Why it never ends

Chapter 1260 (middle)
In the dead of night, Si Lei suddenly heard someone urgently calling her name. She realized that it was time for her to wake up, but in her half-awake state, many flashing images made her reluctant to leave. She did not want to leave a dream that was destined to dissipate so soon.

The corridors of some hospitals are all much the same. She kept pushing open the doors, but every bed in the ward was empty, with white sheets and blankets neatly laid out.

Si Lei had a vague feeling that she was looking for someone very important, but she couldn't remember that person's face at all.

She continued forward in the chaos, and before she knew it, the gray-white mud and stone ground beneath her feet had turned into a red carpet, and the pale yellow ward door had become a heavy and thick wooden door, with a transparent round glass window added to each door.

The ground began to shake, as if the entire building had fallen into someone's gentle cradle. A strange sense of dizziness came over him. Si Lei kept pushing the door open. The hospital bed turned into a cramped cabin. There were no passengers on the connected bunk beds. Si Lei was still searching.

"Officer Si Lei!"

A voice came from afar. Si Lei turned around abruptly and saw a young man standing at the end of the corridor. He was thin and frail, as if a gust of wind could carry him away—it was Gustav from the ship.

Si Lei's eyes widened instantly. In that moment, she finally remembered who she was looking for, but the scene before her vanished and disintegrated like a sand painting...

"Officer Si Lei! I'm sorry to bother you so late, but there's a problem that only you can handle!"

Clara's voice completely pulled Silei back to reality. She opened her eyes and realized that she was crying.

Si Lei immediately wiped his face, his voice a little hoarse: "...What's wrong?"

“Something’s not right with the inspector.” Clara pointed behind her. Hersta was sitting in a chair in the waiting room, hunched over, her face buried deep in her arms—her hands were tightly gripping her red hair, as if she wanted to tear it out.

Si Lei immediately frowned: "...Jane?"

Heshta looked up at the sound, looking extremely haggard.

"What's wrong with you?" Si Lei quickly regained her senses. She walked briskly to Hester and half-squatted down, trying to see Hester's expression. "Jane, look at me!"

Hershta almost immediately gripped Sera's hand and pressed the back of her hand tightly against her forehead.

“Let’s talk somewhere else…” Hesta said in a low voice, “I have something to ask you…”

……

Si Lei originally thought Hershta just wanted to take her to another room, but she didn't expect that he would take her away from the underground base.

It was the deepest part of the night, and even Silei couldn't help but shiver as the night wind blew. She was somewhat worried about Hersta's current state and asked her several times what she wanted to ask. However, Hersta was in no hurry to speak. She suddenly started talking about their past on the ship, asking about the names of the two sisters and several monks. Silei answered them one by one. Then Hersta brought up District Fourteen again, asking about the name of the lady who had abandoned something at the dock many years ago.

Si Lei belatedly realized, "You're trying to trick me? What exactly do you want to ask?"

"you answer me first."

Si Lei was silent for a while. When he said Xu Ruyi's name, Hershta almost collapsed on her, as if the mercury needle was too weak to stand on its own.

"What's wrong with you? If you're not feeling well, let's go back to the underground hospital right now—"

“No, we can’t go back… Stay here, I’ll recover.” Hester immediately interrupted Sire. “You stay here with me until dawn, and don’t let anyone near me.” Sire immediately looked around warily. More than being curious about the origin of this bizarre request, she was worried that she probably wouldn’t be able to fulfill Hester’s request—her gun and bullets might be able to deter ordinary people, but if it were Deep Anchor or some other mercury needles, she would be completely defenseless.

Sire dragged Hersta's body and settled her on a bench by the roadside. Hersta kept making strange whimpering sounds, like a person with a high fever. These sounds appeared intermittently and disappeared completely after about an hour.

As dawn broke in the distance and the world gradually brightened, Hesta, who had been hunched over, finally raised her head and lay back on the bench with a sigh of relief. She stretched out her legs and stomped them forcefully.

“I should be recovered, officer.” Hersta stood up, though she still looked pale and haggard, but her mind was clear. She stretched her arms. “Thank you.”

"You're welcome, nothing dangerous happened." Si Lei suddenly felt drowsy. She sighed and sat down on the bench. "Explain yourself, what happened to you last night?"

Hester sat back down next to Sire, looking straight ahead, and said in a low voice, "I found some things in the underground base that I saw on the Awakening..."

"what?"

“The big machine on the fourth deck,” Hester said in a voice that Sray could barely hear, “but not the input end, it’s the projection end.”

Some unpleasant memories flashed through his mind, and Si Lei abruptly stood up: "In the Mercury Needle's underground base? Your underground base has this kind of—"

“Sit down, sit down, it’s not what you think.” Hesta made a gesture of surrender. “The principle is the same, but the scenario is different. The equipment here is for training purposes, so I tried a few battles that I have experience with.”

Si Lei belatedly exclaimed "Ah"—that's how it should be.

If a device can be used to clearly present the subtle sensations of the body, then it should certainly be used for high-risk simulations, and in fact, the young people on the rising tide have all experienced the same thing.

"And then?" Si Lei asked. "You just left it like that after you finished?"

“Nothing was wrong at first, but dying once had such a big impact on me,” Hester said. “And when I returned to reality, I didn’t feel much ‘reality.’ I felt like I was still inside the system…”

Si Lei then realized: "So you came to me, asking me to keep watch for you... But what's the use of coming to me? You should be going to Endai and the others at a time like this, at least—"

“Even if Rico were here, I wouldn’t look for her.”

"……Why."

“If this place is fake, then the closer my friends are to me, the more likely they are to be manipulated,” Hester whispered. “I can’t take that risk.”

Si Lei found it amusing, yet also a little angry—recalling the friendship she had built with Hersta on the Shengming and in District 14, she was somewhat stung by Hersta's ruthless conclusion.

"Oh, well, I'm not exactly one of your close friends—"

“You’re different, officer. You’re in the middle. If you deviate from the norm, it will be too obvious,” Hester said. “If this really is a fake world, and you’ve retained the basic original data, then you’re just as trustworthy as the police officers in the real world.”

(End of this chapter)