Illusion...
Blur...
Su Mo opened his eyes and found himself standing in a realm of nothingness.
"Where is this..."
Scarlet mist surrounded him from all directions, as if reality and nightmare were intertwined, making it impossible to discern boundaries. The oppressive, heavy atmosphere was suffocating.
At that moment, he noticed a figure standing in the shifting blood mist ahead.
The shadow, faintly discernible, gave him an inexplicable sense of familiarity.
The blood mist around began to surge as if twisted by some abhorrent evil force, finally revealing the true appearance of the figure.
Su Mo suddenly realized that it was himself.
The "himself" in the blood mist looked at Su Mo, a ghostly grin plastered on his face, and there was a pulsing black cocoon of flesh on his chest, from which countless black tendrils emerged, writhing along his body, intertwining to form a massive, terrifying vortex.
"You..." The eyes reflected a light as red as blood, "you will be mine soon."
"Sssh!" Amid the sound of flesh tearing, his body disintegrated, and the endless black tendrils roared toward Su Mo.
...
...
...
"Hiss—" Su Mo drew a sharp breath, waking from the nightmare.
He leaned against a rock, his entire body drenched in cold sweat. Despite it being the hottest part of the day, he felt a chill all over, as if he had been frozen.
He trembled as he undid his shirt buttons, looking at the black cocoon on his chest.
A few days ago, the black cocoon was still small, about the size of a coin, but now it had grown to the size of half a fist, a pitch-black as death.
Whether it was his increasingly blurry mind, weakened body, or the frequent nightmares, all were hinting to Su Mo that he was about to be devoured by the Ancestral Blood Code.
The time left for him to save himself was running out.
It had been three days since he last shook off the pursuers.
During these three days, Nuobai had taken Su Mo on the run day and night, not sleeping for three days and three nights, racing against time to break out of the Windy Plain.
However, all efforts were in vain.
The road north to the Iron Blood Alliance territory was completely sealed.
In the past three days, they had encountered several squads from the Hegemony Company, sometimes avoiding them before being spotted, and at other times engaging in chases, barely escaping with their lives.
Without rest, both reached their limits, yet they were still trapped in the encirclement.
Supplies were exhausted.
Their bodies on the verge of collapse.
Time wasn't on their side.
The enemy was only increasing in number.
This seemed like certain death.
But this was exactly what Su Mo wanted.
This was also the most dangerous and crucial fourth step he had to take.
Ever since the negotiation with Nuobai failed, he had only one path to tread.
To die, and thus be reborn!
Su Mo looked at Nuobai not far away. She sat in the shadow cast by a large rock, counting their remaining supplies.
She still wore a mask, her expression hidden, but from her occasionally clenched fists, it was clear her mood was at rock bottom.
Su Mo knew the moment was ripe. It could only be now.
He took a deep breath and began executing the final step of his plan.
Su Mo, the holder of the "Person Who Crossed Dawn" achievement.
His ability to become the first player globally to achieve all accomplishments in the game "Dawn" stemmed not just from relentless exploration, practice, and strategizing...but for a very crucial reason.
He was brain-sick.
Yes, quite literally—his brain was sick.
As a child, he had suffered a car accident, injuring his brain. Though his life was saved, the brain was left with irreparable damage.
This damage wasn't lethal, yet it caused an extremely rare phenomenon in the brain—hyper-memory.
For the average person, both short and long-term memory are limited. Unimportant or long-past memories fade and are eventually forgotten.
But unlike others, Su Mo's brain, due to "hyper-memory," lost the ability to forget.
Whatever he experienced is etched in his memory with crystal clarity, down to the finest detail.
Don't assume this is cool, like an easy way to become a genius.
The symptoms of hyper-memory are extremely painful.
After becoming ill, Su Mo couldn't forget anything, the overload of stored memories frequently causing mental breakdowns.
Later, through a combination of pharmacological and psychological therapy, his hyper-memory was effectively controlled.
Although he still couldn't forget those memories automatically recorded, he could manage the flow of information in his brain, consciously choosing which memories to submerge and which to recall, no longer affecting his daily life.
Eventually, he leveraged this hyper-memory ability in gaming.
For "Dawn," from combat stats to mission sequences, from faction details to adventure locations, from his own gaming experience to others' guides, and even the millions of words in the storyline and official setting book...
Everything Su Mo ever saw related to "Dawn" was recorded in his mind.
When he wanted to recall any detail of that game, all he needed was to delve into the depths of his consciousness, retrieving them like flipping through a book.
At this moment, he summoned a memory, picking up a stone, he lay on the ground frequently drawing and muttering:
"The Hegemony Company has 21 military bases on the Windy Plain. The Green Wave Military Base is located at coordinates 55.75N, 37.61E, the permanent security force is 436, it's 187.92 kilometers from the River Canyon exit, their fastest vehicle is the Anaconda Tactical Bike, estimating based on the terrain, the time taken is 1 hour, 28 minutes, and 15 seconds."
"Thunder Shadow Wolf Military Base, coordinates 35.41N, 67.18E, the permanent security force is 230, it's 224 kilometers from the Hongjian exit...2 hours, 9 minutes, and 22 seconds..."
"Viper Base...19.82N, 22.58E...165 people...44 kilometers to the Moon Spring exit...18 minutes and 17 seconds..."
"Night Owl Base...oh, the Night Owl units are currently on external missions, deeply engaged with the Iron Blood Alliance, no need to worry about them..."
Su Mo kept drawing with the stone, carving out a richly detailed map on the ground.
The map marked out the entire coordinate system of the Hegemony Company's military bases on the Windy Plain, their troop numbers, distance to the nearest chokepoint exits, time needed to reach them, surrounding road networks, etc.
From this, he deduced the most likely interception routes they would take upon receiving the order to block the exit, along with the time needed for deployment.
As Su Mo was completing his final deduction, Nuobai approached.
Since Su Mo wasn't a great artist, his drawings were rather sloppy, and Nuobai couldn't understand what it was. She assumed he was losing it from lack of sleep.
She directly pulled Su Mo to his feet, ready to toss him onto the motorbike and continue the escape.
At that moment, Su Mo shook off Nuobai's hand, revealing a meaningful smile, "Nuobai, haven't you realized you're trapped in a dead end?"
"We've been on the run for so many days, the company has surely deduced our destination, sealing off all northern exits, you simply can't get me out."
"Even if there's a gap in the northern blockade, can you guarantee finding their flaw? Do you have enough food and water? Enough fuel for the bike?"
"The middleman probably set a time requirement for your commission, right? In this encirclement, by the time you risk everything to find an opening and get me out, the commission will be overdue by who knows how many days."
"If one commission fails, how many more will you have to complete to make up for it? With less than five months left to live, can you survive until the day you finally get your hands on the genetic compiling protein?"