Peach Blossom Spring

Chapter 8: Infinitely close

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Xing Bi's answer made Qiu Shi couldn't help but turn his head and glance at him.

"So you want to kill me?" Li Feng said to Qiu Shi.

"I told you, if you don't have a good end, you will die in my hands." Qiu Shi said, his hands still shaking a little, he was angry.

Li Feng didn't say anything else. He walked over and took Director Wu's cup, poured some water on his hands, wiped the blood off his face, and stuffed a piece of paper into his nose which was still dripping blood.

Then he nodded to Director Wu and said, "Continue."

"I want to contact Xiao Lei," Qiu Shi said before Director Wu spoke, "right now, right away."

"The people sent by the military to assist in the defense," Li Feng said, "will take over the work of cleaning up the infected people later. Don't worry."

When Director Wu cleared his throat and was about to continue speaking, Qiu Shi asked again, "Why am I not infected?"

"You are the hero sent from heaven..." Li Feng walked towards the sofa.

"Be careful with your words." Xing Bi said.

Li Feng looked at him.

"He will beat you too." Xing Bi said.

Li Feng turned to Qiu Shi and sighed, "I'm still researching. If you ask me now, even if I can't have a good end soon, I can only say that you are gifted."

To be honest, Qiu Shi didn't believe a word of it.

But he knew very well that under the current circumstances, Li Feng would never tell him the truth.

"Qiu Shi, let me continue to introduce to you how you two can work as partners." Director Wu finally got the chance to speak.

"Whatever." Qiu Shi leaned back on the sofa, stretched out his legs and tilted his head back. He felt very sleepy and wanted to sleep.

Processing so much information in such a short time seemed a bit overwhelming for him, who had always lived a simple life.

What was more despairing was that he found himself being dragged by some force, sinking into a bottomless whirlpool.

The most direct murderer was the person standing opposite him, leaning against the wall with a piece of paper stuffed in his nose.

Qiu Shi really wanted to go over and kick the piece of paper into Li Feng’s head.

Director Wu pressed the remote control, and a picture full of hand gestures was projected in front of him: "This is a control gesture, which can control... the biochemical body's ability to move..."

"Hmm?" Qiu Shi still raised his head, but raised his eyebrows.

Within two seconds, he reacted immediately. Trying to control the biochemical body with just a gesture would probably have the same effect as those itinerant doctors in the outer city who treated patients by shouting and jumping.

So he sat up straight and looked at Director Wu: "Through what?"

"Through..." Director Wu looked towards Li Feng.

"Through a control system." Li Fengpian said at the beginning.

"What control system?" Qiu Shi asked, "Where is it? How can it detect my gestures?"

Li Feng did not answer. When Qiu Shi looked at Director Wu, Director Wu's gaze suddenly swept towards Xing Bi.

"What do you mean?" Qiu Shi suddenly smiled and leaned back on the sofa. "Do you think I can't beat him, so you let him talk? If I want to fight, I will definitely beat you two."

"The control system has been placed in your body." Xing Bi said.

Qiu Shi froze for a moment, and then he closed his eyes after a while, as if all his strength had been drained away: "Go to hell."

"Qiu Shi." Li Feng called him, "The situation is too urgent. There is nothing we can do."

"I'm going to the dungeon. You can kill me if you want," Qiu Shi said softly, "I won't do this mission. Let's die together. I'm not that great."

"Let's go out first," Li Feng said, "Calm down."

Qiu Shi closed his eyes and didn't move or speak. He heard footsteps going towards the door, and then someone went out and closed the door.

The room was very quiet and no sound could be heard. This room was hidden deep underground and felt to be deeper than the entire dungeon.

The dungeon in Yuncheng is also very deep underground. The more serious the crime, the deeper the prisoner will be imprisoned.

Qiu Shi kept wondering what the bottom layer would look like.

It seems to be like this in front of me, and I am in it.

"Don't you need to breathe?" Qiu Shi asked.

"Yes," Xing Bi's voice sounded, "You can't hear it because your hearing is not that good."

Qiu Shi opened his eyes and said, "What are you still doing here? Are you a secret guard unworthy of standing with the masterminds?"

"There's no danger of me being beaten if I stay here," said Xing Bi.

Qiu Shi paused and laughed: "You have a fucking sense of humor."

"A little bit." Xing Bi said.

"Are you really not a human?" Qiu Shi turned his head and looked at him. "My understanding of biochemical bodies is not like this. The one that broke my bones last time is more in line with my imagination."

"The last time, that guy didn't break your bones." Xing Bi said.

Qiu Shi stared at him for a long time and said, "Fuck."

Xing Bi said nothing.

"You really look like a living person," said Qiu Shi.

"Level 1 biochemicals have emotions and thoughts, and are infinitely close to humans," Xing Bi said, "but they are not humans. Biochemicals below level 1 will be more in line with your imagination."

Qiu Shi sneered.

This "classification setting" is indeed very human. Biochemical bodies also need to be divided into levels. The advanced ones have thinking and emotions, while the low-level ones are just walking corpses.

"It's terrifying to face a non-human body that is almost the same as you," Xing Bi seemed to see through his thoughts, "The fewer the better."

"Does a first-level biochemical body have the ability to read minds?" Qiu Shi said.

"No, this is the first question I thought about." Xing Bi said.

Qiu Shi leaned against the sofa and closed his eyes again: "That's it, let's end this heart-to-heart talk. If we continue talking, I won't participate in this mission. Let Li Feng find someone else to do it."

"If the order at the beginning is to visit the nest first, then prove that you will not be infected and are the most suitable candidate for the mission, and finally tell you that you need to implant the control system," Xing Bi said in a steady pace, "to save the people in this city, of course including your brothers, will you still refuse?"

Qiu Shi didn't say anything.

…Level 1 biochemical bodies are really scary, no wonder their numbers are limited.

Therefore, the control system probably exists because of this fear.

Qiu Shi thought about it and raised his hand.

"The system is not activated," Xing Bi said, "The partner's control is only effective during the mission and in the event of a loss of control of the biochemical body or an obvious misjudgment."

"Fuck you." Qiu Shi jumped up from the sofa, walked to the door, and opened it. Outside were Li Feng and Director Wu who didn't have time to dodge.

"Replace me with a biochemical body that doesn't have the ability to read minds," Qiu Shi held the door frame, "If you can't replace it, send me to the dungeon."

"Biochemical bodies don't have this ability," Director Wu said, "Xing Bi is not an alien, nor does he have special powers. He just has sharper insights and more experience than ordinary humans..."

"Change people." Qiu Shi said.

"There is no one left to replace him," Li Feng said, "The only Level 1 submersible we can safely use is Xing Bi."

"Then change to a level 2, 3, 5, or 8 one," Qiu Shi said. "A remote-controlled rocket launcher will also work."

"You can get the remote-controlled rocket launcher," Director Wu said, "but Xing Bi is still the only partner you can choose."

Xing Bi was not wrong. If the order was as he said, Qiu Shi would basically not refuse this mission. All his anger came from the deception.

Maybe for these people in the inner city, this is not even a deception. Just like those refugees from the outer city who were pulled into the nest to repair the wall, they thought they had got a well-paid job, but died silently in the end. It was no big deal, they were just tools.

Yuncheng does not have any noble purpose in accepting refugees. To maintain the normal operation of the city, to ensure that all kinds of survival supplies are sufficient, and to let the residents of the inner city live a peaceful life, all of this requires people.

They just need enough refugees to serve as tools of production.

"Have you memorized all these gestures?" Director Wu said, "It's okay if you don't remember them. You can learn them later..."

"Remember." Qiu Shi withdrew his thoughts, but his eyes never fell on the projection.

Director Wu's voice became a little stern: "Please be serious, this mission is about..."

Qiu Shi raised his hand impatiently and demonstrated several gestures: "I have already memorized them just now, and I also memorized the corresponding commands. This thing can't be used casually, so there is no need to go back and forth and talk about other things."

"You have a good memory," Director Wu smiled. "Your job is to provide data to your partner, including the environment, dangers, and mission objectives. You are the one who helps him predict dangers and carry out precise strikes. The submersibles don't have these devices."

"Why not?" Qiu Shi narrowed his eyes.

“This is… a form of collaboration,” said Director Wu, “based on the trust between the partners.”

"It's out of distrust," Qiu said, "and when I unilaterally believe that he is untrustworthy, I can restrict his ability to act."

"That's why you need to receive training," Li Feng said. "Based on historical experience, this is the safest and most effective way."

"Historical experience," Qiu Shi responded quickly, "that is to say, it wasn't like this at the beginning, right?"

Li Feng didn't say anything, just glanced at Xing Bi.

"Yes," Xing Bi said, "There is a small chance that the biochemical body will lose control and break its oath to humanity."

"What oath?" Qiu Shi turned and looked at Xing Bi.

"Never betray." Xing Bi said.

Qiu Shi was silent.

After a while, he smiled and said, "You are indeed not human."

"So what you need to know is that your partner has the ability to think, emotions, likes and dislikes, sadness and joy." Li Feng took the paper out of his nose, but before he could finish his words, blood started dripping out again. He had no choice but to stuff it with another piece of paper. "You can see that he has likes and dislikes, right? Finally, the principle he will never violate is not to harm humans."

It was obvious that time was very tight. Qiu Shi had not yet sorted out the relationship with his partners, let alone understood the so-called system operation, but he was taken to the training ground.

This is an uninhabited area consisting of small rocky peaks and scattered dense forests.

Qiu Shi and Xing Bi squatted in the closed carriage and were sent directly to the edge of the venue. Li Feng's voice came from the headphones: "The mission is simple. Find and eliminate the four infected people and two level 3 biochemical bodies. Note that the biochemical bodies are not from Yuncheng. They are invading bodies and are hostile."

"Can you hear it?" Qiu Shi asked Xing Bi.

"No." Xing Bi replied.

"He can't hear it," Director Wu's voice sounded, "Now your positioning system is activated, and it can sense the movement of objects within 300 meters of you. You need to determine which ones are the targets."

A picture that looked like an aiming frame appeared in front of Qiu Shi's eyes. There was a ruler, some areas of varying depths, and several points of different distances and moving speeds, a total of eleven, which meant that in addition to the six targets, there were five irrelevant things.

Without giving him more time to think, Li Feng's voice came again: "Begin."

Xing Bi opened the car door and jumped out.

"Fuck you, your ancestors," Qiu Shi had no choice but to jump out as well. The scene in front of him and the surrounding scenery overlapped, making him a little dizzy. "What the hell is this? How do I see it?"

"I don't know," Xing Bi walked towards the rock in front, "I can't see it."

"What use are you? Partner." Qiu Shi had to look at those moving dots while comparing them with the terrain in front of him, and at the same time judge whether those areas of varying depths were obstacles and what kind of obstacles they were.

"I should be the one asking you this now," Xing Bi suddenly rushed to a huge rock and climbed to the top. Then, an infected person was thrown down from the top of the rock by him. When Xing Bi jumped down and landed, he stepped on the infected person's neck and broke it. "Partner."

There is a coordinate next to each point, which changes as the point moves.

Xing Bi had already entered the woods, beyond the range of his naked eyes. Qiu Shi found that he could see his position in the frame in front of him. After making sure that there were no suspicious targets around him, he stopped and began to quickly study these points.

Then the coordinates of the first target were reported.

The dot representing Xing Bi began to move, and after more than ten seconds, the dot of the first target disappeared.

"What is it?" Qiu Shi asked.

"... a pig," Xing Bi said, "speckled."

"You don't need to tell me the color." Qiu Shi said and reported the next coordinates.

After the target disappeared, before he could ask, Xing Bi reported the target's situation to him: "Infected."

"Okay," Qiu Shi frowned and stared at the frame in front of him again, without having time to report the coordinates, "The biochemical body at three o'clock."

Li Feng crossed his arms and looked at the images returning to him on the screen with a smile on his face.

"Quick reaction." Director Zhang stood next to him.

First, pick out an unknown target to clean up, and then use the data characteristics of this target as a benchmark to determine whether other targets are part of the mission or not. After two times, Qiu Shi was able to directly determine the type of target.

As expected of a corpse collector who has been living the worst life outside the city, he has strong adaptability.

"It seems that we chose the right person," said Director Wu.

"There's no one to choose from," Li Feng said, "We're just lucky." Although he was able to determine what these dots were, it was his first time after all. For Qiu Shi, the images floating on the cluttered background around him looked a bit difficult. When he noticed that a biochemical body was approaching him quickly, he judged that the distance was less than a hundred meters.

Looking at the distance between Xing Bi and himself, it was almost two hundred meters. He didn't know if he could make it in time.

"Come back!" He pulled out the knife stuck in the side of his boot and stared at the direction where the bio-organism was rushing towards.

A black figure rushed out, Qiu Shi bent his body slightly and chose the angle of attack.

To his surprise, this biochemical body was a female, with long hair tied up in a way that was particularly conspicuous.

The point of Xing Bi in the picture approached at a higher speed, and then appeared behind the biochemical body.

The bio-body was kicked down, flew forward several meters, and fell to the ground more than ten meters away from Qiu Shi.

Her face was facing towards Qiu Shi, and one could clearly see that it was a young face that still looked a bit childish. The look in her eyes as she stared at Qiu Shi was somewhat empty.

Xing Bi's movements were quick and decisive. He jumped up, landed, and hit her on the back of the neck with his knee. She had been staring at Qiu Shi's eyes, which gradually dimmed and finally turned pitch black.

The task was completed in only half the allotted time.

Qiu Shi and Xing Bi returned to the car.

"Perfect." Li Feng's voice came.

“Turn this thing off,” Qiu said. “It makes me upset.”

The frame in front of his eyes finally disappeared, and he breathed a sigh of relief when his normal vision returned.

The car must have been taking a secluded path, so it was shaking quite a bit. Qiu Shi leaned back in the car, feeling an indescribable feeling.

He had cleared out a lot of infected people. It was not difficult and he did not feel too much pressure. Most of the infected people were very different from when they were human. They were basically unrecognizable, with festering and blackened skin and bloodshot eyes. All of these represented deadly danger.

The tragic scenes he saw when collecting the bodies of those who died from attacks by the infected made Qiu Shi angry and decisive when dealing with the infected.

However, the biochemical body that was easily killed by Xing Bi in front of him just now made him feel a little uncomfortable.

I don’t know if it’s because she is a woman, or because her appearance is no different from that of a healthy human, or because Xing Bi is as efficient and decisive as he was when cleaning up the infected, and he even used the trick he wanted to use on Li Feng but failed.

"Where do these biochemical bodies come from?" Qiu Shi asked.

"They were captured," Xing Bi said. "There are still quite a few level 2 and 3 biochemical bodies in Yuncheng. These two are both level 3, so it's not difficult to capture them."

Qiu Shi looked at him: "What are these two biochemical bodies to you? Are they of the same kind?"

"It's the mission objective." Xing Bi replied.

"Oh." Qiu Shi responded.

"Level 3 biochemicals do not have the ability to learn and have emotions," Xing Bi said, "They have no thoughts, no emotions, and no pain when they are cleansed."

Qiu Shi frowned: "Don't fucking watch me all the time. Do you feel a sense of accomplishment when you guess what other people are thinking?"

"No," Xing Bi said, "These are just questions I thought about when I started thinking."

"You weren't able to think at the beginning," Qiu Shi looked at him, "your brain is so good now, you must have worked hard to get as close to humans as possible."

Xing Bi smiled and said nothing.

"You were produced... You left the factory... You..." Qiu Shi adjusted his words for a long time, and finally used the one he was most used to, "How long have you lived?"

"A long time," Xing Bi said, "definitely more than twenty-five years."

"That was just bullshit," Qiu Shi thought for a moment, "What's the earliest thing you remember?"

Xing Bi was silent for a while: "I don't have all my memories. In order to ensure 100% control, some of my memories will be locked."

"Will you lie?" Qiu Shi asked.

"No." Xing Bi said.

"But you will answer the wrong question," said Qiu Shi.

"Yeah." Xing Bi nodded.

Back in the basement of the exhibition hall, Qiu Shi entered the laboratory for the first time.

Xing Bi entered a transparent glass cover, and the staff began to check his various indicators. It seemed that they had to do this every time he came back from a mission to ensure that nothing unexpected happened to him.

Qiu Shi was also taken into another room, where only Director Wu was present. However, the several cameras facing him made him feel that there was a pair of eyes watching him from behind each camera.

"How does the mission feel?" asked Director Wu.

"Not very good." said Qiu Shi.

"Do you have a more comprehensive understanding of your partner?" asked Director Wu.

"No," Qiu Shi said, "I've known Director Li for ten years and I never thought he would trick me like this. What can you learn about a biochemical being that is 'infinitely close' to a human in a few hours?"

"You completed this test mission very well," Director Wu said, "beyond our expectations."

"Then your predictive ability is not good." Qiu Shi said.

"I now judge that you can carry out your first mission perfectly," Director Wu glanced at the time, "set off in five minutes."

"What?" Qiu Shi was a little bit unbelievable.

A second-level biochemical body appeared in the outer city. The locations of the two attacks were very close to the edge of the inner city. The purpose of this biochemical body is very likely to enter the inner city. Several checkpoints of the City Defense Department are already on high alert.

Qiu Shi and Xing Bi were still sitting in the closed car. He didn't know what Xing Bi was thinking. He just felt very confused. This group of people didn't even give him a chance to get angry. He had to quickly concentrate and start thinking about this first task.

"The area where the target appeared has been blocked," a serious man's voice sounded, "Ordinary people are prohibited from entering, but time is tight, and there may be some people staying here. Please be careful to identify them. If it affects the mission, we can clear them out together."

"Who are you?" Qiu Shi asked with a frown.

"Director of the City Defense Bureau, Zhang Qifeng." The man replied.

"Director Zhang will participate in the monitoring of this operation." Li Feng's voice came.

"Whatever." Qiu Shi didn't pay much attention to that side. The ghost frame had already appeared in front of him, which was much more complicated than the previous training.

"Clear the area," Xing Bi finally spoke up and gave instructions on the mission as he jumped out of the car, "eliminate the lingering civilians first."

"Yeah." Qiu Shi jumped out of the car. There was so much chaos in front of him that he almost couldn't see the road clearly.

They are now outside the No. 4 Peak checkpoint in the inner city. Going down the rocky path is an old road that has not been maintained for a long time. Normally no one would come up here. This place is within the patrol range of the checkpoint. The City Defense Bureau's approach to refugees and outer city residents is to shoot and drive them away. It is lucky to be injured. Qiu Shi has collected many bodies here.

Xing Bi had already started moving forward along the road. Due to the large scope of the mission, Qiu Shi had to move with him. After a few minutes, he was finally able to slowly understand the display in front of him.

Rocks, cracks under rocks, streams…

"One hundred meters ahead," Qiu Shi stopped and reported the coordinates, "Two people, suspected to be civilians, not moving."

Xing Bi moved forward almost at the same time and quickly disappeared from his sight.

Qiu Shi stared at the frame in front of him without daring to relax for a moment, and ran towards the suspicious person. This was not a training, and the target biochemical body was not level three. He had to stay near Xing Bi, so that Xing Bi would have enough time to return if the target suddenly appeared.

"Civilians." Xing Bi's voice came.

Qiu Shi rushed forward. Although Director Zhang's words "clean up together" were premised on affecting the mission, he didn't know how Xing Bi would judge whether the mission would be affected.

"Let me see." He followed up.

Xing Bi did not kill the civilians, he just knocked them unconscious.

But these two civilians... Qiu Shi was stunned when he saw two people lying in a cave under a hidden rock: "What the hell..."

Hello everyone, I am Li Datou.

And that little skinny shrimp.

Next to it is Li Datou’s damaged butterfly pet.

"Know him?" Xing Bi asked.

Qiu Shi didn't say anything. He hadn't figured out what to say yet.

It was probably because Xing Bi didn't use too much force, or because Li Datou was too strong to take the beating, because he woke up with a groan and slowly tried to lift his head up.

Xing Bi slapped him on the back of the head, and Li Datou fell face down and fainted again.

The author has something to say:

Director Zhang: What the hell did I give birth to!

I’ll continue tomorrow. I may not be able to continue the day after tomorrow, so I’ll tell you in advance ╰_╯.