Bei looks at a flower in her studio.
It is dark red and cup-shaped, with slender white flower stems and feather-like scales. She was not a botanical expert, but she was sure she had never encountered anything like it. Yes, there was no flower she knew that could suddenly grow out of a tightly welded metal workbench and continue to emit a clear, unaccidental tune. The sound seemed to come from the inside of their skulls.
Two of her assistants were shouting in horror. It wasn't just for the wineglass flower, in fact, the entire studio was filled with madness. From their feet to their heads, plants or ectopic brain creatures are growing wildly. They break through the alloy as easily as pushing through soft mud. This is a terrorist attack. Bei heard one of her assistants say this. Sirens did sound from outside.
But something is wrong here. She noticed it right away after looking at the many flowers. Most creatures with ectopic brains can distribute their thinking nerves throughout their bodies without the need for a central organ for calculations. They are also good at disguising themselves into multiple forms, but that does not mean that they can escape the limitations of the material itself. A plant burrowing through the specially made alloy walls of her laboratory was unreasonable. She looked carefully and found that the drilled hole was so small and just right, fitting closely with the flower stem, as if it was not a drilled hole at all, but the flower stem and the alloy plate overlapped together. This is such a simple and absurd scene, in her eyes, it is better than all the surrounding vegetation singing wildly. The answer soon appeared in her calm and clear mind: in the computing center, an impossible task could only be completed by the slicer.
This conclusion made her ecstatic. But doubts soon dampened her joy. Yes, this was obviously caused by the Slicer activating, although the manifestation was beyond her imagination. But why now? She quickly reviewed her day's routine. She and her team are still simulating diseased structures in dissociated patients, an offline effort that has no chance of interfering with the operation of the slicer. Jules or Qi Wen? Not impossible. But they have been doing experimental work for a long time. This has never happened before. Also, she didn't understand why the Divider was creating these plants, it didn't seem to have any clear purpose.
The studio twisting continues. The console and floor are completely engulfed in colorful and showy plants. A green stream of water dropped from above their heads, and several small heads swam and sang in it. This triggered new panic among the assistants, because these heads did not look like bones, but more like some kind of carbonate-like product, but at the same time they were alive. They emerged from the green stream overhead and piled up into a small peak. Rhymes flow from every orifice of the skull.
The walls and ceiling all disappeared. There are only wildly spreading, deep and shallow green vegetation, bright and colorful flowers, flowing water, and gray stone peaks made of piles of heads. All these things sang horribly, like a requiem for the death of the universe.
In the chorus of thousands of strange lives, she heard Zal's cry on the verge of collapse. The latter seemed to regard this as the real doomsday - before completely losing the ability to communicate, patients with dissociative disease always claimed that they heard the sound of the destruction of the universe. But this is impossible, she reasoned, there is still time before the big squeeze threatens the computing center. The sound insulation structure of the computing center can also avoid the appearance of "artificial patients" to the greatest extent. All this before her eyes must be related to the slicer.
Bei ran to the safe box in the corner, trying to find the spare weapon placed inside. She is not a very good adventurer, but she has received basic emergency training, and if she can get her hands on a high-powered shooting gun, her intelligence will have more room to use. But she failed to find what she was looking for. When she risked opening the dark green-covered safety box lid, what swam out from inside were two huge insects with lepidopteran characteristics.
They flew out almost close to Bei's scalp, and the lines on their wings were like the woods in the light green mist. From the depths of the pink forest painting, she heard another completely different low melody. Yes, the flight organs of these two lepidopteran insects are singing too.
She backed away from their tentacles and mouthparts, and fell into the flowing green water. The water had formed a small, unfathomable lake, but instead of filling the room—the walls that served as boundaries had disappeared—she and the others in the studio fell into an endless, grotesque garden. inside.
They have to go away, find the slicer, and terminate the erroneous operation. It was obvious that there was a serious problem with the start-up of the slicer. But at this time, the original door had disappeared along with the wall. Bei walked there based on her memory, hoping that it would be preserved like the safety box.
She trudged through the green water. This thin Milky Way seems to be rich in some kind of algae, but it does not have a fishy smell. On the contrary, it has a kind of deep fragrance. The water itself is singing, a tinkling sound. Bei hoped that her dizziness was caused by the strange sound of the water and not by any toxic ingredients in it. During this short journey, she also tried to call her two assistants and ask them to go to the energy control room or computer room with her. But they paid no attention to her, and instead swayed and danced in the chaotic and wild garden. Blood springs overflowed from their ear holes and merged into the emerald-green water. They may have been deaf and did not hear her calls, or they may have been mentally damaged and therefore ignored her instructions.
They were all her beloved students. But rescuing them now seems impractical. She didn't know why she was safe, but she had to go to the energy control room alone to terminate the operation. Of all the people with access, she was probably the closest - if the central control room still existed.
The filamentous meadows taller than people float upward like tapeworms, making a vibrating chirp of wires as the air blows. Bei used the sleeves of her protective clothing to push them aside and get out from the relatively sparse bottom. She did grab a door where the studio's exit used to be. But it wasn't a metal door, but an old wooden handle. It was made into the shape of some kind of sinuous, crawling creature, and Bei was surprised to find that the door was silent. In the chorus of all the songs of madness, she grasped a door of silence. It faithfully maintained the state a dead thing should have, but it made Bei feel even more uneasy. Maintaining normality amid abnormality is not necessarily a good sign.
She still risked turning the handle and opening the simple and old wooden door. The dancing meadow obscured her view, leaving her with only a small glimpse of what lay behind the door. It was very blurry and dim, but she did see familiar walkways and green emergency lights. It seemed that the loss of control in her studio had not spread to the entire computing center. She speculated that this was related to regional energy consumption or the occupation of computing power.
Behind her, her students have joined in the chorus. There was no time to think about it. She had to shut down the entire computing process before madness swept through the organization, or worse. She is the closest one and is also familiar with the design of the entire institution. Everything depends on her acting quickly enough - or, it should be said, being lucky enough.
Bei secretly prayed that her students' condition was not permanently damaged, and then slipped behind the door without hesitation. The world of wild singing quickly escaped behind her, and she returned to a relatively quiet world, but she still felt wet under her feet, as if she was wading in the fragrant and melancholy green stream.
"Bei!" She heard someone calling her from behind. When she turned around, she saw Kimo from the committee running towards her. His face was full of horror, but it wasn't because of seeing her. At this time, they were in the same red river, and their noses were filled with an intoxicating aroma. The light cyan walls of the passage look unprecedentedly bright, and the lighting is golden and bright. Every color is extremely beautiful, like the scene they saw when they were first born into the world.
Kimo was still shouting, and it took Belle a while to realize that he was sensible. His shouts were different from those of her assistants, but were repeated attempts to convey some terror to her.
"Dead people!" he shouted, "They are all dead here!"
