Flowers Blooming in the Wasteland

Celeste was dreaming again.

In the dream, he was like a bystander residing in his own body, calmly and rationally observing his own experience as No.1.

Celeste saw the man hugging him desperately at the moment of the explosion, but he didn't feel worried, he just thought in confusion, why did this human being do this?

He was obviously just a weak human being, and he was clearly in danger, but when he was in danger, he stood in front of him without hesitation.

And myself, knowing that the other party can't protect me at all, knowing that this human being's ability is less than one ten-thousandth of He Xiao's, but why can his strong arms and strong heartbeat make me feel at ease?

Why is it that I am so greedy for the warmth of this embrace.

Why do you want to keep this doomed fleeting life?

Before Celeste figured out why, he felt the body in his arms getting colder, and his heartbeat gradually weakened.

Celeste began to worry, he wanted to do something to keep this warmth, but that person's life was like sand between fingers that could not be held, and he could only watch him go by bit by bit .

Celeste struggled to wake up, and found that his arms and forehead were wrapped in gauze, and immediately realized that this was not a nightmare, but the cruel reality before him.

"Mars!" Celeste cried out anxiously, "Where's Lan?"

"In the intensive care unit, my master." Masi said, "Please don't worry, although he is seriously injured, but his life is not in danger for the time being, at least that's what He Xiao asked me to tell the master, please be careful Wound, don't get too excited..."

While he was still nagging, Celeste rolled over and got out of bed, pushed away the base medical staff who tried to stop him, and ran to the intensive care unit.

Apparently, when he was still in a coma, they had already been sent back to the Blue Shield base in an emergency. Only here can they find the world's top medical equipment.

When Celeste broke into the intensive care unit, there was no medical staff in it, only Fu Yunlan was wearing a breathing mask floating in a tank of culture fluid, with all kinds of tubes inserted into his body, and the screen next to him showed A bunch of constantly changing health indicator values.

Judging from those indicators, Fu Yunlan's life was indeed "temporarily" not in danger, but this did not mean that he would still recover.

He was seriously injured. Since he had not taken off his helmet just after returning from the battlefield, he managed to save his brain, but other parts of his body were severely damaged by the impact and high temperature at the moment of the explosion. The high-precision medical robot arm After removing all the dead and irrecoverable body tissues on his body, even a person as calm as Celeste couldn't bear to take a second look at the remaining broken body.

"Case." Celeste asked with a trill, "Where is He Xiao?"

"In the interrogation room," Case replied succinctly.

---

After Beethoven was captured by the people of the base, he had been locked up in a room less than three square meters for many days. There was no snacks, no music, and no one even talked to him.

Beethoven was dizzy and weak in limbs because he could only get the minimum amount of dry food for survival every day, but compared to hunger, what made him more unbearable was the loneliness that seemed to have forgotten him all over the world.

When He Xiao finally had time to interrogate him, Beethoven was even pulled out with joy. No matter what kind of result was waiting for him, torture or death penalty, anything was more maddening than this It's better to be alone.

Beethoven was locked in a strengthened interrogation chair by two powerful military robots, and He Xiao sat opposite him, without asking any questions, just looking at him without saying a word.

Beethoven couldn't help but speak first: "You finally remembered me. I thought I had been forgotten by you. Do you know that I miss you these days when I am bored? How many times a day are I bored? I spend as much time thinking about you as I can, I'm going crazy!"

The interrogation chair suddenly emitted high-voltage electricity that even mutants could not bear, causing his words to be interrupted by his own screams.

"Thanks for your love." After the electric shock stopped, He Xiao smiled lightly and said calmly, "But I have to remind you, if you waste time with this kind of meaningless nonsense, you will only be the one who suffers." .”

"If it makes you happy to watch me scream, I would be willing to be electrocuted to death by you... Ugh!" Beethoven's cheap mouth was exchanged for electric shocks that made his limbs twitch.

After two electric shocks, Beethoven, who was already physically weak, had only the strength left to breathe. He Xiao stood up and approached him: "Why did you run away?"

"I...I know I was wrong..." Beethoven said weakly, "I shouldn't have defected, but at that time... I was too scared..."

"What are you afraid of?" He Xiao narrowed his eyes.

"My task is to protect the master, but I failed... I'm afraid you will execute me because of this." Beethoven said despondently with his head down.

"Is this the only reason?" He Xiao obviously didn't believe it, "This matter is beyond your ability, we obviously won't blame you, if you really didn't participate in the action that hurt Celeste, there is no need at all Guilty."

Beethoven also regretted it. He already knew the news of Celeste's safety. If he hadn't fled in panic at that time, according to his master's temper, he might not have punished him. Now that he has reached this situation, he can only sigh Said in a tone: "I don't know what you will do. I only know that according to the consistent rules of the True God Sect, if you fail the mission, you will die, regardless of the reason."

"We are not true gods."

"I know now..." Beethoven said, "but I really didn't think that much at the time. I just wanted to survive. I know it looks suspicious, but what I said is true."

"...You know, I've always disliked creatures like humans, because I don't know what's going on in your minds, unless..." He Xiao looked at Beethoven as if he was looking at a piece of slaughtered meat, "Here's the last one for you." A chance to be honest, how on earth did you assist the Devourer in launching that attack?"

"I really don't know..." Beethoven said with the most innocent expression he could make.

Since he refused to cooperate, He Xiao didn't want to talk nonsense with him anymore.

As the most powerful species in the Guardian Alliance, regardless of technological civilization or its own strength, He Xiao has some ways to peek into a person's memory. Human willpower cannot resist his invasion at all, but the human brain is just like a human being to them. It was a locked box, and the only way to see what was inside was to pry the box open.

He Xiao rarely uses this method, because for a race like them, this is a more inhumane act than direct physical destruction, but the current situation is obviously not the time to think about whether it is humane.

He grabbed Beethoven's jaw and forced him to look into his eyes.

Beethoven's expression froze for a moment, and after only two seconds, He Xiao let go of the mutant, closing his eyes to digest the memory he plundered from him.

Beethoven didn't lie. This mutant did flee in a hurry because he was afraid that he would be executed by them if he failed the mission. He had no knowledge of the Devourer's attack methods, and he did not do anything to help the Devourer hurt Thurlist. .

In addition to the desired answer, He Xiao also inevitably got some useless information from the other party. Beethoven’s memory of being an ordinary human in the past has disappeared. The earliest memory in this mutant’s brain is the True God Sect. The laboratory, the horrific human experiments, the pain, fear and despair of being repeatedly dissected while conscious, the disgust of the true god religion, the yearning for freedom, the love for music, and the obsession with He Xiao.

Although Beethoven usually gives people the impression that he is crazy and does not look like a normal person, but it is indeed a hot, pure and unreserved love.

However, this meant nothing to He Xiao.

It is impossible to restore the human spirit that has been "pried open", and the end is either crazy or stupid, leaving only a useless body. Just as He Xiao was about to inform Case to "dispose" him, Celeste came .

"Master?" Beethoven struggled to call out when he saw Celeste, "Master save me!"

"Beethoven?" Celeste looked at Beethoven, then at He Xiao, "So you were interrogating him? What was the result? Did Beethoven betray us?"

"No." He Xiao looked at Beethoven with some doubts and didn't seem to have any abnormal reaction.

"Then let him go," said Thurlist.

"...As you wish." He Xiao gave Case an order, and the belt buckle that imprisoned Beethoven was opened, and Beethoven scrambled and hugged Celeste's thigh and said, "Master, you You came so timely, I almost thought I would never see you again, errrrrrrrrrrrrr... To this day I still feel like I was run over by a tank in my head..."

"Okay, Beethoven, you go to rest first, don't run around again next time." Celeste is not in the mood to listen to him acting like a baby now, and Beethoven is also aware of this, put away his sad face for a second, and said obediently out.

He Xiao watched Beethoven leave thoughtfully: "Case, take the highest level of surveillance on him from now on."

"Yes." Case replied succinctly.

"Leave Beethoven alone." Celeste held He Xiao and said, "Lan suffered such a serious injury, and my medical robot broke down again. Even if it wasn't broken, I couldn't mobilize them, but you must be Yes, hurry up and use your medical robot to save him!"

He Xiao smiled helplessly: "I don't have a medical robot, otherwise I would have cured you long ago."

"How could it not be..." Celeste was anxious and disappointed, since He Xiao said no, then he really didn't, "What about Lan, he was injured so badly, and he couldn't survive with the current treatment methods! "

"I didn't expect that one day we would save an ordinary human being regardless of the cost. The base's investment in human medicine has always been limited. Now it is definitely too late to start allocating resources to strengthen human medicine."

"Could it be that I can only watch Lan die?" Celeste felt his chest empty, and he inexplicably remembered what Fu Yunlan had said.

The more persistent you want to keep something, the easier it is to lose something.

The sand between the fingers that cannot be held will inevitably be lost in the end.

"In fact, there are still ways." He Xiao said, "The t-virus samples collected from Beethoven have been improved by us, and now the survival rate of the receptors has increased from a few tenths of a thousand to one percent. It will take several months for the simulation experiment to have results, but if we directly use volunteers to conduct human experiments, the survival rate of receptors can be increased to more than 90.00%[-] within a week."