Intersections

[Shield capacitor energy remaining: 0%...] "Boom—!" Accompanied by an earth-shattering roar, Ye Shi felt as if his consciousness had been bowled over by a speeding truck. Everything became dazed and disoriented, as though he were watching slides projected through frosted glass. The research vessel seemed to have crashed into something. Right after, he saw boiling flames and an anxious face. And then— The cockpit abruptly plunged into darkness. A pitch-black void swallowed everything, consuming all light like a black hole. Immediately following that, his consciousness plummeted into a bottomless abyss. It was impossible to tell which had occurred first, or if both had happened simultaneously. Falling unconscious inside the game instead of getting disconnected—in all his time playing, this was probably the first time Ye Shi had encountered such a bizarre situation. What made it stranger still was how the blackout felt: his awareness hadn't been severed; it simply couldn't connect to his five senses. Had the unconsciousness mechanic not been fully developed yet? Ye Shi tried to analyze it in his mind, but knowing Ah Guang, that was virtually impossible. Which meant there was only one explanation— He had triggered a cutscene! At the thought, facing the "black hole," Ye Shi felt no fear; rather, a faint thrill of anticipation rose within him. Yet before long, that sliver of anticipation degraded into apprehension amid the agonizing wait. Panic, even. He remembered that he wasn't the only one aboard that research vessel. There was that girl, too... A jolt of unease surged into his chest, and Ye Shi couldn't help cursing inwardly. *Fuck... what the hell happened?* Of course, he couldn't make a sound. Pure consciousness echoed through a void emptier than a vacuum, and the only thing he could hear was dead silence. He had no idea how much time had passed when a faint noise finally reached his "ears." *Thump, thump...* It seemed to be his heartbeat. The feeble pulsing was like rain after a long drought, sparking a burst of wild relief in the restless Ye Shi. Summoning all his strength, he reached out with non-existent hands, grabbed onto that floating lifesaver, and threw everything he had into chasing that fleeting sound. *Wake the fuck up—!* he shouted silently in his heart. Even though he wasn't sure if doing this had any meaning. Perhaps he was merely pushing against a brick wall— Perhaps he was already dead. His relentless struggle seemed to finally yield results. The pitch darkness began to lighten, replaced by a blurry gray haze. His lost senses seemed to be returning; more and more sounds filtered through that invisible fog. First came hearing. Then touch. Yet to his surprise, the very instant his sense of touch returned, a bone-chilling cold enveloped his entire body, racking him with a shudder. *So cold...* It felt as if he had fallen into an ice hole. With only that single thought occupying his mind, Ye Shi was just about to blurt out "Freeze me to death, why don't you," when intermittent murmurs drifted through the gray haze. The voice came from right beside him. To hear better, he held his breath instinctively, yet could still catch only fragments. "Ye Shi..." "It's so cold here." "Achoo—" "I..." *I... what?* Before Ye Shi could make out what the voice was saying, blinding white light flared across his retinas. The brilliance nearly scorched his vision, prompting him to throw up an arm to shield his eyes. As his arm moved, crushed ice clinging to his sleeve dislodged, clattering down across his face and eliciting an involuntary groan. "Ah..." The icy sting sent another shiver through him, while the surrounding din abruptly amplified and sharpened into crystal clarity, pouring into his ears. "He's awake." "What kind of clothes is he wearing..." "Never seen them before." "Who climbs into a hibernation pod like that... completely reckless." Whispers murmured all around. They were speaking the Human Alliance language, though their pronunciation differed slightly from that of wastelanders—clearer, more crisply enunciated. Ye Shi slowly lowered the arm shielding his eyes and surveyed his surroundings. He was lying inside an open hibernation pod in a spacious hall. Soft white incandescent light bathed silver-gray alloy floor tiles. The walls and ceiling on all sides also appeared to be constructed of alloy, yet didn't feel cold or sterile. With no windows offering an outside view, Ye Shi couldn't confirm where he was. Then again, confirmation wasn't really necessary... Without a doubt, this was the missile cruiser *Orion*. What baffled him was the crowd standing before him. A sea of heads crowded the entrance so tightly not a drop could leak through; a quick count suggested at least fifty or sixty people. All those eyes were fixed unblinkingly on him—some filled with concern, some with curiosity, others with sympathy or other inexplicable emotions. At that moment, a man in a military exoskeleton parted the crowd and stepped up to him, his sharp gaze locking straight onto Ye Shi's eyes. "Who are you?" Ye Shi didn't answer. He simply looked down at his chest in silence. He wore only a blue jacket; his Xiaguang power armor was gone. Then he looked back up to study the people around him. They wore silver-gray uniforms, quite similar to those of the Academy yet not identical, and their sleeves bore the shoulder patch of the Human Alliance Aerospace Force. Ye Shi felt his brain short-circuiting; he froze where he sat. Before long, however, the man standing before him snapped him out of it, repeating his demand in a stern tone. "State your name, identity, and objective." Evidently feeling his tone was excessively harsh, other crew members standing nearby turned around to reprove him. "Hey, don't scare the kid." "Look at him, he clearly has no clue how he got here either." Just then, an attractive older woman crouched down before him and asked with concern, "Are you all right?" Glossy black hair swayed gently before his eyes, framing soft features beneath light bangs that nevertheless carried a spirited, capable air. Ye Shi was a bit dazed. Sure, he was pretty young, but being called a kid was pushing it. His Adam's apple bobbed. "I'm... not sure." It was the truth. He really couldn't make heads or tails of the situation. The slightly older woman didn't lose patience. Her bright eyes looked into his as she said gently, "I'm Lin Youyou, the duty physician for Division Seven... the Medical and Life Support Department of this starship. We mean you no harm. Could you tell me your name?" "Ye Shi..." Hearing the name, a man standing to the side with arms crossed whistled and quipped, "Sounds like a codename." Another crew member chuckled. "Hey, this kid doesn't look like a civilian. You think he could be a spy from the Slime Mold Protection Society?" "Crazy as that sounds, we can't rule it out." The man in the exoskeleton clearly shared that sentiment. His eyes stayed glued to Ye Shi, and though his hand wasn't gripping his weapon, it rested uncomfortably close to it. "Shut up." Lin Youyou shot the two a glare, warning them to hold their tongues, before turning back to Ye Shi. "Tell me, is that really your name?" Ye Shi's face flushed slightly, but he stubbornly reiterated, "That's my name... Though the name my parents gave me is Ye Wei." There was no need to recite his full in-game handle; nobody called him by that long string anyway, and it would only cause unnecessary confusion and communicative hassle. He had been accommodating enough. He'd even confessed his real-world name. To Ye Shi's surprise, after he revealed that he had two names, the people around him noticeably lowered their guard. Only then did it suddenly dawn on him that an obscure lore entry in *Wasteland OL* had mentioned it in passing: During the Human Alliance era, it was very fashionable to adopt a new name upon reaching adulthood. It was much like subculture handles in real life, where people interacted using online monikers on a daily basis and barely used their legal names outside of receiving mail or packages—to the point where saying their own names felt foreign. Seeming to believe him, Lin Youyou looked into his eyes and asked, "Are you hurt?" "Maybe... I'm not sure," Ye Shi mumbled vaguely, sitting up straighter in the hibernation pod. "My head's a mess... I'm not feeling great... It's freezing here. Can I get out first? I don't like talking lying down." "We were about to do that, but I needed to make sure you weren't injured... Here, let me help you." Seeing Ye Shi sit up, Lin Youyou stood and extended a hand to help him out of the pod. "Thank you." Stepping out of the loose frost and ice, Ye Shi stood on both feet and offered a polite thank-you. Then he cast his gaze downward at the floor and around the room, his expression gradually turning to astonishment. "Are we... on Earth?" At his words, the surrounding crew members exchanged glances, Lin Youyou's gaze also turning rather peculiar. Yet her gentle voice remained unchanged as she looked at him with sincere concern and asked softly, "What makes you think we're on Earth?" "Isn't it obvious?" Ye Shi stamped the ice shards from his shoes, answering without thinking. "There's gravity here... and it feels no different from being on the ground, doesn't it?" Lin Youyou froze. The people beside her froze too. As if hearing something utterly hilarious, a chuckle broke out from the crowd. "I bet the kid's traveling far from home for the first time. Never heard of artificial gravity." Seeing Ye Shi look his way, a long-faced man with short blond hair offered a cheerful greeting. "Koala, engineering supervisor for Division Four... ahem, I mean the Engineering and Maintenance Department." His hearty smile showed not a shred of malice. These guys seemed even fonder of banter than players; Ye Shi suddenly felt that he, the actual player, was the one acting stiff and reserved. "Koala... like the animal?" The man laughed. "Haha, exactly! It's my mascot. Saved my life when I was little." Ye Shi suddenly wondered how a koala could have saved this guy's life when he was a kid. However, before he could ask, the man in the exoskeleton cleared his throat, interrupting their banter. "This is a military installation after all, and an unidentified civilian has appeared out of nowhere. I think we ought to take this more seriously." At that, the man fixed a stern glare on Ye Shi and continued, "How did you break in here?" "How the hell should I know?" Ye Shi patted his head and couldn't help griping, "Dammit... is this a bug?" Had he stumbled into a map Ah Guang hadn't finished making yet? Or— Was it just lagging on his end? He struck his head again with some force, trying to wake himself from this bizarre dream. The doctor named Lin Youyou looked at him with concern and tried to stop him, but he pushed her hand away. The man in the exoskeleton frowned deeply, glaring hard at the fellow who seemed to be playing dumb. "You don't know? You don't know how you got here?" Ye Shi complained, "Yeah! I don't know anything! I was aboard a research vessel—the kind where you can barely squeeze thirty people in—and next thing I know, I wake up in a hibernation pod surrounded by you guys, staring at me like a koala in a zoo!" The guy named Koala rubbed the bridge of his nose sheepishly, mumbling in self-reflection, "Did we?", then scratched his head and muttered, "Sorry about that." The others exchanged looks with varied expressions, whispering softly among themselves. Only the man in the exoskeleton maintained his piercing gaze. That look was like a keen blade baring its edge from a restrained scabbard. "You'd better tell the truth." Ye Shi hadn't grown up easily frightened, so he had no intention of rolling over for this guy and snapped back without hesitation: "I am telling the damn truth! You're the ones refusing to be straight with me! Division Seven, Division Four... it's all complete gibberish to me! Cut the crap—are you Celestials or Enlightenment Society?!" That girl was still aboard the research vessel. He was certain he had heard her voice just now! He had to go back and save her! The man in the exoskeleton froze, the sharp edge in his eyes softening slightly. "Celestials? Enlightenment Society? What are those..." He had never heard either term. The Human Alliance's sole mortal enemy was Gaia. That, and the extremist organizations that had betrayed humanity, attempting to hand their flourishing world over to Gaia. Ye Shi's chest heaved violently as he panted, glaring at the exoskeleton-clad soldier. It suddenly struck him that the man looked somewhat familiar, though he couldn't recall where he had seen him before. Lin Youyou stared blankly at the young man who had suddenly turned agitated, then cast a stern glare at the soldier in the exoskeleton. "Enough. He is my patient. I know you have your duties, but at least let me treat his condition first—" "I'm not a fucking patient! I'm not sick!" "—and I'm not crazy!" Cutting her off halfway, Ye Shi locked his eyes onto the man in the exoskeleton and declared, word by deliberate word: "I am Ye Shi! Ye Shi of the Alliance! Ye Shi of the Burning Corps! Stop talking in riddles with me! I've already told you who I am. Now, tell me, right now! Who the hell are you?!" The surrounding air fell silent. Completely, utterly silent. Yet that quiet did not last long before murmurs rippled through the crowd once more. "...The Alliance?" "Burning Corps?" "What in the world is that?" "Does the Human Alliance have such an organization?" "Are you kidding? How could it?" "Did this kid fry his brain playing video games?" "Wait, his clothes... they look a bit like the ones from the Shelter promotional brochures." "For real?" "Even if it is, there's nothing strange about it. It's just a blue temperature-regulating jacket. I might even have a couple in my own closet." The murmurs left Ye Shi rooted to the spot, his mind reeling as if struck by lightning. *The Alliance...* *They've never heard of it?* A terrifying notion suddenly surfaced in his mind. Could he have... traveled through time?! No— That sounded too ridiculous. He'd rather believe he was trapped in some virtual space akin to *The Matrix*, with the purpose of mining his memories. If that theory held true, it at least meant Jiang Xuezhou was still alive. Amid the crowd, a tall, thin man wearing non-prescription glasses rubbed his chin with an index finger, staring at the youth standing in their midst with an expression as if he had seen a ghost. His name was Wu Xinghuan. He was the leader of the Space Science Team under Division Five—the Science and Technology Department—of the missile cruiser *Orion*, as well as a holder of a doctorate in physics. To cope with the treacherous and unpredictable environment of deep space, every Human Alliance starship was assigned at least one theoretical physicist to conduct scientific risk assessments for potentially hazardous strategic deployments and navigational maneuvers. Put simply, they functioned much like shipboard chaplains during the early Age of Sail. After all, if something truly beyond the bounds of human comprehension occurred, a mere theoretical physicist could hardly do much besides offer words of comfort to the crew. He hadn't uttered a word since the beginning, but now he was muttering under his breath: "Could this guy... be..." No— That was too incredible. At this moment, the shock hammering his brain was not one bit less intense than that experienced by the confused young man before him, shaking his perceptions, his knowledge, and even his convictions to their foundation... A "time traveler" was standing right before him, boldly declaring events from the future. Preposterous! Every piece of education he had received and all the research he had conducted repeatedly impressed upon him an ironclad law—one that had never been falsified: The passage of time might be uneven across different regions of space, but it was strictly irreversible! There was no "why." Time was not an objective physical entity existing in the universe; it was merely an artificially defined scalar, a metric used to record the motion of matter and the sequence of events. If time were reversible—if "what happened later" could occur before "what happened earlier"—then the very concepts of before and after would lose all meaning. In other words, if time were reversible, time itself would not exist... Trembling, Wu Xinghuan raised an index finger, took off the glasses resting on the bridge of his nose, wiped them vigorously with a lens cloth, and put them back on to see more clearly. He wished he could return to Earth this instant and unveil this staggering discovery to the entire world! At this moment, Dr. Wu was the only person present who had considered the possibility of "time travel." Most people here, including the "time traveler" himself, probably had no inkling of what had actually transpired. Watching the fellow playing dumb, the man in the exoskeleton decided to end the guessing game. Staring intently into his eyes, he spoke: "This is the missile cruiser *Orion*. My name is Luo Yi, a non-commissioned officer of the Space Combat Squad under the Weapons and Defense Department, rank sergeant." "You claimed I told you nothing. Now I have told you who we are and where you are. I advise you to come clean about your situation and tell me how you appeared here. Confessing now might still earn you leniency." Luo Yi... Hearing that name struck Ye Shi like a thunderbolt, and killing intent exploded from him in an instant. No wonder the man looked familiar! After all this, he recognized him from the memory fragments of that Enlightenment Society disciple named Flynn! The disciple who had hijacked the research vessel. And the very bastard who had fired a neutron torpedo at them! Clearly detecting that murderous aura, Luo Yi was caught off guard, his right hand immediately dropping toward his stun gun. Yet before his fingers could touch the weapon, a whistling fist slammed toward his face. "Fuck your mother!!!" The strike came too fast for ordinary reflexes, but Luo Yi was an active-duty soldier—a warrior who had undergone genetic and cybernetic modification, clad in a military exoskeleton. A single punch couldn't possibly take him down. The fist slammed into his exoskeleton, its incredible impact forcing him back half a step. A sharp glint flashed in Luo Yi's eyes. "You're definitely no civilian—" "I'm your daddy!" Ye Shi roared, crackling arcs of electricity tearing through the air and lashing toward him like a whip. Cries of alarm erupted around them as the crowd scrambled backward. "No! Calm down, both of you!" Lin Youyou cried out, attempting to step in and separate them, but a colleague held her back. Ye Shi paid no mind to the shouts. He had avoided uninvolved bystanders; the only one he wanted dead was the bastard in front of him! However, beyond his expectation, the man seemed to have anticipated his attack, deflecting the crackling arcs with an effortless raise of his arm. The exoskeleton appeared to feature electrostatic absorption, making Ye Shi's heart sink slightly. Having blocked the vicious blow, Luo Yi kept his guard up and delivered a ruthless forward knee strike without hesitation, driving toward Ye Shi's chest with lightning speed. Although Ye Shi foresaw the incoming strike, having just awakened from a coma left his body unable to keep pace with his mind. His chest took the hit square on. The immense force sent him hurtling backward, crashing sideways against the open hibernation pod, nearly knocking him right off the server. Yet what stunned him was precisely that— He hadn't disconnected. Wait. Could it be... A sudden realization turned Ye Shi's face pale, just as a gun barrel was leveled at his forehead. "Cybernetic modification, bionic model, equipped with offensive plugins. I admit it's cool—snapping your fingers to discharge electricity—but that's illegal, kid." Luo Yi held the pistol, looking down at him. "I intended to have a civil chat, or do you prefer talking like this?" "@#$%#!" Ye Shi spat a string of real-world expletives, then shut his eyes and silently willed himself to log off. In truth, he didn't even need to say it in his mind. Having played *Wasteland OL* for so long, he had mastered the trick of logging in and out ages ago; a mere thought was all it took to return to reality. Yet the unexpected happened. And it was the very thing he dreaded most. The sensation of the helmet wasn't pressing on his head. Instead, a heavy numbness surged from between his brows, spreading through his entire body. He was still online, yet his limbs felt as heavy as lead, just as they had before he awoke from the hibernation pod. Having never faced such a predicament, Ye Shi panicked completely, practically on the verge of dropping to his knees before the trash dev. "Holy shit! Brother Guang, don't fuck with me!" This joke wasn't funny in the slightest. He couldn't log out!