It was not until Lu Yanli successfully entered the next level that his mind relaxed and he asked, "Are you sure you didn't get stained?"
"No." Lu Yanli shook his head.
The sound of seawater washing came from above, and the soundproofing seemed to have lost its effect. The thumping sound could be heard getting closer and closer. The room on this floor was vibrating faintly. Those staff members who had mutated into monsters were locked in the room. The defense system had completely failed, and the room alone was not enough.
Why didn't they let me go directly underground from the beginning? Doesn't the institute have elevators
Lu Yanli did not ask this question. He wanted to know what the brain was planning. So far it had not shown enough malice to alert him, but it was hard for him not to be suspicious.
Not until Lu Yanli's energy was almost exhausted did he finally reach the last level.
What his brain said was right. The future him was indeed waiting on the last floor. He had been waiting for a full hour.
During this hour, one of them was constantly consuming energy while the other was resting quietly, so when they met and fought, the winner would be clear.
Lu Yanli, who came from the future and had scars on his face, pulled out the dagger, wiped it casually with his sleeve, and put it back.
The brain seemed puzzled: "Why would you do this?"
Lu Yanli shrugged, stood by the last door, and said, "Isn't this what you wanted to see? First, you revealed the news that he and I couldn't coexist, and then you let him exhaust his energy before appearing in front of me. Isn't it obvious what you want me to do?"
Without saying anything, Lu Yanli pulled back the door and walked towards the door. On the ground, a man who looked exactly like him fell down, blood splattered over his heart, and his chest was no longer moving.
The only remaining staff members of the research institute were on the last floor. Lu Yanli saw through the one-way glass that they were constantly debugging a strange machine. One end of the machine was connected to the outside of the wall, and the other end was connected to an unknown twisted black fog.
"Can it travel through space?" He couldn't help but move closer, breathing lightly, as if he was afraid to disturb those people.
"Yes, this is the only machine we have developed that does not rely on non-natural energy to jump through space." The brain is very proud, "In order to obtain relevant data, in the past few years, we have been sending investigators to travel through time and space through containment objects."
"According to you, we will succeed in less than 24 hours?" Even with Lu Yanli's temperament, he couldn't help but get excited at this moment. He had waited for too long, and had been spinning in a repetitive cycle of time and space. Now could he finally leave
He wanted to go to a normal world without strange things or supernatural phenomena, where he didn't have to live in fear all the time. He wanted to live freely.
The brain was also very happy and reminded: "Remember, you must take me with you."
"Why don't you let the staff take you with them?"
Brain: "Okay, I'll tell you the truth, because this machine needs to be operated manually, and when they have only one left, I'll be the only one who can operate it."
"Wait a moment, you pretend to be a staff member and go in directly, and take me in." The brain guided him into the room he was in, and called a staff member temporarily. After Lu Yanli knocked him out, he changed into a white work suit.
"Wait a little longer, wait a little longer..."
The surveillance screens in the institute were all black, but the few screens that were still lit clearly showed all kinds of strange creatures in the ocean. Some of them could still be seen in shape, while some had long gone beyond the scope of creatures that humans could understand.
Lu Yanli murmured: "Where on earth did these deformed things come from..."
Perhaps because I was about to leave, my brain said, "Mutation."
"In the earliest days, it was nuclear reactions that caused human mutations, with nearly 90% of human genes mutated. Later, the institute continued to conduct experiments in the hope of reversing the situation, but the results only made the mutations worse. The space materials used by some scientists attracted unnatural materials from other dimensions, and we discovered that there were other worlds.
Later, the institute added a new space-time research project, using strange objects to travel to the new world. The development of the space-time machine requires data, and investigators need to keep shuttling back and forth. Sometimes, when they come back, they will bring more strange substances from that world. "
The result of all these mistakes is a completely broken world. No one wants to save it, it is already riddled with holes and will soon perish.
Lu Yanli remained silent as he looked into the eyes of a fish with a leopard-like head outside the screen. The latter's pupils were white as it struggled with the tentacles of a giant octopus in the turquoise water. Its scales and flesh kept falling off, gradually revealing its deformed white bones.
He turned and walked towards the group of staff, blending in with them, working quietly. With his memory and the reminders from his brain, he didn't make any mistakes.
There is only one hour left before the end of the 24 hours.
"The spatial coordinates have been determined."
“Energy ready…”
"Going into the first test..."
They prepared a carefully bred little white mouse without any mutations. The cage was placed in the middle space of the machine, which seemed a little empty.
"."
"two."
"one!"
Rows of joysticks were pulled down, buttons were pressed, and display screens lit up, as everyone waited anxiously, hoping that their experiments would be successful and praying to the non-existent gods for a miracle to happen.
A small ball of white light appeared, and gradually, the light became more and more dazzling, and gradually became so bright that it could not be seen directly by the naked eye. The little white mouse seemed to have a premonition of something, scratching the cage anxiously and screaming, but its resistance was too weak and it had no chance of escape.
The white light became brighter and brighter. Wearing sunglasses was useless. Closing your eyes would allow you to see the thin blue blood vessels winding on your eyelids. When the white light finally dimmed, everyone ignored their sore eyes and looked towards the center of the venue.
They were disappointed.
The cage disappeared, and in the middle of the field, which was large enough to accommodate seven or eight people, there was only a small, bloody rat corpse with sticky white hair.
"Impossible, there must be something wrong."
"We can't fail. We have been doing this experiment for so long, how could we fail?"
No one can endure such a gap, especially now that strange creatures have invaded the institute. They don't have time to survive another ten years.
"Could it be that the energy required to travel through space is too high for the little white mouse to bear?"
"Rather than the energy required, it is better to say that it is the space pressure that needs to be resisted." Someone made a guess.
Indeed, don't humans also need space suits to balance the pressure when walking in outer space? Perhaps there is pressure between spaces that mice cannot withstand
The first person who rushed to take away the body of the mouse made a preliminary judgment that it seemed to have died from external pressure. As for the missing cage, they speculated that the cage was made of a special material and might successfully lead to another world.
"Now, who is willing to give it a try?" a researcher asked the crowd.
Lu Yanli quietly asked his brain: "Are you sure it's successful?"
The brain scanned it quickly: "The success rate is very high." Just as it finished speaking, the speed of speech suddenly increased, "Oh no, they have reached the second to last floor!"
These words were not spoken quietly to Lu Yanli, but to all the staff members.
"Aren't they eliminated by pouring seawater? Why are they able to invade again?" a researcher asked in surprise. Of course they knew about the operation of pouring seawater, and they all believed that it was an accurate judgment made by the brain.
On the surveillance camera, Lu Yanli's figure was erased. They didn't know that a "non-human" from another world had infiltrated their group.
The mechanical voice in my brain replied: "Please be prepared. There are only forty minutes left."
"No matter what, everyone put on compression clothes and start now!" the man who asked the question said hurriedly.
Of course they had compression clothes, not just one set. The compression clothes were difficult to put on, so Lu Yanli also took one, holding it and quietly walked out when no one was paying attention.
He needs to keep his promise and get his brain back.
The half-human, half-mechanical brain was in another laboratory. When Lu Yanli came in, he was so excited that he spoke very fast: "Hurry, hurry, hide me in there. You can leave first later."
"Take it off directly?" Lu Yanli put down the oppressive clothing, put his hands around his head, seemed a little hesitant, not knowing how to start.
"Yes, don't worry." The brain instructed him, "There is enough space in the compression suit to fit me. It's right in the chest."
With a strong sense of crisis, Lu Yanli stared at the brain. He felt something was wrong, but he couldn't put his finger on it. The closer he stretched his hand to the brain, the more goose bumps he got on the surface of his skin. His instinctive reaction reminded him - danger!
When his fingertips were only one centimeter away from his brain, his brain suddenly sank down and actually broke the two conveyor tubes and dropped them into his hands.
"Shit..." This was Lu Yanli's last thought.
He was completely unable to move and could only watch as the thin, soft red tentacles stretched out from under the head and crawled on the surface of his skin like a newborn octopus. Soon, they reached his head.
He shouldn't have believed in himself.
Lu Yanli struggled to mobilize the strength of his limbs. He couldn't see anything clearly. The soft and cold touch of the brain pressed against his face, leaving only a little space in his nose for him to breathe. He could feel the brain trying to get into his eye socket.
An eyeball was dug out intact, causing severe pain in the skull in the eye socket.
It is said that if the eyeball is not damaged after being dug out, it will not have any effect if it is put back within a short period of time.
“Click.”
Half of the mechanical brain fell to the ground, and only the other half of the brain was still drilling through the eye socket. Compared to the hard machinery, the soft brain easily crawled in through the eye socket.
"Don't worry, you are me and I am you." The mind comforted him, "I've waited for so long, and finally I can have a real body."
Lu Yanli heard a voice ringing in his head. Without the electronic sound component, the voice was exactly the same as his own.
"We have all been waiting for a long, long time."
He was speechless, and his remaining brain was working frantically, as if trying to reject the other brain like his.
He remembered what the brain said, "I am willing to be swallowed up," and what it said, "Two absolutely identical things cannot exist in the same space and time."
Why, why did he forget such a simple truth
He thought of the psychological hints he had given to Lin Chu and the others, each one lasting one second longer.
There was a sharp pain in the head, and familiar yet unfamiliar memories began to blend and devour each other.
He looked...
The first time you kill your past self.
At that time, his past self was willing to die in his hands. He thought his past self was doing it for the sake of balance and to keep this closed loop of time and space going, but he didn't expect that he was wrong from the beginning. Before his past self died, he gave him a psychological hint -
From then on, every time he issued a kill order to all members of the institute, one second would be added to the execution time of the previous order.
He was indeed willing to be devoured, so only half of him was devoured, and the other half of his brain was exchanged for a human body. Then, the half of his brain that got the human body went to the other world and built an ordinary human life for itself. The other half stayed in the research institute and was controlled.
Lu Yanli, who first got his body and lost his memory, wanted to break the time loop, but he couldn't break it at the beginning, otherwise it would cause a series of dangerous consequences that he couldn't be sure of. He understood himself best and knew what he would do, so he gave some hints to his past self before "dying".
A few times before, this past self had been killed by those monsters, but because the time was too short, it did not cause too much change.
After several reincarnations, this time, Lin Chu's death time was extended by five seconds.
Therefore, she was able to say her last words, causing Chu Xian to become suspicious, thus triggering a series of follow-up events.
The brain knew that after several cycles of consumption, the energy of the statue had been almost consumed. Moreover, after several detours and constant return to the past, it had a wealth of experience in commanding the research institute, whether it was the defense system or the development of space shuttle machines.
Now, it is about to succeed.
Only a small half of the flesh-white brain remained outside the eye socket, and suddenly, its movement to squeeze in paused.
It sensed the danger, but it could no longer avoid it.
"Bang!"
There was a slight gunshot, and the bullet accurately hit half of the brain.
Outside, Lu Yanli, who was supposed to be killed, walked slowly, pulled the safety of his pistol, pointed it at his own eye sockets, and with a "bang", another shot was fired.
He is not dead.
His future self should have killed him, but the other party left him some leeway for some reason. The dagger was inserted near his heart, causing only minor injuries, which were not serious.
He lay motionless and pretended to be dead for a long time, until those things were about to break into the last floor, then he got up and chased after them.
Even if he didn't integrate the memory of his brain, after looking at this scene and adding his conjectures, what else could he not know
Now, those things... have broken in.
Lu Yanli looked down, then tore off a piece of cloth, pulled the brain out from the eye socket, and put the eyeball back.
In the future, he is completely dead, his carotid artery no longer beats, there is half a metal brain on his side, and a huge compression suit.
He quickly put the compression suit on his future self, shoved his dead brain inside, and dragged him out, back to the lab.
The machine was running, white light flickering, and other researchers were all busy putting on compression suits. He took another set, pushed the corpse next to the machine, and put it on quickly.
“Ahh—”
A researcher leaning against the wall screamed. The wall beside him cracked, and a long, thin tentacle stretched out from the crack, grabbed his neck, and reached into his open mouth.
The screams stopped abruptly, and the researcher's skin quickly shrank, and soon he became skin and bones. The tentacles sucked one clean like drinking a straw, and immediately went to find the next one.
It seemed that it had adapted to the seawater and produced new mutations, before carrying out the final slaughter in the underground laboratory.
Fluorescent green seawater also seeped in from the cracks, coming from all directions and spreading towards the center.
Lu Yanli put on his helmet and loaded the bullet before leaving, aiming at the researchers who were still alive and whose skin was covered in sea water and who were trying to rush towards the machine.
The group of creatures were attacked unexpectedly, fell to the ground, and were soon dragged away by the tentacles, with screams rang out one after another.
He had wanted to do this for a long time, even if this group of people were not infected, he would have wanted to do it.
In the center of the machine, a white light lit up, and the pressure suit was extremely heavy, providing him with full protection at this moment. It was all white, and he couldn't see anything, only feeling the constant squeezing of air pressure around him.
I couldn't see anything. I couldn't open my eyes to see. Even with my eyes closed I could still feel the blinding white light. My head was splitting with pain, and I kept feeling nauseous and vomiting. It felt like my internal organs were being crushed, and there were many other strange feelings, none of which had anything to do with comfort.
But he was happy in his heart.
After a long, painful and lonely journey of time and space, the man finally gave his first truly relaxed smile under pressure.
Whether he succeeds or fails, he has done his best.
After an unknown amount of time, Lu Yanli managed to regain some consciousness. He heard the sound of the sea gently washing the coast, and felt the lightness of his body being lifted up by the waves.
He slowly opened his eyes, and the sunlight penetrated the cracked helmet visor and rushed into his eyes.
It is an ordinary sun.
He looked sideways, sat up with difficulty, and stared at the endless blue sea. Beside him, a body also wearing a compression suit was also floating on the sea, rising and falling with the waves.
Not a few meters away from them was a twisted mass of metal that looked like it had once been a pet cage.
He reached out and took off his own mask. He wanted to smile, and curled the corners of his lips, but the curve was immediately straightened out. After sitting for a while, he reached out again and took off the mask next to him.
A face that looked exactly like his, with its eyes slightly open and a calm expression, appeared.
Half of the brain also slipped off and floated in the sea water, and was picked up by him.
"I'm free."
He threw the mask into the sea, reached out to close the eyes of the corpse, and whispered to himself: "We are free."