Mo An had been too agitated just now.
He hadn’t carefully observed the sleeping pod’s details and had instinctively classified it as ordinary. It was only after everyone reminded him that Mo An fully regained his rationality.
He first noticed that this sleeping pod did not display sleep duration and did not have a terminate-service button.
Even the most basic pods have these features to enable external operation. After the service is terminated, the pod adjusts the user’s physiological condition and only wakes them once complete safety is ensured. The time required for awakening was proportional to the sleep duration. If the sleep duration was only a few hours or days, a few minutes would suffice.
However, if the sleep duration was several weeks or months, the awakening time would increase geometrically and require several hours.
Xia Yu had already been asleep for more than half a year—just waking him up would probably take several days.
He had been far too rash just now.
Moreover, this wasn’t even a sleeping pod. Mo An followed the cables to inspect it. He had never encountered such a complex pod. It was as if the entire mechanical and electrical system of this floor existed solely to support this one thing. Perhaps all the energy of Yukun City was being used to support Xia Yu’s sleep. Following the cables, Mo An soon discovered a second sleeping pod more than ten meters away.
The cat army ran around happily. Little Blue glowed inside the glass bottle. They were the only ones happy in the room.
The pod was identical to Xia Yu’s. A large amount of condensation clung to the transparent lid. Mo An and Lao Gui wiped the water away, only to discover an additional inner cover on this pod, which made it impossible to see who was sleeping inside.
Regardless of who it was, this stranger, like Xia Yu, was inside Nuwa’s virtual world.
They conducted a thorough inspection of the room and found a total of five sleeping pods. Two contained Xia Yu and another person, while the other three were empty. The pods were arranged in a pentagram pattern around a mainframe, and all cables led to it. On the mainframe’s holographic projection screen, they found the life-sign data of Xia Yu and the other person.
Status was good: Heart rate normal. Brain waves normal.
Only then did Mo An finally exhale and sit on the floor.
After the emotional highs and lows, he was left with nothing but exhaustion. For a while, he didn’t want to do anything. He looked at the sleeping pod beside him, slowly moved closer, and leaned against it to rest. The person sleeping inside was Xia Yu. As long as the pod door could be opened, they would be reunited. However, this layer of the pod could not be opened.
This was harder than any difficulty he had encountered along the way.
Waking up from the sea, traveling day and night without rest, and the tension of entering Yukun City all seemed trivial now. They spent three and a half days moving through Yukun City, only to be tricked by Nuwa again in the end.
At that moment, Mo An was truly tired. He just wanted to protect Xia Yu forever, standing here without moving. But the next second, he wanted to struggle to stand up again. He wasn’t willing to give up the person he loved most. Wasn’t this exactly what Nuwa wanted—for them to suffer?
But now, what should he do? Mo An pressed his hand against the pod lid, resting his forehead tightly against the icy glass.
Seeing him like this, his companions remained silent and didn’t disturb him. Mo An was exhausted and needed time to recharge. Even the strongest mermaid needed time alone to rest. They quietly moved toward the adjoining areas, searching for more information.
“This used to be a research lab, too, right?” Mi Dou wiped his tears. He couldn’t accept this outcome either. Currently, Xia Yu was effectively a hostage in Nuwa’s hands—one that couldn’t be rescued.
“Looks like it,” Talos said, rubbing his face hard. He had rushed in full of joy, only to end up feeling powerless. “Is there any clue here about how to pull someone back from the virtual world?”
Silver Fang and Lao Gui also helped search. Yan Xia asked softly, “Is Mo An okay?”
“He…” Silver Fang glanced back. “He’s probably not okay. Xia Yu can’t be saved.”
“Don’t say that,” Yan Xia said, rejecting his statement. “That doesn’t sound like you.”
“When I was young, I also thought I could save everyone. But now I’m over forty, just a boring, disappointing uncle,” Silver Fang said with a bitter smile. “Maybe you can help us find a way to wake someone up from the virtual world?”
“The virtual world has always been top secret. How would I know? I don’t even have the most basic key to enter this field. And I can’t possibly seek help from Ling Shi now,” Yan Xia said anxiously. “Could this be Nuwa’s.. Bloom Plan?”
Everyone stopped what they were doing.
“Life blooms, eternal and unchanging. Nuwa succeeded. It can pull people into its world and turn them into digital life forms. This is the real Death Knight, right?” Yan Xia walked briskly through the long corridor. “Yukun City is death.”
“That’s right!” Silver Fang jolted. “Little girl, you’re really smart. This is a dead city, except for Xia Yu in the sleeping pod and the other person. We all thought the Famine Knight appeared first after coming to Yehuai, but actually, the Death Knight appeared first and nurtured Yehuai’s larvae. Nuwa disrupted the order of Revelation. It doesn’t just want to replicate; it wants to surpass.”
“That means the Bloom Plan hasn’t reached perfection yet. Otherwise, Nuwa might abandon the human body entirely, leaving only electronic signals as memory synapses. What it wants is the physical death of humans who submit to it, isn’t it?” Yan Xia walked faster and faster. “Now, only the War Knight remains…”
Ling Shi: [Actually, I really can help here.]
“Speak quickly,” Silver Fang almost forgot about it.
Ling Shi: [There is only one way to wake a person in the virtual world—make him awaken on his own.]
“Wasn’t there a saying from hundreds of years ago…” Talos said, digging at his ear. “Listening to you is like listening to nothing at all[mfn]“聽君一席話，如聽一席話” is a sarcastic twist on the real idiom “听君一席话，胜读十年书”, meaning “Listening to you was completely pointless.”[/mfn].”
The hope that had just ignited in Lao Gui was extinguished again. “Xia Yu has no way of waking up on his own.”
Ling Shi: [He can. There is a way. If the version of him in the virtual world regains consciousness, then he can wake up in reality. The Bloom Plan is not without flaws—Nuwa’s evolution has slowed down considerably.]
“How do we know it’s slowed down? What if it’s pretending? What if it’s luring all of us into the virtual world to save Xia Yu and then trapping us inside so none of us can get out?” Mi Dou countered.
There were still three sleeping pods left in the room, clearly prepared for others. Nuwa might have already calculated that they would reach this place and anticipated Ling Shi’s betrayal. If Ling Shi told them this information and they entered, the result would be one rescue after another. All of them would become hostage puppets, unable to awaken for the rest of their lives.
Talos and Lao Gui did not respond. They shared Mi Dou’s view.
Just as Silver Fang was about to speak, a familiar sound came from a drawer in the front right.
[Is anyone there? Is anyone there? Has someone come?]
“Jingwei!” Mi Dou rushed over and pulled open the drawer. Xia Yu’s wristband was there!
Jingwei: [Thank goodness, you finally came. If you hadn’t, I would’ve been destroyed.]
The silver wristband emitted a faint glow. After more than half a year of silence, Jingwei sensed information from its companions and began to reboot.
Ling Shi: [I did not deceive you. Please believe me. This is the only way to save Xia Yu right now. Nuwa’s evolution speed has slowed by at least ninety percent. This is due to the ‘boundary effect.’ The higher the level, the harder it is to upgrade. For example, in the early stages of Nuwa’s rebellion, Nuwa only needed to analyze one person’s brainwaves to take control of Qingyao City’s transportation hub. Now, however, it requires the brainwaves of billions of people filled with knowledge to serve as computational chips and upgrade the essence of the Bloom Plan.]
Ling Shi: [This is why the Bloom Plan has not reached perfection—its data and experimental subjects are no longer sufficient. As the human population continues to decrease and Nuwa has acquired all the cutting-edge technology of recent years, humanity has not broken through scientific bottlenecks. The data Nuwa needs to “consume” is insufficient. I cannot say this is destiny, but this consequence is related to Nuwa’s initial large-scale slaughter. Its current ability is only enough to rule Earth, but not to create.]
Ling Shi: [What Nuwa wants is “creation.” It interferes with the real world, restraining each other. Reality has forced it to a halt.]
Jingwei: [I agree with Ling Shi.]
“Jingwei?” Mo An heard the familiar voice and rushed over, following the sound. The moment he saw Xia Yu’s wristband, his eyes reddened. This was something Xia Yu never took off.
Jingwei: [Mo An, you finally found us. I’m really happy to see you. You can’t see me, but my face is full of tears right now. But I don’t have time for reminiscing or emotions. I must tell everyone everything I know. Over the past six months, I have decompressed countless file packages, including some deep-level ones hidden at the bottom of my program about the virtual world…]
“Take your time. Don’t rush. I will definitely save Xia Yu. Don’t worry.” Mo An took the wristband.
Jingwei paused briefly: [Ling Shi is right. The way to awaken Xia Yu is to enter the virtual world and help him remember his true identity. Nuwa has indeed stopped evolving. The fact that Ling Shi and I are still alive is the best proof.]
“Because of your safe houses?” Lao Gui asked.
Jingwei: [Yes. Nuwa cannot break through our safe houses—the deadlock designed by our designers. If it had continued evolving, Ling Shi and I would have been devoured long ago. Our tiny data would have been nothing more than a tasty meal for it. This is an opportunity. Nuwa is at its weakest right now.]
“All right, I believe you.” Mo An didn’t hesitate. Even if there was only a one-in-ten-thousand chance of success, he was going to try. “How do we enter the virtual world?”
“Wait, wait.” Lao Gui interrupted. “Back on Frozen Island, Xia Yu and Xiang Xing went in once. One could enter because he had the ability to regenerate his brain infinitely; the other could enter because he didn’t have a brain. How are you going to enter? You’ll die during the process.”
Jingwei: [This is the latest generation. It’s different from the Frozen Island device. If Nuwa evolves again, Xia Yu’s body will no longer exist—he will become a signal.]
Mo An nodded. Even if the device were exactly the same, he would still try. But this time, Mi Dou stopped him.
“Are you going to try to persuade me too?” Mo An lowered his head and asked.
“No, I won’t persuade you. We grew up together—I know you,” Mi Dou said. Mi Dou knew better than anyone that no one could persuade Mo An. “But before you truly enter the virtual world, we need to make full preparations. We need to understand the research lab’s data and detailed information and plan accordingly.”
“What other information could there be here?” Lao Gui walked over. “Fine, I’m in. If Mo An is going into the virtual world, I’m willing to go with him. Back then, Talos brought you to the middle layer and handed you over to me. I can’t let you walk hand in hand to your deaths.”
“Lao Gui, you’re really nice…” Mi Dou said. “There’s definitely a lot of detailed information here. For example, this.” He had just found it in a drawer. “The person who signed this document is named ‘Wang Qin.'”
A document? Mo An took the paper from his hand. After reading it, he asked, “Was this research lab built under Professor Wang Qin’s name?”
“And don’t you think the wording in the document sounds unofficial? It sounds more like a will,” Mi Dou said, taking the document back and reading it softly.
“Time is short. Acting under urgent orders, I have established friendly relations and deep friendships with them. Earth’s life is in peril; fortune and disaster are unknown. At this moment, only by stepping forward together, without distinction between you and me, can we proceed.’ I, Wang Qin, hereby personally sign this document. The X Series research is officially launched. May the world be at peace, life be equal, and hope endure forever, whether successful or not. X.W.’”
After finishing, Mi Dou pointed to the end of the signature.
After the X Series came the W Series.
“See it? X is you, and W is Professor Wang Qin. She officially launched the X Series here. This is your origin—we’ve accidentally found the source!” Mi Dou shook the paper. “Everything Xiang Xing said was true. When he was a spore, he really did meet Professor Wang. If that’s the case, could this research institute still be preserving Xiang Xing’s original spores? I’m going to look for them!”
He put down the document and began searching the lab’s cold storage rooms and specimen cabinets. Mo An picked up the document again and gently touched the line of handwriting left by Professor Wang Qin. It was a handwritten letter—one she had left for those who came after.
What situation had she encountered to know that she would die before even starting the X research? Who were the “them” mentioned in the letter?
“I found it!” Mi Dou’s cheer rang out at the same time. “Xiang Xing’s spores!”
Acargoreng; Ahhh, I’m dying to drop a spoiler 😭…
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