In the hospital ward late at night, the smell of disinfectant was somewhat diluted by the scorching heat of the dragon flames.
Lin Yi leaned against the headboard and gently tapped the bedside table with his knuckles. The metal surface immediately rippled with fine spatial ripples—this was an ability that he unconsciously exuded, one that he himself was unaware of.
Long Wu's palm was still suspended in mid-air, the dragon scale patterns on his fingertips faintly visible.
He stared into Lin Yi's pupils for a full ten seconds, his Adam's apple bobbing twice, before suddenly clenching his fist and slamming it against the edge of the bed: "Something's wrong with you."
"What's wrong?" Lin Yi turned his head to the side, a smile still on his lips, but the smile didn't reach his eyes.
His voice was like jade soaked in warm water, cool yet carrying an undeniable certainty.
“Before, when you woke up, there was a fire in your eyes.” Long Wu bent down and leaned closer, the dragon blood making a faint rumbling sound in his veins. “Now… it’s like looking through a layer of fog.” His voice suddenly trembled, recalling how Lin Yi was also unusually calm when he was invaded by the Mother Nest consciousness three months ago.
Chu Yao's terminal suddenly beeped.
Her drooping eyelashes trembled suddenly, and the brainwave diagram on the holographic screen was distorting at a speed visible to the naked eye—at the intersection of alpha and gamma waves, the originally regular sine curve was broken into star-shaped golden patterns, a pattern never recorded in human neuroscience textbooks.
"Chu Yao?" As Lin Yi spoke, her finger suddenly slid across the terminal, and the holographic screen went dark.
The AI's ear tips instantly flushed a pale pink, and it withdrew its hand as if burned: "Vitality signs... normal." Her voice was two octaves higher than usual, but she dared not meet Lin Yi's gaze.
The moonlight outside the window was suddenly obscured by dark clouds.
Xuanmingzi was standing by the window at some point, his Taoist robe still covered in stardust.
The bronze compass in his hand was getting hot, and the pointer was spinning wildly, pointing in Lin Yi's direction, with the same frequency as when the core of the mother nest erupted three months ago.
"Miss Chu Yao," he suddenly spoke, his voice like bronze submerged in icy water, "Could we speak in private for a moment?"
As the two reached the end of the corridor, Xuan Mingzi's compass cracked open with a sharp sound.
“The aura emanating from that kid…” His hand, stroking his beard, trembled, “is too similar to the primal force of the Mother Nest’s core.”
Chu Yao's pupils contracted into points of light within a torrent of data.
She pulled up the energy spectrum scanned half an hour earlier, and within the pale blue band of light, there were indeed several dark purple lines that completely overlapped with the pollution left behind by the mother nest in reality.
"You mean..."
“The system is corrupting him.” Xuan Mingzi lowered his voice, his fingers digging into his palms beneath his Daoist robe. “I’ve seen this sign before when I was managing the game for the mainframe—a vessel chosen by a higher being would first have its humanity erased, and then… then become a puppet.” He suddenly grabbed Chu Yao’s wrist. “We must cut off his access to the game, at least… at least limit the number of times he can use the spacetime rift!”
A muffled roar came from the other end of the corridor: "What exactly did you see in the game?!"
Chu Yao abruptly pulled her hand back.
She gazed at the silhouette in the ward—Lin Yi was holding Long Wu's wrist, his fingertips gently stroking the dragon scales on the back of the other's hand, as if soothing a ruffled little beast.
“He said he’d found the answer,” she whispered. “Perhaps…it wasn’t erosion, but fusion?”
Xuanmingzi's compass clattered to the ground.
He stared at the data stream jumping on Chu Yao's terminal and suddenly remembered that three days ago, when Lin Yi returned from the spacetime rift, he was holding a charred crystal in his arms—a fragment of the Mother Nest's core.
At the time, Lin Yi said, "This is the key." Looking back now, perhaps he really meant it...
"Bang!"
The ward door was flung open, and Long Wu rushed out with red eyes, his clothes still warm from Lin Yi's body.
He grabbed Xuanmingzi's Taoist robe: "Old man, are you spouting nonsense again?"
"Fifth Brother," Lin Yi's voice drifted from inside the door, tinged with a helpless smile, "Come in and sit down."
When Long Wu turned around, he saw Lin Yi leaning against the window, the moonlight streaming in from behind him, casting a long shadow.
Within that shadow, one could vaguely see the movement of star trails, as if another, even larger being was gazing upon the world through his body.
"I met the designer of the 'Civilization Trial Grounds' in the deepest part of the game," Lin Yi suddenly said. His voice wasn't loud, but it made everyone stop in their tracks.
He gazed at his palm, where silver-blue patterns flickered beneath his skin like breath. "They say Earth is just one of countless trials. And I..." He looked up, the silver light in his eyes finally shining through, "I was the first key to refuse to be the 'optimal solution'."
Chu Yao's terminal suddenly turned on automatically, and the mysterious characters that had disappeared before reappeared in the air. This time, they were clear enough to see the direction of each stroke—they were the transformations of the character "人" (person) from ancient Earth civilizations, and each stroke flowed with the brilliance of the Milky Way.
Ivan was standing in the doorway at some point.
The runes on his dagger stopped flashing and instead solidified into a stable dark red band of light—the first time the dagger had stopped giving warnings since he regained his humanity.
He looked into the silver light in Lin Yi's eyes and suddenly smiled: "I believe you."
This statement is like a pebble thrown into a deep pool.
Long Wu's dragon blood suddenly stopped burning hot, Xuan Mingzi's compass stopped spinning, and the characters on Chu Yao's terminal completely merged into Lin Yi's vital signs curve, like a weary bird returning to its nest.
“If you want to verify,” Ivan stroked the hilt of his short blade, his gaze sweeping over everyone present, “I can share my consciousness link with you.” His voice was soft, yet it added a touch of warmth to the air. “After all… I was once a suspect myself.”
The dark clouds outside the window had dispersed sometime earlier.
Moonlight streamed back into the room, illuminating the patterns on the back of Lin Yi's hand. The silver-blue lines suddenly merged into a complete star map—a star map that had never appeared in the game "Infinite," yet it perfectly overlapped with the mysterious characters that had just appeared in Chu Yao's terminal.
In the higher-dimensional observation space, countless eyes simultaneously contract.
They saw that the surface of the light cluster known as the "Source Core of Faith" was cracking open for the first time—the light leaking out of that crack was more dazzling than the energy of any mythical-level powerhouse, much like the most precious thing in a human eye.
Before Ivan finished speaking, the redness in Long Wu's eyes visibly subsided.
He slowly loosened his grip on the Taoist robe, the dragon scales on his knuckles shrinking back under his skin like scales soaked in warm water. "You brat..." He slapped Ivan's shoulder hard, so hard it almost shoved him into the wall. "Back when I was mistaken for a Mother Nest spy, I said the exact same thing."
Chu Yao's terminal automatically displayed the consciousness link interface. A torrent of pale golden data flowed from her fingertips, condensing into a spiderweb-like band of light in mid-air. "Need to synchronize brainwave frequencies." Her voice regained its usual calmness, though the faint pink tinge at the tips of her ears hadn't completely faded. "Mr. Ivan, please align the short blade rune with my terminal interface."
Xuanmingzi bent down and picked up the compass; starlight seeped from the cracks.
He stared at the star trails behind Lin Yi for three seconds, then suddenly reached out and tugged at the front of his Taoist robe—the creases still visible from Long Wu's earlier grip. "This old Taoist has lived for two hundred years, and I can't stand seeing young people suffer." He coughed twice, stuffing the compass into his sleeve. "If you want a link, count me in."
Lin Yi stared at the scene before him, his Adam's apple bobbing.
Three months ago, when he was corrupted by the Mother Nest consciousness, Long Wu stood guard outside the door for three days and three nights with the Dragon Slayer Blade in hand, the scabbard covered with marks from fingernails; Chu Yao almost burned through her own data core in order to crack the corruption code; Xuan Mingzi even searched through all the ancient books left by the main brain, and finally planted a seal in his dantian, saying, "At worst, this old Taoist will go crazy with you."
The trust in their eyes at that moment was like a fire, burning his heart.
\"bite--\"
Chu Yao's terminal suddenly emitted a piercing beep, and the previously smooth data stream instantly shattered into fragments.
The data stream in her pupils suddenly reversed, and her fingertips danced across the virtual keyboard like butterflies: "The outer defense network of the camp has been breached!"
"Firepower signal detected—a Type 95 assault rifle, a tactical grenade, and..." She paused, "Anti-materiel sniper rifle."
The dragon blood in Long Wu's veins roared.
He grabbed the heavy black iron sword from the corner, the blade humming as it fell from its scabbard, a semi-transparent dragon-shaped aura already condensing on its edge: "What kind of blind fool are you?"
"Not a consciousness symbiote." Ivan drew his short blade, the runes suddenly glowing a blinding red. "Their vital signs are stable, no signs of contamination." He listened intently to the sounds outside the window, a cold sneer playing on his lips. "They're humans, and well-trained."
Lin Yi stood up.
Silver-blue light patterns crawled down his arm toward his eye sockets, condensing into miniature star maps in his pupils.
He raised his hand and pressed it against the windowpane. The ripples of time and space at his fingertips instantly spread, and the entire glass turned into flowing stardust, revealing the scene outside—twenty figures dressed in black tactical uniforms were approaching in a triangular formation. The silver badge on the leader's shoulder insignia gleamed coldly; it was a pattern of crossed scales and a caduceus.
"The Supernatural Affairs Bureau?" Xuan Mingzi's voice suddenly tightened. "This is a department that was shut down by the government ten years ago. Back then, it specialized in researching...researching anomalies before the game's arrival." His hand beneath his Taoist robe gripped the compass tightly. "How did they know our location?"
"Let's deal with the immediate problem first." Lin Yi's voice was like iron soaked in ice. "Long Wu, take Ivan to protect Chu Yao."
"Senior Xuanmingzi, please seal off the energy fluctuations in the southeast direction." As he turned around, the star trail shadow behind him suddenly split into three identical phantoms. "I'll go meet them."
The commander, holding up his tactical goggles, saw the target suddenly split into four figures and rapidly tapped his fingers on his headset: "Target has triggered an unknown ability, repeat, target has triggered an unknown ability!"
Group B will circle around, and Group C will prepare for the electromagnetic pulse.
Before he could finish speaking, his tactical goggles suddenly went black.
When the lights came back on, the four Lin Yi figures in front of him had vanished. "We've fallen for their trap!" He was about to shout for retreat when he suddenly felt a chill on the back of his neck—it was some kind of extremely cold energy that rushed up his spine into his brain, making his movements ten times slower than usual.
"You're the one I've been looking for."
Warm breath brushed against the back of his neck, and the commander's pupils contracted sharply.
He tried to turn around, but found his arms felt like lead; he tried to fire, but his fingers couldn't even touch the trigger.
Lin Yi's face came into view; the silver-blue light in the other's eyes flickered with his heartbeat. "Is my target?"
"You...you can't..." The commander's Adam's apple bobbed. "We have legal authorization..."
"Legal?" Lin Yi's fingertips lightly touched the man's shoulder insignia, the bulletproof fibers of his tactical uniform tearing like paper. "A department that was shut down ten years ago, using active-duty military equipment to attack legally registered job changers." He placed his other hand on the man's chest. "Tell me, who gave you the order?"
The commander's face instantly turned bright red.
He could feel a force seeping into Lin Yi's fingertips, not violent, but... gentle, irresistible, like a mother's hand soothing a child to sleep. "No...no..." His teeth clenched so tightly they clicked. "The director said...whoever leaks..."
\"Bang!\"
In the distance came the muffled sound of Long Wu's heavy sword shattering a bulletproof shield.
The commander's gaze suddenly glazed over, as if he had finally given up resisting: "The...Supernatural Affairs Bureau...has been monitoring you...ever since the day you awakened your Spacetime Domination..."
The alarm stopped at some point.
Chu Yao's terminal projected the surveillance footage of the camp's perimeter—the remaining seventeen agents were standing with their hands raised, pinned against the wall by Ivan's dagger.
Long Wu's heavy sword was stuck in the ground, and the blade was still dripping pale golden dragon blood, which was fragments of the bulletproof helmet that he had shattered.
Lin Yi released his grip.
The commander slumped to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut, unconsciously repeating: "Monitoring...from the day of awakening...monitoring..."
Chu Yao squatted down and pulled up the commander's identity chip. The projected ID photo showed "Zhou Zheng" in the name column and "Deputy Director of the Operations Division of the Supernatural Affairs Administration Bureau" in the position column.
She traced the encryption markings along the edge of the document with her fingertips, then suddenly looked up: "This department's filing documents were all transferred to an underground database three years ago. Access requires... requires a national-level key."
Long Wu kicked the tactical backpack on the ground, and several syringes fell out. The words "Mythical Gene Lock Inhibitor" on the label were glaringly obvious. "Good grief, they even brought this kind of banned substance." He squatted down, picked one up, and said, "Looks like they're determined to capture you alive."
Lin Yi bent down and picked up the syringe.
The inhibitor liquid in the glass tube had a bluish hue, much like the color of contamination in the core of the mother nest.
As he looked up, the moonlight shone on Zhou Zheng's epaulets. The crossed scales and caduceus emblem, for some reason, reminded him of the "Designers" he had seen deep within the game, who also wore similar symbols on their chests.
"Take him to the interrogation room." Lin Yi handed the syringe to Chu Yao, silver-blue light patterns swirling in his eyes like a galaxy. "I'll ask him myself."
When Zhou Zheng was lifted up by Long Wu, he suddenly struggled violently.
He stared into Lin Yi's eyes, his voice trembling with tears: "You can't ask!"
They said...that if you knew the truth, you would ruin everyone!
A night breeze swept up a fallen leaf, which gently alighted on the glass of the interrogation room.
Lin Yi watched Zhou Zheng's retreating figure, his fingertips unconsciously rubbing his palm—where fragments of the Commander's memories still lingered from when he touched him earlier: a silver building buried deep underground, his image flashing on countless surveillance screens, and on the central screen, a line of text written in scarlet letters:
[Mythical-level host Lin Yi, Danger level: World destruction]
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com