Chapter 158: Kill the VIP (13)

Chapter 158: Killing the VIP (Thirteen)

The Noble Queen Shop.

It was late at night, and Song Zhizhang was searching for Lin Xiaofeng.

After Zhu Ning left, Lin Xiaofeng took off her red hat, not wanting to be seen by anyone, so Song Zhizhang couldn't find her anywhere.

Song Zhizhang sat in the empty living room, surrounded by darkness; Lin Xiaofeng hadn't even turned on the lights.

Song Zhizhang contacted her through his secondary brain: "Are you there?"

Lin Xiaofeng's secondary brain was also transparent, making this method of communication feel very safe for her.

Lin Xiaofeng was curled up in a corner behind the curtains, invisible to everyone. A meter away lay the skiing equipment Zhu Ning had bought, including a set of protective suits she had chosen for Lin Xiaofeng.

They had been skiing just yesterday.

Seeing Song Zhizhang's message, Lin Xiaofeng replied with a simple "I'm okay," accompanied by a cute rabbit emoji.

Song Zhizhang knew that Lin Xiaofeng was very sensible and would never say she needed company. She had grown up too quickly, and after Zhu Ning left, she became extremely quiet.

"Can I sit here?" Song Zhizhang asked.

He didn't offer any comforting words or assurances that Zhu Ning would win.

He felt as uneasy as Lin Xiaofeng did, with no heart for running the shop. He just wanted to be in the same space as her. Zhu Ning was going to kill Bao Ruiming, and the pressure on Lin Xiaofeng must have been immense. He believed such a young child needed someone to be with her.

Song Zhizhang wouldn't disturb her; he would just sit quietly.

After a while, Lin Xiaofeng replied, "Sure."

Then both fell silent. Lin Xiaofeng turned off her secondary brain and buried her chin in her knees.

Closing her eyes, Lin Xiaofeng felt as if she wasn't in the Noble Queen Shop but still in the Mechanical Oceanarium. It seemed like a nightmare from which she hadn't yet awakened.

The seawater was so cold, and Lin Xiaofeng moved among the floating bodies, checking each one in the accumulated water.

When she turned over one body, the mechanical tentacles of the jellyfish that had emerged from Su Qingqing's chest were still twitching.

Lin Xiaofeng remembered her reaction when she found Su Qingqing's body; it was swollen from being submerged in water.

Now, whenever Lin Xiaofeng closed her eyes, Su Qingqing's face merged with Zhu Ning's. It was Zhu Ning's face.

The incident at the Mechanical Oceanarium was far from over. Bao Ruiming clung to Lin Xiaofeng like a ghost, preventing her from moving forward.

If Zhu Ning died, her mental state would truly collapse.

She couldn't bear it; she couldn't go through it again.

...

In the Cloud of Consciousness.

Bao Ruiming's legs bent, broken in the middle, forming an exaggerated arc, like a crab standing on its tiptoes.

Sharp crab legs pierced through his neatly pressed suit pants, starting with two, then four, and finally eight.

The crab legs gleamed with a mechanical luster, and the entire figure stood eight meters tall, almost touching the ceiling of the church. At the same time, his upper body writhed continuously.

Under the suit vest, the flesh bulged and moved, his aged face twisted and swollen, with worms wriggling beneath the skin. His eyeballs burst and regrew, and inside his mouth, countless octopus tentacles writhed.

In the blink of an eye, Bao Ruiming transformed from a gray-haired old professor into a monster with a mechanical crab's lower body and an octopus's tentacles for an upper body.

Not only that, but the surroundings changed as well. The black lines within the church multiplied, and the congregation came back to life, the shattered statue of the deity reassembled and revived.

Everything returned to how it was when Zhu Ning first arrived.

Bao Ruiming's contamination zone had opened, and he had assimilated the entire Floating Sand Island.

His mind was like a web of countless struggling threads, his sanity gradually fading. At that moment, he had only one thought: to kill Zhu Ning.

He had to prove the absurdity of the Alpha experiment, that the contaminants were the future, and that God had once bestowed him with power.

Having come this far, killing Zhu Ning would ensure success.

Kill Zhu Ning.

Bao Ruiming trembled with his eight legs, the tentacles in his mouth extending like blades, aiming for Zhu Ning's heart. As he moved, the red-robed congregation advanced together, surging toward their target like a tide.

With the contamination zone open, all the contaminants within it shared a collective consciousness, becoming one.

Zhu Ning stood in the center of the church, data flowing in her eyes, which burned like two icy blue flames.

She was trying to manipulate the data, much like when she first gained Metal Manipulation and tried to control metal, starting with a coin, then a wall, and finally an entire hive.

Now, Zhu Ning was attempting to control the data, capable of rewriting everything.

To Zhu Ning, this was a world of idealism, where she was her own god, able to create anything, including monsters like Bao Ruiming.

Instantly possessing god-like powers was disorienting, and her imagination was limited, so her first instinct was to conjure a knife.

A meter-long blade, perfectly balanced in her hand, slicing through the air with great speed.

As the advancing congregation collided with the blade, there was no blood, only cold data.

This was an unfair battle of abilities. Opening the contamination zone in the Cloud of Consciousness was like a virus-infected program, still just a string of data.

Bao Ruiming's move was a desperate last stand, a final act of loyalty to his faith.

He should die for his cause.

One after another, the followers collided with Zhu Ning, like wheat stalks severed by a blade, they fell in rows. A follower rushed at Zhu Ning; her wrist sank, and the long sword pierced through his chin and out the top of his skull.

This was a pure game of slaughter.

There were many obstacles, but Zhu Ning paid no attention to anyone else; her eyes had locked onto Bao Ruiming.

This was a contaminated area, and Bao Ruiming was the source of contamination. She didn't even need to search for him.

Bao Ruiming was Lin Xiaofeng's enemy, and Zhu Ning had promised to avenge Lin Xiaofeng by killing Bao Ruiming. After that, Lin Xiaofeng would become Zhu Ning's employee.

From then on, Lin Xiaofeng wouldn't have to think about anything. She wouldn't be tormented by endless nightmares; she only needed to work for Zhu Ning.

Zhu Ning charged at Bao Ruiming. For them, time was scarce. Zhu Ning knew Liu Niannian had bought her some time, but for Liu Niannian, this time was limited.

Zhu Ning had to complete her task quickly—kill Bao Ruiming. This was the most concise mission the system had ever given her.

Kill Bao Ruiming.

Just five words. Zhu Ning's brows furrowed, and the blue data in her eyes seemed ready to spill over.

She had just learned to use this skill. It was the first time she played the role of a sovereign in a world. She ran swiftly inside the church, slicing through the tentacles that came at her.

Bao Ruiming attacked with malice, the tentacles descending in unison. They regrew immediately after being cut, and the followers behind him struggled to reach out and grab Zhu Ning's feet.

The knife in Zhu Ning's hand moved faster and faster. In the church, her confrontation with Bao Ruiming was so swift that it was almost blinding.

She was her own god.

As Zhu Ning approached Bao Ruiming, the crab-like legs proved more challenging than the tentacles. The mechanical limbs were so hard, like the exoskeleton of some ancient monster.

The first strike of the blade only produced sparks. Bao Ruiming's eight legs swung rapidly, like guillotines on a chopping block.

Due to his eight-meter height, his sharp legs stabbed down like a child poking ants with a pencil.

Zhu Ning dodged between the mechanical legs, which grazed her cheek, leaving a trail of blood.

She was her own god.

Zhu Ning darted past the mechanical legs, as if traversing a forest of machinery. Ahead, a gap opened between two mechanical legs.

She leaped forward, and her long sword instantly extended from one meter to four meters. Zhu Ning held the central part, with sharp blades extending both ways.

She was her own god.

The long sword sliced through Bao Ruiming's body, cutting a sharp line across his waist. Before he could react, his mechanical legs continued to move, and the tentacles on his upper body writhed.

When a person is suddenly cut in half, their nerves can't respond. Like in ancient battlefields where a decapitated head could still move forward, a second later, Bao Ruiming's upper body slid off.

The tentacles and mechanical legs were completely separated.

Bao Ruiming didn't even have time to struggle before Zhu Ning cut him in half.

His upper body fell like rotten meat.

Zhu Ning panted heavily. She had never engaged in such a "battle," it felt like playing an exhilarating game.

Her abdomen was still injured, her back still bleeding, and her cheek was streaming with blood, but she couldn't feel it.

Her blood, or rather, her data stream, was boiling. She was driven by an ultimate goal.

Kill Bao Ruiming.

The pursuit of victory was the most exhilarating. His forces were shattered, and the morale he had barely gathered would quickly dissipate.

Zhu Ning raised her sword, and it moved swiftly, slicing Bao Ruiming's tentacles into pieces.

The dead followers and Bao Ruiming's severed limbs were crushed by a storm of data, turning into streams of code, like cold, falling leaves or a snowfall composed of data fragments.

The battle ended so quickly. Bao Ruiming thought that opening the contaminated area at the last moment would buy him a few seconds, allowing him to drag Zhu Ning to her death and wait for Genesis to activate the final program.

He thought he could die alongside Zhu Ning.

But it didn't happen. He couldn't make Zhu Ning die before him.

Bao Ruiming was left with only his upper body, his suit torn to shreds, with only a few rags hanging from his tentacles.

Anyone would see him as a monster: one head, everything below the chest cut off, his mouth wide open, with broken tentacles writhing inside.

Bao Ruiming looked up at the church ceiling. His broken tentacles suddenly moved, and Zhu Ning thought he was trying to fight back.

Unexpectedly, Bao Ruiming took the opposite direction. He looked up at the position of his god and, with great difficulty, crawled toward his deity.

The tentacles writhed, dragging his head forward, leaving a bloody trail on the ground, like a hideous worm crushed into a paste.

Bao Ruiming looked up at the statue of his god, a devoted believer crawling forward on his belly.

God.

God looked down at him, eyes devoid of any emotion. Bao Ruiming lost, but his cause did not. There was still a chance.

Everything was still possible.

With a soft thud—

A long sword pierced his heart. He looked down, seeing the ice-blue blade shimmering with code, blood and flesh dripping slowly down the edge.

Zhu Ning stood behind him, her voice cold, "What are you thinking?"

What is he thinking? Why can't he find peace even in death?

"Could it be that he wants to return to his mother's embrace?" Zhu Ning mocked him; such people were the strangest, suddenly craving their mothers at the brink of death.

Zhu Ning slowly turned the blade, and Bao Ruiming’s body was melting in the cut.

He was dying.

Zhu Ning watched the statue expressionlessly. For someone like Bao Ruiming, being able to see his faith before death was too comfortable.

Zhu Ning: "Think about Lin Xiaofeng?"

Lin Xiaofeng? Bao Ruiming had never taken this person seriously. She was just a discarded heroine, a part of his grand performance.

Once discarded, why should he recall Lin Xiaofeng on his deathbed?

Zhu Ning: "You destroyed her."

An adult couldn’t bear such a heavy psychological shadow, yet the young girl endured it silently. Her silence didn’t mean she didn’t have scars inside.

Some things are like that, impossible to get over for a lifetime, and every time they are recalled, they hurt.

Bao Ruiming left such a scar on Lin Xiaofeng, and Zhu Ning and Lin Xiaofeng might need a lifetime to heal it.

Whether Bao Ruiming was mad or not, he suddenly burst into laughter, "She’s still alive?"

Everyone in the Mechanical Oceanarium was wiped out, and under the supervision of the cleaning center, nothing should have been taken out.

Lin Xiaofeng was theoretically dead in the Mechanical Oceanarium.

Zhu Ning: "Unfortunately, I’m still taking care of her."

Bao Ruiming laughed, almost distortedly. This was good; he would live forever in Lin Xiaofeng’s heart, becoming her nightmare.

Lin Xiaofeng was created by Bao Ruiming, and her survival was his legacy.

Zhu Ning paid no attention to Bao Ruiming’s laughter; she would take good care of Lin Xiaofeng.

Zhu Ning: "I’ve been thinking, how to make someone like you feel pain."

Before entering the consciousness cloud, Zhu Ning had imagined how to avenge Lin Xiaofeng. Bao Ruiming wasn’t afraid of death; he had long placed life and death outside his concerns.

A person like him would never repent, and might even relive Lin Xiaofeng’s suffering countless times, treating it as a trophy.

Bao Ruiming’s forehead pressed against the floor, the sharp pain making it hard for him to breathe, but he was still laughing at this moment.

Suddenly, he felt a cold hand cover the back of his head.

His skull had become a sticky, ugly mass with uneven protrusions, but when Zhu Ning touched his head, it reminded him of his mother’s caress in his childhood.

Zhu Ning was right; at this moment, people would inexplicably think of their mothers.

Bao Ruiming even felt a bit greedy for this touch.

But such tenderness lasted only an instant. Zhu Ning broke through the skull and delved into his brain.

Under Zhu Ning’s palm was Bao Ruiming’s brain. Ignoring the wet, mushy brain tissue, it was a cluster of data.

Zhu Ning: "I think betrayal would be fitting."

Facing a false idol, in the church Bao Ruiming had personally built, Zhu Ning intended to make Bao Ruiming kneel here and spill everything he knew.

Zhu Ning didn’t want to destroy Bao Ruiming’s faith; she wanted him to firmly believe that God could save humanity, and to dedicate his life to this belief.

Then, at the final step, let Bao Ruiming betray himself.

Bao Ruiming’s laughter abruptly stopped, as if someone had choked his throat, his pupils contracting sharply. Zhu Ning’s words were like the whispers of a demon, the most vicious words he had ever heard. Zhu Ning was going to read his memories.

Zhu Ning would know everything.

He wasn’t afraid of death, but he couldn’t ruin his cause.

Bao Ruiming struggled frantically, wanting to escape immediately, but he had no strength. His brain was firmly controlled by Zhu Ning.

With a great force, Bao Ruiming was forced to raise his head, facing the towering statue.

He felt his brain collapse into fragments, turning into a stream of data flowing into Zhu Ning’s palm. Reading his memories took Zhu Ning only a second.

Data rolled in Zhu Ning’s pupils, already connected to Bao Ruiming’s brain. "Don’t worry, it will be quick."