Merit Book·Xinghai

"Empty, empty, empty!"

The sound of footsteps echoed in the long corridor, the distant explosions could no longer be heard, and the passage had come to an end, and there was an ivory white door in front of it.

The door is locked.

Black mist poured out from behind the door, like ghost claws stretching out in all directions.Rong Yuan raised his hand and pressed against the door. In an instant, countless wailing, screaming, cursing, weeping, and moaning in pain came to his ears, like a red iron that hurt people's eardrums, and like someone using a sharp long Fingernails are constantly scratching against the glass.

Rong Yuan frowned, there was no more expression on his face, string force gushed out from his palm and instantly spread to the entire door.

"Crack - click!"

From the palm of his hand outward, countless cracks spread in all directions. In the blink of an eye, the door was covered with cracks like spider webs, but none of them extended to the wall next to it.

The solid metal door instantly shattered into countless pieces the size of rice grains, scattered and fell in front of Rong Yuan.

He stepped on the jade-like crumbs all over the floor and walked into this room.

In front of him is a honeycomb-like room, above the head, under the feet, around...the curved walls are covered with hexagonal pale gold grids, and in each grid, there is an off-white thing soaked in orange-gold liquid.

Those things... some are walnut-shaped that Rong Yuan is very familiar with, some are umbrella-shaped, some are spherical, some are like an octopus, some are like a bunch of grapes, and some are relatively rare cylindrical...

Although they have different shapes and sizes, the same thing is...they are all brains of intelligent creatures.

There are many hair-like slender wires and probes connected around those brains, and blue light spots are constantly shuttled between the wires, as if the signals are interacting.Countless blue light spots are like meteors falling in the sky, forming a magnificent and strange beauty.

The premise is—ignore the brain placed in it and the appalling truth behind it.

Rong Yuan only stood there for a moment, and saw that a grid suddenly changed from light gold to blue, and then the probes and wires in that grid retracted, and a metal claw came in from the side, The brain was scratched out, and then a new one came in.

The probe lead stretched and retracted like a snake looking for prey, and it didn't take long to find its position, and quickly inserted it into the new brain.A few seconds later, another lovely blue spot of light passed through here.

Rong Yuan didn't care if he would alarm the master behind the black mist, he spread his perception and chased after the metal claws.I saw the metal claws grabbing the still weakly fluctuating brain, shrinking it into a coffin-like narrow cabinet directly below the room, and throwing the brain directly into it.Then flames at a temperature of more than 2000 degrees came out from around the cabinet, burning the brain into a handful of silver-white ashes in a few seconds.

The flame was extinguished, and a small hole was opened on the side of the cabinet, and the ashes were sprayed into space at high speed along with a small amount of gas, without leaving any traces.

Rong Yuan looked at the dazzling crystal lattices around him.

There is no doubt that the brains in it... are all "alive".

They have been stimulated to their potential by some means, and they have been running at a high speed.Once they run out of vitality and start to fail, they will be ruthlessly destroyed.

And this time should be very, very short, maybe a few weeks?Or just a few hours?During their short "life", they have been continuously urged, until the energy in the last cell is drained, and then they are burned into a small ball of ashes in the flames.

If souls and perceptions can really be born in these brains, they must have been in extreme pain from birth to death, right?

Rong Yuan remembered the wailing and screaming he heard at the door just now.He originally thought that the sound came from those who were killed by the master of the black mist, and the black mist recorded their last voices.But thinking about it now, maybe part of it... comes from these seemingly quiet and beautiful brains.

No wonder the central intelligence system of such a mere merchant ship can make an existence like Alpha feel troublesome... It is no wonder that Aoqi will absolutely obey Lika and never raise any objections... It turns out that Aoqi's body is actually countless intelligent creatures brain!

"pea."

"Yes, Rong Yuan, I'm here!" Pea, who had been silent all this time, hurriedly raised her little hand and shouted, and was about to get out of Rong Yuan's pocket, but he pressed one finger on the top of her head and pressed it back.

Even though he knew that the pea was just a weapon spirit, Rong Yuan didn't want it to see this seemingly beautiful but incomparably miserable scene in front of him.

"Can you still contact Alpha now?" Rong Yuan asked.

Pea said: "Since entering the [-]th floor, the signal has been intermittent, but I can still get in touch!"

"Tell it..."

Rong Yuan's voice suddenly paused.

Pea was a little puzzled, but she waited quietly.

After a while, it heard Rong Yuan's voice calmly say: "The spaceship's intelligent brain Aoqi should stop working soon, let it take over the entire spaceship's intelligent system in time, especially to avoid traffic and medical problems. "

Aoqi not only controls the navigation of the spaceship and the monitoring on the ship, in fact, it has already penetrated into every aspect of people's lives.For example, most suspension vehicles now drive automatically, and some simple operations are automatically completed by intelligent medical equipment. For example, the work accepted by the maintenance department and others is also assigned, managed and evaluated by Aoqi. If Qi stops running for more than three seconds, the entire spaceship will suffer heavy losses.

"Yes." Pea replied, and said after a while: "Alpha has received the order!"

"En." Rong Yuan pondered for a moment, and said again: "The eighteenth floor... There is no need to continue to exist. Let Lao Xia and the others ignite the high-explosive bomb!"

"Yes!"

Rong Yuan waited for a few more seconds, and after he had received Alpha's reply, he raised his left hand, invisible power condensed in his hand, blue lightning flashed faintly at the fingertips, and there was a subtle crackling sound, the surrounding The space seems to be faintly distorted.

The pervasive black mist quickly fled to the distance like a frightened rabbit, and then timidly surged at the end of the corridor, as if a person was hiding there in surprise, peeking here.

Rong Yuan knew that he had been discovered by the people behind the scenes, he didn't hesitate, he shook his hand hard!

In an instant, all the crystal lattices were broken, and the orange-gold liquid flowed out, like a heavy rain!

The brain housed in the lattice also dies at the same time.Rong Yuan can't give them a complete body and a real life, but at least he can end this painful cycle.

It's not just these brains, the invisible power centers on this room and spreads to the entire [-]th floor!Along the way, all the surveillance cameras lost their function after a burst of sparks; in the deeper room, many cloning machines that "produced" these brains also exploded and were scrapped; countless translucent jars exploded, immature The gray-white tissue flowed out along with the cloudy liquid.

Although the pea hidden in Rong Yuan's pocket couldn't see what was going on outside, it seemed to know what happened. It put both hands on Rong Yuan's chest, put his forehead on it, and said softly: "The "Book of Merit" did not deduct your merit. , Rong Yuan, those are not real lives!"

"Well, I see." Rong Yuan forced a smile and said, "Thank you, Pea."

Pea shook her head lightly, paused for a while, and then said: "Let me see you, okay? I want to see you!"

Rong Yuan sighed, "Pea..."

"Let me see!" Pea said stubbornly.

Rong Yuan moved away the finger that was holding it down.

The pea got out of the pocket, without paying any attention to the surrounding environment and the rain-like golden liquid, it first looked at Rong Yuan's arm.

I saw that the original fair skin, moist and shiny left hand and arm have changed in a different way, with faint dark red lines all over it, winding and wandering, like a blooming ice tree and frost flower, or as if his arm is a Like a piece of glass about to shatter.

Not only on his arms, Pea knew that these lines even extended to almost reach Rongrong's heart.That was the closest time Rong Yuan came to death in his life, if he hadn't comprehended the string force in time, he would have died in the lightning strike at that time.

That was the imprint left on him by the thunder waved by Pea himself.

Tianlei is the only means of attack that Pea has mastered as a weapon spirit in the "Book of Merit", but the target of the attack is not others, but its dependent master.

When the contractor kills more than ten people with positive merit, Qi Ling will unconsciously send down thunder like a catastrophe to punish the contractor.

That lightning strike on Rongyuan was the most regrettable thing in Wandou's life, and she could never let go of it.

"Okay, how many times have I said this, this matter has already passed."

Rong Yuan patted its head, adjusted the string force for treatment, and after a while, those lines gradually faded, and then disappeared.

But in fact, they just disappear from view, they have always been there.Even if the wound from the sky thunder bombardment healed on the surface, it would leave marks that could never be erased.Rong Yuan can use the string force to cover it up, but if the string force he uses exceeds a certain limit, these lines will reappear like this time.

Rong Yuan never blamed Pea for this.In fact, in his opinion, even though he almost died under this rule of the "Book of Merit", he still believes that the existence of this rule is necessary and correct.

Contractors of the "Book of Merits" can easily have huge wealth and status, master countless advanced knowledge and weapons, acquire powerful power and the ability to manipulate people's hearts, and have almost endless lives. If there is no limit, then The Contractor is bound to become the most terrible disaster in this world, not the savior.

It's just that his rationality and objectivity can't convince Pea who blames himself. At this point, I really don't know which of the two of them is an emotional human being.

Rong Yuan looked at the places where the black mist retreated in panic, and saw that the end of the corridor had become empty.

"Maybe I'm too cautious, Pea." Rong Yuan said, "Too much time has been wasted... Next, I will stop hiding and go straight to Huanglong!"

With trembling fingers, Wan Dou grabbed his clothes and said, "Be careful!"

I don't know how many times, it hates its own powerlessness so much.

As an instrument spirit, the pea cannot be regarded as a real living body. It does not need to eat, breathe, or absorb sunlight. The "Book of Merit" can provide all the energy it needs to survive. in that booklet.

From this point of view, it is no different from a stone. It does not need to ask for anything from the outside world, nor will it give anything to the outside world.Even if it is in a vacuum, low temperature, deep sea, radiation and other environments, it will not die, let alone feel sick, fever, hunger, thirst and the like.Even if it dies, it can be resurrected from the "Book of Merit".

But that doesn't mean it's invincible.In fact, Pea's body is not much stronger than ordinary humans.Before meeting Rong Yuan, it was killed by the contractor many times, then lost its memory and consciousness, and returned to the "Book of Merit and Deeds", waiting to be awakened next time.

Because it can also be injured or even die, so now every time it encounters danger, Rong Yuan will properly protect it first, especially after Wandou fell asleep for 90 years.It's just that Pea has always longed for one day...to have the power to protect Rong Yuan.