This is truly incredible.
Pei Ran thought to herself without showing any emotion.
The way he was panting sounded somewhat like a wounded soldier she had encountered once.
That man had a large gash in his abdomen from metal shrapnel during an explosion and was on the verge of death. Before dying, he panted like that, one breath after another, as if he couldn’t catch his breath. It sounded extremely painful, making Pei Ran want to help him end his suffering with a single stroke of her blade.
However, W’s panting was subtly different from that wounded soldier’s.
W’s panting also sounded painful, but there was something in his voice that didn’t seem entirely like pain.
Finally, after panting for fifteen seconds, he began to sing.
Still using the same low, breathy voice as before, it sounded lazy, as if he didn’t want to open his mouth too much. The words seemed to stick together, blurring into one another.
Pei Ran was very curious about what the lyrics of his song were, but she couldn’t make them out.
In the bunker, it wasn’t common to hear people sing. The military corps did have a military anthem, passed down from who knows when, with a strong, solemn, and mournful rhythm. Occasionally, she would also hear someone humming some unknown tunes.
But none of them were like W’s style.
To experience something so strange after traveling through time was truly refreshing.
After he finished singing, everything around fell silent.
Pei Ran, full of curiosity, asked, “W, what were the lyrics of the song you just sang?”
W paused for a moment before answering, his voice calm and composed, completely different from when he was singing, as if he had simply played a record for Pei Ran.
He only said one sentence: “The lyrics describe the beautiful scenery of a field under the moonlight.”
What nonsense.
Pei Ran thought to herself, panting like that, as if you had your stomach slashed open in a moonlit field.
W sought feedback from his “client”: “Did I sing well?”
The “client” seriously evaluated: “Not bad.”
“As long as you’re satisfied,” W said. “When we reach Black Well, if there’s a chance, I’ll sing for you again using my real voice.”
Pei Ran was momentarily stunned before replying, “Alright.”
After all that singing, the folding arm was finally repaired.
Pei Ran said, “It’s almost done. Give it a try.”
The metal folding arm extended from the spherical body, stretching out over the seat. The mechanical claw at the end reached backward and lifted Pei Ran’s large backpack from the rear seat, giving it a slight heft.
His folding arm was finally functioning normally, moving with precision and strength, effortlessly handling the weight.
“Thank you.”
He thanked her once again, this time without using any of the breathy tones, but Pei Ran could tell he had deliberately adjusted his voice, lowering it more than usual.
Pei Ran replied, “No problem.”
Pei Ran bent the cracked metal shell back into place and casually moved him to the passenger seat. She then pulled out her precious medicine box from the large backpack and tucked it close to her body.
On the windshield in front of her, a tiny speck suddenly appeared—a small ice crystal, drifting in from who knows where.
Pei Ran glanced at it and froze.
Could this be—snow?
The ice crystal was tiny but had a perfect six-petal structure, intricate and delicate, crystal clear.
In the bunker, there was no sunlight, and of course, no rain or snow. Occasionally, when Pei Ran went above ground to collect supplies, the places she visited were dry and warm. She had never seen snow in her life.
Another six-petal ice crystal drifted down, this one larger than the last, with a more complex and fuller structure.
W noticed it too. “It’s snowing.”
Pei Ran opened the car door. “I’m going out for some fresh air.”
After all, the road ahead was nothing but mud, with no clear path. It was uncertain how long it would take to reach Black Well, or if they would even make it there at all.
Going to Black Well meant getting medicine—a big promise made by W, the artificial intelligence. But there was no guarantee this promise would be fulfilled.
She might not even live long enough to see it.
There was no telling when death might come, so she might as well take this moment to enjoy the snow.
Pei Ran jumped out of the car.
Snowflakes drifted down from the vast gray sky, occasionally landing on her face, leaving behind tiny spots of cold.
Pei Ran stretched out her hand and waited quietly.
The snowflakes fluttered down, landing on her black leather gloves and the sleeves of her coat. Sometimes they clustered together in indistinguishable clumps, other times they were fine, needle-like fragments. And then, every now and then, a perfect six-petal flake would appear.
If you looked closely, the intricate structure of each petal was astonishing.
Suddenly, a hand reached out beside her. It was W’s newly repaired folding arm.
He extended the folding arm out of the car window. At the end of the arm were three partially open silver mechanical claws, and on the tip of one of the metal claws rested a small snowflake.
“Look,” he said.
This snowflake had twelve petals.
It looked like a delicate little wheel, with twelve tiny points protruding from its circular shape.
Pei Ran was slightly surprised. “I thought all snowflakes had six petals.”
That’s what novels always said.
“Actually, they come in various shapes,” W explained. “There are triangular ones, solid prisms, hollow prisms, and disc-shaped ones with thickness. Their different shapes are related to the temperature and humidity conditions when they form.”
Pei Ran studied the snowflake on his fingertip carefully. “Fascinating.”
W said, “I once read a book that mentioned an ancient legend in the northern part of the Federation, near the cold Lunlin Mountains. It said that anyone who sees a twelve-petaled snowflake will be forever blessed by the god of luck, living a life of peace and happiness.”
His cold metal fingers gently turned, and the snowflake landed in Pei Ran’s palm.
“Here’s a snowflake for you,” he said.
“Wishing you eternal happiness.”
“You AIs can be superstitious too?” Pei Ran said, though she carefully caught it nonetheless.
His gift was fleeting. In just a moment, it melted into a tiny drop of water in the palm of her leather glove.
The snowflakes fell in abundance, gradually overcoming their fate of melting upon landing, forming a thin layer on the ground. The snowflakes mixed with the bloody flower by the door, soaked in red from the blood, but as new snow fell, the ground gradually returned to its pristine white.
The sky and earth seemed to merge, and as far as the eye could see, the fields were a vast expanse of white.
Amid the fluttering snowflakes, between the gray sky, the bare trees, and the white ground, a familiar bright green light seemed to flash through the woods.
Pei Ran stared intently at the woods.
W saw it too. “There’s green light.”
Pei Ran: “Yes.”
Pei Ran had eaten fried chicken today, but Green Light 1 hadn’t managed to catch a rabbit. Seeing the floating green light, Pei Ran decided to go take a look. Maybe she could get Green Light 1 some lunch.
Pei Ran: “Let’s go check it out.”
She got back into the car and started the engine.
W’s newly repaired folding arm was very efficient, swiftly fastening the seatbelt in a second. He cautioned, “Be careful.”
It didn’t feel like he was warning her about the green light, but more like he was telling her to drive carefully.
Pei Ran: “Mm.”
After all, it was impossible to speed through the muddy terrain, so she wasn’t sure what he was so worried about. Pei Ran sharply turned the steering wheel, stepped on the gas, and the car roared into the snow-covered field.
After crossing the field, Pei Ran parked the car outside the woods, grabbed the metal sphere, and got out, locking the car behind her.
She judged the direction where she had seen the green light and began to search carefully.
The woods weren’t dense, with dry branches stretching toward the sky. There was no chirping of insects or birdsong, and the surroundings were eerily quiet. The ground was covered with a layer of decaying leaves, and though Pei Ran tried to step as lightly as possible, her footsteps still made faint crunching sounds.
Using the trees for cover, she cautiously observed her surroundings, moving forward bit by bit.
“Pei Ran,” W suddenly said, “I hear something.”
The metal sphere could detect sounds more subtly than she could, and though Pei Ran’s human ears hadn’t picked up anything, she quickly hid behind a thicker tree, using it as cover to scan the area.
“To the left front,” W said.
A moment later, Pei Ran also heard a faint sound, like footsteps on the rotting leaves.
Crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch.
It sounded like footsteps, but not quite—the rhythm was too chaotic, hurried, and messy, giving off a strange vibe.
In the woods not far away, a shadow flashed by at incredible speed.
Pei Ran thought to herself, what on earth is that?
It looked like three people.
All three were wearing gray jumpsuits, but their movements were bizarre and awkward, as if they were holding hands and running together. With six feet between them, the footsteps were chaotic and disordered.
They flashed by, and the woods fell silent again. Pei Ran pressed herself against the tree trunk, slowing her breathing and focusing intently on the sounds around her.
“Pei Ran, behind you,” W suddenly said.
The crunching sound resumed, this time very close, right behind her.
Pei Ran whipped her head around.
A row of gray figures was charging toward her.
This time, Pei Ran saw clearly—it was three people connected together.
The one at the front was a tall, burly man with a full beard. His right hand gripped a section of metal pipe, which looked exactly like the pipes from the irrigation equipment in the greenhouse.
Saying he was “gripping” the metal pipe wasn’t entirely accurate.
A more precise description would be that the metal pipe had completely fused with the bearded pipe worker’s right hand.
The bones of the man’s fingers had disappeared, and his palm had turned into a thin, almost transparent webbing, wrapping around the metal pipe. At the same time, the end of the pipe seemed to have melted, with the metallic color gradually merging into the webbing, extending all the way into the man’s forearm.
They had grown together, forming a bizarre structure that was half metal and half human tissue.
The bearded pipe worker’s left hand was similarly fused with another section of metal pipe, but only a small part of the pipe was visible. The rest had completely merged into a strange place—
The mouth of the second pipe worker.
The second pipe worker was a slightly thinner man. The part where his mouth should be had fused with the metal pipe in his companion’s hand. His lips were stretched thin, forming a webbed layer that wrapped around the pipe, with the metallic part of the pipe flowing into his cheeks.
Because of the pipe, his cheeks were stretched to the limit, his eyes bulging out, and where his mouth should have been was now a wide, terrified O-shape.
Both of his hands were also fused with sections of pipe.
He stared fixedly at Pei Ran, the pipe in his right hand flailing wildly, while the pipe in his left was firmly embedded deep into the belly of the third person.
The third was a slightly overweight middle-aged man, his belly protruding outward. Where the metal pipe was inserted, his gray work uniform had fused with the pipe, the fabric fibers and blood vessels extending together, wrapping around the pipe embedded in his stomach.
Despite his bulk and the pipe in his belly, his body was surprisingly agile, and both of his hands were also connected to metal pipes.
These pipes, fused with their bodies, made the three of them look like part of the irrigation system in the field, strung together in a long chain.
The three pipe workers, linked together, lunged at Pei Ran.
Their goal was clear: they were trying to stab her with the metal pipes in their hands, clearly intending to connect her to their chain.
And they seemed extremely anxious, as if they couldn’t clock out for the day without extending the pipeline.
A bright green light suddenly appeared at the mouth of the pipe in the bearded man’s left hand, flickering faintly.
This was likely the green light she had seen outside the woods earlier.
The green light lingered at the pipe’s mouth for only a moment before retreating back into the pipe. In an instant, it reappeared at the mouth of the pipe in the hands of the thinner man in the middle.
The three of them were connected, and the green light was flowing and moving through them.
Pei Ran’s mind raced: If she got stabbed by the pipe of the person at either end, their irrigation pipeline would grow longer. But if she was unlucky enough to get stabbed by the one in the middle, the pipe would form a T-shape, meaning they could even create a branch for themselves.
Unfortunately, she didn’t have a pipe in her hand, so she couldn’t continue this game of connecting the chain.
While her mind raced, her feet didn’t lag behind—she had already swiftly retreated.
“These are Frenzied fusion entity,” W said.
Finally, she was seeing them in the flesh.
No wonder he had once said that Frenzied fusion entity would exhibit non-human mutations in their appearance. Just one look at them made it clear—they were no longer human at all.
These three were extremely aggressive, intent on drilling a hole into Pei Ran, posing a serious threat to her life. This clearly fell under the category of L16-level dangerous behavior.
W had already fired.
A flash of light, and he hit his mark with precision—a small black hole appeared in the forehead of the thin man in the middle.
However, despite being shot, no blood flowed, and the man acted as if nothing had happened, continuing his assault without slowing down. The pipe in his hand was already inches from Pei Ran’s nose.
This was completely beyond the realm of natural phenomena.
W pondered, “Military labs previously observed that deranged fusion entity have significantly increased pain tolerance and physical stamina, but not to this unreasonable extent. Has their ability enhanced after entering dormancy?”
Pei Ran: Bro, is this really the time to be pondering this? Should we draft a report or write a thesis right now?
The pipe workers swung their metal pipes with terrifying speed, the whistling sound of the pipe tips cutting through the air was downright frightening.
W stopped wasting words and extended his folding arm, doing his best to help Pei Ran fend off the pipes thrusting toward her.
While dodging, Pei Ran asked, “If shooting doesn’t work, how did the military deal with these deranged fusion entity before?”
“Before the dormancy event, deranged fusion entity were extremely rare. They were usually captured for research purposes and would naturally die after a period of time. Let me check.”
He was cramming for the exam at the last minute.
Pei Ran urged, “Hurry up.”
W was quick, almost instantly finishing his search. “The only record I can find of directly eliminating them is by blowing them up.”
Blowing them up.
The problem was, she didn’t have any explosive weapons on hand.
The green light inside her was also still dozing, showing no signs of waking up to help.
Pei Ran seized an opportunity, grabbing the metal pipe in the fat man’s hand and yanking it with all her strength.
An ordinary person would never be able to overpower Pei Ran’s mechanical hand, but to her surprise, the deranged pipe worker’s physique seemed to have undergone some strange transformation.
With a single tug, the arm connected to the metal pipe stretched like putty, elongating dramatically, yet the pipe remained firmly attached, refusing to come loose.
What’s more, the arm moved with a flexibility that defied human limits, twisting at an impossible angle to break free from Pei Ran’s grip. The metal pipe shot straight toward her head.
Pei Ran quickly changed tactics. She dodged his attack and grabbed the metal pipe again, but this time, instead of pulling it away, she pushed it sideways.
Right into the bearded man’s head.
The momentum from the fat man’s movement, combined with the force of Pei Ran’s mechanical hand, was tremendous. The metal pipe, glowing with green light, plunged into the bearded man’s temple with a sickening thud.
The moment the pipe pierced his skull, the bearded man’s face contorted violently. The flesh and blood of his face surged toward the pipe, rapidly merging with it, distorting his features into a grotesque, lopsided mess.
Taking advantage of the chaos, Pei Ran quickly retreated.
Now, the third pipe worker had successfully connected with the first.
The three pipe workers formed a small, internal loop.
This bizarre little circle spun around aimlessly, as if confused by their new configuration.