Arriving as Promised

"This is the end of the line." In the lower-deck gymnasium, "Luo Yi" hovered in the doorway and raised the gun in his hand. The source of the electronic warfare intrusion was right before him. A massive torrent of data was funneling through the communication module of the lander ahead, relentlessly battering the shipboard servers of the missile cruiser Orion. Prior to this, he and his comrades had seized control of the starship through this very backdoor. Yet this little rat had still been one step too slow. No matter how flashy a hacker was, they couldn't stop a bullet to the skull. Though two hundred years late, and despite countless obstacles, he had ultimately lived up to expectations and fulfilled his fallen comrades' long-cherished wish. There would be no more surprises this time— Gliding past the obstacles suspended in midair, he drifted into the room. Just as he was about to step forward and deliver the final blow, the surrounding magnetic field suddenly raged like boiling magma. Sensing the abrupt shift in the magnetic field around him, "Luo Yi" was instantly on high alert, but it was already too late to dodge. The moment he turned his head, the alloy fragments and debris floating in the air seemed to be grabbed by an invisible hand, slamming violently into his flank! Almost instinctively, "Luo Yi" threw up his alloy arms and knees to guard. Immediately afterward, a crisp *CLANG!* resonated through his entire body, swatting him away like a baseball! His back crashed heavily against the wall. Sensors across his body jolted violently, and his electronic components nearly short-circuited. Seeing the steel frame pinning him like chains, "Luo Yi" was both shocked and enraged. He struggled to shove it aside, only to discover that not only was the steel debris magnetized, but he himself had also been magnetized and suctioned to the alloy bulkhead behind him. Feeling the static crackling against his back, he understood what was happening in an instant. "I see... using electrical current to induce a magnetic field." "Still, expecting a magnetic field of this caliber to trap me is far too naive." He sneered. The thruster pack on his back blasted nitrogen, shoving his entire body forward. At the same time, having adapted to the resistance, he exerted strength in both hands to pry off the magnetized debris clinging to him and the bulkhead. *This must be the final trap.* Just as the thought crossed his mind, he saw a silhouette standing in the pitch-black room. It was a youth of about seventeen or eighteen. In his hand was a standard-issue nuclear cell, likely ripped from some power armor. Watching the youth's hair floating from static electricity, "Luo Yi" instantly realized where that wild current had come from. Yet what shocked him far more was that this guy could operate in a vacuum without protective gear, just like himself! *He's a bionic android too?!* Realizing the danger, "Luo Yi" immediately drove his electric motors to maximum output, trying to break free from the steel wreckage binding him. Soon, however, he discovered in horror that the magnetic field pinning him abruptly expanded. Not only that— The immense magnetic field was fluctuating violently! And between those high-frequency shifts from crest to trough, terrifying amounts of energy were building up! "Luo Yi's" consciousness flickered for a fraction of a second, followed by visible stuttering and screen-tearing across the feeds captured by his visual sensors. Unlike organic beings, while bionic androids could ignore the lethality of neutron plumes, they were not immune to magnetic interference! And the more precise and miniaturized the components, the truer this was! "...High-frequency fluctuating magnetic field... will destroy your... control circuits..." "...Stop... right now..." Forcing himself through his stuttering consciousness, "Luo Yi's" pupils locked onto the youth at the heart of the magnetic storm. As he urged him to stop, he raised his gun. Yet under the magnetic interference rattling his sensors, the muzzle shook continuously, unable to align properly with the figure standing not far away. *Bang—!* In the end, he pulled the trigger, firing several shots in succession, but the person standing before him remained completely unscathed. Abruptly, "Luo Yi" saw that the bullets bursting from the barrel had stopped in midair, as if caught in an invisible spiderweb! While pinning him down, this guy still had enough computing power to manipulate the magnetic field and defend against his attack! Incredulity flickered in "Luo Yi's" pupils as he stared blankly at the youth standing in the center of the magnetic storm. "...What... on earth... are you..." The youth did not answer. He merely stared down into the android's eyes, expressionless. Tiny fragments of metal hovered beside him, threaded together by arcs of electricity leaping like silver serpents, joined by the bullets fired moments earlier. That gaze seemed to pierce through his circuit boards, stirring a baseless dread from the depths of his hollow soul— "Go to hell—" "You counterfeit!" The rampant electrical current contracted in an instant. Electromagnetically accelerated projectiles slammed like a torrential squall into "Luo Yi," who was pinned against the wall by the steel wreckage, riddling him into a sieve! The sturdy alloy plating and bionic skin were utterly fragile beneath the railgun barrage, shattering to pieces in a heartbeat and scattering in all directions. Ye Shi did not stop. Nor did he grant his adversary the slightest breath of reprieve, pouring all his fury into the erupting metal storm. He drained the very last shred of charge from the nuclear cell in his hand, hurtling every bit of usable reaction mass within reach straight into the barrage until the capacitors in his own cybernetic implants overloaded and spewed silver arcs of electricity! As for "Luo Yi" at the epicenter of that raging firepower, he was reduced entirely to scrap. When the final round drove into his chest, that once indestructible steel body had become a twisted rag, hanging senseless upon the riddled alloy wall, twitching intermittently under the lingering static. It was over... Fortunately, he had made it in time. Looking at "Luo Yi," who had completely lost all function, Ye Shi felt as if all his strength had been drained away. His whole body went slack. The nuclear cell slipped from his fingers, drifting away like an empty can toward the corner of the room. A serial number was stamped on its casing. Though he did not know which warrior it belonged to, it had likely belonged to one of the three thousand crew members aboard the missile cruiser Orion. *Thank you...* Recalling those familiar faces, Ye Shi murmured silently in his heart. Indeed. Time was irreversible. In the end, their existence had vanished into this universe, alongside the plan codenamed "Daybreak." Even so, he still did not believe the choice they had made in their final moments was in vain. If not for that experience, he would have been stumbling blindly through this unfamiliar maze like a headless fly instead of calmly searching for the exit as he was now. Moreover, the map of this maze felt as though it had been etched into his mind. He even felt he knew this place better than the fellow calling himself "Luo Yi." Faintly, intuitively, he sensed something. Throughout this entire event—or dungeon—something had truly crossed through time, simultaneously altering both past and future. It was just that his thoughts were in total disarray, and he hadn't yet pulled himself free from the disorienting sense of temporal distortion, unable for now to assemble his hazy impressions into coherent words. Once all this was over, however, he would write this legendary experience on the forum and share it with anyone interested. Not just this miraculous encounter, but also the three thousand crew members of the missile cruiser Orion, together with the plan codenamed "Daybreak." History ought to have a page reserved for them. At the moment when the long night fell, a group of idealists had made the same unanimous choice— Facing death, what they left behind was hope. Without hesitation, they had given the chance of survival to the living. The only regret was that the promise to "reunite in two hundred years" had ended up broken after all... Just as Ye Shi was lost in lingering sorrow, something caught the corner of his eye, drifting up from the android's wreckage. It was a sliver of silver-white metal dangling from a delicate chain. The android had clutched it tightly in his palm the entire time. Due to weightlessness and the static disturbance, it drifted free from his splayed fingers. Watching the metal tag float gently toward him, Ye Shi felt his heart skip a beat. Almost instinctively, he reached out and took hold of it. It appeared to be an identification tag, with a line of fine text engraved on its front. [Luo Yi, Sergeant] The moment he saw those words, Ye Shi's heart missed half a beat, and an unprecedented surge of emotion welled up in his chest. They hadn't broken the promise! They had been here all along! In the end, they had reunited after all! "To think... this is how we'd meet." As everything gradually fell into place, Ye Shi tried to take a deep breath to rein in his overflowing emotions, only to remember he couldn't breathe. All he could do was clutch the dog tag tightly in his fist. Just then, a faint signal drifted through the comm channel. The signal seemed to be coming from the wrecked android. After taking such a brutal beating, the communication module was the only thing left operational on its entire chassis. "...Do you... know me?" Ye Shi hadn't intended to pay it any mind, but the thing had already begun speaking to itself, so he replied irritably, "I don't know you." Its damaged head drooped as it asked urgently in a broken, halting voice, "Then... do you know... the owner of that tag?" "Yes," Ye Shi said bluntly. "I met him once. He was an honorable man... completely different from a half-baked counterfeit like you." Hearing the word "counterfeit," the signal in the comm channel fluctuated slightly. It seemed deeply resistant to that word. Yet pinned to the wall as it was, there was nothing it could do beyond registering a futile mental protest. "Impossible... I... don't know you." "Is that so? That just proves you're a fake," Ye Shi mocked with a cold sneer. "I don't know how the Celestials pieced you together, but aside from looking identical to Luo Yi, there's no way you actually possess his memories." Pinned to the wall, the android had no rebuttal. It truly lacked those things. The Celestials had told him his name was Luo Yi, rank of Sergeant, a member of the missile cruiser Orion who had become a disembodied electronic ghost due to a mutiny... and nothing more. Those missing memories were precisely what he had spent all his efforts searching for. He wanted to become him! Yet at this moment, he was plunged into unprecedented turmoil. A youth stood before him claiming to know Luo Yi, while he was nothing more than an imitation. "That makes no sense... I... he... died two hundred years ago. How could you know him? You're lying to me. No, you must be lying to me..." "Believe what you want." Looking at the rambling wreck, Ye Shi tossed the words aside impatiently. He had no duty to explain, nor did he care to waste his breath on this thing. Yet the android's processor seemed to have malfunctioned, spiraling into a loop of self-doubt. A moment later, it only repeated a single sentence under its breath: "...Who am I?" "Ask yourself." Ye Shi couldn't help muttering a retort before cutting off the incessantly babbling signal source. If nothing went awry, Jiang Xuezhou, whom he was searching for, was inside this unfamiliar vessel right before him. As for why she was here, she would surely tell him once she woke up. Just then, the lights in the pitch-black compartment abruptly came on. Not only in this room, but even the well-like corridor outside lit up. That sudden radiance was like the pale dawn breaking as the long night came to an end. At the same time, his communication module picked up an unfamiliar broadcast signal. It appeared to originate from the Orion's central broadcast system. "System reset complete. Biometric data for new commanding officers logged. Designation... Captain Jiang Xuezhou, Executive Officer Ye Shi." "Reactor diagnostic complete. Low-power alarm cleared. Lower-deck power supply restoring..." "Artificial gravity system rebooting... This vessel will enter low-gravity mode in five minutes. All units, please prepare." Hearing that gentle synthesized voice, an involuntary surge of joy rose in Ye Shi's heart. Without a doubt— This was Xuezhou's doing! And perhaps not just hers— While he was fighting Luo Yi's clone, she had successfully breached the Orion's firewall, wresting back control of the starship that had fallen into the hands of the Lagrange Point Space Station! "Nicely done!" He couldn't resist pumping his clenched fist. Then, releasing an arc of electricity from his palm, he drifted toward the vessel lodged in the hull plating under electromagnetic traction. He tore off the half-ajar hatch with effortless ease, but the moment he saw the blood-red hibernation pod within, his heart froze. "No—" His elation plummeted to rock bottom in a fraction of a second, and he threw himself desperately against the pod door. The door, which should have been transparent, looked as though it were coated in a layer of red frost, with freshly congealed blood clinging to its edges. Fury rushed to his head in an instant. He wished he could turn right back to the room and grind that pulverized fake into absolute dust! Just as Ye Shi was burning with anxiety, a voice recorder plugged in beside the hibernation pod caught his attention. Not just the recorder. Beside it, on a silver metal tray, sat several rock-hard frozen plastic pouches. A sticky note was attached to the pouches, bearing a scrawled line of handwriting: [Emergency treatment must be administered at ambient temperature and pressure. Please seal the cockpit hatch first, then manually open the lander cockpit's emergency airlock according to the instructions in the recording.] It was as if everything had already been prepared. The key to the door was placed right where his gaze would fall. Just like the pack his mother had prepared for him before his very first journey far from home. Without a second's hesitation, Ye Shi turned and sealed the warped, deformed hatch tight, then hurriedly rushed to find the emergency airlock in the cockpit. Unfortunately, he was a complete amateur when it came to piloting spacecraft, and after searching for quite some time, he still couldn't locate the switch. Only then did he suddenly remember the voice recorder, returning obediently to the "quest guide." The instant he pulled a data cable from his neck and plugged it into the recorder, a familiar voice drifted into his ears, carrying his dazed consciousness back to that frozen moment in time. "My time is short, so I can only keep this brief. I hope you listen carefully..." "Regarding the method for thawing the hemostatic gel..."