Though Veda were devoid of emotions like resentnt or frustration, the more matter-of-fact Yu Yuan sounded, the more Lin Sanjiu felt her face flush with guilt.
It wasn't her fault that she'd been teleported away so suddenly, but if she hadn't pushed Yu Yuan and the grand prize off the spaceship back then, he wouldn't have had to go through so much trouble just to find her.
Still, guilt aside, she couldn't hold back her excitent. She leaped up in joy.
"No matter what, I'm really happy to see you." She grinned at Yu Yuan, feeling a warm swell in her chest. "Look inside yourself. Maybe you'll find a little happiness too?"
A distant mory surfaced. The mont she had first fallen into the Brain in a Vat, it had all started with eting Yu Yuan. One by one, she had reunited with her companions. Now, she was nearly certain she had left the illusion behind, but facing him in person again, the joy was so overwhelming that she felt a fleeting mont of doubt.
1
"You've gotten a lot more glib," Yu Yuan said.
Lin Sanjiu laughed. "It's the truth! I an, didn't you say you wanted to relearn emotions? I was just—ah, forget it. Never mind that. How long have you been here? How did you find ?"
"Flying around in a spaceship was actually a decent idea," Yu Yuan said, his voice too steady for her to tell if he was being sarcastic. "Once you docked Exodus here, I followed the traffic reports to locate you. But getting inside the city and finding you was the hard part. Even for a Veda, sneaking in wasn't easy."
The way things had played out was exactly like the events in the Brain in a Vat.
Lin Sanjiu felt both exhilarated and uneasy. Carefully, she asked, "It was really easy for to get in, though..."
"That's because they didn't even try to stop you." Yu Yuan's expression didn't change. "Do you even know what Chiric City actually is right now?"
Rena hadn't explained much, but from the details she had pieced together, the Shark Nexus had opened so kind of container within Chiric City—one that housed their labs and factories, occupying the city's empty interior.
"That's not entirely wrong," Yu Yuan said. "But this container could have been opened anywhere. They chose Chiric City for a reason."
"What reason?"
"First, it's big; it has enough space. Second... its structure suits that woman perfectly."
Lin Sanjiu frowned. "Suits her?"
"Look." Yu Yuan gestured downward.
Lin Sanjiu followed his hand. At first, she didn't see anything unusual. But on a second glance, she realized his feet weren't actually touching the ground. There was the thinnest of gaps between his soles and the floor.
She recalled that Silvan could do sothing similar, but he only used it defensively during fights.
"I don't know if it's her ability or a tool she uses, but that woman—uh, Rena, was it? Whatever, I don't really care." Yu Yuan, as a Veda, regarded Lin Sanjiu's world much like an AI might regard an aquarium. "Anyway, the sprawling corridors of Chiric City? They're her web. Any dust, any insect that lands on a thread, and she knows imdiately. The only people who can move freely within her web are those she allows.
"Chiric City's corridors overlap and wind together in endless tangles. I'd wager that if a bird landed on the farthest edge, she'd sense it on the other side. If I wanted to slip through the gaps in the web, I had to make sure I didn't touch anything but air."
So that was why Yu Yuan was floating?
Lin Sanjiu thought about Rena's current ability—or perhaps it was a combination of abilities—and found herself stunned for a few seconds.
After so many years, she shouldn't be surprised at how much Rena had grown.
"What about now? Are you going back to Exodus?" she asked, her heart tightening as she recalled her experience in the Brain in a Vat. If Yu Yuan followed her back to the ship, and then Cyrus or Eight-Heads De appeared next... She wasn't sure if she could endure the tornt of waking up again and again only to find she was still trapped in a dream.
"I already told you, I'm returning to the Data Stream Library. I ca to find you because I need to take back Ah Quan's pocket dinsion. Don't tell you've forgotten."
1
Her initial mix of excitent and fear slowly transford into disappointnt and relief.
She sighed, looking around, suddenly feeling lost. What was she supposed to do?
"Do you know what this place is?" she said after a mont of thought. "Rena... she's an old friend I lost contact with for years. She was also the original owner of Ah Quan's pocket dinsion. And now, she's on the verge of accomplishing sothing huge."
Yu Yuan's expression didn't change; he looked at them as if they were nothing more than penguins in an aquarium. "I know."
"You know?"
"I've been wandering around this city for half a day searching for you," Yu Yuan said. "During that ti, I gathered plenty of information on their plans and progress. And I also took the opportunity to prepare for this eting. Otherwise, do you think she was randomly called away? The mont you two entered that room, I made my move. Once you ca out, I activated a small device, triggering an ergency."
Lin Sanjiu froze. Her thoughts surged ahead at breakneck speed, crashing toward a terrifying realization.
"Wait... You went through all this trouble just to see in secret. Does that an their plan to stop teleportation is actually—"
After all, when standing at such a pivotal turning point in history, it was only human to feel so doubt, to question everything, even when the information ca from an old friend.
Yu Yuan glanced at her. "No. Whether or not she's lying to you has nothing to do with ."
He looked human in every way except for his eyes. They were like smooth jade stones, black and white set against the inked patterns on his skin. Clear, polished, yet devoid of tears or reflection. Every ti Lin Sanjiu t his gaze, she couldn't help but recall the first ti they t in Peanut Town, when his eyes had once held the tempests of sky and storm.
If he had never t her, Yu Yuan might still have been just another posthuman.
"I don't want anyone to know we've t," he continued, "because I've wasted a great deal of energy tracking you down. And Rena and her associates are powerful. Even for , they're troubleso. I don't want any unnecessary complications. I just want to take Ah Quan's pocket dinsion and return to the Data Stream Library imdiately."
He paused, as if he already knew the question forming in her mind. Then, in that sa calm tone, he added, "But that doesn't an their plan won't work. It's true that Veda aren't affected by teleportation. But Veda have an insatiable hunger for all knowledge and information in the universe. When I discovered that this group of posthumans was exploring sothing that could alter the course of humanity itself, of course, I couldn't ignore it. I haven't had ti to fully analyze it, but based on my preliminary assessnt, their teleportation vaccine is very likely to succeed."
Lin Sanjiu felt as if she were trembling, but her body and mind felt so distant from each other that she wasn't even sure if the shaking was real.
Yu Yuan, seemingly done talking, extended his hand. "I have to go. Rena won't be occupied for long... And besides, Ji Shanqing needs to go back, too."
Lin Sanjiu stared at him in shock. If she handed over Ah Quan's pocket dinsion, Yu Yuan might change his mind and reclaim his humanity. Ah Quan might regain his life. Eight-Heads De wouldn't lose his mories.
That was three people saved.
But if she gave it to Rena—
The ones saved would be billions upon billions.
3
Among them were countless people like Polva and Ryuji, struggling through life with no end in sight. Hai Tianqing, lost and unaccounted for. Cyrus. Xie Feng. Silvan. Bohemia... Countless lost friends, and herself.
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