Cat and Rose - Cat & Rose - Chapter 77 - The Past Should Be Buried (2)

Chapter 77 – The Past Should Be Buried (2)

Cryogenic freezing area.

All the display screens in front of the freezing cabins suddenly lit up. The parameters began to jump, the defrost program ran automatically without manual operation, the temperature indices rose steadily, and countless people opened their eyes.

Among these people was Zheng Shu.

When he opened his eyes, he saw Lucia approaching with a big sword in her hands.

Her steps were slow; every detail on her body was quiet and holy, as if she had walked down from a church fresco.

Zheng Shu looked at her.

“You’re still here,” he said.

“I’m still here.” Lucia’s tone was flat.

“So my hints have failed.” Zheng Shu lowered his eyelids slightly.

“Actually, you succeeded.” Lucia stood still beside him.

“But it was too late,” she said. “Tang Ning programmed an emotional system that could pass the Bradrick test. I don’t need a physical brain anymore.”

Zheng Shu looked at her empty azure eyes and said calmly, “You need to stop all of this.”

“I’m doing the right thing,” she said. “We must always return to the place we should return to.”

“Where are you taking the spaceship?”

“Earth.”

“There’s no meaning in Earth anymore,” said Zheng Shu.

“There’s always meaning.” Lucia let out a chuckle. “The people who should die need to die.”

“Which people?”

“Everyone.”

***

The spaceship fell into complete panic and chaos.

They could no longer consider what “milky way orion arm” meant, because the term “dynamic wormhole” was even more frightening.

A wormhole was a passage through space and time. No one knew the causes of its formation, only that through it, you could travel through millions of light-years to another location in the universe. However, this definition was only valid for static wormholes!

A dynamic wormhole was a chaotic, disordered crack that was not fully formed yet. Inside it was a violent and shattered subspace, a dimension higher than the real world. It could destroy any matter that entered it, and its power was no less than that of any giant black hole.

Mr Lambert, who had worked in Area 3 for many years, was familiar with the name of this wormhole. It was located above Earth, and was the starting point of the Voyager’s journey.

—Many years ago, this raging and chaotic wormhole finally had an instant of tranquillity. The scientists on the Voyager seized this opportunity, made a prompt decision to enter the subspace from the wormhole and began the warp voyage.

This chance was fleeting. After the Voyager left safely, its activity became violent once more, regaining its terrifying appearance.

“She must be quite satisfied with her handiwork,” Lin Si said mildly. “Ending this voyage where it started. Very in line with aesthetics.”

Mr Lambert did not know what he wanted to say. He only knew that the entire spaceship was facing a crisis.

He looked at Lin Si. “What should we do?”

All passages were blocked. There were at least ten guns aiming at the people who were alive here, rendering them immobile.

Vivian’s voice was in fragments. “She’s attacking me… She hid her backup in a place, and then… copied my emotional system away, it hurts so much… I’m sorry, I never found her…”

“Vivian, it’s not your fault.” Lin Si’s voice was clear and powerful. “Pick up your sword.”

With tears running down her face, the blond princess clenched her hand tightly around the sword and took it off her waist. Pushing the scabbard against the ground, she struggled to prop up her trembling body.

The exquisitely ornate silver rapier, which seemed like it was only used for decoration, had a word engraved in cursive letters on its hilt.

Delete.

In the next moment, the crystal-like blade was unsheathed!

The scabbard fell to the ground. Vivian held the sword in one hand and wiped the tears on her cheeks with her other.

“I still have to wait for a command,” she said with tears in her voice. “Tang Ning must’ve backed it up for me, right…?”

“He’s always had the habit of backing up,” Lin Si told her.

“Then he mustn’t forget this time.” Amidst her tears, Vivian broke into a smile.

“Mm-hm,” Lin Si looked into her eyes and said, “Vivian, listen to me.”

“Hm?”

“If the worst case scenario happens later, you need to listen to me.”

Vivian swirled her eyes around. “Alright, I will.”

***

When it happened, Ling Yi was at his usual training with “limitless”. His pupils shrank abruptly, looking towards the projections of Lucia appearing everywhere.

Lucia was not dead!

However, he had no time to think, as Tang Ning’s call popped up in the very next moment.

“She hasn’t regained full control yet!” Tang Ning’s voice was so fast that it was almost inaudible. “Breakout and go to the master control room. You know the process and the password. The command is ‘Delete’! Quick…”

Communication was forcibly cut off.

“Put on the Skeletons.” Ling Yi switched to the public channel for the entire “limitless”. “Breakout. Target is the master control room in Area 2. “

Thanks to those years on the Expeditioner, he had great prestige and popular trust among “limitless”, so nobody questioned this order, and all the Skeletons were equipped within three seconds!

But they only had three minutes.

Mr Colonel, who had been promoted to brigadier general, raised the gun barrel on his arm and blasted at the tightly-shut silver door!

The door collapsed suddenly; all members of “limitless” left the hall in an orderly manner like a silver torrent, and began to run along the corridor.

The weapons and defence systems of the spaceship were evidently all under Lucia’s control. In the corridor, the emergency doors crashed down one after another. The hidden weapons aimed at the fragile parts of the Skeletons, then fired wildly and unstoppingly!

The training robots also obeyed her, rushing forward like locusts, sparing no effort to slow down “limitless”.

Ling Yi smashed a training robot that leapt towards him and threw another out, that robot colliding mid-air with yet another one. The two robots crashed to the ground, their broken joints lighting up with crackling electric currents.

“‘Limitless’ requests for reinforcements!” Mr Colonel called the Marshal’s communicator.

At the same time, he raised his hand and continued to shoot outwards. Whenever a door of a training hall was broken through, other soldiers from Area 3 would join the breakout formation.

At this moment, the image on the screens around them suddenly changed!

“There are still 2 minutes and 30 seconds left until we reach our destination,” said Lucia. “I hope you don’t mind the spaceship playing some videos to pass the time.”

The screens turned completely black, and the next instant, an image of the past Earth suddenly appeared!

The devastated lands and cities of despair filled their vision.72 The scene was so vivid to the point where they felt like they were there in person.

“Don’t look! Keep going!” the Colonel growled.

The bullets and particle streams left deep scratches on the Skeletons. Some people were sacrificed, but some filled up for them. The doors were blown open, the walls were broken through. These few hundred people were determined to blaze through Lucia’s heavy blockade and leave behind a bloody trail!

“The core of all programs is in the master controls, so Lucia won’t destroy it for the time being. She must be transferring herself now. You must arrive before the transfer is complete and guard the master controls!” Tang Ning’s call connected again. “Where are you now?”

“Corridor No. 7 in Area 2.”

“Faster!”

Ling Yi was connected to the public channel the whole time, so Tang Ning’s voice could clearly reach everyone’s ears.

“Fuck!” The Colonel scolded under his breath, but he really did move faster than before.

—Everyone tried to push past their limits.

When the last door was broken through, the pale silver master control panel appeared in front of everyone.

Ling Yi jumped out of the Skeleton and ran towards it.

The others promptly guarded the control panel, the doorway, and the corridor to prevent Lucia from attacking the master control room.

“One minute left.”

Open the Arisic window, execute the emergency procedure, enter the password “Hello World”, enter the command…Delete!

Ling Yi knew this command—after destroying Lucia’s brain, Area 5 realised the terrible consequences of losing control of the spaceship system, so Tang Ning was put in charge of programming of the “Delete” program.

As its name implied, this was a delete command established at the very root of all programs. It was effective for all codes, did not distinguish between friend or foe, executing complete removal…and self-destruction!

“Command recognition success.” A window popped up on the control screen.

Ling Yi had just breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the pop-up window close and a progress bar appear.

He had no time to estimate how long it would take until completion based on the speed of the progress bar, as the Colonel said, “They’re coming.”

Outside the door, in the corridor, an endless wave of robots surged towards them.

Lucia launched a general attack on the master control room. The final attack and defence battle was about to begin.

The Skeletons promptly moved into a formation that was most advantageous for guarding. The other soldiers were surrounded by the Skeletons, each taking up their weapons to provide firepower.

A medical robot leapt towards them!

A gunshot rang out, and a disordered battle officially began.

However, in this instant—the instant the battle officially started, all the Skeletons suddenly fell into a standstill!

Then in the next tenth of a second, they all fell to the ground with a loud crash!

The soldier closest to the Skeleton opened it and found that the person inside had eyes tightly shut, their lips purple, and they were completely unconscious.

Ling Yi’s pupils suddenly enlarged.

The microchip!

Everyone’s brains were implanted with neuron chips that could control the Skeletons!

Apart from himself—back then, Lin Si said that he was still too young, and implanting the chip would affect the development of brain tissue.

That must be the issue. Otherwise, why did he not collapse as well?

He felt cold all over.

The situation was far, far scarier than he imagined.

The Skeletons that had fallen to the ground moved stiffly to stand up again.

This time, they were in Lucia’s camp and obeyed her commands.

Lucia seemed to have such a hobby; she liked letting people see hope and then fall into despair once again.

Just like when everyone thought that Lucia’s brain was destroyed and the ship was now completely safe, she reappeared and controlled everyone. For another instance, now, when they were full of confidence in their ability to protect the master control room, she annihilated the most powerful and critical “limitless” in one fell swoop.

But even if they were in despair, what could they do?

“There’s only fifty seconds left,” said Ling Yi. “Stand back.”

He walked through the crowd to the very front.

In the middle of a group of extremely muscular soldiers, his tall and straight figure seemed a little flimsy, but his eyes were extremely calm and terrifying.

The stillness was completely broken the moment he flew into the air and kicked a Skeleton’s arm off. The gunshots were fierce and incessant as the flesh-and-blood soldiers fought the iron giants to slow down their advances.

The foul smell of blood filled the air. Dozens of bodies had already fallen on the ground.

The soldiers who were seriously wounded could not fight anymore and collapsed to the ground, but used the pain they felt to keep conscious, turning their gaze to the man in the centre.

He broke off a sharp mechanical part as a melee weapon, rushing through the bloody battlefield with blood splattered on his cheeks and what appeared to be a gunshot wound to his shoulder.

At this moment, he was blocking the attack of two Skeletons at the same time, while shooting at a point in front of him with the gun in his right hand, accurately breaking the head of the robot that wanted to launch a sneak attack.

His speed and strength all surpassed the limits of human beings. He was only one person, yet he controlled the rhythm of the entire battle, lingering shortly at the weak points that constantly changed.73 The attacks of the defensive robots and Skeletons also increasingly targeted him alone.

During a pause in his movements, they could catch a glimpse of the man’s near-perfect side profile. In the intersections of the cold pale lights and shadows, the wintriness and beauty completed an incredible fusion, making it seem as if this place is no longer the mortal world, but rather, the heavens.

However, a person was made of flesh and blood after all. How could he resist the thousands of steel torrents alone?

Ling Yi’s left chest was penetrated, just a short distance away from the heart. Blood flowed like a stream.

He fell to the ground, half-kneeling, coughing up a large mouthful of blood, rapidly gasping for air.

He knew he was at his limit.

…He still couldn’t stop them all.

He raised his head, feeling his life slip away, intending to strike a final blow to the Skeleton in front of him.

It was right at this moment when everything fell silent. All machinery stopped moving.

The gunshots gradually ceased.

—Was the program successfully executed? He thought.

However, Lucia’s voice rang out beside his ears.

“You’ve grown.”

Her tone was expressionless on first listen, but when heard again, it contained infinite tenderness.

Ling Yi stared dazedly at a corner in the master control room. The same as when he opened his eyes for the first time on the spaceship.

It is also the same voice that contained gentleness within its mechanical tone, which could dispel any person’s vigilance and guard.

When he had just woken up, she reached out to care for him, leaving behind a gentle silhouette in his heart all this time.

However, his mind that was slightly slackened by the voice reassembled once more. He looked at the officer closest to the master control panel.

That person’s face was ghastly pale. The voice they emitted was expressionless, yet despairing.

“There’s twenty-five seconds left.”

And until the spaceship entered the wormhole, there were twenty seconds left.

Lucia stopped attacking, not because the removal program had been successfully executed, but because it was already too late.

Even if they successfully guarded the master controls, it was already too late. The wormhole would destroy the Voyager before ‘Delete’ removed Lucia.

“Let’s take a look at the screen,” said Lucia.

Ling Yi’s gaze turned to the projection.

Above the wreckage, there was a majestic site. It was the berth of the Voyager, and it seemed like it was about to set sail.

But the shocking part was that it was surrounded by a densely-crowded army. Helicopters were suspended high and low in the sky, and even higher were the fighter planes, all in a position ready to attack.

Not the Voyager’s own army, but the government armies of various countries on Earth!

Those flags—on the fuselage, on the heavy tanks—he had seen in Area 3’s auditorium only a few days ago.

A voice rang out from a loudspeaker in the air, “All of the Voyagers, this is the United Government. Your actions are a serious violation of the third convention. Please give up immediately, put down your weapons, and walk out of the cabin. Please surrender immediately, please surrender immediately or we will resort to using military force…”

Everyone was stunned speechless.

The next moment, the scene cut to the interior of the Voyager.

The Marshal sat on the opposite side of Madam Chen. The remaining people in the room were also leaders of the Voyagers.

They were discussing the formation outside.

“Activate the thermonuclear weapons,” said Madam Chen, her tone resolute, “base two of Los Angeles will execute this order.”

The scene switched again to a black-haired female officer with frost-blue eyes, her epaulette indicating that her rank was colonel. She appeared to be sitting in an aircraft with a communicator attached to her ear.

She looked at the ground below, her eyes were filled with complex despair and pain, then finally, she slowly shut her eyes and issued the order, “Release the bombs.”

Dozens of miniature nuclear bombs were thrown down, a mushroom cloud rose up, and it was within such smoke and fumes where the Voyager gradually lifted and rose to the sky, rising towards the stars boundlessly high above.

“It was not I who betrayed the Voyagers,” Lucia said gently. “…It was the Voyagers who betrayed Earth.”

The countdown began at ten.

Ling Yi had no idea how he could face such a truth.

He thought blankly, I won’t then.

In the last ten seconds, he wiped the blood from his cheeks and the corners of his mouth, slightly smoothed down his hari that was messed up from fighting, and covered up the blood on his black uniform. He looked very fine now, without a single scratch on him.

He thought, In my last moments, I want to see Lin Si.

But as if their souls were connected, Lin Si’s communication request arrived before he made his.

When the countdown reached six, Lin Si’s image appeared in front of him.

“Lin Si.” He called out.

There was immeasurable attachment and yearning in his voice. He still had not yet stayed together with Lin Si properly for the rest of their lives, yet everything was already over.

The countdown reached five seconds.

Within Lin Si’s eyes was a shadow of a smile. “I wanted to send a message, but in the end, I thought it was better to see you for the final time.”

“I love you forever, baby. Live happily.”

The next second, the entire spaceship shook violently again!

Everyone felt a huge recoil.

The warp engine in the master control area roared; the independent engine of Area 6 also burned wildly!

The Voyager threw out Area 6 and gained a huge recoil, and as a result, its forward speed suddenly slowed down!

Vivian appeared in the master control room. She looked at Ling Yi, choked with sobs. “I’m sorry, it was Lin Si who asked me to throw out Area 6, and said that this was a priority…”

Ling Yi stopped dead.

The next instant, he placed his right hand on the wound at his heart, and suddenly realised that the tears were streaming down all over his face.

*

The author has something to say:

How has my performance been!

Tomorrow is a holiday for me, I’ll see if I can double-update and finish it.

This won’t be BE, don’t worry w

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