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Deus Ex Machina: Chapter 39
“Got it!” Dalia unleashed her full firepower.
Shi Yixi, meanwhile, was engaged in close combat with several robots. He began to understand why Yingji had told him to control his strength. The immense power he wielded still felt unfamiliar, and he struggled to gauge its intensity. Fortunately, the gloves Yingji made for him solved this issue. Once he determined the optimal attack damage, each of his strikes would accurately hit the robots’ weak points with just the right amount of force.
The weak spot of these robots was their head drive units.
Everything Yang Jin had once taught him in school suddenly clicked. Shi Yixi punched through a robot’s head, but just as he was about to withdraw his hand, another robot closed in from behind.
Shi Yixi’s movement stalled, his strength faltering just enough for his hand to get stuck. In that brief moment of hesitation, the robot pressed him to the ground.
Other nearby robots swarmed over like locusts, engulfing Shi Yixi’s figure in an instant.
“Xixi!” Dalia screamed.
“Careful!” Meng Die exclaimed in alarm.
Even the slightest mistake in a fight with these robots could lead to disaster. They weren’t human and had no compassion; instead, they executed their actions with 100% precision and decisiveness. Once they subdued their target, they would immediately proceed with lethal force.
And with so many robots surrounding Shi Yixi, the situation looked grim.
“Xixi!” Dalia desperately tried to break through the line to reach him.
Metal was supposed to be cold, yet in the heat of battle, it almost felt like it was radiating warmth.
Shi Yixi wasn’t sure if it was his imagination, but he felt himself slipping into darkness, hearing only the sound of his own breathing and heartbeat. Nothing else. He thought to himself, maybe this was it—maybe he was dead. Strangely, the realization didn’t scare him. Instead, he just felt a tinge of regret.
He was never anything special, after all. Even with a seemingly powerful strength, he couldn’t fight like the invincible heroes from the comics. Just a few robots could kill him. A real hero wouldn’t be this weak.
In the end, he wasn’t anyone of importance, and at least he had never deluded himself into thinking otherwise.
A cold sensation pressed against his neck, jolting him awake. He opened his eyes to see that same diving image again, but this time, the previously frozen numbers began frantically counting down, as if starting a countdown…
No, it wasn’t a countdown—it seemed to be a date.
Before he could see clearly, there was a massive explosion in front of him. Smoke and debris filled the air, and everything vanished. His body trembled, and instinctively, one name flashed through his mind—Yang Jin.
He had come to save Yang Jin. If he had come alone, maybe he would have accepted his fate. But Dalia and Meng Die trusted him. He had promised them, and he couldn’t just give up. He couldn’t let things end this way.
He couldn’t break his word. He couldn’t make others worry.
Yang Jin—
A surging wave swept over him, and Shi Yixi felt as if he were suffocating, like he was drowning in water, with a buzzing sound in his ears. The noise and chaos seemed to be washed away by the water, revealing the shadow of a person.
Someone he knew…
“Ah—!” Shi Yixi cried out, and a tremendous force erupted from within him, flinging the robots that had surrounded him. They crashed heavily against the walls, and those that hadn’t yet been thrown were torn apart by his bare hands.
He stood up, slightly hunched, his nostrils flaring. It was as if he had become a different person.
Dalia, exhausted, collapsed onto the ground, whispering, “Xixi…” as a distant buzzing sound echoed in her ears.
Yang Jin felt an intense wave of energy, like an echo reverberating in his brain. Suddenly, it pierced through, causing him to open his eyes.
As his eyes adjusted, the first thing he saw was a pair of black leather shoes. Above them were black, neatly pressed suit pants, and further up was a long white lab coat. The man standing there had his hands in the pockets of his coat and was looking at him with a gaze of astonishment.
Yang Jin swore he had never seen such an expression on that man’s face before. The man was always cold, his words detached, showing little love or hate for the world around him—except for his devotion to science, which he revered like a pilgrim.
This man was Guan Jincheng.
“Did the noise from outside stimulate you?” Guan Jincheng spoke to Yang Jin through the glass, not caring if Yang Jin could hear him. “It seems like someone has come to rescue you. No, they *have* come to rescue you. Or maybe, like me, they’re just curious about you?”
Yang Jin adjusted his focus, staring at Guan Jincheng.
“The antimatter explosion at Qianfan didn’t kill you. We’ve known each other for years, and I never realized your vitality was this strong. I’m surprised,” Guan Jincheng said. “Back in school, I only ever studied your blood samples. Turns out you have so many more secrets. If Qianfan hadn’t been destroyed, maybe you could’ve lived out your life as a perfectly ordinary mobile blood bank.”
Yang Jin’s senses were gradually returning, but Guan Jincheng’s voice sounded muffled, hard to make out.
A mobile blood bank? What did that mean?
“They say you aren’t human, but I don’t believe that.” Guan Jincheng placed his hand on the glass. “Only foolish ordinary people still cling to fantasies of non-human life. In reality, there’s nothing else. Humanity itself is the god standing at the peak of the universe. There is no higher form of life. You remind me of something that happened twenty years ago, though back then, you were still in stasis,” he continued, his gaze becoming increasingly entranced. “How did you turn into this? If we had known about your unique traits back then, maybe those experiments wouldn’t have failed. You’re perfect. If anyone were to abandon their humanity and become a god, it would look just like this…”
Yang Jin raised his arm and began pounding his fist against the glass enclosure.
“Are you trying to resist?” Guan Jincheng took a step back from the glass, his expression returning to its usual coldness. This time, the obsession in his eyes was replaced by a sense of condescension, as though he were looking down from above. “But it’s too late,” he said. “I can’t conduct any deeper analysis on you. If we don’t get results, there’s no reason for you to keep living. At least your blood is valuable. Humanity can’t rely on a single individual to survive, but we can rely on ourselves.”
Yang Jin continued to pound on the glass, but perhaps the liquid inside created too much resistance. His strikes on the glass were as weak as scratching an itch.
Guan Jincheng turned around and said, “Countdown: ten seconds. Prepare to draw all his blood.”
“Yes.”
Shi Yixi had torn every robot in his path into pieces. The corridor looked like a scrap metal yard. He held the head of one robot in his hand, his fingers embedded in the metal, with torn wires sparking. The sight was terrifying.
“He’s in danger,” Shi Yixi turned his head slightly and said to Dalia and Meng Die, “Hurry.”
Just a few words brought a wave of pressure down on the two of them, a feeling they had never experienced before. Even Meng Die couldn’t explain what it was. It felt like a dark cloud pressing down on her heart, leaving them no ability to doubt Shi Yixi’s words. They could only follow what he said.
The feeling was terrifying.
Five seconds.
Guan Jincheng stood with his hands behind his back, looking at Yang Jin, a slight, indifferent regret tugging at the corners of his mouth.
Shi Yixi rushed down to the second basement level at lightning speed. The door was right in front of him, his heart racing. He knew Yang Jin was inside, and so was Guan Jincheng.
Three seconds.
“Preparation complete. Opening in three seconds.”
“Good,” Guan Jincheng nodded.
Wasn’t Guan Jincheng supposed to be dead? Everyone at Qianfan had died; Shi Yixi had seen it with his own eyes. So why was Guan Jincheng still alive? This couldn’t be Yang Jin’s hallucination—Yang Jin wouldn’t lie to him.
One second.
“Goodbye, Yang Jin,” Guan Jincheng said. “You have too many secrets. It’s a pity we couldn’t uncover more, but what we’ve found is already enough. Thank you for your contribution to humanity.”
Yang Jin started to struggle. He felt the blood being drained from his body. His movements became frantic, hammering against the glass, but the blood was being drawn so quickly that in just a few seconds, he would be completely drained.
No matter how powerful a life is, there is always a moment of dimming.
“No—!” Shi Yixi cried out, tears streaming down his face as his hand touched the door.
Guan Jincheng glanced back, but he wasn’t worried in the slightest. Nothing would change this outcome, no matter who came.
His figure disappeared into the darkness, vanishing from sight.
Aurora was still the city of technological brilliance, home to the most beautiful night sky in the world. But tonight, a meteor streaked across the sky—not like other fleeting meteors.
This one crashed to Earth like a fireball, with tremendous force, heading straight for the Intercontinental Alliance building. The tall building, dozens of stories high, seemed as fragile as a soft cake as the meteor’s blade pierced straight through, reaching the second basement level.
At 00:05:17, the Intercontinental Alliance building’s power system was destroyed, and ZZ ceased functioning.
At 00:05:18, the entire power system of Aurora City shut down. The dazzling night sky dimmed instantly, revealing its true state.
A cloud of dust and a landscape of devastation.
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