yun City…” Qiu Shi pressed himself against the wall corner, trying to hear something.
Xing Bi suddenly covered his face from behind and pulled him back. Then a deafening explosion shook everything. The rack wedged in the door was blasted back into the middle of the room, now just a half-deformed piece.
“You lack oxygen?” Xing Bi whispered into his ear. “Or did your brain grow ribs?”
Qiu Shi touched his aching ribs, “The blast can’t get me.”
“But it scared me.” Xing Bi said.
“My bad.” Qiu Shi reached out and patted his face.
Amid the explosion, Number Two kicked Lin Sheng hard in the chest, sending him sliding backward several meters.
Number Two gave no chance to recover and rushed back at him, knife stabbing toward his throat.
Lin Sheng knelt on one leg, dodging the knife, then grabbed Number Two’s wrist, pulled forward, and used the momentum to sidestep. He rammed his shoulder hard upward into Number Two’s ribs.
The sound of breaking bones was clear.
Number Two flipped forward, broke free, then spun back to kick toward Lin Sheng’s head.
Lin Sheng raised his arm to block. The kick had enormous force, slamming him into the wall beside him.
“Keep opening the door!” Bai Zhan stared at the screen.
Zheng Ting pressed the control button again; the door creaked.
“Loosened,” Qiu Shi jumped up, grabbed the top of the door, braced his feet against the wall, and yanked hard backward. The door opened a crack wide enough for him to see Lin Sheng fighting outside.
It was Lin Sheng, wearing Yun City’s white uniform—Captain Lin.
Xing Bi wedged the last grenade in the widened doorframe.
Qiu Shi jumped down and ran back behind the wall.
Ji Sui beheaded the last Level 2 hidden guard, who fell into the hole on the floor.
Flames shot out of the hole with the explosion’s surge.
Lin Sheng timed it perfectly, kicking Number Two hard toward the door.
Boom!
But the grenade didn’t explode at the time he expected.
Warning!
No time left.
No time left.
At the moment Number Two lunged at him, Lin Sheng charged and kicked him in the chest again, knocking him back to the door.
The grenade finally detonated.
Lin Sheng didn’t dodge; the next second, clutching his knife, he lunged forward.
The door and Number Two blocked some explosion fragments, but many still pierced his body.
However, with pain perception blocked, his movements weren’t affected.
Just as his knife was about to stab into Number Two’s throat, Number Two suddenly raised his hand. Lin Sheng distinctly felt the knife tip pierce the skin on his neck.
Right behind him, Xu Jie had no time for anything else and directly slid on the ground, chopping toward Number Two.
The kick made Number Two’s hand veer slightly, but the knife still pierced Lin Sheng’s neck.
Lin Sheng neither stepped back nor stopped. The knife accurately stabbed through Number Two’s throat, exiting at the back of his neck.
Number Two’s body stiffened completely, eyes fixed and lifeless.
Lin Sheng grabbed his hand and slowly pulled the knife out of his own neck.
“Why?” Number Two asked.
It was unclear whom or what he was asking.
“Only the living win.” Lin Sheng said.
“Lin Sheng!” Xing Bi crawled out from the half-open door.
“We have to swim out,” Lin Sheng said, “I blew up the tunnel.”
“Treat his wound.” Xing Bi ordered.
Qiu Shi threw out a medical kit.
Xu Jie grabbed the kit. Another explosion sounded, very close now. Flames from the hole shot up toward the ceiling.
“Quick,” Ji Sui helped Lin Sheng lean against the wall, “No time left, get out.”
“Give me a grenade.” Xing Bi said.
Xu Jie tossed him one.
Xing Bi flipped back through the door into the equipment room: “Everyone out.”
“Lao Deng.” Qiu Shi nodded at Deng Yeye.
Deng Yeye ran over and climbed out through the door.
“You go out.” Xing Bi said.
Qiu Shi glanced at Zheng Ting standing inside.
“He should go first.” Qiu Shi said.
“He’s not leaving.” Xing Bi raised his gun, aiming at Zheng Ting.
