Look on the Bright Side, at Least You Still Have a Brain

"You'd best stay calm." Watching the suit of power armor step forward, the Holy Son showed no panic. He merely smiled faintly and spoke in a very soft voice. "Just as a precaution, I set 1.5 tons of metallic hydrogen explosives in this warehouse... Any unrecognized biometric data entering the scanning zone will trigger the detonation sequence." *This lunatic...* Fang Chang stared at him in disbelief and halted his advance. "Are you out of your mind?" The Holy Son spoke in a gentle tone. "Perhaps from your perspective, but I know very well what I am doing." "Then you should know just as well that what you're doing is nothing more than pointless resistance," Fang Chang said, glaring at him fixedly. "Surrender. You've already lost." As he spoke, Fang Chang transmitted an order to the squad heading for the security room, telling them to upload the cracking algorithm Xiao Qi had crafted into the vault's security system and locate those bombs. As if hearing a hilarious joke, the Holy Son chuckled faintly. "Heaven in Haiya Province has indeed reached its end, but it is far too early to say we have lost." Without waiting for Fang Chang to respond, he continued. "In truth, my soul is already 1.5 million kilometers away. The only reason you see me here is that I wanted to see you one last time before the end." "See us one last time?" Fang Chang's brow furrowed slightly, his eyes locked onto the pretentious charlatan before him. What caught his attention even more was the other piece of information embedded in the fellow's words. *1.5 million kilometers...* *A Lagrange point?* *Did the higher-ups of the Church of the Torch upload their minds to a satellite or space station stationed at a Lagrange point?* Having no intention of elaborating on his claim, the Holy Son merely offered a faint smile. "What else did you expect? Without my tacit consent, could a mere brain soaking in a culture dish really slip away right under my nose?" "...Nothing left... but a brain..." Intermittent murmurs came over the comms channel. Karen was clearly devastated to learn that her body had been reduced to a single slab of brain matter. Fang Chang had no time to comfort her right now. He kept his gaze fixed on the Holy Son standing behind the rows of incubation tanks. "And now? Your curiosity must be satisfied." "Indeed," the Holy Son nodded, his voice crisp. "After seeing you, many of the questions in my heart have been answered. You are a Gestalt Organism in another sense—a possibility I had never conceived of before... In truth, we could have worked together. That was my greatest miscalculation regarding the situation on the wasteland." "Now you're truly insulting us," Fang Chang scoffed with a mocking laugh, looking at this arrogant figure with utter disdain. "No matter what, we'd never stoop to cooperating with things like you." The Holy Son took no offense, merely offering a mild smile. "I speak from a technical standpoint. You cannot deny that the possibility existed... Of course, discussing this now is moot. I suppose I shouldn't have expected remnants of the old days like you to comprehend our ideals." "Your ideals..." Fang Chang sighed. "Frankly speaking, whether it's you or Zhalas, all of you talk a big game. You preach theory after theory, yet in the end, none of you even have the guts to stand up, take responsibility, or admit you were wrong. What are you afraid of? If you're so righteous, go stand on the defendant's stand at a tribunal. Who knows, maybe you'll even persuade us." The Holy Son stared at him in silence, as if at a loss for words, wanting to refute him but unable to think of a fitting retort. "Say what you will. After all, you are the victors..." In the end, he dropped the line, abruptly ending the conversation. Yet, as if to salvage some shred of pride, the Holy Son paused for a beat and added: "Still, don't celebrate too early. Your victory is merely temporary." "The 'Celestials' have returned." "And they returned long ago." "No one can resist the ultimate evolution! No one!" Almost the moment the words left his mouth, the voice of a player from the other squad crackled over Fang Chang's comms. "Hacking algorithm deployed! Biometric recognition scanners disabled! Self-destruct mechanism disarmed!" "Copy that." Fang Chang, who had stood frozen before the flight of stairs for so long, took another stride forward. Seeing Fang Chang casually step into the biometric zone as if nothing had happened, a momentary look of surprise flitted across the Holy Son's face, though it lasted only an instant. "I see. It seems it is time for me to take my leave—" "You talk too much!" Fang Chang swiftly drew his tranquilizer gun, aimed at the man's chest, and pulled the trigger without hesitation. Yet right at that instant, an unexpected scene unfolded before everyone's eyes. The moment the pale blue tracer struck the Holy Son's chest, his body swelled up like an overinflated balloon. His limbs and facial features twisted into a grotesque knot, as though he had been injected with some unstable mutagenic agent. "We will meet again—" Leaving behind those words, he exploded with a roar amid wild, arrogant laughter, showering the entire room in gore and shredded flesh. The players all stood frozen in shock. Bai Gei Dai Ju swallowed hard. "Holy crap... He blew himself up?" Prop Master clicked his tongue in disbelief. "He didn't even leave an intact corpse for himself." *What a ruthless bastard...* Evidently, just as the Holy Son had said, they had already uploaded their consciousness to some server 1.5 million kilometers away. That was the escape route they had prepared for themselves. As for the flesh left in the "mortal realm," it was nothing more than an expendable vessel to them. Fang Chang had no idea where the guy got his confidence, blustering about how "your victory is merely temporary" even with death staring him in the face. Still, it left him with yet another puzzling lead. *...Celestials.* *What the hell are they?* "My body..." Sniffling sobs drifted over the comms channel, breaking his train of thought. Clearly, not everyone considered the physical body an irrelevant burden. Looking down at the devastated Karen, Fang Chang offered a word of comfort. "Look on the bright side. At least you still have a brain." Then again, with this bunch's biological technology, crafting a new body and plugging the brain back into it shouldn't be too hard, right? He wasn't well-versed in such specialized technical fields, but theoretically, it ought to be feasible. "You don't understand... I dreamed day and night of leaving this vault. Those people... they promised me they would look after my body..." Karen's voice grew increasingly incoherent. Fang Chang glanced at the drone resting on the floor, then turned his gaze toward the incubation tanks holding brains in nutrient broth. After pondering for a moment, he spoke up. "Alright, I admit I really don't understand... By the way, do you know someone named Heya?" "...Who?" Karen's voice was laced with confusion, as if hearing the name for the very first time. *Just as I thought.* Having roughly pieced together the whole picture, Fang Chang let out a soft sigh. "Never mind." If his guess was right, the blue coats of Shelter 117 had likely uploaded their consciousness to that server 1.5 million kilometers away long before this... *** At the same time Fang Chang's squad successfully secured Vault 20, a spindle-shaped research vessel was quietly anchored in the abandoned city district not far from the vault entrance. Beside the research vessel, more than a dozen prospectors in exoskeletons stood silently, exchanging brief remarks over their comms. "I didn't expect the Alliance to beat us to it." One prospector wore a grave expression, looking at a loss over this unforeseen turn of events. The Wilante were not the only ones interested in the Gestalt Organism project; they were equally intrigued by this Singularity-tier research initiative. The Academy had obtained the coordinates of Vault 20 long ago. They had come this time specifically to retrieve the technical data stored within. Yet clearly, they were a step too late. "What do we do now?" a younger prospector asked, turning to the highest-ranking member of the squad. "What else can we do? Snatch it from their hands?" "There's really no need. It just occurred to me that leaving this trouble in the hands of the Alliance might not be a bad thing." "Oh?" "The Wilante should have noticed the situation here by now. A thousand-man unit is marching toward this sector... Heh, let's hope they don't tear each other apart over dividing the spoils." "I doubt it would come to that." "Whether it does or not, we should pull out." There was no point in lingering any longer. The dozen-plus prospectors filed back aboard the research vessel. Pale blue plasma plumes flared from the engine nozzles. The spindle-shaped vessel melted silently into the night, just as noiselessly as it had arrived. *** Right as the Academy's vessel withdrew from the battlefield, the fighting raging in the ruined cityscape finally reached a fever pitch. As if sensing the departure of their Holy Son, the Order of the Holy Light—which had previously maintained a measured, steady offensive—suddenly went completely berserk, launching a near-suicidal assault against the 1st Battalion led by Killing Dagger. A paladin clad in power armor abruptly roared and charged out of cover. Like an enraged monster, the fellow completely ignored the hail of gunfire pelting his faceplate, striding furiously right into the players' faces. He slammed his solid, armored shoulder straight into a concrete wall, leveling it in an instant and shocking the players leaning against the other side. "Long live the Holy Son!!" The paladin bellowed. The rifle in his hands barked in rapid succession, spraying tracers like lightning bolts toward the surrounding exoskeleton-clad players. Yet the players were hardly easy pickings—especially since those standing here were top-tier veterans from the Burning Corps. Though caught off guard, the crowd quickly created distance between themselves and this crazed elite mob. A player kneeling half-crouched on the ground expertly whipped out an RPG launcher and fired an armor-piercing rocket straight into the right shoulder of the power armor! The burst of flames and thick smoke sent the armored suit staggering backward. It wasn't enough to kill him, but it knocked him flat on his back. Seeing the Alliance line breached, the exoskeleton-clad soldiers poured out of cover as well, chanting unintelligible slogans as they swarmed toward the players' defensive perimeter. Though it was impossible to see their numbers in the pitch darkness, judging by the muzzle reports, there was at least a platoon of them! Another player crouching nearby wasted no time pulling an artillery beacon and tossing it forward. "Take cover!!" he bellowed, throwing himself to the dirt first. Just as the paladin in power armor was struggling to stand back up, a 155mm bunker-buster shell suddenly smashed through the ceiling with a resounding crash and slammed violently into the ground beside his feet. *BOOM!!!* Not only the staggering suit of power armor, but also the thirty to forty light infantry in exoskeletons charging behind him were instantly swallowed whole by the blinding inferno of the explosion! A searing shockwave swept the entire battlefield, hurling scorching dust over a hundred meters away. The players who had taken cover slowly picked themselves up from the ground one after another. Staring at the battlefield rising with wisps of white smoke, many wore expressions of lingering dread. "Holy crap..." "Are these sons of bitches insane?" "Feeding kills is one thing, but this is ridiculous..." At first, everyone thought it was an isolated incident. But soon, they realized it was no coincidence. It wasn't just a single apostle or paladin who had lost their minds—it was every enemy on the battlefield! They seemed to know they were cornered and could never win this war, so in their despair, they launched reckless, all-out charges, seeking ultimate release in death. Killing Dagger could sense that the foes standing before him were no longer fighting for some twisted faith or grand ideal. They were merely seeking an end. Although his battalion had suffered over fifty percent casualties, against an enemy whose morale had utterly collapsed, there was still a chance to turn the tables! Gunning down a soldier from the Order of the Holy Light who charged him head-on, Killing Dagger swiftly swapped out the magazine of his rifle and bellowed into the comms channel: "Hold the line!" "Our enemies are on their last legs! They can't hold out much longer!" Right as his voice fell, another resounding roar echoed from the distance. Hearing that sound, Killing Dagger's heart sank slightly. *Mutants!* *It's the roar of mutants!* Their opponents had suddenly shifted to these foes clad in power armor and exoskeletons, making him almost forget that this was originally mutant territory. The furious roars sounded like the Flame Cave Clan asserting their dominance over these ruins. Having realized their reinforced allies were about to lose, a pack of green-skinned brutes clutching large-caliber rifles were closing in on their positions once again. The tactical situation had taken a sharp turn for the worse! Killing Dagger had already mentally prepared himself to spend the next three days spectating on the official forums. Yet right then, a voice like heavenly music crackled over the comms channel. "...This is Lao Bai. Vault 20 is secured." "Sorry about that, brothers of the 1st Battalion. Kept you waiting!"