"...You were frozen for too long, and your hematopoietic function hasn't fully recovered yet. A blood transfusion might do you some good."
Outside Shelter 0.
Inside a tent at the base, a doctor in a white coat looked at Yi Hai lying on the hospital bed.
"No need, I feel fine," Yi Hai said, politely declining the doctor's kindness. With exhausted eyes, he looked toward his younger brother standing beside the bed and spoke in a gentle voice. "Could you let me rest for a while?"
Looking at his older brother on the bed with concern, Yi Chuan nodded.
"...Make sure you get some rest."
Although he had so much he wanted to say to his brother, considering that he had just been rescued from a hibernation pod, what he needed most right now was sleep.
Yi Chuan stood up from his chair and walked toward the entrance.
Just as he reached out to lift the curtain, however, he bumped right into Chu Guang walking in from outside.
"Chu Guang?" Yi Chuan looked at him in surprise. Assuming Chu Guang was looking for him, he asked, "Is something the matter?"
Looking at this representative of the Silverwing Group, Chu Guang offered a friendly smile.
"There are a few things I'd like to talk about with your brother. Could I trouble him for a moment of his time?"
Seeing that Chu Guang had not come for him, Yi Chuan blinked, a troubled expression creeping onto his face once he heard the request.
"But he needs to rest right now—"
Before Yi Chuan could finish, a voice from behind interrupted him.
"It's fine. Let Mr. Chu Guang in."
Yi Chuan immediately turned around, casting a strange look at his brother, who had just insisted on resting a moment ago. In the end, he said nothing more and stepped aside from the doorway.
Chu Guang gave him an appreciative nod.
"Thank you. Leave things here to me. Go attend to your business... Don't worry, I won't disturb your brother for long."
Yi Chuan nodded.
"All right... I'll leave you two to talk, then."
"Mm."
Chu Guang nodded, brushed past Yi Chuan, and walked straight over to the bed. Pulling over an iron chair, he sat down.
Looking at the deep blue armor Chu Guang wore, Yi Hai managed a weak smile.
"You haven't changed a bit. You're wearing that suit of armor no matter the time or place."
Chu Guang smiled faintly.
"This is the wasteland, after all. Anything can happen... I'm honored I left such a deep impression on you."
"Of course. That place was special, unlike anywhere else I've ever been. Not just you, but everyone... Many of your people left a deep impression on me and my teammates."
His pale face was etched with frailty, yet the man in the bed still managed to squeeze out a friendly smile.
"It's a pity we had a mission at the time and couldn't stay long. Otherwise, I really would've loved to linger a bit longer... to see how many delicacies you had hidden away in that shelter."
Hearing him bring up their shared memories, Chu Guang smiled, then let out a soft sigh and spoke with a touch of melancholy.
"That night, I said... once you'd recovered a bit, we could sit down together and have a good chat about everything that happened on our end after you left."
"I really am curious... what on earth happened to you all to bring about such massive changes in just six short months?" Yi Hai's voice also carried a trace of wistful reflection, his gaze distant, as if lost in memory.
Chu Guang said nothing, merely staring at him in silence for a while.
Those pitch-black eyes were impossible to read. Meeting Chu Guang's gaze, Yi Hai's expression gradually clouded with confusion.
"Is there something on my face?"
"No," Chu Guang said, shaking his head. He suddenly tucked away the sharpness in his eyes and continued in a gentle tone, "Let's talk first about... what happened before we met you."
Yi Hai didn't say a word, quietly waiting for him to go on.
Chu Guang pondered for a moment, then spoke.
"A long time ago, I had a very, very long dream. In that dream... I was killed by wastelanders, killed by mutants, and screwed over and killed by the residents I trusted most. At the most desperate moments, time and again, I touched the edge of the dream. Yet whenever I was about to pierce through that veil of mist, I would wake from the dream once more. Sometimes, I couldn't help wondering if this was simply the start of the next cycle."
Yi Hai froze. Seeing that Chu Guang's expression showed no hint of jest, it took him a long while before he softly sighed and played along with his words.
"That truly sounds like a terrible memory."
"Indeed," Chu Guang nodded. "I rarely mention the specific details of that dream to anyone, even the person... I trust the most."
Pausing, he continued.
"Strange as it may sound, even I was surprised by it... I don't hate the people I saw in that dream."
A stifled smirk appeared on Yi Hai's face, the corners of his mouth twitching as if amused.
"That does sound rather odd... Dreams and reality are two different things, after all. Hating someone in reality just because of a nightmare isn't something a normal person would do."
Chu Guang chuckled as well.
"Right? Setting aside dreams and reality, even people in reality differ from one another. Some wastelanders are rotten to the core, but not all of them are like that. I often remind myself to exercise caution with the power in my hands, including the authority granted to me by the shelter. To cast aside the arrogance and prejudice of civilized folk, to treat everyone equally as much as possible, and to restrain others through rules—only then can we unite as many people as possible.
"Whether they are shelter residents or survivors outside, all have an equal right to live in this world. They were not born to serve anyone, nor to cater to anyone's desires and ambitions, nor to become anyone's slaves... Do you think I'm doing the right thing?"
Yi Hai remained silent for a moment before sighing with heartfelt admiration.
"You're an exceptional Administrator. No wonder you've managed your shelter in such an orderly fashion."
The words sounded like sincere praise, and on the surface they were. But falling on Chu Guang's ears, they carried an entirely different undertone.
Especially when he had already sensed the truth.
This flattery carried a distinct edge of mockery.
Conveniently, Chu Guang had no intention of playing along any further. Looking straight into those eyes that hid deceit behind a veil of frailty, he spoke in a very quiet voice.
"I wasn't so proficient at my job in the beginning either. It was only after spending time with the survivors that I gradually learned. That's why I really can't understand. If it were slave traders, so be it... at least they could plead circumstances and ignorance. But you lot, as the heirs to civilization's legacy, why did you choose to wallow in the mud with them? Didn't the Human Alliance give you enough?"
"Wallow in the mud... with them?" Yi Hai froze for a moment, his expression gradually turning grave. "What do you mean? Are you saying... Enterprise has a traitor making deals with mutants?!"
The guy was still playing dumb right to the very end.
Chu Guang had to admit.
His acting was actually quite convincing.
If this fellow had been this attentive from the start, or rather, hadn't laid his smug satisfaction so bare, Chu Guang might really have been fooled.
After all, when facing the wounded, people were instinctively lenient. They wouldn't press for every single detail, and even if they noticed contradictions in the records, they would generously chalk it up to a normal post-traumatic response.
However—
Some things could be explained away as memory confusion, while others could not.
A person suffering from memory confusion might mix up the order of events or confuse the key figures involved, but they could not fabricate foreknowledge of things that had yet to happen.
Almost at the exact same time, Xiao Qi's voice sounded in Chu Guang's ear, reporting what his little players had discovered inside Shelter 0.
Even if the shelter walls could block electromagnetic waves, they could not sever a connection built upon a morphogenetic field.
"Drop the act... The real Yi Hai already died in that shelter, didn't he?"
Seeing that Chu Guang had laid his cards on the table, the person lying on the hospital bed finally stopped performing.
He tore off the mask of frailty completely. His pale face contorted with emotional agitation, and a chilling, cackling laugh erupted from his parched mouth.
He looked just like a corpse driven mad.
Chu Guang watched him calmly.
He knew this guy had probably been holding it in for a long time—perhaps suppressing his laughter ever since the moment he woke up.
Eventually, he seemed to have laughed his fill.
His twisted face returned to normal. The man let out a long, refreshing breath and looked at Chu Guang with a delighted expression.
"Phew... Holding back the laughter was really not easy. Do you have any idea how comical all of you looked, scurrying around me like idiots? Hahaha!"
Pausing, he sized up the man in powered armor with curious eyes.
"Chu Guang, was it... I'm still a bit curious. How did you figure it out? Those people shouldn't have come out of the shelter yet, right?"
Chu Guang said calmly,
"Your acting was remarkably thorough. You even nailed the surprise upon seeing me, the affection for your brother, the gratitude toward your rescuers... you played every single part. But you knew too much.
"The Wilantes, the mutants, the Enlightenment Society, and their ultimate betrayal—you knew everything.
"Doesn't that seem strange? It's as though you took part in it all: the clashes with the Wilantes and mutants, the cooperation with the Enlightenment Society, and finally being betrayed by them... yet in the end, you returned to the starting point unscathed."
"Clever," the man said, looking at Chu Guang with admiration. "I appreciate you more and more... That's right, I belong to the Enlightenment Society."
"There's still one thing I don't understand, though," Chu Guang said, staring at him with a hint of genuine curiosity in his voice. "How did you disguise yourself as Yi Hai?"
"Ah... that? Is that so hard?" A pleasant smile spread across the man's face, his reaction defying Chu Guang's expectations.
He didn't hide a thing, confessing with utter frankness.
"Have you heard of a psychic interference device?"
Chu Guang nodded.
"I have. Some people similar to you possess the same technology. But if I remember correctly... the higher the subject's intellect, the more concrete the information they can receive, yet the less they can be influenced. Conversely, the lower the intellect, the less information they can receive, but the greater the influence exerted on them."
This technology originally originated in the colonies, inspired by the 'unified consciousness' of alien lifeforms. It had been developed as an alternative to infrasonic fencing. Later, an unscrupulous corporation used it on visitors touring an ecological park to sell items worth less than a bottle of water at astronomical prices, nearly upending the advertising industry as a result.
A psychic interferer could control certain immature mutants, but on a fully conscious human being, its influence amounted to little more than giving them a gentle nudge whenever the thought of 'buy it' crossed their mind—to say nothing of advanced mental domination.
"Resonance Theory—precisely," the man continued with a smile. "Theoretically, controlling higher lifeforms via Resonance Theory is impossible. The cognitive complexity of higher lifeforms is tens of thousands of times greater than that of lower organisms. However, exceptions do exist."
Chu Guang stared at him for a moment, a sudden flicker of surprise surfacing in his eyes.
"...Clones?"
"Bingo. Especially the kind whose minds are as blank as a sheet of white paper," the man nodded approvingly. "Thanks to those Wilantes, I currently have at least a thousand rapid-growth clones on hand. All I need to do is pick one with a similar height, give him some cosmetic surgery, and implant a chip.
"As for the memories, that was even easier to solve. While the fellow wasn't completely cold yet, we locked his consciousness into a virtual space to interrogate him at our leisure. Through fabricated dreams and the subconscious, there's always a way to squeeze out what we don't know."
At this point, he paused deliberately and slowed his speech.
"Though speaking of which, I really have to commend you. That shelter of yours truly left a profound impression on the man... Out of seventeen hundred dream simulations, at least three hundred and twenty featured scenes about you lot. Who knows, maybe his dying wish was to go back and take another look at your place, heheh."
Refusing to be provoked by his taunts, Chu Guang took a deep breath and continued asking,
"So the crew of the Pioneer are all dead?"
The man chuckled. "How could that be? If I hadn't intentionally let one escape, would you all have rushed all the way here?
"From the moment the Pioneer set foot in this territory, every single one of you... whether inside or outside, has danced to my tune."
"You seem quite pleased with your plan." Chu Guang tilted his chin up slightly, looking down on this ugly, twisted personality.
Like looking down at a maggot.
Yet the man did not care in the slightest. If anything, he seemed to derive pleasure from that gaze, nodding in hearty agreement.
"Naturally! In my original estimation, only Enterprise and the Legion would show up here. Now, we even have the Academy as an unexpected bonus... It couldn't be more perfect!"
Suddenly remembering something, he paused.
"Ah, or perhaps four factions, though unfortunately, I have little interest in you people. A three-digit shelter? Around here, Administrators of two-digit shelters are a dime a dozen."
Chu Guang stared at him.
"In the Enlightenment Society, you mean?"
"Indeed," the man said straightforwardly. "Those chosen to be shelter residents were, without exception, the elite of Human Alliance society, or at least the descendants of that elite. This world should rightfully be ruled by us... A shame, though, that this cake is now crawling with cockroaches. Therefore, before we slice the cake, we intend to exterminate the cockroaches first."
Here, his tone took a sudden turn. His eyes rolled around, fixing upon Chu Guang.
"That being said, while I have no interest in your shelter, I'm rather intrigued by you personally. Normally, by our rules, someone managing a three-digit shelter would have to start as a Disciple even if they joined us. But I could make an exception and let you become an Elder."
Chu Guang let out a dry chuckle.
"Your hierarchy is quite amusing—ranking people by their shelter numbers."
The man took it as a matter of course.
"Naturally. A shelter's ranking reflects its budgetary priority. The earlier the number, the higher the pre-war social standing."
The first half was fact, but the latter was clearly his own interpretation—at least, it conflicted with the intelligence Chu Guang possessed.
"And what number are you, then?"
"Me?" The man blinked, then burst into hearty laughter. "I am Zero, of course.
"Oh, right, I haven't told you my name yet... But never mind. A name is merely a designation; such things aren't important anyway."
Pausing, he looked at Chu Guang with delight.
"You may do as my Disciples do.
"Call me Guixu!"
The smile plastered on his face was practically demonic.
He lay right here, watching the people of Enterprise, the Legion, and the Academy bustle around in circles inside the labyrinth he had personally constructed.
And his true body was likely somewhere not too far from this very place.
The only thing Chu Guang could be certain of was that the technology he used was not the morphogenetic field used by Shelter 404, but rather based on the Resonance Theory originating in 2111. Therefore, its information transmission remained vulnerable to interference.
Otherwise, he would have known everything that occurred underground like the back of his hand.
"Yet I heard Shelter 0 was never completed."
"Which only proves that you, just like those darlings on the Pioneer, know nothing about the Torch Project."
Guixu continued nonchalantly,
"Though that's only natural. Shelter 0 was an existence outside the sequence to begin with... It was never a single physical shelter, but an edifice constructed of multiple interconnected components. Every one of its modules was meticulously engineered to fulfill the ultimate plan: eradicate every organism on this planet outside the sanctuaries, and complete the reboot of civilization before our heritage is depleted."
At this point, Guixu smiled.
"The shelter underground is merely one facility among many. We originally came here just to retrieve something, but unfortunately, we couldn't find the key to enter. We have those darlings on the Pioneer to thank for lending us a hand.
"Do you know? Seeing how knowledgeable they seemed, I thought they knew what they were looking for. It turned out they hadn't even heard of the Torch Project; they were chasing some legend about ending the wasteland. How impressive that they managed to dig this place up using a mountain of archives... Hahaha, what a pity."
Shaking his head with a chuckle, he continued,
"I originally wanted to recruit them. Descendants of Shelter 6 aren't entirely unacceptable. To that end, I wasted my breath explaining quite a lot to them, just like I'm doing now.
"Yet after hearing my explanation, that fellow named Lu Yang not only foolishly refused me, but even feigned compliance while stabbing me in the back. He threw the mother body specimen hidden aboard the Pioneer inside, trapping quite a few of my subordinates in the process."
Here, he glanced up at the clock on the wall, his smile growing even more delighted.
"Thank you for keeping me company for so long. The thunderstorm should have arrived over this area by now, and thunder must be rolling outside... From this moment on, not a single message will leave this place. But don't worry. Whether it's the crew of the Pioneer, those Wilantes, or the Academy people, they will all return home safe and sound... and we will give your families our warmest regards in your stead."
At this moment, the man calling himself Guixu finally laid bare his entire scheme.
He wanted not only whatever was hidden in the shelter underground, but also to seize this opportunity to replace everyone here!
Just as he had usurped Yi Hai's identity.
As long as they subdued everyone present and extracted their memories via virtual reality equipment, they could use the Legion's clones, cosmetic surgery, and psychic interference technology to impersonate the deceased. Meanwhile, Disciples could live beside these puppets as servants or under other guises, thereby infiltrating the Legion, Enterprise, and the Academy.
Chu Guang had to admit: this guy and his Enlightenment Society were daring beyond belief.
Declaring war on three fallen empires simultaneously, plus a fledgling Alliance.
Normally, this sort of behavior was called having a death wish.
"No wonder you didn't mind telling me everything," Chu Guang remarked with deep feeling, looking at the man on the bed.
Guixu smiled faintly.
"Indeed. Your only chance of survival is to join us. Frankly speaking, seizing an Administrator's authority without their cooperation is a thankless task, not to mention we have no interest in stripping our Disciples of their power. As long as you cooperate with our work, you and your residents will earn the right to survive in the new world."
"So my status has already been demoted from Elder to Disciple? What a shame, though. I haven't the slightest interest in this new world of yours."
Chu Guang chuckled.
As he spoke, he had already lowered the visor of his helmet.
"If you want my life, come and try."
As if expecting this response, the man on the bed merely let out an indifferent yawn.
"Then let's try."
The thunderstorm had already gathered.
Under such extreme weather conditions, aircraft could not take off at all, and signal transmission range was attenuated to the absolute limit.
To avoid draining their shield reserves for nothing, the two airships hovering overhead began descending.
Right at that moment, however, shrill alarms suddenly blared across the sky.
Chu Guang's brow furrowed slightly. He instantly drew the Nitrogen Power Hammer from his back, and a violent blast of air expanded in an instant, blowing the tent's ceiling clean off and tossing the miscellaneous items inside every which way.
"Going to kill me? It doesn't matter. While it's a pity to be kicked out of the front-row seat, I'll be watching you all from elsewhere," Guixu chuckled. Looking at the murderous Chu Guang, he added, "Before that, though, I suggest you watch your head."
He didn't need to be told.
Chu Guang was already looking up at the sky.
The two airships hovering directly above the camp were plunging at an uncontrollable speed. The propellers deployed on both flanks spun furiously, but their limited thrust clearly could not support those massive hulls.
Falling was not just the Heart of Iron.
Nearby, the Arbiter was dropping as well!
Chu Guang narrowed his eyes.
A phase energy rectifier!
To cause an airship's deflector shields and anti-gravity systems to fail simultaneously, this was the only explanation.
At that moment, Yi Chuan, who had left the tent earlier, came rushing back in panic from outside.
"The airships are falling?! What on earth is happening—"
His voice cut off abruptly.
Looking at Chu Guang holding a warhammer, looking at the ceiling that had been blown away, and then looking at his brother on the hospital bed, Yi Chuan's face was painted with shock and total confusion.
The smile on the face of the man in the bed suddenly gave him a chilling sense of alienation, as though something foreign had burrowed beneath his brother's skin.
More than that.
That detached, uncaring smile sent a chill straight into the marrow of his bones.
Without sparing a glance for Yi Chuan standing at the tent entrance, Guixu smiled at Chu Guang and said in a nonchalant tone,
"Under Enterprise's instigation, the Alliance suddenly opens fire on the Arbiter, and Captain Adria requests reinforcements from Triumph City... What do you think of this script?"
Chu Guang replied expressionlessly,
"Not much."
"True, I forgot about the Academy," the man nodded thoughtfully. "Let me think a bit more."
"Brother..." Yi Chuan stared at him blankly and moved to step forward, but a steel-clad hand clamped down onto his shoulder.
"The one lying there isn't your brother."
Holding back the advancing Yi Chuan, Chu Guang didn't look up at the falling airships, his sharp gaze fixing instead on the area outside the camp.
This guy had at least a thousand clones on hand...
Maybe even more.
Remotely operated by Disciples of the Enlightenment Society through psychic connections... the sense of déjà vu was overwhelming.
"Aren't you going to run?" the man asked curiously, watching Chu Guang standing there motionless. He offered a kind reminder, "If you don't run now, it'll be too late."
"Run?"
Chu Guang's brow arched, and he suddenly laughed.
"Why would I run?"
Thinking a single shot from a phase cannon could take him down?
That was underestimating him far too much...
Chapter 507