Chapter 48: In fact, we are the same kind, aren’t we?
Yang Erci didn’t run forward the moment she escaped from the conveyor belt, nor did she rush to rescue Zhong Yirou, who was about to be sent into the embryo transplant chamber. Instead, she desperately ran backward.
Because even if she could pull Zhong Yirou off the conveyor belt in time, there was no time to remove the chip from the back of her neck, let alone take her away while unconscious and being tracked by the chip. They would definitely be killed by the robots that could track chips.
The only way was to stop the operation of the factory.
But she could only take a gamble.
Yang Erci was not sure if she could really access the power distribution room and effectively shut down the entire factory.
Fortunately, luck was on her side.
Arriving at the invisible door of the power distribution room, she touched it, and a prompt appeared on the door.
[Welcome B05. You have 12 remaining DNA adjustment tasks on this level; please complete them as soon as possible.
Do you want to enter? Y/N]
Adjustment?
With no time to think too much, Yang Erci clicked to enter. The door opened, revealing the distribution facilities and power system of this surrogacy factory.
In reality, Yang Erci was a researcher at a biotech company, and her research department also had a similar biological research power system.
Following her methods in reality, Yang Erci tried on the mainframe and pulled down all the physical barriers.
Please work.
Two seconds later, her room plunged into darkness.
The plan succeeded without a hitch.
Yang Erci immediately opened the door of the power distribution room and came out. However, the scene before her made her heart, which had just calmed down, tense up again.
In the dark factory, countless red laser beams crisscrossed. The door was open at some point, revealing the cold white light of the corridor. Apart from that, she could only vaguely see the furnishings inside the factory.
The blood from her neck had not completely stopped, flowing down her neck and soaking her white coat. The pain forced her to grit her teeth. Yang Erci reached out, covering her wound with one hand, and with the other, she untied the hairband binding her hair at the back of her head. She tightened it around her neck and took out one strand of her loose hair.
With one hand covering her wound and the other twisting the strand of hair, she raised her hand and let go of the strand.
It fell onto the laser, directly cutting it in half.
Sharper than imagined.
The situation became tricky. In front of Yang Erci were two intersecting laser beams from left and right, with the intersection point right in front of her chest. She had to find a way to sidestep and move forward through the gaps in the intersecting lasers.
Suddenly, the factory alarm went off.
[Power system malfunction, power system malfunction, activate protection mode.]
She lifted one foot with difficulty, preparing to step into the center of three intersecting lasers. Any carelessness could result in her foot being severed from the ankle.
Carefully lowering her foot, she finally succeeded.
Just as she stepped down, she heard a voice.
“Yang Erci.”
It was An Wujiu.
But at this moment, Yang Erci doubted whether the An Wujiu speaking to her in the darkness was the real him. After all, they had already fallen for such tricks more than once.
She didn’t respond immediately but chose silence. However, it seemed that the person speaking to her in the darkness, presumably An Wujiu, anticipated her thoughts and spoke again.
“You must be worried whether I’m real or fake, right?”
“Put it plainly, you’re afraid of being deceived by an imposter.”
An Wujiu didn’t beat around the bush as he did before; instead, he went straight to the point. “Let me tell you directly. In the warm-up match, where you treated it like a caged bird, I was originally standing behind you. Your judgment was correct, but I anticipated your judgment, so I exchanged positions with Zhong Yirou.”
“Do you understand? It’s the same now; I know what you’re thinking.”
Josh, who was behind him, also spoke: “Miss Yang, he’s not fake. Wu You and I are here too.”
Wu You did not respond; he watched as Nan Shan’s lips turned pale and purple, feeling a sense of worry.
The silence in the darkness continued for a few seconds.
“This laser is sharper than a knife; it will cut swiftly upon contact.”
Upon hearing Yang Erci’s voice, An Wujiu felt a moment of relief and gratitude in his heart. This strange emotion left his mind blank for a moment, until Yang Erci said, “Do you have a weapon?”
“You know?” An Wujiu asked.
“I heard the sound of bullets.”
An Wujiu’s gun was on his back, and he planned to enter like this. “I’ll move towards the cabin first and find Zhong Yirou.”
He deliberately used the word “find” instead of “rescue,” causing a ripple in Yang Erci’s heart.
“I’ll go in too; you might not find your way in the dark.” Yang Erci also avoided the laser lines and moved a step forward.
Wu You moved Nan Shan to a position against the wall, letting him sit down, then urgently wanting to offer help, “Wujiu-ge, I’ll go in too.”
It was strange; if he were still the An Wujiu who was watching from afar in the previous round, he wouldn’t have put himself in such a predicament.
He should have let others save Zhong Yirou, even luring them to be cut into pieces by the laser knife. After achieving the goal, he could take the key fragments and enter the next level alone.
“Just stay put.” An Wujiu rejected him.
“I’m not here to take you on a spring outing to see wildflowers.”
The laser lines were thin and light, almost allowing them to see the dust tinted red as it floated through the light.
But for An Wujiu and Yang Erci, trapped in the lines, each step was exceptionally difficult. Any slight mistake could result in the laser piercing through, potentially costing them their lives.
Yang Erci moved forward along the conveyor belt, and what felt eerie to her was that all the women who were waiting to be recorded on the conveyor belt had disappeared. She raised her head and looked around the walls. In the dim light of the red lasers, she could barely see traces of the birthing nests. Still, she couldn’t tell if there were people inside.
Just as she was about to find a pivot point to take the next step, something terrible happened.
The lasers started moving too.
“Be careful!”
An Wujiu heard Josh’s voice. A laser moved toward his chest, forcing him to quickly glance behind. The laser behind him remained still, but the one at his right hand started moving upward. He reacted swiftly, tilting his upper body backward and retracting his right hand to avoid the moving light.
At the same time, he also noticed that these lasers did not move continuously; once a person evaded them, they would immediately stop.
Yang Erci didn’t have time to dodge a laser coming from the diagonally rear. It moved from behind to the front, leaving a bloody gash on her lower jaw as she turned her head.
“Hey, Zhong Yirou’s embryo transplant chamber and the entrance are not surrounded by lasers.”
Yang Erci heard this and relaxed a bit. Although she was still in danger herself, her eyes were fixed on the cabin where Zhong Yirou was located. Because of this, she accidentally discovered that whenever she avoided a moving laser, a large, rectangular white shadow would appear behind the transparent cabin. The shadow overlapped each time, becoming clearer and more defined with each occurrence.
“An Wujiu, look behind the transplant chamber.”
An Wujiu raised his eyes, cautiously tilting his head to enter the narrow safe zone. “I already saw it; that’s probably the door to paradise on this level.”
Behind him, he heard Wu You’s voice, “Wujiu-ge, Josh’s stamina seems to be getting worse. He almost fainted just now.”
“It’s normal; you won’t hold up after entering the next level. The winner of this game was predetermined from the beginning.” An Wujiu said the cruel reality indifferently. He stepped over a laser line but failed to stabilize, and the laser cut through the fabric of his pants without harming his leg.
“It’s a solo battle; higher-level individuals have higher stamina values. Those on lower floors can’t smoothly complete tasks on higher levels. Without someone to look after them, the chances of direct death are unimaginably high.”
Wu You understood, but he remained dissatisfied. “This isn’t fair.”
In the darkness, An Wujiu heard a cold laugh. “Fair?”
“So, I say, why bother with so many levels? Why not put everyone entering the altar in an arena to fight and see who can survive to the end in this chaos? Won’t that be more exciting?”
“Chaos is the greatest fairness.”
An Wujiu spoke out his creed, at least the one he believed in at the moment. Any kind of order would not be perfect, and even under the appearance of near-perfection, there hid enormous flaws, making it impossible to operate justly.
It was better to have no rules, no order.
“With you saying that, I suddenly want to be the one who survives to the end.”
Suddenly, An Wujiu heard another voice, not from Wu You but from Shen Ti.
As An Wujiu dodged a moving laser, confirmed it stopped, and then turned his head, the next second, something shiny was thrown towards him. An Wujiu instinctively reached out and firmly caught it.
It was a mirror.
“I found this in the chest of the monster outside.”
After saying this, Shen Ti continued with the previous topic, “If you can’t be the last one, being the second to last is also acceptable.”
As he stepped into the dark factory, the factory’s door slammed shut.
The external light source vanished.
An Wujiu gripped the mirror in his hand. “Why?”
“Because…” Shen Ti also stepped into the laser array. His voice in this dark factory had a strange ethereal quality, as if it weren’t a human voice, filled with a supernatural hallucinatory feeling.
“If there were only you and me left in that arena, I would let you survive until the end.”
Upon hearing his answer, An Wujiu fell briefly into silence.
His heart, once again, started hurting without any warning, as if pierced and cut by countless lasers, completely beyond his control.
Many times, An Wujiu realized that the symptoms of his heartache were not irregular or randomly occurring.
Every time was related to Shen Ti, but he didn’t know the reason. He desperately wanted to unravel this mystery but seemed powerless, only being pulled along.
The pain caused An Wujiu’s hand, still wrapped in gauze, to tremble slightly, and the mirror in his hand moved accordingly.
In the midst of being engulfed by pain, An Wujiu suddenly noticed a problem. The red light, which had been shining straight from left to right at a slant, had its endpoint just at his feet a moment ago.
However, now, the edge of the mirror had crossed the path of the light, and the light that should have been cut was reflected by the mirror, redirecting in another direction.
“This is a laser reflection mirror…” Realizing this, An Wujiu directly shouted Yang Erci’s name. She was closer to the transplant chamber, and the laser lines were more dense.
“Catch it. If you can’t, then wait to die together.”
The moment it was thrown out, An Wujiu cursed himself as a fool in his heart for so generously tossing away a life-saving tool.
If he really died in this round, he deserved it.
But Yang Erci caught it, and she was clever. Using the laser reflection mirror, she reflected all the approaching lasers, creating space for her movement.
The chances of success suddenly increased, and the rescue speed accelerated.
Only a few meters remained to reach Zhong Yirou.
An Wujiu continued to advance with difficulty.
Shen Ti had already come up behind him, moving so fast that An Wujiu doubted if he was a rubber man who could change shape at will, passing through the laser array.
“The words you just said were really moving. But…”
Shen Ti suddenly heard An Wujiu’s voice, his tone frivolous.
“I heard from Josh that you even fooled that NPC, who looks exactly like me, using the emotional card. You used sweet words and honeyed phrases, then killed him. It’s terrifying; even I find it scary.”
An Wujiu chuckled, “Actually, we are of the same kind. Don’t you think?”
Bizarre, split, extreme, unpredictable—an existence outside the realm of normal people.
“Don’t lie to your kind anymore; it’s not convincing, and it’s a waste.”
As An Wujiu spoke, he felt an impulse to see what expression Shen Ti would use to respond to his words at this moment. However, suddenly, the red lasers around them disappeared simultaneously.
Nothing could be seen; their field of vision plunged into total darkness.
Shen Ti also didn’t speak anymore. His silence made An Wujiu’s heart beat heavily for a few moments, but it quickly returned to calm.
Yang Erci’s voice clarified things for them, “It’s me. I just opened the transplant chamber, so all the lasers disappeared.”
“Where’s Zhong Yirou? How is she?” The lasers disappeared, and An Wujiu continued walking forward.
“She’s still unconscious.”
Zhong Yirou lay quietly on the operating table, the needle shimmering in the dark night, reminding Yang Erci of the destined spindle in fairy tales and the cursed princess who fell into a deep sleep.
Yang Erci moved away the robotic arm, closed Zhong Yirou’s white coat, held her arm, and transferred her onto her back. Dragging Zhong Yirou, she opened the chamber door.
As An Wujiu had said, the white rectangle indeed turned into a door.
“The door has appeared.” Yang Erci tried it out. “But it won’t open.”
Shen Ti also followed. He walked up to the door emitting a faint white light, grabbed the handle, and suddenly, a loud roar echoed in the darkness.
The roar sounded somewhat familiar, similar to the monster that had transformed into a baby before.
Seeing the lasers disappear, Josh, who had just awakened, shook Josh, who was on the verge of falling asleep, and helped him stand. He then supported Nan Shan’s arm and led them forward.
But just a few meters ahead, a huge object suddenly flew toward Wu You. The roaring sound almost pierced his eardrums. The opponent came straight at him, hitting him hard.
Josh staggered and knelt down. Without support, Nan Shan also fell, collapsing onto Wu You.
Hearing the commotion in front of him and the roar coming from there, An Wujiu turned around. “Little brat.”
With Nan Shan unconscious on top of him, Wu You tried to push him away. Unable to exert much force for a moment, he could only be pressed down, responding to An Wujiu with resignation, “I was knocked down by a monster that made the same sound just now. It was loud. Be careful.”
An Wujiu stared into the darkness, looking very seriously. His gaze gradually clarified in the chaotic darkness, capturing a trace of movement.
The monster looked like a massive black shadow, darker than the dark surroundings, yet emitting a faint light. It resembled a fog, lacking a concrete form. Even its roar seemed to be in an unknown language.
After watching for a long time, An Wujiu’s strong will suddenly showed a hint of wavering.
He looked at Yang Erci, who, like him, was staring at the black mist. However, she stood completely upright, completely unaware of Zhong Yirou lying on the ground behind her.
In the darkness, Yang Erci’s pupils, staring straight ahead, seemed to emit a glow.
Not only her, but on the opposite side, Wu You was the same. Lying on the ground, his eyes radiated a faint light, constantly following the massive black fog, losing self-awareness.
“No, don’t look at it!” An Wujiu turned his face to look at Shen Ti.
In the darkness, those blue-green eyes were only looking at him.
“You don’t look at it either…” An Wujiu said the remaining words slightly slowly.
His heartbeat accelerated.
“Okay.” Shen Ti responded to his words, lowered his head, and opened the game panel, exchanging for a heavy machine gun. He loaded it decisively.
He agreed to avoid looking at it, but he picked up the gun, aimed at the black mist that was striking and launching missiles in the factory, and fired fiercely.
The flames flickered like twinkling stars, briefly and intensely igniting the darkness.
An Wujiu looked at Shen Ti’s profile.
An uncontrollable guy.
After cursing him in his mind, he also removed the gun from his back and resisted this unknown and unviewable black mist.
When aiming at the black mist, An Wujiu could clearly feel a tremendous impact inside his body. Every cell was colliding wildly with each other, uncontrollable; his hands and shoulders were shaking.
But within his body, a completely new and powerful force surged, seemingly suppressing this uncontrollable madness.
There was a loud bang. An Wujiu’s shot hit the center of the black mist, and with Shen Ti’s continuous firepower, the creature resembling the black mist erupted into a mournful howl and fell to the ground.
The black mist dissipated.
Is it over like this?
An Wujiu put down the gun in his hand, and the experience of almost losing his willpower left him feeling like he had just resurfaced from drowning.
But as he turned to look at Shen Ti, the door to paradise behind him cast a faint silver glow on his silhouette. He had not changed at all, not under his control, nor under the coercion of this unknown black mist.
“What just happened…” Wu You woke up, pushing Nan Shan, who was on top of him.
An Wujiu was about to speak, but the next moment, that roaring sound appeared again. He noticed that above the factory, a whole new and eerie black mist was gathering.
“Don’t look at it!”
Even though it seemed like a replay, An Wujiu missed the best opportunity to warn them again. The black mist rushed toward Wu You this time, attacking with hysterical roars, and then departed. Wu You’s eyes emitted a faint light, staring blankly in the direction the black mist had left.
They were under control once again.
This black mist resembled a gigantic elastic ball, bouncing wildly around the factory. It touched one wall, then rebounded to the floor, or the ceiling, in a chaotic and unpredictable manner.
Shen Ti and An Wujiu repeatedly hit it and shot at it, making it dissipate.
But the next moment, the dispersed black mist would gather again, once more attacking their comrades.
In the darkness, the cycle repeated itself, endlessly flourishing amid mournful cries.
They were caught in a loop.
For the 32nd time, An Wujiu, at the very moment the black mist began to gather again, told them not to look, but it was useless. Once enveloped by the black mist, they would be inevitably controlled.
Just as Josh regained consciousness for a moment, he was shrouded in the black mist. The enormous roaring sound enveloped him, but in an instant, he realized something. So, just before losing consciousness, he told An Wujiu.
“This black mist! Its roaring language is the same as the creatures outside! I-I’m a linguist! Wujiu, I…”
Unable to finish his words, the black mist departed, and Josh’s eyes emitted a faint light like moonstone.
This was the 37th time in the loop.
“No.” An Wujiu’s tired hands let go, and the gun fell to the ground.
He looked at his only companion and smiled. The white glow illuminated his face, and Shen Ti saw his beautiful yet slightly crazy smile clearly.
He said, “I don’t want to kill anymore.”
“It shouldn’t die, right?”
