The night before the promotion

Chapter 99 The Devoted Ones’ Voices Are Deafening

There was a flash of lightning, and the metal fell apart.

The flying debris scratched Zhou Si's cheek, and some penetrated into his body like broken shrapnel, but Zhou Si did not feel any pain, or even any obvious feeling.

Under high-intensity combat, Zhou Si's self-consciousness has long been riddled with holes, and the connection between him and his flesh and blood body has become extremely weak.

For a moment, Zhou Si couldn't even feel the connection between his self-consciousness and his body, as if he was not here, but in another distant dream pool, using some special way to transcend time and space to control this fragile body of flesh and blood.

With the complete withdrawal of the self, even life and death become ridiculous.

"I still find it hard to understand you, Dr. Zhou."

As the cold words rang out, Huo Daochuan drove Turing and raised the chainsaw sword in his hand high. The serrated blade rotated at high speed. Due to the huge size difference, it seemed as if a running sawmill was smashing down towards Zhou Si.

Zhou Si laughed wildly in return and rebuked, "No, you are the one who should understand me the most!"

A crisp metallic sound was heard, and the narrow blade wrapped in electric current broke away from Zhou Si's arm. The nearly transparent nanotube wire pulled the deadly blade and swung towards Turing's head.

"I guess you have returned to the Gulf of Mexico in your dreams countless times. Under that golden sunshine, you must have wondered, what if... what if... hahahaha!"

Zhou Si mercilessly hurt Huo Daochuan's heart. The narrow blade accurately split Turing's mask, and also tore a gap in the armor on his neck and chest.

It was as if a giant sword was chopped down at Turing, splitting his head, chest, waist and abdomen at the same time.

Huo Daochuan remained silent, having lost all his patience. The chainsaw sword attacked with terrifying wind pressure, and a sharp noise approached, announcing Zhou Si's death.

Everyone could foresee Zhou Si's ending. The moment his body came into contact with the chainsaw sword, it would be beaten into fine meat paste and bone fragments, turning into a filthy mixture.

Figures intertwined and a sharp metallic sound suddenly rang out!

The expected blood mist was not aroused.

Zhou Si seemed to be bounced away by some force. With a series of dazzling sparks, he fell to the ground with a thud and slid for several meters before stopping.

"Ha ha……"

Zhou Si was gasping for breath. He was not dead, at least he was not minced into pulp.

Blood kept flowing out from his throat and wounds all over his body, and his eyes were covered with a layer of blood and became turbid.

The prosthetic arm of Zhou Si's left arm was completely destroyed. It became crooked, with dents and cracks everywhere. Even the tough nanotubes were broken, turning into a tangled mess that could not be sorted out.

At the critical moment just now, Zhou Si used his prosthetic limb as a shield to block the sweep of the chainsaw sword, which allowed Zhou Si to survive by chance. However, while the rotating serrated blade tore apart the prosthetic limb, the huge force was also transmitted to Zhou Si's body.

Real and severe pain filled Zhou Si's mind, as if his entire left arm had been ripped off alive, with broken bones, torn muscles, and internal bleeding emerging from under the skin, forming large dark bruises.

Zhou Si tried to get up, but the physical injury made his strong will useless.

"This is the limitation of human beings, the limitation of the flesh, the limitation of matter."

Chen Wen Ge’s teachings once again echoed in his mind. If possible, Zhou Si really didn’t want to hear his voice at this time.

"Stop nagging me, you bastard," Zhou Si whispered, "All this trouble stems from your death."

No one heard Zhou Si's mumbling.

No matter how much Zhou Si hated Chen Wen Ge in his memory, he still had to admit that this man who was almost his teacher was right.

The real world is not a hot-blooded comic book. Just because you have some belief or passion, you cannot ignore the objective reality and change something.

Reality is reality, cold and heavy. Even if you break your hands and cry all your tears, you cannot shake it in the slightest.

It is like a dark and silent monument, standing quietly between the worlds, and everyone has no choice but to kneel and kowtow to it, begging for its mercy on their own destiny.

Zhou Si felt extremely disgusted with all this.

Then, he inexplicably recalled Ruan Linrui's evaluation of him, in which she said that he was a childish person.

Yes, I am indeed very naive.

Every sane adult will bow down to this monument of silence. They know clearly that resistance is useless and the only option is obedience.

But people as naive as Zhou Si always want to tear it down.

In fact, Zhou Si also understood that this thing could not be pushed down, but he did not want to kneel down, just like a child crying, pointing at the toys on the shelf, he had to have this one...

Zhou Si blinked, and after a series of confused thoughts, his condition seemed to be a little better. After neatly removing his twisted left arm, Zhou Si looked at Turing in front of him.

It is getting closer and closer to the data tree. Once the catalyst virus is injected into the data tree through the physical interface, the towering walls will collapse.

Zhou Si shouted at the top of his lungs, "Ruan Linrui! Are you not ready yet?"

"All right!"

The voice responded.

Not far from Zhou Si, Ruan Linrui was holding a notebook and looking at Turing nervously.

During this period of time, Ruan Linrui has been trying to track Huo Daochuan's real coordinates, but no matter how she chases him in the mind network, she never gets any results.

At the same time, Stone Castle's security department was continuously launching cyber attacks on Turing, trying to cut off the mental connection between Turing and Huo Daochuan.

As long as the connection signal between the two is blocked, the goal of paralyzing the armed avatar can also be achieved, but most armed avatars have corresponding defense mechanisms, which are difficult to solve unless a comprehensive network blockade is implemented.

However, once a comprehensive network blockade is carried out, not only will the enemy's armed avatars be paralyzed, but also our own armed avatars, and even all electronic equipment and network communications will be completely hindered, and the entire area will be plunged into pitch darkness.

Therefore, as the incarnation body has developed to date, a comprehensive network blockade has only been activated in some extremely severe local wars. Even the staff of the Stone Fortress are not very familiar with this.

Ruan Linrui is a real genius. She immediately came up with a new tactic based on the existing means.

The Sword Dancer and Zhou Si's repeated heavy attacks have successfully torn Turing's armor apart. What they have to do next is to launch jamming bombs that will bypass Turing's armor and directly overload its internal system with electricity.

As long as Turing's defense system can be paralyzed, Ruan Linrui will be able to terminate its cognitive connection, and then completely exile Huo Daochuan's consciousness back to reality, resolving the current crisis.

In fact, they did so.

Several jamming bombs attacked from the other end of the sea of ​​fire, without any surprises or twists and turns, and accurately hit the weak point of Turing's armor. After a burst of impact sound, dazzling electric current covered Turing's body like a dancing snake.

Turing's movements immediately slowed down, and he moved back and forth strangely, just like the muscle spasms of a human being after being electrocuted.

"Get out of here!"

Ruan Linrui excitedly pressed the command key, the program started, and an invisible net fell from the void, tightly locking Turing, severing the connection between the armed incarnation and Huo Daochuan, and exiling him back to reality.

After doing all this, Ruan Linrui finally breathed a sigh of relief. She dropped her notebook, ran out from behind the shelter, came to Zhou Si, and looked at him with concern.

"Are you ok?"

"not dead."

Zhou Si's answer became crisp and clear, as if the passionate and naive him just now had become depressed again due to the illness.

"Although you're not dead, you look terrible." Ruan Linrui's voice trembled a little. In her eyes, half of Zhou Si's body had undergone some deformation, which was extremely terrifying.

On the bare left arm, most of the connection of the prosthesis was torn out of the flesh, leaving a bloody mess, which made Ruan Linrui very sad.

At this moment she realized firsthand that Zhou Si had just had a brush with death... He really, almost died.

Ruan Linrui couldn't imagine the scene of Zhou Si's death.

"It's okay. It's all over."

Zhou Si comforted her tiredly, just like he did before.

The taut string in his mind broke at this moment, and the endless pain and fatigue that followed almost made Zhou Si faint, but he still stubbornly remained awake.

Just like Bt-24 was afraid of falling asleep, Zhou Si was actually also afraid of falling asleep.

The interruption of the continuity of consciousness is always full of unknowns and fears.

Zhou Si tried to relax his nerves and accept the tremendous pain, but at this moment, the noise of mechanical operation came from the front, and it sounded from Turing who was supposed to be there.

"What...what's going on?"

Ruan Linrui looked at Turing who stood up again with a puzzled look on her face. The jamming bomb had clearly passed through the armor and overloaded its system. She had also clearly interrupted the mind connection and exiled Huo Daochuan's consciousness, but why was Turing still moving?

Zhou Si struggled to sit up. In his blood-soaked vision, he noticed the silk thread hanging from Turing's abdomen.

Nerve fiber bionic thread.

Luo Yong’s face flashed before Zhou Si’s eyes, as did the bizarre scene of the combination of flesh and blood with machinery.

Huo Daochuan's voice echoed under the data tree again, but this time his voice was not electronically processed, but came directly from his vocal cords.

"The rules of the world have always been this: you get what you give."

Turing slowly turned around, revealing his ripped chest and abdomen, and inside his chest and abdomen, Huo Daochuan was entangled in dense nerve fiber bionic threads.

He shaved his hair and amputated his limbs, leaving only a horrible torso, embedded in the machine like wetware.

Huo Daochuan smiled at Zhou Si... Zhou Si guessed that he should be smiling.

"Similarly, if I want to change the world, how can I not lead by example?"

Zhou Si said nothing, and Ruan Linrui's face turned completely pale. It was not until this moment that she understood why she could not track down Huo Daochuan and could not even interrupt the signal connection.

Huo Daochuan never left from beginning to end. He was always in Turing and went to the battlefield in person.

"This madman, he connected himself to the armed avatar!"

"Hurry up and find a way to kill him!"

Li Weiyu and Xiang Ji were roaring at each other in the channel. Li Weiyu quickly ran towards Zhou Si and Ruan Linrui, while Xiang Ji carried an anti-material sniper rifle and moved quickly in the sea of ​​fire, looking for a suitable firing position, ready to blow Huo Daochuan's head off with one shot.

Zhou Si looked at the miserable and fanatical face and shook his head sadly.

"No, the rules of the world are never so naive," Zhou Si said self-deprecatingly, "The truth of the world is that hard work will not be rewarded, and everything is not equal."

Zhou Si suddenly remembered what he had read in a book before.

You have to accept that you will work hard all your life and achieve nothing in the end.

"But at least I tried, as you said, to the best of my ability."

Huo Daochuan laughed loudly. He felt great. All the missions, grudges, and all the emotions suppressed in Huo Daochuan's heart were completely released at this moment.

He felt like a star on the stage. The spotlight made his face look pale, like a majestic plaster statue. Countless audiences waved their hands under the stage, just to let their eyes stay on them for a moment.

Huo Daochuan will not stop for anyone.

He would stop for everyone.

Turing strode forward, and a tiny robotic arm extended out. The end interface connected to the port under the data tree without any hindrance. Everything went smoothly, just like plugging a hard drive into a computer.

Huo Daochuan used his last bit of strength to look at Zhou Si. Flames were brewing on the flamethrower, as if a giant dragon was taking a deep breath, preparing to release a scorching breath.

The flames roared and came towards Zhou Si.

The scorching heat and air waves made it difficult for Zhou Si to breathe for a while, but in this life-and-death moment, he still made a choice that he would not regret.

It was hard to imagine the pain Zhou Si was enduring. He forced himself to stand up, pushed Ruan Linrui away, drew out the electromagnetic pistol from his waist, aimed at Huo Daochuan's head and fired.

The bullet hit the armor, and the sparks were swallowed by the fireworks, like a drop of water disappearing into the sea.

Ruan Linrui's cry, the shouts in the channel, the crackling sound of the burning fire...

Zhou Si turned into a ball of fire and fell gently to the ground. All the sounds faded away - only warmth remained.

Huo Daochuan looked away. The moment the robotic arm was physically connected, the security protocol of the data tree port was breached. It was the hacker who had been hiding in the dark. He not only assisted Huo Daochuan in paralyzing the stone fortress's defense system, but also cleared the last obstacle for Huo Daochuan.

The gate that prohibited the flow of data collapsed, and the catalyst virus hidden in Turing flowed unimpeded into the river of information and was absorbed by the data tree.

A striking red warning light flashes.

"finally……"

"After this, everyone will see the madness of Li Shibing. All sacrifices will promote the implementation of the 524 Draft. Those high-ranking officials can no longer ignore our existence."

Huo Daochuan looked up. With the intervention of the catalyst virus, the endless blue glow on the data tree turned into scarlet one by one, as if stepping from heaven into hell. Against the backdrop of the sea of ​​fire, everything turned blood red.

"My voice, our voice...the voice of those suffering from Lishi disease!"

Huo Daochuan shouted with joy.

"They will hear it, they will hear it!"

The roar of gunfire brought Huo Daochuan's voice to an abrupt halt.

At the other end of the sea of ​​fire, Xiang Ji kept holding the gun. In his sight, Huo Daochuan's head had disappeared and turned into a spreading blood mist that drifted into the sea of ​​fire.

"Zhou Si! Zhou Si!"

Ruan Linrui kept calling out, but Zhou Si did not respond. He just lay there quietly, letting the fireworks surround and burn him.

I don’t know if it was a near-death hallucination or the real reality.

Zhou Si saw that the Data Tree was on fire, just like the world tree that was burned and cut off in the myth.

Return to flames and rain down ashes.

(End of this chapter)