Pei Ran quickly packed her backpack.
W provided a route suggestion: “Pei Ran, currently from here to the south exit, you can take Third Avenue, then turn onto Seventh Avenue. The route is clear, and for now, no light vortex has appeared…”
Pei Ran interrupted him: “To the Central Tower, what’s the safest way to get there?”
His core processor was still left all alone in the computer room on the third basement level of the Central Tower.
His mechanical platform was broken, and now he didn’t even have legs. The core processor couldn’t come into contact with a light vortex. If one of those randomly moving vortices reached the Central Tower, and just swept across his computer room, he’d be finished.
W fully understood what she was going to the Central Tower for.
“Pei Ran, I still can’t leave right now. Although I can connect to part of the Black Well’s internal signal from outside the Black Well, it’s still not as timely or responsive as staying inside. I need to stay to help the military resist the manic fusion forms, evacuate civilians, and keep the retreat route clear.”
He said, “You go wait for me outside the south exit first. Don’t worry, Qiao Sai and the others will evacuate me in the end.”
Pei Ran let out a “heh,” and said, “Qiao Sai? Does Qiao Sai know how to deal with the manic fusion forms?”
She said, “I’m not taking you out of the Black Well. As long as I get your core processor, we’ll stay in the Black Well together and let you command the evacuation. But I’ll need to put you in my backpack to feel more at ease.”
She secured her backpack. “Let’s go steal you back right now.”
- ••
Central Tower.
Top floor command hall.
The large screen displayed a building lying flat on the ground—the Tech Center in the Yellow Zone.
A massive green light vortex was diagonally embedded on top of the Tech Center, as if it had been split in half down the middle.
One military vehicle after another sped toward the Tech Center, slamming to a halt one after another around it.
All Shield X53-type emitters were in position, every single one had been brought over.
The emitters activated, shooting out dazzling blue light. The blue light stretched into thin film, connecting in the air to form a giant net.
At that moment, the light vortex suddenly changed size again.
It began to expand violently, growing so large it nearly touched the dome of the Black Well.
Its expansion speed was too fast. The rotating arms near the ground also expanded along with it. All the military vehicles retreated rapidly.
Most of the nearby residents had already been evacuated with the help of the military, but there were still some who moved too slowly and hadn’t gotten far. In the blink of an eye, they were engulfed by the vortex’s rotating arms.
The containment failed once again.
W no longer needed to waste time continuing to try.
He said, “Marshal Vina, we must abandon the Black Well and organize an evacuation. We need time to notify all residents to prepare for the disappearance of the shielding layer and for evacuation.”
Abandon the Black Well. Evacuate. Every word struck Marshal Vina’s chest like a hammer.
The Black Well was the Federation government’s last stronghold, humanity’s final refuge. If they evacuated now and abandoned the Black Well, no one knew when they’d be able to return.
And that wasn’t all.
She had gone through countless near-death experiences, been reborn in fire, and had only just regained control of the Black Well. Barely a few days had passed.
She was unwilling to accept this.
Marshal Vina hesitated for too long.
She had always been a decisive and resolute person. W patiently waited for her for one minute.
A minute passed, and she still didn’t speak.
There wasn’t that much time to waste.
Through the surveillance cameras, W could see that the light vortexes were still continuing to split. There were now four massive light vortexes rampaging through the Black Well, sweeping across everything.
Soldiers and civilians were being swallowed by the vortexes, collapsing in large numbers, only to rise shortly after—transformed into manic fusion forms.
Every second of delay meant countless more lives lost within the Black Well. It also meant the number of dangerous manic fusion forms was increasing rapidly, making evacuation ever more difficult.
W’s voice rang out.
This time, it wasn’t only in the command hall—it echoed through every corner of the Black Well:
“All residents of the Black Well, please be advised, the shielding layer is expected to fail within one to two hours. All residents, please evacuate the Black Well in an orderly fashion via the nearest exit…”
Marshal Vina was furious. “Agent W, what authority do you have to issue an evacuation alert to everyone without my approval?”
Her answer came from a speaker nearby in the hall.
W’s voice was as calm as ever: “Marshal Vina, of course I can. I have never been responsible to any single person, nor to any specific authority. What I must do is ensure the safety of every single citizen of the Federation to the best of my ability.”
The tone in which he said this was very similar to that of Antoine, the staff officer of General Eugene—whom she had shot dead.
Rage surged in Marshal Vina’s heart—she very much wanted to shoot him too.
Unfortunately, he was formless and invisible, and not even his core processor was here.
W’s warning echoed throughout the entire Black Well.
“All residents of the Black Well, please take note. Be absolutely sure to avoid vortexes emitting green light. Green light is extremely dangerous—do everything possible to keep your distance…”
“Before the shielding layer fails, please recheck all clothing and personal belongings to ensure no text is present. Completely delete all text-containing information from your wristbands and switch your wristbands to full-map mode…”
“Stay alert to everything around you. If you spot any person or object with a suspicious appearance, immediately move away. It may be a deadly manic fusion form…”
On Third Avenue, a small truck was speeding along.
Pei Ran was driving the truck, with Ren and Xingkong squeezed together in the passenger seat. The truck bed in the back was loaded with various boxes and bags, all filled with supplies they planned to take with them.
The Yellow Zone was relatively close to the south exit. Along the way, quite a few people were running toward the south exit. The small truck was going in the opposite direction of the crowd, heading toward the Central Tower, and encountered no obstacles along the way.
The mechanical spider was in her pocket, with only a single black eye exposed, watching the outside.
W said, “Pei Ran, right now there aren’t too many manic fusion forms, and the roads are still clear. This is actually the best time to evacuate the Black Well. If we delay any longer, the situation will become completely different…”
Pei Ran replied, “Nagging like that—are you that free? If you’re so free, then teach Ren and Xingkong how to use Morse code or something. We won’t be able to talk soon.”
If Ren wasn’t allowed to talk, that little chatterbox robot might go crazy from holding it in.
W stopped nagging and simply answered, “Okay.”
Then immediately followed with: “Done teaching.”
Pei Ran: “…”
He could communicate directly with Ren, and he also had Xingkong’s miner comms account. Just sending over the rules was enough. These intelligent robots learned this kind of thing ridiculously fast—like they were hacking.
As soon as Ren learned the new skill, he put it to use right away, tapping on the center console with his metal hand:
【Master, you’re driving so fast! Xingkong’s about to get carsick!】
Xingkong immediately said, “I’m not.”
Ren blinked. “I was just practicing Morse code. It was an example sentence—don’t take it seriously.”
Pei Ran really wasn’t driving slow—pedal to the floor, making the truck fly down the road.
Soon, they arrived at the Central Tower. Pei Ran didn’t go into the parking lot but instead drove into a hidden alley nearby, parked the truck, and pulled out her gun.
She casually handed the gun to Ren sitting beside her. “If anyone tries to steal the truck, shoot them.”
Ren’s big round eyes widened. “Ah?”
Pei Ran paused for a moment, then immediately reached past him and handed the gun to Xingkong instead.
Xingkong accepted the gun and nodded solemnly. “Understood.”
Pei Ran jumped out of the truck and dashed toward the Central Tower.
The Central Tower was in complete chaos. Everyone working the night shift inside had already heard the evacuation alert and were rushing out.
W had opened all the ground floor lobby doors to facilitate evacuation. Pei Ran moved against the flow of people and entered the building.
At a time like this, there was no chance of waiting for an elevator. She ran straight for the emergency stairs and quickly descended, heading to the third basement level. She sprinted down the corridor toward W’s server room.
The moment she arrived at the server room door, it automatically opened.
W’s core processor was still lying on the table, faintly glowing blue. The repair case sat right beside it.
Pei Ran immediately walked over, grabbed his core processor, stuffed it into her backpack, then opened the repair case to confirm that the energy blocks and tool components were all there. She closed the case and picked it up to leave.
She had always been adept at all sorts of Level 4 theft, and with the stolen item actively cooperating, this expensive piece of federal property was stolen by her just like that.
With him in her backpack, Pei Ran felt noticeably more at ease.
“Next, we’ll just stroll around the Black Well. When it’s time for you to evacuate, we’ll leave together.”
W said, “Since you plan to take me around the Black Well, I actually have a good place we could go.”
Pei Ran: Could there be tourist attractions in the Black Well?
Taking advantage of the fact that the Black Well hadn’t completely fallen yet, he wanted to go sightseeing.
Her wristband buzzed—W sent a location, in the Green Zone.
Pei Ran zoomed in on the map.
It was a large cluster of buildings deep within the Black Well, not the usual square dormitory buildings. W had marked one particular tower.
There were no words on the map, but the location of that building had a symbol—a neatly arranged cluster of yellow hexagons.
Pei Ran recognized that symbol. It was the logo of Qiao Sai and Song Wan’s family enterprise—HiveTech.
- ••
Yellow Zone.
Third Avenue, Building 1012, Room 2013.
The endlessly looping evacuation announcements blared with clear enunciation, deafeningly loud, echoing through the entire tower—enough to wake even the deepest sleeper.
Zhuang Mian picked up Nuo Nuo and was helping her get dressed.
The clothing and supplies distributed in the Black Well never had any printed text, but Zhuang Mian still carefully checked them over again, just to be sure.
Nuo Nuo, half asleep and half awake, stood on the bed with her eyes closed and asked, “Auntie, what are we doing?”
Zhuang Mian’s hands were trembling as she buttoned up the clothes from nervousness, but she still tried to keep her voice gentle, to sound as calm and soft as possible.
“This place isn’t very safe. We have to leave.”
Nuo Nuo was puzzled. “Where are we going?”
“I don’t know either,” Zhuang Mian said. “Let’s just get out first.”
She finished adjusting the clothes and looked up into Nuo Nuo’s eyes. “Nuo Nuo, soon we won’t be able to make any sound again.”
Nuo Nuo’s sleepiness vanished instantly. Her eyes widened as she stared at her aunt, her face full of fright.
Zhuang Mian couldn’t help but feel a pang of sorrow. She leaned down and hugged her tightly.
“The loudspeaker just said that once the shielding layer disappears, we’ll have to stop speaking again. There will be a rapid ‘beep, beep, beep, beep’ alarm to warn everyone. But just in case, we still need to keep an eye on our surroundings—if we see fire or someone exploding, then absolutely no more talking.”
Nuo Nuo understood and nodded, tears welling up in her eyes.
Zhuang Mian carried her off the bed and helped her put on her shoes. “It’ll be okay. We’ll find another safe place.”
She let go of Nuo Nuo and began packing quickly, stuffing the things they needed into her backpack.
- ••
Blue Zone.
Factory basement. Casino.
One-Eye was dead, and for the past couple of days, Blackie and Catfish had been worrying about how to deal with the body.
If the Public Security Bureau investigated One-Eye’s murder, it wouldn’t hold up. Once they started digging, the whole illegal casino and stolen parts business would be exposed. Besides, if they claimed the killer was an intelligent robot, who’d believe that?
They could only temporarily move the body to an empty workshop next door and cover it with miscellaneous junk. Thankfully, no one went over there.
They had just finished dealing with the corpse today when they heard the alarm.
The two exchanged glances and hurriedly started packing their things.
Catfish was stuffing bags of food and canned goods into his pack as hard as he could.
Blackie had already packed his backpack, zipped it up, and ran to the stairwell, peeking up the stairs.
“Let’s go already. That’s enough.”
Catfish was still cramming things into his bag without stopping.
“Once we’re out, there won’t be any food. If we don’t bring enough, you plan to starve? Did you forget how we went hungry for days the last time we were outside the Black Well? With things out there the way they are, who knows when we’ll get our hands on food again.”
They had made quite a few material vouchers running gambling games lately and traded them for a pile of goods—leaving it behind would be a huge loss.
Blackie was pacing anxiously. “It’s already enough! Too much and you won’t even be able to carry it! Come on!”
There was no door in the stairwell, and from the landing, they could see the first-floor window. Outside, the dome lights were all lit, glaringly bright. Warning messages were looping nonstop, urging everyone to evacuate—making Blackie all the more frantic.
He put one foot on the stairs, turned back to look at Catfish. “Stop packing already! If we don’t leave now, we won’t—”
He suddenly froze, the sentence left unfinished.
Catfish, hearing the sudden silence, looked up and saw Blackie staring blankly behind him.
Catfish also turned around.
And saw that in the dark corner of the workshop behind him, on one wall—
a burst of green light had just appeared.
At first, it was just two or three green specks of light, drifting out lightly like fireflies. But only a few seconds later, more and more green spots began pouring out of the wall, flooding the entire basement in a glowing green hue.
The lights multiplied rapidly, surging outward like a tide, as if something massive was about to break through the wall.
This must be the dangerous green light mentioned in the warning.
Blackie let out a scream and turned to run.