The sky is closed again, and armed drones are flying over the city.
The surviving citizens lined up in long lines on the main streets to receive emergency supplies distributed by Xi'an.
There are still many people rummaging through the ruins. Their faces don't have much sadness, but more confusion and numbness. They actually don't know what they are looking for, whether it is memories or past lives buried among the rubble.
Occasionally, there was a howl in the distance. They raised their heads and looked in that direction, lost in thought.
In some dark, smoke-filled rooms, gang members who have experienced the baptism of war are sitting or standing in silence, and the smoke surging in the air outlines the outline of ambition.
They were once brave enough to fight against the outside world without fear of death, but when the war ended, something sprouted from the bottom of their hearts and grew wildly.
In front of the collapsed Order Bureau building, the surviving agents gathered together, took off their round hats, and bowed their heads in silence for their dead colleagues.
Windbreaker, stained with blood.
The ashes were raised by the breeze. They raised their heads and put on their round hats again. The badges on their chests reflected the light of order.
These scenes appear in every city, Zhongjing, New Ao City, Rocky Mountain City, Denali, Mexico, Bay City, Fuji. Some people are licking their wounds, and some are looking forward to the future.
Zhongjing.
The complex terrain of Donggu District is one of the main battlefields in the city. People fought with goblins in the criss-crossing alleys. In the end, this area was reduced to ruins in the war.
In the alley where the drone maintenance base is located, Li Liang suddenly appeared without alerting anyone.
Among the ruins, the entrance to the base was completely buried. However, he just shook his finger slightly, and the collapsed walls and beams floated up as if they were weightless, giving up their positions silently.
This time, transcending Aqilu and returning from Axia, he finally saw the true nature of the base.
The shaft at the entrance, including the circular space that the shaft leads to, is as hazy as a shadow, overlapping and coexisting with the solid foundation and the pipes passing through it. Just as the Master Yuanshi said, the base comes from the sacred timeline.
No wonder these bases have never been discovered. In this timeline, even if someone dug up the ground, they would not be able to detect anything strange.
He and Billy are like keys. Only through them can people in this timeline enter the base, and once they enter, the base becomes a real place for these people.
collapse.
Li Liang thought of this word inexplicably.
The next moment, he appeared in the base.
The old all-in-one computer was still in its original location, covered with dust.
He sat down at the desk and pressed the button on the lower right corner of the computer.
The screen lit up and displayed a line of text: Please enter the power-on password.
Pulling out the keyboard, he entered 123456.
The screen flickered, and a picture appeared, which was a chair placed in the center of a white room.
Li Liang clicked Enter.
The screen started to shake, like someone was adjusting the lens.
A voice sounded from off-screen, perhaps because the equipment's speakers were old and the sound was a little distorted: "Billy, is it done?"
Li Liang realized that this video should be the same as the video from the weapons base.
Sure enough, a voice closer to the recording device appeared immediately: "OK, that's it."
The camera stops shaking, and a person walks into the frame from the left, sits down on a chair, and smiles.
Li Liang looked at himself in the picture, no longer as shocked as he was the first time. He saw a trace of forced tiredness in "his" eyes.
Billy's voice sounded: "Closed-loop stage, record 345."
"Li Liang" in the image began to recite the long poem in a calm tone:
"Don't go gentle into that good night, the day is drawing to a close and the old age should still burn and roar..."
Until the last sentence.
"...Rebuke, rebuke, rebuke the passing of the light."
The screen jumped, and a new scene appeared. It was a lawn full of people, gathering in twos and threes to chat. They were all dressed in formal attire and holding wine glasses. Many waiters carrying wine trays shuttled among them, making the sound noisy and very lively.
The video was shot with a handheld device, and the camera was shaking so much that you could hear someone next to you saying something unknown, causing a burst of laughter.
Wedding scene!
In the video of the weapons base, this section is very short, basically flashing by, and the image will switch to the record of the closed-loop experiment, but this video is obviously different.
The camera keeps moving, and the photographer is walking through the crowd to somewhere on the lawn.
Li Liang sat upright and stared at the screen.
Soon, two figures appeared in the crowd, it was him and Billy.
I saw him taking two glasses of wine from the plate held by the passing waiter and handing one to Billy. His mouth was moving and he seemed to be talking, but unfortunately the environment was too noisy and he could not hear clearly.
However, as the photographer quickly approached, Li Liang finally heard half of what "he" said: "What country are you going back to? Who told you..."
Sudden.
A voice sounded very close: "Brother!"
Li Liang was stunned for a moment.
It turns out that the wedding video was taken by his younger brother, and for some reason, he always felt that this scene was familiar.
"Li Liang" in the picture turned to face the camera and smiled: "Xiao Shuang, hey? What are you doing?"
"Taking something," the camera shook, "Ah, Billy is here too."
Billy bowed.
"Li Liang" patted Billy on the shoulder and said, "Go and do your work, stay away, remember."
Outside the screen, Li Shuang asked: "What's further?"
"Li Liang" looked up and down, and said with a smile: "Nothing, you are very handsome today. It is rare for our Dr. Li to come out of the laboratory."
"Come on, when will the wedding start?"
Then, the camera shook violently and tilted towards the ground.
Li Liang realized that he probably put his arm around his brother's shoulders out of habit, causing his brother to put down the camera.
A series of conversations came out mixed with soft music and noisy voices:
"Hey, look over there, at the swimming pool. Which of those girls do you like?"
"Stop making trouble, brother."
"Tsk, um, um, I just made her famous and won the Oscar for supporting actress. How is her figure?"
"You are about to get married, and your sister-in-law has always been at odds with the CEO of Activision. What is your name?"
"Sofia? Who said that? Activision is our important layout in the media field, and Sophia is doing a good job."
"Okay, okay, my head hurts when I hear about the business. Please spare me. By the way, the clinical trials of the gene editing project have been completed, and the relativistic heavy ion collider we built is about to be put into use. , next..."
"Stop it, my head hurts too. You should continue recording... Or I'd better introduce to you the actress..."
"See you!"
The camera flickered and was raised again.
Li Liang had already remembered that this was the scene in his dream.
The dream was very vague. He remembered that he seemed to see Cain, and after saying these few words to his brother, he turned around and saw Cain.
In the dream, Cain was wearing a pink dress, acting very strangely, looking a little annoyed, and seemed to say something like "I made a mistake."
Was it a confusion in the dream or did Cain really appear in reality?
Li Liang moved closer to the screen.
Maybe my brother will turn back.
However, the camera is steady and moves all the way to the villa.
Sudden.
The screen jumps and the scene changes.
A shrill wail exploded: "Shoot! Fuck you, Billy, shoot! Fuck!"
The moment he saw the image clearly, Li Liang frowned and leaned back on the chair.
"Li Liang" in the picture is like a shrimp thrown into a frying pan, curled up and twitching violently, his clothes were torn into strips, and deep blood grooves can be vaguely seen on his skin and flesh.
Incontinent, he howled at the top of his lungs in the filth.
"Shoot, Billy, fuck-"
"Kill me, please, kill me—"
He scratched his head frantically and pulled off a lot of hair: "Get out! You all get the hell out of here -" Then he jumped up and hit the wall head first.
However, the wall was wrapped in soft material, and he was thrown to the ground. For a moment, he seemed to have seen something terrifying again. He rolled and crawled to the corner, huddled up, and shouted: "Billy, help me!" Help me, it’s too dark in here, fuck! Maze, it’s a fucking maze! Shit, there’s no time, it’s coming, it’s coming…”
Li Liang stared at the trembling, undignified version of himself in the picture.
He had felt that kind of pain, only for a short moment, but it had almost destroyed his will.
As the high priest of the Unbounded Temple said, power never comes out of thin air.
There will definitely be a price to pay for swallowing the consciousness of countless creatures. The time observer is ruthless and will only reverse time at the moment of his death, and every reversal is a new abyss of pain.
At this time.
The screen jumped and returned to the wedding again.
The camera shook, passing countless people, passing through the crowded living room, walking straight up to the second floor, and arriving at the door of a room.
The door was ajar.
The camera shot through the crack of the door, and it happened to capture a woman in a wedding dress sitting sideways in front of the mirror. There were many women surrounding her, some holding makeup with small brushes, some holding the back of her wedding dress, and others Keep talking on the phone and dancing around.
But the woman was in a daze, with a calm expression, holding a bouquet of flowers in her right hand and placing it on her lap, letting the makeup artist apply powder on her face.
For a moment, the woman seemed to feel something, and suddenly turned her head to look at the camera, then smiled, stuck out the tip of her tongue, pointed her finger at the camera, pursed her lips and wrinkled her nose playfully.
The women standing around her looked over at the same time and laughed together.
That's Candy Putnam.
Li Liang discovered that Candy Putnam in the picture looked exactly like Ling Yi, but her eyes were much softer than Ling Yi's.
Zero One also showed a gentle expression, but the thing in human eyes seems to transcend the physiological structure of the eyeballs, and can convey a subtle emotion that can only be detected by the same kind.
Sudden.
A gunshot is heard off-screen.
Boom!
This was followed by a shrill scream.
The camera immediately flickered, rushed into another room, came to the window, and focused on the downstairs.
The lawn was in a mess, the lights were already dim, and people were running away in all directions. From this angle, you could only see shaking figures everywhere on the lawn.
Who fired the shot?
Why would anyone bring a gun in such an occasion?
Li Liang was a little confused.
Li Shuang was obviously looking for the person who fired the shot. The camera was shaking and panning left and right.
next moment.
A group of heavily armed gunmen climbed over the garden wall and rushed onto the lawn from the left side of the screen. Dozens of submachine guns sprayed flames and began to massacre indiscriminately.
Li Liang clenched his fists instantly and stared at the screen.
As soon as the camera was lowered, Li Shuang seemed to be squatting down and breathing rapidly. Then a bell rang very close by.
"Brother," Li Shuang's voice came out with a crying tone, "Yeah, um, I know, um."
The camera began to move toward the door again. As soon as they reached the corridor, a fat white man walked towards him, wearing gold-rimmed glasses, a cigar in his mouth, and an assault rifle in his hand.
The camera tilted and Li Shuang's voice trembled: "Soft."
Soft's voice was low and had an obvious foreign accent: "Don't be afraid, Xiao Shuang, where are your father and Candy?"
Da da da da——
Heavy gunshots and the sound of bodies falling to the ground came from the first floor.
The screen jumps and the scene changes.
Li Liang slowly exhaled, but his hands were still clenched into fists.
Someone had attacked the wedding venue, and he could only imagine how he felt at that moment.
In Dodo Disal's dream, his father and Candy Putnam were buried in the garden behind the villa. Facing the two bodies, he once said to the people around him, "I want the whole world to be buried with them."
At this time.
A flash of red flashed across the screen.
Li Liang came back to his senses and noticed that the scene this time was no longer a forced closed-loop recording, but a dark study room. The lens seemed to be installed on the corner of the roof, shooting at an angle similar to that of a surveillance camera.
The study room is luxuriously decorated, with sculptures and paintings placed everywhere, and a desk in the center of the floor.
"Li Liang" sat behind the desk, with his hands crossed and his elbows on the table, looking indifferent.
The red color that just entered the picture was a person covered in a red ceremonial robe, with a wide hood that completely covered his face.
Naturalism?
Li Liang was stunned for a moment.
He was no stranger to this kind of ceremonial robe. Once he gave a repaired bionic pet to a believer in a natural sect. The devout believer pulled him to preach and showed him this red ceremonial robe, with the same pattern. It's just that the normal ceremonial robe is equipped with a melon seed-shaped crown outlined with gold thread instead of a hood.
I saw the mysterious man holding a small black bowl in his hands and placing it on the table.
Li Liang subconsciously moved closer to the screen. However, because the camera was too far away, it was difficult for him to see clearly what was in the bowl. He could only vaguely feel that there was some kind of living thing squirming in the bowl.
"Li Liang" in the picture looked down at the small bowl and said in a calm voice: "Is this 'ascension'?"
"Yes." The mysterious man remained motionless, his hoarse voice coming from under the hood.
"Drink it and you'll live forever?"
"Eternal life is just an insignificant additional function of the mysterious power it possesses, but it can be used to impress the most powerful people in the world. Li Liang, the world is in your hands, and are you willing to... be crowned king? "
"Li Liang" stood up and walked to the window on one side, staring out the window in silence.
“The eternal torrent always sweeps over all that is, crossing both realms and drowning them in between.”
The mysterious man said this slowly, then suddenly turned his head and looked at the camera.
The screen jumped and switched again.
Li Liang hurriedly operated the mouse, pulled the video back a little, and pressed Enter the moment the mysterious man turned around.
The picture was fixed on that pale face.
Li Liang took a deep breath.
It's Li Chengshu again.
It seems that we need to carefully investigate the resume of the director of the Supervision and Enforcement Bureau and the Natural Sect.
According to K, the official job of .RD, which is affiliated with the Bureau of Order, is to manage religious beliefs, including natural sects, and the current director of .RD is one of the group’s identities, so it should be very convenient for follow-up investigation.
After thinking for a moment, he pressed Enter and the video continued to play.
The scene returned to the wedding scene, which seemed to be on the first floor of the villa. The camera was thrown on a cupboard against the wall, and the lens was facing the living room.
The sofa, walls, and Roman columns in the living room were covered with spray-like blood stains and dense bullet holes. The floor-to-ceiling glass curtain wall was shattered, and the swimming pool outside was stained red with blood.
"Li Liang" knelt in the center of the living room, holding Candy Putnam in her arms, trying in vain to cover the gunshot wound on her chest, with blood pouring out from her fingertips.
Li Shuang's tearful roar sounded outside the screen: "Don't think I don't know what you did, Li Liang, retribution, you killed so many people, others will kill you too——"
"Li Liang" lowered his head and gently wiped the blood on Candy's face with his fingers without saying a word.
Billy stood behind him, his shoulder was bloody and his right arm was hanging limply. On the other side, Soft shook his head and said, "You shouldn't say that. The one who is most sad right now is your brother."
"Sad, haha, sad..." Li Shuang roared like crazy, then rushed into the screen and grabbed his brother's collar, "You, how many people did you kill to support the military-industrial complex? Did you kill him tonight?" You want to kill Bakzaha’s son? Huh? Brother, are you kidding me? Today is your wedding, your wedding!”
"Li Liang" had no expression on his face. He slowly opened his brother's hand and leaned over to pick up Candy Putnam. After taking a few steps, his feet went weak and he stumbled a few steps. Billy held him up.
In the camera, Li Shuang looked at his brother's back and burst into tears.
The picture freezes and the video ends.
Li Liang slowly leaned back on the chair, raised his head, and closed his eyes.
It turns out that he was once so close to the truth, but he just missed it.
Perhaps, this is fate, or perhaps, it is a "banana peel" that changes destiny.
for a long time.
He stood up and was about to turn off the all-in-one machine. His eyes swept across the frozen screen and he suddenly froze.
wrong.
He leaned closer.
In the picture, Li Shuang's back is facing the floor-to-ceiling glass wall of the living room. The glass has been broken. The lawn in the distance is littered with corpses. Under a tree further away, there is a vague figure wearing a pink dress...
That is?
