bury

"You gave up." Unit 03 muttered to itself.

You acknowledged Su He, and you abandoned the freedom that Zhu Yao herself acknowledged.

You gave up.

In the black space, Zhu Ning's facial features were shrouded in darkness, and the shadow of the giant behind her submerged her. She had no humanity and looked at her so coldly.

It was as if there was an invisible line, with Unit 03 and Zhu Ning standing at either end.

"I'm sorry." Zhu Ning said.

Unit 03 wanted to laugh. What did Zhu Ning have to feel sorry for himself?

Zhu Ning created her and gave her a soul. She is an extension of Zhu Ning's hands and feet and her anchor.

A person who is destined to be a tool from birth is also destined to be abandoned.

What can she do in the face of the fate of the world?

Unit 03 still remembers the purpose of their visit to Su He. She came for revenge, and Zhu Ning came to obtain information. Zhu Ning has achieved her goal and obtained information from Bai Cheng and Liu Niannian.

Killing Su He now or not will not have any impact on the future, and Su He's death or not has no meaning to Zhu Ning.

One of the abilities Unit-03 chose was fission and reassembly, where her body is cut into countless pieces and then reassembled into a new person. However, her abilities have been used to their limit, or her spirit is on the verge of collapse.

The collapse is literal. Her face was cut into pieces, the edges twitched slightly, and her facial features were dislocated several times. It seemed that she didn't need to use any supernatural powers. She would fall apart with just a slight touch.

Unit 03 lowered its head and took a deep breath. Zhu Ning felt her emotions fluctuate, declining like a line graph. She knew that this was a precursor to a drop in mental value. This was the same for the demon hunter's mental value before it was transformed.

Unit 03 is on the verge of collapse, and she has almost seen the future of Unit 03.

Unit 03 is about to reach its final step. Xu Meng also reached this step back then. He became uncontrollably alienated, his sanity collapsed, and he was possessed by obsession.

At this time, people can no longer be called human beings, they can only be regarded as monsters.

In order to avenge Xu Meng, Zhu Ning gave up everything, even her life and freedom were not enough. The newly born Unit 03 retraced Xu Meng's path in a short period of time.

Born on the assembly line, reduced to a tool, avenged his teammates, and everyone knows what happened next. After alienation, he burst out with his last vitality, lost his sanity, and turned into rotten meat after being killed.

"Do you remember being hospitalized as a child?" Unit 03 asked with his head lowered.

"I remember." Zhu Ning and she had the same false memory.

They have the same initial data due to their past experiences, and then develop three different personalities.

Zhu Ning guessed that Zhu Yao's memory model was very flexible. He thought that he should invest in a certain personality and let her experience the scene herself. It was like the same game, but different players would get different endings.

Zhu Ning often lost herself in memories. Her past life was like a Bible. She always looked back at it whenever something happened, hoping to find guidance from her destiny.

That was when Zhu Ning's wall-climbing adventure finally failed. She had a broken arm and a thick bandage on her head. Because her injuries were so severe, she had to be hospitalized.

Zhu Yao often visited her during that period. Zhu Ning was reluctant to leave the hospital because she wanted the busy Zhu Yao to pay more attention to her.

The walls of the old hospital were half painted green, the floor was a mottled pattern, the corridors were dimly lit by chandeliers, the air was always filled with the smell of medicine, and of course, death was everywhere.

Deaths happen every day in hospitals.

At that time, Zhu Ning relied on her young age and would run around the hospital as soon as she could move a little. She was agile and no one noticed her. This was an adventure that belonged to her alone, and she was like a living ghost in the hospital.

Zhu Yao probably knew that she was running around in the hospital, but she always turned a blind eye. Now it seems like she was deliberately letting her experience it.

Unlike the death of teammates that Zhu Ning experienced, the death of ordinary humans, especially in hospitals, is not a matter of a moment, but often a long process.

Many times, surgery is meaningless and the only option is to passively take medication to prolong life. The doctor will give an estimated survival time.

"Maybe there are only three months left." The doctor in a white coat said regretfully.

There are three main reactions from family members and patients: crying bitterly, disbelief, and the third reaction which happens more frequently. They usually have no expression and are numb as if they didn't understand what the doctor said at all. When Zhu Ning grew up, he realized that it was the feeling of powerlessness in the face of death, so powerless that they didn't even know what expression to make.

Zhu Ning, who was hiding in the corner, listened in a daze. There was no direct connection between her and death. She seemed to see its shadow slowly passing by, but it also seemed as if she only saw an illusion.

They were both pulled into a death trap, a one-way journey.

The Cthulhu mythology describes indescribable monsters, unknown fears, and huge bodies, while humans are as small as ants. Zhu Ning has always felt that when people face death, it is like facing such monsters.

Zhu Ning remembered one of the patients, a little boy about his age.

Zhu Ning always looked at him secretly, but they never said a word to each other.

Zhu Ning couldn't articulate a specific reason. Was it a condescending sympathy? Zhu Ning was at an age where he could play competitively and return to the court as soon as his hand healed, yet that child lay in bed, waiting to die. The contrast was too stark.

Is it cruel curiosity? The child innocently peeks into the corner of death.

Perhaps it is the fatal attraction of death that makes all living people stop and watch.

Then, at some unannounced moment, the person who was lying on this hospital bed the day before yesterday passed away the day after tomorrow.

Zhu Ning looked over secretly as usual, but did not see any familiar face. Behind the white curtain was a strange patient.

From the perspective of young Zhu Ning, it was like playing a horror game, and all the people in the house disappeared one by one.

She didn't know how common this was. If you expand the ward to the hospital, and expand it to the whole world, from a macro perspective, everyone is actually on the road to disappearing.

"Where did the patient in that bed go?"

"To the hospice."

Hospice hospitals only accept incurable patients or those who are about to die. The conditions are very poor, with a mixture of the smell of excrement and medicine. Death originally has no odor, but at that time it seemed to have a specific smell and color. The color of ordinary hospitals is dim, while the color of hospice hospitals is dark.

She had not found the little boy, and venturing through the hospice was like walking through the land of the dead.

She came back alive, but she could never forget the aura of death on her body.

That was the earliest death education Zhu Ning received.

She had vaguely sensed the outline of death, and then as she grew older and encountered more and more adventures, death became clearer and clearer from a vague outline.

Death is Xu Meng's rotten flesh slowly flowing through his fingers, it is the contaminated spores gently colliding in his palm, it is Song Zhizhang turning into cold and hard stone, it is Pei Shu burning fiercely, leaving only hot ashes, it is Zhu Yao's hand buried in the dust, hanging down helplessly.

It was the corpse on the roadside and the two centimeters thick dust under Su He's fingers.

It is her life span of less than 48 hours, and it is also the separation of life and death that is happening every moment.

"Everyone will die. Nothing is eternal." Unit 03 leaned against Song Zhizhang's body and said softly, "This is common sense. I don't know why everyone ignores this."

From the beginning, it was finite, a flower, a bird, a stone, and the land under their feet.

People will not live forever, but they expect the world to live forever.

Su He knew that everything would be destroyed, so he destroyed it first.

But destruction is not the end, nor is death.

Su He deceived Zhu Ning, or Su He was deceived by herself. She was scared crazy because of the fear of the inevitable death.

Even if Zhu Ning becomes a new world, she will not be immortal. She cannot achieve the immortality that the world desires.

There would be no war, no pollution, no suffering. None of this is possible, and certainly not by any one person alone, not even God.

It's like dangling a carrot in front of her, setting her a perfect goal that can never be achieved, and then forcing her to sacrifice and force her to move forward.

"You didn't understand what Zhu Yao said." Unit 03 said.

Zhu Yao saw through it all. She knew she was wrong. The Alpha series of experiments was a mistake from the beginning to the end.

Zhu Yao wanted to untie the non-existent carrot and cancel the impossible goal.

She wanted to give Zhu Ning true freedom.

But Zhu Yao died too early, and she did not tell her daughter the final answer to the mystery.

People are afraid of death, so they created a god and let the false idol take responsibility for everything. The last one was Bai Cheng, and now it is Zhu Ning.

They expect God to save the world when it is about to be destroyed, or they expect God to execute their will when they want to destroy the world.

Zhu Ning possesses a very complex algorithm that can attach to the nerves of countless people and perceive countless emotions. She has the eye of foresight and can peek into the future. She thought she had been upgraded and possessed such powerful abilities that she should be able to see through everything, but in front of Unit 03, she is still struggling to learn.

Because the emotions she was missing were on Unit 3.

Unit 3 wanted to tell her something. Zhu Ning had no humanity, so Unit 3's intention seemed so far away, as if Zhu Ning fell into the water, and Unit 3 was running and shouting anxiously on the shore.

Those simple words were vaguely conveyed through the sound of flowing water, and were interrupted at the critical moment each time.

Zhu Ning tried hard to feel, but she couldn't.

Unit 3 chose to tell her in a simpler way. She slowly stood up with the help of the wall, her body a little unstable. Zhu Ning wanted to take over the control of Unit 3, but she refused.

She didn't want to be a controlled puppet. Zhu Ning gave her a new life. She was free, and Zhu Ning couldn't force her to do things she didn't like.

"Su He."

Su He has gone far away. The world may be about to end, or she may see the replacement of the old world with the new world. She should choose a viewing seat and wait for death to come.

She had no interest in killing Unit 03, and even the Rat-Head Man was making rustling movements, wanting to follow his superior and leave.

Su He heard the sound and turned around. Unit 3 stood up shakily. The cracks on her face were getting bigger and bigger, and the flesh and blood inside could be seen. She looked so miserable, like a dog that was beaten to death.

Behind her was the wall condensed by Song Zhizhang. Unit 03's two hands hung down, and its right hand was wrapped in red flames.

Fire-related abilities.

Unit 03 is too easy to guess. If it says it will use its dead teammates to decorate itself, it will definitely do it. The choice of superpowers is not for maximizing benefits.

Unit 3 looked Su He straight in the eye and said in a hoarse voice, "Give it back to me."

Unit 03's eyeballs were trembling, and the frequency of its body splitting and shaking was increasing. Some subtle changes occurred in the air.

Flames enveloped Unit 03, and crackling sounds came from the ground. A wall of fire suddenly rose up. This was not simply fire-type, but more like a combination of some kind of explosive power, like a thermal weapon in wartime.

The rat-headed men immediately dispersed, and a burnt smell filled the air.

The rat-headed man let out a shrill scream, a heat wave rolled in, and flames formed a storm that swept everything within sight.

Even if Su He used Song Zhizhang's body for defense, he would not be able to fully arm himself, and the flames would always find a gap to penetrate.

Su He stood motionless in the face of the attack coming towards her. She did not snap her fingers nor dodge.

At the critical moment, the dead silence line did not require any unnecessary rituals. The invisible murderous intent pushed through. Everything happened very quickly. From Unit 03 choosing to attack with fire to Su He taking action, it was all completed in the blink of an eye.

Dead Line kills everything.

The surrounding buildings collapsed again, and dust and flames engulfed the location of Unit 3.

There were four high walls standing in front of Su He. She was unharmed behind the walls. The flames did not touch her body, and there was not even a flame left where the line of death passed.

For a moment, Su He thought that Unit 3 was dead. The next moment, a human figure condensed out of the dust again. The body of Unit 3 was only barely connected, and the gap on her face was even bigger.

But Su He was thinking that the second time, Unit 03 asked her to take action a second time, and few people could do that.

Before the world ends, Unit 03 stays true to its mission, which is to kill Suho.

She hasn't given up until now, like a paranoid robot that will keep executing a predetermined program until its own death.

There is no possibility that Unit 03 could kill Su He, not even if it becomes alienated, and not even if it has a mental breakdown and opens a contaminated area.

Su He thought about it. What did Unit 03 want? Was it Song Zhizhang's body? That thing was a suit of armor, which could be worn and taken off.

But since it's already a corpse, there's no need to fight for it.

The world is going to end, what's the point of having a corpse?

Before Unit 3 attacked again, Su He took action first. She had been giving in to Unit 3. If she had taken real action from the beginning, this chip man would not have lived so long.

After she took action, she realized that her worries were unnecessary. Unit 03 was too slow, and the swinging blade lost its accuracy, slashing at Song Zhizhang's body one by one.

Su He raised her hand to block. They were like in a boxing match. They were not in the same weight class, but were forced to stand in the same arena. Unit 03 was facing an opponent that was impossible to defeat.

There is only one chance in a boxing match, either you win or you die. Unit 03 already knew that it was destined to die.

The blade formed by the shadow melted away, the flame could not be ignited, but Unit 3 was smiling, feeling no pain at all.

Su He went around to the back of Unit-3 and grabbed its wrist. She was raising the knife, wanting to kill something.

Now there was a crisp sound, and her raised right hand slammed to the ground with a bang.

There was a row of flashing chips on the robotic arm. After it left the body, the light of the card slot flickered in vain for a few times and then went out.

Su He had better combat skills and more experience, and she did not give her opponent the opportunity to use other abilities.

The chip man's weakness is obvious. Once the chip is destroyed, everything is ruined. Otherwise, he would not have been abandoned by Prometheus.

Su He felt that everything was very familiar, reminding her of the moments when many people failed to kill her. That was the part she hated the most. She refused to admit defeat even though she knew she would die.

She didn't like passionate narratives, so that seemed futile to her.

It's simply death for the sake of death.

Su He clearly gave Unit 03 a chance to survive. She rarely would be so soft-hearted as to let go of an enemy she had captured.

With a thud, Unit 03's knee hit the ground.

Her right arm was broken, blood gushed out, and her body fell uncontrollably, half of her face sunk into the rubble. Black mucus instinctively filled her cracks, trying to condense into a new arm.

She still had one eye looking at Su He, "Give it back to me."

Unit 3 only repeated this sentence, and Su He suddenly understood that what Unit 3 wanted to return was not the corpse, but the dignity of being alive.

Not to die for the sake of dying, but to live for the sake of living.

With a slight cracking sound, fine cracks appeared on Su He's chest. The limit of the defense system was reached. Song Zhizhang's body was splitting apart from her, like a boiled eggshell, forming a network pattern after being knocked and hit.

Unit 03's target has always been her defense, and using fire is to consume more of Su He's defense.

Death is a chain. As the armor shattered, the wall formed by Song Zhizhang also collapsed.

The high wall of Area 103 suddenly split apart, like a frozen river in winter cracking hundreds of meters apart.

Su He was a little stunned. She looked down at her chest. After the armor was peeled off, there was a trace of blood flowing out. The heart was not injured, only the flesh. One of the swords of Unit 03 had hit her.

Just a little bit.

Su He's heartbeat quickened. It was the first time she was so close to death, and the Grim Reaper's scythe brushed past her.

It turns out that I still feel fear, and it's not that I have no feeling at all.

Su He's attention has always been on Zhu Ning herself. She expects the new world to come and kill her and be destroyed together with the old world. She has never taken Unit 3 seriously and even speaks to Zhu Ning behind her. Unit 3 is just their mouthpiece and is no different from other controlled mycelium people.

Now Su He finally showed some interest in her.

Unit 03 is very interesting, and each of Zhu Ning’s personalities is different.

Su He looked down at his opponent. This time, it was not a look of pity, but admiration, as if he was looking at a real opponent. Su He wanted to say something to her, or even want to have another fight with her.

But with a loud bang, the high wall collapsed completely, and the rubble poured onto the No. 3 fuselage, burying her in an instant.