No one was holding the steering wheel, and the car immediately lost control, veering toward the tunnel wall beside them.
Pei Ran’s scalp tingled. She leaned over and forcefully corrected the steering wheel.
Fortunately, the driver uncle’s foot was habitually resting on the brake pedal. With the forward lurch, it pressed down.
The car came to an abrupt stop.
Pei Ran immediately reached out to open the door.
A tiny black shadow suddenly flew past her eyes—it looked like a mosquito. It zipped by quickly, circling to the back of Pei Ran’s head.
Her nape was suddenly pricked by something like a fine needle—a numbing sensation.
Pei Ran’s vision suddenly blurred.
She vaguely felt herself falling forward, her head knocking against the back of the front seat.
Ren’s voice sounded, distant and fuzzy: “Master? Master? What’s wrong with you??”
It seemed someone approached and opened the car door next to Pei Ran.
Leaning against the back of the seat, Pei Ran tried hard to turn her head and saw the burly man from the blue car that had been following them, with the skinny guy behind him.
They saw that inside the car, aside from Pei Ran and the driver, there was also a small robot. They paused, exchanged a look.
Without saying a word, the two came forward and grabbed Pei Ran’s arms.
“Don’t you dare touch my master!” Ren’s voice rang out.
But no one paid it any attention. Pei Ran felt someone grab her arms and pull her up from the back seat.
Drowsiness pressed in, like a black hand tugging at her consciousness, trying to drag her into a chaotic abyss.
Her thoughts were a tangled mess, logic like broken threads knotted together—unclear, with bizarre and shifting visuals before her eyes. The car door changed shape, stretching and warping like modeling clay. The two people outside the car looked bizarre and grotesque.
It was an illusion, mingled with reality. Pei Ran felt like she was drunk, or like that moment just before falling asleep at night.
I absolutely can’t fall asleep like this, Pei Ran struggled to think. Absolutely not.
They dragged her out of the car. Her knee hit the car door, but she didn’t feel any pain—it was like she was sleepwalking.
Ren panicked and rushed over, extending two metal claws to snatch Pei Ran back. Unfortunately, he only caught the back hem of her coat.
The burly man frowned, lifted his foot, and kicked the small robot back into the car.
He yanked Pei Ran’s arm, dragging her out of the car. He and the skinny guy held her up on either side, walking toward the blue car parked behind.
The effects of the anesthetic continued. Pei Ran’s hallucinations didn’t stop. The two people dragging her—suddenly their heads turned into ridiculous rabbit heads. With each step, the rabbit ears wobbled and trembled.
Pei Ran couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
The burly rabbit-head man felt uneasy from her laughter, inexplicably nervous. “What’s she laughing at?”
The skinny rabbit-head was also confused. “No idea. Wasn’t she supposed to have passed out by now? With a dose that strong, it should’ve been enough for someone of her size.”
Pass out your head, Pei Ran thought.
The one that injected the anesthetic was probably that tiny flying bug-like black shadow in the car.
Pei Ran tried to sort out the logic in her head.
It was likely some kind of micro flying device. It had stung the driver—he passed out. Then it stung her, and now she was on the verge of losing consciousness too.
She hadn’t completely passed out—most likely because of Green Light No. 2 inside her.
Green Light No. 2 was less affected by the suppression wristband. These days, it had often been herding sheep and frequently remained in an awake state. As soon as the anesthetic entered Pei Ran’s body, it seemed to sense something abnormal and instantly became alert.
It sensed danger and panicked a bit, running wildly inside Pei Ran’s body, which in turn caused the lambs to panic as well, resulting in bursts of commotion.
Their agitation made Pei Ran feel very uncomfortable, but that discomfort actually helped her stay awake.
Pei Ran gathered her scattered consciousness as best she could, turned her head, and looked toward the skinny rabbit-head man on her left.
His hand was gripping her upper arm.
Pei Ran groggily raised her mechanical right hand and grasped the skinny rabbit-head man’s hand.
In her daze, it felt like she used strength—yet also like she didn’t.
Pei Ran didn’t care either way and squeezed.
A crisp, satisfying sensation of bone being crushed—she squeezed straight through.
“Aw—!”
A scream followed closely, the sound distant, as if through a wall.
Taking advantage of the moment while he was in agonized shock, Pei Ran’s hand had already clamped around his neck. She didn’t even know if she used any strength, but she gave another sharp twist.
This one had a flash of green light in his eyes earlier—he definitely had some kind of ability.
That earned him the privilege of being dealt with first by Pei Ran.
The skinny rabbit-head man didn’t even have time to react before he released her arm and collapsed to the ground.
Pei Ran lost half of her support. Her balance failed, and she staggered, but her knee had already slammed into the back of the burly rabbit-head man’s knee.
When she went in for the kill, there was no warning. Her strikes were vicious and deadly.
The burly rabbit-head man had no mental preparation—he watched his companion fall in shock, stunned, and got knocked forward two steps by Pei Ran.
Pei Ran was still in a semi-conscious state, and her force and angle were off—he actually didn’t go down.
Around her, the light and shadows spun wildly. The row of lights inside the tunnel twisted into a vortex.
The burly rabbit-head man seemed to have turned around, reaching out to grab her shoulder.
Pei Ran couldn’t really see clearly anyway, so she half-closed her eyes, swung her mechanical arm, and slapped in a random direction.
She probably landed a hit, because from a distance, another “Aw—!” came.
Her mind was floating, like she was drunk. Pei Ran just found it all hilarious: these two weren’t rabbit-heads at all—they were like those squeaky rubber chickens that squeal “aw” when you squeeze them. You give them a smack, and they scream once.
She staggered forward and threw in another slap—but missed this time.
Because the squeaky chicken was already lying flat on the ground—whether unconscious or dead, she couldn’t tell.
A sharp screech of brakes.
A car stopped beside Pei Ran. In the driver’s seat was the little robot, Ren, wearing a properly fastened seatbelt.
“Master, get in! Quick!!”
The little robot’s head, in Pei Ran’s eyes, was also twisted and deformed—its cartoon-like facial features too distorted to distinguish. Pei Ran struggled to look toward its feet, her chaotic mind trying to figure something out: its feet were circular vacuum cleaner disks, so how did it manage to step on the brake and accelerator?
Was this really Ren? Where had the driver uncle gone?
Just as Pei Ran was hesitating, a familiar voice suddenly sounded by her left ear.
Familiar, and incomparably clear, as if speaking right beside her ear.
“Pei Ran, get in the car.”
Pei Ran’s mind snapped into clarity, her heart eased, and she staggered two steps forward.
Then she suddenly remembered something and took two steps back.
The skinny rabbit-head man was still lying on the ground, already dead. No sign of where his green light had gone.
He lay face down, his clothes tugged aside, both wrists fully exposed—there were no red suppression wristbands on either wrist.
Green light. Pei Ran forced her drifting thoughts back. She had to find the green light.
Earlier, the green light had flashed in his eyes. Pei Ran squatted down and pried open his eyelid.
The moment her finger touched his eyelid, a speck of green light shot out through his eye and burrowed into the center of Pei Ran’s palm.
“Master! Hurry!!” Ren called to her from inside the car.
The burly rabbit-head on the ground had his eyes closed, but seemed to twitch slightly.
This was a place of danger. Pei Ran’s thoughts were getting increasingly jumbled. She didn’t know how much longer she could hold on, nor whether she’d be able to handle it if more people came. She had to leave quickly.
Pei Ran staggered to the car door and collapsed headfirst into the back seat. She wasn’t even sure if she had closed the door.
Anyway, the car seemed to drive off immediately—and at a decent speed too.
Ren’s voice echoed from a distance, filled with pride: “I’m an all-purpose household robot. I don’t just drive, I even have a license. We’re heading straight to the temporary security bureau in the Yellow Zone.”
The words “security bureau” came through hazily, and at once, hallucinations of those unreasonable dark-blue little spheres floated up before Pei Ran’s eyes. They hovered in the air, drifting around the car like bubbles—everything looked strange and surreal.
The machine follows its master—Ren drove fast. Pei Ran’s thoughts were completely blank.
When she regained a little bit of awareness again, she realized Ren was firmly holding her under the armpits, half-dragging her forward.
Now Pei Ran finally understood how it could step on the brake and accelerator.
So the vacuum disk was just a component attached to Ren’s feet. Its feet had now detached from the disks—like the little mermaid, its previously fused lower half had split into two legs, turning into something that could walk.
They seemed to be in a large hall. As Ren walked, it shouted at the top of its voice:
“Kidnapping! Kidnapping! Someone tried to kidnap a human!!”
Pei Ran: “……”
Might as well have passed out.
“What’s going on?”
A person wearing the dark-blue uniform of the security bureau approached.
It wasn’t a ball—it was a living, breathing person.
It was honestly touching.
Pei Ran used all her strength to look at him—then her vision went black.
This time, she truly and completely lost consciousness.
In her dream, someone was talking, rambling on and on. Pei Ran still remembered clearly:
Don’t make a sound. Absolutely do not make a sound. If you speak, it’ll explode.
She pressed her lips tightly together, suppressing her throat.
For some reason, the effort made her throat burn and her mouth dry as if scorched.
She suddenly opened her eyes wide.
And right at that moment, a large glass of clear water was shoved in front of her face.
Very close—right next to it—was Ren’s face, his screen displaying a worried cartoon expression.
This time, her vision wasn’t distorted at all—perfectly clear, completely normal.
“The people from the security bureau said the first thing you’d want when you woke up would be water, so I got it ready in advance,” Ren said.
“Drink plenty of water to help your body metabolize the remaining anesthetic faster.”
Her thoughts were clear now. Except for a slight headache, Pei Ran sat up and looked around.
This was an apartment about the same size as her unit in White Harbor City—clean, tidy, and fully equipped with daily necessities.
She was on the bed.
“Here.” Ren firmly pushed the glass forward again, practically pressing it against Pei Ran’s lips—just short of prying her mouth open to make her drink.