Above the Blood Moon

The pain didn't disappear; it just changed form. It went from a sharp, soul-tearing pain to a dull ache that permeated the whole body, like countless needles piercing the bones, with each breath carrying a heavy, aching sensation.

Jockley opened his eyes.

My vision was initially blurry, then gradually cleared, revealing a dark red sky, sparse starlight, and a leaping flame nearby.

Beside the flames, a figure wrapped in a tattered coat huddled up, with a metal ring around her neck—it was Huang Shuangyan.

He moved his fingers.

The rough texture of sand and gravel, along with its cool temperature, was felt on my fingertips.

Jockley tried to prop himself up, but his arms were as limp as noodles. He managed to get up after two attempts, and the movement strained all his muscles. Pain surged up, and he groaned, almost falling back down.

"rhubarb."

His voice was terribly hoarse.

"I am here, Master."

A familiar voice came from the right. Jockley turned his head and saw Big Yellow squatting next to him, its optical sensors glowing in the dim light like two small lamps.

Dahuang reached out and gently supported his shoulder.

"You were unconscious for forty-seven minutes. Your body temperature dropped to a dangerous level, your heart rate was irregular, and your brain wave activity was abnormal. I almost thought you were going to become a vegetable. (｡ŏ_ŏ)"

Jockley gave a wry smile.

He struggled to sit up, supported by Dahuang, his bones protesting and his fingertips trembling slightly uncontrollably.

"That thing..."

He raised his head and looked into the distance.

The bone gun lay on the ground, and as Jockley looked at it, his stomach churned.

He recalled the feeling of firing the gun, swallowed hard, his throat dry.

"What exactly is this thing?"

Huang Shuangyan raised her head.

Some of the bloodstains on her face had been wiped away, and she looked haggard, as if she had aged ten years. She tightened the tattered coat she had picked up from somewhere and then stood up.

"Blasphemy, that's what we usually call it."

"Specifically?"

Huang Shuangyan was silent for a few seconds, as if she was organizing her thoughts. Then she turned around and walked in a certain direction. After a few steps, she stopped and turned back to signal them to follow.

Let's talk as we walk.

Jockley glanced at Big Yellow, who nodded and helped him to his feet. The three of them left the campfire and walked uphill along a shallow ditch. The sand and gravel underfoot were loose, and each step made a soft rustling sound, which was particularly clear in the silent wilderness.

Huang Shuangyan walked at the front, her voice drifting on the night breeze.

"I don't know the specific principles behind blasphemy, and probably not many people can figure it out, but most of these things are modified from the organs or body parts of superhumans."

Jockley paused.

"organ?"

"Yes, the heart, eyes, brain, bones, any part could be it."

Huang Shuangyan did not turn around.

"It is said that making blasphemous items requires a special technique that only a very few people have mastered. They take out the organs of superhumans, process them in a certain way, and transform them into weapons or tools. Of course, in rare cases, the organs themselves can become blasphemous items."

She stopped and turned to look at Jockley.

"The owners of these organs usually died with intense resentment, perhaps from betrayal or torture. That resentment would remain in the organs and become the core of the blasphemy."

Jockley felt a chill run down his spine.

He remembered those sounds and those images.

"What about the side effects?" he asked.

"It varies from thing to thing." Huang Shuangyan continued walking forward, "But the common point is that using blasphemous objects comes with a corresponding price. For example, the gun in your hand has its side effects written on it. Pain is power. Every time you use it, you have to endure that excruciating pain. If you use it too much..."

She didn't finish her sentence, but the meaning was clear: overuse will either drive you crazy or kill you.

"Moreover, blasphemous objects are graded," Huang Shuangyan continued. "Based on a combination of power and side effects, they are ranked from highest to lowest as S, A, B, and C. Grade C is the weakest; it might just be a ring that gives people nightmares. I've never seen or even heard of Grade S."

Jockley fell silent.

"Where did you get that gun?" Huang Shuangyan suddenly asked.

Jockley did not answer.

He looked up and saw that they had climbed a small hill. Standing at the top, their view opened up, and in the distance, a large area enclosed by a wall came into view.

The wall was very high, at least ten meters high, with a watchtower every so often, its tops lit by searchlights that cast white beams of light across the night sky.

That was the new development zone that Yadea Company had contracted. Clearly, when he and Da Huang came out of here a week ago, none of these things existed.

Looking from here, the area is astonishingly large, like a giant metal patch pasted onto the skin of the wilderness. You can see the outlines of some low-rise buildings and several huge pieces of construction machinery.

"We're here, that's it, but this area is currently under a very high alert level."

Jockley stared at the area, his heart pounding. The space station was inside, and the blue fluid—the answers to all the mysteries might be there.

"How do we get in?"

Just as Huang Shuangyan was about to speak, a rhythmic metallic clanging sound suddenly came from behind them.

"Thump...thump...thump..."

Like the footsteps of a giant.

The three of them turned around at the same time.

A figure is approaching from the bottom of the hillside.

It was a robot, but now it looked more like a pile of scrap metal that had been cobbled together. It was nearly three meters tall, and its shell was covered with thick rust. In some places, the metal plates had fallen off, revealing the cables and rusted gears inside.

Its left arm was only half intact, and the display panel on its head was cracked in several places, but it still stubbornly lit up, and it is unknown how many years it has maintained this appearance.

It walked slowly, each step heavy, leaving deep footprints on the gravel. When it was about twenty meters away from them, it stopped.

Huang Shuangyan's face turned pale instantly.

"Damn it, damn it! Jockley, I shouldn't have come out at night. I really ran into these things in the wilderness."

She grabbed Jockley's arm, her nails digging almost into his flesh.

"Run! These are older models, all controlled by AI. They'll kill any cyborg or original human they see. They're ruthless, even more terrifying than those cyber lunatics."

But she froze before she could finish speaking, because the robot did not attack.

It stood still, its rusted head slowly turning. The dark red light on the display panel looked at them like eyes. After a few seconds, it did something that surprised everyone.

It knelt down on one knee, its metal knee slamming into the ground with a dull thud that sent sand and gravel flying.

Jockley was also stunned. He broke free from Huang Shuangyan's hand, pushed away Da Huang's support, and slowly walked towards the robot step by step.

"Owner!"

Big Yellow wanted to follow, but Jockley waved him off.

He walked up to the robot and looked up.

At such close range, he could see more details. The rust on the outer shell looked like it had been corroded over different eras, and some of the exposed cables were still faintly glowing, making it look like a truly ancient artifact.

The robot looked at him.

Then it raised its intact right arm and stretched it toward its chest.

There was an armor plate on his chest with a blurry logo engraved on it—a triangle surrounded by a circle, with a line of small text below, but it was too rusted to read.

The robot's fingers dug into the gaps in the armor plate and pulled hard.

The armor plate popped open, revealing a small safe inside.

The safe's door was transparent, the glass covered with a layer of dust, and through the glass, Jockley could see something inside.

It was a rag doll.

It was very small and old, the fabric had faded, and the doll was wearing a tattered little dress with a crooked flower embroidered on the hem.

The robot looked at the rag doll, and a voice came from a surviving speaker in its chest cavity.

"guard……"

"guard……"

"guard……"

It repeated the word over and over again, and with each repetition, the light on the display panel dimmed a little. Jockley reached out and gently touched the glass of the safe.

Then, the robot stopped moving.

The lights on the display panel went out completely. It remained kneeling on one knee, its head bowed, its arm outstretched towards its chest, as if trying to protect the safe or take out what was inside.

But it can't do it anymore.

It is "dead".

Jockley stood there, looking at the enormous robot, and a sudden, inexplicable sadness welled up inside him.

"Strange." Huang Shuangyan walked over, her face full of confusion. "This shouldn't be the case. All the older models I've seen are insane; they attack anything that comes into contact with a living creature, they would never..."

She didn't finish speaking, and Jockley didn't ask. He just stood there quietly for a while, then turned away and stopped looking at the robot.

"Let's go."

This little incident did not change the plan.

Huang Shuangyan walked to the side, activated her nervous system, and began to have an intense conversation with someone. Judging from the expression on her face, the other person was either bargaining or complaining. Qiao Keli ignored her, sat down next to Da Huang, and reached out to pat its head.

Big Yellow's optical sensor flashed.

"Master, your body temperature is still a bit low, and your heart rate is unstable. I suggest you rest for a while."

"I'm fine," Jockley interrupted, his voice soft. "Big Yellow, thank you for earlier."

Big Yellow was silent for a few seconds.

"This is what I should do, according to Tayara's terms of service."

"Screw the terms of service, you're my partner, Big Yellow, not just AI, you're my partner."

Big Yellow didn't speak, but Jockley felt its mechanical body vibrate slightly.

A few minutes later, Huang Shuangyan returned with three holographic cards in her hand. She handed one to Qiao Keli, one to Da Huang, and kept one for herself.

Jockley took it; the card was thin and showed his photo, name, employee number, and department.

Staff of the third group of the logistics department of Yadea Technology Company

Employee ID: YT-734-82

Access Level: D

"It's fake," Huang Shuangyan said. "I found a hacker to break into Yadea's HR system and temporarily forged three employee ID cards, but the system has a self-checking mechanism. These three ID cards will expire in half an hour at most, so you have to be quick about whatever you want to do."

Jockley nodded and pinned the card to his chest.

Big Yellow did as instructed, sticking the card to the exoskeleton frame on its chest, where there happened to be a flat area.

"Let's go."

The three began their descent down the mountain.

There is a light blue energy barrier around the development zone, with electric current flashing across it from time to time, and an automatic scanning device at the gate.

As they walked over, the scanning device lit up red and scanned them from top to bottom.

Jockley held his breath until the green light came on and the scanning device emitted a mechanical sound.

"Identity verified. Welcome back, Logistics Department, Group 3."

The energy barrier opened a gap, just big enough for one person to pass through, and the three of them filed in.

Several drones flew overhead, their scanning probes extending from their fuselages, scanning them again. Jockley clenched his fists, forcing himself to remain calm.

The scanning light swept over the drone from head to toe, then the drone retracted its probe and flew away.

"Phew..." Huang Shuangyan breathed a sigh of relief. "Looks like that hacker's skills are pretty good."

"Rhubarb," Jockley asked in a low voice, "do you remember where we came from?"

"Of course I remember."

The rhubarb's optical sensor is flashing.

"The coordinates have been recorded in the navigation module. Follow me."

They began to move.

Da Huang led the way, with Qiao Keli in the middle and Huang Shuangyan bringing up the rear. Occasionally, they encountered patrolling automated guards—small tracked robots with cameras and gun barrels on top. Each time a guard approached, their employee ID card would automatically send an identification signal, and the guard would leave after scanning it.

"arrive."

Big Yellow stopped walking.