A faint buzzing suddenly sounded behind her—an aircraft, eerily similar to a human-seeker drone.
Pei Ran had developed a conditioned response to that sound. She immediately turned her head.
W said, "It's fine. Support drones just arrived."
Two fully armed military drones, lights flashing and loaded with weapons, flew toward her through the tunnel, one in front and one behind. One of them had an NG_y8 dangling from the mechanical claw under its chassis.
They had navigated the labyrinth of underground tunnels and finally reached her—backup, at last.
But it didn't matter. Even if ten more came, they still couldn't pass through the light vortex.
"I'll try piloting one of the drones through," W said, "see if it can squeeze between the spinning arms."
One drone, hovering in the air, began to move.
It steadied itself, flew toward the constantly rotating vortex of green light, and, timing carefully, aimed for the gap between the two spiraling arms.
But "gap" was a relative term—green light particles were just thinner there.
As the drone passed into the vortex, countless flecks of green light silently pierced through its body.
Its lights flickered out instantly. It dropped like a dead bird, crashing into the red earth of the tunnel, kicking up a huge cloud of dust.
No, it wouldn't work. They'd have to wait for new drones to deliver the simple mechanical device.
Suddenly, a tremor rippled through the wall beside them.
Pei Ran tilted her head to listen. The tremor intensified, shaking the ground. Clumps of dirt and gravel fell from the walls and ceiling, landing on her head and shoulders.
"Cave-in again?" she muttered.
But it wasn't a collapse.
Beyond the vortex, next to the Thinker, chunks of dirt broke loose and stones flew as rows of rapidly spinning white teeth emerged from the wall—
It was the shield tunneling fusion machine, still blindly drilling through soil, chaotically burrowing, and now it had bored its way back here.
True to its name, the Thinker wasn't stupid.
It had apparently gotten its tail caught by the tunneling machine and had been dragged around who knows how far. It seemed terrified of it.
The moment the Thinker saw the tunneling machine's enormous face poke through the wall, it shrank into a corner and froze.
The tunneling machine's cylindrical head fully emerged, paying no mind to the Thinker. It continued forward and slammed headfirst into the opposite tunnel wall.
It showed no hesitation. Its whirring disk-head with rows of sharp teeth started grinding through the wall immediately.
It was fast. In seconds, half its body had disappeared into the wall again.
Pei Ran tensed.
Once the machine had completely tunneled through, it would leave behind a new passage—
And that passage would link back to the maze of tunnels it had already created.
If the Thinker escaped into it, they'd lose track of it all over again. With the vortex in the way, pursuing it would be impossible.
The drones carrying equipment were still en route. The tunneling machine's long body was shifting forward. The new tunnel was almost exposed.
She had to act.
Greenlight-01 was awake and still screaming that it was hungry. Pei Ran had planned to save it for emergencies.
Apparently, the time had come.
She tried to activate Greenlight-01.
Strangely, though it was clearly awake, it didn't appear in her neural view.
Pei Ran: ?
It had already exploded a human-seeker drone earlier today on the overpass, munched on a bunch of sunflower seeds, then detonated again in the mining zone. Now it was on strike.
Hungry.
That seemed to be its statement. Too hungry to work.
Pei Ran: "…"
Across the vortex, the tunneling machine pushed forward. The Thinker was getting restless.
Pei Ran fixed her eyes on them. "How's the northern front?"
W didn't answer immediately.
He knew perfectly well—things were bad.
The Thinker was continuously gathering battlefield intel, devising strategies, and relaying instructions to countless Type-13 Attacker fusion robots, which were advancing fast.
The battlefront was retreating, and they were running out of time.
W's silence spoke volumes.
The greenlight inside her still surged. Pei Ran unhooked the strap across her shoulder.
"You said earlier that fusion bodies might not be affected by the vortex the way normal people are. Regular humans turn into monsters when they touch it—but maybe we won't."
W: "Pei Ran! Don't—!"
He changed tone.
"Pei Ran, don't risk it. If the Thinker escapes, we'll find another way. We will."
But the Thinker was still there.
And Pei Ran had a feeling—she trusted the instincts of the greenlights inside her.
The tunneling machine's tail was nearly out. A new tunnel would be fully exposed any moment. The Thinker swiveled, cautiously creeping toward it.
Pei Ran set the metal sphere on the ground and bolted toward the vortex.
W: "Pei Ran!"
Inside Heijing—
The command center had come to the same realization: the Thinker was cornered in a dead end, but soon it would have a new path.
It was about to slip away again.
Just as they were preparing to destroy the last mobile combat node and turn the tide in the north, hope slipped through their fingers.
Marshal Veina asked, "Have the other aircraft arrived?"
W's voice came through: "All NG_y8-loaded drones have gathered. Troops are moving the NG_y8s into the tunnels. The farthest tunnel entrance found by scout drones is twenty kilometers out."
The tunneling machine had carved out an enormous underground maze.
W continued: "The underground zone is massive. The Thinker moves too fast. We don't know where it'll go. The front line's in trouble, but we need more manpower for a full sweep of the area."
Veina nodded. "Then we'll just have to—"
Before he could finish, someone pointed at the screen. "Look!"
On screen, the metal sphere was being set down.
Pei Ran had appeared.
The command center couldn't hear the mental dialogue between her and W. They only saw her dash toward the vortex.
She ran straight for the thinner green-light section in the lower right. At the edge, she paused, waited for the vortex to rotate a bit—
And slipped through the gap between the arms.
The vortex shuddered.
Everyone saw it: thousands of tiny green lights surged into her body as she crossed.
Pei Ran visibly staggered. But she didn't stop—
She pushed forward.
The command center was silent.
Everyone remembered the footage from the previous night—
A Major who had brushed too close to the vortex and was later shown on the field hospital camera… transforming.
His entire body inflated, ballooning grotesquely.
He became monstrous, a magnet drawing everything in. Beds flew into him and melted into his belly. Then two medical machines, a nurse—her head and arms sticking out of his back.
Then a doctor—he dove into the Major's chest, feet kicking wildly in the air.
Becoming that was worse than dying in battle.
Marshal Veina stared at Pei Ran's now half-shrouded form. "How long after contact did the Major mutate?"
Song Wan replied, "A few hours. After he was brought to the med center."
Silence again.
This girl—alive now—was already marked for death. A horrifying death.
Someone whispered, "This kind of bravery… deserves a first-class federal medal."
"She's not doing it for a medal."
"She already has one."
Through the vortex, the tail of the tunneling machine began pulling away from the wall—revealing the opening.
But Pei Ran was there.
She ran while unwrapping the scarf tied around her pack—the one concealing the NG_y8.
She rushed right up to the Thinker.
Compared to her, it was massive—at least two or three times her size.
Its single eye rotated, finally noticing her.
It turned, treads rolling toward her.
Pei Ran dodged, vaulted up onto its side panel, and in just a few moves, fastened the scarf tight around its leg.
A dead knot.
Now, even if it ran, the bomb would run with it.
She leapt down, sprinted back, and dove through the vortex again.
More green light surged into her.
She stumbled out, grabbed the metal sphere.
Behind her, the Thinker ignored the small creature that had just crawled all over it.
It saw the new tunnel, spun, and disappeared into it.
Pei Ran hit the trigger.
BOOM.
The explosion roared.
Stones pelted the tunnel like hail.
Just as W predicted, the NG_y8 triggered a massive collapse. Dust and debris rushed in, choking the feed—nothing could be seen.
The command center was silent again.
"Did it hit?" someone asked tentatively.
A moment passed—
"Frontline reports: the fusion bots have stopped attacking!"
"They're spinning in place—seem lost!"
"They're scattering!"
W's voice came through, cold and precise:
"The Type-13 Attackers have lost command. They'll soon revert to autonomous combat. A new counteroffensive plan has been approved and sent to the Northern Command. All units will receive it shortly."
Cheers erupted in the command center. Everyone got back to work.
Chief Executive Basserway asked cautiously, "So Heijing is safe now? Phase Two of the shield project can proceed?"
Marshal Veina finally relaxed. He leaned back and let out a long breath. "Yes."
Down in the tunnel—
Thick red dust engulfed the light from the metal sphere. Pei Ran couldn't see.
She gripped the sphere and ran, trusting instinct alone.
W's voice buzzed in her ear:
"Pei Ran, how much greenlight got in? Can your body handle it? Do you feel sick?"
"Pei Ran, what can I do to help?"
"Pei Ran?!"
"If you keep nagging," she said, "I'll really die. Death by nagging."
"And if you must nag, can you at least use a bubble voice? That would be mildly entertaining."
W sighed.
But truthfully, Pei Ran felt awful.
Not just from the dust burning her eyes and choking her breath—
But from the swarm of green lights rampaging through her.
Even though she had carefully aimed for the least concentrated part of the vortex, countless points of light had still surged into her—
Flooding her body like a tidal wave.
They streaked through her organs, maybe dozens or even hundreds, impossible to count.
These manic greenlights had turned her body into their personal amusement park.
Her vision swam.
Everything looked warped, dizzying—like being drunk.
Her head felt heavy, muddled.
Pei Ran was now quite experienced in dealing with the frenzied fusion-state Green Light—the trick was to let the orderly-state Green Light inside her consume them.
Devouring them not only caused no harm to her body, but also upgraded the abilities of her own Green Lights.
Green Light No. 1 and No. 2, along with Green Light No. 3 that belonged to Yulianka, had been bouncing around inside her ever since, crying out for food. And now the delivery had truly arrived.
Not just arrived—more like rained down in torrents, a downpour of takeout from the sky.
This time, Pei Ran didn't restrict any of them. She let the three Green Lights eat as much as they wanted, as much as they could.
The three darted about joyfully, chasing prey, gulping down mouthfuls with abandon.
The problem was, they couldn't keep it up for long. Soon they were too full to eat another bite.
But the frenzied-state light particles were still everywhere inside her, creating chaos. Urged on constantly by Pei Ran, the orderly-state Green Lights could only force themselves to keep going.
Pei Ran could feel their thoughts clearly: either starving to death or stuffing themselves sick—what kind of miserable life was this?
Hurry up, she urged silently. Hurry up and eat.
It was awful.
She felt utterly terrible, stumbling with every step, reeling forward, completely unsure of where she was going—just moving on pure instinct.
W noticed immediately.
"I'll guide you," he said. "Pei Ran, turn right ahead."
A thunderous collapse echoed behind her. The drone was flying just a short distance ahead—W was likely directing it to scout the path.
Pei Ran ran forward through the dust-filled tunnel, her thoughts fuzzy: He's navigating again... hope he doesn't send me into another doghole.
She staggered around the corner into a new tunnel.
The collapse behind her hadn't stopped. The tunnel she had just crossed was being buried—the noise like an avalanche of tumbling landmines crashing down behind her.
Her vision blurred. Her soul felt like it was drifting upward, light and unmoored, while her legs felt heavy as lead. She thought vaguely: Maybe I should just stop.
Let the collapse catch up. Bury her.
Then W would start digging like mad again, pulling her out of the earth like a seed unearthed from the soil.
Kind of funny, actually.
Pei Ran tugged at the corner of her mouth in a half-smile.
But being buried alive really wasn't a good way to die.
She had imagined all kinds of ways she might die before—like getting blown to bits by a mech's explosive cannon, or being burned alive by a firebomb trapped in a bunker, or having her head shot clean off—none of those sounded pleasant.
Now that she was experiencing it for real, she decided: being buried alive was by far the worst. An especially miserable death.
Yet her feet kept moving, struggling forward.
W spoke in her ear again. "Pei Ran, hang in there. There's a left turn just ahead."
When he was anxious, his voice always sounded especially cold, stripped of all emotion.
Pei Ran pulled herself together. "Bubble voice," she said.
W seemed to pause for a beat, then changed his tone.
No bubbles, but the voice was soft, deep, laced with an intimacy that belonged in a bedroom, not a pitch-black tunnel like this.
"Pei Ran... just a little further. You've entered the mapped range I built with the patrol bots and drones. I know this path well—if you hold on just a little longer, we'll reach an exit. It's not far from the entrance we came in through."
The cave-in behind her roared like hell collapsing in pursuit.
And it was almost nipping at her heels.