TBR CH258

They walked one after the other. You Lin’s breathing was so light that Charon had to concentrate to hear it.

In reality, there were no other sounds, only the wind whistling through the ventilation ducts. The lights cast the human’s skin a pale white, and the dark, cavernous lenses of the surveillance cameras occasionally flashed with a single red dot. Charon knew where they were all located and understood how to avoid them, or how to raise his eyes and destroy them.

The corridor with the infrared beams was more difficult.

The AI stopped. You Lin stood amidst a tangled mess of red lines, studying the laser closest to him. If he took one step forward, his head would be severed; if he shifted his perspective, Charon would appear to be standing among fragments. Neither of them really took the mechanism seriously. Charon glanced at him, urging him on.

“Pretty…” You Lin mouthed.

The AI didn’t seem to understand what he was saying. However, the human quickly bent down and followed.

Every corridor was set with traps or installed with high-tech intrusion detection systems. But solving these was not difficult for them. Charon walked in front, like a blade piercing deep into the enemy’s heart, so sharp it wouldn’t even draw blood.

As they reached the seventh corridor, the sensor on Charon’s wrist lit up.

This was the signal they had previously agreed upon with the Black Book. The AI impassively lowered his eyes to glance at the screen—a conspicuous SOS.

When You Lin stopped, the surroundings were so quiet you couldn’t hear a heartbeat. The corridors here were snow-white, the walls seemingly capable of absorbing noise. They had already walked some distance in different directions, so now, whatever commotion was happening on the World Consciousness’s end would just be swallowed by the vast distance.

“What is it?” You Lin leaned in for a look.

The crown of his dark hair blocked the screen, then quickly moved away. The AI heard the human let out a soft “tsk.” “Plan B is going smoothly. Does that mean…”

His voice held a hint of laughter, but what was reflected in his pupils was not the distress signal sent by the World Consciousness, but a thumbs-up emoji. The sender and the time of sending were perfectly consistent, the switch having been made within microseconds of receiving the message. You Lin was not as relaxed as he appeared; his grip on Charon’s fingers tightened unconsciously, though only by a subtle degree.

“…we might be in danger here.”

Charon’s fingertips paused. His free hand slid down the ends of the human’s hair, patting him reassuringly. “Don’t put pressure on yourself.”

In fact, he could see what was happening on the other side simultaneously.

Several corridors away, the Black Book was trapped in a large net that had fallen from the sky, its polished and waxed pages struggling and twisting. It looked at the combat-model housekeeping robot slowly approaching with an insecticide sprayer, feeling a bit of despair, and within that despair, even a strange sense of familiarity. The robot’s long arms pulled at the net, wrapping it tighter and tighter. The World Consciousness began to consider if it was too late to switch to a new vessel.

“Too late,” a smiling emoji appeared on the housekeeping robot’s face.

“Stop fooling around, Medusa,” the World Consciousness grumbled. “It’s always like this. Did you think I didn’t prepare this time?”

It dramatically opened its pages. The original flyleaf was a thin but tough sheet of paper, but now, it had transformed into a large, sharp blade, with three cutting edges, all three of them snow-white. The giant net quickly became useless, turning into a pile of tattered cloth falling to the ground. The Black Book charged out menacingly, heading straight for the housekeeping robot like a giant bat.

Faced with such a bat, it seemed quite necessary to spill the insecticide.

The smiling emoji on the housekeeping robot’s face hadn’t changed yet, and it fumbled to press the handle of the sprayer. However, the Black Book had already swept past elegantly. The mere aftershock nearly knocked it over. The World Consciousness looked down at the can of insecticide rolling on the ground. The blade had only lightly touched it, but the metal can was already dented by more than half, and liquid was flowing out of the gash…

This scene was indeed satisfying. It had long wanted to retaliate like this, but it was best not to make too much noise.

It flapped its pages triumphantly, preparing to leave.

—However, something tripped it up.

A mist seemed to rapidly fill the snow-white corridor. Under the lights, shadows spread at the same speed. The insecticide smelled a bit strange, and the World Consciousness’s pages quickly became damp. It violently spread its sharp pages, trying to dodge upwards, but the black insecticide flowed out from the bottle’s opening, turning into a murky light that blocked its escape route completely.

“Surprise,” the System’s mechanical voice sounded.

This was clearly a payback for one of its earlier jokes.

“You stuffed yourself into an insecticide can just to get back at me?”

The World Consciousness stared in shock at the scene before it and, with a swoosh, sent a distress signal to Charon.

Then, it sorrowfully realized that the situation did not look good—in other words, it was usually the one setting traps for others. It wasn’t that it hadn’t set any this time, but it seemed to have stepped into the other’s trap first. It felt its pages growing heavier and heavier, finding it difficult to even maintain control over its vessel. Meanwhile, the color of that light sphere grew murkier.

Alright, I can only count on Charon.

The Black Book thought sorrowfully. As long as the AI takes over this place…

At times like this, it especially resented its excellent eyesight. Even though it didn’t actually have eyes. Its thoughts turned sluggishly, trying to understand why the housekeeping robot behind the System had a pair of blue eyes glowing. Cold as flames, familiar as a frozen lake.

Among the countless worlds, there were also countless buildings. Among all buildings, the easiest to find commonality in was the corridor. From one room to another, from the starting point to the destination, one would always pass through corridors, whether narrow or wide.

Hugo walked cautiously down the corridor, wishing he had a can of insecticide.

This place had been invaded by overgrown plants. The corridor’s tiles were overturned by dark black leaves and vines, with almost no light visible. The variety of insects, however, was vast, almost giving him a psychological scar.

He had to keep his lips tightly pressed together and cover his mouth before speaking. This place was completely abandoned by humans, but that wasn’t surprising. Before he and Irina entered, the main gate of this laboratory had been completely buried by the collapsed structure of the building.

Irina had fiddled with some explosives for a while before finding a way in.

After getting in, they were inevitably plagued by the thought of “why did we even come in here.”

This place was once an experimental center, but that could only be discerned by pushing aside leaves and looking at the dust-covered door signs. When they entered, they had also dug up some bizarrely shaped bones from the ruins—just imagining what kind of monsters these huge bones once belonged to was enough to send a chill down one’s spine. Hugo gripped his knife a little tighter.

He shivered and swung forward forcefully.

“What’s wrong?” Irina immediately came forward.

“No, it’s not,” Hugo muttered. “It’s just a bat. I’m a little too on edge.” He looked ahead. He was currently using a tool stored by The Wanderers’ Home, which could cause a wider range of effects than a normal blade. At this moment, lying at his feet was not only the bat but also a large piece of wall plaster covered in gnarled vines that had fallen from the wall in front of him. Behind it, something even more alien seemed to be exposed.

“There’s a room here.” Irina reached out and wiped the dust off the glass.

There were many rooms here, but most were occupied by light-averse plants, with nothing left behind. Hugo looked through the glass and, for a rare change, saw a relatively intact room structure that seemed to have suffered little erosion. His expression grew serious. He turned his head and exchanged a look with Irina.

Then, they cautiously cleared a path and cut open the window with their blades.

The room was surprisingly well-preserved, except that everything was covered in a thick layer of dust from the long years. One could vaguely make out that the floor tiles and walls were originally snow-white. At the end of the room were two desks, and besides that, only bookshelves.

A quick glance showed that the bookshelves were filled with highly specialized academic books, ranging from computer science and microelectronics to psychology and animal behavior. At first, Hugo would take them down to flip through, but he soon decided against it.

Moreover, due to their age, some of the pages were like ancient murals that had never seen the light of day. Once turned, they crumbled into countless tiny pieces of paper… who knows how long they had been waiting alone here for their next reader.

“Hey, Hugo,” Irina’s voice sounded from a corner, a little surprised. “Look here, I found something.”

She carefully pulled open a drawer, sending dust flying everywhere. Hugo had originally expected to see a notebook or a logbook inside, as this scene was too much like something out of a movie. But his imagination was, after all, too idealistic.

In reality, the moment the drawer was pulled out, the thin, brittle papers, desiccated by time, made a heavy cracking sound and overflowed from the small box, unable to bear the weight. Even without any wind, they scattered everywhere.

They seemed to be some kind of documents—in any case, the paper quality looked better than the books on the shelves, at least they didn’t crumble immediately.

“Who would stuff so many documents into a drawer?” Irina frowned. “They look completely unorganized.”

Hugo looked away, feeling a little guilty, as he also disliked tidying up.

He squatted on the ground, examining the scattered documents by the light filtering through the gaps in the vines on the window. On top of the lead-gray printed text were many annotations in different handwritings. Some annotations were so numerous they completely covered the original content.

It seemed that these documents had once sparked heated discussions.

And the pages before him were not necessarily the final drafts, as they were not stored in a safe but were scattered in a drawer.

Of course, Hugo didn’t think he could read through them quickly.

His gaze casually swept over the pages, then suddenly got stuck. He swallowed, feeling his vocal cords tighten. A few small words burned a small scar into his vision. Although he couldn’t understand it, he subconsciously felt that this was extremely important content.

—Storage contents and specific application scenarios of the “Golden Fleece” chip—

—Request to hand over the “Golden Fleece” to the super-AI Charon… not approved… resolutely not approved—

“What are you looking at?” Irina leaned over with some curiosity.

Hugo subconsciously covered the page he was looking at with the remaining documents, his voice tight. “No, it’s nothing…”

Irina’s eyes widened. “My god, this looks really bad.” She reached out and took the top document. Only then did Hugo realize that the material he had used as a cover was actually a newspaper clipping. The content of the clipping was about biological mutations, war, peace treaties, and mass panic. It included a picture of a deep pit in a desolate land. One had to look very hard to vaguely realize that this was actually a city. Once.

“A complete civilization once existed here, and it had developed to a considerably advanced stage.”

Now, new forests had grown on the destroyed lands, rivers flowed through the ruins again, and the former civilization had left only a few faint traces. It was hard to imagine how much time had passed. Hugo racked his brain, thinking.

All of this must be connected somehow.

But how to connect them?

Irina quickly finished flipping through the clippings. Her gaze fell lower. Hugo hastily put the documents behind his back. He knew he was not in control of his own actions right now and must not involve his companion in the current situation, even though he really wished he had someone to share the burden with.

Behind the thin lenses of her glasses, a trace of suspicion flashed in her eyes.

Just as Irina was about to say something, Hugo abruptly changed the subject: “Speaking of which, have you heard any sounds?”

“Hugo, you’ve been a bit strange these past two days—”

“Listen to me, it really sounds like someone is outside.”

Irina quickly fell silent. Now she heard it too. At the end of the corridor outside the door, a series of footsteps seemed to be slowly sounding.

Was it a human, or some unknown monster?

She signaled Hugo to hide behind the door and pulled the overgrown vines at the window to make it look less conspicuous. Then she crouched down cautiously. For a moment, there was only the faintest rustling and soft breathing.

Hugo held his breath, his palm still tightly clutching the stack of documents.

By the dim light, he couldn’t help but start reading again…

There is a type of trap like this.

Sprinkle some grain on a suspended wooden board, and the birds will cautiously land on it to peck. At first, they eat very carefully, standing on the ground at the edge of the board. Then, one or two of them will be the first to walk towards the center of the trap, ready to fly away at any moment.

However, the weight of one or two birds is not enough to make the board collapse, so they eat the grain in the middle and continue to walk further in. When the other birds see this, they gradually follow suit.

Until the threshold is reached, the board flips over completely, trapping all the birds on it in the deep pit below.

Charon stopped. No, it was mainly because You Lin had stopped.

He softly and slowly finished delivering this insightful opinion on traps: “Which corridor is this? It’s all the same old tricks. Surveillance, lasers, blades or sword tips that suddenly pop out, whatever. Little AI, don’t you think this is a bit too monotonous? It’s as if they aren’t the traps themselves, but part of a larger trap. The fact that no one has discovered our infiltration yet is a bit too smooth.”

“Reality is not a work of fiction,” Charon said.

His long silver hair flowed down his shoulders, subtly blending in with the snow-white wall behind him. His ice-blue pupils looked up at the surveillance camera hanging from the ceiling, and the bright red light quickly went out in response. You Lin asked thoughtfully, “Is it possible that even if we are exposed on camera, we won’t be discovered?”

“Why?”

“For example… if the so-called System here is busy with something else.”

“The security here is handled by an AI. Even so, an alarm would still sound.”

A string of silver-white characters flashed imperceptibly in Charon’s pupils. “I would rather not hear you think like that. It’s too dangerous, and you should never make such an attempt.”

“Alright.”

You Lin said thoughtfully, “I wasn’t intentionally letting my thoughts run wild. I was just thinking, a bird trap needs to catch enough birds at once, so a threshold is set. If this is a trap, then where is the threshold—haven’t we reached the Central Control Room yet?”

“Two more corridors.”

“I’ll have the gun you gave me ready, and of course, other necessary things.”

“…Okay.”

“In the end, if you’re not too greedy, you should let the birds fall sooner.”

You Lin muttered almost inaudibly as he walked past him. Beneath his dark hair, the nape of his neck was defenselessly exposed to the AI’s gaze. A strange burning sensation brushed past Charon’s fingertips. He curled his knuckles. His gaze reflected not only the human in front of him but also the area that every surveillance camera in this place could capture.

For example, in another similar corridor, the System had already set a trap, making it impossible for the World Consciousness to escape.

He could see that in a higher dimension, two spheres of light were trying their best to diminish each other, one of which was already showing signs of decline. His communicator was ringing non-stop, but he had already turned off the notification sound. The System was slowly eating away at its power. As the World Consciousness became weaker, the System became stronger.

The walls around them were clearly spotless white, but the entire building seemed to tremble slightly with this greed. At least, there was still a lot of time before a complete victory.

The Black Book’s power had not yet been completely diminished.

The Black Book’s power could not be completely diminished.

Even for his own sake, because the AI and the System had reached a deal at this moment, not a complete master-servant agreement. According to their original plan, Charon, You Lin, and the Black Book each held a part of the key power to achieve their goal. At that time, Charon had personally handed the important item to You Lin, and now the human was unknowingly carrying that power, walking beside him.

It is difficult to formulate a perfect plan. To dismantle a plan seems easy, but it still needs that first push of the domino.

The AI held You Lin’s hand and turned left at the next intersection.

…Soon.