Chapter 179 The bottom of the ruins (3)

He was dreaming again.

Like every dream in the past.

The dead disturb the living and deny him purification.

But this time is different. In the past, he could only dream of the phantom Ryan, but this time, he saw a very clear scene from the perspective of a bystander.

He saw the cloud of Omega Alien reflected on the windowpane of the Black Shark base. He saw the leader of the base who took off his hood, who was also Empress Dowager Sylph.

"Little Highness, Kaios... I don't know what information your original body consciousness left you, but you must know."

The old woman's expression was complicated and solemn: "'He''s current mental state is very likely to be abnormal, 'he' is probably insane, and it was my hasty mistake to wake up 'his' consciousness, you don't have to Listen to the nonsense."

On the opposite side, the young prince was dressed in a formal dress with a thick red robe. He showed a beautiful smile, but his voice was as cold as an ice knife: "Then, I'm crazy too."

He put his palm lightly on his heart, "Boss, please tell me what else this body can do."

"His idea is almost impossible to realize, it's too bizarre, there is no precedent." Sylph shook his head, "I don't understand how this person can be so arrogant."

Ryan: "He said it was an unfinished business."

Sylph: "Even if the end of the journey is death?"

"What if the end of death is a reunion?"

Ryan responded with a rhetorical question.

"It doesn't have to be a reunion," Sylph said. "What you said is to let the little lord choose by himself."

Whether to stay in the empire and live an ordinary but peaceful life; or cut off the back road and embark on the path of the sea of ​​​​stars full of pain and hardship.

But this is not actually a choice. There should be two paths in front of people to choose a direction. Jiang Jianming clearly has only the first path in front of him.

Unless he is willing to take a new path by himself, it is also "almost impossible", "too bizarre", and "never precedent".

"His Royal Highness," Sylph said helplessly, "do you really want to use your life to do something more illusory in order to gamble on an illusory possibility?"

Ryan: "Yeah, I've decided. In the end, whatever it is, I'll accept it."

Sylph closed her eyes and sighed, as if she had realized that she couldn't be persuaded.

"At least," she said bitterly, "you can't be too greedy."

"Do you choose to be the ruler and shoulder of this empire, the strongest weapon for mankind to fight back against the crystal nest... Or choose to love the person you want to love, please choose one."

"I mean, the plan to die in the crystal nest is ridiculous. If you really make up your mind, you can choose the way of comfort. As for the extraction of crystal particles, it is not impossible for the Black Shark Base to—"

The young prince laughed again when he heard the words, the birds of the alien star were chirping in the distance, and the mighty dusk by the window was lengthening his shadow.

He has the elegance that the royal family has cultivated since childhood, which is slightly different from the original founding emperor and the second matrix later.

"Do not."

Ryan smiled and said, "I'm greedy, I don't choose."

Then he repeated what he just said, "Tell me, what else can this body do."

In the dream, the scene changes and time flies.

"You can try to take it orally for multiple days in a row."

Sylph put a potion on the table and made a soft sound.

"This is the failed output of the third-generation sedative in the base's research. It will not weaken the power of the crystal bone, and it can also play the same role as a sedative."

Ryan's eyes jumped: "...This is also called 'failure output'?"

Sylph explained: "The side effects are too large to be popularized, and it can only be used by people who are courting death."

Ryan eased his brows, opened it and drank slowly.

Sylph said: "I will place the anti-crystal nest weapons used in the White Bird expedition on the crown of Jin Xiao, and then ask Your Highness to put them all into the crystal nest."

"Um."

"Remember to turn on the video and data monitoring. If you can really reach the crystal nest, it can be regarded as a guide for the next expedition of Yinbeidou."

"Know."

"Let Your Majesty Lin Ge worry about what happens after you. If you have any last words, I can write them down for you."

Ryan nodded, opened his mouth to say something, and suddenly his face turned pale.

With a bang, he knocked over the chair, collapsed on the floor in cold sweat, and quickly twitched, and the crystal bone emerged from his body uncontrollably, piercing the floor.

Sylph sighed and opened his eyes: "It's a side effect of the drug. Please try your best to control the crystal bone and not self-harm. If you need external restraint, please tell me..."

"Of course, you can stop anytime you want."

……that's it.

The underage crown prince took the initiative to walk into the depths of the Black Shark base.

He drinks intestinal poison-like sedatives every day, sticks electrodes like electrodes on his temples to simulate the mental impact of crystal particles, and conducts continuous high-intensity training.

Those tortures are enough to destroy a person.

The leader is very busy. He can only come to see him every few days. Every time he asks, "Can you still hold on? It's too late to stop now."

In the room, Lean's hair was long and messy, leaning against the window wearily and asking, "Is the military school on summer vacation?"

He stared at the morning glow of the alien star, remembering the day he proposed to the black-haired military cadet.

Sylph was stunned for a while, saying that this needs to be confirmed again. According to the dates of previous years, it should be almost the same.

But the semester was a little late that year, and when the summer vacation really came, it was already a week later.

When the leader came back, Ryan was curled up in a dark corner, as if he had been fished out of water.

He was a little insane, and he continued to have a high fever under the effect of the drug, shivering like a small beast.

"Do you want to continue?" Sylph asked him, "It's too late to look back now. Yesterday, the sixth academy finished the last course, and the students all left the school. Your Excellency is looking forward to your coming back to accompany him."

The crown prince was confused, narrowed his eyes and muttered dazedly, saying that he wanted to hear Jiang Jianming's voice.

Sylph touched his sweaty forehead: "Will you send a message to your little lord?"

"No." Ryan suddenly woke up, holding down the leader's black armor gloves, "No, no need."

That night, his state suddenly deteriorated, and he fell into a coma several times, until he suddenly woke up in the early morning two days later.

I don't know if it was a nightmare or what, but the crown prince looked around in the dark with a look of panic, gasping for breath.

He suddenly burst into tears, grabbed the head of the bed and wept, and said upside down, "No... I haven't... I haven't had time..."

What can't you do yet?

I haven't had time to disclose my underground lover to the empire, and I haven't had time to give Jiang Jianming an upright identity and status.

I didn't have time to fulfill the promises made, and didn't have time to walk into a happy future hand in hand.

"I've always wanted him to believe...he wanted him to wait for me...but now..."

Sylph patted him on the back like a baby, and coaxed softly, "Those that haven't had time yet, the next matrix will do it for you."

"No, no... The next one... will never treat him better than me, and he will never forgive me and trust me again."

"..."

"What's more," Ryan's eyes were covered with a layer of fog, and he looked ruthless in the dark, "What if the next character is bad, what if I bully him?"

After another moment of silence, he said blankly: "After I die, he will be alone. Who will protect him? He is just a crystalless human... and so strong."

Sylph stroked his shoulder, "So, do you want to stop?"

"Stop, you can drive the starship back immediately. Now the third district of Aslan Star City should be in the afternoon, and you still have time to accompany him to dinner."

Ryan closed his eyes and trembled. He said, "No."

Sylph: "Why? There was no need to be so extreme. There are still many years before the war starts. You can cherish the moment and love each other more deeply."

"When the war starts in a few years, you will go to the front, and he will wait for your return in the rear, just like he is doing now."

"Perhaps the war was won unexpectedly and quickly, and you returned to him full of glory, dedicating the medal to him as a gift, and picking up those things that were not done in time."

"You can open your relationship and get married in an open and honest way. Although your little lord cannot become an officer, he will be an excellent scholar, professor or mecha master. If he achieves results, it will not prevent him from being loved, even Qing Shi left his name."

"Gradually, there will be people who think that the crown prince and his lover are actually a good match. Many years later, you have become the relationship between the emperor and the queen, and you have been together until the end of your life. The story spread to every street in the nine star cities of the empire. lane."

In the quiet darkness, the tone of the leader's narration was like a fairy tale.

Sylph raised her eyes and sighed softly: "You think about it, isn't this also a very happy and fulfilling life?"

There was no sound in the room for a long time.

The leader looked down and found that the crown prince had fallen asleep, tears wet his eyelashes and silently slipped into his temples.

When he woke up the next day, Ryan still hadn't given up on his plan.

Days passed like this, and the moment finally came.

In fact, the crown prince could have done nothing but planned an unwitting disappearance and death.

But Ryan believes that there is still an explanation and farewell to the Empire and the military, and he really wants to see Jiang Jianming's face and hear Jiang Jianming's voice at last.

That day, Ryan made a lot of preparations in advance, got enough sleep the night before, and got up early the next day to take a shower and change clothes.

He gave himself all kinds of overdose in an attempt to make him look better, and he double-checked it seriously in front of the mirror.

no problem.

Except a little nervous.

He also knew that it would probably take a long time to argue with Old Marshal Chen's gang. In order not to delay the usual medication, he took out a goblet and kept it at hand.

The liquid medicine given to him by the leader is transparent, and pouring it into this kind of cup should be able to pretend to be alcohol or something... Although Jiang doesn't like his underage drinking, there is nothing he can do.

In the final newsletter, many people came and went.

Ryan patiently dealt with them one by one.

Every time the door on the opposite side opened, his heart would hang up, and when he realized that it was not the same person, he would fall back to his original place.

After a long, long time, finally.

The door opened.

A young cadet with black hair and black eyes walked in.

Ryan's heart beat faster.

He looked at Jiang Jianming's slightly tense face, pale lips, slender eyebrows, anxious eyes and a hint of anger... It was so beautiful.

His voice is also nice. Usually it's more gentle, but today is probably really urgent, with a bit of a cold edge.

It turned out that just being able to live, looking at the face of the person you like, and listening to him talk to yourself, is already such a rare thing.

If only could be a little more extravagant, really want to hug him.

...

Later, the communication went black.

Ryan watched Jiang Jianming cut off the communication. Before, he was motionless like a cold stone sculpture, but when the projection on the opposite side disappeared, he collapsed in an instant.

The glass fell to the ground, and the shards flew. He pounced, his fingers pierced through nothingness, and in the end he could only clasp on the cold communication machine.

Don't, don't... wait, don't go.

Let me look at you one more time, and say one more word to me.

The young prince fell to the ground and cried bitterly. He whimpered and said sorry, sorry, sorry...

He cried until he passed out.

No outsiders came in the room, probably because Ryan had guessed that he was going to lose his temper, and removed the miscellaneous people in advance to avoid losing face.

Therefore, when the people from the Black Shark Base saw the Crown Prince again the next day, His Highness had already cleaned himself up quite normally, except for the redness and swelling of his eye sockets.

He said to the leader, "You can go."

The crown of Jin Xiao started the jump, passed through the wormhole, and came to a known coordinate point closest to the crystal nest.

The mech started walking alone.

In the cockpit, Lai quietly looked at the universe in front of him.

The next tragic journey does not belong to him, or not only belongs to him now. This trip is too difficult, and the memory of the original body will be merged to make him stronger.

He is a base, a container. After the memory is merged, this matrix will die in the crystal nest.

So for this seventeen-year-old young prince, now is the time to say goodbye to pure self-consciousness. From another perspective, it is indeed death.

The road ahead is uncertain, not even knowing if his own death is meaningful.

That's it... he also dared to gamble.

"Chief." The young prince's lips were pale, and he asked dreamily, "What will be the end of death?"

In the communication, Sylph stared at the child: "It will be a reunion, my highness."

Ryan smiled relievedly: "Actually, it doesn't matter if we don't meet again, as long as he can get better."

The crown prince closed his eyes calmly. Soon, that smile faded away.

Like a spring breeze blowing from the depths of the soul, the residual snow has subsided.

When those emerald green eyes were opened again, the momentum contained in them had become deeper, and the depths were bottomless.

"The child is still immature."

Inside the mecha, Ryan sat up straight and wiped away the water marks at the end of his eyes with a headache, "Tsk, the next matrix will start from scratch again."

"Subconsciously, it will keep some." Sylph said.

"Unfortunately, the next one doesn't have so much time to grow up." Ryan laughed at himself, and then said with disappointment, "...Let him teach me a good lesson."

When he said this, the prince's expression was soft and tame, but the powerful red-gold crystal bones had begun to grow from his shoulders.

"Who said I was arrogant and conceited?"

L-Jin Xiaozhi's crown is still in the smectic nest universe.

The dark gold shell is covered with scars, and the equipped crystal nest weapon is completely empty, and there are countless alien creatures killed along the way.

"Sylph, look, this isn't..."

The young man smiled, his brows and eyes flashed with arrogant brilliance, he supported the driver's seat with both hands, stood up precariously, and with his movements, viscous blood splashed down.

"I don't have a choice... have you done it..."

The sound drifted like a cloud.

Even with the help of drugs, the hard work along the way has made his crystal bone backlash to a very serious level.

"Silph?"

On the other end, there was only the interfering sound of sizzling.

The distance is too far, and the communication has been cut off long ago.

"..."

Lean narrowed his eyes for a long time, then panted slightly and reached out his hand to turn off the communication, so there was no disturbing sound.

The inside of Jin Xiaozhi's crown was dark, and blood was still dripping down the edge and armrest of the driver's seat.

Tick, tick... It became the only sound in the mecha, but it was so suppressed that it was creepy.

Ryan looked up beyond the mecha, realizing that he had finally reached the end of everything he had lost.

The dark cosmic space expands infinitely.

There are no compatriots here, no way back, no familiar life forms other than myself, and the mecha is as small as a speck of dust.

Only the tombs that were selected in advance, the crystal nests covered with white crystals. It is huge, mysterious and silent, like a living eyeball in a dark universe.

Extreme silence, extreme desolation, extreme loneliness.

Ryan finally checked the data inside the mech, and slumped back into the driver's seat.

He felt that Jin Xiao could go a little further, so he activated the mecha again, and he leaned his head down on the driver's seat and didn't move.

Another long time passed.

Ryan's face was already very pale, and he was almost dead with his eyes closed. But suddenly, his eyelashes trembled, and he shouted:

"ginger."

Then there was a sigh, and the five flavors were mixed.

"If you can see now..."

The teenager coaxed softly with pity: "Don't cry."

...

- Crack! !

In an instant, a crack ran through the space.

dreamland.

The lost dreamer finally realizes that this is a dream.

Jiang Jianming raised his tearful face, he didn't know when he started crying.

He looked around in a trance and saw the icy mecha, the cold blood, the dark universe, the dead crystal nest... and the boy with platinum curly hair and emerald green eyes.

"If everything goes well, my crystal particles...should take away some of my consciousness, including memories and emotions...I don't know how much you can see in the future...cough."

Ryan still closed his eyes and whispered weakly, "Okay, alright...good, stop crying...listen to me."

Is it a dream?

Is it really a dream?

Half-dreaming and half-awake, he once smelled the wind in the midsummer morning.

Someone's fingertips caressed his cheek.

"..." Jiang Jianming suddenly covered half of his eyes with his palms, gritted his teeth, but couldn't stop the tears from gushing out.

"Liar, you lied to me."

He laughed miserably: "Didn't you say that...Is there something more important than loving me?"

At this point, finally realized.

Not a dream.

It is the most real call from the soul.

"The death of the matrix will cause mental damage... Next time I see you with complete memory, I don't know what it will be like..."

"No, I don't know if there is any chance to see you again... Jiang, are you here?"

Ryan went on talking to himself.Of course, the crown prince four years ago could not predict the future. The time and space he was in was still only accompanied by darkness and blood.

All he can do is believe, that Jiang Jianming will reach this point one day, that Jiang Jianming will hear his words one day.

Jiang Jianming closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

He took a step forward, crossed the crack that traversed the dream, traversed the river of time for nearly four years, and placed his palm on the boy's head.

In this vast and magnificent "dreamland", the moment the tears rolled silently, he bent down and kissed Ryan's forehead lightly, choked out his mouth.

"Well, I am here, Your Highness."

Across time and space, across life and death.

They actually embraced each other in fantasy.