Chapter 179

Chapter 179

Baisha stood still, like a statue, unable to speak for a long while.

The Silver Core indeed excelled in understanding the human heart. Knowing that mere benefits could no longer sway Baisha, it sought to manipulate her with the sentiment of old acquaintances.

Baisha didn’t necessarily expect all these people to be “reborn.”

But abandoning them would surely trouble her.

"…Don’t be deceived by its eloquent words," Uriel whispered. "The deceased need rest, not to be used as pawns for the Silver Core's rule over humanity. When it presents them as a 'condition' before you, it shows a complete lack of respect for the departed."

"The phrase ‘eloquent words’ should be returned to you," the Silver Core addressed Uriel. "Aren’t you also trying to influence her will with words? I'm merely a digital intelligence; human morality is only a reference for me. I'm discussing the fact that I have the capability to resurrect them, which is unrelated to whether I respect them."

Baisha remained silent amidst the argument between the Silver Core and Uriel. She asked, "What about me? Is my consciousness chip also among these?"

"Yes," the Silver Core responded. "With the genetic technology of this era, we can create the most suitable bodies for these noble souls. Their lifespans would be extended, free from common human ailments. Most importantly, they once saved the world; they are rational, objective, wise—the best of humanity and ideal partners for me. I have no reason to prevent their rebirth. Therefore, the condition I am offering now is not a lie and should be seriously considered by Researcher Baisha."

"…I’m curious," Baisha looked down at the glowing chips, "With so many chips stored, why did you specifically choose me?"

The Silver Core remained silent.

"Over the years, you must have tried numerous times," Baisha continued, "Was I the only one who successfully survived, or were there others—"

"You still haven't obtained permission to rebuild the core," Baisha suddenly looked up, scoffing, "Is it because everyone else refused you, right?"

Suddenly, with a "zzt" sound, the platform they were standing on cracked open in the middle. Baisha and Uriel, caught off guard, fell downwards. Simultaneously, the metal wall embedded with consciousness chips began to rotate inwards—

In the brief moment of freefall, Baisha pulled out her gun from her pocket and fired three shots at the blue-glowing mental force network.

Bang, bang, bang.

Her shots were precise, extinguishing the light of three chips, melting them into a charred mess.

Baisha's actions seemed to have completely caught the Silver Core off guard. Meanwhile, Uriel didn't just focus on saving Baisha. He spread his mechanical wings, transforming them into blades, and slashed unhesitatingly at the metal wall.

All this happened within a second, and Baisha and Uriel didn't have time to discuss or communicate. In that instant, they reached a consensus:

Real or fake, these chips should not remain.

After a flash of cold light, Uriel sliced a huge gash across the metal wall. Baisha pressed a button on her waist, and her protective suit inflated like a life vest. With a thud, she landed solidly on her back. She immediately got up and looked up. The deck connecting the upper and lower levels closed in that instant, isolating the top from the bottom—both the metal wall and Uriel disappeared from her sight.

In the pitch-dark space, Baisha breathed lightly. A piercing pain came from her right shoulder, probably from hitting something during the fall.

She tried moving her right hand, then hissed softly.

Her protective suit was mostly torn. She swiftly removed both sleeves and wrapped them around her right shoulder, tying a knot at the back for support. This restricted her shoulder movement, but at least she could still move her elbow.

She activated her laser cutter—the bright blue laser lit up in front of her, serving as a meager light source.

Leaning on the wall, Baisha started searching for an exit, recalling the control area map she had seen on the outer wall. After roughly determining the direction, she began cutting through a metal wall with the cutter.

She was already at the deepest part of the control room of the City Without Boundaries; even if she broke through the wall, there would be no adjacent open space, but there was a ventilation duct.

...Although Baisha wasn't sure she could maneuver through the ducts like Spider-Man, especially while injured, she couldn't just sit and wait for doom.

Baisha worked while recalling the Silver Core's reaction just moments ago.

The chips were probably real, but her previous conjecture seemed true as well.

Before her awakening, the Silver Core must have experimented with others' chips. Either they were unsuccessful, or those revived like her chose to reject the "blessing" of the Silver Core. This time, the Silver Core even meticulously adjusted her memory—her childhood was that of a normal child, and it chose the moment she separated from her parents for her to awaken. Her memory lingered at the most beautiful and promising age of her previous life, while the memories of her life with her parents in this world were completely erased. In contrast, her personality leaned more towards "Researcher Bai."

If she hadn't entered the orphanage and been recognized and accepted by Cecil so quickly... her sense of belonging to this era would have been very weak. Perhaps she would have been truly tempted by the illusions offered by the Silver Core.

But now, she was not just Baisha, but Baisha Ronin—

She was not a ghost of the old era. She was a brand-new person.

She believed in the character of her mentors, colleagues, and friends, and trusted that they would make the same choice as her: to reject temptation and face the present.

The construction materials of the City Without Boundaries were state-of-the-art alloys, making the laser cutter's job somewhat challenging. After an unknown amount of time, just as the cutter's energy was about to run out, she finally opened the ventilation duct.

The bright laser dimmed. Baisha pocketed the cutter and crawled into the silver ventilation duct, only to find it was like a vertical shaft.

Baisha: "..."

How long would it take to climb up there?

Baisha sighed and summoned her mental body. The plump white sparrow flew around her, about to flutter upwards, but Baisha grabbed it.

"I didn't ask you to go out and scout," Baisha said tiredly, "I need you to carry me."

Little Baiju widened its eyes.

"What's the matter, did all that mental energy go to waste?" Baisha said, "If this form can't carry me, change into the Xuan Bird—wait, have you gotten several sizes larger?"

Little Baiju nodded.

"So the Xuan Bird form has gotten fatter too?"

Little Baiju, somewhat embarrassed and annoyed, pecked at Baisha's hair.

"Alright, alright, it's not about getting fat, it's about getting bigger," Baisha said somewhat wearily, eyeing the narrow duct and realizing that once the Xuan Bird appeared, it would completely block the passage.

So, she had to climb bit by bit.

Enduring the pain in her shoulder, Baisha agilely leaped up and, gripping the smooth metal walls with her limbs, began to cautiously move upwards.

After about fifteen minutes of climbing, her forehead was covered in cold sweat. When she finally reached the top of the vertical duct, she found herself at a crossroads of pipes.

Now, which way to climb?

She curled up inside the metal duct. Already exhausted from not resting for dozens of hours and after intense exertion, her vision started to blacken, and she nearly passed out.

Maybe it's best to just sleep here for now...

Various thoughts entangled messily like floating seaweed, failing to clearly discern any direction. The only clarity was her body's instinct, calling her to fall into deep slumber.

In the darkness, something warm rubbed against her cheek—it was her mental body. Influenced by her state, Little Baiju's consciousness was also on the verge of dissipating.

"Your Highness... Your Highness!"

A frantic voice suddenly came through the communicator.

Baisha jolted awake, biting her lip hard enough to taste blood, which helped her regain some lucidity.

The communication signal was restored.

"Your Highness, where are you?"

Baisha briefly described her current situation.

"The sea people are all in hibernation chambers. If we can't find the controller to release them, we'll forcibly cut off the mental power transmission network and take them all away." Baisha coughed twice from biting too hard, the burning pain on her lips making her tilt her head slightly, "Have you made contact with Uleriel?"

"We have," the other side responded, "We're coordinating with him to destroy all the chips."

"The Silver Core might have a backup plan. The chips you see might not be all of them. It could have hidden some outside of the City Without Boundaries... Anyway, destroy as many as possible," Baisha's voice sounded hoarse, "Listen carefully, my orders are as follows: Destroy the chips, transfer the sea people, and then bring down the City Without Boundaries."

"Bring it down? ...Sink the entire City Without Boundaries?"

"That's the most convenient option," Baisha said.

"And what about you? Where are you now?"

"I'm still alive. Where I am doesn't matter," Baisha affirmed, "Don't waste resources looking for me."

"Your protective suit has a locator; we will find you quickly," the fleet commander said, "Please wait."

"Rescuing me would take too much time and effort. You're better off focusing on relocating the sea people and destroying the chips," Baisha said through gritted teeth, "I will make it back on my own."

The fleet was about to say something more, but Baisha cut off the communication.

After a few seconds of silence, a new communication signal came through—

It was Uleriel.

"Are you alright?"

Uleriel's voice was distant and near, mixed with some noisy sounds.

"Won't die that easily," Baisha laughed.

There was a brief silence between them.

"I think I owe you an apology," he said in a subdued voice, "for destroying those chips without your permission."

He knew that destroying the chips, in a sense, was akin to killing Baisha's slumbering kin—everything depended on how Baisha perceived life and death.

"Why would I blame you? I made the same choice as you," she said with a bitter smile, "Your actions are understandable. But me... I feel somewhat like I've let them down..." Baisha's voice trailed off.

"You can't blame yourself for this," Uleriel's voice became clearer, slowly and firmly conveying his thoughts to Baisha, like water seeping into the sand, "You're not at fault. As Baisha Ronin, you have every right to live righteously."

Baisha suddenly realized something and coughed twice, "Are you worried I might want to join those departed old friends?"

Uleriel: "..."

"Who was it that said the meaning of life isn't about life and death?" Baisha teased him, adopting a tone feigning indifference to life and death, "You understand, as long as I'm alive, the Silver Core will concoct various traps and temptations to use me for its purposes. Only in death can I truly escape its schemes. That's why I was so decisive in destroying those chips—I hoped my own chip was among them."

Uleriel didn't respond for a long time.

Baisha waited silently for his reply for tens of seconds, thinking perhaps her joke was too harsh. Just as she was about to lighten the mood, a grating metallic twisting noise came from beside her. The fluctuating sounds, sometimes high and sometimes low, echoed endlessly in the narrow ventilation duct, making it hard for Baisha to discern their direction. The entire duct system began to tremble, as if on the verge of collapsing.

"Stop! Calm down! Cease!" Baisha realized it was Uleriel frantically tearing through the metal walls and immediately shouted, "I'm in the ventilation duct, not planning to die, just tired from climbing—if you don't stop, I really will die!"

Silence returned to the surroundings immediately.

"…I'm coming to get you," Uleriel's voice came through the communicator, his tone still gentle, calm, and restrained, but Baisha inexplicably sensed a hint of warning, "Please stay where you are and don't move."

Baisha's rebelliousness was instantly provoked, and she instinctively retorted, "Are you teaching me what to do?"

Uleriel: "…"

The ventilation duct suddenly shook again.

Baisha: "Stop, stop, stop, hold your horses—"

The next moment, the heavy metal was forcibly opened. The ventilation duct Baisha was sitting in suddenly tilted downward, sliding her along. Barely a second into her slide, the duct's descent halted, freezing at an approximate 45-degree angle in mid-air.

"Come out now." This time it was a real voice, not through the communicator, "I'll catch you."

Baisha: "…"

Today truly marks a day when the prince's dignity is nowhere to be found.

……

Baisha was brought back to the starship.

The fleet's medic rushed to her side immediately and, after some examination, announced that besides some superficial wounds, her right shoulder was fractured and needed treatment before it could be healed in the medical pod.

Baisha looked around during the treatment break and realized she might be the most severely injured. She wasn't sure whether to feel relieved or upset.

"Please bear with it a little longer," the medic said as he applied a new bandage on Baisha, "For safety, we'll do a repositioning surgery once we get back."

Normally, treating a fracture wouldn’t be so complicated, as the starship's medical equipment was more than capable. But since it was Baisha's right shoulder, a poor treatment outcome could affect her future combat ability, so no one wanted to take any risks.

Baisha nodded wearily.

"You can rest for a while," the medic suggested, "It will help with your recovery."

"Wait," Baisha caught hold of him, asking, "Have the sea people who were brought up been processed? Is there any—"

"I know what you want to ask," the medic replied gently, "We found Prince Cephas and Mr. Bai Yi. They're still in the hibernation pods, haven't awakened yet, but their vital signs are stable. We'll know more after the doctors complete their examinations. Do you want to go see them?"

Baisha hesitated briefly, then nodded emphatically.

The number of sea people they had rescued wasn't large, just a few hundred.

Most of the sea people had likely perished during the Silver Central's invasion of the Solitary Light, and some of those sealed in the hibernation pods had also died. When they searched the pods, many were empty and abandoned, and some of the seemingly sleeping sea people had already lost brain activity.

"We copied a portion of the system records and found that, recently, when the 'Virtual Theatre' function of Unbounded City went online, a batch of Sea Kind perished due to the sudden increase in brain load."

"The rest can be considered the luckiest among the lucky ones—their physical constitution and mental strength are generally stronger than the average of their kind."

"Hundreds of transparent hibernation pods lay quietly in the starship's warehouse."

"Led by the medic, Baisha slowly approached the hibernation pods of Sepis and Bai Yi."

"Their pods were placed side by side. Baisha could easily see their faces."

"Like the other hibernating Sea Kind, they were pale and peaceful."

"Baisha was very familiar with Sepis's face, identical to those she had seen in the image archives."

"And Bai Yi, whom Baisha had never met before, looked remarkably similar to how she had imagined. Soft black hair, a gentle demeanor. Despite his delicate features, there was no hint of aggressiveness, with every inch of his face embodying gentleness, a kind of temperamentally beautiful person, appearing as someone pure and perhaps easily compassionate."

"'Hello,' Baisha said, touching their faces through the pod surface, '...I'm back.'"