Although Qiu Shi had only met Zheng Ting a few times, especially when he was still in his normal state, every meeting was deeply memorable.
So when the person behind the door came out, he knew he was not mistaken. This person was Zheng Ting. He could recognize him even if he turned into a super communist. But he also felt that he must have made a mistake. Zheng Ting was in the Yuncheng laboratory, sleeping wrapped in a huge black fungus.
"I guess you won't guard the tunnel." Zheng Ting said.
This voice belongs to Zheng Ting.
But borrowing voice is the only way for 249 to speak, and the fact that Zheng Ting's voice matches doesn't mean anything.
"You are not Zheng Ting." Xing Bi said.
Zheng Ting looked at him without any expression. After a while, he asked back, "Do you really think I'm not Zheng Ting?"
Xing Bi didn't say anything.
"On what basis do you think so?" Zheng Ting asked again.
"There's no way you're fucking here," Qiu Shi said.
"Who are you?" Zheng Ting looked at him and frowned slightly.
“Just because you don’t fucking know me,” Qiu Shi said, “you can’t be Zheng Ting.”
"Is this your partner in Yuncheng?" Zheng Ting looked at Xing Bi.
"Yeah." Xing Bi responded.
"Is your memory coherent?" Zheng Ting asked curiously.
"Yes." Xing Bi replied.
"So after you left the base, you went to Yuncheng, right?" Zheng Ting asked again, "There's nothing wrong with it, right?"
Xing Bi said nothing.
"Bai Zhan." Zheng Ting called Bai Zhan.
"Why am I calling you uncle?" Bai Zhan said.
"Do you also think that I am not myself?" Zheng Ting asked.
"Although I don't know what's going on," Bai Zhan said, "the Zheng Ting I know can't be here. But I..."
"The person I almost killed," Zheng Ting said, "won't admit his mistake, right?"
"Fuck." said Bai Zhan.
Qiu Shi just felt very unreal at this moment. The person in front of him and the questions this person asked always gave him the feeling that a wire had been poked into someone's brain on the back of his neck. He didn't know if it was because of the excessive water pressure before.
But among the four of them, there is only one person who will not be "connected".
Deng Yeye is a genuine human being.
"Old Deng," Qiu Shi turned to look at Deng Yeye, "Are we still alive? Are we awake? Are we normal?"
Deng Yeye looked at him, her eyes clearly expressing her concern about Qiu Shi's mental state when she heard the question, but the next second she drew the long knife from her back and threw it towards the fire door without hesitation.
Zheng Ting quickly retreated from the middle of the door, and the knife hit the door with a "clang".
The knife was hit with great force and it stuck firmly into the door. It shook for a long time without falling off.
This loud noise also woke up Qiu Shi's confused mind.
Xing Bi chased after him, kicked the door open and looked over there, but Zheng Ting was gone.
"He's not dead, he's awake and normal," Deng Yeye said, "My sword skills can prove it."
"What kind of swordsmanship do you have?" Bai Zhan couldn't help but ask, "What kind of swordsmanship is it that can hit Zheng Ting with a distance of 12.5 centimeters?"
"Yes, this accuracy means we are not in a dream," Deng Yeye said, "I can only kill people with a flying knife in a dream. We are not in a dream, we are not dead, and we are not poisoned."
"So he is not Zheng Ting." Qiu Shi said.
"But..." Bai Zhan frowned and looked at Xing Bi.
"Does he look like him?" Qiu Shi asked.
"Not really," Bo Zhan said, "He is."
"Confirm what?" Li Feng was looking at the recipe he brought back from the base page by page facing the projection on the table. When he heard Chen Dang's words, he could hardly believe his ears.
"Confirm whether Zheng Ting is still in the Yuncheng Laboratory." Chen Dang repeated it again.
"Who wants confirmation?" Li Feng stood up.
"Xing Bi." Chen Dang said, "But it's not a direct contact. They have already entered the institute. Song Heng contacted Lin Sheng, and he doesn't have the authority to contact you directly."
Li Feng didn't ask any more questions. He walked out and called Director Wu.
"Is everything going OK in the lab?"
"Normal," Director Wu replied, "What's wrong?"
"Go check on Zheng Ting's condition right away," Li Feng said, "and ask someone to check if the two chiefs are in the warehouse. I'll be there in ten minutes."
"What's wrong with the lab? Who broke in again? You won't lock me in here, will you?" Although he kept asking questions, one could still tell that Director Wu was jogging along. "There's not even a single person in the lab who can guarantee my safety! And you're carrying a biochemical around with you every day!"
"Aren't Qu Shen and Cheng Gu both in the laboratory? The person I brought with me is just a civilian!" Li Feng said and hung up the phone.
The only person who was less sleep-deprived than Li Feng was probably his driver. It was daytime now, but the driver was catching up on last night's sleep in the cab.
When Li Feng got into the car, he sat up straight reflexively and started the car.
"The exhibition hall." Li Feng said. After Chen Dang got in the car, he turned around and asked, "Where is Lin Sheng?"
"He's already headed there," Chen Dang said. "He had already set out when he told me the news."
"I can guess," Li Feng said, "He has already arranged everything here. The three people in the same group are in danger. He can't stay here... Tell me in detail."
"Xing Bi and the others may have met another Zheng Ting in the research institute." Chen Dang said.
"What..." Li Feng looked at him in surprise.
"Biochemical bodies basically won't mistake people," Chen Dang said, "especially the subversive guards. If he and Bai Zhan both think that person is Zheng Ting, then it's very likely that that person is not Zheng Ting."
"The one Xing Bi and his team captured is definitely Zheng Ting, right?" Li Feng asked.
"Sure." Chen Dang said.
The laboratory was no different from usual, with experimenters and assistants working quietly and Director Wu standing in front of various instruments, looking like he was praying.
The biggest difference is that Wang Hong and Zhang Tan were not in the warehouse, but standing next to Director Wu.
"Who let them out?" Li Feng asked.
"I," Director Wu looked back at him, "I don't know what happened to you. If you have anything to ask me, I'm sure I don't have as comprehensive an idea as they do."
Li Feng didn't say anything, but walked straight into the experimental cabin and looked inside by leaning on the glass on the door.
Zheng Ting was still in the glass case, quietly squatting or sitting. The wound on his face where Director Wu and his team had taken samples had healed, but was no longer covered by fungi.
"He is Zheng Ting, right?" Li Feng confirmed again.
"Yes, yes, yes," Director Wu said, "He has not left since he entered. I just checked all the surveillance cameras and everything is normal. There is no abnormality."
"Under what circumstances would another Zheng Ting appear?" Li Feng asked.
His eyes were on Director Wu, but the question was actually directed to Wang Hong and Zhang Tan who were following behind.
"What?" Director Wu asked in shock.
"The only possibility is replication, and Yuncheng can do part of it now." Wang Hong is worthy of being the chief who needs to be locked up in the warehouse. He is much calmer than Director Wu.
Wang Hong was referring to the biochemical system, which was recycled and then implanted with a new biochemical body, but the system could only achieve the most basic cognition and partial skill memory preservation...
"What about those that are exactly the same?" Li Feng asked, "They are exactly the same, and even the biochemical bodies can't tell the real thing from the fake one."
"We can't do it," Wang Zhang looked at him, "but..."
"It is possible to continue to improve on the existing basis," Zhang Tan said. "We can..."
"You can't." Li Feng interrupted him, returned to the instrument table, looked at a bunch of things he couldn't understand, frowned and pondered.
"Are you sure there is another Zheng Ting?" asked Director Wu.
"Yeah." Li Feng responded, "We need to find out what's going on."
"In the research institute?" Director Wu asked again.
"Well," Li Feng touched his pocket, took out a cigarette, and glanced at Director Wu, "I want to smoke a cigarette."
"Go ahead and smoke! If I don't let you smoke, will you not smoke? You even pretended to ask," Director Wu said, "Go over to the table and smoke, stay away from these important instruments!"
"I didn't ask you, I just told you that I want to smoke a cigarette." Li Feng turned around and walked to the table in the reception area and sat down. He lit a cigarette and looked at the two chiefs. "Since you two are here, tell me what you think."
"Director Li would have some ideas," Wang Hong said, "and he would insist that we speak them out."
"Hey," Li Feng glanced at him, "I thought you two were just obsessed with research and could observe these things. Yes, I am putting the blame on you two. Tell me, or you can go back to the warehouse."
"It's not easy to implant the general's brain into a biochemical body," Wang Hong said. "Yuncheng can't implant data into the brain of a biochemical body, but the base or research institute at the time should have done it."
Li Feng raised his eyebrows and said nothing.
"In Base One, Zheng Ting must have copied and archived their data," Zhang Tan said. "249 is just continuing the human experiment."
"This unfinished research institute was probably used for this purpose," Li Feng said, "so 249 chose to hide there."
"So now 249 has used the research institute to copy Zheng Ting's biochemical body, and then wrote Zheng Ting's data completely into the brain of this biochemical body, and he became another Zheng Ting." Director Wu said.
"He doesn't think of himself as another Zheng Ting. He is Zheng Ting," Wang Hong said. "A complete copy."
Why did humans face destruction in the past? Apart from those natural factors that were beyond human control, the bigger reason might be the fear of death and destruction. They were afraid of death and did not want to die, so they had to live no matter what.
Li Feng didn't know and didn't want to imagine to what extent the original base and research institute had been able to achieve. Everything 249 was doing now seemed to be based on the original human research. In other words, he was completing the crazy cause that humans had not completed in the past in another way.
"If that's the case," Chen Dang, who had been silent the whole time, spoke up, "there may be even more trouble."
Li Feng looked at him.
"Do I have to say this?" Chen Dang asked, "I can't take the blame for this."
"Besides Zheng Ting, there will be another Xing Bi, another Lin Sheng, Xu Jie, and Ji Sui," Li Feng said, "They were the strongest first-class submersible guards at the time. If we keep Zheng Ting's data, we will also keep theirs, and maybe others..."
"Yeah." Chen Dang nodded.
"It can also copy ten Xing Bi at the same time," Li Feng said with a sigh, "very powerful."
"It's unlikely that there are ten Xing Bis." Chen Dang said, "Biochemical bodies have a deep obsession with 'I am me', which is also the inevitable result of our independent thinking and emotions. Zheng Ting from the research institute will definitely think that our Zheng Ting is a clone, and vice versa. It is impossible for them to work together in the same space."
"So even if I tell Zheng Ting from the research institute that he is a clone, he won't believe it, right?" Li Feng said.
"Strictly speaking, they can only be called Zheng Ting No. 1 and Zheng Ting No. 2. There is no difference between them in essence," said Wang Hong.
"From a certain perspective, we can't even be sure," Chen Dang said, "our Xing Bi must really be Xing Bi No. 1."
"Please help me connect with Lin Sheng." Li Feng said.
The dock and the main part of the institute are connected by a corridor with no doors or glass passages like the entrance tunnel, much like those tunnels under Cloud City.
But maybe it was because it was on the bottom of the sea, maybe it was because it was built too delicately and smoothly, or maybe it was too long. In any case, Qiu Shi felt so depressed and breathless when walking in this corridor, and his own footsteps sounded like they were covered by a layer of cotton.
The long corridor zigzags upward with a very small angle. If you don't pay attention, you can't feel it. After turning a few times, I finally saw the sensor door at the end.
"It seems there are no weapons in here," Qiu Shi said, "no symbiotes, infected people or anything like that."
"249 wanted to keep this place. If the symbionts enter, the fungus will enter. He was against this at first," Xing Bi said. "And if the symbionts enter, it will be difficult to ensure that there will be no fighting here."
"It's really fucking contradictory." said Qiu Shi.
"Where did Zheng Ting go?" Bai Zhan asked.
"This is the only way," Xing Bi said, "Wait for us out front."
"Xing Bi," Bai Zhan whispered, "When we open the door and go out, there won't be another Xing Bi waiting there, right?"
"It's very likely," Xing Bi said, "Since there can be another Zheng Ting, there will be another Xing Bi. Maybe all five of us will be there." "Fuck," Qiu Shi paused, "If a fight breaks out, we'll suffer."
"You're worried about not being able to win?" Bai Zhan said, "Aren't you worried about not being able to tell the difference?"
"I can tell the difference," Qiu Shi said, "Only Xing Bi knows me."
Xing Bi turned around and looked at him.
"The one I can control is Xing Bi," said Qiu Shi.
"Don't control them." Bo Zhan quickly reminded him, "If there is really a strongest team on the opposite side, and you control them, then it will be a waste for the three of us."
"You're worrying too far ahead." Qiu Shi said, "I can tell the difference."
"Okay, you can tell the difference," Bai Zhan said, "Then I can tell the difference too. The one who knows you is Xing Bi."
"It's the same for me," Deng Yeye said. "They don't know me either."
"This is the benefit of bringing grandchildren along," said Bai Zhan. "I should have brought Sang Fan along. No one knows her, and she doesn't know anyone either. She can throw an axe very accurately."
"Yo." Deng Yeye said.
The sensor door was not locked, and when they approached, the door opened automatically.
Insisting on "it's best not to have two identical people appearing opposite each other", Bai Zhan entered the door first, raised his gun and aimed at them, then tilted his head towards them: "No one, this is a leisure area, and the structure is similar to that of the base."
Several people walked into the room over there.
It is a large leisure area with massage sofas, video booths, a bar, a pool table, a mahjong table...
I’m afraid even Mr. Long can’t enjoy this leisure area in Yuncheng.
The corridor outside the leisure area is completely different from the previous corridor. There are many small windows, through which you can see the sea outside, but they are all closed now.
"Map." Bai Zhan said while standing behind the bar.
"What map?" Qiu Shi was shocked. How could he find a map here
"Fire evacuation diagrams," Bai Zhan said. "All buildings have them."
Qiu Shi walked over and saw a floor plan that clearly marked their location, as well as the commander-in-chief's office, office areas of various departments, experimental areas, equipment rooms, warehouses, kitchens, and dormitories.
"Let's go here." Xing Bi pointed at the commander-in-chief's office.
"Shouldn't we go to the equipment room?" Bai Zhan said, "249 should be there..."
"I don't think 249 is in data status now," Xing Bi said, "he should have a physical body here."
"Go to the office." said Bai Zhan.
"Go to the equipment room." Qiu Shi stopped them.
"Huh?" Bai Zhan was stunned.
"We are not looking for the entity of 249, and we don't need to communicate with him," Qiu Shi looked at Xing Bi, "We don't need to know who Zheng Ting is here, and we don't need to know if there are other of you here..."
Xing Bi didn't say anything.
"Our only purpose here is to destroy 249's hiding place and rescue Xu Jie and Ji Sui there," Qiu Shi still looked at Xing Bi, "Not all questions need answers, and not all things need the truth."
"Fuck." Bai Zhan turned around to look at Xing Bi, then turned back to look at Qiu Shi, "Where did you learn all this?"
"Go to the equipment room." Xing Bi said.
Qiu Shi knew why Xing Bi wanted to find the entity of 249. What they were facing might be "himself". Qiu Shi had not experienced what Xing Bi had experienced, nor had he felt his pain, but at this moment, this was his advantage.
Biochemical bodies are not machine programs. They have independent thoughts and emotions, and have joys, sorrows, anger, and happiness. They will naturally make emotional judgments, even though they have been calmer than humans in most cases.
After coming into contact with these biochemical bodies that have experienced the human world for one or two hundred years, Qiu Shi feels that these judgments are no longer accurate. The biochemical bodies have long lost the fixed pattern that humans hope for. They are Xing Bi, Zheng Ting, Jiang Cheng, and Bai Zhan, and each one is different.
They already have weaknesses and vulnerabilities.
"They will definitely stop us." Xing Bi said, raised the gun in his hand and walked out of the leisure area.
"If..." Bai Zhanyi was at the end of the team, responsible for covering their retreat.
"No ifs." Qiu Shi interrupted him.
"Don't you ever make a fucking backup plan?" Bai Zhan said.
"There is no alternative plan now. We just have to go over there and smash everything. If we meet anyone on the road, we will kill them," Qiu Shi said. "Where is the alternative plan? I assume the alternative plan is just a depressing statement."
"Are all humans in Yuncheng like this?" Bai Zhan asked.
"That's just him." Xing Bi said.
"I quite like him," Deng Yeye said, "even though I hated him at first."
The equipment room occupies a large part of the building. Since they entered the institute from the outermost dock location, they need to pass through almost half of the area to reach the equipment room in the center.
When passing through the first library, Qiu Shi could feel that it was not easy to reach the equipment room. The huge and complex terrain of each area was very suitable for ambush, and his map was blocked inside the building. He could only rely on the keen senses of Xing Bi and Bai Zhan's biochemical bodies.
Surprisingly, all the books in the library were paper books. They were not damaged or broken into pieces. When one got close to them, one could smell the unique fragrance of paper. Qiu Shi felt an indescribable sense of melancholy.
They walked between the rows of bookshelves, and no one ambushed them here.
Leaving the library, there is a huge open office area outside. Each small cubicle can just fit one person. There are a lot of materials piled on the table, as well as a computer and a water cup.
Such a scene was hard for Qiu Shi to imagine. This was a fragment of the lives of the ancestors that had been completely preserved for one or two hundred years. Except for the absence of those people from that time, nothing had changed.
A figure flashed ahead.
Xing Bi and Bai Zhan fired at that direction at the same time, and the things on the table were turned upside down.
Then they both jumped onto the table and moved over there.
Qiu Shi and Deng Yeye leaned over and passed between the desks, then approached.
"Xing Bi." The person hiding over there spoke. It was Zheng Ting. "Want to chat? Some things are different from what you think."
Qiu Shi didn't wait for Xing Bi to speak, he fired in that direction, firing back and forth twice before stopping: "He's not available."
Zheng Ting fell silent.
When Xing Bi and Bai Zhan stepped over the table and continued to walk forward, a table over there was suddenly lifted from the ground into the air, spinning and hitting them.
Xing Bi kicked the table under his feet, jumped back, and kicked the table that was coming towards him.
At the same time, he fired a shot at the table with the gun in his hand.
But when the table fell, Zheng Ting also fired a shot, hitting Xing Bi's left arm where he was holding the gun.
There was more than one person behind the table. This person fired a gun at the same time as Zheng Ting, hitting Bai Zhan in the chest.
Bai Zhan fell heavily to the ground.
Deng Yeye stood up from behind the table, raised his gun and fired wildly at that direction, but the two people over there had disappeared.
"How is it!" Deng Yeye squatted back under the table and shouted.
"It's okay," Xing Bi said, "Bai Zhan?"
"It's okay." said Bai Zhan.
"Are you okay?" Qiu Shi asked.
"You've never seen a biochemical being wearing a bulletproof vest," said Bai Zhan.
The author has something to say:
To be continued tomorrow⊙▽⊙.
I have to go out again for something, so I'll fix the typos when I come back!