abyss rose

The vehicle drove away from the lifting platform and headed towards the city defense center of the base.

There was silence in the car for a while, some people were waiting for an answer, while others were at a loss.

I don't know how long the silence lasted, and the officer in the driver's seat spoke again: "Is... is he still there?"

A soldier lives in such a world and witnesses the death of his own kind all the time. He should understand what such silence means, but he can't help but have a little expectation in his heart.

Chai Yuening subconsciously wanted to weave a lie, but the words reached her throat, but she couldn't speak.

The moment the floating city finds the base in the fog area, the lie will eventually be smashed. Its short existence does not have much meaning.

Chu Ci felt her struggle and responded softly for her. "He was infected, and just half a month ago, he turned into a bird and flew away."

"Really..." The officer was not surprised by this, "He has mutated, why didn't the people there kill him?"

"The base in the fog area does not need infection monitoring. They have drugs that can resist mutations. Although they cannot completely prevent mutations, although mutations may occur again at any time, at least they can retain their will for a longer period of time after infection. "Chai Yuening said softly, as if wanting to give him a little comfort, "There, human beings don't have to kill people, but they will release every mutant who was a companion."

Chai Yuening stopped talking at this point.

She thought, that's enough, and Chu Ci didn't have any intention of answering.

Some truths are not acceptable to everyone, so some things do not have to be stated clearly.

After a long silence, she heard a sigh-like reply.

"Thank you for telling me this." His voice was full of regret, but also somewhat relieved, "I was only in my teens when he was still alive, and he hoped that I would be a soldier like him when I grow up. Protecting the base... At that time, the base still had a different control center, and the infected people did not need to be shot/killed immediately, the military was really protecting everyone in the base."

"It's not like now, the beasts are killing people, and we are killing people too." He said, took a deep breath, spoke calmly, but said with some relief, "He really managed to protect him all his life." Humanity."

The long absence of more than 20 years is like a long buffer zone. No matter how much sentimentality, I will bear it silently, and there is no need to merge into a drop of tears at this moment.

At that moment, Chai Yuening couldn't help thinking that this might also be a kind of destiny.

The soldier who had been guarding mankind all his life wanted to harm mankind uncontrollably after a complete mutation, and his son stopped everything before he made a big mistake.

Chai Yuening looked out the window with mixed feelings. She found that the vehicle that was going to the city defense center turned to the base research institute.

The officer surnamed Liu started to communicate with the research institute of the base.

"Hello, this is the base research institute."

"Liu An, City Defense Station, please transfer to Dr. Yi Shuyun."

The transferred standby signal "beep-beep-" rang a few times before the doctor on the other side finally responded.

"Base Research Institute, Yi Shuyun, what's the matter?"

The familiar voice was very tired, even a little impatient.

Chai Yuening remembered that this doctor once told her that the military suddenly contacted the research institute, and there was nothing good at all.

In the words of this doctor: "Those guys know shit science, and soldiers intervening in the research is purely adding to the chaos. They either make some rules or make some unreasonable demands."

Last time regarding the leak of Chu Ci’s confidential files, the military used ambiguous words to exert invisible pressure on the research institute. In the end, mobs/people rushed into the research institute and smashed it. The research institute lost its final trust in the military. It is also normal.

But this time, it's really not a bad thing.

"Dr. Yi, the person who took the sample is back. She said that she wants to see you. She has very important research results on her body-these research results come from the human base deep in the foggy area."

After a long silence, Yi Shuyun's trembling voice came from the communicator.

"Okay, I'll wait for her at the institute."

Chai Yuening didn't know how many complicated emotions were suppressed in this answer, and her voice seemed to be hazy from Chu Ci's eyes.

Chu Ci never said it, but Chai Yuening knew that in this seemingly ruthless human base, there was such a person who once gave her an indescribable tenderness.

The vehicles crossed the sky road shrouded in clouds, and they ran towards the unknown in their hearts with hope.

Not long after, they saw the base research institute in the distance.

It towered over the clouds as before, but it experienced another crazy riot/chaos.

Many instruments in the institute were damaged as a result, and experimental samples were also damaged to varying degrees, and some researchers were even injured.

There were so many people involved in that riot/chaos that the base couldn't deal with all of them, and in the end they could only lock up those who took the lead.

The sample numbered A0027 was lost, but Yi Shuyun, who was guarding the sample, was not dealt with on the surface.

The willingness is very simple. For the base at that time, this sample can only continue to exist, or die at the hands of the mob. There is no third option to choose from.

Because people have been deceived once for 50 years, and they will never believe the claim that the "sample" is missing again.

In order to appease the anger, the base threw out a "scapegoat" - the old man who had mutated into a black vine in the E3 area.

The mutated sample left by the old man happened to have similar genetic characteristics to Chu Ci, and the data similar to those in the leaked experimental files could be displayed on the big screen in the laboratory.

This was a deception, but neither the research institute nor the base won. They lost the sample that was probably the last hope of mankind.

"Dr. Yi said that this is all retribution. It's ironic that such words come from a biologist, isn't it?" Chief Liu said, laughing at himself, "But it's really like retribution. People seem to be really I made a mistake, so the retribution will follow."

On the day the sample was lost, the herd's invasion seemed like a punishment from heaven.

In just one afternoon, the infection situation in more than a dozen outer cities has reached an uncontrollable level.

The mutated crowd joined the herd, constantly attacking humans and the buildings and facilities of the outer city, and all systems seemed to have completely collapsed that afternoon.

The main city of the base had to make a cruel decision.

The self-destruct system of the outer city was activated, and all troops retreated to the main city to minimize the defensive circle.

"Have you seen it? That day, how did the outer city die with the herd of beasts..."

"I saw it."

"It was a nightmare from which we could not wake up," he said. "We were still in the dream, waiting day after day for the dream to collapse."

"..."

No one in this world seems to be optimistic, and Dr. Yi in the research institute is the same.

Chai Yuening never thought that she would meet Yi Shuyun again in this life, but it was just over a month, and this reunion seemed like a lifetime away.

The white light was on in the research room, and Yi Shuyun sat quietly in front of the large electronic screen, with a little more gray hair than the last time we parted.

She is not young anymore, she has dedicated her whole life to this institute.

The moment she heard the sound of footsteps, she turned around and looked outside the door. She didn't know what to expect or what, but at the moment when she saw Chu Ci again, she turned into a tear that had no place to hide. Dense in the eyes, slightly reddened, but not falling.

"Why did you come back?" Yi Shuyun asked in a deep voice, trembling uncontrollably.

"We met a human base in the foggy area." Chu Ci responded, "We brought back the research results there."

"Why did you come back?" Yi Shuyun asked again.

Chai Yuening couldn't hide the guilt and self-blame in her eyes, and still couldn't believe it.

Yi Shuyun can hardly imagine that the sample who has been tortured by various experiments in the Floating Void City for 50 years, has no freedom, no light, and is even disgusted, hated and abandoned by everyone in the end, what kind of danger would it take to escape from the fog zone? The depths come back here with research results that may be enough to change humanity.

Wouldn't she hate it?

"Doctor, we brought back the research results there." Chu Ci spoke again.

She didn't answer Yi Shuyun's question, her words were the calmest reminder - Doctor, you know what is most important.

Yi Shuyun turned his back, his shoulders seemed to tremble a little.

After a short silence, she raised her head slightly, trying to calm down, and said softly, "What result..."

Chai Yuening took out the silver-gray USB flash drive and walked to Yi Shuyun's side: "This is what the gentleman in the fog zone asked me to give to Floating Void City. All the research results of his life are in it. Helpful to the floating city."

Yi Shuyun took it with trembling hands, and held it firmly in his palm: "The gentleman you mentioned is..."

Chai Yuening: "Mr. Shi Wenlin was once one of the researchers of the Old World Secret Research Institute. For more than 50 years, he has been leading a group of human beings, living in the depths of the foggy area, waiting for the outside world to discover."

Yi Shuyun was silent for a moment, then murmured thoughtfully, "Secret Research Institute of the Old World..."

Chai Yuening nodded and continued: "The people in the fog zone base will use inhibitors to delay the mutation, although the effect is not long-lasting, although they will more or less have some inhuman characteristics, such characteristics are placed in the floating city. , will definitely be regarded as a monster, killed on the spot or captured for research, but in the fog zone base, everyone is like this. They cherish every day and night with human will left, cherish every life, and use their own way, They will not dislike each other, relying on these mutated characteristics, they strive to adapt to life in the depths of the foggy area..."

Yi Shuyun's calm eyes gradually became brighter, like a person in a desperate situation seeing hope.

Letting human beings integrate into this brand new ecology has always been the only goal of the research institute. It can suppress and delay the occurrence of mutations in the human body, and allow human beings to acquire characteristics that do not belong to human beings while retaining their own will. The result you're looking for?

Yi Shuyun turned around and inserted the USB flash drive into the data reading port, and began to carefully check the contents inside.

Those are extremely complicated data for most people, but for Yi Shuyun, they are treasures in the world, just flipping through a few pages, tears welled up in his eyes.

Chai Yuening took out an inhibitor from his backpack and placed it gently on the table: "Dr. Yi, this may be useful for the Institute."

Yi Shuyun didn't speak, just quietly looking at the pages of research results on the screen.

"It turns out...we've been getting it wrong all along..."

"The old shackles bind us..."

"The new direction, in chains, passed us by..."

She murmured in a low voice, with joy and self-blame intertwined in her heart, as if she was crying or laughing.

After an unknown amount of time, she stood up and asked Liu An to inform the military and the entire base of the matter.

She excitedly wanted to announce this belated hope to everyone. After obtaining the base's permission, she would also pass on the research results of these foggy bases to the dungeon base.

Liu An left the research room, and Yi Shuyun no longer had bottomless fatigue in his eyes.

Although the research results of the fog zone base are still not perfect, as long as there is a correct breakthrough, she firmly believes that human beings can find a truth.

A nightmare that made people unable to wake up seemed to be drawn to an end by a glimmer of hope at this moment.

She turned to look at Chu Ci, but the words of thanks were stuck in her throat.

She saw that there was no joy in Chu Ci's eyes. The survival of human beings seemed to have nothing to do with this girl.

"Dr. Yi, the base files show that in 2178, I was sent to the research institute and became the only existence that successfully merged with Hei Teng." Chu Ci took two steps forward, "But the gentleman said that in 2177, the old world has not yet Destruction, he met me in the secret research institute, and he performed the surgery. Is this true?"

"..."

"The memory before the age of 16 is very vague to me. Why did the base modify my file and take something from my memory?"

Chu Ci looked at Yi Shuyun very seriously, wanting to ask for an answer.

In her eyes, there is an expectation that Yi Shuyun has never seen before: "Doctor, can you tell me?"

That was the only person she trusted in the entire floating city.

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The author has something to say:

I'm sorry that the update has been a bit slow these days. It's just that I don't dare to write for no reason. In fact, the writing is quite smooth. If I don't get stuck, I just feel anxious and confident. I seem to have run away from home.But don't worry, I'll just adjust it myself. It can be finished this month, and there is not much content left in the outline.