She raised her head and looked at Pei Du with tears in her eyes, her eyes filled with pleading and helplessness: "I don't know... Fungus Dome... how did they know the existence of the 'mirror image'... It must be them... They must have used this information... to pollute your memory... to make you see that 'empty shell'... to alienate us... They want to destroy you, the only... living protozoan! They are afraid of you! Pei Du! They are afraid of you! Not that empty shell!"
Xu Shuangyao's explanation was like the last huge rock, hitting Pei Du's already shaky tower of cognition.
The protozoan…the only living organism…but with a fatal flaw.
"Mirror image"... an optimized version... a theoretically perfect container... but just an empty shell that cannot be activated... a failure.
Junqiong knows... using empty shells to carry out mental pollution...
And he... a defective product that could collapse genetically at any moment, a protozoan considered a threat by the Fungal Dome...
"Heh... heh heh..." Pei Du lowered his head, letting out a series of meaningless, low, hoarse laughs. There was no joy in that laughter, only an endless coldness, absurdity, and a utterly shattering pain. He slowly loosened his grip on Xu Shuangyao's wrist. As if granted amnesty, Xu Shuangyao abruptly withdrew her hand, covering her bruised wrist and staring at him in horror.
Pei Du raised his head, his face expressionless, a dead, cold silence. His eyes were hollow, as if his soul had left this shattered body. He looked at his intact left hand, then at the hideous fracture of his right shoulder and the dark red "asphalt" covering it.
"Defective product...a test piece...a bomb ready to explode at any moment..." He muttered softly, as if chewing on the world's most vicious curse. A vast, cold sense of nothingness expanded wildly within him like a black hole, devouring everything. What was the meaning of his existence? To become a failure destined to be "optimized" or self-destruct?
Xu Shuangyao looked at the completely extinguished light in his eyes, and her heart sank to the bottom. "Pei Du... listen to me... you are the only one... you..."
"Shut up," Pei Du interrupted her, his voice flat and unmoved, yet tinged with a chilling coldness. He slowly stood up, his movements stiff with pain, but the aura of death only grew thicker. He dragged his heavy body, step by step, stumbling toward the edge of the massive, shattered French window. Outside lay a dead ruin covered in fungal mats, overrun by animated plants, a despairing world shrouded in the will of the Fungus Master.
He needed an answer. An answer that would anchor him in this void. Even if that answer meant destruction.
Just then—
“Buzz…Buzz…”
A strong throbbing suddenly came from deep in his spine and from the dim fusion crown on his head without any warning!
The "summon" of the fungus master!
It was no longer the pervasive whispering pollution of the past, but a more direct and powerful connection of will! It was as if an invisible thread instantly connected the crown and his remaining consciousness!
Pei Du's body suddenly froze! The world before him instantly twisted and peeled off!
No longer is the scene of ruined high-rise buildings.
He "saw" it - no, he "felt" it!
A boundless, terrifying force, seemingly capable of ripping the stars apart and reshaping the continents, instantly enveloped his shattered body like a warm torrent! The excruciating pain and tingling at the fractured right shoulder instantly vanished! In its place was an unprecedented, exploding sense of power! It was as if a single thought could cause the earth to crumble and the sky to burn! He felt himself transformed into a towering giant, with a swarm of submissive fungal skeletons beneath his feet, a crumbling city in the distance, and a surging fungal throne overhead! A sense of absolute power, controlling everything and dominating all things, washed over his soul like the richest wine! Comfort! Power! Omnipotence!
At the same time, a grand, gentle voice filled with supreme majesty and temptation rang directly in the core of his consciousness, like a decree from a god:
"Come back...Lost child..."
"Embrace this power... This authority is yours..."
"Abandon this broken body...this painful shackle..."
"Return to the origin... become the only... 'master' of this new world!"
"You... Pei Du... are the chosen... true... 'king'!"
The temptation was too strong! Strong enough to completely captivate any soul on the brink of despair! That sense of power! That sense of authority! That comfort of freedom from all pain! Like the sweetest poison!
Pei Du's remaining consciousness was shaking violently! The cold sense of nothingness was violently impacted by this supreme temptation! A voice screamed frantically: Accept it! Embrace it! Become the master! Tear apart this damn painful world!
However, at the moment when his consciousness was about to slide into the abyss——
A scene suddenly interrupted!
The dark blue incubator. The "perfect" self suspended in the life-support fluid. Those tightly closed eyes suddenly opened the moment the Master's will descended, summoning him to "dominate."
Cold! Empty! Emotionless! Yet, it held an absolute, judgmental "perfection"!
At the same time, the grand and seductive voice of the Fungus Master seemed to carry a very subtle, barely perceptible coldness:
"...Of course... The perfect vessel... will eventually awaken... It will inherit... everything..."
“…your choices…will determine…your ultimate value…”
"…becoming the 'King'…or…becoming the foundation of the 'Throne'…"
This subtle turn is like being poured with ice water!
Value? Choice? Cornerstone?
Pei Du understood instantly!
The Master's "summons" and "promises" were poisonous bait! It didn't need him, a "flawed protozoan," to become its master! It was tempting him, tempting him to give up resistance, even to throw himself into the Master's arms! To become the nourishment that would awaken the "perfect vessel"! To become the stepping stone for the "empty shell" to ascend to the throne!
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