Fang Chi appeared, like a ghost.

If Xie Wei could see it, he would see the dust on Fang Chi's face and hair, the blood stains on her white undershirt, and the deep and shallow scars on her body. But her eyes were cold and translucent, her slender fingers were calm and steady, and a large amount of medicine was surging in her blood, and the concentration was peaking.

"Sheng Yan, turn on the lights." Her voice was calm.

"No!" The voice was very agitated. In the darkness, there was the sound of liquid hitting the wall of the tank, and I don't know what kind of trapped beast fight the jellyfish-like head was doing in the container. It was angry and manic, but it was also frightened and cowardly like never before.

"Why are you here? Did Xie Weishi tell you? Isn't it? Isn't it! ”

"It has nothing to do with him." Ren Shengyan's anger was like a storm, and Fang Chi was still like a thin and upright blade of grass in the shower. Her fingers groped in the dark for the carotid artery and heart when Xie Wei pressed, and said softly:

"I guessed it myself."

Rewind time to four hours ago—

Fang Chi ignored Hong Jincheng's rebuke and warning, and rushed out of the Maandala Building.

She called a car and borrowed the driver's mobile phone to call Xie Weishi. is still in a state of shutdown, but she is slightly relieved - it is still turned off, which can only mean that Xie Weishi took the initiative to cut off contact with her. A vague shadow in her heart suddenly began to surface, becoming clear little by little.

But she had something more important and unsettling to her: neither her mother nor He Xinyi answered her calls.

She drove directly to He Xinyi's home.

The person who invited He Xinyi to work for him with a high salary should be unmistakable. However, He Xinyi rejected him several times so unswervingly, who knows what ITHER will do?

After all, ither is a person who borders on madness, will he go on a killing spree today?

She doesn't have the key to He Xinyi's home. Rang the doorbell, rang three times, but no one answered. On the afternoon of this weekend, He Xinyi and his mother should have rested at home as usual.

All of Fang Chi's nerves tensed, and his fingers pressed on the handle of the gun inside his clothes. However, at this moment, the door lock turned, and the thick door opened, revealing He Xinyi's face.

"Uncle Daoming?"

Fang Chi looked at him with a professional gaze, he was wearing full pajamas, his hair was a little messy after getting up from a nap, and his body was intact.

He Xinyi's face was a little surprised, and he said, "Kitten? What are you doing here? ”

Fang Chi looked in from the gate, and everything in the house was clean and neat.

"Where's Gu Ying?" She asked, her tone still a little cold, and she still called her mother by her first name after years of getting used to it.

"I haven't gotten up from a nap yet. Are you looking for her? ”

"Nope." Fang Chi said, relieved in his heart, and asked again: "Did anyone come to you today?" ”

"It's you."

Fang Chi nodded. "Stay safe. If someone comes, don't open the door. I have something to do, so I'll go first. ”

"Go ahead."

Fang Chi took the elevator down the first floor, and suddenly felt that something was wrong. Why is He Xinyi's "kitten" so awkward? Sounds like "Xiao Mao" or "Xiao Mao"?

What else is Xinyi's tone, why is he so polite? It's like she's an outsider.

Fang Chi suddenly stopped the elevator, jumped up the stairs in three or two steps after going out, and at He Xinyi's door, she pressed the door lock with a gun~ mouth, took off her thick coat to cover it, and after a muffled sound, she kicked open the door and rushed in.

Everything in front of her made her head "buzz" and explode.

A dagger and a rose pierced He Xinyi's chest, and the half-opened and half-thanked rose was like soaked in blood and opened from the wound.

The bedroom door was wide open, and Mother Gu Ying was lying in the doorway, the carpet under her was already stained with black and red blood.

Fang Chi's chest seemed to have been punched violently, clogged, and a powerful pain surged from the bottom up, but it was blocked in that place, making her unable to make any sound or breathe.

One step late. She was still a step too late.

His eyes were hot, but they were so dry. Looking at the color of the blood under his mother's body, it is likely that she died before she arrived, why did He Xinyi pretend not to know her?

She suddenly hated these two people in her heart. Why did her mother and He Xinyi keep conniving at her calling her mother by her name? Why did she keep conniving at her to call Uncle He Xinyi Daoming, instead of calling her father? Why does her mother always communicate with her only on the Internet phone, and she speaks only a few words that are alienated and unrelated?

She used to think that this was all a barrier between her and her mother, because her mother had a strange temper, because she was always fighting against her because of her biological father, and it was a silent rebellion for her. After that, she felt that this was good, and it was more or less a protection for them. Besides, if she does leave, her mother doesn't need to be so sad, and she doesn't need to be so worried.

But she never thought that from the perspective of her mother and Uncle Daoming, this was also their protection for her.

It was in such a trance for a moment that she heard the sound of the bolt behind her - the ither was still there! She instinctively dodged, muffling □□ muffled sounds, whistling bullets passing by. Fang Chi turned around and raised the gun, the man's reaction was even faster than her, her long arm grabbed her wrist, she flew at the man, kicking the gun in his hand away.

It was only then that she could see the man's appearance—thin and tall, with a tight mask, and his sunken eyes were dark blue, shining with madness and excitement. He hissed and she could feel the corners of his mouth cracking.

Is this the ither? Like a poisonous snake.

She clenched the gun in her hand tightly, but the man was so powerful that his slender fingers were like steel bars! Her bones are very hard, even if she feels like she is going to be broken, she won't let go, the muzzle of the gun is constantly shaking, and the trigger is pressed in the desperate wrestling, but it only shatters the vase in the living room!

The sudden sound of a gunshot had apparently aroused the man's bloodthirsty desire even more! He pounced and knocked Fang Chi to the ground. Fang Chi was slender, and he didn't have any advantage in close combat with men, let alone such a crazy poisonous snake!

He went to grab the gun, and was kicked away by Fang Chi, he pulled out the dagger inserted in He Xinyi's body, He Xinyi's whole body suddenly twitched, Fang Chi's heart was cut by a knife, rolled to the side, picked up a vase and smashed it at the person.

The vase shattered all over him, sharp shards flying to the ground. He grabbed Fang Chi's ankle and dragged it over, and the dagger stabbed at her like a torrential rain!

Fang Chi rolled and dodged, the blade cutting through her clothes and skin, blood splattering on the wood-colored floor. She kicked the viper in the jaw, and in the gap between the daggers, she rode on the serpent's neck and twisted his head with all her might.

The poisonous snake screamed, grabbed her hands and fell back on her back, and Fang Chi's back was smashed on the broken porcelain on the ground. She didn't say a word, she fought the viper, and her eyes fell on the clock on the wall, for a minute, two minutes...... Five minutes...... Ten minutes......

Viper finally realizes her purpose! This seemingly extremely fragile woman was more difficult than he could have imagined. He hissed wildly, letting out an incomprehensible curse, and he desperately wanted to get out, but Fang Chi was holding one leg deadly.

Outside the door, there were foot-sounding voices, sonorous and powerful. The viper raised its eyes.

Fang Chi was covered in bruises, but his cold gaze was as cold as a blade, but he stared at him to death:

"They are all human beings, do you really think of yourself as a god, thinking that you can come to this place whenever you want, leave when you want, and kill whoever you want? Are you just a shower when the nineteenth inning? ”

The viper's eyes lowered and emitted a strange light.

“Me——du——sa。”

Fang Chi understood his words this time. Medusa. However, the light in his eyes made her feel terrifying, and his fist struck at the scar behind her ear with precision!

"Bang-"

Fang Chi's eyes widened, Hong Jincheng stood at the door, and a wisp of green smoke came out of the muzzle.

……

She found out Xie Weishi's whereabouts. Xie Weishi's procedures for going abroad and the connection with the Japanese Cyber Security Bureau were all arranged by Shi Zhengrong, and it was not difficult for her to find out.

Teng Hua has been sent to the hospital for emergency treatment, and his life and death are uncertain.

He Xinyi was sent to the hospital for emergency treatment, and his life and death were uncertain.

Gu Ying died.

Looking at He Xinyi and Gu Ying being carried into the ambulance, Fang Chi's face was like stagnant water. None of the people she wants to protect can be protected.

What about Xie Weishi? A slight fire suddenly lit up in her dead heart.

There are no direct flights to Fukuoka from Tsubame City, and she has a connecting flight from Busan. It was already completely dark, and the lights on the wings flickered in the boundless darkness.

She kept staring out the window into the darkness.

When the poisonous snake was taken away by Hong Jincheng, he turned around and showed her a strange smile, looking at his mouth shape, he still read a sentence:

Me——du——sa

She took another handful of α inhibitors until her mind was calm like a pool of windless water.

She had figured out who she was up against.

……

In the darkness where she couldn't see her fingers, Fang Chi could feel the cold metal limbs waving around her, hesitating, hesitating, and about to move, and the strong wind repeatedly hit her heart, but it suddenly stopped, leaving only the cold metal aura to invade the sensitive wounds on her body.

She picked up the communication device that Shi Zhengrong wore when she asked Xie Wei at the door. Shi Zhengrong naturally wouldn't allow Xie Weishi to come over alone, but without Xie Weishi's message, no one dared to enter this place rashly. The virus is still in the hands of the eyebrow ruler, and as long as the eyebrow ruler does not kill the virus himself, even if this warehouse is blown into a deep pit, the virus will not disappear.

But Xie Weishi threw the black button-like communication device at the door.

The ruler between the eyebrows tried to kill him again and again, and he knew it. But he left this thing at the door, which represented the last ray of life.

He didn't think about rebelling against Sheng Yan.

Under his fingers, Xie Weishi's heart was still beating, beating slowly. Time is ticking, how long is it until the 12th East District is about to enter a new day?

She slowly opened her mouth:

"Want to know how I guessed?"

The cold feeling around me is gone.

"There are a lot of things that I don't dare to think about together," she said. Why is the ruler between the eyebrows watching me in the place of play? Why does the ruler between the eyebrows keep avoiding me, but he is full of hatred for the guest? Why did the glabellar ruler never have an avatar, and it reappeared in the form of an avatar after the Maandala's vulnerability was fixed for a long time? And the ruler between the eyebrows has his own Avatar, just after Zenzawa was killed? Why was it able to react so quickly after the outbreak of the virus, send roses to Maandala, and shoot Teng Hua with unerring accuracy?

"I don't dare to think that you are still alive, and second, I dare not think that you have been controlled by ither. But once I thought about it, everything made sense.

"How can a person without veins have his own Avatar? So after Guest fixed the bug in the 'Empty Face', he couldn't enter Maandala again.

"Shanze has been researching vein recognition technology, but very few people know that he attacked his own shield with his spear, and after learning about it, he took it by force, and after getting Shanze's technology, he made a blood circulation system for the glabellar ruler, and the glabellar ruler got his own Avatar.

"What kind of talent takes that long to get used to their avatar? Not even for people with mutilated limbs, because in their consciousness, their bodies are still intact, and the sensation of phantom limbs helps them quickly adapt to a full avatar.

"But the body between the eyebrows is no longer a normal human body."

Fang Chi raised his head slowly, "Speaking of Sheng Yan, I have never seen someone as smart as him, he learns everything so quickly, in Maandala, he can be flames, wind and sand, birds, fish and insects, everything, but even if I try to change to a non-human Avatar, I find it difficult to operate." He also taught me why do you confine yourself to a human shell? Maandala will eventually become a world of consciousness where whatever you imagine yourself to be, then you are. ”

She said, "Do you feel liberated now?" ”

The jungle in the darkness began to dance all over the place, making a "whoosh-" "whoosh-" "whoosh-" sound, accompanied by his shrill laughter.

Fang Chi's heart shuddered, she didn't know what the consequences of this sentence would be.

She said in her heart: I'm sorry, Sheng Yan.

She felt the cool metal palm caress her cheeks and back, and she shrank slightly. The synthesized voice became warm, but a little low: "Why did you become so thin......

This sound made her originally calm heart feel like a knife, and she couldn't control it even with medicine. She gritted her teeth and said bitterly:

"You're not you anymore, and I'm not me anymore."

As soon as she finished speaking, a metal limb suddenly rolled her up, her heart trembled, and she was in pain, and she heard the voice say coldly: "I am still me, you are not you anymore." ”

"Relief?" The metal palm rubbed against her body, "I don't feel as good as I used to be 10% now. I can feel your skin, but for me, it makes no difference whether it's sandpaper or silk. He sneered and said, "But you, you and Xie Wei are singing every night, aren't you very happy?" ”

finally spoke, and he knew the resentment in his heart in a word. Fang Chi closed his eyes and didn't speak, but he heard him say angrily again: "Your life was exchanged for my life!" The Nineteenth Bureau chose to protect you and give up on me, since it is you, I am willing, but I can't stand you betraying me! Did You Know? ”

By the end of the words, there was a roar that bordered on grief and indignation.

Fang Chi still closed his eyes, and just said in a low voice: "If I knew at that time that I could live well for you, I wouldn't have come back." ”

The voice in the darkness was silent, and the palm holding her suddenly became gentle, "Then you come to Maandala to accompany me, okay?" I'll teach you how to turn into wind, into fire, into birds, fish and insects, okay? ”

Fang Chi said, "Okay." ”

She sat in the palm of her metal hand with her eyes closed, something cold in front of her whirling rapidly, bringing a sharp current.

"Sheng Yan-" The man on the ground trembled and coughed up a mouthful of bloody phlegm, "After the torture was used on you, the Nineteenth Bureau found Fang Chi." The Nineteenth Bureau has been trying to find a way to rescue you, and they have never chosen to give up on you. ”

He said, "Do you think Fang Chi is living better than you? If you have a blood detector, analyze how high the concentration of α inhibitors in her blood is. How long will she live with this medication over and over again? ”

The sharp whistling suddenly stopped, and after a long silence in the darkness, the voice suddenly screamed: "Xie Weishi! You lied to me! You're still lying to me! ”

The flickering whip slammed into the ground, making a crackling sound on the ground. The man on the ground made a dull "hmm", and all he could hear was the sound of heavy, difficult breathing.

"Do you feel sorry for him?" The voice in the darkness suddenly asked. "Is what he said true?"

Fang Chi didn't say a word. A bright white light suddenly hit her face, and I saw her face as pale as water, staring blankly ahead, her eyes dry.

The metal palm ran down her cheek into her hair, and in the thick long hair, it finally groped for the long scar behind her ear.

Suddenly there was silence in the darkness.

"Sheng Yan-" Xie Weishi opened his mouth again with difficulty, "I haven't read the report you wrote to the Ministry of State Security on virtual poison~ products and infectious viruses, but this topic, you, Long Zhen and I have discussed it many times. I never thought you'd actually make them. ”

"'Ice Cracking' wasn't something I did." Suddenly, a cold answer came from the darkness.

"But do you think it's too sharp to make 'Ice Crack'? Although he is also a young genius, his ability has not yet reached that level. ”

Darkness repays silence.

"Ither hacked the report. From that report, he figured out the principle of virtual poison ~ products, and told Yu Rui with the help of neurological drugs, so that Yu Rui always felt that he had thought of such a plan in a dream.

"The first time I tried to reverse the 'ice crack', I found it to be very much like yours, but not quite the same. If we hadn't talked about virtual poison~, I wouldn't have been able to crack the 'ice crack' and 'chrysalis' so quickly. ”

Xie Weishi said: "We used to quarrel fiercely on an issue - when we anticipate that a new kind of 'evil' is very likely to happen, should we achieve it before the wicked people and give full warning?

"I was against it at the time because I felt that what we should do was to fight against 'evil' and not create 'evil'. But you say that when 'evil' has already been generated, it will be too late for us to fight again, and that creating 'evil' is originally a process of stopping 'evil', because the Internet has developed to this day, and it has become disgusted with repetition. ”

"Sheng Yan, you have been preparing for this virus for so long, and now you are releasing it, is it to satisfy your sense of power as a ruler between your eyebrows, or for your original intention to resist 'evil'?! Are you angry that the Department of Homeland Security didn't pay attention to your report and that Nervous Rose went unpunished, or because you want to wake everyone up to cybersecurity?! ”

There was a stirring sound of liquid hitting the walls of the device.

"What time is it?" Fang Chi suddenly asked quietly.

Suddenly many numbers lit up in the darkness.

23：47：15

Time passed by minute by minute, without sound, but like a great torrent engulfing them. The sun's marginal line moves across the earth's surface, and darkness sweeps slowly across continents and oceans like the shadow of a Kunpeng's giant wings.

Step by step, the calendar jumps closer to the 180° meridian, from the Bering Strait in Russia to New Zealand, then to Australia, and then to Japan......

Purr Purr –

Fang Chi suddenly said, "Sheng Yan, really don't let me take one last look at you?" ”

A sneer flashed in the darkness: "The muzzle of the nineteenth inning, is it already aimed at me?" ”

Fang Chi said quietly: "No." Even if you don't stop the virus, they'll take you home. If my ...... If He Xinyi can survive, he will take care of you in the best conditions. Everything is arranged by ither, and no one will hate you. ”

"Then why the last look?"

"There's always someone to pay." Fang Chi said slowly, "Whether I threaten you, or say that I don't measure myself, I will do everything I can after all." My mom has passed away, and I don't really have anything to worry about. Xie Weishi—" she called softly, "you still have a long way to go." ”

She suddenly reached out and clenched the sharp iron thorn in front of her—

"Fang Chi!" Xie Weishi couldn't see anything, but he didn't know where the strength came from jumped up and grabbed her where the voice came from!

But it was only a corner of the clothes.

Fang Chi was rolled up by the metal limbs, and in the darkness, so many vines were dancing, retracting one by one, wrapping Fang Chi like a cocoon.

Fang Chi was in the center of all her limbs, and she felt countless cold pieces of metal squirming on her body, as if she was looking for the most comfortable position-

She suddenly understood.

It was Sheng Yan hugging her. It was Sheng Yan who was looking for all the most sensitive places on his metal limbs, to touch her, to feel her, to plead with her.

The light lit up. She was facing Sheng Yan. Those bright and proud eyes, conceited like the sun in the sky. The lips and the bridge of her nose, which she had kissed countless times, now gently spit out a bubble.

A tear slipped down her face. One drop, another drop, and finally a ripple string of beads.

She pursed her lips stubbornly and remained silent.

Sheng Yan actually laughed. His lips moved, but this time there was no sound. The myriad of cold metal limbs slid limply over her, holding her tight again and bringing her closer to him, through the transparent and hard plexiglass, as if he had kissed her.

Fang Chi felt that the power wrapped around her body was relaxing, she vaguely felt that something was wrong, all the numbers came down to zero, the isolated plexiglass wall slipped down in an instant, and those humming machines stopped in an instant.

A frightening dead silence. A chilling dead silence.

"Sheng Yan!" Fang Chi erupted into a tearing cry, as if the sound didn't come from her body. Xie Weishi also pounced half-crawling and half-mopping, and he frantically pressed on those machines that had been turned off, those life-supporting machines! Respiratory circulation, blood circulation, and culture purification......

But what's the use? The neural network behind Sheng Yan turned pale in an instant, like a dead catkins in the water, like a slender earthworm soaked in water. His cheeks, full of divine light, turned to ashes in an instant, puffy and hideous.

"Ah——————h She clung to the stiff, cold metal limbs, but they were nothing more than lifeless metal.

She didn't know why it was so painful, she had obviously taken so many α inhibitors. At Sheng Yan and her funeral, she had never been so sad. She finally understands now that perhaps there is always a glimmer of hope in her heart, and Sheng Yan has never died. Now, however, that glimmer of hope is gone.

All the servers began to hum again, the huge exhaust fans on the ground began to spin again, and time was rumbling, but something had been lost in this plane for eternity. Xie Weishi sat paralyzed against the behemoth-like server, he didn't say a word, suddenly remembered something, pulled down a virtual reality device and put it on his head.

Green and red flashes of light flashed one after another, and he logged into Maandala.

A strange and familiar atmosphere, yet everything has been reduced to rubble. Smoke and dust drifted in the air, the sky couldn't see the colors, and gray clouds drifted endlessly. There were some Avatars, looking around blankly, as if they didn't know what was going on.

Rarely, the Guest walked in a hurry, and he wanted to shout, ". T！ He wanted to shout, "しと! He wanted to shout, "Ruler between the eyebrows!" But no one would answer. As he walked, he suddenly ran again in a panic. An old Avatar like him, who in Maandala can run as fast as he does? But he had no companions.

Where is he going to find him. Where is he going to find them!

Creeper。 He remembered Creeper, and he ran to the cemetery, which was huge! He ran along the edge of the cemetery, looking for the figure. He felt like his sternum was going to break, his shoulder blades were going to break, the wound was cracking, and the blood that had been dried up began to rush down again. He was soaking wet, but he didn't know if it was sweat or blood. He felt a lot of hands tugging at him, but he struggled to break away, "Let go of me!" He's not gone yet! ”

In the vast mist, he finally saw a frozen figure. The pitch-black robe, snow-white, with only a pair of eyes that seemed to be drawn with a thick brush.

He stood at the edge of the cemetery, half-hidden in the fog that was thick and faint. He just stood with a slight lean, like a tombstone, like a stone man waiting and looking for something. The circulatory device is still running, he won't go away, but he will never move again.

Xie Wei mourned and sat beside him with tears pouring down.

Someone came out of the cemetery singing. He was still so happy, chubby, and the little gourd was comically on top of his head.

He was humming and singing: crying, laughing, love, hating, as if it was a dream; Confused, lost, depressed and lonely, everyone is a mortal......

He couldn't get out of the cemetery, and the black-robed Avatar couldn't step in, but their friend was kneeling at the edge of the cemetery, so he walked against the edge of the cemetery repeatedly, singing over and over again, and he couldn't stop laughing, and he sang, "The fine water can't wait for a long stream, and the knife has cut through the hatred." My dear friend, it's better to have a song. ”

But the three of them can only be this distance forever.