Yan Jingxing had a dream.
Very scary dream.
What's even more frightening is that both the pictures and sounds are very real and bloody, and it's the kind that would give a child a nightmare after watching it.
But Yan Jingxing's mentality is quite stable.
He was indeed startled at first, but soon noticed that he was watching from a third-person perspective.
With nothing else to distract him, he could only watch helplessly as the unlucky guy with his back turned to him was cut open. After watching it for a long time, he got used to it.
If he could really feel the pain, he would have screamed and rolled on the ground.
But the person in front of him was different. Although judging from various physiological reactions such as muscle trembling and dripping sweat, he was obviously still alive; but in the face of such torture, this guy had no intention of struggling at all. His head drooped, as if he had lost the strength to resist, or—
Asleep? Hypnotized? Lost consciousness?
"wait wait wait……"
Yan Jingxing suddenly felt that the man's back looked familiar, and his mood suddenly fluctuated.
He looks like a young man.
——This person...could it be me?
The more Yan Jingxing looked, the more he felt that it was really him, and he couldn't help but feel panicked. He didn't know whether it was the illusion caused by fear that drove him to think so, or whether he was really the victim.
No one would admire their own back all day long, so Yan Jingxing couldn't recognize it and couldn't make up his mind.
If the person being dissected is himself, what is his current perspective? Could it be that his soul is out of body?
After the "victim"'s back was cut open, the bloody operation did not stop there, but continued in a more cruel way:
The white, slender device, like a skeletal hand with skin stripped off, appeared from the side, and then inserted into the body cavity little by little, tightly grasping the entire spinal bone of the person, and then——
Pull away easily.
The human body that had lost its support lay limply like a deflated inflatable person, but soon, a brand new spinal bone was stuffed back in, supporting the person again.
Every inch of the skeleton exudes a metallic cold gray sheen, more like it was used on some kind of mechanical creation.
With the dexterous cooperation of several devices such as a chain saw, tweezers, and bone hands, a reconstructive surgery to replace a person's spinal bones was completed in less than a few minutes.
"Is this...is this okay..."
Yan Jingxing's eyes widened and he saw that after the spinal bones were stuffed back, the muscles and skin of the human body that had been cut and opened began to heal automatically, and the huge wound quickly shrank until only a bloody suture remained.
"So, this person is really not me, right? I don't have this ability..."
Just as he was thinking this, a strange and huge attraction came from the direction of "the top of his head".
This feeling is familiar. Yan Jingxing remembered that he had the same feeling when he was about to wake up from the pitcher plant device after the teleportation.
Yan Jingxing's consciousness was involuntarily involved in the whirlpool, and finally floated to the surface surrounded by warm sea water. This process was like a baby coming out of its mother's womb...
*
The young man opened his eyes and sat up suddenly.
The closed pelvic device opened automatically, and the light from the outside fell lightly on the surface of his eyeballs.
After waking up, he could feel that his whole body was dripping with sweat and his clothes were soaked.
Yan Jingxing looked around and gradually recalled the memories before entering the device.
That person in the dream...is it really me?
Yan Jingxing hesitated, stretched his hand to his back, and tentatively touched his spine.
"hiss……!"
No intense pain. But the slight bump that the fingertips touched was obviously the touch of a scar.
The retracted fingers twisted for a while and then opened again. A shallow blood mark could be seen, which showed that the wound on the back had just healed not long ago.
His expression changed.
The speculation swirling in my mind became a reality——
Yan Jingxing turned around suddenly and looked at the "chair" behind him.
So this is a surgical device?
but why? Why replace the human spine? What's the point?
"boom!"
Before he could think carefully, another pelvic device slowly opened with a muffled sound.
The little girl with long curly hair firmly covered her left eye with her hand, let out a labored gasp, and slid down from the chair.
Yan Jingxing quickly ran over and held her shoulders.
"Chun Zao, Chun Zao! Are you okay?"
he shouted anxiously.
"fine……"
Ji Chunzao shook his head, leaned into his arms, and replied in a low voice:
"It's just that... one eye hurts... I can't open it..."
Yan Jingxing grabbed the girl's delicate shoulders and looked at her strange gesture of covering her eyes with one hand, his heart clenched tightly.
Could it be that she is just like him...
"boom!"
There was another muffled sound.
A third person emerges from the open pelvic apparatus.
Xie Yuzhi held her knees and stood up unsteadily.
She covered her right eye hard, her chest heaving violently, and the sight of her remaining eye wandered back and forth, finally landing on Yan Jingxing.
*
What happened in the device just now?
He watched helplessly as he was being implanted into his spine. He thought it was a bloody dream, but now it seemed that this was probably an operation that actually happened to him.
Yan Jingxing couldn't help but reach out and touch the slightly raised blood marks on his back.
He didn't feel anything was wrong with his body, there was no pain or discomfort, but just because everything was normal, it made him feel even more uneasy.
Yan Jingxing looked at his two companions.
Ji Chunzao covered her left eye, and Xie Yuzhi covered her right eye. The two girls sat quietly side by side, posing in the same pose. They looked like a pair of sisters playing tricks in front of others. .
They were fine too... The feeling of relief temporarily diluted the tension in his heart at the moment.
"Let me first talk about what I encountered in this device."
After Yan Jingxing finished telling his experience, he asked them again:
"Did you have the same experience as me?"
"...That's right."
Xie Yuzhi put her hand down, and her right eye blinked slightly twice, as if she was afraid of the light from the outside world, but she finally managed to open it.
"I remember very clearly that the device inside removed my eyeball through surgery, then replaced it with a new eyeball that I didn't know where it came from, and stuffed it in..."
Xie Yuzhi blinked her right eye twice more. This "new eye" looked no different from her original eye, as natural as if she was born that way.
"So far I don't feel anything, and there's no organ rejection or anything like that. But I think this is the strangest thing, at least it's impossible to do with human medical technology."
"I see, Jing Xing's spine has been replaced."
Ji Chunzao whispered.
"It sounds really scary. It's even more unlucky than Yuzhi and I."
"Hahaha, it's okay."
Yan Jingxing touched the back of his head and saw the little girl looking at him with a worried look on his face, so he quickly explained.
"I don't have any physical discomfort now, so don't worry."
As he spoke, he took a punching stance and swung several air strikes forward.
"Look, there's no problem at all, right?"
Yan Jingxing said with a smile. But at the same time, some doubts suddenly appeared in his heart:
"Hey, it's strange... the speed of my punches seems to be different from before..."
Illusion?
Yan Jingxing took back his hand hesitantly.
"Speaking of which, have you noticed the mural at the back?"
Miss Xie suddenly stood up and walked to the wall behind the device.
"Mural? Where is it...it's really there. Why didn't we notice it when we arrived in this room?"
"It seems that it appeared after we entered the device."
Yan Jingxing and Ji Chunzao came to the mural. It is different from all the murals I have seen before. Its color is bright red, and the outline on the picture is still twisting slightly, like flowing fresh blood.
"This content seems to be a continuation of the mural in the hall. Wait, this is..."
Yan Jingxing stopped mid-sentence, and a chill ran down his back.
The content on the mural tells the story of the alien residents who took out three organs from the flesh column and implanted them into their own bodies in a cruel way.
And those three organs are the spine, left eye, and right eye——
"..."
"..."
"..."
The three young people looked at each other, Yan Jingxing and Ji Chunzao's expressions were a little stiff.
After a while, Xie Yuzhi finally expressed that conclusion:
"From this point of view, what we experience in the installation is exactly the same content as the mural, a continuation of an ancient ritual."
There was even a faint smile on her face.
"We should be grateful. Compared to the cruelty and bloodiness shown above, what we have experienced is obviously a ritual that the alien civilization has continuously evolved and improved to become more civilized and advanced, using surgery. In the process There is no pain, and it seems there are no serious side effects so far.”
No, no, no, this is an organ that has just been replaced! Is your reaction too calm?
Having said that…
Yan Jingxing sighed.
After all, things have already happened, and there seems to be no other way besides accepting it.
When he turned around, he suddenly noticed something.
"Look. There seems to be writing on this device."
Yan Jingxing squatted down and found a different symbol behind the three chairs, like earthworm-like words.
"It's a pity that I can't understand it."
Miss Xie shook her head regretfully.
"Words and language are symbols of civilization. If we can understand and master them, we can have a deeper understanding of this alien civilization. But with the abilities of a few of us junior high school students..."
"——Hey, can I understand?"
Ji Chunzao squatted down, and for some reason she started to cover her eyes again - only this time it was her right eye.
"...What? Can you understand these alien texts?"
Xie Yuzhi was stunned for a moment.
"Um."
The little girl responded briefly.
The surgically implanted eye, clear and bright, is now staring attentively at the symbols on the device.
"Let me see... what's written here is, uh, 'wizard'...'prophet'...'priest'? That's pretty much what it means."
Yan Jingxing and Xie Yuzhi looked at each other, feeling incredible.
Although Chun Zao occasionally loses his childish temper, he never lies on serious matters. Moreover, she didn't act like she was joking at this time.
Of course Yan Jingxing believed her. The only problem is-
How did she do it?
Ji Chunzao stood up and walked to the middle device, which was the one Yan Jingxing climbed out of.
"What it says here is...'samurai'? 'soldier'?...'warrior'? Anyway, it means someone who takes up arms to fight."
The last one is the device used to perform surgery on Xie Yuzhi.
"'Chief', 'chief'... right, 'king'! It means king."
Ji Chunzao put down his hand and showed a satisfied smile.
"Wait a minute, Chun Zao, why can you suddenly recognize alien writing?"
Yan Jingxing couldn't help but ask.
Xie Yuzhi's question was more direct. She stared into Ji Chunzao's eyes and asked seriously:
"—Did you see it with your 'eye'?"
"That's right."
Ji Chunzao nodded.
She covered one eye with her hand again, revealing only her "brand new left eye."
"Ever since I woke up, I've felt something strange, as if there are more things in my mind, and I've seen things that I couldn't see before, floating in the air... When I covered my other eye , after concentrating, I gradually saw it clearly.”
"So, it's the words that appear in your eyes?"
She shook her head.
"No, it is in my mind, so I still need to understand it myself and then say it out."
Xie Yuzhi looked thoughtful.
She stood up again, came to the mural, and stared at the content above in silence. After a moment, a flash of realization flashed in the girl's pupils.
"I see, this way we can match it..."
"What did you find?"
"Come quickly and take a look."
The boys and girls' heads came together again.
"Have you seen the ending of these three people?"
As Miss Xie's slender jade fingers slowly moved on the mural, what they saw was a clear story line, and a strange epic that happened on another planet slowly unfolded.
"After the aliens received their new 'organs', they all became big figures surrounded by everyone, but in fact, the fate of these three people was different."
"Did you see it? The person who got the spine faced the battlefield alone, the person who got the left eye stood in the temple and accepted the worship of others, and the person who got the right eye walked to the throne in the palace. This undoubtedly symbolizes different things. destiny."
"According to Chunzao, we can now conclude that these three people are indeed not the same type of people. They respectively represent-"
"Warriors, priests, and kings."
Xie Yuzhi's fingers stopped.
"The symbols on the installation are the meaning behind the 'things' we have today."
