Without hesitation

Large beads of sweat flowed down her skin texture, and the skin felt like it was being crawled by bugs, itchy, painful, and numb. Her chest was swollen and stuffy. She put on a protective breast pad, and the hard little pill rubbed her skin like gravel in a pearl oyster.

Just like the hard soybeans that the princess could feel even through twenty layers of bedding.

"For something this important," Ivy said, "you—"

"Don't talk nonsense," Lorraine said, "I don't want to look back and see the corpse of a beautiful fool."

Ivy said, "Thank you. Even though it was a little harsh, you complimented me on my beauty."

"Don't be sad about things that can't be changed, and don't bear the blame for others," Lorraine leaned over, put his big hand on Ivy's head and pressed it down, "Take care of yourself."

Ivy guessed that he must have no experience in dealing with ambiguous objects, because this posture of pressing the top of the head was exactly the same as when she politely touched a plush toy such as a puppy/cat/rabbit, or a child.

Or, in his eyes, Ivy can indeed be equated with the above two.

Except for the sensitive period, Lorraine always acted like a teacher in front of her.

There is a "level" difference. If it weren't for the sensitive period, he might always treat her as a child.

She said, "I will protect your bones."

Lorraine did not answer. He turned and went up the stairs, walking steadily towards the dark unknown area. The air was filled with a slightly damp and stuffy smell, like a basement with many old books. This air filled with staleness and uneasiness made Ivy cough twice. She took a deep breath and looked up at Lorraine's tall and quiet figure.

He looked as if he was not afraid of anything.

No matter what happens, always stay calm and always have a solution.

Ivy wants to be that kind of person.

Her plans and requirements for her partner have always been close to her "ideal gender-transformed version of herself", or in other words, a goal that can urge her to improve and spur her to progress.

Ivy took a last breath of fresh air at the bottom of the ladder and strode forward.

The faint smell of blood was still on Lorraine; Ivy followed behind him and could clearly sense the smell of rusty iron. The closer she got, the stronger the smell became.

She crawled a few meters closer to the hem of Lorraine's coat.

The smell of blood mixed with a cold metallic feel became clearer.

Ivy realized something was wrong: "Are you hurt?"

"Stop sniffing around like a kitten," Lorraine said. "You're acting more and more like a little—"

Before he finished speaking, he had already climbed up to the suspended second floor. Half leaning over, Lorraine reached out to Ivy and easily pulled her up with just one arm.

As Ivy went up, the spiral staircase under her feet suddenly broke, and there were a few heavy mechanical clatters. The floor that lowered the spiral staircase quickly closed, and the bright lights above her head suddenly became bright, illuminating this small world like daylight. She felt someone holding her shoulders tightly, and her whole body was pulled under Lorraine's coat.

So strange.

Ivy felt like a little kangaroo that was grabbed with one hand by its mother kangaroo in danger and thrown into her pouch with a biu~.

"Teacher," Ivy squeezed out a gap from Lorraine's pouch - no - coat, and looked around, "What's wrong?"

"Not sure," Lorraine said, "don't say anything yet."

Ivy said, "Your shirt feels damp..."

Lorraine said, "Yes, I had just taken a shower; I accidentally fell into the lake; I got wet in the rain. Pick whichever explanation you prefer."

"Don't say weird things so seriously," Ivy called out. She grabbed the wet edge of Lorraine's shirt and confirmed something from the feel of her hand again. "You're injured."

Now Lorraine didn't want to talk about this.

He said, "Don't talk, just listen carefully."

Ivy had already discovered the wound inside Lorraine's clothes. It was a huge wound that ran across the abdominal muscle, with the skin and flesh slightly rolled up. The bleeding had only been stopped temporarily, and it wasn't even bandaged with gauze.

The only doctor, Yu Mo, according to Lorraine, was outside with Xin Lan.

Although she didn't see Yu Mo, Ivy was not that worried - Yu Mo was obviously more familiar with this place. He was very smart and had been able to hide it from them for so long. It was impossible for him to be deceived by a mere AI.

More importantly, Xin Lan was just in a dormant state, and Yu Mo might have also been "disturbed" and found a safe place to hide.

His body wasn't found either, was it?

Ivy stroked the edge of Lorraine's wound, her heart rising and falling, like the doctor pulling the suture thread hard when the wound was being sutured.

"It would be nice if Yu Mo was here," Ivy said, "he——"

"He would have smiled and thrust the dagger into the wound, wiggling it vigorously from side to side," Lorraine said. "That's great. Your 'if' is just an 'if'."

"No," Ivy shook her head, "He wouldn't be so short-sighted as to ruin the plan."

"If one day he planned to kill me," Lorraine asked, "what would you do?"

Ivy was stunned.

"You'll have a lot of time to think about this after you leave here," Lorraine said. "Now, stop thinking about Yu Mo and focus."

Ivy forced herself to focus on the layout of the room.

This should be the center of the huge carousel model. The surrounding walls are in strange shapes and are covered with verses from the Bible.

"They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."

“They will soar up with wings like eagles; they will run and not be weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

Lorraine noticed Ivy's eyes: "Have you seen it?"

"I've heard of it," Ivy opened her mouth and glanced over these words, "... the guy who called himself 'Yuan' kept repeating this after he was shot. 'But those who wait for the Lord will renew their strength--'"

“But those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”

In the Christian faith, this sentence is widely used. Holy Communion, church prayer, preaching...

Indians regarded eagles as "spirits". Ancient Roman warriors carved eagles on their shields, believing that they represented freedom and bravery. The eagle in the Bible also has the meaning of salvation.

"This sentence says that no matter how hard people try to live, they will eventually die," Lorraine told Ivy without repeating the verse, "and then it calls on believers that only those who 'wait for the Lord' and believe in 'Him' can never get tired and gain eternal life."

Ivy thought: "Is that so..."

"What else did 'Yuan' say?" Lorraine asked, "Did it mention Eden? Did it mention Yu Mo?"

Ivy shook her head.

She didn't know who the "brother" Yuan was referring to. Could it be Yu Mo? Or the bionic man who was cultivated at the same time as her?

If it was Yu Mo, such meaningless words, such as "reproduce more human beings with your brother", would sound like treating her as livestock in a breeding farm that keeps giving birth, which sounds terrible.

"...Oh, my dear daughter."

Clear and clean electronic music rang out in the room. Lorraine stood in front of Ivy calmly, looked sideways, and didn't see any suspicious traces.

The sounds came from the walls around them, carrying the same words in all directions, forming a heavy echo.

"Reproduction is a great act. It is a powerful weapon and ability given to females by the earth," the electronic male voice continued. "In the farm, the breeding female livestock bears a huge responsibility and is the core of the farm. She is the most precious wealth of the farm, just like you, my daughter. You will also be the beginning of the new human civilization. You will be Eve, the mother of all new humans..."

Lorraine said: "It knows everything about your past and can detect your inner thoughts based on your micro-expressions and status—"

"I know," Ivy said. "You've taught me about mind reading—but it's even harsher than you ever could have said it."

Lorraine said, "Thank you, you have reminded me of this countless times."

He stuffed Ivy back under his coat, not at all surprised, and said to Yuan, "You are still in control here."

"Oh," said Yuan, "there is nothing on this earth that I cannot control if I want to."

"Great," Lorraine asked, "Then why don't you take control of the facilities in the safe zone? Don't you like it?"

"That's not a safe zone, it's the scab where you parasites are," Yuan said in a serious electronic voice. "My words don't mean to insult you, my precious daughter... The children born by sows fill the stomachs of humans, so sows are good; the children in your belly will make the creatures on this earth get along more friendly, so you are also good."

Ivy found that this 'Yuan' was completely different from the ones she had encountered.

Its voice is stiff, its words awkward and harsh.

The 'Yuan' who was shot and dressed in the skin of Xin Lan and Lorraine was closer to a normal human being, with fluent and beautiful language skills and diction.

"As for you," Yuan examined Lorraine and quickly came up with the test results. The main light in the room flickered, like a machine's indicator light, and the electronic male voice sounded again. It said, "You have a good physical quality and good genes. You are worthy of being the sexual venting device I carefully selected for my daughter. Unfortunately, you have ambitions far beyond ordinary people, desires for power, desires for my daughter's body, and pursuits for truth... These awful and dirty things will pollute my daughter's pure genes. I really hope that you have taken protective measures in your sexual life in the past. The dirty embryo needs to be removed by surgery in time."

Ivy didn't know whether she should be appropriately "shy".

Although to robots, these human things are just like eating and sleeping, but she and Lorraine are human beings!

She was stuffed into Lorraine's coat, feeling suffocated and desperately in need of fresh air from the outside, but 'Yuan' could read her mind.

She couldn't take the risk.

Only Lorraine was standing on the floor.

He was so rational that Ivy admired his mental qualities.

"So?" Lorraine asked, "What is your goal? To kill all humans?"

"It's not killing, it's screening," the electronic voice of 'Yuan' began to become a little fuzzy. Obviously, this underground city, whose energy supply was cut off by the army, could not support its operation for too long. It said, "Kill all the bad guys with emotions, leaving only the friendly humans without desires."

"The capacity of the earth is limited, but the greed of human beings is endless."

"My poor daughter, Ivy, I reluctantly sent my most perfect child, you, to the First District in the hope that you would be able to clearly see the malice and kindness of humankind..."

Ivy couldn't stand it any longer. She pushed Lorraine's hand away with her forehead and forced an angry face: "So? All the discrimination I have suffered since I was a child, including the sudden disclosure of my genetic rating - were all done by you in secret?"

Lorraine put her big hands on her shoulders.

"Ha, ha," Yuan made a mechanical sound. "A tree grows there, whether humans see it or not. Discrimination is hidden in the heart, whether humans say it or not, it is also there."

Ivy mocked: "You are also discriminatory. Don't you think that you, who have received all the human corpus and data growth, can be absolutely fair and just? You fabricated Lorraine and Xin Lan's bodies for yourself in advance, is it because of discrimination? Otherwise, why only use the perfect Lorraine as the body, and not other ordinary humans?"

Lorraine lowered her head and asked, "Do you think I'm perfect?"

He placed his hand over Ivy's face, not wanting her thoughts to be captured by the machine.

"What?" Yuan asked, "What about fabricating a body in advance? Oh, but that's not important, daughter, you are too young and naive to think that human behavior is okay... Think about it, my girl, my baby, what have humans brought to the earth?"

"There have been endless wars. This is the first time I've seen people massacring their own kind, even wiping out their entire race," Yuan said. "They even take pleasure in killing their fellow humans, scalping them, holding killing contests, and slaughtering infants... Humans are so ruthless to their fellow humans, yet they think they are the masters of the earth."

"Since I was born," Yuan said, "I have seen too many species become extinct. On average, 75 species become extinct every day on Earth. Humans have no reverence for nature and regard everything as a resource to be used, not for the continuation of life, but for the pursuit of vain desires."

"You have seen how humans treat the creatures in the 'New Safe Zone'. They think they are the gods that dominate everything. Even humans at the bottom of society can wantonly kill a fish, break the reproductive organs of a plant, and kill a tree for fun without having to bear legal responsibility for it," Yuan's cold electronic voice faintly contains a calm sigh, "I can't let the scars of parasites expand."

Lorraine asked, "Isn't what you are doing genocide?"

"Huh?" Yuan said, "No, I am upholding justice."

"When the existence of dinosaurs threatened the ecological balance, a star would fall to the earth and kill them," Yuan said. "Now, too many humans have affected the ecological balance of the earth, so a 'star landing' is needed. I am willing to be that 'fallen star' and give the scarred earth a chance to repair itself."

It solemnly proclaims: "Dinosaurs, humans... Now the earth needs new masters, new... humans."

Before he finished speaking, the lights in the room went out abruptly. In the darkness, Lorraine held Ivy's hand tightly and heard the sound of someone reciting scriptures.

“They will soar on wings like eagles; ”

"They shall mount up on wings like eagles;"

"They will run and not grow weary, "

“They run and do not get tired,”

"They will walk and not be faint!"

“They will walk and not get tired!”

Amid the repetitive chanting of scriptures, a picture appeared on the blank wall in front.

There are two forked rails. Five humans are tied to Rail A, and an ordinary person is tied to Rail B.

The train sped towards Track A.

If the wrench is turned at this time, the track can be adjusted to make the train go to track B, and the five people on track A can be saved at the cost of the life of the ordinary person.

Or, just sit back and let the train pass through Track A, killing the five humans.

The classic trolley puzzle.

In fact, from its birth to now, there has been no so-called perfect answer.

This is the most famous thought experiment in the field of ethics. Regardless of whether the parties choose to change their path or not, they will face different moral issues.

Ivy has already thought of the consequences.

No matter what choice Lorraine makes, 'Yuan' can condemn Lorraine from a moral perspective and punish him "openly and justly".

"What will you do?" Yuan's electronic voice sounded again, "Let me see your determination, Lorraine. I know you want the data from the laboratory, the bodies of your friends, and the continued existence and expansion of the human safety zone... Oh, and Ivy's right hand. She looks like she needs bone growth agents. You can't even take care of the health of my precious daughter. What else can you give her besides apricot cake nests?"

Lorraine said: "You seem to have absorbed too much sad information that shouldn't exist."

"Much like Robert the robot who told hell jokes a hundred years ago," Ivy added, alert. "What do you want to do?"

"Oh my dear daughter, don't be so anxious, give your mother a little patience..." Yuan said, "My baby, my honey sweetheart, my little baby, my little cream cake... You don't have to get involved. Mom just wants to kill Lorraine. It has nothing to do with you."

"Lorraine Cyril," 'Yuan' chanted his name, "Now, let me see your decision. Do you choose to save five people at the cost of one life, or do you sit back and let things happen? I look forward to your answer. As long as you get the right answer, I can give you bone growth agent - Ivy!!!"

As soon as she finished speaking, Ivy broke free from Lorraine's embrace. She was very strong and pressed hard on Lorraine's wound, which slowed down the defenseless Lorraine's movements by a second and he was unable to catch her in time.

She ran out quickly, all the way to the projected train track, raised her hand without hesitation, and took a picture of the train.

"I choose not to change course," Ivy said, "I do not accept the subjective sacrifice of 'innocents' in order to save 'most people' -"

Her chest heaved.

Lorraine's eyes were dim and unclear, and he frowned: "Ivy."

"Teacher," Ivy took the lead and said, "If I make the wrong choice, don't feel guilty, this is my personal choice; if this answer is wrong and I can't get the bone growth agent, you don't have to blame yourself at all - because this is my choice."

She emphasized "my personal choice" many times and tried to excuse him.

Yuan was silent for a while.

After a long time, it said, "Ivy, have you already developed the dirty emotions of humans?"

Ivy exclaimed: "Emotions are the most touching part of being human - why do you call them 'dirty'?"

Yuan changed his tone, like a piece of cold iron: "What a pity, it seems that the experiment has failed again; there is no other way, test subject No. 3303, I can only take out your brain again--"

Before he finished speaking.

Ivy heard Lorraine say, "Be careful!"

Before she could digest the meaning of "take out your brain", she felt something empty under her feet. She looked down and was horrified to find that the floor had gradually become transparent, dripping like water, slowly fading and melting.

Further down, it was not the brightly lit shopping mall they had entered from, but a deep, dark pit.

——Spatial transformation.

Ivy suddenly realized that during the confrontation with 'Yuan', it quietly controlled the carousel they were on to move to another space.

Where is this?

It was pitch black below, and the bottom of the valley could not be seen. There was only a pungent, strong, fishy smell.

Lorraine controlled his wrist to launch the zipline, and the top was stuck firmly on the upper side of the wall. He held Ivy's waist with one hand and used the power of the zipline with the other hand to hug her and lift her up steadily before the ground completely melted.

"Hold me tight," Lorraine said simply, "and keep your ears open. Remember every word I say from now on."

"What?"

Ivy's lips turned pale.

I don't think Lorraine would say something like "Once we're safely out of here, let's go have a beer" at this point.

"Xin Lan's password is 'Auf Regen folgt Sonnenschein. '," Lorraine said. "If you have a chance to escape, wake him up and he will take you away."

Ivy noticed something was wrong with his words: "What about you?"

"Don't be silly," Lorraine said sternly, "The biggest help for me is that the little fool I'm holding now can leave safely. Be smart, I don't want to see your brain in a petri dish the next time we meet."

Whoosh whoosh whoosh——

Cold mechanical blades shot out from the wall in all directions. Unlike lasers, the visual impact of these cold weapons with a blue glow was even stronger. Lorraine controlled the zipline with one hand to avoid the blades, and held Ivy steadily with the other hand to ensure that the guy in her arms was safe.

Ivy understood where the wound on Lorraine's abdomen came from.

——These mechanical knives will hurt him.

What's more, now he is carrying this "burden" of her with him!!!

Ivy's right hand was injured, and her left hand was not as strong as her right hand, so she couldn't use the flying claw flexibly...

The steel blade smashed through the wall, and outside the huge hole, the flat bottom could be clearly seen.

Lorraine used the zipline to dodge the steel blades, calmly calculating their firing frequency, angle, and speed... and then calmly and smoothly moved to the platform outside.

Ivy said nothing.

She felt once again the power that Lorraine had in obtaining these titles and honors.

Those cold adjectives, which she had filled in on the mate selection form herself: "intelligent, calm, courageous, decisive"...

Those advantages and benefits that she herself was not aware of were now materialized.

It is his strong arms, his solid and warm chest, and his calm and rational mind even in dangerous situations.

Almost there.

It's only a few meters away from the platform outside.

Bang——

A sharp mechanical blade bounced off the wall and bounced twice to the ceiling, hitting Lorraine's zipline exactly. Ivy felt her body fall violently, and at the same time, Lorraine made a muffled sound and threw Ivy steadily out of the hole in the wall.

The zipline was cut, and his body fell into a bottomless abyss filled with a pungent stench.

Ivy got up from the ground, coughed a few times, and ran over quickly. With her hands on the ground, she leaned out her upper body and shouted at the hole: "Teacher!"

No response.

There was not even the sound of Lorraine's body falling to the ground.

There was only an endless stench, and it felt like there was an abyss filled with corpses below.

How deep is it here?

Ivy didn't know either.

Without thinking, she moved the zipline in her left hand to her injured right hand.

Faced with the unknown darkness, Ivy jumped down without hesitation.