At this moment, this huge space seems so crowded, with the constant sound of alarms, flashing lights, and the repetitive "an unread pre-recorded message"...
"Why are there unread messages?" Ji looked at the console from the gap between the shelves. "Shouldn't this thing have been silent for more than a hundred years?"
"It's pre-recorded," Xing Bi said, "there should be a trigger condition."
"What conditions?" Qiu Shi asked.
"We're almost done dismantling these things," Xing Bi walked around the shelves and slowly towards the control console. "Someone left a message for whoever will dismantle the storage device in the future."
"Who?" Qiu Shi had already thought of the answer, but he felt it was unlikely.
"249," Xu Jie said, "or the person who killed 249."
"Do you want to open it?" Qiu Shi asked.
"I wonder if there are any traps here," Xing Bi walked to the control console and wanted to observe it again. "We are not familiar with this place..."
"Reading mode." The female voice changed the words without any fluctuation.
"Fuck," Qiu Shi couldn't help but curse, "Is there compulsory reading? I have to listen even if I don't want to!"
The surveillance footage on the large screen above flashed a few times and then disappeared. After a few seconds of black screen, a picture appeared.
A chair is placed in the middle, and the background looks like a laboratory.
"This is not the base's laboratory." Xu Jie said.
"Research Institute." Xing Bi said.
A person walked into the picture from the left, sat on a chair, leaned back in a relaxed manner, and raised his hand and waved it gently towards the camera.
The man was wearing a white uniform and looked young and a little thin.
"Is this a human being?" Qiu Shi asked.
"No," Xing Bi said, "this is..."
"A01, 249," the person in the video began. "This is my number. I don't have a name. This number is the only thing I really own in this world."
"Fuck." Qiu Shi whispered.
He had imagined what 249 looked like countless times, but the templates were all the biochemical bodies he had seen, and the 249 in the video was different from them.
Compared to the second-generation biochemical bodies like Xing Bi who were random within the perfect range, 249 looked more like an ordinary human being, not tall, not strong, and not outstanding in appearance.
"I don't know who will read this message," 249 looked at the camera, "I will know in the future, but I can't tell you now. I will disappear from this world soon, and this video will be hidden in the basic data. When the trigger conditions are met, you will see it."
"What are the triggering conditions?" Qiu Shi asked.
"You are killing me a second time," 249 said.
“I should go back to school,” Qiu said. “What is he talking about?”
"The storage space has been dismantled," Ji Sui looked back at the empty shelf, "When it is less than 50%, this video will be triggered."
"I see," Qiu Shi looked at 249 in the video, "His backup hiding place is almost gone."
"A week ago, Dr. Sun was taken away," 249 glanced to the right and rear of the camera, probably in the direction of the door, "I haven't seen him since. Then my two colleagues disappeared. I can only assume that they are dead. Then the next one should be me. People who participated in the transformation plan and opposed the plan are disappearing."
The video cuts to a large laboratory with dim lighting. Someone is adjusting the camera, and then walks in front of the camera. It's still 249, but he's wearing a lab coat.
"Okay, follow me." 249 turned and walked deeper into the laboratory, and the camera followed him.
Some transparent cylinders began to appear on the instrument tables on both sides of the screen, like tanks, with liquid inside, neatly arranged and all with white labels. Some were empty, and some had something inside.
When Qiu Shi saw these things clearly, he just felt sick.
When he collected corpses, he would come across some with shattered heads, some with only half a head left, and some with brains all over the floor... but he had never seen such a complete brain.
He had never even imagined so many intact brains soaked in water.
"I guess that's how the general's brain is preserved." He frowned.
"Go back and ask Li Feng, he has probably seen it." Xing Bi said.
"I don't want to ask, it's too fucking... perverted," Qiu Shi said.
249 walked through these brains and turned a corner. A device appeared in the picture. It looked very similar to the "electric chair" that Qiu Shi used to enter the general's memory. A biochemical body was fixed on the chair with various wires connected to its body.
"This is a second-generation biochemical body." Xing Bi said.
The biochemical body had no clothes and no hair, like a puppet that had just come off the production line. This completely "naked" state made the fresh wound on his head particularly eye-catching.
"No. 104, implanted yesterday, the values are normal," 249 said as he stood in front of the "doll", "It seems to be in good condition at the moment."
He pressed a button next to the "electric chair", and the biochemical body began to tremble as if it had been electrified. It took more than ten seconds for it to slowly stop, and then the biochemical body opened its eyes.
249 stretched out his hand and waved it in front of the creature's eyes. The creature's eyes followed his finger and moved left and right, and its eyes looked a little dazed.
"Name." 249 asked.
The bio-body looked at him in confusion and said nothing.
249 took out a card with a few simple words on it and handed it to the biochemical body: "Can you read it?"
The biochemical body was still confused, but there was a hint of panic in the confusion.
"104, do you remember the name Cheng Hui?" 249 asked, taking out another card and placing it in front of him.
The biochemical body began to show obvious panic and fear, and then began to turn its head to look around.
"Cheng Hui." 249 called out the name again.
After a burst of rapid gasping, the biochemical creature finally opened its mouth, but did not speak. Instead, it let out a scream, followed by another one.
The screams were heart-wrenching, and they didn't sound like those of a human. Instead, they were more like the roars of a wild beast struggling before death.
It makes people feel uncomfortable.
The biochemical body began to struggle violently, roaring and struggling, and finally stopped moving. The sound also disappeared, and its eyes looked empty at a place behind 249, losing focus.
The scene switches back to the previous laboratory, with 249 sitting on a chair: "The experiment has never been successful. Humans want to own this world forever. Even if this world is becoming less and less suitable for them, they are unwilling to give up..."
The confused and frightened face of the previous biochemical body was still swaying in front of Qiu Shi's eyes. It was a biochemical body with a brain named "Cheng Hui" inside its head. The strange feeling reminded him of Qiu Yu.
But what these humans want is obviously a state that is higher, stronger, more natural, and more "immortal" than Qiu Yu's.
"Humans are terrible. The things they pursue will become obsessions, which will drag them into the abyss. The more they think, the further they will go. Humans cannot maintain absolute rationality. Thinking is a terrible ability for humans," 249 said. "When they found that biochemical bodies are more adaptable to fungi than humans, when they found that non-new biochemical bodies are more adaptable to a new brain..."
249 frowned. "The biochemical bodies will eventually be pushed into hell, and humans will also go to hell."
"You too." Qiu Shi also frowned. 249's words were not wrong when applied to some humans, but he might not have thought that one day, he, whose thoughts and emotions all came from humans, would enter the same hell.
Xing Bi didn't say anything. He turned back to the shelf at the back and continued to dismantle the storage device.
Ji Sui and Xu Jie also walked over silently and continued with him.
"Stop it," 249 looked at the camera, "Don't kill me again."
Qiu Shi looked back and saw that Xing Bi and the others did not react at all. They quietly and quickly repeated the action of pulling out the black squares again and again.
"They came to me," 249 said. "I have released the fungus..."
"Oh shit!" Qiu Shi was so shocked that his hands were shaking.
"Humanity will atone for the mistakes it has made. I don't know how long it will take, fifty years, a hundred years, or two hundred years. I will watch them in the darkness..." 249 stood up slowly and dragged a black box with wheels from the side. It was very large, almost as tall as a person. He opened the lid on the side of the box and pulled out a few threads.
This thread looked very familiar to Qiu Shi. When he was sitting on the electric chair, the chief poked a similar thread into the back of his neck.
"Humans and biochemicals are still friends now," 249 connected the wires one by one to the back of his neck. "Friends, what a beautiful word. Although I have never left here, I also have human friends. They are all very good people, but they are all dead..."
Qiu Shi felt that the air around him seemed to be slowly getting colder, and his hands and feet felt a little chilly.
"Humans choose their friends, but we cannot choose our friends," 249 said, "Humans don't need friends. Humans don't even love themselves..."
249 connected the wires and pressed a button in the box.
"I want to see the end," he looked at the camera, "the end of humanity, the end of the humanity that destroyed this world, I will watch them... Maybe you who are standing in front of me have already had contact with me, whether you are an enemy or a friend, see humanity clearly, see this world clearly..."
In the picture, 249 slowly closed his eyes, the camera cut away, and some confusing clips began to appear.
Brains connected by wires, struggling biochemical bodies, humans eroded by fungi, and human infected people walking back and forth numbly in glass covers...
Then there began to be strong winds blowing up sand and stones outside, dense lightning, withered crops and wildly growing weeds... and the city that still looked beautiful and bright, and people walking through the streets with their heads down...
After a breathtaking moment of chaos, the scene returned to the laboratory.
"Stop, don't kill me again," 249 said. "Don't walk into their hell."
249 lowered his head and had no reaction. With a "beep" sound coming from the black box, a person walked in from outside the screen. He was wearing glasses and had a very ordinary appearance. He should be a human. After all, 249 was the only biochemical being who had access to core technology in a human laboratory.
The man walked over to 249, unplugged the wire from behind his neck, closed the black box, then turned around and turned off the camera.
As the screen went black and then switched back to the surveillance footage inside the laboratory, the alarm that had been ignored suddenly became louder, hitting Qiu Shi's eardrums. The flashing lights that he had been staring at the screen and ignored also disturbed his vision again.
Qiu Shi slowly withdrew his emotions from the video and finally felt that he could breathe smoothly.
"Where is this video?" he turned around and asked Xing Bi.
"I don't know," Xing Bi said, "but it must have been automatically destroyed."
"Is he trying to persuade us to leave his hiding place?" Qiu Shi said.
"Yeah." Xing Bi responded, "When he recorded this segment, he probably didn't expect that he would become 249 now."
Indeed, when Qiu Shi looked at the surveillance screen, 249 had only been mentioning that humans were destroying the world, themselves, and their biochemical bodies.
He wants to see the end of those who go to hell.
"But in the end he copied human ambition," said Xing Bi.
"All of them have been cut off," Ji Sui took the last black block. "Even if this place is connected to the outside world one day, it will be difficult to use these storage devices again. It will take a long time."
"Is there a lot of useful things in there, such as technology, medicine, and knowledge?" Qiu Shi looked at the cubes stacked on the ground, "Just like those books over there."
Xing Bi looked at him and said nothing.
"With these things, can people today live better?" Qiu Shi asked.
"Not necessarily," Xing Bi said, "Qiu Shi, these things may need to be sealed here forever."
Qiu Shi was silent for a while, then sighed softly: "I understand what you mean."
"Some things can never be found again," Xing Bi said. "Our only choice is to do what we can based on what we have now."
"Yeah," Qiu Shi covered his ears, "my head is about to explode from these sirens."
"Let's go." Xing Bi turned and walked towards the metal gate.
Qiu Shi turned around and looked around the laboratory again. At that moment, he had an indescribable feeling of despair. This place might still contain mankind's most advanced technology and knowledge, but their best choice was to keep them sealed here forever.
Qiu Shi understood why Xing Bi asked him to interrupt the call with Li Feng when they were about to enter the base, and Li Feng had no objection.
These things can be a strong medicine or a poison to this fragile world.
Fragile humans and fragile biochemicals, fragile alliances, neither side can bear it. When the metal door slowly fell behind him, although Qiu Shi felt very unwilling, he also felt a sense of relief at the same time.
The second-level guards outside were still on guard, like a group of statues.
"Remove the alert," Xing Bi said, "Assist in the defense."
The Seconds put away their guns and followed them.
Xu Jie approached the glass door and looked out: "It's safe outside the door, but I can see lights outside the building. They opened fire."
"The symbiote is coming." Ji Sui said.
Xing Bi opened the door and everyone rushed out quickly. After making sure the door was closed, they ran out the same way they came.
As soon as he walked out of the glass door, Qiu Shi could clearly hear the sound of fighting in the distance, including gunshots and artillery fire. The scale was not small. The symbiote was not trying to attack the base tentatively, but was attacking.
"We are out," Xing Bi said, "location."
"Northeast China," Sang Fan replied.
"Xingchuan's team has been suppressed along the office area," Bai Zhan's hoarse voice came out, probably right next to Sang Fan, "Come to the storage area."
"So long-winded." Sang Fan said.
Outside the building there was an all-terrain vehicle left behind by Sang Fan and his team, and several people jumped on it.
"Reinforce the storage area," Xing Bi gave orders to the second-level submersible guards, "Clear the infected, and immediately evacuate to a safe area if the injuries are beyond self-healing."
Xu Jie started the car and rushed towards the northeast, while the second-level guards disappeared between the buildings tacitly and passed through via a more covert route.
Although Sang Fan was not convinced, Bai Zhan's reported location was much more accurate. They were all people who knew the base very well, and the scope of the storage area was clearer than that of a large building in the northeast.
Qiu Shi took out the gun, pulled out the knife and held them in his hands.
He glanced at the side of Xing Bi's neck. The "staining" on his face was almost invisible, but faint marks could still be seen on the side of his neck. Every time the symbiote appeared, it was accompanied by a large number of infected people. He knew that in order to reduce casualties, Xing Bi would most likely use control again.
"Don't control a large area," said Qiu Shi.
"Yeah." Xing Bi reached out and gently pinched his hand holding the knife.
"Bo Zhan's men are all secret guards," Qiu Shi said, "their combat effectiveness should be quite strong."
"Yeah." Xing Bi smiled.
The car quickly drove into the storage area. The two armored transport vehicles in their convoy were parked behind the two collapsed buildings in front of them. They were using them as cover to fire at the location where the wall was originally.
Qiu Shi jumped out of the car and opened the map.
A dense mass of bright spots appeared before my eyes.
"Shit." He closed the map after figuring out the approximate location. In the darkness, even if the map was in night vision mode, these bright spots could almost block his vision.
The storage area was a large area of low-rise houses, which were not as solid as the main buildings of the base and most of them had collapsed. He followed Xing Bi and ran forward quickly in the ruins.
They ignored the infected people that appeared from time to time, and these human soldiers were able to clean them up. Xing Bi and his men had a clear goal, which was to find the controlling entity at the location where the most infected people gathered.
After climbing over two broken walls, Qiu Shi saw Sang Fan and her axe, which left afterimages.
"Competition?" Xing Bi leaped past her and knocked down an infected person who was rushing towards her.
"How do you know?" Sang Fan asked.
"It's almost like an electric fan," Qiu Shi said, "Who can I compare with?"
"Bai Zhan!" Ji Sui shouted.
"Here!" Bai Zhan responded in the darkness ahead, then retreated.
Ji Sui slapped a pair of headphones into his hand and said, "Take two people with us."
Bai Zhan whistled, and two dark shadows emerged from the darkness.
The main body is not near the infected, usually there is some distance, and they need to pass through these infected who have begun to gather into groups.
Bai Zhan and his two undercover guards were very powerful and had great coordination when clearing the infected, which made Qiu Shi feel as if he was seeing Xing Bi and his team fighting.
However, the number of infected people was somewhat beyond Qiu Shi's expectations. The artillery fire from the rear would soon fill the craters created by the explosions with infected people.
"Did this shit grow out of the ground?" Qiu Shi cursed. He didn't have time to fire the gun in his hand and could only swing his knife. At this moment, he felt that Sang Fan's axe should be very easy to use.
"Fuck." Bai Zhan cursed and was hugged by several infected people.
This was the first time Qiu Shi heard a biochemical being curse.
Just as he was about to go over to rescue them, Bai Zhan jumped out of the pile of infected people and jumped out of the hug circle by kicking off the legs and shoulders of several infected people.
The moment he turned his hand to clean up, the infected people suddenly froze in place.
He swung his knife and chopped off the heads of three infected people.
Then he was stunned.
"Our goal is the main body," Xing Bi said, "don't fight."
"Xing Bi?" Bai Zhan looked at him for several seconds before asking, "Why?"
"Target, subject." Xing Bi did not answer, but repeated it again.
"Bai Zhan," Ji Sui rushed forward, "Let's go."
Under the moonlight, Qiu Shi could see the way Bai Zhan was staring at Xing Bi. The confusion and questioning made him feel uncomfortable.
"Prioritize." Qiu Shi pushed Bai Zhan.
Bai Zhan didn't say anything and followed in the direction of Ji Sui.
Outside the storage area was a downward slope, and the infected were rushing upward in groups, but along the route they rushed through, the infected were being controlled in batches one after another.
Xing Bi did as he promised Qiu, and did not carry out large-scale control, but only cleared a small amount of obstacles on their route.
As we approached the bottom of the slope, several dark figures jumped out from below.
"Here it comes." said Bai Zhan.
Xing Bi and the others quickly dispersed and rushed towards the black shadow.
Qiu Shi stopped where he was and opened the map. He put the gun on his arm and fired two shots at the black shadow that could be seen over there. He reported the coordinates: "Fire one shot."
"receive."
A streak of fire flashed behind him and landed with a whistling sound at the place where the black shadows jumped out.
Following the explosion, several more dark shadows jumped out.
Including Bai Zhan's men, they had a total of six undercover guards, and the other side had the advantage in numbers.
But even if there were only three of the strongest undercover team, they were able to cooperate quickly. Xing Bi was in the front, and Xu Jie and Ji Sui followed behind. They formed a triangle and rushed into the middle of several black shadows, neatly dividing them into two groups.
The several separated black shadows were blocked by Bai Zhan's men from behind.
Three of the bright spots on the map quickly disappeared.
At this time, the infected person behind Qiu Shi turned around and began to counterattack.
"Explode!" Qiu Shibao gave out the coordinates of his location.
"receive."
After hearing the response, Qiu Shi did not leave immediately, but gritted his teeth and waited there. When he saw a line of fire streaking across the sky and falling towards him, he suddenly jumped down the slope.
As the shells fell, swarms of infected swarmed right to where he was.
The blast blew him away.
When he landed, he saw Bai Zhan.
When Bai Zhan was about to reach out to grab him, Xing Bi had already grabbed his arm, and then used the force to pull him behind him, avoiding the shrapnel flying from behind.
"Are you fucking going to die?" Bai Zhan shouted in a hoarse voice.
"Xing must be here." Qiu Shi said.
The author has something to say:
Ouch, I'm so anxious. I'll correct the typo later.
I'll continue tomorrow, but it will probably be around this time tomorrow T_T. I have to go to the hospital in the morning, so you can come later, haha!