Chapter 81: The Devil’s Sacrifice (31p2)
Yu Jiao watched with wide eyes as the jumping characters displayed [Artificial Intelligence]-[Settings]-[Security], and finally, it stopped on the [Activate Self-Destruct Program] option.
An ominous red character.
—eleven’s self-destruct program?
Even though Yu Jiao knew this was a fake, a dream plot that had happened in history, she couldn’t help but hold her breath.
[Self-Destruct Program Activated]
At this moment, Yu Fenghe’s deep voice was exceptionally cold.
“As long as you destroy their underlying code, you can destroy their initially flawed personality.”
[3]
Yu Fenghe let out a light laugh.
“And turn them into a mad dog at your feet, who can only wag its tail and beg for mercy, a stitched-together monster’s body.”
[2]
“…”
“…”
[1]
Finally, the trembling water droplet, at the last moment, rolled to the [Stop Program] option.
“…”
Only then did Yu Jiao realize that she had been holding her breath.
—Too strange.
Yu Jiao turned her head to look at him, but she could only see his lowered eyes and his contentedly curled lips, flawless.
“But,”
Yu Fenghe squeezed the palm that was enveloping her hand, as if in comfort. “The Apocalypse has done so many human experiments, but they are all useless.”
“…”
“The world is already out of balance internally. No matter how many changes are made internally, it is useless. So we need to borrow external forces—”
As his words fell, Yu Fenghe suddenly turned his head and looked at her. His dark, black eyes were slightly curved, like a deep, bottomless, turbid lake.
“Legend has it that on the day the great water drowned the world, a bird will break out of the amniotic fluid of creation, break through the cage of illusion, and return to the sky.”
With a clatter.
Yu Fenghe let go of her hand, and the out-of-control brush fell on the table, and the splattered ink stained the scroll with the insect and the fish.
“Before that… a bird is no freer than a stone.”
“…”
But Yu Jiao clearly remembered that in the praises, prayers, and various documents of the Apocalypse Cult, there was only one creator god.
“…”
Yu Jiao didn’t think that Yu Fenghe, as the bishop of the Apocalypse, would make such a low-level mistake.
At this moment, the two of them were very close. Too close… Facing this smiling face, Yu Jiao felt a dazed sense of strangeness.
Yu Fenghe curved his eyes and asked lightly:
“Hongyue, do you want to become a bird?”
His voice was ethereal, like being gently woken up from a chaotic afternoon nap, a distant reality.
Yu Jiao suddenly opened her eyes.
Like a drowning person, breaking free from the shackles of the water, and after a disaster, she was gasping for breath.
—She had never felt so cold.
Every pore on her bare skin was as if it were screaming in the twisted, cold air, and a line of shivers ran down her spine as a drop of water slid down.
Yu Jiao shivered and, in a daze, she remembered that before she had entered this dream, she had just taken a bath.
At this moment, her hair was still wet—she had spent several sun hours in the dream, but in reality, only a moment had passed.
“…”
The room was as dark as a mother’s womb.
Yu Jiao sat up. It was unclear if it was a cold sweat or her undried hair from her bath, but it was stuck to her pale white cheeks and neck. Her eyes were filled with a lingering fear, which made her look like a baby, born with amniotic fluid.
[Legend… on the day the great water drowned the world, a bird… will break out of the amniotic fluid of creation… break through the cage of illusion… and return to the sky.]
Yu Fenghe’s voice was like a church hymn, and it was lingering in her ear.
Just then, the blue light that symbolized eleven lit up. It considerately raised the temperature of the room and handed her a glass of warm water.
Yu Jiao took the glass, her voice dry, and she called out softly, “eleven.”
“Madam, I am here.”
The AI’s voice was steady, as if it had the magic to calm one’s heart.
Yu Jiao swallowed a mouthful of warm water and felt the gentle stream flow down her throat.
“A person…”
Her voice, which had been moistened by the warm water, was like a wet riverbed, and the end of her words was as light and trembling as a wisp of morning mist, easy to disperse.
“…Can a person live on as data?”
After Yu Jiao spoke, she laughed.
An electronic ghost? She pressed her throbbing temples, took off the dream device on her head, and thought to herself that she was really going crazy.
But to her surprise, the ethereal electronic voice of eleven suddenly sounded in the empty room, like an echo in an empty valley, as ethereal as a prophecy from an otherworldly immortal:
“Is the world not also a piece of data?”
The moment the gentle electronic voice fell, another cold, sinister electronic voice sounded.
【Main Quest: Uncover the secrets hidden by the cult and survive (Progress: 67%)】
Yu Jiao’s breath caught. She felt that the warm water she had just drunk had instantly turned to ice, a heavy coldness rising from her stomach.
…It was the long-lost system.
After being taken away by Yuan Cang on Wood Sun Day, as she had gradually learned more about the rules of this world, she had also heard the system’s progress report a few times. But it seemed that since the last Metal Sun Day memorial service, the mission progress bar had not grown at all.
At this moment, Yu Jiao, who had just come out of the dream, suddenly heard this long-lost notification. She was like a small insect, trapped in a large bell, and she was swimming in circles inside.
When she had lost her way, the bell was suddenly struck by an external force.
This trembling reality made Yu Jiao suddenly realize: it was just from one dream to another.
The world that she felt was real was also just a game.
But what does this have in common with the secrets hidden by the Apocalypse Cult…
Before she could think about the creepy, deep meaning behind this usual system notification, the indicator on the door lit up—Fusheng, who had been sent away earlier, had returned.
Her face was dark as she pressed her brow. The dream device that she had hidden behind her was like a cold snake, hiding some kind of destructive venom, and the silently extended mechanical arm was like a valiant warrior, seizing the snake’s vital point.
—In Fusheng’s blind spot, eleven had silently destroyed the evidence.
Seeing this, for some reason, a glint flashed in Yu Jiao’s eyes.
“…”
Fusheng, who was completely unaware of what was happening in the dark, let out a breath and brought a piece of news that was hard to say if it was good or bad:
“Madam, the Gold Dark Night is about to end. Earth Sun Day is coming.”
…
Yu Jiao did not know about the private deal between Nie Hongshen and Helan Duo.
She did not know that she was the object of the deal, and had become Nie Hongshen’s wicked plaything, Helan Duo’s struggling psychological cast-off, and a secretly assessed weight and experiment—
While the Apocalypse Cult was preparing the items for the Earth Sun Day memorial service, which was to be held at the Divine Moon Moth, Yu Jiao was the only one who was kept in the dark.
And eleven, who had been given the order to ‘hide it from the cult leader’s wife’, could only hint at it.
It was a pity that Yu Jiao’s mind was elsewhere. For example, taking revenge on Nie Hongshen, playing ‘hide-and-seek’ with Helan Duo, being indifferent to Yuan Cang, fighting with Yu Fenghe, and thinking about the cult’s secrets… she had not noticed its hints at all.
The AI, which had done its best, could only silently reflect and learn the complex human language system, and silently update its own code.
Yu Jiao was not a slow person.
She had noticed the tense atmosphere in the cult, and the occasional strange, sidelong glances from the followers. It was like a pot of water, gradually reaching a boil, and she was the important ingredient on the chopping block. Just as the soup was boiling, a hand picked her up—
“Yu Jiao.”
As this hoarse voice struck, his hot hands seized her shoulders.
“…”
Since Yu Jiao had returned to the Apocalypse, Yuan Cang, who had been unable to be alone with her, had finally found an opportunity. With eleven’s unknown assistance, he had used a little trick to send away the maids and the patrolling followers, and had been waiting for her on her way to her routine prayer for a long time.
At this moment, Yuan Cang’s aura was forceful yet humble. Even though he was restraining Yu Jiao, his hunched back and lowered eyes showed a strong emotion that was almost a plea.
Yuan Cang had been through some kind of psychological torment these days. At this moment, he was suppressing his crazed face, and he no longer had the pride, looseness, and roguishness of before.
A head of arrogant red hair was like a raging fire, but his face was as pale as ice. His black-and-white inverted eyes were two hot iron balls, which were enough to pierce through the ice, and they were heavily pressing on the person before him.
“Yu Jiao, I was wrong.”
Yuan Cang said in a low voice, one word at a time, “I really know I was wrong…”
As if he were afraid that Yu Jiao’s sharp mouth would once again utter hurtful words, he did not give her a chance to speak and poured out the confession, goodwill, and plea that he had been preparing for a long time.
“Helan Duo used you!”
His voice was dry and indignant, yet it also held a hint of a secret joy—the joy of knowing that a rival had made a mistake and had given him a chance to turn the tables.
“I don’t know the specific details of his deal with Nie Hongshen, but he wants to send you to the Divine Moon Moth to complete the memorial service on Earth Sun Day. Nie Hongshen has some kind of new technology, so this memorial service is very unknown. I don’t want you to be in danger.”
This was probably the most sincere moment of Yuan Cang, who was used to wearing a mask.
With the posture of a third party, who had been driven to a dead end by an immoral affair, he issued an invitation to elope to Yu Jiao:
“Come with me, Yu Jiao.”
“…”
“I’ll give up my identity as the Holy Son of the Apocalypse and take you away as Chow Chow—alright?”