【Xiao Zhen.】 I called him softly.
Yan Zhen didn't respond to me, he just lowered his head.
【Xiao Zhen.】
Still no response.
I came to Yan Zhen's sea of ​​consciousness, and I could see the fragments I had lost - the key to the Pioneer Think Tank was like a multifaceted crystal diamond, floating in countless interlaced mirrors. It was the projection of a higher-dimensional being in his consciousness, and it was the shadow of the fragments. On each mirror, a scene was being repeated, the moment when Liu Ruiguo was killed.
It keeps repeating itself.
[We must stop the Necromancer.] I forcibly blocked out all the images in Yan Zhen's mind, and directly transformed his theater of consciousness into a pure white world.
"Mr. Air," he finally spoke.
【Um.】
"It said I was relieved." Yan Zhen whispered, "It was true. When I found out that the dead person was not Fan Yingjie, I was indeed relieved."
[Xiao Zhen!] I raised my voice.
"At that time I subconsciously thought it was a good thing that it wasn't Fan Yingjie who died." Yan Zhen said, "Liu Xingquan was right, I am a bastard." He stared at the spotless floor with a calm expression.
[It was the Dead Dragon who killed Uncle Liu. It has nothing to do with you.]
"But it's because of my choice..."
[This is the bullshit talk of the Necra Dragon. Think about why you entered this game. I told you that this is a trap set by the Black Box. This is the script woven by the Necra Dragon. It is the culprit of everything. It is the real sinner.]
" but……"
[Xiao Zhen! You have a card-drawing mobile game on your phone. Tell me, if you draw ten times in a row now, can you draw the gold card you want? ]
"I don't know." Yan Zhen said.
【It is not difficult to know the result of the mobile game card draw. Do you think that the card draw on the mobile phone card is a random unknown result? In fact, it is not the case. Mobile game manufacturers need to make money. The card draw probability set by the manufacturer ensures that players have a certain probability of drawing rare cards, so that players can see hope and spend money without too many complaints. All this is calculated. So as long as you know the card draw mechanism and have enough computing power, you can predict the result of the next card draw. The same is true when you roll the dice. Considering the gravity, air resistance and the force of your shot, with enough computing power, you can also predict the number of dice you roll. In other words, as the Dead Dragon said, Bai Lianlian, Song Jiarui, Fan Yingjie, Liu Ruiguo, and Liu Xingquan who came with you, all the contestants have been carefully selected by it. Under the interpersonal relationships designed by it, this alien game will develop like this, and every step you take is in its plan. The death of Liu Xingquan's father, Liu Ruiguo, is a script that it has predicted long ago. 】
"Did it plan everything?" Yan Zhen said, "Including all the groupings, entering different gates, and the way I defeated the pretender was also its script?"
[Yes, it has calculated everything. Everything is to make you walk on the path it has given you without knowing it. If I hadn't stopped you in time, you would have opened the door to the think tank without knowing it.]
"This is the script it has written. So what's next? The Necromancer has threatened my three classmates. Even if I don't hand over the key, after killing my three classmates, it will move on to other people, such as my family..." Fear flashed in Yan Zhen's eyes. In addition to Liu Xingquan, he has his beloved family, his parents, and his sister. I know what he is thinking. Even now, the lives of those three classmates cannot be abandoned.
【This is why I am communicating with you now. It’s not like there is nothing we can do.】
"What can you do?" Yan Zhen said, his eyes sparkling, "Can you reverse time? Change the past and bring Uncle Liu back to life?"
[The established facts will not change. The dead cannot be resurrected.] I said, even if I can intervene in time, time is an extremely uncontrollable variable in actual microscopic operations. All I can be sure of is the past that has been observed. In this world line, Liu Ruiguo is already dead, and this cannot be reversed or changed.
"Oh." His muffled voice sounded like he disliked me, "You are very weak now."
[Xiao Zhen.] I had no choice but to speak more emphatically to get his full attention on my words.
"Um?"
[The Necra Dragon is not truly omniscient and omnipotent. In the eyes of your earth-level civilization, it may be a god, the ghost king of the cyber world, a celestial being from a higher dimension, etc. However, everything has its limits, and the Necra Dragon is no exception.]
"you mean?"
I have a plan.
The Necradrake's message came quickly.
The sound of it echoing in the thought sequence is like the rustling of electromagnetic waves.
"It's so sad that you actually abandoned these three poor classmates and ran away. This doesn't seem like a heroic script." Its tone was loud and clear, with a pretentious rhythm, "If these three innocent, poor classmates knew that Yan Zhen, whom they trusted, did such a heartless and ungrateful thing, what would they think?"
Yan Zhen didn't say anything, his eyes were burning with cold anger.
"Your Mr. Air won't let you hand over the key. Did he tell you a bunch of lines like 'I want to destroy the world'? Hey, but did he tell you that as long as you use the key to open the door to the Xiyiqi Think Tank maze, your best friend's father, your dear Uncle Liu, will be resurrected?"
There was a flash of surprise in Yan Zhen's eyes.
Before I could give him more warnings, the Necromancer spoke again. This time, even I was shaken by his words.
"I'll give you another three minutes." Bishilong said, "By the way, I found a freeze-dried Izel. I'm considering implanting it into one of your classmates. Please take a moment to think about it. Should this precious implant be made into Bai Lianlian, Song Jiarui or Fan Yingjie?"
"What's freeze-dried?"
"Hmm? Didn't your Mr. Air mention this to you? Didn't it even tell you this? This is really shocking!" Necrasaurus shouted in surprise, "Tsk, tsk, tsk. I'm really touched by the trust between you. The frozen Izel alien is one of Mr. Air's precious toy collection. I suggest you ask carefully what will happen if you throw this frozen toy around. It seems that it hasn't told you the truth about many things."
"I think you two should have a good chat. I'll only give you three minutes. I'll be waiting for you at the old place in the Alien Labyrinth in three minutes. You know what to do."
Communications were shut down. Only the buzzing white noise remained.
Yan Zhen frowned and asked, "What is Izel freeze-dried?"
My heart is groaning. [A frozen body of a dangerous creature.]
“What happens if it’s implanted in a human body?”
[It is like an infectious virus that will continue to spread. If it is not eradicated in time, the entire human race may be in danger of extinction.]
“It says this is yours.”
[After the laboratory exploded, it was also ejected here.] I saw Yan Zhen's eyes were full of accusatory anger, [Xiao Zhen, I...]
"Another dangerous item of yours!! It can even destroy humanity!! What will happen if it is implanted into a human body?" Yan Zhen said, "My classmate will die, right? It is irreversible, right?"
[I'm sorry for not telling you sooner, but I've been trying to recycle it. That's what we've been doing for so many days...]
"Yes, now it is in the hands of the Necra Dragon." His tone was cold and fierce, "We thought we trusted each other and we were friends, but whether it was the key or this freeze-dried thing, you didn't tell me anything!!!"
Now I should discuss the next strategy with Yan Zhen, but due to the instigation of the Necromancer, I can only slow down my tone as much as possible:
[Xiao Zhen, you know too little about the universe, about the shadows in the darkness of the galaxy. Sometimes, just knowing certain information is enough to bring disaster. I don't want to hurt any resident of this planet, and I don't want to hurt you. I just want to protect you to the greatest extent -"]
[“We are partners who trust each other, aren’t we?” The anger in his eyes almost burned out, “In your eyes, I am just a low-level puppet that you play around with, right?”]
[Xiao Zhen, we should now...]
"You liar!!" Yan Zhen shouted, "I trusted you so much, but you have been lying to me since the beginning!!"
【Xiao Zhen!!】
"fraud!!"
In the theater of his consciousness, there was a flash of light, and then he disappeared.
I was left alone. I knew what was going to happen next . Yan Zhen launched himself into the alien maze.
The remaining thought sequence was buzzing and screaming. I shouldn't have felt any real heartache, but now I just felt like my heart was being cut by a knife, as if the remaining sequence was also torn apart.
I turned off my sensory perception, but the white noise still fell like sand.
It started to get dark all around.
Yan Zhen walked into a strange world.
The scene at this time was no longer the ancient hall he visited last time, but had changed into a mysterious and deep forest. Geometric leaves fluttered in the air like nested polygonal gears, making a ticking sound like a clock in the wind.
He lifted his feet. The fallen leaves piled on the ground were very soft, and there was a gentle rustling sound when they rubbed against each other.
The forest was very damp, and his feet seemed to be covered with moisture. His body was even so cold that he wanted to shiver. This was clearly just a virtual world woven by the Necromancer, but it felt like the real world.
"Yan Zhen..."
Someone was calling him.
In the shadow of the forest, a slender figure walked out slowly.
She had sparkling eyes and fair skin, like a flawless elf in the forest. "Yan Zhen..." she called softly, "I know you will come to save me."
"No, you are not Song Jiarui." Yan Zhen said coldly, "You are the Dead World Dragon."
The girl smiled, and her figure began to change. The girl's beautiful and graceful form disappeared, replaced by a constantly changing and overlapping shadow, which was sometimes as dazzling as light, and sometimes as dark as black rock gravel. It was as if light and shadow were mixed together, and incomprehensible illusions appeared in the dark.
It dragged the shadow slowly forward, "Are you ready to open the gate?"
"No, I don't believe you." Yan Zhen said, "I know you are not telling the truth."
The dark light was as bright as the eyes, and the Necromancer said: "Everything I said is true."
The image began to change again.
In the distance of the forest, rolling hills rose up, and among the vast mountains, red and yellow smoke floated, like the residue of a burnt fire.
"It's called the Nocturne Mountains," the Necralisk said. "It's far away in Siyich, beneath which lies the think tank of the great Forerunners. Do you see the red mist rising?"
“…”
Although Yan Zhen did not respond, the Dead World Dragon continued to speak to himself: "After the death of the Xiyiqi people, their bodies will be sent to Nocturne Mountain to be burned. After burning, their bodies will turn into dust particles and linger around Nocturne Mountain for a long time, unwilling to leave. That is the song of the dead that the Xiyiqi people sing after their death."
"After a hundred years, more and more Xiyiqi people have died of incurable diseases. Today's songs of the dead are almost all the sad howlings of these Xiyiqi people before they die." The Necromancer looked at him, "If you don't open the door to the think tank, all Xiyiqi people will be completely exterminated during the next Queen's reign."
"This is a civilization with a long history. They are just like you humans. Every day there are countless joys and sorrows. They have scientists who devote everything to their race, they have boys and girls who aspire to be heroes, their moods are as pure as yours, they have traitors and villains with evil intentions, they also have secret palace struggles and court affairs. They are like another Earth. A planet that carries tens of billions of lives."
The red and yellow mist danced around the mountains, and the flickering particles were like eyes, bright and eager, waiting for his answer.
Yan Zhen said: "You are lying."
The Necra Dragon laughed loudly, "You Earthlings are such cowards. Lying? It's just that you don't want to face the heaviness of the lives of those distant Xiyiqi people, and it's just that you don't want to face the weight of the key. The think tank contains the supreme wisdom of the Forerunner generations. It is the truth, it means complete innovation and rebirth, it can dispel all unsolvable diseases, it can resurrect the dead, and it can eliminate all the endless pain since the birth of the universe. But some fools who claim to be the successors of the Forerunners are afraid of this power. They denounce all dreams and progress that try to touch the truth as heresy and lies. And you earth-level monkeys are too small and too ignorant to understand what this means at all."
Red and yellow smoke curled between the black mountains, and the Necradrake's laughter echoed in the shadows of Nocturne Mountain.
Yan Zhen's lips moved slightly, "You said before that the key can bring Uncle Liu back to life."
A blurry light danced in the shadows. "Yes, as long as you open the last door after this maze, the resurrection of the dead will be real."
"Where are my three classmates?"
"Of course they will return safely. As long as you hand over the key."
"I just want Uncle Liu to come back." Yan Zhen whispered, "You have to let my classmate go."
"Their lives depend only on your choice."
"Then I..."
"Come on. Hand over the key and open this final door."
Yan Zhen's lips moved again. The Dead World Dragon whispered in his ear, "Let's open the door and correct this world. Your classmates, your friend's father, everyone, will be saved."
In the blink of an eye, Yan Zhen threw out a crystal at an unimaginable speed. The crystal quickly generated countless rays of light that entangled the Necromancer. It tried to break free, but the spirals of light surrounding it intertwined and turned into a dense net of light that bound it tightly.
This is the antimatter I generated in the Astrakappa Abyss in the past. I made it into a hidden mechanism [Endless Cage]. It is generated intermittently without rules, and randomly moves and interlocks with each other. It can travel through time and space and limit the target object to a certain range.
At least in the short term, the Necromancer cannot break free from it. Under normal circumstances, I can't easily trap it. Only a harmless human like Yan Zhen, who is looked down upon by it, has the opportunity to surprise it.
Now it can only collide angrily in the constantly intertwined and repeated multi-dimensional structure, like a grasshopper stuffed into a cage.
"How dare you——"
"You are telling lies," Yan Zhen said. "The future you describe is nothing but a lie. I said I won't believe you."
"Lies? You are nothing but a pathetic puppet under today's rules." Necrasaurus said, "You dare not face the innovation brought about by the Supreme Truth. You are just afraid of the uncontrollable storm-like rebirth brought about by this power."
"No, what you bring is not rebirth, but real destruction." Yan Zhen said.
"Oh? Did Mr. Air tell you that?"
Yan Zhen looked at him indifferently, and then his body flashed some dazzling colors. [Stop wasting your breath, sinner.] I tore open Yan Zhen's simulated skin and jumped out of the consciousness disguise shell.
The Necra Dragon stared at me. It snorted in annoyance. "Oh, it's you. You disguised yourself as that human toy."
【I won't let you get close to him.】
The Necra Dragon's shadow flickered in my cage. "You accuse me of being a liar, but you are just as much of a liar. For a long time, the life of the entire universe has been suffering and disaster in ignorance. This is just because the laws of the universe are like this. But you think all this is natural. Ah, no wonder, after all, I have been a prisoner who has been regarded as crazy since I was born, and you are born to be the favorite of the gods."
"Well, it's normal for the story to have such a turn at this point," Necralisaurus said, "So are you going to sacrifice your three toy monkey friends?"
[Of course I will be prepared.]
"Well, the quarrel between you and Yan Zhen was a deliberate performance. You knew I would see it. It was a wonderful smokescreen. This was to create the legitimacy of Yan Zhen's deal with me, so that he would have a chance to approach me and control me." The Dead Dragon said in a strange tone, "From the results, it was indeed quite successful. You caught me, and the real Yan Zhen was rescuing his classmates deep in the maze, right?"
【……】
"If it's a normal heroic scenario, then it would be fine. The hero rescues his friends and the world is at peace." The Necron Dragon raised his voice, "That's what you envisioned, right? Ah, how pitiful! You've really degenerated to this point."
【you……】
"Do you think I would not have foreseen this turn of events when I designed the script?"
Xiaozhen!
I tried to break the structure and slip into the alien passage.
But countless black tendrils suddenly appeared under my feet. They were the virus planted by the Necra Dragon. They madly bit my thought sequence, and I watched my remaining matrix being drawn into one polluted variable after another, like a mass of black blood.
The Necra Dragon laughed behind me. Blurry shadows flickered on its body, like a sign of death.
Xiaozhen.
The strange world around began to blur, only the laughter became louder and louder.
Its laughter was intermittent, the maze began to distort, and countless mirrors appeared in the dark dome.
There is Yan Zhen on every mirror surface.
The laughter grew louder.
Xiaozhen.
…
…
Yan Zhen is waiting for decoding.
The square box in his hand was a self-programmed program I gave him, which was used to analyze the cage that trapped his three classmates in the alien realm.
This is what we agreed upon earlier, to fight separately.
I disguised myself as Yan Zhen to counter the Dead Dragon, and he took the opportunity to secretly release the hostages.
When the box was opened, a group of pigeons jumped out of it and flew away. This was the cognition that Yan Zhen had acquired by modifying the program in the alien world. In simple terms, it was expressed in a way that he could understand.
Now these white doves will fly into the dungeon set up by the Necra Dragon to rescue his classmates.
Yan Zhen watched the birds gradually fly away. He whispered, "I wonder what happened to Mr. Air."
"Mr. Air?" a voice sounded from behind him, "It's not with you now."
Yan Zhen took a breath and slowly turned his head back.
Spider-Man looked up and smiled at him.
" ..."
"I have been lurking beside you since the beginning," said Spider-Man. "How cruel! You forgot about me completely after you won. You escaped from the maze, but you didn't know what you took with you. I have always stayed in your consciousness, which allowed me to leave a backdoor in your cognition."
“…”
"Your performance was great." The little spider folded its two legs together.
Yan Zhen took a step back.
"I am the Necradrake, or my true self," Spider-Man announced happily. "And now—I am going to eat you whole."
Yan Zhen started to run away.
Before entering the alien world again, I teleported and taught him thousands of ways to escape.
In a flash, Yan Zhen had jumped into the upper level maze.
All the doors of the maze rooms opened, and the monsters ran out one by one, shouting and screaming. Yan Zhen transformed his consciousness into a microscopic electronic cloud, and then reshaped it into a monster, sneaking into the group of monsters guarding the maze. His transformation was seamless, like a drop of dew hiding in the rain.
But the Necromancer could always scan him, just like his innate shadow. It mercilessly killed every maze monster that stood in its way. Explosions rang out in every maze room, and its power turned into death light, burning all obstacles into ashes and debris.
Yan Zhen was lingering and jumping on the edge of the light of destruction. The shaking maze began to fall apart. The walls split in the middle, and the ceiling collapsed from the top. Blue flames poured into each room.
Yan Zhen did not give up struggling. He used various methods. He projected his consciousness to every corner of the maze. He was the sculpture on the wall, he was the scattered bricks, he was the monster itself, he was the long sword in the hands of those confused monsters. He rushed through the countless maze runes and transferred between the mirror corridors. In the face of overwhelming power, he did not give up for a moment.
The light chasing him spread rapidly, and the thousands of smooth mirrors above my head flickered. I saw the boy's figure jumping in the expanding ripples of light, like a meteor breaking through the dark night sky.
Again and again.
Like the hero in that ancient epic.
The Necra Dragon watched the mirror image composed of flashing images like a god. In this maze compiled by it, it was omnipotent and all-knowing. Then, everything came to an end.
Yan Zhen was caught by it.
His hands and feet were clamped by millions of limbs that were decomposed from the Necromancer's Dragon. He could not eject, bounce, or hide.
So, it invaded his consciousness, but the key was nested in layers of thought units. It could take Yan Zhen's life, but it could not really get the key from the depths of his consciousness.
The three hostages used to threaten Yan Zhen have become ineffective.
During Yan Zhen's desperate run, he bought enough time for the program I set to run successfully. Bai Lianlian, Song Jiarui and Fan Yingjie were all safely ejected from the maze.
This was the result the boy fought for with his life.
It threatened: "Hand over the key!!"
"No, I refuse." Yan Zhen replied.
The Necromancer cut off a portion of his thinking units.
The boy did not give in.
I was burning the viral matrix that bound me. And the boy in the mirror was fighting the Necradrake. With every cut of the Necradrake, all the codes became more and more blurred in that moment. The rolling runes pierced my thought sequence sharply.
It threatened: "Hand over the key!!"
"No, I refuse." Yan Zhen replied.
The Necromancer cut off a portion of his thinking units.
The boy did not give in.
These viruses are endless, constantly alternating and repairing, over and over again, endlessly. They block my way, tear at my branch code, and create all kinds of errors in my consciousness shell. The Necra Dragon clone in the cage keeps laughing.
It threatened: "Hand over the key!!"
"No, I refuse." Yan Zhen replied.
The Necromancer cut off a portion of his thinking units.
The boy did not give in.
Xiao Zhen...
I forced myself into overload mode, which meant that I could greatly improve my abilities temporarily, but it would permanently damage my thinking sequence and permanently discard part of my cognition. There would be no chance to repair it in the future. But so what? All I could face now was the present.
It threatened: "Hand over the key!!"
"No, I refuse." Yan Zhen replied.
The Necromancer cut off a portion of his thinking units.
The boy did not give in.
I saw his mind disintegrating.
I saw that he was trying hard to maintain his last bit of rationality.
I saw the star-like twinkle in his pupils gradually dim.
I saw his last glimpse of consciousness being cut apart.
I saw him and did not give in.
The virus matrix that bound me was finally burned by me. Countless mirrors flashed in turn, in an endless cycle, like a changing card. The Necron Dragons in the mirrors seemed to be grinning at me. The alien world around me hummed like a wail. Countless white noises fell from the sky like rain.
I finally reached him.
He said to me, “I didn’t hand it over.”
His last words are forever seared into my mental train of thought.
These were the last words he left me.
There will be no later.