The only sounds in her ears were the howling wind and the deafening roar of the dam collapsing.
The dragon-like spine of the dam undulated like waves, making it impossible to stand steady. Pei Ran stumbled as she ran, leaping over one menacing crack after another on the ground.
The dam was enormous, making her seem like a tiny black dot about to be swallowed by the raging waves. Yet, she moved with incredible speed, not wasting a single second.
She had never run this fast in her life. Her heart pounded as if it were about to burst out of her chest, and her mouth was filled with a metallic, bloody taste.
Finally, she reached the concrete fusion entity.
It was massive, standing as tall as a five- or six-story building, forcing her to tilt her head back to see it.
From top to bottom, it was made of concrete, with clearly defined facial features. The texture of its clothing, including the fabric, pockets, and buttons, was visible.
It was like a giant statue. Except this statue was alive.
The lower half of its body, resembling a skirt, spread out in all directions, connected to the top of the dam.
Its entire body leaned forward, its neck straining as it desperately struggled toward the shore. However, its body was tethered to the heavy dam, which clung to it like a burden, refusing to let go.
W said, “Judging by the style of its clothes, it should be wearing the uniform of a Tanggu Dam worker.”
This was a dam worker who had fused with the dam itself, becoming a deranged fusion entity.
As Pei Ran sprinted over, she tried to summon the green light in her mind.
Green Light No. 1 had just eaten its fill and had drowsily gone back to nap, as if tearing through a wall earlier had already completed its daily workload. It showed no intention of working overtime.
Green Light No. 2 was awake, but Pei Ran was well aware of her own drawing skills. By the time she finished drawing this concrete humanoid, it would be far too late.
She tilted her head, staring at the concrete figure, and attempted to summon Yulianka’s green light. But nothing happened. His ability had no effect on the deranged fusion entity.
She could only rely on herself.
Pei Ran charged up the slope of the concrete figure’s “skirt.”
The slope was too steep and was violently undulating. After just a few steps, a sudden, forceful movement sent her tumbling down, rolling head over heels.
The top of the dam here had already been distorted by the concrete figure’s skirt, with slopes on both sides. Any further down, and she would fall into the churning reservoir.
Pei Ran spun and rolled several times before finally seizing an opportunity to grab onto a crack in the ground.
The rolling stopped. Pei Ran first glanced at her waist.
Fortunately, the metal ball was securely fastened and hadn’t fallen off despite all the chaos.
A series of cracking sounds echoed, like the snapping of steel bars. The dam continued to collapse.
Pei Ran gritted her teeth without a word, scrambled to her feet, and began climbing up again.
The surroundings twisted and shook even more violently. The upside was that the concrete figure’s “skirt” now had numerous fine cracks. This time, Pei Ran climbed using both her hands and feet, anchoring herself firmly at each step by driving her mechanical hand into the cracks.
The higher she climbed, the steeper the slope became.
By the time she reached the waist of the concrete figure, her entire body was dangling from the mechanical arm.
Suddenly, the concrete figure’s waist twisted. The force was too much for Pei Ran to handle, and she was flung off like a tiny insect, soaring through the air toward the churning reservoir.
Mid-air, her mechanical arm and the folding arm of the metal ball extended, and at the last moment, she managed to grab the edge of the dam’s top.
W’s metal claw gripped the edge of the dam, while its other claw firmly held onto Pei Ran’s arm. Pei Ran’s mechanical hand had already secured a grip, and she used her human hand to grab on as well.
Together, the human and the ball pulled themselves back up.
The dam continued to tremble, and Pei Ran charged upward once more.
Failure had taught her valuable lessons. This time, she climbed even faster, quickly reaching the spot where she had been flung off earlier.
Here, the cracks were fewer, so Pei Ran used her mechanical hand to carve small footholds, steadily ascending step by step.
Suddenly, W said, “Pei Ran, the part of it on the shore is moving again.”
Pei Ran turned her head.
From this high vantage point, the scene on the riverbank was fully visible. Behind her, on the flat wilderness of the shore, the dam’s tentacle-like extension was moving again.
It twisted and slowly swept across the ground, stirring up a massive cloud of dust that billowed toward the illuminated Yehai No. 7.
Yehai No. 7 was docked by the reservoir, upstream of the river. Originally, even if the dam collapsed, it would have been safe. But now, that was no longer the case.
Pei Ran heard the sound of metal clanging again.
“Dang—”
“Dang—”
“Dang—”
The clanging was much more urgent than the previous two times.
Finally, the illuminated Yehai No. 7 started moving. Its lights were engulfed in the dust raised by the tentacle as it sailed away from the dam’s appendage.
W’s voice, calm as ever, sounded in her ear: “If Yehai No. 7 leaves, what do we do?”
Pei Ran carved a new foothold with her mechanical hand, climbing up another step, and replied, “Then the two of us will just have to walk to Black Well.”
There are still over a thousand kilometers to go, but it’s not impossible to walk.
However, the more likely scenario now is falling into the reservoir, and then, with the dam collapsing, being swept away by the raging floodwaters to who-knows-where.
Pei Ran couldn’t swim, but in a flood of this scale, even if she could, it wouldn’t make much difference.
Pei Ran kept climbing upward.
Finally, she reached the position she had been aiming for.
If compared to the structure of a human body, it was the area corresponding to the concrete figure’s chest.
Pei Ran carved out footholds for herself, deeper this time than before, leaving enough space for her hands and feet to stabilize herself. She then began using her mechanical hand to dig a hole into the concrete figure.
Over and over again.
She worked quickly, using all her strength. Dust and debris rained down like a shower, and the hole gradually grew larger.
W also tried with his metal claw, but his claw was far less effective than Pei Ran’s hand and couldn’t be of much help.
He turned in another direction, scanning above, and suddenly said, “Pei Ran, what’s that on its neck?”
In the midst of her busy work, Pei Ran glanced up and saw that on the concrete giant’s neck, near the jawline, there was a large, noticeable mark. It looked like a water stain, much darker in color than the surrounding area.
Pei Ran guessed, “It looks like a birthmark.”
W paused for a second, then said, “Yes, it’s a birthmark.”
He continued, “I found someone in the list of Tanggu Dam employees. According to the photo, there’s a birthmark in this exact spot. This person is named Li Min, 24 years old, a graduate of Xipu University with a degree in hydraulic engineering. After graduation, he was hired to work at Tanggu Dam.”
“I found out that Tanggu Dam might be laying off a large number of employees soon, and the staff are expected to find their own way out. I discovered records of Li Min applying for a position in the federal government. Li Min was likely preparing to take the exam two months later. Federal government jobs offer good benefits, and most importantly, they’re stable. That’s why so many people apply, but the acceptance rate is extremely low, and the competition is fierce.”
W paused, then added, “Now I understand why it’s struggling so hard to reach the shore. I’ve seen you humans refer to passing such exams as ‘going ashore.’”
Pei Ran: “…”
This kind of “going ashore” is not the same as that kind of “going ashore,” my dear Li Min.
It seems that, like other deranged fusion entity, “going ashore” was the most persistent obsession in its mind. After becoming a deranged fusion entity, its thoughts were consumed solely by this goal. It was willing to risk everything, even while being weighed down by the heavy dam, to desperately reach the shore.
Knowing the concrete figure’s name was of no use now. There was no way to write in Shige’s notebook at the moment. Pei Ran lowered her head and continued digging the hole.
Finally, something resembling human tissue was exposed beneath the pale gray concrete.
Pei Ran’s spirits lifted, and her movements quickened.
These tissues had soft, biological parts, making them easier to dig through than the hard concrete shell. Pei Ran’s progress sped up.
The chest cavity of the concrete figure was finally breached, revealing the deep and intricate internal structure within.
As expected, this fusion entity of Tanggu Dam and a human, like other fusion entities, had internal organs.
Pei Ran rapidly expanded the hole.
The concrete figure, having been gutted, finally realized something was wrong. It twisted, and with a series of cracking sounds, a part of its body suddenly broke free, splitting off.
It was a long “arm.”
This new concrete arm, connected to its shoulder and intertwined with countless steel bars, swung violently toward the gaping hole in its chest the moment it was free.
The speed was terrifying. The concrete arm sliced through the air with a whistling sound.
With a deafening crash, the world seemed to shake, and debris exploded everywhere.
Before the arm could strike its target, Pei Ran grabbed onto a pipe-like structure within the hole and slipped inside.
—
1,400 kilometers away.
Black Well, Command Center Hall.
On the massive virtual screen, as the camera began to move rapidly, everyone realized that the camera was attached to a person who was sprinting along the dam.
The target was clear: the towering concrete giant ahead.
Leaping over cracks, struggling to climb upward, tumbling down again and again, only to get back up—everyone’s hearts clenched in unison.
Everyone knew who Agent W’s inspection robot was following—that silent individual, Subject 1593.
The camera shook, and she occasionally appeared in the frame, her mouth sealed with black tape, silent, climbing upward again and again.
With sheer determination, she used her mechanical hand to chisel through the concrete giant’s outer wall, and at the critical moment, she slipped inside.
The screen flickered and suddenly went black.
W’s voice came through, “The signal is unstable. Please wait.”
—
On Tanggu Dam, Xipu Plain.
Pei Ran gripped a pipe-like structure, swinging into the concrete figure’s belly.
Without her needing to say a word, W automatically turned on the light on the metal sphere.
His light illuminated the space brightly, revealing everything in stark clarity.
It was a bizarre place. Countless steel bars and blood vessels crisscrossed in the air, with various organs chaotically fused with concrete. Looking down, there were no biological tissues below, only a massive black void, bottomless and likely connected to the interior of the dam.
Pei Ran hung from the pipe, climbing upward until she reached a large, unidentified organ, finally finding a somewhat stable foothold.
She tilted her head back.
Directly above, at the top of the chest cavity, a gigantic heart hung like a colossal chandelier, entangled by countless bluish-purple pipes, suspended high above.
It was still beating, thudding rhythmically.
The surroundings shook violently, as if in an earthquake. Blood vessels and steel bars vibrated with a low hum. Pei Ran summoned all her strength, climbing upward along the curved steel bars and semi-hard, semi-soft biological tissues.
Finally, she reached the side of the grotesque heart.
Pei Ran stepped onto a steel bar, leaned over, and grabbed onto the bluish veins on the heart, yanking them fiercely.
The heart contracted violently, then began to convulse. The entire abdominal cavity shook wildly, making it impossible to stand steady.
Pei Ran anchored herself, tore off several blood vessels, and reached the flesh beneath. She plunged her hand into it, ripping chunks of tissue downward.
Finally, she tore a large gash in the heart. A torrent of blood gushed out, cascading like a red waterfall into the dark abyss below.
The heart stopped beating.
For a moment, it felt as if everything around her froze.
Then, all at once, everything began to collapse downward.
She couldn’t fall with it.
Behind the collapsing heart, Pei Ran spotted the green light she had seen earlier in the dam’s tentacle.
This one was larger and brighter than the others, likely having floated up from the depths of the dam.
Pei Ran scrambled upward, stretching her arm to its limit. Her fingertips finally brushed against the glowing green light.
The green light steadily entered her body.
W warned, “Pei Ran, hurry!”
She didn’t need the reminder. She knew this place was collapsing.
Having achieved her goal, she slid downward, faster than a rabbit, finally reaching the height of the hole. Grabbing onto a suspended pipe, she swung outward and flew through the opening in the abdominal cavity.
She tumbled all the way down.
The concrete figure was collapsing, and the distance of her fall was much shorter than before. By the time she finally stabilized herself, using her mechanical hand to grab onto a crack in the ground and anchor herself, she was back on the top of the dam.
She turned her head and saw that only the upper chest of the giant concrete figure remained above the dam’s surface.
It still held its struggling posture, as if taking one last, distant look toward the shore, before it collapsed with a thunderous crash.
In an instant, the space where it had stood was empty, replaced by a large, funnel-shaped hole in the ground, dark and bottomless.
The night breeze blew quietly, and the rumbling sounds of collapse had long ceased.
The fusion entity of Tanggu Dam was dead.
The dam stood still, spanning the Yala River, still firmly holding back 15 billion tons of water in the Tanggu Reservoir.
“Dang—”
“Dang—”
“Dang—”
The cool night air carried the crisp, lingering sound of metal striking, three times in total.
Pei Ran turned her head.
By the reservoir, under the night sky, on the endless expanse of the Xipu Plain, the Yehai No. 7 shone with warm yellow light from its cabins. It had emerged from the swirling dust and now sat quietly, waiting.
Ai Xia and the others were still there, waiting for her.
—
Black Well.
In the Command Center Hall.
Everyone’s hearts were suspended, with nowhere to rest. Every pair of eyes was fixed on the darkened central screen.
But it didn’t take long for the screen to light up again, displaying a new scene.
The camera followed Subject 1593 as she rushed out of the cave, tumbling downward.
The dizzying spin of the fall made everyone’s heads swim, until the black mechanical hand slammed into the ground.
Finally, she stopped.
The inspection robot’s camera immediately turned back.
The giant concrete figure crumbled, collapsing back into the ground and sinking into a massive pit. The entire dam instantly froze, no longer moving.
The Command Center was silent. Marshal Vina spoke, “It’s… dead?”
“Yes,” W replied.
Someone tentatively asked, “Then… is Tanggu Dam…”
W: “It’s no longer moving. It’s still on the Yala River.”
The Command Center fell silent for a few seconds before erupting into deafening cheers.