The helicopter stumbled across the vast white snowfield and had to make emergency landings twice due to strong winds.
By the time Tang Erda and his group arrived at Edmund Observation Post, it was almost the early morning of the third day.
The helicopter landed a few kilometers away from Edmund Observation Station.
Now the wind and snow have stopped. Looking from a distance, Edmund Observation Post is buried under thick snow, but strangely, the snow at the entrance has been cleared, revealing an open space underneath, and the door is also half open.
Tang Erda knew something was wrong as soon as he saw the situation: "There's someone inside."
"Shit!" Mu Sicheng rubbed his arms, his face darkening, "Could it be that our copies are still in there?"
Bai Liu squatted in front of the trapdoor opening in the basement next to the helicopter hangar.
A pungent smell of cold ashes and acid corrosion poured out of the trapdoor in the basement.
The snow on the trapdoor had been cleared and it was wide open. The two barrels of gasoline that Bai Liu had placed next to the door before he left were gone. Instead, the basement was pitch black, with some heat bubbling out.
From Bai Liu's perspective, the walls were covered with coal ash left over from incomplete combustion of the fuel, and liquid and snow were dripping down the steps, indicating that the fuel had only just been burned and had not yet frozen.
Liu Jiayi also noticed the anomaly here. She squatted next to Bai Liu and said, "It seems that after we left, the clones burned the monsters in the basement and poured strong acid to corrode them."
But as she was talking, her eyes swept over the layer of liquid on the basement floor, and she frowned in confusion, "But before I left, Mu Ke and I sorted out the supplies of Edmund Observatory, and I remember there wasn't so much acid stored here."
Chemical reagents such as strong acids are scarce resources even in scientific research stations. Before Liu Jiayi left, she basically emptied the acid in the Edmund Observatory.
Even so, she still had to be very careful and calculating in order to barely deal with those monsters and escape successfully.
Liu Jiayi lay down, took out a piece of metal and caught two drops of acid dripping from the steps.
The metal surface was quickly corroded, and gas was coming out with a hissing sound. She frowned and said, "This guy is just pouring buckets of acid into the basement. Where does he get so much acid?"
The man who was cleaning the basement used strong acid quite casually, spreading it all over the walls and stairs. There was a sense of wastefulness in his use, as if he had no sense of cherishing strong acid, a resource that was hard to come by and extremely scarce in the dungeon.
"Then there is only one possibility." Bai Liu's eyes fell on the slowly freezing acid.
Liu Jiayi reacted suddenly: "Someone who has played this game brought acid in himself - Spade has been here?!"
At this moment, Mu Sicheng screamed in shock from the second floor of the observation station: "Fuck! What's going on?!"
Bai Liu and Liu Jiayi looked at each other, then they took out their weapons and walked towards the door.
After they entered the observation post and went up to the second floor, Liu Jiayi walked cautiously in front of Bai Liu, dragging his gun with him: "What's wrong?"
Mu Sicheng turned around, his face pale and blue, and pointed in the direction of the restaurant with a shaking finger. His voice was also trembling, and he seemed to be frightened: "...You guys, take a look for yourselves..."
Bai Liu looked past Mu Sicheng and towards the restaurant behind him, then raised his eyebrows slightly.
He understood why Mu Sicheng had such an expression.
The chairs in the restaurant were kicked away roughly, and the broken tables, chairs and benches were piled up in the four corners of the room, leaving a large open space in the middle of the restaurant.
This piece of open space was smashed by something unknown, leaving a hole with a nearly square outline.
The hole directly penetrates the floor of the second floor, and the scene on the first floor can be seen through this hole on the floor of the second-floor restaurant.
On the edge of the cave entrance, there was a circle of bloody handprints left by people struggling hard, densely covering the floor - it can be seen that a group of people had been clinging to the edge of the cave entrance, trying hard to climb out.
On the first floor, right below the depression opposite the cave entrance, is a huge glass water tank that seems to have been moved down from the roof. It is now filled with concentrated acid that is so viscous that it can hardly flow. At this moment, the concentrated acid is bubbling as it reacts.
And this glass jar, like a garbage dump, is filled with all kinds of carbonized, charred, and fragmented "corpses".
Most of these corpses have not yet fully reacted and are wriggling in the concentrated acid. Their skin and flesh are constantly emitting strange, bubbling, sizzling sounds as they are corroded. "They" keep slapping their hands hard on the acid pool, occasionally shaking off their half-dissolved eyeballs.
What made Mu Sicheng scream was the appearance of these corpses.
The people who handled these corpses were a bit rough and not very careful. A considerable number of the faces of the corpses were not completely burnt by the fuel, and "their" appearance could be clearly seen.
——These corpses have the faces of Bai Liu, Mu Sicheng, Tang Erda, Liu Jiayi, and Mu Ke.
Such a group of charred corpses with their own faces struggled so painfully in the sticky acid, and the acid corroded their skin, muscles and bones in every way.
Even though we know that these things are not humans but monsters, we can't help but feel creepy and empathize with them.
Mu Sicheng took two steps back, distanced himself from the blood-stained hole, swallowed nervously, and spoke in a hoarse voice: "...Someone killed all of Edmund's monsters who turned into us."
"And it's very fast." Tang Erda half-crouched at the edge of the cave entrance. He touched the remaining blood stains with two fingers, raised his head and added solemnly, "The blood hasn't completely coagulated yet."
Bai Liu's gaze shifted from the bloodstains to Mu Ke's face: "I remember you said that these monsters that transformed into us have special skills?"
"Yes." Mu Ke also looked shocked, his pupils slightly contracted, and he froze for a second or two as if unable to think, before he began to answer Bai Liu's question, "We had a conflict with these monsters before we left, and were almost held captive by them."
"But they are not as strong as us. I think it may be because they are not yet mature. Their abilities are only about half of ours." Liu Jiayi took over the conversation. She looked towards the first floor with a cold expression and exhaled slowly.
"But Edmund, there is not just one of us standing here, but a group of us are fighting."
"——He was able to quickly control a group of monsters with abilities similar to ours in a short period of time. He also used a whip to break the floor to create this acid pool and threw the bodies into it to dispose of it."
Liu Jiayi's face looked so ugly for the first time: "Heitao's ability... is too strong. He is stronger than last year."
"We can't defeat him even in a team battle. What should we do next?" She looked up at Bai Liu for instructions.
Bai Liu bent his knees and squatted on one leg at the edge of the cave. He stared at the Bai Lius who were gradually submerging and disappearing in the acid pool below with an unclear expression for a while.
After these charred corpses with their own faces turned into bones, and then into bubble particles and some shapeless remains, Bai Liu stood up, retracted his gaze, and turned to look at the others:
"Search the entire observation post to find out why Spade is here."
Half an hour later, a group of people gathered on the first floor again.
Mu Ke, who is good at memorizing and searching maps, was the first to report his findings:
"Many places have been searched. They must be looking for something, but the search was very brief. It didn't seem like they were looking for textual materials or small objects."
"So far, we haven't found anything that Spade has taken away, so he probably hasn't found what he was looking for yet."
"He didn't touch the scattered rifles and bullets on the fourth floor." Tang Erda added, "The situation is almost the same as when we left."
Bai Liu sat at the table. He pulled out a piece of paper and summarized the information on it. He calmly concluded: "First of all, we can be sure of one thing. Spade repeatedly entered this game to find something, and this thing is very likely related to the main plot of the game."
"Spade and I logged into Edmund Observatory together at the beginning, but he did not search here at that time. Instead, he left here directly and went outside. From this point, we can judge that Spade felt that Edmund Observatory did not have what he was looking for at that time."
Bai Liu paused for a moment while writing on the paper: "But now he is back again."
Liu Jiayi soon realized why: "Heitao didn't find it outside, so he decided to go back to Edmund Observatory to try his luck. As a result, he happened to encounter our remaining copies here, so he killed them and searched again, but still couldn't find it, so he left."
Bai Liu half-closed his eyes, and drew with the tip of his pen, as if thinking: "The key question now is, what is Spade looking for by repeatedly entering the game?"
"The main storyline of this game is global warming. Spade might be looking for something related to global warming." Mu Ke pondered and asked, "Is it possible that the final boss is Edmund? According to the general design of the game, as long as you defeat the final boss, you can pass the level and achieve the [normal end]."
"I don't think that with Spade's ability, he wouldn't even reach the [normal end] after entering the game so many times." Bai Liu denied.
He paused twice with the tip of his pen on the paper, and then wrote the word "corpse block".
Bai Liu raised his eyes and said, "I think what Hei Tao is looking for is probably the particle weather device transformed from the [corpse block]. He should be taking the [true end] route, which is to eliminate the possibility of global cooling again from the root."
“按照艾德蒙的行事風格，他很有可能把粒子氣象裝置放到了他覺得南極影響世界氣候的那六百個地點上。”
木柯疑惑不解：“但這六百個地點都是标注在地圖上的，如果黑桃要找，可以直接按照地圖去找，沒必要來艾德蒙觀察站翻找——艾德蒙觀察站沒有放置任何粒子氣象裝置。”
白柳在紙面寫下了【600】，【實驗樣本保存】，然後在旁邊打了個問號。
他掀開眼皮看向木柯：“那就說明黑桃想找的不是這六百個粒子裝置當中的屍塊，而是這六百個粒子裝置之外的屍塊。”
木柯他輕聲重複了一遍白柳的話：“這六百個粒子裝置之外的的屍塊……”
他仿佛意識到了什麽，微睜眼睛，看向白柳：“是艾德蒙還沒有做過實驗，把它變成粒子裝置的屍塊，對嗎！”
“艾德蒙是個經驗豐富的科研學者。”白柳淡淡提醒，“他不會一次性把所有的實驗材料全部消耗完，通常會保留一部分作為樣本，這部分樣本應該就是黑桃想找的東西。”
“你翻找一下實驗報告，艾德蒙在前期得到的屍塊裏，沒有動過的是哪一塊？”
木柯迅速低頭翻閱了起來，他的指尖順着一行一行晦澀難懂的報告記錄滑下，最終定格在某個單詞上。
“找到了！”
“在早期艾德蒙得到的三部分屍塊裏，包括了左手，後腳踝，還有一整顆保留了動脈血管和靜脈血管衍生的心髒。”
木柯略有些興奮地擡起了頭，語速飛快：“我只能查找到對左手和後腳踝的實驗記錄，但沒有任何關于這個心髒的實驗記錄——艾德蒙很有可能是保留了這顆心髒作為樣本儲備！”
白柳戴上手套和帽子，推開門：“這顆心髒應該就是黑桃想找的東西，也是這個游戲的【true end】的通關關鍵，我們出發。”
風雪迎面蓋住了白柳漆黑深邃的眼睛，在黃昏的夜色裏挾裹着他平靜的聲音遠去。
“——我們要贏黑桃，就要搶在黑桃毀滅這顆心髒前，找到它。”
冰雪遍布的海岸邊潮漲潮落，往裏的地面褐土和白雪斑駁交錯，上面坐落着一所年代久遠的小木屋。
這是一棟看起來相當老舊的小木屋，門框和地欄上剝落的油漆在小木屋的外表上留下麻風病人皮膚般的斑點，屋頂堆在搖搖晃晃的腐朽承重牆上，靠着橫向排列的木板固定。
門口前立着一個旅游地點指示标般的牌子，上面寫着【斯科特小屋】，下面寫着【1912建造】。
這棟一百年前的，已經是文物，被當作旅游景點的古老木屋裏正散發着溫暖的火光，仿佛是有人正在裏面歇息烤火。
順着這灑落在雪面上的火光往小木屋裏走去，火堆在壁爐架下熊熊燃燒着，旁邊的木凳上坐着一個眯着眼睛的老人。
他帶着一副褪色的金色挂飾眼鏡，輕聲哼着不成調的歌曲，腳板随之一拍一打，手腳脊背都佝偻得不成樣子，似乎經受了不少折磨。
火光照耀在他蒼老，布滿皺紋的臉上，映出影子在牆壁上搖晃。
漆黑的影子裏走出了黑桃，他身姿筆挺地站在火光照耀的邊緣，手裏握着的長鞭，長睫和發梢上都挂着還沒來得及消融的雪。
黑桃看着老人，聲音清晰和緩：“艾德蒙。”
老人于是微張了一只眼睛看過去，他似乎有些無奈，又感到好笑：“你又來了年輕人，你似乎很喜歡來我這裏。”
艾德蒙和藹地笑着：“你殺死過我很多次了，就是為了那個你總是找不到的心髒嗎？”
“那對你很重要？”
黑桃開口，卻是答非所問：“你不應該記得我殺死了你。”
艾德蒙取下眼鏡，望向黑桃，笑得很柔和：“因為我只是一個游戲裏的邪惡npc，每次這個副本本應該随着你們的離去重新刷新開始，而我遺忘一切，是嗎？”
黑桃點頭。
艾德蒙笑笑：“可能是我活得太久，做的事情太殘忍了，于是上帝不肯饒恕我，讓我記得我所做過的一切——我的确記得你殺死了我很多次，你是這個游戲裏最常出現的人，我幾乎都快想和你做朋友了。”
他的目光調侃般地在黑桃的滴水的長鞭上停留片刻：“當然如果你不一進游戲就用鞭子來勒我就好了——窒息的過程總是痛苦的，如果你願意讓我選擇死法的話，我更喜歡被燒死。”
黑桃不假思索地同意了：“可以。”
艾德蒙于是哈哈大笑起來：“孩子，我相信你是真的聽不懂別人的玩笑話了。”
“你的那群隊友一直拿你很頭疼對吧？那個叫【逆神的審判者】的家夥已經苦惱到忍不住和我一個npc傾吐煩惱，說不知道該拿你怎麽辦好了。”
艾德蒙戲谑地打量黑桃：“他看起來難過到快哭了，有你這樣的朋友真是一件有趣又麻煩的事。”
黑桃對別人給自己的定義不做評價，他說話做事向來單刀直入：“這次你還是不願意告訴我心髒在什麽地方嗎？”
艾德蒙的眼裏倒映着火光，他這樣的老人似乎都應該有一雙渾濁的雙眼，但艾德蒙的眼睛卻依舊純淨無暇，幹淨得就像是南極冰面下三萬年以前落下的雪，泛着一種近乎于冰面的淺藍色。
“不能，我的孩子。”艾德蒙的神情變得很悠遠，他搖頭，“你可以又一次殺死我，但我永遠不會告訴你我将心髒藏在了哪裏。”
“那是我的原罪，只有上帝才知道它的藏匿之處。”
黑桃将嘴唇抿成一條直線，他對這個結果明顯不滿意，有種很淺的郁悶從他用指甲扣鞭子的小動作裏浮現了出來。
艾德蒙望着黑桃，臉上依舊是那種洞察了一切的友善笑意：“這次你也找齊了我的六百個粒子裝置，我很少看到玩家能夠找齊而不被凍死的，你真厲害。”
“但有一個裝置是無效的。”黑桃看着艾德蒙，“冰穹A下面的裝置裏沒有裝屍塊粒子，我無法集齊六百個屍塊。”
“但你已經贏過這個游戲了，不是嗎？”艾德蒙煞有介事地晃晃腦袋，舉起手指強調道，“你的朋友，逆神告訴我，你只在意輸贏，你已經得到了你想要的，為什麽不讓我的秘密永遠只是個秘密呢？”
艾德蒙望着黑桃，嘴角含笑，碎冰般的淺藍色眼裏閃爍着昏黃的篝火光芒：“你為什麽這麽執着于一顆不屬于你的心呢？這可不浪漫。”
黑桃略微停頓了一下——似乎他也不知道這個問題的準确答案。
“直覺——我必須要摧毀掉這顆心髒和所有的屍塊。”
黑桃擡眸：“每個人都有自己既定的命運，我能看到這顆心髒的命運和我連在一起，并且應該由我毀滅。”
“它和我都不該存在在這個世界上。”
艾德蒙臉上的笑意漸漸消減，他喃喃自語：“你在自我毀滅，孩子……”
“嗯。”黑桃平靜地回答，然後問，“你想藏起來的原罪是什麽？”
艾德蒙臉上一絲笑意也沒有來，他終于露出了一點屬于他這個年紀的老态。
他扶着額頭長長地嘆一口氣，神色動作裏都掩不住疲憊恍惚：“我的原罪是一件我從頭到尾都沒有意識到我該為之忏悔的事情。”
“我怨恨迫害我的事物，憎惡背叛我的學生，憐憫我向往的朋友。”艾德蒙深深地，深深地吸入一口氣，仿佛抽煙般緩緩從鼻腔吐出，目光透過腳邊的火看向了很遠的地方，“我沒有做對過一件事情，我為之忏悔，但有一件事讓我明白，我的醜陋還遠不止于此。”
艾德蒙放在椅子邊的雙手顫抖了起來，他閉上了眼睛，眼淚落入溝壑般的皺紋裏，聲音艱澀沙啞：“——那就是那些屍塊。”
“那不是什麽屍塊，那是一個活着的生物被分解開的肢體，他有意識，有感覺，有感情，他知道我在對他做多麽醜惡的事情。”
艾德蒙睜開了眼睛，他清澈的眼睛終于在此刻渾濁了起來，哽咽道：“——而我在看到那顆不斷跳動的心髒才知道我自己做了什麽。”
“我在虐殺一個活人。”
艾德蒙轉頭過去看向黑桃，他似乎在一瞬間蒼老到快要死去的地步：
“你說的游戲劇情，或許就是我的命運吧，我被這命運，被看不見神明用線牽引着走向自我毀滅的深淵，形成一個樂園般的循環，供給來往的他人玩弄娛樂，我以為我自己可以逃離這個可怕的游戲。”
“但逃離過後，我發現我只不過又到了一個更大的命運循環裏，永遠都只是制定我命運的神明手中的玩具，而人類永遠在所有的世界線裏都會因為失控的欲望走向自我毀滅的，這是我們被神賜予的命運——他想看到這個。”
Tears welled up in Edmund's eyes. "We all deserve to be punished for the cruelty bestowed upon us by fate, but I know that in the eyes of the invisible god, the unjust punishment I inflicted out of anger is nothing more than a part of fate that he has calculated."
"Everything I do is just... a game."
Spade looked at him calmly: "But you can decide how you die this time."
"I will burn you to death if I wish, and this will be no game for you or for me."
Edmund smiled through his tears: "I know."
"This is... the victory you want, and the destiny I want."
——————
the other end.
Bai Liu was patrolling the ground in a helicopter. They had passed three points marked on the map - one of the six hundred points.
But the results were not satisfactory.
The buoys on the sea surface had all been taken out and destroyed, so Bai Liu and his team didn't need to sink down to look for them. The remains of the instruments were placed directly on the edge of the coast, and the metal box was also thrown into the instrument. The particles inside had been completely destroyed.
The particle devices on the ground were tied to weather balloons and released into the sky.
Bai Liu and his friends had already seen several punctured balloons buried in the snow on the ground - the situation was similar to that on the coast, and the particles in the metal box were also destroyed.
The further you get toward these mapped locations, the worse the situation becomes.
When he saw the hollowed-out device next to Dome A, Bai Liu gave the order to stop: "Black Spade should have found all the six hundred devices. Edmund should not have hidden his heart in these six hundred points."
"Where would he hide his heart?" Mu Ke shouted in the wind, to make sure Bai Liu could hear what he said. "These 600 locations already include all the places that have special meaning to Edmund. Dome A, the South Pole, Tarzan Station, and Scott's Cabin are all included. Is it possible that he could hide his heart somewhere else?"
"Yes." Bai Liu turned to look at Mu Ke, "Do you remember what the main quest of this dungeon is?"
Mu Ke nodded: "Global warming."
"If global cooling is Edmund's punishment for everyone, including himself, after his desires got out of control, then global warming is an opportunity for him to change." Bai Liu's breath was filled with white frost.
While talking, Tang Erda maneuvered the helicopter to land steadily at a new location.
Bai Liu stepped down from the helicopter that Tang Er had safely landed and arrived at an empty snowy field.
This is a completely new place, with no footprints or traces left. No equipment has ever been placed here, and there is no sign that anyone has ever visited. It is far away from all observation posts and does not even have its own geographical name.
It seems like a strange place with no special features.
This is the place Bai Liu chose for Tang Erda to land.
Mu Ke trotted after Bai Liu, breathing rapidly: "Bai Liu, do you think this is where Edmund hid his heart?"
He was almost about to ask why you thought it was here, but due to Mu Ke's blind trust in Bai Liu, he thought he should dig first.
But someone asked, Mu Sicheng turned around and looked around, and asked Bai Liu in confusion: "Why did Edmund hide his heart here? I don't even know where this place is, and I haven't seen this place in Edmund's faxes or experimental reports."
Bai Liu put on anti-friction gloves and began to help Tang Erda move the equipment for digging and exploring the ice surface.
Mu Sicheng stepped forward to take over, looking at Bai Liu with curious eyes.
Bai Liu leaned over and took down a stack of experimental reports from the back seat of the helicopter, and handed them to Mu Sicheng: "Read and explain - I just said that global cooling is Edmund's punishment on humans in anger, but before that, global warming was also a punishment, and it was a punishment that humans brought upon themselves."
Mu Sicheng couldn't help but sigh: "What did I do wrong? Why am I being punished whether I'm cold or hot?"
Bai Liu smiled and said, "Yes, this is a Christian concept that teaches us that we are born with original sin and that living is a process of atonement. If we view the whole process as Edmund's attempt to atone for the sins of mankind, it will be much clearer."
"He thought that the others were guilty, so he punished them. He thought that Tarzan Station was innocent, but this kind of innocence was also a sin in a guilty environment because it would lead to bullying. So Edmund decided to sharpen Tarzan Station and let them survive as humans on the "Noah's Ark."
"Edmund knew very well that what he did was wrong and guilty, and his own redemption process -" Bai Liu's eyes were deep, "- was to hide the heart that he had never touched, and to protect the first innocent person that he was forced to kill under the oppression of various circumstances."
"He preserved his heart in order to preserve experimental samples and in order to preserve his own original sin."
Bai Liu looked at Mu Sicheng and said, "Where do you think a man like Edmund would keep his original sin?"
Mu Si shook his head honestly.
Bai Liu smiled: "Of course it was the day when he made up his mind to start carrying out his crime and it took effect."
Mu Sicheng had a question mark in his eyes: "What day is this?"
"August 10th, the day he started pickling sauerkraut for the people at Taishan Station." Bai Liu looked at the empty space in front of him and smiled, "And this place is the coldest place in Antarctica on August 10th, according to Edmund's 33-year temperature record."
"There's no better place to store a beating heart."