TIC 93

 Chapter 93

“I’m leaving now. When you suddenly wake up to the sound of the explosion later, you’ll be terrified.”

“...Idiot...”

Major General Gordon pressed his face against the rubble separating them and said with utmost seriousness: “Tell me—how are you doing right now?”

“...The bad news is... it feels like I’ve lost all sensation in my body from the neck down...” Avel’s voice was extremely weak; massive blood loss was rapidly causing him to lose consciousness.

Major General Gordon’s brows twitched. “It’s alright. Keep talking to me. Stay with me. Don’t drift off to sleep.”

“...The good news is... I can’t feel any pain anymore...”

“Ah... yes... Once they dig you out, you can undergo a nerve-grafting surgery or something like that... Or maybe have Xiao Yan give you an injection of X-2; then you’ll probably be fine.”

“...Gordon... do you think we did the right thing? Trusting Casey... trusting Jane...”

“I never trusted Casey or Jane Wallis. I only ever trusted you.”

The armed forces moved with remarkable speed. A ton of coolant was sprayed onto the monument in the Central Plaza; although this sturdiest of strongholds had been blasted until it was riddled with fissures, it ultimately held firm.

Char had lost at least a third of its city. Troops were currently engaged in search-and-rescue operations for trapped citizens, as well as emergency repairs to the structural strongholds. Homeless citizens crowded into the surviving central district of Char—some sat in silence, while others wept bitterly.

The President leaned back against the window and let out a sigh.

“We were lucky.”

“Mr. President?” General Sharif, standing nearby, looked at him in bewilderment.

“Char was nothing more than a self-deluding cage. Valentine Sheen has shattered that sweet dream and dragged us back to reality.” The President lowered his gaze and spoke in a cold, hard tone: “No matter how often I urged them to take the initiative and hunt down Valentine, the decadent opulence of this place had stripped those politicians of the ambition to put an end to this unrest once and for all. Now, surely, they must have finally woken up from their dream.”

The aircraft carrying Xiao Yan flew toward a blood-red, fading sunset.

Inside the cabin, there was only silence. It wasn't until the very last ray of daylight had vanished into the night that Lauren finally could no longer hold back her voice: "Are we the only ones to have survived the Shire?"

"Of course not," Xiao Yan replied with absolute certainty.

Xiao Yan had secretly calculated the sheer number of particle bombs required to actually bring down the dome; a single aircraft could never possibly carry them all. Valentine’s sole objective in orchestrating all of this was nothing other than to sow fear and despair. The Shire was no longer a safe haven where people could rest easy; even if the Sharon Virus resolved the threat posed by the zombies, stepping outside the Shire meant completely losing one’s protective shield—and Valentine would then be free to assert his god-like status with even greater impunity.

The aircraft landed safely at Base No. 2, where Shen Bing stood waiting at the end of the hangar bay—just as he always did. Yet, his expression was graver than ever; the deep furrow etched between his brows seemed capable of crushing everything in its path.

Xiao Yan stepped out of the cabin and snapped a crisp military salute in his direction: "Colonel Shen Bing!"

"I am relieved to see that you have arrived safely at my base."

As of now, Base No. 2 possessed the most formidable military might of any location outside the Shire.

All the research supervisors disembarked as well, and Loch immediately spoke up: "Colonel, has the Shire made contact with Base No. 2? What exactly is the situation right now?"

Shen Bing turned around and headed toward the main control room, with everyone following close behind him. The researchers and armed forces stationed there were bustling about in a state of intense tension; not a single person even looked up to spare a glance for these elite researchers, all of whom held military ranks of Major or higher.

They arrived before a massive holographic display, which projected a live feed of the scene within the Shire.

"The good news is that the dome has not collapsed; we have merely lost one-third of the city—and its people. The Military Command is working at maximum speed to repair all the structural supports and arrange housing for the displaced citizens," Shen Bing said, clasping his hands behind his back.

Lauren’s eyes went wide as she stared at the scene of utter devastation on the screen; she was on the verge of shouting out in protest—how could losing one-third of the city possibly be called "good news"? Was the price exacted by that word "merely" not already horrific enough?

But Xiao Yan quickly reached out and pulled Lauren back behind him. In the past, Xiao Yan might have—much like Lauren—viewed Shen Bing as a cold and ruthless individual. However, having endured so much since then, Xiao Yan had come to understand Shen Bing far better.

As for what had already transpired, no amount of wailing or desperate grief—even to the point of smashing one’s head against the ground—would yield any benefit whatsoever. On the contrary, only by viewing the situation through the lens of data could one strip away impulse and emotion, thereby enabling a more rational analysis of everything currently unfolding. Valentine had once attempted to destroy the Central Monument; were it to fall, the remaining two-thirds of Shire would be submerged beneath the earth, and the aircraft Xiao Yan was aboard would become a true "Noah's Ark."

"And the bad news?"

"The military suffered heavy losses—both the Armed Forces and the Central Academy of Sciences. During the process of protecting and evacuating civilians, five hundred and seventy-two members of the Armed Forces were killed by the collapsing dome; this marks the highest casualty count in nearly a century. Furthermore, there is Lieutenant General Aivel of the Central Academy of Sciences..."

"What happened to Lieutenant General Aivel?"

Everyone present watched Shen Bing with extreme tension.

"He was trapped beneath the rubble and suffered severe blood loss. Had we been even a single second late in digging him out, he would have perished right there in the ruins. As it stands, he is paralyzed from the neck down and is currently undergoing neural-grafting surgery."

Xiao Yan let out a heavy breath; he knew that countless other researchers must have met a brutal end, crushed to death within the collapsed tunnels.

"Xiao Yan, you didn't come here merely to seek refuge; you came to figure out exactly what your next move will be."

Shen Bing turned to face him, his eyes reflecting a resolve and gravity unlike anything Xiao Yan had ever seen before.

"But before that—you’ve had a long, exhausting day. May you have pleasant dreams, Major."

Shen Bing had neither the time nor the energy to spare for pleasantries or for socializing with the other research supervisors; he simply turned away and immediately immersed himself in his work. Xiao Yan recalled Lieutenant General Aivel mentioning that Base No. 2 was the only facility dedicated twenty-four hours a day to hunting down any trace—however faint—of Valentine and the *Xien* spiders. In the span of just a few months, this base had already completed its transformation from a research-oriented facility into a critical military stronghold. All research supervisors and special forces personnel arriving from Shire were promptly assigned to their respective quarters. This was the first time Xiao Yan had enjoyed such a privilege; he had been assigned a room of his own. Though cramped—lacking even a desk—at least Xiao Yan finally had his own bed and his own space. As the sliding door closed, the entire world fell silent, save for the sound of his own breathing. He curled his body into a fetal position, facing the wall, when finally, someone sat down beside him. A set of fingers brushed aside the hair at the nape of his neck; just as those fingers were about to withdraw, Xiao Yan reached out and seized the other person’s wrist.

“Am I disturbing you?” Hein’s cool voice rang out—a sound that made Xiao Yan feel as though his thoughts, previously lost in the clouds ten thousand meters above the earth, had finally come back down to solid ground.

“Disturbing me? From what—staring into space?” Xiao Yan turned around, looking up with a smile at the face bending down toward him. “Actually, there’s a question I’ve been wanting to ask you for a while now: What exactly did you and Shen Bing go through inside Lieutenant General Reynoldin’s mind? What kind of world did he construct in there to hunt you down?”

“An endless labyrinth. Time and again, just when I thought I had returned to reality, I found that I had never truly broken free from the confines of his mind. He lay in wait with infinite patience, dissecting every fragment of my memories, recreating the most authentic moments of my life—only to then destroy the very things I held most dear. I watched my mother die countless times, in countless different ways; and countless times, I struggled to escape the clutches of Reynoldin’s mind, only to fall straight into yet another world he had constructed. His mind possesses such profound depth; just as I was on the verge of breaking through the ‘troposphere’ of his consciousness, his thoughts would suddenly extend further still, leaving me to plummet back down once more.”

“And then? How did you manage to get Shen Bing out?”

“I found Shen Bing and told him that unless we died within the confines of Reynoldin’s mind, the man would never let us go.”

Xiao Yan’s fingers tightened instinctively around the other’s wrist. “But Shen Bing didn’t believe me; he thought I was still lost in delusions. And because I had come to doubt everything, I had effectively become an enemy of the Shire. I tried to escape the Shire, for I knew that this ‘Shire’ was merely the cage in which Renodin held me captive. When I burst out of the Shire, the craft chasing right on my heels was the one piloted by Shen Bing. That was the true brilliance of Renodin: even though Shen Bing and I were the hunters sent into his mind to track down clues, he managed to turn Shen Bing against me. I shot down Shen Bing’s craft and breached his escape pod; yet, Shen Bing still believed I had betrayed the Shire. He drew his sidearm, and his bullet struck me in the shoulder blade. The pain was so visceral—so agonizingly real—that for a moment, I actually began to doubt myself, wondering if all of this really was just a delusion born of my inability to adapt to reality. But I held fast to my conviction that I was still trapped within Renodin’s mind. I had no concrete proof; the world Renodin had constructed was utterly seamless—my only basis for judgment was my own intuition.”

Xiao Yan was stunned. He had never imagined that this was how Hein had managed to extract Shen Bing from Renodin’s mind. In other words, Shen Bing’s neuronal damage hadn’t actually been inflicted by Renodin; rather, it was Hein who had—in a sense—slain his mind.

“I’m a monster, aren’t I? If my intuition had been wrong, then I would have personally killed my own friend.”

“But at least Shen Bing escaped Renodin’s mind. Had he remained there any longer, Renodin would have extracted even more information from him, dragging him down into the abyss. After you killed Shen Bing, did you take your own life?”

“No. I decided to make one final attempt—a test to see whose mind was faster: mine, or Renodin’s. I piloted my craft at full throttle—aimlessly at first, simply climbing higher and higher. I flew recklessly, bursting through the cloud layer even as my engines began to fail. I told myself: *This isn’t real. As long as I will it to be so, the engines will keep running.* And just as I had envisioned, my flight never ceased. Renodin failed to catch me, and in doing so, I escaped his mind.”

Xiao Yan pressed his forehead against Hein’s chest. Suddenly, the man beside him pulled him into a tight embrace—so tight, in fact, that Xiao Yan could barely breathe. “Xiao Yan, actually, I often find myself doubting.”

“Doubting that you’re still inside Renodin’s brain?”

“Yes. I suspect that you are the most exquisite lure he constructed for me—designed to trap me within this world, leaving me utterly unable to break free.”

“Perhaps this is the one thing Renodin could never construct. He could create countless versions of me, but he could never create the feelings you have for me. He simply wouldn’t know what I had to do to make you look at me, to make you care about me—to make you cast aside every last one of your boundaries.”

“So, Xiao Yan—when facing Valentine Sheen, you must be even more patient than Renodin.”

Xiao Yan’s shoulders gave a sudden tremor as he whispered, “You knew I intended to face Valentine?”

“Because you never run away.”

The corners of Xiao Yan’s lips curved upward. He kissed Hein’s chin, then slowly moved his lips toward Hein’s mouth. The moment the tip of his tongue barely slipped between Hein’s lips, Hein suddenly pressed down hard against him—delivering a kiss so intense it seemed to drain every ounce of strength from his body. He kissed with such force that Xiao Yan was compelled to tilt his head back to endure it; otherwise, his jaw felt as though it might be crushed.

Just then, a communication alert popped up on Xiao Yan’s communicator.

A teasing, languid voice rang out, instantly jolting Xiao Yan back to full alertness.

“Ha! Now *that* is a special effect one rarely gets to see—perhaps once in a century!”

On the holographic screen, a man rested his chin in his hand, his eyes half-lidded. Beneath those heavy lids lay an alluring, seductive charm—not to mention his impossibly fair skin and the beauty mark situated just beneath the corner of his eye.

“Jan Wallis...” Xiao Yan remained pinned beneath Hein on the bed; he could only manage to crane his neck to the side, staring wide-eyed at the holographic image before him.

Hein abruptly rose to his feet, then yanked Xiao Yan up along with him.

“How did you manage to access my communicator?!”

Of all the researchers’ communicators, Xiao Yan’s possessed the highest security clearance. “Why, the contact code came from Gordon, of course.” Jan wore a conflicted, heartbroken expression, pressing his hand firmly against his chest. “Xiao Yan, that time you shook me off and left me surrounded by a horde of zombies—do you have any idea how much that hurt me? And now you’re with another man? You are the only person in this world who has hurt me time and time again!”

It truly was even more melodramatic than a movie script—classic Jan.

Xiao Yan gave a cold snort, raising an eyebrow. “I assume Major General Gordon didn’t hand my contact code over to you just so you could spout nonsense. Otherwise, I could simply disconnect the comm link right now.”

Ever since learning Jan and Cathy’s true identities, Xiao Yan’s feelings toward them had become complicated. Deep down, he knew that Jan Wallis might not be entirely trustworthy; yet, he also knew that Jan was genuinely trying to break free from Valentine’s grasp. When their objectives aligned, this man could prove to be a formidable ally.

“Alright, alright! You’re becoming terribly impatient; I much preferred the ‘you’ from back in the old days.”

At that very moment, Jan’s gaze locked with Hein’s, and his demeanor instantly turned cold and grim. Even though they weren’t physically standing face-to-face, Xiao Yan could still sense the palpable, explosive hostility crackling between them. Hein’s blue eyes were so cold they seemed on the verge of freezing over; the air grew so thick with tension that breathing became difficult. It had been a long time since Xiao Yan had seen this side of Hein.

“I know what you’re about to say, but we won’t let you use us,” Hein spoke first.

“Use you? One of you possesses a neural processing speed of three hundred quadrillion operations per second, while the other is a special forces operative hailed as a legend within the Special Missions Unit. What exactly could *I* possibly do to manipulate you?” Jan leaned back against his chair, shedding every trace of his earlier playful demeanor. “I have no desire to waste words, nor do I have the time for it. Valentine Sheen is planning to use a particle bomb to attack Shire and abduct Claire—all for the sole purpose of luring *me* out of hiding. I was initially worried that Claire would be subjected to unspeakable torture, but... she’s already dead.”

“How did she die?” Xiao Yan asked. He knew that anyone who had followed Jan in defecting from the Tide—Claire included—was considered family to him. “Her legs were severed; she was loaded onto a transport craft, but en route, she drew some guy’s sidearm and blew her own brains out.”

Jan’s expression was the same as it had been when Sharon fell in the line of duty—not overwhelmed by grief to the point of losing his composure, but simply tinged with sorrow.

“So? Do you intend to seek revenge?” Hein regarded Jan with a scrutinizing gaze.

“Yes, I do. I intend to have my revenge. If I don’t make a move now, you surely know who Valentine Sheen’s next target will be. The collapse of the dome over Char wasn’t merely a means of intimidation against Char; it was a message directed at *me*. He is warning me that no matter where Xiao Yan goes—to any base, or under the protection of the most elite special operations forces—he doesn’t need to launch a full-scale invasion. With nothing more than a few particle bombs, he can obliterate everything.”

“It sounds as though Valentine Sheen is being far too impatient in his attempts to force you out of hiding.”

Jan gave a helpless smile and glanced toward Xiao Yan. “Use that brilliant mind of yours to figure out exactly *why*.”

“Valentine’s so-called ‘immortality’ amounts to nothing more than replacing his decaying organs. Yet, there is one organ in the human body that can never be replaced: the brain. Furthermore, every time the brain is transplanted into a new body, it sustains damage to its neurons—unless, that is, the neural interface between Valentine’s brain and the new body achieves a near-perfect match. However, even when utilizing a new body cultivated from an identical DNA template, the sheer complexity of the neural network makes it impossible to replicate his own with absolute precision. The principle is much the same as the old adage: ‘No two leaves in the world are ever exactly alike.’ And you, Jan—among the multitude of bodies cultivated from his own DNA, yours possesses the neural structure that most closely mirrors his own.”

“Precisely. That is why I intend to use myself as bait to lure Valentine into a trap. You are the hunters. Hein Burton, you know full well that among us all, Xiao Yan is the only one whose cognitive processing speed can rival Valentine’s. You cannot keep him sequestered forever, treating him like a fragile piece of porcelain to be cradled protectively in your palms. You have a choice: cooperate with me, or simply wait for Valentine to come knocking on your door. The decision is yours.”

With those final words, the communication link was severed—executed with a swift finality that left even Xiao Yan utterly astonished. The sea breeze swept past, whipping and blustering. Jane raised a hand to shield her eyes from the sunlight, which beat down almost vertically upon the ground; occasionally, a seabird would swoop across the sky, its cries rendering the vast expanse of heaven and earth utterly desolate.

Casey walked over, sat down beside Jane, and hugged her knees.

“I thought you’d be talking with Xiao Yan for a very, very long time.”

“The only thing we have in common...”

"The topic is Valentine Sheehan. How long do you think we need to discuss him?" A helpless curve touched Jane’s lips. "How is your father doing?"

"Which father do you mean? The one who manufactured me, or the one who gave me my genetics?"

Jane reached out and rubbed the back of Casey’s neck. "He nearly died."

"Yeah, he nearly died." Casey tilted his head back and let out a helpless sigh. "I never got the chance to ask him: in his eyes, am I truly nothing more than a replica of Alex, or do I hold at least some small measure of unique significance?"

"You shouldn't have left Shire carrying that unanswered question."

"And you shouldn't have used yourself as bait to hunt down Valentine. Nothing is more valuable than your own life. If you fail, Valentine will take everything you have."

"Casey, we are different from Xiao Yan and Hein. They know they come from Shire, whereas we have no idea where we came from. It’s like drifting in a boundless ocean—we don't dare hope to find an island; a mere reef large enough to rest upon for a moment would be enough. Yet, when we close our eyes to savor that fleeting tranquility, we forget that even this reef belongs to the sea... We have nothing."

"We have each other. You are doing this for *us*—you don't want what happened to Claire to be repeated with me, Jerry, or any other member of our family. And then there’s Xiao Yan; you know that as long as Valentine draws breath, he will inevitably come for Xiao Yan’s brain."

"So this time, we *must* succeed." Jane’s eyes narrowed, his cold gaze fixed squarely on the horizon.

That night, Xiao Yan relayed Jane’s invitation—word for word—to Shen Bing and the other research supervisors. Just as he had anticipated, the majority of them vehemently opposed the idea; Jane Wallis’s defection from Shire had long since earned him a notorious reputation, and scarcely anyone believed he was genuinely sincere about cooperating with Shire. As the room buzzed with their heated arguments, Xiao Yan turned his gaze toward Ritz and Loch, who had remained silent throughout the exchange.

"What do you two think?"

"The question isn't what *we* think right now; the question is: what do you need *us* to do for you?" Loch, who rarely spoke up, stunned the room the moment he opened his mouth.

“Major Loch! What did you just say? Are you really going to stand by and watch Major Xiao Yan go to his death?”

“That’s Valentine Sheehan we’re talking about! He destroyed Shire overnight—and look at how few of us there are here! How on earth could we possibly take him on?”

“And so what? We thought we were safe, cowering within the walls of Shire—but look at where that got us now. No matter where we go, or what kind of lives we try to build for ourselves, that bastard can destroy it all with effortless ease! So count me in—tell me: what can I do to help?”

Reitz’s gaze was intensely earnest. In the eyes of this Major—usually so lackadaisical that he’d let countless research projects pile up unfinished—there now gleamed a look of unwavering resolve.

“Very well. This is an operation that has received absolutely no authorization from Military Command. Therefore, if any of you feel that collaborating with Jane Wallis to lure Valentine Sheehan into a trap is a mission with zero chance of success, you are free to leave this room right now.”

Xiao Yan’s gaze drifted toward Hein. At his side, Wynn raised a hand and gave a dismissive wave. “Good grief, why are you looking at *us*? Major General Gordon’s orders were for us to protect you. So, whatever it is you intend to do, our job is to ensure your safety—not to stop you.”

Mark scratched the back of his head, grinning broadly as he spoke: “Maybe it’s just because I’m not as smart as all you Majors and Lieutenant Colonels from the Central Academy, but I just can’t wrap my head around it: Valentine has been trying to kill us all this time—so why shouldn’t we turn the tables and kill *him* instead? So, Xiao Yan—when you said you wanted to set a trap for that bastard Valentine? All I could think was: *Now that’s a real man!* I’m with you all the way!”