Pei Ran steadied herself and first verified his identity.
“At Music Plaza, which store did I want to go to?”
“We were going to have hot pot. The two of us would sit by the window in a corner with a view,” W replied. “I told you… not to return to Black Well.”
His signal was unstable, his voice occasionally fading in and out.
“I didn’t go back to Black Well. I’m still some distance away.”
Pei Ran asked, “What’s wrong with Black Well? How can I help you?”
“Something happened at Black Well tonight. Basserway and his group formed a provisional seven-member decision-making committee, rallied part of the military, placed Marshal Vina under house arrest, and detained all of Vina’s close associates. Song Wan, Qiao Sai, and the others have also been locked up.”
A coup had taken place at Black Well—complete upheaval.
Pei Ran asked, “What about you?”
The security agent W was an artificial intelligence developed by a corporation affiliated with Song Wan’s long-established southeastern military family. It had always taken orders from Marshal Vina and even had the authority to control everything in Black Well. If they wanted to deal with Vina, they would have to deal with W first.
W said, “…I managed to escape Black Well.”
He said he escaped—did that mean his core processor had gotten out?
Pei Ran immediately asked, “Where are you? How do I get to you?”
W only said, “Pei Ran…”
Pei Ran repeated, “How do I get to you? If you don’t tell me, I’ll go back to Black Well myself to see what’s really going on.”
She wasn’t joking—she always meant what she said.
Knowing her temper, W had no choice but to answer, “Right now, I’m in the mining zone… inside the old tunnels.”
Pei Ran said, “I’m coming to find you right now.”
W: “The old tunnels are too complex. You’ll get lost.”
Pei Ran: “Don’t be ridiculous. I’m coming.”
She had grown up in the bunker world—she could navigate underground passages as twisty as rat holes with her eyes closed and still find her way out.
W sighed helplessly: “Remember the tunnel where we ran into Captain Xiao Hai when we first came to Black Well?… Go in the same way. There should be a branching path to the left heading downward. Keep going straight deeper inside without turning, and you’ll reach a checkpoint registration point… Wait for me there. I’ll come find you.”
Pei Ran replied, “Okay.”
W guessed, “You came back so fast—did you steal another aircraft? …Colonel Kurma’s?”
He really did understand her well.
Pei Ran: “Yes, borrowed it for a bit. Is it unsafe to fly straight to the mining area? Do I need to go on foot?”
“No need,” W said, the signal still poor, “Before I left Black Well… according to the emergency plan we made before, I temporarily shut down the air defense monitoring and radar alert systems over Black Well… You can fly directly to the mining area, just be careful on the way, watch out and avoid other aircraft.”
Pei Ran replied, “Understood.”
She turned toward the northwest, observing the terrain below, flying in the direction of Black Well.
Everything went smoothly along the way. On Black Well’s side, it was dark and quiet, and she didn’t encounter any other aircraft. At last, she saw that familiar mining area.
It was the place where she had encountered the swarm of human-fragment aircraft before. At that time, she had a group of Yehai No. 7 passengers with her, desperately fleeing for their lives under the assault of the frenzied swarm.
This mining area hadn’t yet been turned into a temporary refugee settlement. Below, it looked pitch black, not a trace of light.
Pei Ran flew to a nearby rift valley, landed the aircraft at the bottom of the valley, and climbed up along the valley wall.
Pei Ran said, “I’ve arrived at the mining area.”
W replied, “…Okay… be careful.”
His voice was still intermittent.
Pei Ran passed through the mining area and entered the familiar mine tunnel before lighting up her wristband.
Inside the mine tunnel, the red earth still covered the ground in a thick layer. Only her own footsteps echoed.
Now she could receive W’s signal, but the mechanical spider still hadn’t come back to life—it remained curled up with its legs drawn in, cold and rigid against the chest pocket of her clothing.
He hadn’t activated the mechanical spider—surely because he still couldn’t.
“I’m in the mine tunnel,” Pei Ran said.
“Understood…” W’s voice came through, “…I’m also looking for a way to meet you.”
Last time she came through, she had walked all the way to the end of this tunnel without seeing any branching paths. Pei Ran carefully examined the way forward.
Just before reaching the exit where she had encountered Captain Xiao Hai, Pei Ran suddenly discovered a large metal panel standing against the left wall of the tunnel.
She moved the metal panel aside, and sure enough, behind it was a sloping passage leading downward.
Pei Ran immediately crawled in.
According to what W just said, she ignored all the forks in the road and kept walking straight into the depths of the mining area.
The light from her wristband illuminated the path ahead, and she finally saw the duty check-in point W had mentioned.
It was a relatively spacious area, with a large arc-shaped table, some broken chairs behind it, and a pile of messy instruments, all covered in a thick layer of reddish-brown dust. It was unclear how long they had been abandoned there.
Pei Ran swept her wristband’s light around the space. She didn’t see any living creature.
She said to W, “I’m here.”
“Okay, I’ll be there soon…” he said, “…almost there.”
His tone was as calm as ever, but for some reason, Pei Ran could sense something was very wrong from that calm voice.
Pei Ran asked, “W, are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” W said. “I’m trying hard to make my way toward you.”
He used a word—“trying.”
He was an artificial intelligence. Even when she had once torn him nearly in half, he had never said he was “trying.”
Pei Ran asked him again, “Tell me your location. I’ll come find you.”
“No need. I can do it. I will definitely find you.”
W was silent for a moment, then suddenly said, “Pei Ran, talk to me about something… anything.”
He said, “I want to hear your voice.”
He was really not okay.
He wanted her to say something.
Pei Ran thought for a moment. “I was thinking… if the two of us were really living in that virtual world you built, what would we do? We could go to the music plaza down below, go shopping, eat something. Besides hotpot, I also want to try the ice cream from that shop next door. What flavor would you want?”
W replied, “Actually… I want to try every flavor. I’ve never had any.”
He was an artificial intelligence—of course he had never tried any flavor of ice cream. In fact, Pei Ran hadn’t either. She had only read about it in novels.
Cold and sweet.
Pei Ran said, “I want to try them all too. We could sit together on the stone bench next to the music plaza, eat all kinds of flavors of ice cream, eat until our stomachs hurt.”
W said, “Not just the plaza… we would also go… to other places together.”
“Right, that world could be really big,” Pei Ran said. “We’d go to even more fun places together—go hiking in the mountains, camping, picking up seashells on the beach, swimming, eating all kinds of delicious food… sweet, spicy, salty, bitter.”
Pei Ran used her wristband to illuminate the pitch-black depths of the tunnel ahead.
She blinked.
Something warm lingered in her eyes before rolling down her cheeks.
Pei Ran said, “W, where are you? Don’t scare me like this.”
“I’m almost there…” W replied. “…I’ll be there soon.”
Deep in the mining tunnel.
A silver mechanical creature was struggling to move forward.
Four long metal legs—one already broken, only half remaining, its internal wiring torn out and dragging behind.
The other three legs had also been shot, swaying unsteadily as they fought to maintain balance, barely supporting the weight above.
Atop them was W’s core processor, emitting a faint blue glow in the dark tunnel.
When he first escaped Black Well, even with the cover of two patrol robots, he had still been hit.
The patrol robots exchanged fire with the enemy, buying time for his main body, before being obliterated in an explosion. He had managed to flee, hiding in the labyrinthine old mining tunnels.
The gunfire had severely damaged his circuits. The camera mounted on his base was no longer functional—he couldn’t see anything.
But his positioning system still worked. Continuously cross-referencing the internal map, he groped his way forward.
Pei Ran was somewhere ahead, waiting for him.
The tunnel was utterly silent, oppressively still.
Only Pei Ran’s voice was clear and distinct.
In this world drowned in silence, her voice seemed like the only thing that existed, urging him onward, guiding him through the endless darkness.
His energy block had been hit. He would soon run out of power. His damaged mechanical legs barely responded, and internal alarms blared incessantly within his system.
But he couldn’t afford to collapse halfway—because she was still there, still waiting.
Pei Ran stood quietly, staring into the depths of the tunnel.
Then she really saw it.
At the far end of the tunnel, something silver was struggling toward her under the light of her wristband.
Its silver shell reflected the glow as it staggered forward, step by unsteady step, swaying precariously.
Pei Ran recognized it—the small metal platform in W’s server room that supported his core processor, with four slender metal legs underneath. It could move, after all. Except now, only three legs remained.
The core processor was fixed on top, its blue glow noticeably dimmer than before.
“My camera is broken,” W said. “I can’t see. I can only estimate. Have I arrived?”
Pei Ran froze for a moment before sprinting forward. “Yes,” she answered. “I see you.”
She ran—racing through the dark tunnel, rushing toward the battered silver mechanical creature at full speed.
Perhaps it could no longer hold on, or maybe it had tripped over something in the tunnel. Its slender metal legs buckled, and it began to collapse forward.
But Pei Ran was already there, catching it.
He was blind, crippled, and likely had no sensors left to even detect her presence.
Pei Ran held it tightly. “You’re here. I’m holding you right now.”
The bright white light from her wristband illuminated the shell of his core processor, revealing dents and scorch marks from gunfire.
Worst of all, the base beneath the processor was leaking a dark fluid that dripped down the silver metal legs.
“Finally made it,” W said. “I didn’t think I’d get to see you again.”
But of course, he couldn’t actually see.
Up close, his voice came through clearer.
He almost seemed to laugh. “So this time, I really did fall into the water…”
“And I really came to save you,” Pei Ran replied.
She set him down, brightened her wristband’s light, and immediately began inspecting the damage.
The base beneath the core processor had cracked open—easily pried apart. Pei Ran quickly reconnected loose interfaces and patched broken wires as best she could, just like when she used to repair his metal sphere.
But the most severe damage was to the energy block hidden inside the base.
It was the source of the leaking black fluid, and it looked beyond saving.
Pei Ran asked, “Do you have a backup power source I can swap in?”
The question was pointless—one glance was enough to confirm there was no space for a spare energy block on him.
W answered, “I don’t have another energy block.”
If the power ran out, the blue glow of his core processor would fade completely.
He wasn’t just a machine. He was an artificial intelligence with self-awareness. Pei Ran wasn’t sure—if his light went out, even if she could reignite it later, would the W that came back still be the same as the one here now?
“What happens when the energy runs out? Will you die?”
W answered truthfully, “I don’t know.”
Pei Ran couldn’t take that risk. If the power cut off, the him that existed right now might be gone forever.
His voice remained calm. “I can still stay with you for a while. Before the energy completely depletes, I’ll try to put myself into hibernation mode. That could buy a little more time.”
But it would only be a little more time.
Pei Ran asked, “How long do you have left?”
W replied, “Based on current diagnostics, approximately sixty-one minutes.”
He had one hour of life remaining.
“I won’t let you die,” Pei Ran said. “Where can I find a compatible energy block? Black Well?”
The nearest place that would have one was obviously Black Well.
“Pei Ran…” W began.
She ignored him, studying the structure of the small platform under her wristband’s light. With quick, precise movements, she unlatched the clamps and detached the silver surface from the metal legs.
His core processor and base were fused together, connected to the leg supports only through interface ports. It could be separated entirely.
Now, the core processor rested in her hands—a glowing blue apple.
Pei Ran carefully placed it into her backpack.
“If you tell me where to find an energy block in Black Well, I’ll go get it. If you don’t, I’ll search for it myself.”
She stashed the metal legs beneath the curved desk of the checkpoint station and shouldered her pack.
W said, “Black Well is too dangerous for you right now. This isn’t a rational choice.”
“So what?” Pei Ran countered. “I was never that rational to begin with.”
She added, “Besides, you have no hands, no legs, no way to move on your own. Other than sitting in my backpack and coming with me, what other options do you have?”
Deep down, Pei Ran knew returning to Black Well was unwise.
But in this chaotic world where death lurked at every turn, people always reserved a place in their hearts for things they refused to let go of.
Like the old peacekeeper in White Harbor who rushed to save others even when it was too late.
Like the mother in Yehai who cradled her child even as it was about to explode.
Like Inaya, who never gave up on that troublesome, talkative parrot.
Or Nan Yi, who insisted on dragging along his runaway little brother.
They all knew the risks—yet held on stubbornly anyway.
Some choices had nothing to do with rationality. Even if given another chance, they’d do it all over again.