"Get... out... out!" Lu Cheneng roared, each word accompanied by a splatter of blood. He suddenly raised his left hand, no longer pointing it at Wen Shifei, but instead, using all his remaining strength, he fiercely grabbed at the damn implant point at the back of his neck! His five fingers were like steel hooks, sinking deep into his flesh!
“Sizzle!”
A numbing sound of flesh tearing rang out! He could even feel his nails scraping against the cold metal casing! The intense pain, like a high-voltage electric current, instantly shot through his body, yet it also brought a brief but precious moment of absolute control over his body!
In this fleeting moment when control was returned, Lu Cheneng made a move that made Wen Shifei's heart stop!
He didn't attack her.
He suddenly turned the gun around! He pressed the cold barrel of the Gauss pistol firmly and forcefully against his right temple! Directly below the muzzle was the chip implant site that he was frantically tearing at with his left hand, dripping with blood!
His body was shaking violently due to the severe pain and huge exhaustion of willpower, and he could hardly stand, but his eyes were fixed on Wen Shifei. His right eye, which belonged to a human, was burning with an almost crazy, determined light of life and death!
"Wen Shifei... listen..." His voice was hoarse like an old bellows, carrying a strong smell of blood. It was intermittent, but extremely clear. Every word seemed like his last words. "Go... to Pandora... the bottom layer... destroy... the 'Number Zero' matrix..."
He panted, his gaze like a red-hot iron, branding it deep into Wen Shifei's pupils:
"If... you see me... being controlled by it again..." The corners of his mouth pulled into an extremely tragic arc, filled with endless sorrow, "Don't hesitate... aim here... and shoot!"
He poked his bleeding temple hard with the muzzle of the gun.
"Or... better yet..." The last glimmer of light in his blood-soaked eye was like a candle in the wind, yet it carried a plea for relief. "Find... the formatting... program... before I... completely... turn into a monster..."
"Completely...erase...this...damn thing!"
The final word seemed to exhaust Lu Chenen's last shred of willpower. The glimmer of humanity in his eyes suddenly faded, like a power outage. His body suddenly went limp, like a puppet with all its bones pulled out. He fell straight backward, landing heavily on the cold metal ruins, sending up a cloud of dust.
The Gauss pistol fell out of his hand with a crisp sound.
He fell there, motionless, only the bloody wound on the back of his neck, which he had scratched himself, was still oozing blood, staining the dust beneath him red.
"Lu Chen entropy!!!"
Wen Shifei let out a heart-wrenching cry and, ignoring the severe pain in her left shoulder, stumbled forward. She knelt beside him and probed for his carotid artery with trembling fingers.
A faint pulse could be heard. He was still alive, but as if dead.
Wen Shifei stared at his lifeless face, stained with blood and tears, and then pressed her left shoulder, a wound that continued to bleed. Her eyes burned with immense sorrow, anger, and a desperate determination. She jerked her head up, her gaze like a sharp, tempered blade, piercing the vast abandoned complex deeper in the old industrial area, like the entrance to an abyss—the final lair of Pandora's Labs.
She struggled to tear off a corner of her tactical uniform and hastily bandaged the wound on her shoulder. Then, leaning down, she used all her strength to lift the unconscious Lu Cheneng onto her back. His body felt as heavy as a cold stone. Wen Shifei gritted her teeth, each step bearing the excruciating pain in her shoulder and the heaviness in her heart. Carrying this man, who was both her comrade and her greatest threat, she staggered steadily, step by step, towards the steel abyss that bred all evil and suffering.
Behind him, the wreckage of three "scavengers" was emitting blue smoke, like a cold footnote to this cruel journey.
The passageway leading to the bottom floor of Pandora's lab was no longer the sterile, clean, and clean it had been during the Alliance era. Wen Shifei carried the unconscious Lu Cheneng on his back, each step treading on the edge of decay and death.
The emergency lights had long since broken, leaving only the beam from her helmet struggling to carve a narrow path through the dense darkness. Wherever the beam reached, she saw a shocking scene of decay. Thick, black, mossy mold coated the walls. Condensation, reeking of rust and decay, dripped from the cracks in the cracked pipes overhead, creating a monotonous, heart-wrenching "tick-tick" sound that was particularly piercing in the dead silence. The metal grating beneath her feet was rusted, groaning with a tooth-grinding ache, ready to break at any moment. The air was stagnant and suffocating, a mixture of musty smells, the pungent odor of residual chemicals, and an indescribable, faint, sweet, fishy odor, like the slumber of a giant creature.
Wen Shifei's left shoulder wound pierced with excruciating pain with every step she took. Blood, soaking through the makeshift bandage, trickled down her arm. Lu Chensheng's body grew heavier behind her, like a cold mountain on her back. She panted, sweat mixed with dripping sewage running down her forehead and into her eyes, causing a stinging sensation.
"Hold on... We're almost there..." She seemed to be speaking to Lu Cheneng on her back, but more like a whisper to her own failing will. The beam from her helmet swept across the front, and the passage seemed to have reached its end. A massive vertical shaft, like the maw of a giant beast, appeared before her eyes. The metal protective door at the shaft was twisted and half-open, revealing a bottomless darkness within. Only a faint air current, carrying a richer, sweet, and fishy smell, surged up from below.
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