Fu Tianhe, who was lying next to Shafulai, could hear his panting.

Even though Shafulai said it was not necessary, Fu Tianhe still did not sleep for the sake of safety, and kept an eye on Shafulai's condition.

Fu Tianhe:!!!

He sat up quickly, but could only see half of Shafley's jaw and clenched teeth from under the neural adapter.

The indicator light was flashing continuously, but it didn't seem to mean that there was a malfunction. Fu Tianhe's hands froze in the air. He didn't know what to do. It would be terrible if he accidentally interfered with Shafuli.

Are we just going to sit there and watch? But he doesn't look very good.

Fu Tianhe looked around, searching for Chen Nian.

Chen Nian and Shafulai have the mark on their bodies, so they will understand Shafulai's current situation more clearly.

In the deepest darkness, something is gleaming.

At first Shafley thought it was a fire, but the light was so faint that it even felt cold.

Rather than a flame, it is more like moonlight falling on the earth on a clear night.

That is not the light emitted by the distant satellite itself, but the light from the stars, which makes the hot and fiery light become cool and bright.

Harness the life fire of others.

To illuminate others.

Even if it is a desolate place.

Shaflay tried to get closer to the light, but it wasn't particularly bright, and he couldn't see its source no matter what.

The final information condensed from countless data reappeared in my mind.

——You said save me.

And now, here we are!

Shaflay stretched out his hand, gritting his teeth to resist the intense pain that pierced deep into his soul.

Closer, closer!

Finally, he exerted force and grasped the light firmly in his hand.

The coldness instantly spread from the palm of my hand to my entire body, flowing through every cell and bringing about a horrible numbness.

Even my thoughts are frozen.

Can't think, no need to think.

Fear multiplies like a virus, filling every corner of the body at a terrifying speed and dominating it.

Those were emotions that did not belong to him at all, as if some unspeakable existence in the dark was forcing them upon Shaflay.

Whose emotions are these?

Who is he empathizing with at this moment?

Shafulai gritted his teeth. Since he was sixteen, he had been trying to perform core program maintenance on the beacon under the guidance of his father. It had been nine years now, so he was considered experienced.

Although everything in Cinnabar is normal, he also uses the Neural Adapter and has experienced too many thrilling things in the Electric Fantasy Kingdom. Since the entire game is a simulation made by the Beacon, it should make him more confident at this critical moment!

The light was firmly grasped in his palm, shining through the gaps between his fingers, splitting into pieces, and about to tear apart the entire darkness.

Endless information flooded into my mind. I wanted to analyze it carefully, but to my surprise, it seemed like there was nothing.

Suddenly, the light became brighter and engulfed Shafulai entirely, and his body melted in the cool and clear light.

The electronic pulse and thoughts are in sync, forming a strange rhythm that dances throughout the already melted body.

He saw it, heard it, and felt it.

An unknown, transcendent existence, and the countless information left behind.

They exist in a form that humans cannot understand. It is the way silicon-based creatures communicate, but they are deciphered by programmers through boring and complex codes.

Without a doubt, Shafley is one of the best among this group.

There was no need to memorize, the data was already engraved deep in his mind. As for deciphering it, it had become an instinct after more than a decade of study.

He walked into the light and touched the innermost area, as if he himself had become the source of the light.

When cold reaches its extreme, it becomes warm.

Shafla gradually realized that the intense fear might have come from the moonlight.

As a beacon of a supercomputer, can it have emotions like a living being?

What is it afraid of?

When it was conducting experiments on soldiers and survivors, was it hesitant or afraid?

If it really existed, then in what state was it when it sent the last message for help nine years ago?

The light, brightness and darkness, could not dispel the endless darkness in the core of the program, but it enveloped Shaflay, protecting it from other hidden beings in the abyss.

Although that was the last of its strength.

After an unknown amount of time, the massive influx of information finally ended before the brain was completely overwhelmed.

The sudden stop even made Shaflay feel an unrealistic sense of emptiness.

Even though he hasn't been able to fully digest the content.

Then, the itching broke out again from the inside, sweeping across the body, and at this moment, it violently knocked Shaflay back from the virtual world to reality.

He let out a scream of pain and itching, as if his internal organs and blood vessels were being violently rubbed by invisible hands, melting together and rotting.

Shafla couldn't even determine the source of the abnormality. He could only grab his chest with one hand, grabbing the skin on his chest with a force that almost tore his protective suit apart. It seemed that only in this way could he barely hold on.

But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get to the source of the itch.

What's wrong with him?

"Shafulai!" Fu Tianhe quickly reached out his hands and fumbled to help Shafulai take off the neural adapter.

The extremely distorted expression under the Alpha's mask and the movement that seemed to want to tear his chest apart immediately dragged him into a bad guess.

But Shafulai never took off his mask during the entire journey, so there was no chance of infection!

"I'm fine." Shafulai clenched his teeth so tightly that he could even taste the faint smell of rust. He managed to squeeze out the sound from between his teeth. "I suffered a mental shock in the core program."

"Ah?" Fu Tianhe was very suspicious about how many points this "point" was, but since Shafulai was in such pain, he didn't bother to ask more questions and quickly made room for him. "Lie down and rest for a while."

"Your Highness Shafulai!" the special forces captain asked nervously, "Are you okay?"

Fu Tianhe whispered: "Let him rest for a while and see what happens first."

Shafulai was lying on the ground, supported by Fu Tianhe. He was breathing heavily, and it sounded like blood foam was spurting out of his lungs.

Too familiar, Fu Tianhe is too familiar with these symptoms.

He felt the same pain when he was ill.

However, the Schafflet watch showed that apart from his heart rate and blood pressure being above the standard, there were no other abnormalities in his physical data.

At this time, Chen Ci and Chen Nian finally returned from Shelter No. 41.

As soon as he returned to the rest stop, Chen Nian saw Shafulai lying next to Fu Tianhe with the neural adapter thrown aside. His pupils shrank and he immediately realized that something was wrong.

"Shafulai!" Chen Nian shouted in surprise, rushed to Alpha, knelt on the ground, and bent down to see his condition.

Shaflay's painful look made him panic for a moment. He was only away for more than 20 minutes, so how could this happen?

Did something unexpected happen in the program kernel?

Damn it, why is he in such a hurry? Can't he just wait for Shaflay to get out of the core safely before going to Shelter 41 to inquire about the situation!

Chen Nian knew that he was angry. Even if he had been with Shaflay just now, nothing would have changed. He could not help Alpha in cyberspace at all.

But, but maybe it would be better if there was a stable delivery of the mark!

Calm down, calm down, similar situations have happened before.

When he first saw Shafley using the neural adapter.

At that time, Alpha was sitting on a metal chair, his whole body was tied up with a dozen black leather belts, which made his muscles bulge a little. He felt bad for a moment and teased Shaflay intentionally.

Shafuli's blood was rushing to his head. He had just used the nerve adapter, and his already unstable blood pressure suddenly became high. Not only did he have a nosebleed, he also fainted on the ground.

Maybe it's a similar situation this time, and I just need to let him lie down and have a good rest for a while.

The military doctor in the team rushed over and carefully examined Shafley's condition through his protective suit.

The gauge inside the suit showed that the Ashes level remained at a perfect zero, and there was no risk of infection for Tsavorite.

What's more, he still has Chen Nian.

Given Shafley's current condition, he is unable to answer the questions raised by the team doctor properly, so we will just observe him for now and wait for him to recover a little.

Chen Nian knelt on the ground and let Shafla rest his head on his legs. At this moment, he really hoped that the troublesome protective suit would disappear so that he could touch Alpha nakedly, feel his body temperature, and give him some comfort.

Half an hour later, Shaflay managed to recover.

"I'm fine." He raised his hand and grabbed Chen Nian's wrist. Recalling his experience in the program core just now, he felt an indescribable sense of relief.

Despite the torture, he did find the most important clue.

The final string wrapped by countless redundant data.

The human brain is not a computer, but it just cannot be cracked quickly. The brain has limited capacity, but it can create countless miracles.

In the agony just now, Shafla thought about it for a while and finally succeeded in deciphering it.

That is a coordinate point.

Although we cannot communicate with the outside world and it is difficult to receive satellite signals and accurately locate ourselves, we can always draw a rough route and determine our current location as we move forward.

What's more, every member of the special forces has undergone the most rigorous training and is an expert in surveying.

"It should be below us." The special forces captain stared down at the mapped map.

Fu Tianhe said: "When we passed through the overlapping space before, the more we moved forward, the stronger the energy fluctuations became. That might be the source of the space chaos."

The special forces captain nodded and said, "Once your highness has recovered a little, we will go over there to check the situation."

Shafley's voice sounded a little weak: "Sorry, I have to keep you waiting for a while."

"Your Highness, you are too polite. If you hadn't cracked it, we wouldn't have been able to get the exact coordinates."

Seeing that he was in good condition, the others moved away so that Shaflay could rest in peace.

"How is the situation over there?" Shafley asked Chen Nian.

"Hmm? It went pretty smoothly. I asked about some situations in Shelter No. 41." Chen Nian replied. He looked into those tired violet eyes and finally did not tell Shaflay about his and Chen Ci's guesses.

Although... Alpha will know sooner or later.

He was very sure that no matter what the truth was, Shaflay's feelings for him would not change at all. It was an indisputable fact that they loved each other.

But... facing the unknown, people always feel fear.

He was afraid that his and Shafla's future lives would undergo drastic changes, and he was also afraid of the huge shock that would be caused if the truth was made public.

He was not afraid of other people's strange looks and fearful attitudes, but he was worried about the impact it would have on Shafla.

You have to know that Shaflay is the eldest prince and the strongest contender for the throne. Under the current electoral system, one has to go through an election to determine his status.

His Omega might be a monster, which would definitely tip the scales in a bad direction.

It's funny, if it was in the past, if you told him that you would think too much about an Alpha, he would definitely laugh at you mercilessly.

In just a few months, he had become someone else. To be more precise, he no longer wanted to be the person he was in the past.

Because no matter what, he is Chen Nian, and nothing will change.

Besides... he quite likes the current Chen Nian who is concerned about the one he loves.

This complex made him feel that he really existed in the world, and with just a glance, Shaflay could pull him back from the most dangerous edge.

Shafley: "What's the catch?"

Chen Nian: "There are also uninfected people there, and everyone is trying hard to stay alive. Their leaders begged me and Chen Ci to rescue them."

Chen Nian raised his head and looked at Chen Ci. Although they were speechless, the two brothers had the same idea at this moment.

Chen Ci knew clearly what Chen Nian was worried about. He didn't know from whence selfishness became the mainstream, and even love became part of the calculation.

Money, power, and status have become the primary criteria for determining whether a person can be considered a good partner.

As for character, ideals, and personality, they seem to have been forgotten.

When a person of high status falls in love with a person of low status, it is "helping the poor."

When a person of low status falls in love with a noble person, it is "climbing the ladder".

Those who are poor together are sad about everything.

Those who share wealth and status may appear to be in harmony with each other but their hearts are not together.

People sing praises of the beauty of love, but are willing to deny the existence of love between others with the deepest malice.

But none of this has anything to do with them.

He and Fu Tianhe, Chen Nian and Shafulai.

Regardless of their status, what touched their hearts at first was the fatal attraction of each other's beautiful souls.

"We initially determined that Ashes is related to energy."

Chen Ci calmly explained that everyone in Shelter 41 came from the screening area, skipping the information about the survivors being injected with mobilization agents and having their peripheral blood drawn.

"This explains why the Ashes outbreak was so severe when it first occurred. Twenty-three million people on the beacon were exposed to a high-risk environment at the same time. No matter how hard we tried, it was impossible to alleviate the situation."

"Moonlight can only save other beacons at her own expense."

"In fact, it is indeed effective. If it had not been sealed in time, the leaked Ashes would have been carried to more places by birds, beasts and seawater. The number of infected people would have definitely increased by more than a hundred times, and even civilization might have been destroyed."

Shafla thought of the cold light he saw in the darkness.

Harness the life fire of others.

To illuminate others.

Even if it is a desolate place.

The painful price paid resulted in a few years of controlled turmoil and long-term peace afterwards.

Fu Tianhe opened his mouth, but no words came out.

He remembered the afternoon when his mother and he swam in the sea, and the water brought purple powder.

It turns out that... it follows the flow of energy.

Is this nature's punishment on humans?

"Well, that's about it. Now the most urgent thing is to find out how Ashes got mixed into the energy source. It would be terrible if other beacons fall into a similar situation."

Chen Nian concluded, pretending to be relaxed: "We have found the truth, and it will definitely be over soon."

Shafley said nothing, just stared at Chen Nian.

Any evasive expression on the Omega boy's face could not escape Shafla's eyes.

He knows Chen Nian too well.

The quirky Omega was once the most accomplished actor. He was quick-witted, could tell the truth, and exuded charm to everyone, making countless Alphas fascinated by him. Few people could see his true inner self through his appearance.

But at this moment, the truth was revealed in front of him.

Perhaps after a few months, Chen Nian had become accustomed to being real in front of him and had forgotten how to act.

Shafla closed his eyes and hummed softly.

The consciousness is groggy.

Shafulai lay on Chen Nian's lap, with thousands of thoughts surging in his mind, but he was too tired. Soon, he fell asleep without even noticing it.

Chen Nian put away the silver neural adapter.

It looks like it won't be needed anytime soon.

"Jiuyue, you should come and have a rest too." Fu Tianhe said softly, moving to the side.

Jiuyue has only slept once in such a long time since she came in.

"Okay." Chen Ci leaned against Fu Tianhe.

He suddenly wanted to test Fu Tianhe, but he quickly calmed down and thought there was nothing to worry about.

Fu Tianhe is not the kind of person who would care about those things.

After three hours of preparation, the team set out again. They will leave this shelter and carry the survivors' horses to the deeper parts of the moonlight.

Find the secret of that coordinate.

The team can retrace their steps back to the cleanup area, using the overlapping spaces to step into the area below, but this may take more time.

The four of them had been to that place before. It was a number of control rooms connected together, each containing two culture dishes.

After everyone discussed it as much as possible, they decided to go straight forward and not go back. The shelter inside Moonlight is definitely not just these two facilities, and maybe they can determine the coordinates of other survivors.

After leaving the shelter, they regained their alertness. No one knew what would greet them in the darkness ahead.

According to Li Li, there are countless monsters active nearby, and robots that go out to explore are often dismantled without mercy, turning into a pile of scrap copper and iron, waiting to be recycled by other robots.

The blue alien they had seen on the road was just one of them.

The rumbling sound has quietly disappeared, and the anglerfish parasitized by the blue loach may have lost its life. The large space that was once illuminated by the lantern above the head has fallen into darkness again.

energy.

Chen Ci pondered silently. As we all know, the flood disaster has submerged most of the land on Earth, and the shadow of energy shortage hangs over humanity. Beacon is a supercomputer, and daily operation and precision calculations require powerful power.

Solar panels require a sufficient area, and cannot be installed at sea because primitive creatures will attack them in large numbers. The construction of windmills will affect the climate near the beacon. Hydropower generation is also poor due to the lack of elevation difference. Biomass itself is already a scarce resource.

The so-called renewable energy is simply not enough to meet our daily needs.

Since mining from land is not possible, scientists set their sights on the area beneath the beacon.

Each beacon has an energy pipeline that is several kilometers deep. Drills dig for resources from the continental shelves and seabed below, transport them upward through pipelines, and after going through dozens of filtering processes, they are finally selected and washed at the bottom of the beacon and refined into liquid energy that can be used.

This is how the six beacons have operated for thousands of years.

As for why it was moonlight, Chen Ci also had a rough guess.

Moonlight is built on the Greenland ice plateau in the Arctic. Below it is hard permafrost and glaciers that have not melted for thousands of years. Some ancient creatures from tens of millions of years ago may be frozen in the ice and snow.

Viruses, or other existences that have never been studied by humans.

After all, compared with the billions-year-old Earth, human existence is just a drop in the ocean.

Before the flood disaster occurred, many scientists suggested that global warming would cause the melting of glaciers and release many ancient viruses, but no one took it seriously at the time.

Just like no one could have imagined that the sea water would really flood the land one day.

"This is probably it." The voice of the special forces captain brought him back to his senses. "The energy fluctuations are already very strong. The nearby structures are relatively unstable. We can try to open a passage from here and go deeper."

The team members were divided into groups and arranged the blasting devices according to the structural conditions.

At the beginning, everyone was worried that the explosion would shake the Moonlight structure, but now after experiencing several collapse shocks and being troubled by giant anglerfish that were parasitic, there is no need to worry so much anymore.

The top priority is to end the operation as quickly as possible. Although the specially trained team members can support it under closed protection for nearly 72 hours, the longer it takes, the worse the situation will be.

There may be other unexpected events.

Fu Tianhe also went to help. Chen Nian took out some water from his bag and took a quick drink.

The more he watched the fluctuations on the instrument grow stronger, the more nervous he became.

Chen Ci stared at the compass in his hand. This thing had been silent for a long time.

Likewise, they found no more scattered body parts.

There are a lot of shelter robots around in the area, so even if there are any, they will probably be picked up.

As he was thinking, he suddenly felt like he was being spied on again.

Only this time it was particularly strong, so strong that it seemed as if thousands of eyes were staring at him.

"careful!"

The mental force instantly swept away, and just as Chen Ci finished speaking, gunshots rang out.

The first wave of intensive firepower instantly cleared the monsters that were rushing up, but failed to truly stop their momentum.

Those things were about the size of two palms, had bat-like wings, were a disgusting flesh-brown color, had no eyes, and were swooping down like a dark cloud!

“Be careful!”

Fu Tianhe shouted loudly, and faster than the sound, he stretched out his hands and suddenly pushed away the special forces member who was setting up the explosive device beside him.

So the team member who was supposed to serve as his human shield fell to the ground and just barely brushed past the monster's wings.

The one who was attacked instead of him was Fu Tianhe.

With a crackling sound, a hole was cut in the protective suit on Fu Tianhe's chest. Due to the speed, the edge of the wings was unimaginably sharp, and Fu Tianhe didn't even feel the pain.

Because the cut on his flesh was too small, the flesh automatically glued itself together again.

But this state is only temporary.

Blood gushed from his chest as he dived over and protected another team member who was checking the equipment and had no time to fight back.