The turnstile should have been this square and simple in the first place. Pei Ran merely restored it to its normal state.
In this insane and chaotic world, normalcy has instead become a luxury.
When the turnstile had trapped the middle-aged woman earlier, she had already regained consciousness and had been frantically struggling in panic. Now that the turnstile suddenly released her, she was instead stunned.
She looked ahead, then turned to look behind her, her feet as if nailed to the ground, standing still in a daze.
The girl wearing a red knitted hat saw this and rushed over, grabbing her arm and dragging her out of the gate entrance.
She was right.
Because Pei Ran also noticed that the turnstile only maintained its normal state for a few seconds before it began to writhe again.
The first to move was the metal machine box on the far left.
Smooth metal surfaces bulged with a series of bubbles, which grew larger and larger, causing the entire box to twist and deform, as if a restless living creature was hiding inside.
The largest bubble suddenly bulged out from its upper surface, this time not in a regular round shape, but in the form of a head.
It was a human head, complete with eyes, nose, and mouth, all facial features present.
It twisted, stretching its neck long, baring two rows of teeth, silently roaring, then quickly submerged back into the box.
This terrifying sight caused the college students and the middle-aged woman in front of the turnstile to step back repeatedly.
Immediately after, the entire row of other machine boxes also began to move, bubbling out semi-metallic, semi-fleshy bubbles of various sizes, just like at the beginning.
Like the mad pipe workers, its recovery speed was much faster than that of humans. Controlled by the black leather notebook for only a few seconds, it came back to life.
A building behind them suddenly exploded into flames, a large fireball spraying out of the window, carrying scorching heat, shattered glass raining down on the street like hail.
The Yehai was turning into a sea of fire, time was pressing.
Pei Ran capped her pen, put away the black leather notebook, and emerged from the corner of the building.
“What are you planning to do?” W asked.
Pei Ran took off her leather gloves, flexed her mechanical fingers, “I plan to dismantle it by force.”
W: “…”
Pei Ran commanded: “I have a task for you. If you notice that my state seems off, as if I’m sleepwalking, use your claws to pull my leg, trip my foot, do whatever you need to stop me, and then snap me out of it.”
The state of those people who had pounced on the turnstile earlier was very off, as if they had been hypnotized. Fortunately, the level of sleepwalking wasn’t deep, a slap was enough to wake them up.
W’s folding arm was repaired, flexible and strong, capable of stopping someone, or giving them a claw swipe, no problem at all.
W calmly agreed, “Alright.”
As Pei Ran walked, she scanned the crowd in front of the turnstile.
The ones who hypnotized the two college students and the middle-aged woman probably weren’t the insane turnstile fusion.
Their sleepwalking behavior of rushing to their deaths seemed more like helping someone test the waters.
Especially the middle-aged woman, who was controlled to pick up the Yehai No. 7 employee card from the ground and tried swiping it on the turnstile, which proved to be a failure as the turnstile didn’t recognize it.
Someone didn’t know how to get through the turnstile and was using human lives to experiment.
This kind of hypnosis seemed very much like the special ability of an order-type fusion.
If there really was such a hypnotist hiding among the crowd, this person was likely across the street, near the last turnstile box.
Because that Yehai No. 7 employee card was thrown on the ground, right in front of the last turnstile box, mixed among the scattered documents, completely inconspicuous.
Standing on this side of the street, the distance was too far; only something like a metal ball with magnifying vision could clearly see what it was.
Assuming the hypnotist doesn’t simultaneously possess super vision abilities, we can temporarily exclude the college students who have been on this side of the street, at least their suspicion is relatively low.
Near the last turnstile, there were about ten to twenty people, including a family of three with a child, an elderly couple supporting each other, several young men and women who seemed not to know each other, maintaining distance, and a group of four or five tall men, among whom one was notably wearing a doctor’s white coat.
Pei Ran glanced at them and walked straight to the first turnstile metal box.
It was the most deformed; as soon as that human head emerged, the following series of metal boxes started moving, suggesting it might be quite important.
Pei Ran stopped a step or two away from the gate entrance, took off her large backpack, set it on the ground, and placed the metal ball on top.
Everyone else was a bit confused.
Especially the college students, who had just witnessed one companion being cut and two others running towards the turnstile in a daze, now seeing another person approaching.
This one was different.
Her eyes were clear, her movements brisk, showing no signs of being bewitched, yet she was also approaching the turnstile.
- ••
Over two thousand kilometers away.
Black Well Underground Base.
Fifty-one hours into the silence.
The crisis management at Black Well was operating around the clock, with more personnel, equipment, and various production facilities arriving at the base.
However, humans still have their own biological clocks, and many chose to rest at night. It was now daytime, and there were considerably more people in the command center hall.
Only the agent W does not need to sleep, staying awake day and night, continuously handling various matters inside and outside the base.
The highest administrative officer of the Federation—Chief Executive Officer Basserway was also in the command center.
Basserway is a man in his forties, maintaining a very good physique with broad shoulders and long legs, elegant and graceful. Even in a shelter like Black Well, his suit was impeccable.
Everyone in the Federation says that Basserway is extremely charismatic, especially during speeches and debates. During the election period, once the live broadcast started, his votes poured in.
At this moment, he was sitting on a high-backed chair, his back straight, his brows furrowed just right.
“Compared to military equipment, as the Chief Executive Officer, I am more concerned about the reception of ordinary Federation citizens at this moment. Agent W, how is this matter progressing?”
W, on this point, actually agreed with him.
“According to my estimates,” W said, “Black Well can now start accepting ordinary Federation citizens. The reserve of supplies is sufficient to last until the production lines are established. The influx of a large number of refugees will not exceed the capacity of Black Well.”
Someone asked, “The problem is, the capacity of Black Well is limited. How do we determine who is eligible to enter the base and who is not?”
Marshal Vina said, “The Decision Committee is planning to meet this afternoon to specifically discuss this matter.”
W reminded, “I hope the Decision Committee can make a decision as soon as possible. Thousands of people outside are dying, and if it’s too late…”
His tone suddenly carried a hint of sarcasm, “…there might not be so many living people left for the committee to pick and choose from.”
General Delsa was also present, he looked up puzzledly at the large screen.
He muttered in a low voice, “Why does his statement sound so unlike artificial intelligence…”
W had already returned to his calm and monotonous tone, “I will immediately formulate various refugee screening schemes based on different considerations and send them to the Decision Committee for reference.”
Marshal Vina nodded in agreement.
At times like these, she had to admit from the bottom of her heart that agent W could always quickly provide a series of alternative solutions at the first moment, allowing them to choose the most satisfactory one from among them. With such an artificial intelligence, there was much less to worry about.
After they finished discussing, the Federal Minister of Culture interjected to ask W, “How about the Federal Digital Library materials you mentioned last time?”
W replied, “The materials have now reached Yehai City.”
The screen in the conference room switched to a live feed.
The perspective of the footage was very low, as if from the ground, looking up, the towering buildings of Yehai like burning torches, black smoke spiraling into the sky, people fleeing on the streets with their families.
The conference room fell into silence.
The camera turned to another direction, the view was a row of gate machines, the dormant agent No. 1593, Pei Ran, was walking forward, the half-burnt billboard above revealing the front of an antique train.
“Yehai No. 7,” someone recognized.
W replied, “Correct. We are preparing to enter the departure station of Yehai No. 7, hoping to board the train and leave Yehai for Black Well. Unfortunately, there is a deranged fusion entity at the entrance.”
Without him saying it, everyone could see it.
A corpse lay on the ground, as if sliced by a sharp blade, blood pooling everywhere.
“Is this… a living person cut in half?”
“Two pieces, inside and outside, it seems so.”
A gate machine capable of splitting a person in two sent chills down everyone’s spine.
But the girl in the footage stepped into the space between the metal boxes of the gate machine without hesitation.
The gate machine instantly expanded as she approached, its metal surface turning semi-transparent, with exposed vascular tissues looking terrifyingly grotesque.
Chief Executive Officer Basserway, who had just been caught off guard by the sight of the severed corpse on the screen and had been trying to remain composed, couldn’t help but gasp at the bizarre scene.
“fusion entities have turned into this now?”
W answered, “It’s a deranged fusion entity. Perhaps due to the increased energy intensity released by the Fifth Rift, the number of deranged fusion entities outside has significantly increased, undergoing severe mutations.”
On the screen, the swollen metal boxes of the gate machine grew to over a person’s height in less than half a second, like two giant metal bubbles, about to crush Pei Ran in between.
Pei Ran did not retreat.
She aimed at the most fragile part of the swollen, vein-popping surface, rolled up the sleeve of her right mechanical arm, and punched through it with a forceful thrust.
With a thud.
The hybrid material of metal and flesh, like an inflated balloon, was punctured by her fist, the surface bursting open to reveal the complex structure inside.
Various components of the gate machine were completely fused with human internal organs, red blood vessels intertwined with the colorful circuits of the machine, pulsating messily, indistinguishable from each other.
The gate machine, in pain, shrank into a ball, but the fan-shaped transparent barrier moved.
It vibrated angrily like an insect’s wing, suddenly elongated and deformed, turning horizontally, its thin and sharp edge aiming to slice across Pei Ran’s waist.
But it wasn’t as fast as Pei Ran’s mechanical hand.
The mechanical hand was ready, gripping the barrier, and with a forceful twist, the transparent barrier snapped off at the root. Another twist, and the second transparent barrier broke as well.
Pei Ran, expressionless, tore open the skin of the metal box through the hole she had made, reaching inside.
Handfuls of fragments entwined with blood vessels and biological tissues, almost unrecognizable, were pulled out and discarded beside her.
She had gutted it.
In the command center, everyone had the same thought: Her actions resemble a wolf’s claws. The way she moved was exactly like a wolf tearing open its prey’s belly and pulling out a pile of entrails.
Pei Ran seemed to be searching for something, and finally, she found it.
Her hand withdrew from the metal box, clutching a strange object—a heart.
It resembled a human heart in shape but was significantly larger.
The heart was still connected to blue blood vessels and circuits, pulsating rhythmically in her mechanical hand, beat after beat.
Pei Ran’s black mechanical fingers clenched, and dark red blood spurted out as the heart shattered.
The moment the heart shattered, the entire row of metal gate machines, as if they were one entity, twitched several times, and the writhing finally stopped.
The thing was no longer moving. W cut off the video feed.
The conference room was dead silent.
Chief Executive Officer Basserway took a long time to regain his composure. “That… uh… mechanical arm of hers, is it illegal?”
W replied calmly, “No, it’s completely legal. She participated in an experiment conducted by the Wolin Group for the Department of National Defense Security to develop mechanical prosthetics during her childhood. The experiment violated regulations by recruiting infant volunteers, and the Wolin Group was investigated a few years ago. Because this special prosthetic cannot be replaced with ordinary ones, the volunteers were granted special pardons by the Federation. Would you like to look up the pardon decree?”
“Oh… no need,” Basserway said.
- ••
Yehai City.
Pei Ran stood in front of the gate machine.
As she had anticipated, the gate machine was a fusion entity with humans, its interior resembling the three deranged pipe workers, also containing a mutated, strange heart.
Once the heart stopped beating, the deranged fusion entity died.
Also as she had expected, her mind remained clear throughout, with no abnormalities occurring.
Despite such an attack, the gate machine did not activate any hypnotic function, confirming that the hypnosis was not its doing. It was merely a guillotine that could slice people.
The person hiding in the crowd, capable of hypnotizing and controlling others to test the gate machine, naturally wouldn’t intervene when they saw her stepping forward to deal with it. They would be more than happy to let her handle the gate machine and reap the benefits.
She still didn’t know who it was.
Inside the gate machine fusion entity, there was also a small cluster of green light, located not far from the heart, hidden deep within the metal box, at the mouth of a thick spiral pipe, just slightly out of reach.
Suddenly, a hand reached over.
The cuff was neat, the fingers long and slender, the nails trimmed cleanly, holding out a stack of tissues to Pei Ran.
Pei Ran turned her head.
Behind her was the man in the white coat she had seen earlier.
He appeared to be under thirty, tall, wearing a light blue medical mask, with hair the color of pale ash-brown.
His eyes above the mask had a blue tint mixed with a hint of smoky gray, clear and gentle.
From head to toe, he was spotless, his white coat so pristine it was almost blinding, making him stand out in this environment of chaos and fire.
Pei Ran thought to herself, It’s already the third day of the Silence, and he’s still wearing his hospital clothes. Is he still working? But then again, even during the Silence, one couldn’t just abandon patients.
Beside him were several companions, all dressed in casual clothes.
The doctor extended the tissues further, his gaze falling on Pei Ran’s mechanical hand stained with blood. Though he didn’t speak, his eyes were easy to read.
His eyes were saying: The blood of these strange things might not be clean. It’s safer to wipe it off.
Pei Ran took the tissues, casually wiping her fingers and then the bloodstains on the front of her coat.
The doctor’s wristband vibrated, and a small virtual window popped up in front of him, displaying a newly received image—a thumbnail.
Pei Ran, with her sharp eyes, noticed the sender’s profile picture was a man with black curly hair. The image sent was a rough sketch of a street, and judging by the layout, it was likely nearby. A red dot marked a conspicuous spot on the map.
The doctor glanced back in that direction, nodded at Pei Ran, and then hurried off toward it.
With the gate machine no longer moving erratically, others cautiously began to approach. The crowd was too large, and among them lurked an order-type fusion entity capable of underhanded tactics. Now wasn’t the right time to retrieve the green light. Pei Ran didn’t reach for the green light hidden in the gate machine. Instead, she picked up her large bag and the metal ball from the ground.
The gate machine fusion entity was dead, and it was time to find Yehai No. 7.
Pei Ran passed through the gate machine and entered the tunnel leading to the underground station.
“No green light following me, right?” Pei Ran asked.
W moved his eye. “None.”
This tunnel, built who knows how many years ago, resembled a subway station. Though the power was out, the backup power was still running, with a small light every few meters. It wasn’t completely dark, but it wasn’t bright either.
The tunnel had a gently sloping escalator, motionless due to the power outage. Pei Ran walked down it herself.
Suddenly, W said, “Yulianka.”
Pei Ran didn’t understand: ?
“That man who smiled at you earlier,” W explained, “I identified his eyes and found his citizen records. His name is Yulianka.”
Pei Ran: “He was wearing a mask, covering most of his face. I couldn’t even tell if he was smiling.”
W insisted: “From the changes in the shape of his eyes, the fine lines at the corners, and the subtle shifts in the mask’s appearance, I inferred the movement of his facial muscles beneath the mask—I could tell he smiled.”
Pei Ran: “Oh.”
Pei Ran: “Is it important whether he smiled or not?”
W didn’t answer but continued, “Yulianka, 28 years old, is a not-so-successful veterinarian in Yehai City.”
Pei Ran had thought Yulianka was a doctor for humans, but it turned out he treated small animals.
Pei Ran: “…”
Pei Ran: “Not-so-successful? Why say he’s not-so-successful?”