Cyber ​​Ghost Record

Chapter 5, Part 5: Rescue
The scalding blood droplets gradually cooled in the night breeze.

Suger lay down for another five minutes until the effects of the medicine wore off before he sat up.

His first instinct was to pick up the pistol at his feet before leaning against the wall and sitting down.

The non-slip leather grip of the gun fit snugly against his palm, providing a reassuring feel; it was the only thing he dared to trust.

The gray-haired man's body leaned against the wall, blood oozing from his carotid artery running down his shoulder, along his arm, past his fingertips, and dripping into a pool of blood below.

The monk lay a few meters away, his crushed compound eyes falling beside his ears like a few rotten lychees. The doctor was also dragged aside, his upper body in his sterile gown almost entirely stained black with blood.

The enemy was dead, but Sog didn't know if he was safe. The gunshots were silenced, but who knew how sharp a wolf's ears were?

But he no longer had the strength to escape this place.

He felt a burning pain in his abdomen.

Although the doctor had treated his wound, even with the best-case scenario in mind—the doctor had sealed the damaged stomach wall—it couldn't stop the residual stomach acid from corroding his peritoneum and other organs.

Medicine was highly advanced in this era, and his pancreatic cancer was cured with ease; the "doctor" had simply used some gel to stop his bleeding.

But he may not be able to hold on for much longer, maybe twenty minutes, maybe an hour or two?

If he could not receive treatment, he could only hope that the medicine of this era had advanced to the point of being able to bring the dead back to life.

He tried to control his breathing and avoid engaging his abdominal muscles.

His head also hurt, as if it had been split open by an axe.

This is a lingering effect of the brain overheating just now.

He examined the gun in his hand, then his gaze shifted to the gray-haired man's corpse, recalling the scene just now.

He did indeed connect with the gray-haired man's mind and control his physical actions.

This is practically a superpower.

During his adolescence, he often fantasized about having some special ability, such as being able to start a fire or generate electricity with a snap of his fingers, being able to fly, or being able to read minds.

He had many dreams of that kind back then.

Now, he's starting to wonder if he's dreaming.

Indeed, he had just witnessed the "General's" abilities.

The general allowed him to see from the perspective of the wrathful Vajra statue.

But those two Buddhist guardian statues were probably just monitoring equipment. The general also used hacking techniques to hack into and tamper with the monitoring footage.

But without using any electronic devices, relying solely on his physical body, Suger accomplished something even more astonishing—

He hacked into a living person!
Although he saw many bizarre and fantastical sights after waking from hibernation, he could always find some logic behind them that made sense.

For example, the gods and Buddhas in the clouds might be giant holographic projections high in the sky, and nurses and generals might be artificial intelligence that manifests its image in electronic devices through augmented reality technology.

But how do we explain "superpowers" nowadays?
Why did that man call him "Buddha" before he died?
What exactly happened to him during his hibernation?
"Is he really awake...?"

Suger felt his thoughts were confused and adrift.

One moment I'm thinking of the brain in a vat, the next I'm thinking of Inception, and I feel like I might be trapped in a virtual space created by someone, just like in the novels and movies I've seen before.

Suddenly he saw the gun in his hand, and a thought popped into his mind—

If it really is a dream, what would happen if I shot myself like this?

As if possessed, his wrist, the one holding the gun, slowly rotated.

As the gun was about to be pointed at him, he saw the remaining bloodstains and soft tissue, shuddered, and abruptly moved the gun away.

The movement engaged his abdominal muscles, and a sharp pain snapped him out of his daze.

He hissed, his features contorted, cold sweat rolling down his forehead and soaking his eyebrows. It took him a while to catch his breath.

This pain feels so real.

"calm down……"

He wiped away the cold sweat and reminded himself.

Put aside what you can't figure out for now. Regardless of how he got the ability to control the gray-clad man, it's still a good thing.

If it weren't for this ability, he would have been at the mercy of others and turned into a commodity.

Suger's gaze swept over the three dead bodies beside him, and he suddenly realized a crucial point.

These people kidnapped him for money, but what about the general?
What was the purpose of the "general" who gained his trust, tricked him out of the hospital, brought him here, and then created a virtual image to lure him into jumping off a building to commit suicide?
A spark ignited again in Socrates's chest, which was filled with despair.

The generals are "them," they are the enemies.

Two hundred years have passed, and his enemies still want to kill him.

The enemy still fears that "truth".

His mission still has meaning.

A light shone in Suger's eyes.

First, we need to figure out how to save ourselves!
Survive and find your organization.

"What do we do now? Think about it, think about it..."

Suger rubbed his throbbing temples.

The abdominal wound rendered him unable to move, and the several dead bodies in front of him indicated that this place was indeed fraught with danger.

He arrived here safely with the "general," but who guided him to make a safe retreat?

He looked out at the night rain, but his view was kicked off the building by the gray-haired man and had already fallen to who-knows-where. Even if he wanted to take a gamble and believe the nurse, he no longer had the chance.

He tried calling the police first. He struggled to his feet, staggered to the doctor's body, took off the mask from his white sterile gown, and tried to remove the blue lattice-shaped eye patch that resembled the doctor's vision.

The doctor's head was like a tightly sealed block of steel, with no way to find a point of entry. He had no choice but to give up and instead searched the three people. He did not find any communication devices such as cell phones or watches, but he did find a black bracelet, which had been crushed by the gray-haired man.

Suger picked up the bracelet by chance, fiddled with it for a while, but his hopes were dashed. Enduring the excruciating pain, he kicked the gray-haired man's shoe.

"Fuck you."

He threw away the bracelet.

After searching for a while, the burning sensation in my stomach actually lessened; perhaps the stomach acid had already corroded the nerves.

Even if he inexplicably gained the so-called "telepathy" and was mistaken for "Buddha", he was helpless to treat his injuries and could only sit weakly against the wall.

Perhaps only true gods and Buddhas can save me.

A damp, cold wind blew in, and Suger turned his head.

Through the rain, one can only see the gods and Buddhas far away in the clouds.

……

Twelve bronze chariots soared through the air, sandalwood burned fiercely, and gods and ghosts strolled in the rain.

Under the night sky fragmented by skyscrapers, a flying car heads towards the east side of the city. Its white body is illuminated by the firelight, and the totem with a bird's head and a deer's body is lifelike.

Inside the car, a holographic screen displays the urban layout of Yingchuan City, with red dots indicating prohibited behaviors flashing intermittently in the streets.

A man and a woman sat in the vehicle, their white combat uniforms clinging to their bodies, the black exoskeletons covering their joints reflecting the firelight outside the window.

A conversation is underway.

"The Red Mountain Medical Association has issued an alarm."

The woman's lips did not move when she spoke, nor did her vocal cords vibrate.

Her idea was born in the stage of visual thinking, and its neural signals were captured by the microelectrode array in her brain and transmitted to the brain-computer interface of the anterior and posterior fontanelles of the skull. The processor then analyzed the signals, generated language, and sent them to the person she was talking to. The whole process only took a few milliseconds.

The man, however, still used a primitive way of speaking, saying solemnly, "Another hibernator."

Almost the instant he finished uttering the last syllable, the woman's voice rang in his ear.

"Why 'again'? In the past five years, there have been a total of 14025 unusual cases in Yingchuan City, but only 13 of them involved hibernating individuals."

The man countered, "But in these five years, medical institutions have only registered 29 awakened hibernators. Of those 29, 13 were involved in unusual cases. This ratio is abnormal. Moreover, the older the hibernator, the more likely they are to get into trouble, I think..."

The woman interrupted the man.

"There's nothing wrong with this ratio. Hibernators can't adapt to the times, so they're easy targets, which is normal."

"That's not normal," the man insisted.

“He has been missing for 63 minutes, and he was taken to the Six Desires Heaven, where he stayed for 51 minutes. His chances of survival are almost zero. It’s too late to collect his body now. Your decision will only waste 13 minutes of our time.”

"I'll only know after I go there."

"You're too emotional, too reliant on your biological brain!" the woman said, her tone displeased.

“My intuition is pretty accurate,” the man said.

"Whatever," the woman snorted. "Anyway, your personal performance review won't pass this quarter."

The man changed his destination.

On the holographic screen, in the northwest corner of the city, the location of the Six Desires Heaven is a blank area covering 19 square kilometers.

The destination sign appears in the southwest corner of this area, next to the travel time.

【00:03:53:32】

In mid-air, Feilian turned the car around.

……

On the night sky, spiderwebs on the corners of pillars swayed precariously in the wind and rain.

Amidst the blood, the chanting of Buddhist hymns filled the air, giving Su Ge a sense of tranquility and peace.

He withdrew his gaze from the gods and Buddhas and looked to his side. There were his footprints on the dusty ground, almost touching the edge of the floor.

If I hadn't exposed those illusions, I might have died in my dream.

He looked up, staring blankly at the dark dome of the Night Sky, and suddenly felt very sleepy. His eyelids felt like they were filled with lead, and he gradually closed them.

Maybe when you open your eyes next time, you'll be awake from the dream.

Suger fell into a deep sleep.

A soft buzzing sound came from my ears.

Like an ice floe rising from the dark sea, the snow-white car body rose from the night rain.

Suger faintly heard approaching footsteps.

He tried to defend himself; his brain gave the command to raise his gun, but his body did not respond.

In a daze, I only heard a man talking to himself.

"They're all dead..."

"How did he do that?"

"It's him. We can confirm it. He's the person we're rescuing. He's still alive and needs to be treated as soon as possible."

"My intuition is pretty accurate, isn't it?"

(End of this chapter)