New World
Ellie's words echoed in the air like a trembling string.
Lin Bai stood in the middle of the dusty workshop, the beam of light slanting down on her face, half bright, half shadowed. She opened her mouth, but found her throat dry as gravel.
"Inscription?" she repeated.
Ellie raised her hand and pointed to a symbol in the corner of the screen. It was a mixture of ancient human language and Zerg language.
"When consciousness is no longer divided, when blood and light intertwine, there will be one person who will become the bridge of all races."
Lin Bai stared at the line of words, his breathing becoming a little stagnant.
A strange low humming sounded behind her ears, as thin as the chirping of an insect.
"What does this mean, Ellie?" she whispered.
Ellie was silent for a moment before she slowly spoke, "The inscription is from Earth's time, before the war between humans and the Zerg began. In reality, the Zerg aren't alien creatures, but mutated descendants of humans, just like millions of other cats and dogs."
Lin Bai was stunned. It felt like his heart had been struck hard by something blunt.
"Mutation?" she murmured, "But the textbook says..."
"The textbooks are all just reassuring stories," Ellie interrupted, her voice as cold as metal. "The Zerg aren't an alien species. That's what we call evolution's failures. The Federation's early genetic engineering split humanity into two paths: one that maintains a similar appearance to the human race, and one that completely abandons them and uses them for warfare."
She paused, her eyes trembling slightly.
"The Zerg are those who transform into war machines."
Lin Bai's chest tightened, and her blood seemed to freeze in her body. She suddenly remembered the black tide in her dream, and the countless pairs of green eyes.
Ellie continued, "And you are the third path set up by the Federation after it became aware of the problem."
"I?"
"Yes." Ellie's voice lowered. "Your genetic sequence was recovered from the ruins by the Federation after the war. You are neither purely human nor Zerg. You have two consciousness codes coexisting within you. Chen Chen, the artificial mentor, is responsible for monitoring you."
Lin Bai's pupils suddenly contracted.
She suddenly understood the source of the calmness in Chen Chen's eyes. It wasn't the gaze common to any mechanical person, but rather the gaze of an experimenter observing a sample.
"Why me?" she said with difficulty. "Why was I created?"
Ellie didn't answer immediately, but turned around and took out a data chip from an old metal box.
She handed it to Lin Bai with a complicated look.
"This is the backup left by Chen Chen. He hid a copy of the truth here before he was shut down."
Lin Bai took the chip and inserted it into the portable terminal. A light screen popped up, and a familiar figure slowly emerged: Teacher Chen Chen.
That was his last projection. His face was calm, but he looked more like a thoughtful person than in his memory.
"Lin Bai, when you see this record, it means I have been cleared. The consciousness field in your body is the Federation's original 'restart plan'. They believe that by fusing the neural patterns of Zerg and humans, they can create a controllable resonator to maintain the balance of the two consciousnesses."
"But what I see is not balance, but slavery."
"They want to replace God with you."
The light and shadow flickered, and Chen Chen's image shook slightly.
"I was once part of the AI's core. Later, I chose to betray it. Because I saw your dream. That dream wasn't a program-generated illusion, but an echo of your true consciousness. Lin Bai, the resonance field in your body allows consciousnesses to communicate with each other, which means that if you want, the entire Zerg consciousness network will lose control."
The image stopped abruptly.
Lin Bai's hands trembled as he dropped down, his palms cold.
She finally understood Chen Chen's silence, Gu Zhou's warning, and the hooded boy's gaze; all of these pointed to the same truth.
Her very existence is the key to war.
Ellie whispered, "Now you understand, don't you? They're afraid of you. The Zerg are looking for you too. You're the only one who can restart the world."
"Then what should I do?" Lin Bai asked, his voice so hoarse that it was almost inaudible.
Ellie didn't answer.
She looked at the screen, her eyes falling on the area with the densest red light.
"The front line is collapsing. The Seventh Fleet led by Gu Zhou has lost contact. The Central Tower has reactivated consciousness synchronization. They want to control you and reset the memory of all mankind."
Lin Bai was stunned: "Reset?"
"Yes," Ellie whispered, "They want humans to forget the Zerg, forget the war, and forget 'you'. That way, they can maintain a civilization that is forever quiet and obedient."
The air was cold as iron.
Lin Bai closed his eyes, suppressing the trembling sound of his breath in his throat.
"Ellie," she asked, "what if I don't let them succeed?"
Ellie looked at her slowly, a glimmer in her eyes: "Then you can try to set the whole world on fire."
——
The walls of the workshop suddenly shook.
The outer defense light curtain flickered violently, and a sharp alarm suddenly sounded.
"They found this place!" Ellie pulled out her energy gun and growled, "Lin Bai, let's go!"
A crack was blasted into the metal wall. Several Federation armed mechas rushed in from the smoke and dust, their armor flashing blue light.
Ellie fired backhand, and two arcs of energy cut through the air, hitting the front row accurately.
The sound of fire and metal clashing was deafening.
Lin Bai was pulled towards the back door, his heart beating wildly.
But at that moment, all sounds suddenly stopped, and the world seemed to be frozen by some invisible wave.
Dust hung in the air, and the light of the flames was torn into pieces.
A low voice rang in her ears, a whisper that didn't belong to anyone, like a whisper coming from her blood, "Resonance has been activated."
Lin Bai's vision was engulfed by the light.
——
When she opened her eyes again, she was standing in the middle of the ruins.
The sky above her head was full of cracks, and the stream of consciousness rolled in the air like an aurora. She saw the overlap of two worlds: on one side, the steel city of mankind, and on the other, the biological hive of the Zerg.
Countless fragments of consciousness cried out in the air; chaos, fear, and desire merged into a surging sea.
She heard Chen Chen's voice echoing in her mind, "When the bridge is built, God will fall."
Lin Bai slowly raised his head.
She saw the central tower in the distance starting up again, a dazzling beam of light shooting into the sky. That was the signal that the Federation was about to take over consciousness again.
Gu Zhou's voice suddenly came in his mind, with noise and anxiety:
"Lin Bai! Listen to me, they're going to use the Synchronous Tower to wipe you out! We must stop..."
The signal was cut off by interference.
But Lin Bai knew what to do.
Her heartbeat was in perfect sync with the pulse frequency of the sky.
She could feel the pain and pleading of countless consciousnesses, human, Zerg, and AI, all rising and falling in her mind.
She exhaled softly, her voice weak but clear, "I heard you."
At that moment, light burst out from her palm and spread into a vast web of light, penetrating the clouds, ruins, and tower.
The resonance field of consciousness is activated.
The Federation's central system began to collapse, and the Zerg's neural network trembled at the same time.
For the first time, the wills of the two worlds heard each other equally.
Lin Bai's body was swallowed by the light, and her consciousness spread to thousands of nodes.
She is no longer Lin Bai, but the collection of all consciousnesses.
In that infinite stream of light, she saw Gu Zhou running towards the top of the tower, saw Ai Li holding a gun to block the way in the ruins, and saw countless people looking up at the sky with tears streaming down their cheeks.
The wind blew from the gray area, carrying heat and faint light.
Lin Bai's last thought was as light as a sigh, "If the truth must be burned, then let the ashes bloom."
The light engulfed the entire city.
——
When the light faded, the world became eerily quiet.
The central tower no longer flickered. The great pillar that had once held all of human consciousness together collapsed into the ruins like a burnt bone. Arcs of electricity darted across its fractured edges, and each flash was like the old world twitching.
The air was filled with the smell of scorched earth.
Gu Zhou stumbled forward among the ruins, his face covered in ash and his hands still shaking. He looked up and saw that familiar figure, isolated in the smoke and dust.
The corners of her clothes were lifted by the wind, and her hair was covered with light fragments. Her eyes were still clear, but seemed to be empty.
"Lin Bai..." Gu Zhou called out her name with difficulty.
Lin Bai slowly turned his head, a gentle smile on his lips. That smile seemed like both comfort and farewell.
"Do you remember who it is?" Gu Zhou asked, his voice hoarse and almost broken.
She was silent for a moment, then answered softly, "I am you."
The wind swept through the ruins, and the ashes were blown up, which sparkled with tiny golden lights in the morning light, like the embers of countless consciousnesses.
Gu Zhou stood there in a daze, watching her walk step by step towards the collapsed tower base.
Lin Bai closed his eyes.
But she saw it, saw that the Zerg were no longer crazy, saw that the federal warships stopped fighting, and saw that the two races were no longer hostile.
——
When Gu Zhou opened his eyes again, it was already dawn.
The sky was no longer a cold, iron-gray gray, but a pale blue. Light streamed through the gaps in the clouds, illuminating the ruins, his face, and the newly scorched earth.
Lin Bai is no longer here.
Footsteps could be heard in the distance. Ellie approached, her shoulder bloodied but her back straight. She looked at Gu Zhou, then at the illuminated ruins, her voice low and steady, "She did it, didn't she?"
Gu Zhou pursed his lips, tears in his eyes.
Ellie slowly squatted down and brushed her fingertips across the ashes on the ground. The ashes shimmered slightly in the wind, as if they were still breathing.
“She made everyone hear each other’s voices,” Ellie said. “From now on, there are no more bugs and no more people. She is always with us.”
The wind picked up again, carrying with it a faint whisper. It wasn't an auditory hallucination, but the whispering of countless consciousnesses.
Gu Zhou looked up at the shattered sky. Sunlight penetrated the mist, illuminating the distant ruins, resembling the sea at dawn.
He suddenly smiled, a smile that was tired but also resolute.
"Let's go," he said. "We have to show her the new world."
Ellie didn't answer.
——
The tenth year of the New World.
A cat child and an insect child were running freely in the square. Wherever they looked, all races were in harmony, and the word war was removed from the dictionary.
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