At first, Bei failed to understand the meaning of his shouts. The first thing she felt was concern about the loss of life within the institution. This is entirely possible. Now that her two assistants had been driven crazy by this sudden change, she couldn't imagine what would happen to those who were in higher energy areas, or even happened to be maintaining the mainframe and computing module partitions.
She put her hands on Kimo's shoulders and asked him in a strong voice to calm down. As a new member of the committee, Kimo has undoubtedly had a lot of training in dealing with the unexpected. When Bei asked him to stop shouting, he quickly chose to obey and waited for Bei's questions with focused eyes. She couldn't help but feel relieved, confirming that the newly appointed committee member had not lost his mind. He can probably help in the next action.
"We are all alive, the casualties are only a few." She said to Kimo, "Calm down, Commissioner! This was just an accident. The slicer was probably activated. This is exciting news! Our efforts We're almost there, but I'm afraid there's something wrong here... some setup problem, so now we have to figure out how to correct it. Are you armed?"
Kimo still seemed short of breath, but by the time Bei was halfway through speaking, his demeanor had regained his composure. He quickly took out a short black stick from his uniform. Bei recognized that it was a sonic cutting knife. It was indeed one of the standard weapons equipped by the committee, but it should not be the only one. Her confused look once again made Kimo's breathing quicken.
"The gun flew away." He explained a little messily. "It turned into a monster..."
Bei showed her affirmative attitude with her eyes. All this is obviously beyond the understanding of the new committee members.
"I understand," she said. "Please don't be nervous, Commissioner. I believe that someone in your position would not lose equipment due to negligence. We are now in a rare emergency situation, and your surprise is understandable." But we don’t have much time to explain. Please hold on to your weapon, we may need it in our next operation.”
"I see," Kimo said shortly. Bei's words seemed to have successfully brought him back to normal order. He was able to understand the current crisis and get into working mode. He started the cutting knife and then looked at Bei: "What should we do?"
"We need to find the energy control room. No matter how everything in front of us is made, it is the result of the slicer operation. We need to shut down the host first."
Kimo asked, "And then this will all stop?"
Bei paused. In fact, she doesn't know. This was also something she had never seen before. Her professional knowledge does not help her make more accurate judgments than Kimo, and she knows just as little as Kimo about what the infinite mind thinks. But she had to show confidence in her grasp of the situation. This is exactly what she does.
"We are the creators of the Slicer," she replied, "and no one knows it better than we do, or can hope to direct it."
The skin around Kimo's eyes wrinkled slightly. He might be confused by her choice of words as to why she should use "guidance" for a machine, or maybe he actually didn't think about anything and was just thinking about how to complete the rest of the journey.
"I have two questions." He said in a low voice, "Now that the passage has become like this, can we ensure that the energy control room still exists?"
"We have to give it a try."
"I hope it has at least some reason for us to feel like we can be successful."
Bei thought for a moment. She cannot spend time discussing the meaning of slicers or overly complex theoretical knowledge with the other party. People on the committee are always practical, so she explained tersely: "Whatever the goal of the slicer is now, it has not yet completed its final operation, and we have not seen any meaningful results. That represents all area modules Still controlled by the mainframe - in a way that we can still understand. As soon as we cut off all power, the operation will be terminated, or at least the instructions will be terminated. I can't guarantee that this is correct, Commissioner, but you can't do it now Found a more reliable answer.”
Kimo may not have been moved by her words. But they really don't have much choice, unless he is willing to coexist with this crazy place forever, or abandon the great responsibility given to him by the committee and try to escape from the institution. Bei didn't know what consequences that would have on him. She had never thought of running away. However, she did hear that those who committed misconduct on the committee would face extremely severe penalties.
After a brief silence, Kimo seemed to agree with her.
"Second question." He followed up. "I was waiting for authorization in the document room downstairs, and then I heard something in the ventilation system..."
He suddenly fell silent again. Bei thought he was organizing his words, but she couldn't hear the rest. Some thought made Kimo give up the second question. He quickly avoided Bei's sight.
"You're right, ma'am," he said. "If this was all caused by the Slicer being activated...that is, some kind of hallucination, right? We could have seen anything. Nothing strange. Well, then There is nothing to say, let us dare to go to the energy control room."
His summary could not be called correct, but Bei wisely refused to correct him. Through the subtle expressions on the other side's unconscious face, she sensed that his panic did not just come from the unknown. Yes, she concluded in her mind: Kimo had encountered something that made him panic. But one thing is right, no matter what they encounter, terminating the operation is the first priority. She led Kimo towards the energy control room.
That was only possible because of her familiarity with the internal conditions of the organization. In that brief half-moment, all the walkways were unrecognizable. The ground paved with alloy and soundproof plywood is as soft as mulch, and a bright red river flows across it. The light was as rich as a pool of gin. The walls on both sides disappeared like her studio, turning into hazy light blue mist. Purple vines hang down from their heads, but the fruits produced on the branches are silky jade stones in the shape of eyeballs.
Bei tried her best to ignore the disturbance of these sights and sounds. She convinced herself that what she was seeing was harmless, because the Dividers would not intentionally harm them, and they had strictly followed the procedures from the beginning to eliminate such risks. She displayed perfect composure, but Kimo couldn't ignore every strange sign. He scanned every direction with an alert gaze, keeping his sonic cutter in hand at all times.
As she walked, she kept an eye on her companion, just in case he suddenly fell into some dangerous mental disorder. Kimo was indeed nervous, but still defended her dutifully and took the lead in exploring any areas they had not yet explored. He is certainly not a coward. Bei knows what kind of training his position requires, and believes that he can handle corpses and torture without changing his expression. He was so out of control just because the phenomenon they faced was beyond the normal order.
However, whether it is weeds growing on steel, singing safety boxes, high-powered guns that turn into insects, or green rivers falling from the sky, none of these are inherently worth fearing. Yes, so far it has done them no harm, it frightens them beyond comprehension. But all the phenomena they witnessed were just manifestations of this unknown, an exaggerated and bizarre presentation. The real horror is invisible.
Horror, or miracle, whatever people call it, for Bei, she had already convinced herself to accept it with an open mind. If compared with the infinite thinking of patients with wandering disease, all the weird things that appear before their eyes are banal, as natural as a gust of wind or a stone. People are just more likely to be frightened by visual things because they are easy to recognize and understand, but real terror requires wisdom to identify.
That is a special compliment to a wise man. Sometimes when she thought of it her heart was filled with sadness and tenderness. She allowed the fear of death to blow over her like a gentle breeze, and the greatest terror could not leave even a trace, and this was accomplished through creation. She spent so long on this project that she almost forgot herself and became the handful of dirt that gave birth to infinite wisdom. It's not a big deal. The eternal renewal of living forms, if this be so, she gave life to, or at least provided the origin of, an idea greater than ever before. This achievement is enough to overcome any fear of annihilation. Yes, this is what she really thinks. She must move forward. Find the control room. Make sure the slicer does correct infinity operations.
It must be born.
Her pace became faster. The weird and bizarre changes in everything could no longer hold her back, and she was almost running on the red river. What's so scary? The slicer won't really hurt them. To a mind of infinite wisdom, "annihilation" and "harm" are meaningless. It's not "right" or "wrong", it's just that it doesn't make sense for action. It would only act to complete its mission, and that mission could never be to harm them - otherwise they would have been destroyed long ago.
She ran to the door of the energy control room, panting excitedly and selflessly. The river gurgled and sang, playing high-spirited and joyful music. Incredibly, she recognized that it was a piece she had listened to when she was young, the first time she was on the podium for outstanding students, with the loud metal orchestra and crisp golden bells. Kimo's shouts seemed far away.
She opened the door. The choir was waiting for her inside. A big awards show? No. no. She suddenly saw clearly. It turns out this is a sacrifice. A blood sacrifice.
